Letters from the Lighthouse: Travel Edition: ALASKA CRUISE

Just a few months ago I was visiting my mom and sister down in McMinnville, Oregon. I knew that they were planning on going on a cruise with another couple so I asked how the planning was going. I was told the other couple decided not to go, so they kind of called it off. I said "WHY?" Long story short, that very day we drove to the AAA Travel office in Salem and mom booked the cruise for herself, me, Shirlene and Jim.

I've always wanted to go on a cruise to Alaska because I could just imagine the beauty of that part of the country. So, right now, this very moment, I'm sitting at a table over looking the water in the harbor where the Crown Princess is docked. Ocean and mountains and glaciers and other cruise ships on my right, pool, hot tubs, bar, ice cream and pizza counter on my left. Need I say more?!

We are currently in Skagway (or how the natives spell it Skaguay) and I finally broke down and purchased 100 minutes of internet access for $70. Ridiculous, but oh well. Let me start at the beginning.

JULY 4, 2015

Today was embarkation day for our Alaska Cruise. My mom, sister, and brother-in-law are taking this cruise together – a gift from my mom. She’s been on a cruise to Alaska before, but neither Shirlene, Jim, nor myself have been to Alaska. In fact, this is Shirlene’s and Jim’s first cruise ever. It’s my second cruise; same with Mom.

The Crown Princess at Pier 91, Seattle

Embarkation day was chaotic. So different post 9/11. A lot more lines to stand in and of course security check. And it’s been so hot in Seattle so far this summer and this day was no exception.

After getting through all the lines and finally getting on the ship – the Crown Princess – we found our staterooms and started settling in. The highlight of this day for me was leaving port. It was a gorgeous, summer day in Seattle, and Mount Rainier was spectacular. I live in such a beautiful area of the country!

The thing I remember the most from my previous cruise (Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas, Caribbean cruise) was that I never, ever felt like I was on a ship on the water. Not so this time! I don’t know if it’s because the Crown Princess is a smaller ship or if the waters up north are just so much more active, or a combination of both, but I’ve been feeling a little woozy ever since we left Pier 91.

We had lunch at the Horizon Court, which is a buffet lunch. We had dinner at the same place. I’m already tired of that kind of dining, but it seems to be the favorite of Shirlene and Jim. Tonight Mom even said the food was all tasting the same. I think I’m going to try and get us some reservations in the one of the dining rooms for tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to some good food.

Service so far as been good – not exceptional, but good. Finding our way around the ship has been awful. My sister thinks and talks so fast that I feel like I’m spinning in circles most of the time. I think the biggest stress so far has been not knowing where to find things and a little tenseness about where to eat. I don’t think the information that we have been given is super explanatory and it made us all a little tense. There are a lot of hidden charges and cover charges at some of the dining options and Jim will absolutely not pay any kind of a cover charge to eat when there are options that do not cost extra. Since my mom is paying for the cruise I feel like I have to go along with she decides even if it is not the way I would do things. Oh well, a great opportunity to be patient and practice my assertive communication skills.

Mom and I are sharing a cabin and that is going to work out fine. We both like to read at night until we get really tired and we both are not early morning risers. We’ll do fine in our cabin.

As I go to bed, the ship is really rocking and rolling. Hope I can sleep okay!

JULY 5, 2015

Well, that was rough. I don’t think I slept much. The ship was constantly moving up and down and sideways. It was not relaxing for me. Everybody else said they slept fine. We have a nice window in our stateroom but I can’t look out at the water right now. We are on Deck 5, the Plaza Deck, so we are pretty close to the water. It’s white-capping today.

Had breakfast at the same buffet. Not my favorite place to eat. I came on the cruise to see beautiful scenery in Alaska and eat great food. So far, not pleased with the food, but that's because I'm not eating in the best places. I'm going to have to change that.

I was unsteady all day today. Even some of the people on the cruise were saying that it was rougher than normal. It was pretty wild on the open sea.

I scheduled a seaweed wrap and massage in the ship's Lotus Spa. What a treat! Got all slathered up in a seaweed concoction the consistency of mud, like a body mask, and wrapped in foil and blankets while receiving a delightful scalp massaged. After showering off the mud I had a luxurious, much needed massage with some warm oil and muscle kneading hands, fists, elbows and arms. It was wonderful. After the massage I spent some time in the hot tub, watching The Sound of Music on the giant screen outdoors. What a treat!

Guess what? Dinner at the buffet again! Enough is enough. We almost had a family fight tonight. But I decided to be proactive and make some changes. Even though we didn't sign up for any of the traditional dining options, I contacted one of the dining rooms to see if we could make reservations, and "yes, of course you can!" Can't wait for tomorrow night's dinner.

I wanted to try and watch one of the Movies Under the Stars so I put on my jammies, sweatshirt, and bathrobe and headed to the deck with the pool, hot tubs and the giant movie screen. I curled up in two blankets, put my hood on and totally enjoyed watching Cinderella (the new movie, not animated). It was fun, even though it was so windy. I couldn't believe how late it was (10:00 p.m. when the movie started) and how light it still was outside. Love the lengthy days!

All bundled up to watch a movie on Deck 15

Cinderella on the big screen, under the stars - well, not quite

We arrive in Juneau tomorrow. Can't wait to get closer to land so we can slow down and have calmer seas.

JULY 6, 2015

We arrived in Juneau, Alaska about 11:00 a.m. this morning. Everything is so green! I love it. Our first excursion was the Seaplane & Juneau Ice Fields excursion. Check off another item on my bucket list - fly in a float plane. The weather was incredible. Clear skies forever. Closer towards Canada there was some smoky haze from some big forest fires, so our path over the ice fields was different, and it was better! We got to see so many glaciers! I sat in the co-pilots seat and just loved every single moment. The colors, the textures, the majesty, the serenity . . . incredible! In preparation for landing back at the marina, we flew over the length of the Mendenhall Glacier. So cool! The whole thing lasted less than an hour but it felt like we were up there for a lot longer. Stunning!

Our plane

View at take-off

Taku Glacier

Co-pilot

Mendenhall Glacier - flying towards the end

Devil's Claw

Ice Fields

Love the texture!

Our shadow on the ice

Passengers - Shirlene & Mom back right; Jim back left.

After the flight, Mom, Shirlene and Jim headed through the town and to the Mt. Roberts Tram. I was hoping to do the tram later, but for the meantime, I was headed to another wilderness excursion - Mendenhall Glacier & Whale Quest.

I boarded a bus that went directly to the Mendenhall Glacier, probably the most photographed glacier in Alaska, may in the country. Our bus driver "Smoky" was SO ANNOYING! He was trying to be informative but he talked the whole time - not exaggerating. Nobody had time to ask questions because he never stopped talking. I thought I was going to have to tell him to shut up!!

So far I'd seen the glacier from above, so it was cool to see it from the ground. The pictures I took are from an area right in front of the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, which was really nice. (I ran into the mother-in-law of one our Seattle Seahawks!)

Mendenhall Glacier from the visitor's center

My first iceberg sighting!

Glacier ice

After a few minutes at the glacier, we boarded the bus and headed to the marina. There were only about 15 of us so it made for a really nice group to get on one of the smaller boats to go whale watching. Our first sighting of wildlife were some stellar sea lions. But before long we were treated with some humpback whales that ended up so close that they crossed right in front of our boat! We saw a mama and calf humpback whale. When they came up for air they made the most haunting sound. It was beautiful!

Whale sighting - Humpback whales

Beautiful fluke, waving goodbye

After we spent quite awhile in that area we went quite a long distance to the south and found some more whales playing around. It was fun to try and get pictures of their flukes waving at us, but I managed to get a few. I cannot express enough our exquisite weather. It was sunny and warm - about 80 degrees - but we were on the water and moving, so the breeze was welcome and cooling. Our captain was loving it because it says it's not always like that in Juneau. I imagine they do a lot of tours in the rain and cold.

Stellar sea lions

We spent about three hours on the water watching whales and sea lions before heading back to the marina and then back to the ship. I felt exhilarated and tired. I took myself to the Michelangelo dining room and had a delicious dinner of fried clams and king crab legs.

What an awesome day in Juneau!! I never did get to do the tram up to Mt. Roberts because I had to board 30 minutes before I thought I had to. But I watched a beautiful sunset as we shoved off from Juneau and headed on our way north to Skagway.

Our cruise route

Our route went west out of Seattle, and then directly north to Juneau. We left Juneau about 11:00 p.m. Monday night and arrived in Skagway on Tuesday morning.

I was NOT going to eat dinner at the buffet so I went by myself to the Da Vinci Dining Room and I had the most delicious seared scallops and a yummy dessert. So worth it even if I had to eat by myself. And of course, I stopped by the International Café (24/7) and had another little yummy dessert (or two) as I headed back to my stateroom.

July 7, 2015

Skagway is a very small community right on the water. The cruise ships looked gigantic next to the little town.

Cruise ships lined up in Skagway

We got up pretty early and had breakfast in our stateroom. Today we were all scheduled to do an excursion together - the Railway tour up through Canada, panning for gold, and a barbeque lunch. It was hard for Mom to get on and off the train as she just doesn't have the strength in her knees. But with a bit of help, we got her on and off the train.

We took a guided bus tour up to and over White Pass and onto Fraser in British Columbia. We had a wonderful bus driver / tour guide. She was so informative and fun. As we were driving into Canada we actually stopped at the border to take pictures of the going back into Alaska sign.

Shirlene & Jim

When we stopped in Fraser we had to wait on the bus until Canadian customs came through and checked all our passports.

In Fraser we boarded the train and started the train ride part of the excursion. I love a good train ride, but this one was a little disappointing. It was and hour and a half long and even though the scenery was pretty, there was very little about it that was awe-inspiring. We had great seats, but there were two men who stood in front of us the whole time trying to out-do each other in their picture taking prowess. With the door closed, it got really warm in the rail car. With the door open, it was too windy for Mom. We all decided when it was done that we weren't that impressed. This excursion was one that Mom highly recommended, but at the end she said it was so different than it was 15 years ago. Well, there are about a dozen different train excursions out of Skagway, so she probably took a different one.

Mom and me on the train

Love the old, rickety train tracks

I believe this was the route we took. I think we went as far as Bennett and then back down to Skagway. If I ever do this again, I will want to go deeper into the Yukon Territory, possibly up to Whitehorse.

We got back to Skagway about an hour late due to another train problem, but once we got there we got to eat. We had a BBQ that was sparse, in a crowded room, and ate so fast because we were late. Wasn't exactly what I had hoped for.

After the BBQ we got to "pan for gold." I thought this was kind of cute, but I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to actually do it in the river. Maybe too dangerous? But everybody did come away with some gold flakes. Mine equaled $11.75!

Panning for gold

Weighing my gold flakes

Found me a miner - oh boy!

Six hours later and we were back on the ship and pushed off towards our next destination.

I ate another meal by myself, this time in the Michelangelo Dining Room. This time I had Alaskan King Crab legs. So yummy! There were a lot of things to do on the ship every single day, every single hour. Almost too much to do. Most of the time I just tried to find a quiet place to read, or listen to a presentation in one of the bars. Can't remember now what day it was, but the Wheelhouse Bar had a British-style Pub Lunch special - complimentary - and I went to that by myself also. I ended up sitting with another woman and her mother as we ate English style fish -n- chips. So good! It really was worth it to eat places other than the cafeteria style buffet.

July 8, 2015

During the night our ship headed south to the Tracy Arm Fjord (see map above). We were going to arrive at Tracy Arm around 6:00 a.m. and I had all good intentions of getting up a little earlier than I did. But alas, it did not happen. When I woke up at 9:15 a.m. the first thing I did was look out our stateroom window. What an incredible sight! It was magical, like I was on another planet, one filled with greenish water and blue icebergs.

This was my favorite - crystal clear blue

Love the different colors of blue

Unbelievably gorgeous! I took a ton of pictures because every iceberg was different and beautiful. And the scenery surrounding the area? Stunning. It felt otherworldly.

I paid $60 to reserve a chair in The Sanctuary, which is on the 16th deck and an adults-only area. I did it because I was told I would get unobstructed views without having to fight a thousand other people for the best pictures. But I actually got most of my best pictures from the stateroom window! Mom and I spent at least 45-minutes just staring out the window.

The Sanctuary did offer some delicious rockfish chowder (a first for me - had 3 bowls!), fruit kabobs, and a chicken caesar wrap sandwich for lunch. We were given ear muffs and lots of blankets to keep warm. Unfortunately, the only day it rained on the whole cruise was this day, so eventually we were all getting undercover and The Sanctuary closed for the day. Big disappointment. Fun while it lasted.

Eating rockfish chowder in The Sanctuary

While cruising around the fjord we were treated to seeing some mountain goats near a waterfall and a whole lot of brown dots on a stretch of broken ice that we were told were sea lion pups. And then, just like that, we are looking at a glacier! Sawyer Glacier. And it calved several times while we were just sitting there taking in all the beauty around us.

Sawyer Glacier

You can't see them, but there are a whole bunch of sea lion pups hanging out on shards of ice

After a leisurely amount of time spent in the fjord, we turned around and started our journey towards Ketchikan.

We had a special gift of dinner at Sabatini's - the plush Italian restaurant onboard - given to us by our AAA travel agent. We couldn't get in until 8:30p.m. and we actually didn't get seated until 9:00. Service was so slow and nobody really enjoyed their dinner. Jim had a big, thick steak and then ended up getting sick this night. Even this restaurant was too fancy for me, and not worth it. Glad we didn't have to pay the cover charge to eat there.

July 9, 2015

We arrived in Ketchikan very early Thursday morning and my excursion on land was early since we were only going to be in Ketchikan for four hours. What an adorable little Alaskan town! I loved the looks of it the minute we docked. By the time we left I was wishing we had spent much less time in Skagway and much more time in Ketchikan.

Beautiful Ketchikan. See the church? That's the true coastline. The road and the buildings over the water are just that - over the water, built on pilings and poles.

I had chosen a different excursion than Mom, Shirlene and Jim. I wanted to be out on the water and go to an all-you-can-eat Dungeness crab feast. Who wouldn't?? The rest of my family went to a totem pole park and lumberjack show.

I took a bus to the George Inlet Lodge and got on a boat to "explore the wilderness" and pull up a crab pot. There were probably only about 15 people on the boat so it wasn't too crowded. The day was sunny and gorgeous, as was the water and the scenery.

Four eagles in a tree as seen from the bus

George Inlet Lodge on the water

Our fisherman - or should I call them crabmen?

There were a couple of deer on the shoreline but they disappeared quickly

Pulling up the crab pot after just a couple of hours

A good haul!

Eagle at the top of the tree

Feeding the eagles. This was so cool!

After pulling up our crab pot and feeding the eagles and saw one humpback whale, we headed back to the lodge for the feast of all feasts - all you can eat crab!!!

This was the first of four servings I ate.

Each table had a contest to see who could pile their empty crab shells the highest. We came in third!

One of my crab servers - a cute young gal from Jerome, Idaho, attending BYU-Idaho!

After all that crab and a delicious slice of blueberry smothered New York cheesecake, I almost fell asleep on the bus ride back to Ketchikan. I wish I would have had time to look around town, but I had to get right back on the ship as it was departing at 1:00 p.m. Yes, I ate all that crab before 12:00 noon! Goodbye Ketchikan.

The streets in Ketchikan go straight up the mountain

Goodbye Ketchikan!

We left at 1:00 p.m. and we were not going to land again until 7:00 p.m. the next day, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Lots of time to hang out on the ship. I did a little window shopping, walking around on deck 15, and finding a quiet place to read. Mom, Shirlene and I did watch another "Movie Under the Stars." We saw Rewrite which I had recently seen, but Mom was up for bundling up and attempting to sit outside in the dark watching a movie. It wasn't nearly as cold as it was the first night I watched a movie. We ate popcorn during the movie and then capped the night off with cute little desserts at the International Café. Did I mention that 24/7 café was on our deck, on the way to our stateroom? Way too tempting!

Mom bundled up watching an outdoor movie under the stars.

July 10, 2015

First and foremost, I convinced Mom and Shirlene to dine with me in the Michelangelo Dining Room tonight! We had salmon and everybody liked it. I still think Shirlene wouldn't give me the satisfaction of saying it was worth it. For some reason, the three of them were just fine with plain, bland food, buffet/cafeteria style. I think I got way more bang for the buck!

I wasn't overly excited to do anything in Victoria since I'd been there several times. We hadn't even arranged any excursions. But once we got there we decided we wanted to get off the ship since we'd been on it for a long stretch. Jim was sick so it was just Mom, Shirlene and myself. It was a madhouse when we got off the ship at 7:00 p.m. It was actually a madhouse even getting off the ship. We decided we'd try and get on a double decker city tour bus, but by the time we got to the kiosk there were only two seats left on the tour. I told Mom and Shirlene to take them because I could get to Victoria any time. Once they were on the bus I found a horse drawn trolley excursion that had room, so I hopped on. It was a waste of time, but it was relaxing and it was off ship. I was disappointed that we didn't spend more time in the Harbour area, but oh well.

The Empress Hotel

The Legislature Building

Sunset in Victoria

The tour was only an hour long and not soon enough I was back on the ship, tucked into a couch next to a window outside the Explorer's Lounge reading. I finished my book before I went to sleep.

July 11, 2015

Back home, safe and sound. I absolutely loved Alaska and the great food on the cruise ship. I did not sleep well at all, but I tried to stay positive. There was only one time where I got mad enough to walk away from my family in a huff. There was a communication problem and the heated debate was once again over where we were going to eat. It was just so ridiculous. I would go back to Alaska again and do more exploring. There is so much more to see.

Some other pictures: