Alaska Railroad
- Amaris Scipione
- Aug 8
- 6 min read
Goooood moooorning, Anchorage!! We’re up abnormally early because of the four-hour time difference from home. We’re showered, packed, and ready to go at 7am.
Our first order of business is breakfast. Melinda scopes out the breakfast at our hotel. It’s a breakfast buffet and costs $22. She says the food looks good, but she doesn’t want a buffet for $22. I agree and we prefer to venture out for something local.
Heidi’s Family Restaurant is a short walk along the main road from our hotel. There are sidewalks and crosswalks for our journey. Most of Anchorage is still sleeping and it’s an uneventful walk to the restaurant. The restaurant is fully staffed and feels welcoming and clean. The place isn’t crowded, but it is early. The waitress comes by and asks if we have any questions. I ask if the waffles are topped with real strawberries and I’m delighted when she says yes. Both of us order the waffle platter. I swap out eggs for hash browns and add strawberries to top my waffle. The whole meal was delicious, and our check came with two pieces of chocolate. I love this place. I was also very full when we left.
We walk back to our hotel and decide our next steps. Melinda has forgotten her reading glasses at home and needs to buy a new pair. We both want to shop for wine for the cruise as well. On Celebrity Cruises, each adult can bring a bottle of wine onboard. I see there is a Costco nearby and with my executive membership we can enter at 9am. We order a Lyft and our driver is wonderful. He sees we’re going to Costco and immediately asks if we’re executive members. It turns out he works for Costco.
We arrive two minutes before nine and the gates are closed. This Costco is surprisingly busy at such an early hour! The layout of this Costco is much different than the one at home. The alcohol section is conveniently located at the front of the store. Yellow tape closes off the alcohol section and my eyes raise to a giant sign that has the hours for the liquor store. They don’t open until 10am! Apparently, you can’t buy alcohol before 10am in Anchorage. We do find reading glasses so it’s not a completely wasted trip. We go back to the hotel and check-out.
We are taking the train to Seward! Our train leaves at 1pm and our directions tell us where to meet and we must be there no later than 11:30am. We arrive to basically a convention center and are immediately greeted and given directions. Celebrity Cruises really is on top of organization here. We go inside and I give them my luggage. It’s tagged and I will see it on the ship. We then collect our boarding passes for the bus and proceed to check our hand luggage so we can explore. There is an information desk and sweet Pam tells us where to go for wine. We walk down the road and check out Captain Cook’s and then walk across the street to the liquor store. It is after ten now so we can each buy our bottles. They had a nice selection!
Pam is interested in our selection so we return back and show her our selections. Melinda’s bottle is a red blend from North Macedonia and mine is Sauvignon Blanc from France.
We collect our hand luggage and sit down in the ballroom until our boarding group is called. The 11:15am bus to the train is called first then the bus transfer to the ship, and finally our 11:30am ticket. We load into the bus and our rolling bags go underneath. It’s about a 15-minute ride from downtown Anchorage to the train station. The train station is across from the airport. We check in here. They make sure we have our Celebrity Boarding Passes and passports and then they hand us boarding passes for the train. We wait again for the train to start loading.
Announcements are made and boarding groups are called. It feels like a raffle and you’re excited for them to call out your number. Soon enough they call out 551 and we jump up like we’ve won the lottery! We enter our train car, and a dome of glass windows greets us. Our seats are next to each other. There is space under our seat for our carry-on rolling suitcases, but not really room for our backpacks. We can place them under the table by our feet, but luckily the train is not full. No one sits across from our table so I move to the other side and we can place our bags under the other side.
Soon enough our guide for the day introduces himself and we begin our scenic train ride from Anchorage to Seward. Drink and food orders are taken and food is served relatively quickly. I ordered the Mediterranean Bowl and a glass of Sutter Home Chardonnay. A bed of spinach arrives topped with quinoa, Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and a slice of lemon. It’s served with a cup of balsamic vinaigrette. It was very tasty and paired well with my glass of wine.
We were seated on the left side of the train. It’s the opposite side that I sat on last time. The first hour or so of the train ride, the good views are on the right side of the train where you can see Turnagain Arm. Miles of beauty. We can see it from our seat, but the views are better from the other side of the train. There are open seats in our train car so we are able to move and see the views up close from the other side of the train.
The people on the left side of the train which includes us are rewarded for their patience with views of glaciers and rivers. It’s a beautiful train ride. The ride took about 4.5 hours and we arrive to port at 5:55pm. We booked the train with Celebrity so no risk of them setting sail without us. It still feels dangerously close to arrive so close to the all aboard time of 6:30pm.
Seward is under construction so the walk to the ship was a little longer and a little more wobbly than normal. We walked through security and back outside where we could see the train again and the ship ahead. The smell is distinctly Alaska. We board the ship and immediately dart to our room because we need to do a lot this evening.
I’ve often wondered about what happens if you go to your cabin and there are no keys. That happened to us today. We searched all around and under the sign and no keycards. I have to admit. It made me a little excited. We’re on Deck 2 in an Oceanview. We had put in a request for an upgrade. Could this be the reason for the missing keys? We go to guest services and the man tells us. “Okay, I’ll reprint your keys.” No upgrades for us.
We then move next door to the concierge desk where we get to work on hosting duties. They are relieved to see us because usually hosts are early to board. We verify cabins and then I grab a stack of envelopes to deliver. I started at Deck 2 and move methodically up and down the hallways delivering folders. Then up the ship to the next deck until I’m finish. I’m out of breath by the end of it.
We finish the night with dinner. We have My Time dining on this sailing which is a new experience for me. I typically have a set time which I prefer for consistency and having the same serving staff. It’s easier with food allergies. We are seated right away at a cozy table next to a large port hole. Dinner started with a basket of bread which is delicious. I order the Ceasar salad which tastes a little too authentic for me. I don’t like when you can taste the fish. I order prime rib for dinner, and it was probably the best main dining room first cruise meal I’ve had. On most sailings, the first meal for someone with an allergy is usually incredibly bland. Think boiled chicken with steamed broccoli with no seasoning. My meal is seasoned so well that I’m a little concerned my allergy wasn't relayed to the chef. I saw the server write it down on the ticket, so I know that’s not the case. I finish with what is essentially a caramel creme brûlée.
So far, we’re off to a great start with Celebrity. Every member of the crew has been kind and wonderful and I’m looking forward to our week.
