By Jen Kleinberg, Director of Strategic Accounts | August 13, 2019 ( Comments)
This is a review of Holland America's Alaska Cruisetour #Y4C, 11 Night Yukon & Double Denali.
This morning we boarded an Air North 737 from the Dawson City airport for the short one-hour flight to Fairbanks. After all of the driving we’ve been doing, it was nice to have a short commute!
We were transferred to our hotel, another Westmark property. This is the nicest of the hotels so far, and it’s no surprise, being that Fairbanks is decidedly more of an urban center than our previous visits.
We had about an hour to freshen up before being shuttled to our afternoon excursion - a Chena River cruise aboard the Riverboat Discovery sternwheeler. I thought this would be a similar excursion to yesterday’s river cruise in Dawson City, but it turned out to be a much different experience.
We started with an included lunch at Steamboat Landing. It was served family-style, and was on the better side of the included meals we’ve had. But leave room - there are fresh, free blueberry donuts onboard!
Next we boarded the Riverboat Discovery and floated along the river looking at beautiful, modern and sometimes extravagant homes. It reminded me of the intercoastal cruises you can take in my home state of Florida to gawk at the multi-million dollar mansions.
During the cruise we were treated to a float plane demonstration. The plane took off and landed on the river right next to the boat. As the daughter of a pilot, I found it quite fascinating!
We cruised to the riverfront home and kennels of Susan Butcher, a four-time Iditarod champion. The riverboat paused in front of the property while a handler introduced us to some Alaskan Husky puppies and gave us a dog mushing demonstration.
We continued on to an authentic Athabascan Indian village. We disembarked and had a short guided tour by local native descendants. There was a fish camp demonstration and a couple of talks about how these people survived the harsh weather of Alaska for over 10,000 years. We also got to see live reindeer!
After the guided tour we had time to walk around the village as well as get up close to the sled dogs from earlier. They were in a pen, we couldn’t hold them, but we could pet them, and the handler cheerfully answered questions about raising them.
As we boarded the sternwheeler to return to Steamboat Landing, I couldn't help but wish we would have had a little more time to look around. We took the short drive back to the hotel to rest up from a long day.
Tomorrow we depart Fairbanks for the stop I’ve been looking most forward to - Denali National Park.
Click here to read Day 9 & 10 - Denali National Park
