We walk you through disembarkation day on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas, share our secret "Fast Pass" transfer hack, and get face-to-face with brown bears and giant moose at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center!
Welcome back to the vlog! Eric, Beth, and Devin have officially reached the final day of our 7-night northbound Alaska cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas [00:06, 00:14].
Disembarkation day is always bittersweet, especially when your ship docks in Seward, Alaska—nearly three hours south of Anchorage [00:14, 02:25, 12:28]! Instead of booking a standard point-A-to-point-B bus transfer, we booked a post-cruise excursion that took us through the Chugach Mountains and into the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) before dropping us off in downtown Anchorage [00:24, 00:56, 04:35]. Here is everything you need to know about the Seward debarkation process and why this excursion is the ultimate way to end your cruise!
1. Seward Disembarkation & The New Cruise Terminal
Our morning started with an 8:15 AM meet-up in the forward Royal Theater on Deck 4 [12:44]. We ended up waiting about 45 minutes in the theater before our group number was finally called to head down the gangway [00:40, 12:44].
The New Seward Terminal: The port in Seward recently opened a brand-new cruise terminal building within the past month that is still partially under construction [13:26]. While our luggage itself was neatly organized, the passenger flow outside in the covered staging area was pretty chaotic, with tour groups clustered in the walkways trying to figure out where to go [13:00, 13:10, 13:32]. (Note: The gangway ramp is quite steep, though the port does have ADA shuttle vans available for guests with mobility issues [13:38, 13:45]!)
💡 PRO TIP: The Disembarkation "Fast Pass" Hack Don't book a basic bus transfer! By booking an actual post-cruise excursion that includes luggage handling and drops you off at the Egan Center in downtown Anchorage, you bypass the massive, chaotic lines of standard transfer passengers waiting around the terminal [00:50, 00:56, 01:59]. One quick heads-up: even though the excursion listing showed photos of a train, this specific transfer is 100% on a motorcoach bus [13:53, 14:02]!
2. Scenic Drive Out of Seward: Fireweed & Turquoise Lakes
Once we loaded onto our bus, our driver treated us to incredible local stories and history as we climbed out of the industrial port town of Seward [01:03, 02:25]:
The 7-Cent Deal: We passed through the town named after William H. Seward, who brokered the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million—less than 7 cents an acre [02:32, 02:40]!
Alaskan Fireweed: We learned how pinkish-purple fireweed is the first plant to sprout from the ashes after Alaskan wildfires [01:35, 01:44]. Locals turn it into everything from honey to jellies—and our driver tipped us off to Kobuk Coffee right across from the Egan Center in Anchorage, famous for serving delicious fireweed donuts [01:59, 02:10]!
Alaska’s Four Seasons: As our driver joked, less than 30% of Alaska is accessible by paved roads, and the state only has four true seasons: Winter, Extreme Winter, "Psych, Winter's Not Over Yet," and Construction [03:34, 03:47, 03:54]!
3. Up Close with Bears & Moose at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
After passing stunning turquoise glacier-fed lakes, we pulled into the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center [03:02, 04:35]. This sanctuary rescues injured and orphaned native animals, and it gave us closer views of Alaskan wildlife than we had seen all week [05:35, 14:17]:
Brown Bears & Black Bears: Right away, we watched massive bears wandering out of the woods and lounging right against the logs just feet from the viewing boardwalks [04:50, 05:11].
Pregnant Reindeer Trivia: While looking at the reindeer (caribou), we learned a wild fact: both male and female reindeer grow antlers, but only pregnant females keep their antlers through the winter—meaning Santa's entire team (Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Blitzen, and even Rudolph!) were all pregnant ladies [06:10, 06:22]!
Baby Wood Bison & Muskox: We got to see a whole herd of adorable baby wood bison that the center is helping reintroduce to the wild, alongside super-fluffy Sitka black-tailed deer and muskox [06:36, 06:56, 14:23].
Giant Alaskan Moose: Standing just feet away from two massive moose—one shedding its winter coat and another showing off a full rack of antlers—was surreal [07:03, 07:13, 07:21]. Male moose can stand 7 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 1,700 pounds [04:02, 04:12]!
Porcupines, Owls & Glacier Sodas: Before boarding the bus, we watched a cute porcupine doing loops around its habitat, spotted a majestic owl, and grabbed cans of 49th State Brewing craft sodas (Cloudberry Burst, Root Beer, and Cream Soda) brewed with real Alaskan glacier water [07:42, 07:47, 07:55, 08:11, 08:20]!
4. Ghost Forests, Turnagain Arm & Spotting Denali
The second half of our drive took us past the sunken "ghost forests" of Portage—a town that dropped several feet and was wiped out by a saltwater tsunami during the devastating 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake in 1964 [01:24, 09:20, 09:27, 09:34].
From there, we hugged the coastline of Turnagain Arm [09:55, 11:53]:
How It Got Its Name: In 1778, Captain James Cook sailed into Cook Inlet searching for the Northwest Passage, but kept hitting shallow mudflats and forcing his ship to "turn again and again" [09:55, 11:48, 11:53]!
Quicksand Glacial Silt: Those flats are actually made of ground-up glacial flour from the Matanuska and Knik glaciers [10:47, 10:55]. It acts just like quicksand and is the #1 cause of 911 calls along the arm, where bore tides can rise and fall up to 30 feet in minutes [11:12, 11:27]!
A Clear View of Denali: Because we had such a remarkably clear afternoon, we could actually see the snow-capped summit of Denali towering on the horizon 400 miles away [12:04, 12:11]!
The Final Verdict
When we rated the day from 1 to 5, the disorganized morning disembarkation at the new Seward port started the day off at a 2 out of 5, but the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center excursion easily brought it up to a 4 out of 5 [15:19, 15:24, 15:32]! It broke up the nearly three-hour drive to Anchorage perfectly, let us get face-to-face with bears and moose, and dropped us right in downtown Anchorage so we could grab an Uber to our weekend Airbnb [12:28, 14:17, 14:47, 15:01].
Have you ever visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center or driven along Turnagain Arm? Let us know in the comments below!
Want to see the brown bears, the massive moose, and our clear view of Denali from 400 miles away? Watch our full vlog on YouTube right here:
👉 The BEST Way to End an Alaska Cruise: (Seward to Anchorage Transfer & Bears Up Close!) 🐻🏔️
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