Soul Searching Traveler

Some trips are on your list of maybe someday, so when the opportunity to actually take them comes along, they hit different.

My dear old dad was born in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1953. He didn’t live there long, but it was always a cool fact about him in my mind. The story went that my grandparents had moved to Fairbanks for my papa’s job in the US Army, and Gran’s birth control had frozen in the car, which resulted in my father’s conception and birth. While his presence on earth might not have been planned, I have always planned to visit his birth state, I just wasn’t sure when or how it would happen. When my husband and I ran across a great deal on a cruise to last frontier, we jumped on it! My next few posts will be about planning for and experiencing this trip so you can see how we can have the most mindful journey possible.

Deciding on how to get there and where to go…

One of my underlying values and strengths is input, which means I love to research and learn prior to making any decisions or taking action. I spend so much time reading about different places and studying the prices of different experiences. Our anniversary is June 26th, and we always book a trip for that week, which means we will be forever watching for great prices on trips the last week of June. While we sometimes book trips on land, we love cruising. We have sailed on several different cruise lines but keep a good watch on the prices of Celebrity cruises because I love the layout of the ships and the peaceful vibe onboard. I also love their spa rooms which are called Aquaclass rooms (* note- we have no affiliation with Celebrity Cruises)(* note- we have no affiliation with Celebrity Cruises). We ran across a rate for an Aquaclass room on the Solstice that was only $100 more per person than the veranda rooms. Knowing it costs about $200 per person to book a one week ticket to the Persian Garden Spa area, we felt like this was a great deal. All other Alaskan cruises were priced higher than this one at the time. Of course, there is more that goes into a decision to book a trip than the cost. We wanted the best itinerary too, and this ship was sailing round trip Vancouver.

When booking for Alaska, one must consider the size of the state – it’s huge! The basic cruise routes run either north from the inside passage up to Anchorage area or south – starting in Anchorage area and running toward the inside passage and Vancouver. There are also a few ships that run a loop roundtrip from Seattle or Vancouver. As we priced out both options, a one-way or a round trip route – we considered airfare costs, activities in each area, the vibe we wanted, and the weather.

Jeff loves warm weather and wasn’t into a cold vacation, which caused me to think a northern Alaska trip may be too much. I knew that if I was going north, I wouldn’t want to pass up a trip to Denali or Fairbanks, where my dad was born. Also, the price of the trip with the land and sea was really getting of control. So, it made sense to stick with the round trip inside passage route taken by the Celebrity Solstice. Our total price for seven days in an Aquaclass room was $3800.

While we have never booked airfare through a cruise line before, they offered a round trip flight from Nashville to Vancouver on Canada Air for $250 each, which is a great deal! We decided later to upgrade, and I’ll tell that story in a future post. The catch on this flight was that we had to fly the same day as the departure, which could be a little stressful. We decided to do it, thinking that the price made it worth it. The small print said that the folks at Flights by Celebrity would keep up with our flight status and help us navigate any delays or issues to make sure we made it to our cruise. This was the one travel plan that went against my mindful practices values because it brought a little bit of stress in the few days leading up to the trip.

The bones of the trip…

Find a photo below of the itinerary for the trip we booked. We were excited about having a couple of days at sea to relax and watch the coastline, look for whales. We were still unsure about the glacier. Other itineraries incuded Hubbard Glacier, and it seemed from reading other blogs that Dawes Glacier might not be the most spectacular. I also saw where Princess and HAL cruises go to Glacier Bay, which we will miss. In my mind, maybe we will get to go back someday to see these, but we will just have to be excited about the places we do get to see. This fear of missing out is so hard on me, and I’m grateful for Jeff who reminds me to be present and mindful of the experience at hand instead of wishing for more or what could have been. I look for a few things in a trip: 1. animal encounters; 2. nature experiences; 3. peaceful quiet moments; 4. local food and drinks; 5. trains, planes, or ships – can we add dog sleds!?; 6. new ways of doing life; 7. unique fashion, art, and architecture. I feel confident that we will find all seven with this trip.

Now we have our 21st anniversary trip booked, and we’re ready to start learning about all the activities and options for a well planned, relaxing, not-too-cold trip to Alaska. Read more about our plans and get my thinking behind each choice in the next post!