Grand Alaska A Beautiful Experience
Tour Date: June 18 - July 2, 2022. We were very lucky to have perfect weather during our whole tour, with no rain. We learned much about the native culture by our visits to the local museums, dog sled compounds, an original homestead and especially the great commentary by our tour guide. This trip is more than beautiful scenery, Tauck makes it a cultural experience. The view of Denali was spectacular. 
We were most impressed with our tour guide as his experience solved two unforeseen problems on our tour. First was the Copper Center was closed due to a staffing shortage and the tour was re-routed to Fairbanks. In Fairbanks, among many other activities, we visited the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. A very cool presentation of antique autos alongside displays of period dress. In my opinion, this museum compares very nicely to the Peterson Auto Museum in L.A. 
Glacier Bay was awesome, we saw the glaciers calve several times with a thunderous roar. 
For our visit to Skagway, a mudslide, a couple of nights before our ships arrival, damaged the dock our ship was supposed to use. The ship instead was redirected to dock at the town of Haines. Our tour guide arranged a private ferry, for the Tauck guests only, to get us to Skagway in time for us to board the train at White Pass. 
The White Pass train trip is one of the highlights of the tour and we are so grateful that our tour guide made the effort to get us there. Whale watching in Juneau was cool.
This, without a doubt, is one of our most memorable trips with Tauck.
Comments
Wow -- what a quick thinking sharp footed TD you had to make that arrangement so swiftly for the ferry. We go next year, and your photos make me smile already. Thank you!
Did your tour "lose" many people to testing positive for COVID? Another poster had almost 1/3rd of their tour unable to finish the trip because of testing positive. I'm hoping that was an outlier and not a norm. Also, did you need the neoprene gloves and liners that are recommended to have?
According to our tour director, the first two tours of the season had no positive tests before getting on the ship. But since then its basically gone down hill. The two tours behind us had more possible tests than our tour did before getting on the ship
I don’t know why Tauck persists in recommending gloves, they are no good if you don’t know how to use them. Plus, Tauck can’t even mandate masks, never mind gloves. Most people think the Pandemic is over. The Princess ships have a mask mandate but most people don’t ignore it.
Packerfan, wear masks all the time, not loosely but tight fitting on the bridge of your nose and down under your chin unless you are eating. Try to eat separately when you can. Wash your hands and keep them away from your face. Be careful at home before you go for at least a week and you will be fine.
British, the "gloves" i was referring to are neoprene and liners were recommended. It's not for sanitation or the spread of germs. They are for preventing cold hands
They are what divers, paddleboarders, kayakers, etc wear when in the water. My guess is they recommended them for the raft ride or if anyone goes kayaking.
Whoops, sorry Packerfan.
We took gloves for the raft ride but didn’t need them. I think we put them on for a while but holding on to the ropes like you do all the time, it’s difficult with gloves. We wore hats and puffer jackets and it was a coolish day.There is no kayaking on the Tauck tour. Also, taking photos with a cell phone was more difficult than using my camera which I only needed one hand to do that. You just can’t let go of the rope with one hand because the river runs fast and if the river is very shallow, you hit rocks
I’ll try to see if any of my photos
show this. Here are ones you can see hands and the boots they give you to wear. My hubby and I were at the front of the dinghy, the river was low and getting into the main channel, we literally had to lie face down in the bottom of the boat for a few minutes. So our knees got wet. We loved this and no paddling lie when white water rafting.
Ag, you can see my hubby has his gloves attached to his jacket. That is where they stayed.
Remember Alaska can be hot, The tour before us had no rain and high temperatures
Thanks for the info British! The photos you added really help to see what we are getting into as well.