sdr...great start. Thanks for posting a tale on this tour.

Hi Sandra:

I'm waiting like a vulture for the next segment! Good job!

Sandra: This is <so> interesting. I'm completely captivated by your descriptions. Thank you.

Brenda

Sandra, I'm really enjoying your tour tale. Can't wait for more!

Hi Brenda and Jeanne, I'm glad I finally figured out how to post photos.

I goofed up and posted a day here...sorry

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quote:

The tunnel closes at 11pm and if you're not out you are stuck.

Sandra, really? In the tunnel? That sounds awful. It probably doesn't happen very often though--please tell me that--I'm very claustrophobic LOL.

Brenda

It's a 2 mile tunnel and and one lane. It was well lighted. The creepy thing was that the TD told us that there were evenly spaced emergency escape hatches inside the tunnel on the wall with enough room for everyone on the coach along with supplies. If anything happened we would go there and wait for rescue. That's another reason they spaced the coaches. I was thinking don't have an earthquake now.

Our coach driver Lane told us that he had been driving for 15 years. He said that the coaches used to pull onto a flat bed on the train and roll through on the train with the passengers. He said back then, there were no lights. He as thrilled that he could drive through and with lights.

Also, getting stuck for the night in Whittier would not be a picnic. There was really nothing there to see except the harbor. Most folks that work there and have to stay overnight stay in the old WWII dorms that you can see from the port.

Thanks for posting your impresssions along with the day-to-day...it's very enjoyable and helpful.

Somewhere in time I will plan a July booking.

Sandra, thank you so much for posting your daily tale. I'm really enjoying reading it, and log on each day to read more.

Sandra, isn't it amazing how many people do not read the literature they are given! Look what they missed out on!

I am impressed that you weathered the cold and stayed out all day. We'll make a Canadian out of you yet.

Thanks Roxy. I have a friend who went in May and had sunshine every day. She said she thought it might have been a little warmer with the sun.

JenD, I'm glad to post it because it let's me relive the tour.

Jeannie, they missed out on an entire group of glaciers and I heard them grumbing about it. I went in search of the steward every night to get my newletter early so I could know how to plan the next day. I was pretty much a popsicle at the end of the day outside.

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This sounds like a wonderful trip and you write about it so beautifully. I would love to do this cruise one day.

Tony54, it's wonderful trip. The scenry is beyond description because everywhere you look is a beautiful picture.

quote:

Originally posted by srd:
Our coach driver Lane told us that he had been driving for 15 years. He said that the coaches used to pull onto a flat bed on the train and roll through on the train with the passengers. He said back then, there were no lights. He as thrilled that he could drive through and with lights.

The coach drive told you the facts Sandra.

That was how we did it in 1998.

From that particular 1998 Alaska tour I have some video of my wife driving the coach with the scenery rushing by in the background.

It was after the coach was driven onto the flatbed of the train. After the train got underway, and before the tunnel, the TD suggested people with video cameras have their partners come up and sit in the driver’s seat with their hands on the wheel. Because the coach was travelling on the flatbed of the train, when you took the video from where the TD sits, you have an end result that actually looks like they are driving the coach for real.