Talkeenta

The next day (Tuesday) we had a continental breakfast that was included and then waited for the shuttle to come. It was late and when I asked the receptionist the first time she said he was 5 minutes away. When I went back 10 minutes later she said he was still 5 minutes away. I asked her if we could just walk to the train station and she said we couldn’t (we later found out we could have.) I told her that I did not care for the disorganization of the shuttles to which she tried to act as though I was the one who scheduled and ran them so late. The shuttle did come 15 minutes late and it took 2 to get to the train station. We checked in our bags and they were tagged to our hotel in Talkeenta (the Talkeenta Alaskan Lodge) so we wouldn’t have to get them when we arrived.

There are two classes of travel on the Alaska Railroad: Adventure Class (Economy) and Gold Star (First-Class.) We were in Gold Star. We got our boarding passes and they helped us pre-board. The Gold Star cars have the dining car on the lower level and the passenger seats on the glass-enclosed upper level. There was a small elevator that was very slow so we didn’t have to take the stairs, but we did have to get a crewmember every time we wanted to use it. The Gold Star cars also have their own dinning car separate from the Adventure Class one, but you had to walk down stairs to get to it so we had to sit in the regular dinning car each time. Also the only bathrooms were downstairs. We had to wear little pins saying we were in the Gold Star car and the crew took those very seriously. While we were in the regular dinning car having breakfast (which was really good – we both had stuffed French toast) the conductor came through asking for our tickets – I guess he didn’t see our pins, but once he saw us sitting back in the Gold Star seating area he left us alone. There is one annoying thing that happened to us on every train we took throughout our trip: the crew members would always hang out in the Gold Star car right behind our seat and talk the whole time to each other. I can tell you who is sleeping with whom and who got in trouble for what. I don’t think that was very professional at all, but especially not in the Gold Star cars.

When we got to Talkeenta – after 8 hours - we were met by the hotel (the Talkeenta Alaskan Lodge) shuttle – which was wheelchair accessible - that took us to the Lodge. We got there around noon and couldn’t check-in until after 3 pm so they kept our bags for us and we had lunch and then went on our glacier tour at 3 pm. We were in the lobby of the Lodge and saw a guy walk in look around and leave without saying anything. As he was driving away I saw a sign on his van that said “K 2 Aviation” which is the company we needed. I had the Lodge call the company and they sent someone else for us – you would think that the guy would at least announce why he was there if he was picking people up.

I didn’t care for the people at the K 2 Aviation. They didn’t keep you informed – especially when we were already late leaving. We were scheduled to take a small plane and land on a glacier, but they didn’t let our plane land on the glacier – they said it was because of heavy snow, but the plane that arrived before we left got to do it and I think the one after us did too. I think they didn’t want us personally going on the glacier (they made us prove that we could get in and out of the small plane when they didn’t make anyone else.) It was a big disappointment especially considering that we only went to Talkeenta for one night solely to do the glacier tour. It would have been cool to brag to others that we had walked on a glacier too. We got a slip from the company to get a partial refund from our tour company, but like I said it’s not about the money but the bragging rights.

The Talkeenta Alaskan Lodge was nice. We had a mountain-view room in the main Lodge. The food was good as was our waiter (we had him for both dinner and then breakfast the next day.) The hostess and other restaurant staff were pretty rude several times though. I should mention that throughout our trip I saw many Russians everywhere – it is as though they were leftover from when Russia owned Alaska (which they did up until 1867.)