Seward

The next day (Monday, July 4th) we ate breakfast and then checked-out. We then took the Park Connection Bus to Seward with a stop in both Anchorage and the Talkeenta Alaskan Lodge (where we had stayed.) The driver was nice (an ex-military guy now a high school band teacher) but he didn’t tell us that it was wheelchair accessible until after we got on. We stopped in Anchorage for 1 ½ hours and were supposed to go to the Anchorage Museum, but instead we got directions to a mall where we ate at Arby’s. When we got back on the bus we had a new driver (a butch-looking woman.) She was not a good driver and kept hitting the strips on the road. Since it was the 4th of July everyone kept saying we would hit lots of crowds, but all the traffic was leaving the peninsula and not going into it like we were.

We arrived at the Seward Windsong Lodge (owned by the same company as the Talkeenta Alaskan Lodge.) I checked(the receptionist was a Polish woman) in and we walked to our building with the hotel guy who had our bags. Our room was on the first floor, but I didn’t see a ramp and when the guy called the front desk they told him where it was. I opened the door to the room and saw right away that there was a problem. The room only had one king-sized bed. I immediately went back to the main Lodge and spoke with the same Polish woman. I told her: “The room only has 1 king-sized bed.” She said “Yes.” I said “ I am with my mother.” She said “Yes.” I then said “I am her son.” She replied “ Yes…….OHHHHHHHHHH!) She finally understood what I was talking about. She got her supervisor who said that I was supposed to have the connecting room with another king-sized bed, but they had messed up and booked it to someone else. In the end they gave us a suite with 2 Queen-sized beds and a ramp. The supervisor had also said that she would have the handicapped accessible shuttle pick us right up at our building the next morning for our tour. We didn’t see or hear fireworks – apparently they have them very late in Alaska because their sun doesn’t set for 21 hours and even then it’s not completely dark. We did hear a large group of Indians (from India) making loud noises directly above us, but that stopped once I called the Polish woman at the Front Desk.

We ate dinner at the Lodge’s restaurant. I had steak which was pretty good. There was a funny incident there. The water woman (who I later learned was from Hungary) was pretty so I kept trying to drink lots of water so she would have to come and refill it. I had 5 glasses of water (on top of everything else) and eventually stopped when another waitress filled my last glass.

The next morning (Tuesday) we had a small breakfast and went back to our building to wait for the shuttle. When it didn’t come we went to the Main Lodge where they told me that they hadn’t received any word about needing the accessible shuttle. Then the supervisor told me it would take 5 minutes and when that passed the manager told me another 5 minutes. I was upset because every time we needed the hotel to do something they messed it up. I let them both know that I wasn’t pleased and couldn’t trust their word since their actions showed otherwise. 15 minutes later the shuttle finally came and took us to the small boat harbor.

We had an 8 ½ hour Kenai Fjords Cruise. The company (Kenai Fjords Cruise Tours) was very bad. They considered their boat to be modern and wheelchair accessible even though there were stairs and you had to leave the chair to get around. The tour was way too long and most of it was boring. I did see seals, porpoises and ice breaking off a glacier. They stopped on an island for a salmon and prime rib dinner, but I was so disgusted with the tour company and their staff that I didn’t have a thing. I made sure we were the first ones off the boat when the tour was over. We got the accessible shuttle back to the Lodge and went to their bar. I had a large pizza (there was only one size) that was alright while my mom had nachos that were well over 2 lbs. and completely burnt. We were getting pretty upset with the Lodge until we got back to the room and saw that the manager had left a letter saying that he was sorry for everything and that we would get a free breakfast the next morning.

On Wednesday (July 6th) we checked our bags at the hotel for the train to Anchorage. We had the whole day to ourselves and so took the shuttle into town with our carry-ons and went to the Sea Life Center (where they take in wounded sea animals.) It was a pretty neat place with lots of seals, birds, puffins, and other animals. We walked down a 30 minute bike path from the Sea Life Center to downtown Seward and had lunch at a local diner and then dessert at an ice cream shop next door. We stayed in a square by the small boat harbor until the winds got so strong and then we walked to the train station and checked-in. We pre-boarded the train and had the worst crew ever. Siting it front of us were some rednecks from Florida who couldn’t get over the fact that each seat had a tray table “Just like them airplanes.” Also in our car not too far from us were 3 very drunk women in their 40s. You could hear them even before they got on the train and when they got to our car they all shouted at the same time “We want beer. Give us beer.” Which the train crew gave them - nothing like cutting them off. Shortly afterwards they went to the outside part of the train where you couldn’t hear them and then came inside and fell asleep. We ate dinner on-board and so the 4 hour trip went by faster.