May 30

Travel Day / Anchorage

After spending nearly two full days with our grandson (and his parents, and our daughter & fiance) in Orlando, Kim and I headed out on our next great adventure today.  We left out of Orlando International because (thanks to the recommendation of our fantastic travel agent, Nancy Nelson) we looked at flights here as well as Fort Lauderdale.  For the same price to fly from Fort Lauderdale, in coach, with THREE flights we were able to fly out of Orlando, one stop, AND get upgraded to "Comfort-Plus" seats - both ways.  GREAT deal.  Our flight was scheduled to be 6:45 from Orlando to Seattle, but the winds were in our favor and we made it in 5 hours and fifteen minutes!  Had about an hour layover and then three and a half hours to Anchorage.  We arrived at 2:30 pm Anchorage time, which is about 6:30 pm EST.

The snow covered mountains were just spectacular and were certainly the sight-seeing highlight of the day!

Got our bags quickly, met by the Holland American representatives and were on the bus within a half an hour.  Once there we got our information packets and our keys and headed to our huge room on the 12th floor - with a view of the inlet.  Then we met our great friends Gary & Claudia Wanlin, who live outside San Francisco.  We met them on a Fall Leaves Cruise back in 2015 and we've been trying to coordinate travel plans ever since.  Persistence paid off and here we are together for ten days!  We walked across the street from the hotel and made dinner reservations then walked a couple of blocks up town to meet with a trolley tour of the Anchrage area that Claudia had found for us.  It was very interesting.  The obligatory group photo and then the "conductor" - who was so sweet to take the photo took a group selfie :)  Tomorrow we are on an eight-hour glass-domed train trip to Denali National Park and then have a jeep excursion upon our arrival.  Let the adventure begin!