Local Experience between Anchorage and Whittier or Seward with Mandy Garcia from Salmonberry Tours

Mandy from Salmonberry Tours joins Jennie to talk about the logistics of getting from Whittier or Seward to the Anchorage airport before or after a cruise and how to have an intimate local experience along the way. 

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Music credits:  Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.

Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:00

Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co host and full time husband, Jay and I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska, before we start today's show, we'd like to take a moment to thank our Patreon subscribers for your support and making this podcast possible. Enjoy the show. Are you looking for a good way to get between cruise ship port in Seward or Whittier and the city of Anchorage, if so, and you're looking for some fun local ideas, then you are in the right place, because that's what we're talking about today. My guest today is Mandy Garcia. Mandy has been on the podcast before, back in November, we had an episode about women owned tour businesses, which was really a fun episode. So it was in late November. Definitely go back and listen to it if you missed that. Mandy was one of my guests that day. She is one of the two owners of salmonberry tours, which is based in Anchorage and Mandy. Welcome back to the podcast.

Mandy: 1:27

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to share our cruise tour and transfer option. Me

Jennie Flaming: 1:34

too. I am really glad we're doing this. This is a question that I get so often, and you have such great offerings, so I'm really excited for people to learn about that. So Mandy, before we dive into that topic, can you tell everybody how you got to Alaska?

Unknown: 1:55

Yeah, you bet. Yeah. My name is Mandy, Garcia, and I currently live in Anchorage, Alaska, but I actually hail from I'm a fine import from the great state of Wisconsin. So after college, I drove up the Alcan and got a job up in Alaska. And I honestly, I thought it would be a temporary gig, and I just absolutely fell in love with Alaska. I have been here since 2009 now, and I can't imagine living anywhere else. Salmonberry is located in Anchorage, but we do, you know, help people you know throughout the state of Alaska. And I just love, I love our state. I think it's a wonderful place to live and work and play. And I actually started as a guide. It was like a part time gig. I had a corporate job. I I was making, you know, corporate money with benefits and all this jazz. And if you're working seasonal and tourism, you're like what? But you know what? I'll tell you, I just really, I just fell in love with the history of Alaska, and I wanted to share it. I wanted to share with as many people as possible. And then I have a degree in business operations, and I also took so many credits in like environmental science classes and geology glaciology. So I was really obsessed with glaciers. And when I met Candice, it was actually through her now husband, and she was just looking for a part time tour guide. So I jumped on board with Candace, and I'm actually sitting next to Coco today, who is our we call her our Renaissance woman. She does accounting, but she does so much more than that. And her and I started the same year back in June of 2009 i i quickly, you know, decided like that corporate life was not for me, and I jumped two feet in in tourism, and I have not looked back. And I love it. We operate a year round thriving tourism business. And, you know, I'm super stoked to be able to offer year round employment for for our employees, and to kind of shape tourism into a truly year round and, you know, wonderful career for people. So that's my little soapbox. Sorry about that. You never

Jennie Flaming: 4:36

apologize for that fantastic soap box. And by the way, I'll just mention you know, even though today we are talking about cruise transfers, I am tours associated with that. I want to tell you that if you are looking for a great local company to do many different kinds of tours with salmonberry tours is awesome and, um. I'm sure we'll have other episodes in the future about some of these many other topics. So

Unknown: 5:05

yeah, thank you so much. And I you know, we we that cruise tour and transfer. All the tours at salmonberry have really been quite organic. We started as a day tour, walking tour company in downtown Anchorage. That's what Candace started the company with, specializing in small group and private tours, and even today, that is our main focus is providing quality, guided day tours by locals and for visitors from around the world. So that is like at our core and our values, is to, not only you know, provide visitors and experience in the communities that we operate, but also be part of the communities that we operate. So yeah, that local, that local touch, is really quite special to salmonberry and I became an owner in 2019 Yeah, it was super exciting. Uh, little sweat equity there, yeah, and Candace was going to have twins, so she's like, you know, you should, you should become my partner. And it was, it was quite a funny story, um, and I just, I, I love every minute of it. So I focus on our, yeah, thank you. I focus on our product development side. And so, um, I am super excited about the cruise transfers. They really have taken off in popularity just because of a the number of folks that are using cruise as a as a medium to get to or from Alaska as a transportation vessel, right? So you get a little fun seven day tour all the way up to Alaska, and then you get to meet us. So our cruise ship transfers do pick up and drop off from from the ports.

Jennie Flaming: 6:50

Yes. So, yes. So before we dive into those options, a little more. Mandy listeners, I want to just make sure that this is super clear. If you are taking a cruise to Alaska, and it's a one way cruise, meaning you're going from Vancouver to Alaska or from Alaska to Vancouver, then that means you're going to be either getting off or on the ship in either Seward or Whittier, and both Seward and Whittier are not in Anchorage, right? So you need a plan for how you're getting between the ship and the airport or the ship and Anchorage to start your land tour, right? So you don't want to try to figure out a one way car rental, if that's even possible, you can't do like Uber, Lyft taxis, like you need a plan, and there are a lot of options, but salmonberry is what we're going to talk about today. So I just wanted to kind of set that context a little bit so and

Unknown: 8:00

I can understand too. I've looked at a couple different like, you know, online cruise documentation, and it does stay Anchorage, because that's the airport you're flying out of. And then in parentheses, it will stay Whittier or Seward. So if you question what ship or what port you're coming into, it's usually in that parentheses on that departure vacation day. The

Jennie Flaming: 8:25

other thing is some I have, I don't know if you've seen this anywhere else, Mandy, the police, I've seen it is with Whittier, whereas it'll, it'll say, like arriving in Whittier at like midnight. And so I just want to tell you that you're not going to be getting off the ship in the middle of the night, correct? It'll, it'll. It might be very early in the morning, but it will be in the morning and it will not be at 1am or,

Unknown: 8:49

yeah, generally we get our guests, they'll be assigned, like an 8am or 830 disembark. And it's usually 8am because we ask our guests to be ready by 830 for our guides. Yeah, um and Whittier is kind of unique. If we want to start and dive in with talking about Whittier. Um, yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 9:09

let's, let's the tunnel with Whittier.

Unknown: 9:12

Yeah. So the tunnel is all thing you want to be sure you want to preview that. Jennie, yeah.

Jennie Flaming: 9:16

Well, sure, but actually, I was going to ask you if you could just tell everybody which cruise lines use Whittier and which use I mean, again, you should always check your documents, right? We're talking because things can change. But we're talking kind of generally like, who's going to be in Whittier? Maybe? Yeah,

Unknown: 9:36

you bet. So all Princess ships are going to be sailing in Whittier. There's also seven seas explorer, the Riviera. We also have let me see. I'm looking at my chart, my cheat sheet right now the region, the Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Jade, will be. In there, and the New Amsterdam. So there's select and nor damn so select Holland America departures, Norwegian princess. And I think that's it. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 10:14

one other thing too about Norwegian folks listening, if you are taking a Norwegian Cruise, and it's one way, at the time you booked, they might have been using Seward, so just be aware, we could talk about that in a minute, but this could be a change for you if you're on Norwegian. Okay, so

Unknown: 10:34

you've sailed like on Norwegian before. Now that they have a new cruise terminal in Whittier, they're gonna use their own cruise terminal. Yes? Um,

Jennie Flaming: 10:45

yeah, yeah, cool. Okay, so Mandy, tell us a little bit about what the options are for. Do you want to talk about it separately, pre and post cruise or do you want to just explain what it is? And then actually, folks will just know they could do

Unknown: 11:01

it, Whittier. Whittier is very simple, because Whittier is the same thing. So all guests, regardless if you're going to Whittier or from Whittier, are going to get a tour and transfer to or from Anchorage. So let's go ahead and just in. You know, just because we should just pick a direction for logistics purposes. Let's say we're going to pick you up at the ship. So we are going to pick you up at the ship at between 830 and 845 and then we're going to exit the tunnel at 9am out of Whittier. So our goal is to get all of the passengers, and again, we'd use small group, so it's not too hard, but our guide is going to come into the cruise ship terminal. We have pink or black vests that say salmonberry tours. And they, they have a, like, a name sign, so you just look for your name. And even the the hosts at the cruise ship terminal, they know who salmonberry is. Like, yeah. If you say, Oh, I'm with salmonberry, they'll be like, oh, there's salmonberry over there. So in Alaska, you know, everyone, everyone's quite hospitable here, to be totally honest. Um, but yeah. Anyway, so you're going to disembark the ship, you are going to come into the cruise terminal with your luggage, and then you're going to go down this covered walkway. And that's actually a really unique point for Whittier. You everybody has to go through this covered walkway in order to get to the vehicle. So that is, it's not a long walk by any means, but it's like you're walking through the parking lot in a safe area for guests. And then the guide will go ahead and help load up the luggage, and everybody exits. So as we leave Whittier, Whittier is just this beautiful seaside town, so you've got the mountains that are just jutting right up from the ocean. And we actually drive through the longest one way tunnel in North America, so and it shares use with the railroad, so the longest multi use one way tunnel in North America. So we're going to go through the Anton Anderson Memorial tunnel and out the other side. So we're going to drive through the mountain end up on the other side, which is called bear valley, and then you're going to go right out into the Portage Glacier area. So you've got this gorgeous Chugach National Forest around you. You we're going to go through some bridges, go through the woods, and then all of a sudden we are at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. So the first big highlight of the cruise transfer is this guided 90 minute tour through the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It's a 200 acre rescue and rehabilitation center that's, you know, home in the portage valley, but it also is home to Moose, bison, Musk oxine Sitka, black tailed deer, bears. They work with Alaska fishing game. They're a non profit. They work with Alaska fishing game to bring in injured and orphaned animals that are found throughout Alaska, and they bring them in to rehabilitate them, sometimes being able to release them, but a lot of times they they go ahead and find their forever home here at the center, and we have a long standing relationship With the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The tour is again, 90 minutes. The guide is with you the entire time. So we do like a driving guiding. And then once we get to a large exhibit area, we go ahead and get out. And this is a 200 acre facility, so it's a really quite large, yeah, it really is. And I, you know, locals love it. Visitors love it. It's one of the most visited attractions in Alaska, yep. Um, it will, it will really allow you to see wildlife that maybe you didn't see that up close. And a lot of folks are like, I don't want to go to a zoo. It's definitely when you get there, you're like. This is not a zoo. It is not a safari park like in Alaska or in Africa, excuse me. It's not a safari park like in Africa, but it is this unique place where there's fencing so the bears don't eat the moose or you, but they're in large enough habitats that you get to see them in this in this beautiful setting. And,

Jennie Flaming: 15:22

for example, place for photos too. Yes,

Unknown: 15:26

you can do this boardwalk they've or this, this walkway that they've created to get up and to look down into the bear habitat. And, you know, watch their mannerisms and see what they you know, see what they're doing the three bears there are quite fun to watch, the three brown bears, and they've got black bears. I mean, it's just quite a unique place. And we do spend 90 minutes because we want guests to have a chance to go into their gift shop. All the proceeds that are earned at the center stay at the center. So it goes towards animals, towards the animals, back to the animals, and your admission and everything on your day tour, and your lunch and snacks and water that your guide has, it's all included when you're coming with salmon Berry. So that's kind of a cool little plus. We have glass water bottles, so if you don't have your own reusable water bottle with you. You know you can borrow one of ours for the day, and then it's filled with delicious Alaska water. Delicious Alaska water. But let's see, what else can I say about the Wildlife Center?

Jennie Flaming: 16:37

It is a wonderful place.

Unknown: 16:40

Yeah, um, in our next highlight is going to be Girdwood. So about 2030, minutes down the road is a little mountain town of Girdwood, and we're going to take the Mount aliex aerial tramway up the mountain to get beautiful aerial views of glacier Valley, which is the valley in the mountains where, goodness, there's seven hanging glaciers in the valley. So on a clear day, you can see the seven hanging glaciers. Even on a foggy day, or say, the mountains are all misty and magical, you should still be able to see something up there. It's pretty cool. It's a pretty cool tram, right? It's only four minutes. So if you're like, Oh no, like, I'm scared of heights or something like that. It's a four minute quick ride up the mountain, and then at the top of the terminal, the top of the tram, there's actually a little round house museum you could go through. There's great places for pictures. You could duck in and grab some something to snack on. But we actually go to lunch at the Girdwood Brewing Company. So that's, yeah, it's super duper fun. There's two food trucks. It's locally owned. They use, they even use, like local rhubarb in their in their craft brews. If you don't partake or you're not 21 there's non alcoholic options as well, but, um, so side note, but There's generally two food trucks at the girdle Brewing Company, and you can order off the menu. Your guide will be your they'll take their salmonberry guide hat on and kind of put on a waiter hat. So they'll, all of a sudden, they'll be your host for lunch. Um,

Jennie Flaming: 18:20

oh, you look really familiar. Look at that. Hi, hello.

Unknown: 18:24

So, while we're standing in line for the food truck, you can take a beer token and go get yourself something to drink. And they have fire pits, and it's just a really great vibe at the gridwood Brewing Company. We're super excited to be partnering with them again this year. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 18:41

it's a great it's a great spot, yeah. And

Unknown: 18:46

once we head back into Anchorage, we're going to take some photo stops, and generally we we're going to stop on the way back into town. We stop at a place called Bird Creek. That's a really great place for for pictures of the turning an arm, so the turning an arm, or the body of water that will be on your left hand side as you're headed back into Anchorage, the tourniquet arm has this extreme title difference. So as we travel, your guide is sharing not only history of Alaska, um, they're going to share with you points of interest, like the bore tide, like maybe we see wildlife, or, you know, stories of the area, yeah, but they're also going to share with you, you know, what's it? What is it like in March here? You know? Yeah, we live here year round. So your guide will provide you that glimpse into, you know, real life Alaska. And then, as we head into Anchorage, if you choose that you want to be dropped off at the airport. We can make that happen. We're generally to the airport by 230 in the afternoon. So if you have like, a 435 o'clock flight out, it's perfect time. If you want to grab dinner downtown, and, you know, take a taxi or Uber for a late flight. That totally works too. So it's a really. Great last look at Alaska. If you're coming from the ship and you're flying out, or say, say you're starting a land tour, or say you're starting say you need to be dropped off at a rental car office, because you're going to go on at your own after, after today, or even that evening, you we could totally do that. We'll get you set. We'll get you dropped off at the airport, where the rental cars are, and then you can hit the road. And the nice thing is having that local, you know, that nice local small group look before you, you know, venture on, if you decide to venture on, or maybe they'll inspire you to come back and do an independent trip.

Jennie Flaming: 20:38

Yeah, yeah. And I also want to just clarify, because I don't think I mentioned this before. If you are doing a cruise tour that you booked through the cruise line that includes the land tour like then this wouldn't be the right thing for you, because that will go they will also pick you up the ship or bring you to the ship at the beginning. So this is ideal if you've just got that day and you're flying out that night, or if you are, like Mandy said, you know, picking up a rental car or staying in Anchorage for a few days. This is a great way to get back to Anchorage. Yeah, and

Unknown: 21:19

it's it sells out pretty quickly, because we do operate in private and small groups, yep, um, you want to book this when you're when you're booking your cruise. I know that's just crazy, but Oh, lock it in, yeah, especially if you want something private, um, and, and that way you know that you have the seats. Yep,

Jennie Flaming: 21:40

absolutely. So Mandy, if you're going, if you're going to Whittier instead, is it the same tour, just going the other way,

Unknown: 21:50

correct? Yep, and lunch times, around lunchtime, and yeah, it's quite smooth. And our guides are going to go ahead and pick you up at the hotel of wherever you're staying now, one important note is, if you're staying at like a vacation rental or an Airbnb, you're going to want to meet us at our office, or when you're making your reservation with us, you can let us know what the address is, and we'll let you know what the closest hotel to that Airbnb or vacation rental is. Yeah, perfect luggage. The other thing the luggage, your luggage, stays with you in the in the vehicle that you're in. So that's kind of another distinction. We don't necessarily you're not going to have to, like, check a luggage with a luggage truck that may or may not get there. So yeah, it's very Yeah, it's very simple. When you you know you, we we pick you up and you head out. And when we do the Anchorage to Whittier, or the Anchorage to Seward, when we're leaving Anchorage, I always recommend people the cruise ship generally has these luggage tags that they're going to send you or documentation that they want you to to staple to or or clip to or or wrap on to your luggage. Do that before we pick you up. So get your checked bag, whatever check bag you're going to have that's going to go in the back of the vehicle, whatever carry on bag that you're going to have, and what you're going to carry with you onto the ship. Now that you want to go ahead and keep on your person and have inside the vehicle, not in the luggage compartment in the back of the vehicle, that'll make your check in process super smooth. Another cool thing about going with salmon Barry is that you're not arriving with, you know, 300 people, or, you know, even 80 people. That's a lot of people in line to get so when we arrive, we're arriving in small group, generally 10, sometimes 16. We have a lot, a little bit larger vehicle that we had for some cruise transfers, but eat for privates, like, it's so easy, yeah, and that person that's in charge, and making sure that all your check in documentation is in your carry on is super important. And then, depending on your ship, they're going to give you a little note on your arrival day of if you can check on things like certain things like, are you allowed to have wine in your checked bag? Are you allowed Are you supposed to dump out your water bottles in your in your check or your, yeah, your carry on. So when my recommendation is take a look at your notes that the cruise line gives you, and generally it's on the app, most of them have gone to an app and and then the day before, that way you're prepared for that morning, and it's super just know that the tour guides know when the ships leave, and we have, we know when the last call is, yes, call and and your documentation, you you heard it before. Jennie, your documentation is going to say you are supposed to check in at one o'clock to three o'clock, and then you're going to call me, and you're going to be like, dandy, I can't take your tour. I have to camp. So because you know this, the ship says I have to be there at one o'clock. And I say, No, you don't have to be there at one o'clock. The ship sails at 1900 you don't need to be there until you know 1900 1700, 1750, whatever. And I would love

Jennie Flaming: 25:18

to be able to change that about leadership documents, because people have these times like you were saying, and it's like that has nothing to do with anything, right? And what they're trying

Unknown: 25:30

to do is manage the number of people that are in line, because they know when the cruise train comes in, there's going to be gobs of people that they need to check in. And they know when the ship tour, you know when the bus tours come through. They know when those guys are going to come in. And so they are trying to alleviate anybody that's getting themselves there. They're trying to come get off course. But we already know that. We already have that planned in our day. So rest assured, if you're coming with salmonberry, we will get you to the ship and the correct time, promise,

Jennie Flaming: 26:05

yes, yeah. And you know, another thing about that, by the way, listeners, is that we are specifically talking about Whittier and Seward on a trip like this. So like this is different in Vancouver, right? If, like, you have a time to be there. You know, there's still a wide range of times you can show up, but like in Whittier, you can't show up on your own. Like, there's no way to get there on your own. So don't worry about what's on your documents. Your Guide will get you there. So, yeah, yes, yeah, um, cool. Okay, so, um, another thing is that I know we're talking about luggage, and that sounds extremely boring, but the thing is, luggage is only boring when it's working well, so we want it to stay boring for you. And, having, I just want to say, as someone who doesn't work for salmonberry, that a huge advantage of a tour like this is that you get to stop and do things, but you don't have to deal with your bags. They they like stay with you, but you don't have to manage them everywhere. So Correct? That is a huge deal. Yeah,

Unknown: 27:23

and you know that the guide that's with you in the morning is going to be the guide throughout the day. It's just, it's really quite simple. And this tour and transfer again, it it organically grew, and you can now buy it out. So if it's if it's if you'd like just you and your family to go on the tour and transfer and maybe go at your pace. You know, we definitely need to still be at the ship when we need to be at the ship. But say you're like, oh, we'd like, you know, 20 more minutes at the top of the mountain instead of 20 minutes at the Wildlife Center. Like, you can kind of make it a little bit more your day when you buy it out and and when

Jennie Flaming: 28:03

that is talking about private tours or privates, that's kind of what we're referring to. Is when you're like, hey, salmon Barry, how about you take our family and yes, yeah, cool. Yeah. Not,

Unknown: 28:14

not necessarily buying out the ship, but buying out the vehicle to

Jennie Flaming: 28:18

get you to the ship. I'm sure you can do that. I'm sure that's Oh

Unknown: 28:22

yeah. That'd be cool. That'd be great. Call me, yeah, right.

Jennie Flaming: 28:25

I'll come Yeah, all right. Well, we're gonna take a short break, and when we come back, we'll talk more with Mandy about options, getting back and forth to Seward. Hi everyone. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far. Just wanted to let you know about some other awesome things I have that can help you plan your trip. So first of all, if you are traveling to Alaska in 2025 don't miss out on getting one of the beautiful stickers that Jay has designed, and they're in my shop, which is shop dot ordinary adventures.com, you can also find the link in the show notes. And in addition to that, I've also got a bunch of pre made itineraries for you. There. Got my on demand workshops that you can use to help plan your trip, and my planners as well. So all kinds of great resources for you there. It's shop dot ordinary dash adventures.com use the code podcast to save 10% as an Alaska uncovered listener in my shop. So head on over there. The link is in the show notes. And once again, that's shop dot ordinary, dash adventures.com, now back to the show. All right, everyone, we are back with Mandy Garcia from salmon berry tours, and today we are talking about a super local fun way. Is to get back and forth to the cruise ship terminals in Whittier and Seward. So before the break we were talking about Whittier Mandy, let's dive into Seward. So should we do it the same way? Talk first about getting off the ship, or do you want to do the other way around?

Unknown: 30:19

Yeah, let's talk first about getting off the ship. It's probably our most common route to just so that one coming off the ship will sell out before going on to the ship. Oh, interesting. That's kind of Yeah, that's kind of interesting note. But the ships that are serviced in Seward, you're gonna see Royal Caribbean in Seward. You're gonna see Viking in Seward. Queen Elizabeth comes to Seward, which is super fun. Yeah, the super moon, the supernova, or silver Nova, excuse me. And so Seward is honestly, I think they're starting to target more small ships, but I think that's pretty cool in itself. Is that and they're targeting small ships, but they're building Royal Caribbean announced that they're building a brand new cruise like, what do you call it? Cruise birth? Like, it's, yeah, it's giant. It's a giant. Cruise birth, yeah. So I think you're gonna see more offerings for for Seward as a base. But before we begin, I want to also note that Alaska itineraries a lot of times they also have Seward as a as a destination, like it's just a super popular place to go, yes, and so you can use what we're talking about today, not just to get to and from the ship, but also to get to and from a hotel in Seward. Yep. And so keep that in the back of your mind. If you want to, like, kind of get creative, um, or say you got, you got off a ship in Whittier, we can get you down to Seward, um, so, uh, coming back. So we pick up at the Seward cruise terminal at 830 it's the same situation where you're going to get your bigs, you're going to come through the terminal in here, you'll, you'll just empty right out into the loading zone. I mean, it's, it's Alaska's small. We're, we're, we're a small destination. There are not multiple terminals in sewer. There's one terminal. It's it's wonderful. The host there do a great job of directing people, just like I said before, if you can't find your guide, which is very rare, but if you feel like you want just more assurance, there's hosts right on site in the cruise terminal, yeah, that can point you in the right direction. And there's literally four doors to go out, like you just go out the doors and we're right there. So it's super great. Yes, in Seward, we like to do a little spin around town, and then head out to exit glacier for a photo stop, and then we head over to the Wildlife Center. So we don't spend too much time and Seward on this particular tour and transfer out. Our goal is to get you into anchorage by 430 that is, that's our goal. Get to the airport by 430 for anybody flying out at 637 o'clock or later. So today's adventures or highlights are also going to include the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, the alieska tramway and the Girdwood Brewing Company. So it's the same highlights that we talked about before. It's our signature turn again, arm tour with a pickup and Seward. That's essentially what it is, and on this particular trip, the I personally, I think one of the prettiest parts of the trip is on the drive between Seward and the wildlife center going up into the pass is absolutely gorgeous. It's just quite a special a special time. And your guide, if the salmon are in, they're going to stop, and they'll be able to show you some salmons running, which is, you know, pretty cool for guests. And that's very salmon or Mother Nature specific. It's not, I can't really put a date on it, but generally, we can stop, you know, in our in the summer months, somewhere in, oh gosh, mid June through, through September, we can usually find some kind of salmon for you to see. Yeah, it's super cool. And on, on this particular trip from Seward to Anchorage, we will be picking up at the ship, but, but because so many folks will use it as a way to get to and from there, is there a Seward hotel in Anchorage? Yeah, um, we could have some other hotel pickups, and they're quite brief, because we do travel in small group. Generally, we have maybe three pickups in Seward that would be like the most pickups. Um, before we head out of town. And everything

Jennie Flaming: 35:03

in Seward is very close, yes, yes,

Unknown: 35:07

everything in Seward's very close. And, um, we, let's see some of the, some of the other highlights on the Seward to Anchorage is you're able to get into town, you know, before dinner and at check in. So that's kind of important, because if you want to spend more time in Seward, then take the train at night, take the standard Alaska railroad at night that leaves, that leaves Seward at like 6pm then you can have all day in Seward. But if you want to have an evening in Anchorage, and anchorage has some of the best restaurants, which I'm sure Jennie is going to ask me about. To ask me about. Yes. Well, yes, I will. Yes, you will. So I love anchorage restaurants. And if you do want to, like, kind of reset, especially if you're going to start your own independent Alaska trip, if you want to go ahead and reset, maybe pick up a rental car, maybe, maybe you're, you know, going on a guided trip farther north or or throughout. This allows you to get in at a reasonable time and kind of get your bearings straight. And that way, you can spend a couple hours in Anchorage before you hit the ground.

Jennie Flaming: 36:14

Perfect. Love it. And then again, if it's a free trip, it's the other way, right? If it's before the cruise, just the effects of what we know

Unknown: 36:23

the only, the only thing that's different, and it started this year, and it's because of the timing of the ships in Seward. Some of the ships in Seward are actually asking for an earlier port of call. So we have modified the tour from Anchorage to Seward to not include the alieska tram. So if you're taking our Anchorage to Seward tour and transfer, you should understand that, yes, it doesn't include the alieska tram. But I bet your ship is going to Juneau, where they have the mount Roberts tramway, yeah. So if you are going on the Anchorage to Seward, be sure to sign up for the mount Roberts Jennie and Seward, or in Juneau. Excuse me, sorry,

Jennie Flaming: 37:04

I totally agree about that. Yes, Fauci I

Unknown: 37:09

also really love the anchorage of Seward because it actually gets you into town a little earlier. So you're going to get into town about two o'clock in the afternoon. That actually gives you a chance to we're going to drop your bags. And then if you decide that you want to go into town, you totally can. And you get a little, you know, do a little shopping, have a little ice cream. So

Jennie Flaming: 37:30

which great Seward activities, once again, with the luggage convenience, boring but awesome,

Unknown: 37:38

boring but important. Keep all the pieces I can't say enough. Keep everything that you need to show the person at the counter who you are in your day trip bag. So you you should have a bag with you that's just for you, know, your day bag with all those important documents, and double check that you have your medicine. Yes, your medication before you leave Anchorage.

Jennie Flaming: 38:03

Yeah, don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever check your medications. Don't ever do

Unknown: 38:09

that. Don't do it. Don't do it.

Jennie Flaming: 38:12

Not on an airplane, not on a train, not on anything. Yep. Okay, cool, all right, so Mandy, before we move to kind of the wrap up questions, yep, um, for people, if they want to book this, right, they would they book it directly through salmonberry, not through the cruise line. Is that right? Correct? So, how to book this?

Unknown: 38:36

Okay, so, um, sometimes when you sign up for a cruise, they're going to auto enroll you into the transfer to get to the ship. So you need to look for that. Did you get auto enrolled into a transfer? If so, you can take that transfer off if you or if they didn't include it. You definitely need to get yourself, you need to get yourself to the ship. So how you would book it is, we have a team of awesome Alaskans that are here seven days a week from 830 to 430 Alaska time. And so you can give us a call at 907-278-3572, or better. Yet, you can jump online check the date of your cruise and the date on the salmonberry website. And if you go on our website and you type in salmonberry tours.com you will actually look at the very top, and it's of the of the Oh, gosh. What is that called? The headline, the headers, yep, and it says Alaska. So you you hover over Alaska tours, and you can see a drop down says Alaska cruise transfers. And there's four because you can go Anchorage to Seward, Seward to Anchorage, Anchorage to Whittier. Whittier to Anchorage. So you pick which one you need to go to. And then you can actually look on the calendar right there to see if we have space available. If we don't have space available, just shoot us a. Message, there's a Contact Us in the upper right hand corner. If we can't, you know, if we can't do it, maybe we can help you find another way to get there. So yes,

Jennie Flaming: 40:09

and I will put that in the show notes as well. Listeners. I am now putting on my former travel agent hat, securing it on there, and I want to tell you two other things about booking related to what Mandy just said. Number one, it's super important, no matter what that you check on if you're doing a tour that begins or ends in quote Anchorage, which is actually Whittier or Seward, make sure, like Mandy said you want to look and see if you have a transfer there already, very important. And if you do, and you're like, Well, I didn't want to want that. I want to do salmonberry instead. Don't get mad at your travel agent, because that means they wanted to make sure that you had a ride, right? That's so good thing. Yes. So the important, the most important thing, is to have a ride. The second most, most important thing is to decide if you want to do a tour with salmonberry instead of a straight up transfer, which is awesome. And like Mandy said, you can, you can totally remove that from your from your cruise itinerary, and do this instead. But don't like, get that job half done where, because I have had this happen in the past with clients where they like, canceled it and then they never booked something else and then, so don't do that. Like, make sure you like, sit down and see it all the way through in one sitting.

Unknown: 41:38

I'm glad you talked about travel advisors too, because if you are working with a Travel Advisor, we also work with travel advisors so you can just have them give us a call and we'd be happy to help them through the booking process for you.

Jennie Flaming: 41:52

Perfect. Fantastic. All right. Mandy, here it comes. Anchored restaurants lay lay a favorite on us.

Unknown: 42:03

Okay, I will tell you that I have been loving sweet caribou, and I can't remember if the last podcast I said it, but

Jennie Flaming: 42:12

I don't remember what you said last time, either. Okay,

Unknown: 42:16

Jennie, I'm not a salad person, so this is really coming from a good place is that, like these people make phenomenal lunch bowls, which I guess most people would call a salad. And I love them again, not being a salad person, I still absolutely love them. They'll also deliver so if you are in Anchorage and you're you want to do a fun like, picnic in the mountains or something, they'll deliver your lunch bowls right to your hotel. And it's super I think it's free. If you order enough like, you have to order like, three bowls, or two bowls, or something like that, right,

Jennie Flaming: 42:53

like a bag of chips. And, right, you can't

Unknown: 42:55

order a bag of chips. Yeah, and then another iconic Alaska lunch or and I'm going to specifically say Anchorage is the Fourth Avenue reindeer sausage stands. Oh, yeah. And so you should always hit up the yellow the yellow umbrella. So all of us, kind of we all have to pick sides. And in our office, we we pick the yellow umbrella. So those are my those are my two in those are my two suggestions for now,

Jennie Flaming: 43:25

perfect. Love it. Next time you come on the pod Mandy, you can give different answers. I

Unknown: 43:32

know I was, I better write that down. I was thinking about dinner, though, like Man, we had a really yummy dinner at the gumbo house the other day. Oh, yeah, that's a great place. Yeah, it's, it's historic, right? So they've been around forever, then they get this bigger location in, down in, like, closer, closer to downtown, like, closer to Fourth Avenue, really, they're on Fifth Avenue now, yep, yep. And, um, honestly, go give them some love. It's especially if it's maybe a little cooler out, you know, yeah, doesn't want some, you

Jennie Flaming: 44:02

know, yummy soup on a cold day, right? No kidding. And I'm also going to say, not only is the gumbo house delicious, but it's pretty affordable for Anchorage, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, we're talking about expensive restaurants, but

Unknown: 44:17

yeah, average Anchorage is lunches. You should probably plan on like 35 bucks if you want, like, halibut tacos and stuff like that. And for dinners, you're looking at like$65 if you want to have apps and an appetite, or apps and a and an entree, that's seafood. So, yep,

Jennie Flaming: 44:36

yeah, but yeah, so gumbo house is delicious and affordable. Yay. Okay, so last but not least, Mandy, what piece of advice do you have for first time Alaska travelers?

Unknown: 44:50

Oh, don't get overwhelmed. Do not let the flood all of the options like, slow you down. Um. I think even in my own personal travel, sometimes that is that's hard as an Independent Traveler to be like, Am I making the right decision? And honestly, like, you will know if you're making the right decision when you pick up the phone and call them or when you receive an email from them, are they happy that you're calling them or supporting them. And then my second piece of advice that I cannot shout from the rooftops enough, is please, please, please, book direct. We do not need to be giving the Expedia and the viators and booking dot coms of the world. We don't need, we don't need to be giving them, them all of that business, these the your business, put your dollars directly in the hands of the small businesses. It is so critical to these companies and also to your experience. I don't know if you've ever traveled and used an online an OTA, that's what the industry calls it, online travel agent. An OTA, they're not a travel agent. They don't help. So really, my my advice to you is, if you want somebody to organize your itinerary, if you want somebody to tell you the best of the best, don't go online. Yeah, and search that site, go and find a local, ask your hotel for recommendations, yep, and then talk. You know, look at their, look at look at some sample itineraries on our website or Facebook or Instagram to get to get inspiration. But yeah, I would just encourage you, please, please, please, book direct. I small businesses around the world need people to go direct to them. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 46:44

yeah. Thank you for sharing that, Mandy. And you know, I think that's really timely, especially as it's harder and harder to find good information on the internet. And it's, yeah, it's still an important tool for learning. But I totally agree with you that, you know, yeah, it's a great place to get ideas and things, but finding local experts who can support planning your trip is huge and probably more important than ever, right? Because

Unknown: 47:19

I have partnerships with the lodging and and, you know, the other local guides and the restaurants, and when they see the pink vest come through with you, yeah, as the guest, they're going to be like, Oh, San berry here. Okay, I got it. Let's go get it. Seated. It's and, you know, that shows that customer service shows, and then, you know, nobody wants to think that the trip's not going to go as planned, but Mother Nature sometimes, you know, has alternate plans. Yes, booking direct allows you complete control over your reservation. Yep, so totally agree with or through a Travel Advisor, I'd say a real Travel Advisor or booking direct is going to give you the most control, yeah, but like those OTAs, they're bad news,

Jennie Flaming: 48:09

dude. Yeah, it's all it's all algorithms, and, yeah,

Unknown: 48:13

they're not real people. No,

Jennie Flaming: 48:16

yeah, oh, well, Mandy, it was so wonderful having you today. Thank you for talking about these great, super local, fun ways to get back and forth to the ship from Anchorage. So thank you so much for being here.

Unknown: 48:31

Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait for the next one you