Space is limited to 50 staterooms.
Don't wait...call now to book your stateroom!
Deposit of $250 per
person due at time of reservation. Prices and space only guaranteed through
February 26, 2007 - Final Payment due March 29, 2007.
Note: To maximize
your Beer Experience plan to arrive in Anchorage no later than Wednesday June
27th to participate in the optional events in Anchorage and Seward.
NOTE: Do not make any air reservations as
this group is not yet guaranteed to sail unless, we have at least 20 cabins
booked for the beer cruise.
BOOK A
CABIN AND RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO ALL ABOUT BEER
MAGAZINE
If you would like
to see pictures on line of our past All About Beer Cruises, please send an
e-mail to:
beer@magichappens.com and we will e-mail you a link to our
photo albums.
PS...IF YOU HAVEN'T READ
THIS TESTIMONIAL BY ONE OF OUR PAST ALASKA CRUISERS. PLEASE DO SO. It is quite
humorous...
From: Gordon Haney
Sent: Wednesday,
August 06, 2003 1:42 PM
Subject: Boring Alaska Beer Cruise saga
Hello
All,
Just wanted to send a few words about our Alaskan beer cruise last
week, because it was really tops, at least the part I can remember.LaDon tells
me there was also some good scenery, which may or may not
have been
true.
Anyhow, we were on Royal Caribbean, the Radiance of the Seas, the
best cruise ship I've ever been on. It was a 7-day cruise, starting and ending
in Vancouver, with stops in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. We had beer tastings
on board ship, and tours which included pubs and breweries. Also, select micro
brews were available for the beer tour group at the ship's bars and in the
dining room.
The tour group included a beer "expert", and also the editor
of "All About Beer" magazine, as well as a bunch of us sophisticated users. The
users included home brewers, the 2002 "Beer Drinker of the Year"
runner-up, a
family who had just bought a brewery in Oregon, and some plain old
beer-slammers. The guy who set up the tour also accompanied us and acted as
director. In addition to the special beer-related tours he had for our group,
there were a number of standard tours available as alternatives. Our group was
about 40 of the 2000-plus passengers.
The beers involved ranged the full
gamut from lighter pilsners to full-bodied barley wines, all quality products
which were in more than ample supply (if you get my drift...).
Some
details:
-As soon as we boarded, there was a get-acquainted and tasting
party, which was great, because a beer is wonderful after going through the
boarding process. Since we were still in port, there were brewery
reps there
with their products. The reps got off when the ship sailed, but not the
products.
-First stop was Juneau, a nice little town where we saw a
salmon hatchery (unbelievable numbers of salmon), a glacier, and the Alaskan
Brewing Company, where we had a great tasting and tour, and a lot of
good
food. There was a lot of good salmon available on this tour in various forms,
and, like all other foods, it goes great with beer. I was surprised to learn
that realty prices are high in Juneau, because it's the capital and there's not
much space between the shore and the mountains, and also surprised to learn that
the town is landlocked-no way out except boat or plane or really long cold swim.
Possibly you could hike out if you were in good shape and had Cherney with you
to handle the bears.
-Next we hit Skagway, also landlocked, a nice little
town with a main street of tourist shops. We took a side trip up a fjord to the
tiny nearby town of Haines/Fort Seward. The fjord is a great place to see
wildlife, and we got to see a group of 5 humpback whales. (At least it looked
like 5 to me, but it may have only been one, since this was after the beer
tasting.) Haines is a neat little town with a few hundred inhabitants, each of
whom has some useful skill which enables them to earn a living. They don't have
(or need) any lawyers, certified public accountants, Lockheed Martin Build
Coordinators, or golf instructors. The lack of a hospital means you have to get
to Juneau if you're injured or pregnant, which is a really long time to bite on
a stick or hold a bandaid in place. Our tour guide's wife was expecting, so they
have to go to Juneau, get an apartment, and wait for the big event. They
actually get government funding to help with this. Anyhow, back to Haines- this
is the town where "White Fang" was filmed, and they still have the movie town
set buildings there. In fact, they are now used as businesses, including the
Haines Brewery. Imagine the effect on this little town when a whole movie crew
hit town and spent a number of months there. Most of the locals appear in the
film as extras. The famous Haines Brewery produces about 80 barrels a year, as
much as Alaska Brewing does on one night shift.(Alaska Brewing in turn produces
less than one per cent of, say,
Molson). The Haines beers were very good,
including a spruce ale which I hadn't seen before. The brewmaster was a
laid-back dude from the Woodstock era who really enjoyed his work. I think his
second job may have been tending a few acres of hippy lettuce back in the
country...Haines actually has a road out of it, unlike our other stops, but it's
a long way to, well, anywhere.
-Next, the ship cruised up to Hubbard
Glacier and stayed awhile. Got some nice pictures there, really an awesome
sight. No beer there, so that's enough about the goddam glacier....
-Last
stop was Ketchikan, which is (guess what) landlocked. Mostly tourist trap
places, but found a really good local brewpub, which saved the day. (Like, we
really needed more beer at this point, right?)
-Too many beers to
list here, but my favorite, at least for a tee shirt, would have to be Glacier
Brewhouse's "Big Woody" Imperial stout, named of course for the cask-stored wood
overtones in the flavor. Honorable mention to Paddywack IPA, Alaskan Smoked
Porter, and Sockeye Red Ale. Also tried some Sam Adams Utopia, which is a heavy
duty barleywine about like port wine. Comes in a great little cask/decanter,
which my son Evan won in the raffle. Even empty it's neat.
I learned (and
re-learned) a lot about beer and home brewing on this trip, plus the cruise was
off the meter. The tour company is setting up another next year out of Seattle,
plus a an eastern version out of Boston to Maine, Halifax and Nova Scotia. I'm
hoping we can make both. The change to Seattle will provide access to some new
brews and places, plus there's a whole bunch of Alaska tours we didn't take this
time. Check out www.magichappens.com for tour info, or just say
"Alaska" to LaDon. I recommend these tours highly. Having the tour group gave us
some instant friends, and having some good friends along would really make it
nice. Believe it or not, I didn't gain any weight on this run. I think if you
eat in the dining room where you
don't have the option of creating a gigantic
heaping platter, you come out OK.
cheers/g
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