Cruise Alaska: Two Easy And Inexpensive Options For Your Day In Anchorage
*This information only applies to those on ships docking near downtown Anchorage, not Seward or Whittier. Check here to confirm where your ship will call.
Anchorage, the most populated city in Alaska with nearly 300,000 residents, joins my home port of Seattle in the top five when it comes to cities with the highest number of coffee shops per capita in the U.S.
However, while you might spot a rainbow crossing the street in Seattle…
you’re more likely to see a moose crossing in Anchorage:
Keep your distance from Bullwinkle, as non-animated moose are more aggressive than dim-witted. And before you set out on one of my recommended activities or to fill up your extra empty suitcase with Christmas gifts to save Santa some cash (there’s no sales tax in Anchorage), grab a decent cup of joe. Because ship coffee is so bad, spitting it out over your balcony in protest could lead to the worst environmental disaster off the coast of Alaska since the Exxon Valdez.
The Shuttle To The Shuttles
The first thing you need to do before making a huge mistake and taking my advice on absolutely anything, especially when it comes to fashion, but in this case Anchorage port activities, is board the shuttle to the shuttles. Upon debarkation from your ship there will be free shuttle buses available to transport you from the cruise terminal to the heart of downtown Anchorage, dropping you in front of the William A. Egan Civic and Convention Center as indicated with the bus symbol on the map below.
From the bus, make your way to “F” street and hang a right. From here proceed to the Anchorage Visitor Center, an attraction in itself, but also the meeting point for the free zoo shuttle and the Anchorage Trolley (indicated on the map with a star).
The Anchorage Visitor Information Center
While now I’m a #renterforlife, I dabbled in home ownership back in my former city of Pittsburgh, but knew it wasn’t for me when my gutters started to look like the roof of the Anchorage Visitor’s Center with all manner of plant life growing in the accumulated dirt and leaves. Only the roof on the Visitor Center is intentional, maintained, and lovely. My gutters were the victims of neglect and a giant encroaching tree I feared would someday land on me, leaving Prof. Cruise squished ala the Wicked Witch of the East, but with only my plastic flip flops and equally neglected toenails peaking out: “wow, she really could have used a pedicure.”
But anyway, the Anchorage Visitor Center is housed in a charming log cabin beautifully landscaped with vivid flowers creating dramatic patterns in beds bordering the exterior and overflowing from hanging baskets. Explore around the surrounding grounds for some fun public art:
Then step inside to field your inquiry about the best place to buy a Coach purse “for a friend” to the kindly and knowledgeable locals and mail a free postcard to your husband back home so he doesn’t get too comfortable without your nagging: “having a great time. Eat a salad and don’t forget to take out the trash!” They’ll even pay your postage if you’re sending them within the United States.
Once you’ve composed postcards to everyone three degrees of separation from and including Kevin Bacon, “I loved you in Apollo 13,” and drained the Visitor Center of its inventory because they’re FREE!, step outside at the urging of staff, “perhaps you’d be interested in our FREE Alaska zoo shuttle, scoot along now.”
The Free Shuttle To The Alaska Zoo
While the official slogan of Anchorage is: “Big Wild Life,” I’ll always remember it as home to the “Big Bad Wolf,” finally captured after years of terrorizing pigs and my six-year-old and imprisoned with his pack of thugs at the Alaska Zoo.
Of course I didn’t know this when I stumbled upon the free zoo shuttle from downtown Anchorage and, although the thought of visiting Alaska to see animals in captivity seemed almost nonsensical, I ultimately judged it a fun and easy excursion for my son “H” and his grandmother, whom I’d drag all over Ketchikan, Juneau, Icy Straight Point, Homer, Kodiak, and Sitka on our 14-day Alaskan cruise doing exactly what I wanted to do.
So we hopped on the free shuttle boarding in front of the Visitor Center according to the following schedule. The ride took about 35 minutes and offered us a nice feel for Anchorage.
The Alaska Zoo
Although every visit to any zoo always ends with me making the following two comments: “I wonder if the animals are happy” and “I think I stepped in something,” this was a lovely, uncrowded little zoo with packed dirt trails and a natural wooded topography that made it feel more like a walk through the forest and less like a tourist attraction, with a focus on animals native to Alaska. Like wolves.
Wolves of The Alaska Zoo
Back to the Big Bad Wolf. During an ill-advised moment of unsupervised computer game play a few years prior to this day in Anchorage in the children’s room of our neighborhood public library, “play on the computers while mommy checks Facebook,” my then preschooler stumbled upon the story of The Three Little Pigs and their four-pawed canine adversary. The wolf – big and bad and with the lung capacity of a disgruntled infant experiencing the discomforts of air travel for the first time – would haunt his dreams for years to come.
So, back to Anchorage and the zoo, where I was distracted from my motherly obligations again – trying to figure how the great horned owl got his neck to twist all the way around like that while pinching the back of my own neck with a pained expression – and missed my opportunity to tackle “H” and cup my hand over his eyes before he saw them: wolves.
Thank God they weren’t also engaged in “mating behavior,” simultaneously reinvigorating H’s wolf nightmares and requiring I attend to my own worst fear: the sex talk.
Instead, H ran right up to the fence where we sprinted to join him as we all stood transfixed, witnessing a fascinating and, thankfully PG-rated, display of wolf behavior: a pack rally. A lone wolf, assumed to be the alpha, approached the front corner of the enclosure, feet away from where we stood. He lifted his snout toward the sky, with his ears back and eyes partially closed and began to howl. And heeding his call to assemblage, the rest of the pack rushed forth and joined in his howling, like a chorus following in unison an invisible conductor’s baton in the sky.
What they were trying to communicate, I can’t be sure, but what I was trying to communicate was the following: wolves are beautiful! Wolves are so cool! And, wolves aren’t scary!
But I had been saying those things for years. It was the wolves themselves that convinced H of these truths. Because confronting our fears head on can sometimes drain them of their power. And sometimes we find beauty where we least expected it, learning that the caricature of a thing offers a truncated truth. And when the unfamiliar becomes familiar our nightmares turn to memories. Real. And wonderful: “remember that time we saw the wolf pack howling at the zoo in Alaska? That was so cool!”
Admission to the Alaska Zoo
Adult (non-resident): $15; Senior (age 65 and older): $10 each; Military (ID required): $10 each; Youth (ages 3 – 17): $7; Ages 2 years and under: FREE
The Anchorage Trolley Tour
While we didn’t personally experience the Anchorage Trolley Tour – I needed to head back to the ship after the zoo for free food and my afternoon nap – based on the information I collected at the Visitor’s Center and the reviews I’ve read, I feel comfortable recommending it. You catch it in the same spot as the zoo shuttle and we saw people boarding it as we waited.
At just $20 for adults and $10 for kids 12 and under, this 15 mile tour, taking just short of an hour, promises to include the following:
- Mysterious Earthquake Park
- The Alaska Railroad
- Westchester Lagoon float planes departing from Lake Hood and Lake Spenard
- Breath-taking mountain ranges
- Anchorage’s historic neighborhoods
- Wildlife sightings
- Anchorage’s famous flowers
Go here for further information or to reserve your seats. You can also just show up and pay on the trolley with cash, assuming there is space available.
Now go out and conquer your fears and have a wonderful day in Anchorage!
Class Dismissed.
*Check out my other Alaska port posts here. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog (scroll up to the top right if on a computer or keep scrolling down if on a mobile device) and follow me on social media:
