Cruise to Alaska

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I just arrived home from a 10 day cruise to Alaska, launching from and returning to San Francisco. Big family trip and was pretty awesome. Also my first cruise so everything was new. Some random observations:

I didn’t think I’d get sea sick. Been on many boats, boat rides, etc. and never happened. The first night the crew said the water was unusually rough and I got sea sick. Took a dramamine purchased from the gift shop and it worked like a charm. Also knocked me out for several hours. Water was relatively calm after that and while I could feel the boat moving, it wasn’t very much.

Internet costed $40/day, and it was through the ship’s satellite. Too much for me. One member of our group got it and it wasn’t very fast. I went without, so was without connection to the outside world for 10 days. That was more impactful than I was expecting. Typically I do a little work/email while on vacation, but here that was not an option. That also meant I was away from the boards so no responding to posts or posting. On days where we were on land, I would open as many pages of threads as I could so I could store them and read them while at sea. Each time we landed I loaded about 50 pages (my post count is set to load 100 posts per page).

We landed in 4 places - Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Victoria, British Columbia. While Juneau is the capital of Alaska, near the port it’s pretty much tourist central. One of the locals mentioned that the cruise line basically owns all the land around the docks, and man I have never seen so many jewelry stores. I think in the walking distance from the dock there were over 100. Apparently cruise passengers like to purchase jewelry. Same thing for Skagway, and a little bit less for Ketchikan. Victoria being in Canada was an actual city.

I’ve never been to Canada so this was my first time. Not sure spending 6 hours really counts as seeing anything but tourist stuff, but it was neat. It was right after Canada day, so there was a lot of Canada type memorabilia out. I learned that after and it made a lot more sense why there were so many Canadian flags all around :slight_smile: I didn’t find the people particularly nice - got chased off of sitting on a bench outside a store that was completely empty because we were not customers. They were basically normal people, go figure.

There was a crazy amount of eating aboard ship. I usually don’t eat breakfast, but here I think I was eating something near every 2 hours. Since all food is included, we’d go to a restaurant and lots of things sounded good so I’d order 4 appetizers and 3 entrees, then get desert. That is certainly not sustainable but was pretty fun. The kids quickly discovered the soft serve (ice cream like) place and got at least 4-5 servings per day. Cheeseburgers and pizza on demand was pretty great too. Having a buffet available from 5:30am to 11pm is also both awesome and wow that’s a lot of food. I also got the drink package for alcohol, and discovered that the limit per day was 15 alcoholic drinks. I didn’t hit that the entire trip, but I think 10 was the closest. It’s hard to drink that much.

When the boat rocks, the water in the onboard pools rock as well. There were a few instances of pool waves about 2 feet high. The kids thought it was a wave machine.

I appreciate all the work the staff and crew do, though the onboard entertainment isn’t really my thing. I went to a few shows to check out and it’s was novel.

On board the first 6-7 days, we spent some time looking out for whales. Didn’t see any. On the 8th day, we saw some whale activity then it seemed like we passed a whole herd of whales which I think were humpback. Pretty awesome. For the most part you could see a lot of blowhole activity, and if you were lucky you’d see the rear fin come out of the water. Whenever that happened everyone around would cheer. I saw two whales come out of the water and breach, one of the times it came fully out of the water where I could see space under the whale and between the surface of the ocean. That was pretty awesome. It’s so fast that I couldn’t get a picture.

I took a ship excursion to a glacier. My one goal going to Alaska was to walk on a glacier. That involved a helicopter flight where we landed on a glacier and toured it for about an hour. That would have been awesome to have a drone take photos. Highlight of the trip. I had a bottle and filled it with melting glacier water and yes, I drank it. It was neat.
Pretty awesome trip. I’m not sure if overall I’m a cruise type vacation person, but this was great.

2

I did this same cruise a few years ago. I dig cruisin’! I go with my wife, kid and mom. Mom is an “Elite” and gets all kinds of special treatment, like preferred boarding, skipping the lines, special parties, free laundry and internet- all good stuff. And since I have to carry her luggage, I get to take advantage of all of it! :wink:

The Alaska cruise was the last one of the season, and everything was price-cut to the bone in the ports. Well, all the gift-shop kind of crap.

I got a hat for $2. :smiley:

Rode the Gold Pass and Yukon Railroad. That was cool. Damn near broke my leg in Skagway.

3

I’m leaving to do an Alaska cruise on the 15th. It sounds very similar to yours except we’re round trip out of Seattle. Did you stop at Hubbard Glacier? I picked this cruise because I wanted the kids to see it.

I think I am a cruise type person. You get to see lots of different things, and you don’t have to pack and unpack to do it. :smiley:

4

That would be the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, running between Skagway, AK and Carcross, YT.

5

I was just on a Alaska Cruise from Seattle June 22 - 29. Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria. (Plus a trip up the Endicott Arm to Dawes glacier)
My cabin mate’s brother lives in Juneau so we toured with him – Mendenhall glacier + the west side, drove as far north as Eagle Beach. Toured the DIPAC salmon hatcher and hiked some of Perseverance trail.
Took the train in Sagway to White Pass.
Walked to Craigdorroch castle in Victoria (plus ate at a Pirogi bar)

Saw some whales (about 5 fins one day, and some spray another).

Brian

6

I was just testin’ ya. :wink:

7

Did this a few years ago. my kids liked the dogsled the best.

I would recommend folks to consider cruising just one way as there is a lot of time spent cruising to/from seattle that is essentially dead time.

8

Ahem, if I may derpout for a second…it’s a pod. A pod of whales.

But yeah, I’ve been on several cruises though never to Alaska. But my parents say the Alaska cruise is way better than the Mexico/Bahamas cruises they’ve been on.

9

We first went to Mendenhall glacier near Juneau. That’s the one we flew a helicopter to and landed on. Then a few days later made our way through Glacier Bay, which went by several different glaciers (the names escape me so I had to look it up). Gilman Glacier, John Hopkins, and the Marjorie Glacier were the stops. There were also Topeka and Grand Pacific glaciers, but really, they have different names but I can’t really tell them all apart. They look awesome though.
Here’s a pic I took from my phone while standing on the glacier. Promptly after taking this my kid walks up with a 10 lb rock he found and throws it in there. Our guide was like, that’s pretty cool.

10

A glacier named Topeka? I wonder how it came by that moniker?

11

According to this:

New information to me.

12

We did an Alaska cruise last August. The ship was apparently built with glaciers in mind as we were able to go right up to the Mendenhall and do a very slow in-place rotation. Looking up at the wall of ice and hearing the creaking, groaning, and cracking of the ice was eerie.

Dude, you’re on VACATION. Unplug! My manager would string me up by my thumbs if I tried to do any work or email while on vacation. While on ship, our phones stayed in the room safe. We only used them in port for maps and finding offbeat places for lunch. One of these days, I want to do an Atlantic crossing, either on the QM2 or a repositioning. A whole week disconnected from the world would be fabulous.

Juneau… yeah, just Tanzanite and ulu knives for miles… :frowning: Actually, every Alaskan port had shops with the same assortment of made in China tchotchkes, Tanzanite, ulu choppers, etc., but Juneau was the worst.

For those who are into or want to try medical or recreational pot, (both are legal in Alaska) we met a delightful retired couple in Juneau who recommended the Stoney Moose in Ketchikan. The place did not disappoint. Just be aware that any consumption should be on land only - on a cruise ship, there’s still a wicked tangle of US federal and international laws, and it would be easy to find yourself in Federal custody if you are caught with it on board.

13

I took my son on a Celebrity cruise up the inside passage when he was 8 or so. It was great. He was excited about the first bald eagle sighting, then eventually they were like pigeons. We did a few excursions, one in particular in a huge canoe to the face of a glacier. We wore immersion suits that would “probably keep you alive until rescue arrived”.

I’ve also cruised the Caribbean twice. Looking back, I now know that the last place you want to visit is wherever the cruise ship docks.

I’ve done 3 cruises. I’m glad I did them but would never do another.

14

My wife and I did that cruise for our honeymoon. The glacier tour was the first time either of us rode in a helicopter.

What I remember about Juneau’s jewelry stores is an $8000 Hello Kitty pendant. The shop owner said they’re a hit with Japanese tourists.

Our cabin steward would fold a towel into the shape of a different animal each night.

We saw a whale one time, although I mostly convinced the couple next to us that it was a guy in a whale suit, hired by the cruise line.

We visited the botanical gardens in Victoria, which were impressive. The bus ride back was an informal tour of the city narrated by the driver in a lugubrious Slavic accent: “{Sigh} Here you can see the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, which opened in 1897 with no toilets.”

15

I’ve always wanted to do an Alaska cruise, but I live in Georgia. I can’t begin to imagine how long it would take a cruise ship to go cross country.

16

We went in 2000. Interesting the ships depart from Victoria now, ours left from Vancouver. We took an excursion to Victoria also, on the ferry, and went to the gardens and also had high tea.
The salmon were spawning, near the end of the season, (it was August.) When I read about bears catching salmon, I always assumed they were pretty swift. But there were so many salmon that even we humans could grab one if we wanted to.
After the cruise we added a one week interior excursion, on bus and rail, which went to Denali and ended at Nome. Denali never peeked out from the clouds. In Nome the hotel will give you a call if the Northern Lights are out, but they weren’t.

17

I’m in MN – couldn’t decide to go down the Mississippi or though the St Lawrence Seaway :wink:

Georgia is on the coast – I know some cruise ships go through the Panama Canal, and the NW passage is becoming more viable…

I walked in Victoria and got out of tourist-land fairly quickly. (as mentioned, had a car in Juneau so drove out of most of it though of course many tourists were at Mendenhall)

Brian

18

One way Alaska cruises typically run to or from Vancouver. USA-based round trip cruises to Alaska typically visit Victoria to satisfy the international port requirement.

19

Your cruise ship didn’t go to the Mendenhall Glacier, as that glacier empties into a river, which in turn empties into Gastineau Channel. Perhaps you took a smaller boat after arriving at the glacier’s lake?

20

Oh, man, I just envisioned a cruise that circumnavigates North America. You could make it so you could start at any of the major cruise ports, and then just cruise until you get back to your first port. Start in Montreal, go to Boston, then down to Savannah, Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, San Juan, through the Panama Canal, then San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Vancouver, Alaska, the Northwest Passage, St. John’s, then back to Montreal. Stop at all the day ports in between the major ones. You might have to build a few new ones in Northern Canada, or have a pretty long at-sea passage on that leg.

I wonder how long that would take? And the time of year might be tricky as well. Find a schedule so Panama isn’t too hot, and the Arctic isn’t too cold…