Planes, Trains & Antitussives, Alaksan Wonder Cruise - All done! Complete 11/21

[franandaj]

Thanks so much for posting your pics of the glaciers! I majored in Geology in college, and it's great to see the aerial pics.

I was engaged to a Geology major for three years, we did a lot of "geology trips" that were not associated with the school for his gratification, so I got extra credit. I did take Geology 101 in college.

Our family just did the shuttle bus to Mendenhall glacier, so we saw glaciers from 'ground' level. I would have liked to hike one of the trails that gets you higher views, but the kids had enough walking just going to Nugget falls and back (especially when they're not allowing food there due to bears.) While 'I' wouldn't have minded doing a small plane excursion (I did a 4 seater over a beach/marsh area for one of my college Geology classes), DH and the kids would. I don't believe our weather was clear enough for flights anyway! (Or our pockets deep enough, lol!) Glad you two had the opportunity to fly over the glaciers!

I was a little sad that we didn't get to see the Mendenhall Glacier, but I also thought this was a lot of fun too!

Glad you were able to get Fran's prescription filled! You really got to see Juneau!

Well the touristy part. But yes, it was great that I was able to get her prescription filled, she felt a lot better once she had that inhaler.

That plane ride looks pretty exciting and the glaciers were very cool (literally! )

It was definitely a treat!

Always love seeing the food.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

At least on these port days, I have something other than the food to share. Sometimes I feel like all I am ever sharing is our food pictures!

Juneau looks like a very nice town to walk through and it was good that you were able to get the prescription all sorted out.

It was a quaint little tourist trap, and I'm glad they were able to fill the prescription.

What amazing scenery shots of the glaciers from above.

The food from Triton's looks good.

It was!

Everything sorted now.

Corinna

Thank you!

Triton's look delicious. I wish we would have eaten there again on our cruise.

You just loved that Pizza at the pool so much!

Bummer on the issues with the plane and sorry Fran was sore after. Michael, as trim as he is, finds those small spaces totally uncomfortable after a while hence one of the reasons he stopped flying as a medic on the helicopters. Those small planes aren't much better.

Whether you are tall or wide, I can see why the small planes are such a pain.

Mickey Bars.

That scenery is just gorgeous. I am ever amazed how beautiful Alaska is.

Mickey Bars and Alaskan scenery, you just can't beat it!

 

[rentayenta]

I know. That damn pool deck pizza and ice-cream. We ate sooooo much of it.

 

[dgbg100106]

After my first sight of the glacier from the verandah, the ship started to make a 360 degree turn. I could tell that I wasn't going to get a good look at the glacier from the verandah before I had to leave for the 3PM excursion. So I headed up to deck 10 where to mobs were located. Looking back from where we came.

The glacier is so majestic, and breathtaking. To know that something so beautiful and peaceful looking can be so destructive.

There was another cruise ship there, I looked up the information on this ship. Maximum occupancy on this ship is 258 people. There are only 132 staterooms and prices per person start at 150% of the price that Fran and I paid for BOTH of us on the Disney Cruise!

smaller passenger count equals more money... Our river cruise was the most expensive cruise yet and I had sticker shock.

The views of the ship were spectacular.

yes they are!

It was cold!

it looks cold, glad you had extra layers with you.

I had my Mom take this shot of me.

great picture!

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Once we were up at the glacier they opened up the 3rd deck. I didn't go up there as the view from the second was just fine. I could barely get the whole glacier in my photo frame we were so close. Excuse the excess of pictures, but they are just so cool, I couldn’t choose which ones to omit.

love the photos and it does look huge, so glad you got to see it in all its wonder. It is a beautiful image.

We were going at a pretty good clip and couldn't see the Wonder practically the entire trip out. We looked for bears the whole way out but never saw any. We got some great views of waterfalls that we saw on the way in.

these views are breathtaking, I love looking at your photos. Stunning.

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They had a little bar inside, and I snapped this shot because I couldn’t understand why they were selling Animal Kingdom beer. I got a glass of Peppermint Schnapps.

AK beer! Was it rumplemints? That is the only peppermint schnapps I will drink, the other stuff is just not for me. But I am sure with the cold outside the schnapps was nice.

We took a small detour and on the way out of Endicott Arm in there we saw a Bald eagle.

Yeah for the bald eagle sighting.

This was Ford's terror. Ford's Terror is a fjord with a narrow bottleneck entrance off Endicott Arm, about 60 miles south of Juneau. It is so named in reference to a naval crew member (Henry Ford) who rowed a dinghy into it at slack tide in 1889, and was caught by the currents for six hours when the tide began rushing in, creating rapids.

that could not have been fun, for 6 hours.

Finally we caught up with the Wonder and reboarded the ship. It was just after 6PM when we were back on the ship. Tonight’s attire was Cruise Casual. Fran didn’t want to go anywhere but dinner, so I convinced my mom to go down with me to get some character pictures. Goofy didn’t have any line so I jumped in and got my picture with him first. Mom caught up with me when I was in line for Minnie.

Love the character photos!

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We had dinner at Animators. They totally changed the menu and I had to come up with something else for dinner. Normally I would eat appetizers for my whole meal here, but they removed the Tomato Tart that I like and changed the soup to something I didn’t like either. My picture of the first page of the menu was so blurry I couldn’t read it.
I don’t remember what the spread for the bed was.

I ordered this drink which was on the menu as a featured drink. It was some kind of a berry drink.
This was the butternut squash soup and I know Fran got it, not sure who else did.
I got my truffle pursettes and they were wonderful as usual.
I didn’t take very good notes and since I can’t read my photos of the menus I have no idea what I ordered. It was some kind of pork products. That’s all I remember.
I believe Fran and my father got this chicken.
My Mom ordered the strip loin from the “always on the menu” menu.
Fran left before the "show". Here’s Mickey for the show.
I had to run out just after it was over because Fran had left her key to the room with me so that I could pay for the wine. I could have used my own key. Our towel animal.
Navigators for the next day.

The food looks yummy, without your notes was anything outstanding enough to know you would order it again if you saw it on the menu? Besides the oursettes?

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

That was real sweet of you to get to the pharmacy as it opened. I am glad you got what you needed for Fran.

Wow that walk to the plane for Fran. That must have been very hard.

Amazing photos from the plane. What is wonderful is quite often you get the glare from the window but it's like those photos were taken from you hanging outside the plane. Unless... Lol now I have pictured Fran holding onto your legs..but it's for my TR!

I don't know why but I had not imagined Alaska so green. That was a surprise. I love the blue and the ripple effects of the drag from the glacier. What a great experience to see it by air.

Nice to make it back to The Wonder for lunch which looked good. I hope they do go the extra mile and give you a refund. Be a nice pixie dust for Fran's place on the next day excursion.

 

[Steppesister]

Hi Alison!

Finishing up a 3 day work run today and am hoping for some good DISTime for the rest of the week. Your thread is the first stop. Hope you're having a great week so far!

 

[dgbg100106]

Day 7

I woke up by 6:45 When we docked in Skagway. The tide was somewhat low as I was to find out later.

I went out an hour or so later and it was even lower, but I don’t have pictures.

Since we were back in the US, I turned on my cell phone and called our doctor. She had been on vacation while we were in Vancouver, but she got back home the day the cruise left. I got her voice mail and left her a message that we still needed a prescription.

We went to breakfast at Triton's. My parents were barely getting up when we were ready so we went on our own.
Fran went with the Eggs Benedict
I went with the Three Egg Omelet with everything and add spinach.
The doc called during breakfast and said that she would email a prescription later this afternoon when she was back home and finished visiting patients.

Beautiful beautiful, words escape me.
Breakfast looked very nice, glad you were able to call the Dr.

Since we were on American soil and I had turned my cell phone on, I had some inquiries on the vacant apartment to respond to. We came back to the room so that I could do it from my computer. Business taken care of, we headed off the ship. There was a city shuttle that drove up as we disembarked. I ran to find out if it was HA, and it was! Score! So for $10 ($5 each for a day pass, or $2 each way) we were on our way!

There is always work to be done! Glad you were able to make quick work of it. And SCORE on the bus!

I'd heard that the town was a big tourist trap, and they weren't kidding. It reminded me of Main Street without the Disneyfied touches. Every store sold either Jewelry, Alaskan art, food or T-shirts.

tourism is big business no matter where you go.

Fran had seeked out the Harley Store and got her obligatory T-shirt. She also saw this one in the store which was attached to the Harley Store.

LOVE the "May the NORTH be with you" shirt. Very cute!

There was a candy store right across the street and I couldn't resist a chocolate caramel and a sea foam covered in chocolate.

So how was the sea foam?

As we walked through the town she suggested we find a sandwich store to get something for the train. Lo and behold the next stop we found a place! We got a ham and cheese sandwich for on the train in case their snacks weren't enough.

good thinking!

We also got a piece of Rhubarb Coffee Cake, which in the end, I thought was gross so she ate it all.

that was an expensive sandwich and dessert.

We made our way to the end of the street. I had hoped to find a place that sold OTC coughing medications but no luck.

sorry about the OTC meds, but very nice picture of you!

We caught the shuttle back to the ship and lucked out. We didn't have to reboard the ship to go to Diversions to meet only to turn around and disembark. Instead we could wait outside the ship and then board the train. Besides, they were changing which deck the ship was boarding from, evidently due to the tides. This was the excursion we would be taking.
This is the route we would be taking.

Oh, very exciting. David wants to do this, but he wants to travel around Alaska by train then take a cruise, so really combining two trips into one.

There was some confusion which really pissed Fran off. Me as well. They told us to go and wait in this one spot, so Fran rode her scooter there and I took it back to the dock where we had planned to leave it during our excursion. It was all the way past that chute in this picture. Where the clump of people are forming, beyond the crowd in the foreground (the one with a lady on a scooter).

I really hate to hear this, we get irritated too when there is confusion on everyone parts, it is not like they don't do this regularly. With Fran being sick and having to walk that far, really makes you upset. and I know that you are protecting Fran and understand the pain, so you get upset too. plus having to "go" even adds more, I am so sorry you both had to go thru this. {hugs}

You see we had booked the VIP train package. When we got on the train car, I was not disappointed.
Fran got her restroom stop and felt much better, at least for a while. Our luxury coach was all that. There were only 14 seats and 9 people on board. So we sat back in our air conditioned coach and got ready for departure.

I’ll be back with our trip up the mountain!

WOW now that is a VIP car!

OK, lets talk about the VIP part of the train trip. You already saw the comfy seats, which by the way could rotate 360 degrees, provided you didn’t bang into your nextdoor neighbor. My mom and I kept doing that. We had our own private restroom, just for our car. And lastly we were provided with light appetizers and beverages. The beverages included soft drinks, beer and wine. Here are the snacks before we left the station.

Very NICE! I like this style of travel!

The train started to move uphill and our host informed us that we could begin adult beverage service once we exited the city limits. He had a microphone headset that was tied into the speaker system of the train so he could speak at a normal volume and we could all hear him loud and clear. The noise of the train was rather difficult to talk over in a normal voice. When I tried to talk to Fran, I had to nearly shout as the ambient noise was rather intense. Our host would point out various landmarks to us like the train yard where the upkeep for the trains was performed.

Oh, i like when they can pipe in over the speakers, that makes it so much more entertaining. I like that better than when you have to wear the ear wigs to hear.

Our host told us about the history of the railroad as we approached the city limits. It was built in 2 years between the years 1898 and 1900. Workers were busy round the clock in all seasons with no break. It was especially easy in the Summertime as daylight was available for almost 20 hours out of the day. In the Wintertime conditions were difficult, but they persevered. By the time the railroad was finished the gold rush had ended.

The reason that the railroad sounded so appealing back in the day was that to enter the Yukon Territory from the Chilikoot or White Pass Trail, the Canadian government required that each man have a year’s worth of supplies with him. I’ll get into that a little more later.

The supplies weighed well over 1 ton and no man could carry that up the mountain in one trip. As a result men hired local Tlingit Indians or made multiple trips up and down the mountain to stockpile their supplies. An enterprising man came up with the idea to build the railroad.

When it came down to the actual building, he had no shortage of workers. The lower 45 states were experiencing a recession. So many men had made it to Skagway only to find that it was far more difficult to pursue the gold miner's dream than they had envisioned. They were more than happy to take the work on the railroad, and It was said that they had the best educated work force in the land. There were doctors, teachers, musicians, you name it who had come north seeking fortune and gave up that dream to work on the railroad when they realized how difficult it may be to actually pursue that fortune.

Once the Gold Rush ended there was no need for passengers to transport their large cargo to the Yukon. The railroad was able to survive as a freight train, transporting cargo from Skagway to the remote Yukon Territory. Occasionally the train would provide passenger service, until the completion of the Klondike Highway in 1978 which then made the train obsolete once again. The railroad survived for a few more years transporting ore from the mines, but when metal prices plunged the train closed down in 1982.

It was a brief closure however, as the cruise ship industry boomed, they found a new market in tourism and the line reopened in 1988. Today the rail line operates at least four trains daily. Ours had 14 rail cars and the other 13 were packed pretty full.

I enjoyed that history, and I am really glad that train travel is kind of coming back in favor, in my area here, we take trains a lot, light rails, street cars, subways and bus. It is just considered the norm. I know that you have traffic and we have traffic, but I like that we have options.

We passed all kinds of beautiful scenery on our ascent to the top. This river went all the way to the sea just near to where our cruise ship was docked.

I just can't put into words, how beautiful that part of the country is and just how gorgeous it is. I feel like a porch overlooking these areas, would be an ideal setting, with a glass a wine and plenty of relaxing time.

It’s not the best picture, but this is a primitive cabin available for rent from the US Forest Service.

that is not for me, but I would say that is pretty primitive.

The scenery was breathtaking

yes it is!

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The Rapids up here are deadly, they are considered class 6 and not navigable by water craft.

not for me at all...

He said that this point is usually not visible as even on some of the best days, as it was often fogged in, but for us we could see the whole thing bright and clear.

WOW, truly amazing to look at.

No awful gas smell, so we could go out on the outside platform.

that has to make it much better.

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So beautiful!

That was the last of my pictures. As we pulled back into the station, the host was talking to us about various items. I’m not sure if the question was asked or he just volunteered this information, but it goes in line with Jenny @rentayenta ’s question about people not needing cough syrup. He mentioned that they did not have a hospital in town or even a doctor. They have a nurse practitioner and he thought that she was as good as any doctor that he had visited in the lower 48.

He did say that there was one condition that could not be handled in town, pregnancies can not be taken to term in Skagway. The authorities suggest that women in this condition go away, stay with family, do whatever they can, but they can’t remain within the City Limits. Through Google I found that women used to travel hundreds of miles into Canada, but due to malpractice insurance that is no longer an option. Patients had the option to give birth in Juneau (reached only by floatplane or Ferry), but the only article I could find on this subject was dated 2005.

That is pretty interesting, back when I lived in the pretty rural south, lots of people used midwives, and just birthed at home without going to the hospital, I wonder why they will not let you do that here?

We went back to the room where Fran took a nap. I took these shots of the higher tide.

So pretty, I am in AWE of your adventure.

I changed my Google search from "Juneau Pharmacies" to "Juneau drug stores" and immediately came up with one in downtown. I called and found out that they had both medications and said that I would be there at 9AM when they opened.

Oh that is great news, glad you will be able to get them early in the day.

My parents showed up at the door while we were putting on the last of our clothes. Then as we're trying to walk out the door, Palo calls to make sure we're still coming. Evidently no one notified them that I had moved the reservation back 15 minutes.

Hristo was our server again and he took excellent care of us.

dont you love it to have someone that knows you and what you like. It just works better. The food looks very good, and I assume that you enjoyed it and would do it again?

This is a very good picture of you both, so happy!

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beautiful sunset.

 

[franandaj]

Glad you were able to get your scripts filled, hopefully you both felt much better after that

I was relieved that I could start taking the little coughing pearls, but even more so that Fran had an inhaler that was starting to work for her.

Sorry it was so hard for Fran to get on/off the plane, that dock ramp was crazy steep, I would have a hard time on that one!

It was definitely a challenge to make that climb!

Love all the pics of the glaciers and mountains, looked like a nice tour. What excursion did your parents do?

My parents did different excursions, both involved Whale watching, but my Mom's also included some sort of rainforest hike, while my Dad's was something about Whale Watching and Science. He said it was a little bit like Mythbusters where they compared data regarding whale sightings and such. He wasn't really clear about what exactly it was.

Looks like a nice lunch, can't miss with a Mickey Bar!

Mickey Bar is always a winner!

No, only 1 of us is losing anyone. And the other 2 of us are lost.

The pictures were lovely. I don't dare show my hubby or we'd end up there for a vacation and there are other places I'd rather go first. There were so many, and I love the ends where the blue ice is showing. Did anyone on the plane get seasick? Just curious.

I have so may places on my vacation list, for which planning in on a big ole' hold. I don't think anyone got seasick. It was quite a smooth flight and there was no time that I felt worried or scared for my life.

I'm surprised you can even reply. I hate DISing with the phone.

It's starting to be some of the only time I get to respond to folks anymore. I am having an extra luxurious couple days where I've been able to DIS on my computer without getting chewed out!

I looked and Juneau is pretty much at the same latitude as Churchill. In the summer, it doesn't get dark. The sun sets, but you can see where it is and follow the glow along the north horizon until it pops up again.


Don't ask about winter.

Let me guess, it never gets light.

Wow. That makes a bigger difference than I would've thought!

Cruise ships are very long. Think about that walk you mentioned at ASMu, ours was one of the smaller cruise ships in port that day and the one in the #1 Berth was the one I showed you from the Taku Air place. The pharmacy was literally about 2-5 minutes from there. I'm not sure you could have even walked on the road from the ship to the ticket area.

Hmmm... I don't think I mind that, though.

Actually I would have liked to check them out, but I knew there was no way Fran would be able to get there without a lot of hassle.

Really? Odd. Wonder why not.
Was the signature/prescription too legible?

I think it had something to do with the fact that the print out could have been forged. I don't know what she told them on the phone that made it OK cause it worked.

Lucky is right.

What I should have said is that it was lucky she called back within about 10 minutes and not the potential 2 hours that it may have taken. We pay about the price of Luna's surgery, per person, each year to have 24 hour concierge service medicine. This means that we can call her at any time of the day and she "promises" to get back to us in less than 2 hours. She gets two weeks for vacation, and two weeks for professional development where we may not be able to reach her. Since she had just returned from vacation 2-3 days earlier, I had every reason to expect prompt service. Plus she knew I was going to be heading to the pharmacy first thing in the morning, so she was probably prepared for any potential difficulty.

At first I wasn't sure if you were going with a "difficult to navigate" or a "tide change" point.

I think that like the airplane location, the platform at the base of the gangway was flexible with the tide. It was mainly the steepness of the angle, she wasn't going to be able to ride the scooter up the ramp and all the excursions say that if you show up with an electric mobility device you will be turned away.

Good for her (although it did hurt her. But I bet she enjoyed having done it?)

I'm not sure she enjoyed it all that much. Half the time I caught her almost snoozing and not even looking out the window.

Sounds painful... for both of you.

Not so much for me. I'm used to having to assist her getting into places. Some of our classic cars, she can't get all the way in because her legs don't bend right. I have to grab her shoe and move it so the heel gets into the car. Same thing with the airplane, she couldn't get her knee to bend enough on her own, so I had to grab the heel of her shoe and push it up to the next step. Then I had to push her butt so that she could try to get up the next step.

Huh. Interesting. Glaciers move so slowly that you forget that they move.

Except if you're lucky enough to see them calve.....there's a spoiler alert in there, but I won't say it! Not for my TR, but for something in the parks.

Probably. Do you know how high above them you were?

No clue. We weren't really that high up though. Enough to clear the peaks of the mountains, but we were still pretty low to the ground. I didn't see the other planes while we were there. Most likely because it took us so long to get to the plane and then to get her in. Evidently we had passengers from Royal Caribbean on our flight, and they were stressing about getting back to the ship because their ship left midday.

Oh! I remember learning that back in school decades ago.

Isn't it cool when the stuff you had to learn in school actually turns up in real life? I rarely find that happening. Although LOTS of my American History knowledge makes me fear for what is to come for our nation in the next few months, but we can't talk about that here!

That's such a cool shot with the wing in it.

I thought so too!

That's good at least.
I must admit I was worried that she'd be seized up or something after being crammed in there for a while.

It was maybe a 40 minute flight tops, so not that bad, she did have leg room to stretch out as we were in the last two seats of the plane.

I hope Fran took that picture. You didn't abandon her at the bottom of the ramp, did you?

Of course she did. Actually she took half a dozen, but I was a little hot and sweaty in that sweater (the temperature went up about 25-30 degrees from the morning to when our flight ended). So I didn't show you guys the close ups!

Yeah... but you still wish she could go, I'm sure.

Yes, I did, but when I actually got there I was very glad she didn't!

So both of you had a hard time. Sorry to hear that.

Eh, I'm used to this knee giving me problems. But the funny thing is we saw our Doctor two days ago. We had been avoiding her because 2-3 years ago she went all holistic on us. In 2014 she gave me threats that if I didn't make major changes I would be having strokes and heart attacks in 10 years, but then all she gave me to change was eat like a FREAK. She had only dietary suggestions, she wasn't willing to prescribe any meds, even after I spent months trying to change with no measurable results. But yesterday in our appointment, she told us that she had completed her shaman's training and she could do a healing on each of us. She came up with the strangest things that plagued us, but in each case they were DEAD ON. She supposedly "removed" things from us and something she "removed" from me was "swords" in that knee.

I don't know if there was really anything to what she did, but I had more energy yesterday than I have had in a long time. She said I would have more energy because I was spilling so much of mine into useless places.

ew. no.

Yeah, and now especially with my huge jacuzzi at home that I have all to myself, I will certainly be more picky.

 

[Steppesister]

I have so may places on my vacation list, for which planning in on a big ole' hold. I don't think anyone got seasick. It was quite a smooth flight and there was no time that I felt worried or scared for my life.

I hope you can knock some of those off your bucket list soon! I know that the move has been a huge challenge for that area.

A flight can be quite smooth, but for me, if there's to much banking or circling, I get a bit "off". One flight into Bangkok we had to circle 3 or 4 times and the whole plane was puking up a storm. Both of my kids sitting next to me were chucking into disposable diapers as that was all I had left at the time. Other than that, it was a pretty smooth flight.

It's starting to be some of the only time I get to respond to folks anymore. I am having an extra luxurious couple days where I've been able to DIS on my computer without getting chewed out!

I get the same... It sucks. I still get what I need to done, but oy, shush already.

 

[franandaj]

Wow, the landscape of Alaska is just absolutely breathtaking. It's a shame the logistics of the float plane caused the two of you some injury, but what an amazing experience and what beautiful photos!

It wasn't really injury, just some slight aches and pains. It was worth it.

Ah, the classic Dad joke. Juneau what the capital of Alaska is?

Buh dum bum.

Those long sunlight hours must be so hard to get used to!

I'm thinking the winter must be even more difficult to take.

Yikes. That's quite the difference in travel times.

Well walking the length of one cruise ship is a healthy distance. Four is rather daunting!

I guess those tourist dollars are making a difference!

Evidently!

Got it. That does look fairly steep.

Poor Fran. Hope the flight was worth it for her.

Unfortunately I don't think it was.

So cool! I would love to do that.

I thought it was really awesome!

Those are some impressive walls of ice.

They sure are!

I bet! Probably best to view them from up here.

Not something you can really walk across.

Hey, these explorers were out there for months or years at a time. They got lonely.

A likely story!

I can't decide if Alaska is more spectacular from the air or the ground.

I think it's best viewed from multiple vantage points.

Poor Fran.

Yuck. I hate that it was so hard on her.

Most everything is. She is a real trooper to keep doing it.

And now Poor Alison! You guys really took this one hard. I hope it was worth it--the views looked spectacular!

Eh, the older I get the more aches and pains I seem to have.

I know. That damn pool deck pizza and ice-cream. We ate sooooo much of it.

I think I've only had the pizza once! Ice cream, at least once each cruise.

The glacier is so majestic, and breathtaking. To know that something so beautiful and peaceful looking can be so destructive.

Actually I look at it, not as destructive but formative. All those peaks were carved by glaciers millions of years ago when they covered the region.

smaller passenger count equals more money... Our river cruise was the most expensive cruise yet and I had sticker shock.

Yeah, I looked at their website and I didn't see things that appealed to me to justify the cost. Other lines I would gladly pay if the amenities were comensurate with the price.

it looks cold, glad you had extra layers with you.

I even purchased a jacket for this day and never used it.

love the photos and it does look huge, so glad you got to see it in all its wonder. It is a beautiful image.

It's definitely something I won't forget for a while.

these views are breathtaking, I love looking at your photos. Stunning.

Thank you.

AK beer! Was it rumplemints? That is the only peppermint schnapps I will drink, the other stuff is just not for me. But I am sure with the cold outside the schnapps was nice.

If it wasn't, it was equal to the quality of Rupplemintz. I don't drink that syrupy sweet stuff.

Yeah for the bald eagle sighting.

I would have missed it if the captain hadn't pointed it out.

that could not have been fun, for 6 hours.

I can't imagine it would be.

Love the character photos!

Thanks!

The food looks yummy, without your notes was anything outstanding enough to know you would order it again if you saw it on the menu? Besides the oursettes?

No, not at this meal. I'm thinking that this would be a meal to skip for Palo in the future.

 

[Flossbolna]

That flight excursion sounds absolutely amazing!! But I am sorry that it took out so much from Fran! I can understand how she would not want to go through the same on the next day. And it sounds like it put your knee in some discomfort as well...

 

[franandaj]

That was real sweet of you to get to the pharmacy as it opened. I am glad you got what you needed for Fran.

You do what you gotta do!

Wow that walk to the plane for Fran. That must have been very hard.

Yes, it was definitely diffuclt for her.

Amazing photos from the plane. What is wonderful is quite often you get the glare from the window but it's like those photos were taken from you hanging outside the plane. Unless... Lol now I have pictured Fran holding onto your legs..but it's for my TR!

No we were not doing plane acrobatics!

I don't know why but I had not imagined Alaska so green. That was a surprise. I love the blue and the ripple effects of the drag from the glacier. What a great experience to see it by air.

Just wait! A few more updates and you'll see some amazing green stuff!

Nice to make it back to The Wonder for lunch which looked good. I hope they do go the extra mile and give you a refund. Be a nice pixie dust for

Lunch at Triton's is always good, and yes we got pixie dust.

Hi Alison!

Finishing up a 3 day work run today and am hoping for some good DISTime for the rest of the week. Your thread is the first stop. Hope you're having a great week so far!

Thanks! It's been a funny week so far. Hoping next week is a better one.

Beautiful beautiful, words escape me.
Breakfast looked very nice, glad you were able to call the Dr.

The things we take for granted, like being on American soil!

There is always work to be done! Glad you were able to make quick work of it. And SCORE on the bus!

In hindsight, I could have totally blown it off as I ended up renting to a couple who was in contact with me from the days before we left on the cruise, but oh well, you never know. Hindsight is 20/20.

tourism is big business no matter where you go.

I can think of a few places that it is not.

LOVE the "May the NORTH be with you" shirt. Very cute!

We got quite a few really cute shirts. I'll have to see if I got pictures of them.

So how was the sea foam?

Awesome!

good thinking!

that was an expensive sandwich and dessert.

Fran is the good thinker! Everything in Alaska was expensive.

sorry about the OTC meds, but very nice picture of you!

It was OK at least the next day we were in a bigger city. Someone here chimed in that people in Skagway rode the ferry to Haines for groceries and other necessities.

Oh, very exciting. David wants to do this, but he wants to travel around Alaska by train then take a cruise, so really combining two trips into one.

You could probably do that and then sail one way from Anchorage to Vancouver. I've only done RT from Vancouver.

I really hate to hear this, we get irritated too when there is confusion on everyone parts, it is not like they don't do this regularly. With Fran being sick and having to walk that far, really makes you upset. and I know that you are protecting Fran and understand the pain, so you get upset too. plus having to "go" even adds more, I am so sorry you both had

It was really frustrating. However, had we boarded the ship and met like we were supposed to, we might have avoided the confusion.

WOW now that is a VIP car!

Very NICE! I like this style of travel!

It was great! Especially with the tasty appetizers and wine!

Oh, i like when they can pipe in over the speakers, that makes it so much more entertaining. I like that better than when you have to wear the ear wigs to hear.

And you could hear him very well.

I enjoyed that history, and I am really glad that train travel is kind of coming back in favor, in my area here, we take trains a lot, light rails, street cars, subways and bus. It is just considered the norm. I know that you have traffic and we have traffic, but I like that we have options.

I always like to share what I learn on trips, if I can remember.

I just can't put into words, how beautiful that part of the country is and just how gorgeous it is. I feel like a porch overlooking these areas, would be an ideal setting, with a glass a wine and plenty of relaxing time.

It would be lovely to travel there and not be on a cruise ship time table. Not that I don't like cruising, it's just that some places deserve more than 6-8 hours of a day.

that is not for me, but I would say that is pretty primitive.

Not for me either, but cool that they have it for people who like that kind of rustic travel.

So beautiful!

Thanks! I want to print that one and frame it and put it on my "wall of fame" in the hall at home.

That is pretty interesting, back when I lived in the pretty rural south, lots of people used midwives, and just birthed at home without going to the hospital, I wonder why they will not let you do that here?

I'm not sure what the deal was with that. I searched online before I wrote that up and found nothing at all. Maybe they don't have any midwives up there.

Oh that is great news, glad you will be able to get them early in the day.

Well this was kind of my only hope, so I'm glad I came through.

dont you love it to have someone that knows you and what you like. It just works better. The food looks very good, and I assume that you enjoyed it and would do it again?

Totally! I hope that Hristo stays on the Wonder for a long long time.

This is a very good picture of you both, so happy!

Thanks!

 

[franandaj]

I hope you can knock some of those off your bucket list soon! I know that the move has been a huge challenge for that area.

It doesn't help that we have not found any time this week to even go over there and today will be another day of not accomplishing anything towards moving. At least our teeth will be clean, we'll get food in the fridge, and my hair will look pretty!

A flight can be quite smooth, but for me, if there's to much banking or circling, I get a bit "off". One flight into Bangkok we had to circle 3 or 4 times and the whole plane was puking up a storm. Both of my kids sitting next to me were chucking into disposable diapers as that was all I had left at the time. Other than that, it was a pretty smooth flight.

That sounds awful.

I get the same... It sucks. I still get what I need to done, but oy, shush already.

I know. Please, I do enough around here. Let me have some time to relax!

That flight excursion sounds absolutely amazing!! But I am sorry that it took out so much from Fran! I can understand how she would not want to go through the same on the next day. And it sounds like it put your knee in some discomfort as well...

It was totally amazing. I'm glad I got so many great pictures to relive it by!

 

[franandaj]

My parents eventually left our stateroom so that Fran could get up and take a shower and get dressed. While she was doing that, I took pictures as we sailed out of Juneau.



There is that escort that I’m used to seeing, but where are all the huge guns that they have in California and Florida?



There were so many waterfalls as we sailed out of the channel.



















And soon Juneau was just a memory.



It was Semi Formal night, and the two of us wanted character photos and went down to deck 3 where we got Remy & Emile. My parents had no interest in photos, especially character ones.















Fran is really having a great time! Those meds must be really working!



Then we got in line for Sulley. We didn’t have to wait too long.













Fran and Sulley are having quite an in-depth discussion.





Fran went to the port adventures desk to see about canceling her participation in the excursion the next day. It was just too hard to get into the plane for her. She got a refund, and some strawberries for our hassle in Skagway, along with a note of apology.



[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Then it was time for dinner. My parents were already seated.











Our bread was sourdough with Roasted Red Pepper Dip



I went with one of the drinks off the menu, the Tuxedo.



Everyone started off with the Crab legs.



Fran and I got the oxtail soup.



Dad got the White onion soup with salmon.



Fran ordered the halibut.



Dad and I got the venison.



Mom got the lobster.



Then the dessert menu came.





Most everyone got the warm chocolate cake.



Mom and I went with vanilla ice cream.



Dad wanted chocolate.



Fran got the bananas Foster ice cream sundae,



And the strawberry bread pudding.



I was so tired that I went back to the room before everyone else, but when I got there and wanted to take a picture of our towel animal, I realized that I didn't have my point and shoot camera, so I went back only to find the family on their way back to the room, and yes Fran had my camera.

Picture of the towel animal taken, I fell fast asleep immediately.





But here are the Navigators, even if I didn’t look at them.

 

[rndmr2]

Fun pictures with the Characters. I love the ones with Sully, he's so cute!

Looks like your dinner was nice, which restaurant was this? How was that Tuxedo drink, that sounded good from the menu I love Chambord.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I loved all the photos from when you sailed away from Juneau. I am glad that you got some photos with my favourite rats. That was great customer service from the Shore Excursion desk. Dinner looked lovely.

Corinna

 

[bcwife76]

Gorgeous photos as you left Juneau!

So glad Fran was feeling better!!! Love the character pics!

Oh warm chocolate cake.......*drool*

 

[Steppesister]

AWwww, I love, love, love this photo of Fran. She looks 1,000,000 times better and so much more happy.

Fran went to the port adventures desk to see about canceling her participation in the excursion the next day. It was just too hard to get into the plane for her. She got a refund, and some strawberries for our hassle in Skagway, along with a note of apology.

Now THAT's more like it! Kudos to making it better.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I see what you mean about the green in the photos as you leave Juneau. How anazing!

That was music to my ears you got a refund and what pretty nails.

I love the character photos. Unusual characters too which is a bonus. Great to see Fran feeling better. I agree you can see it in her face.

Dinner looks good. I love oxtail soup and venison. Those desserts divine!

What a fun day. I may go quiet we leave today for WDW for 2 weeks with a b2b cruise on The Dream. This cruise is a result of 3 cancelled cruises due to me being in hospital.. You know the drill. Can I finally make it to Palo? Wish me luck!

 

[dgbg100106]

Day 8


Today I woke up to the ship docking in Juneau. It was 6:45 AM. I believe that I did wake up for a potty stop around 4AM and found that the sun was already up. That was no surprise as it only set at 10PM. Here is a look at the Harbor.

Today I was on a mission, but I couldn't start too early. The pharmacy opened at 9AM. Originally when I mapped us from the port of Juneau Google said it was 2 minutes away, and that would have been true if we were the first ship docked, but we were not. We were the 4th ship docked and the farthest ship from town. When Google finally found my location it said that walking would be 30 minutes to the pharmacy. I decided I would take a taxi if necessary.

I got an Americano from the Cove Café and headed down to deck 1 where they were disembarking the ship. I was informed that I could not take any food of any sort into Alaska besides bottled water, so I went back up to deck 9 and finished my coffee. I still had plenty of time to get to the pharmacy as I found out from Guest services that there was a complimentary shuttle from the port to the Tramway. The Tramway was nowhere near the center of town, but it did put me substantially closer to the pharmacy. Like at least two cruise ships closer.

I used Google maps to guide me to where I was going and I arrived five minutes before they opened. I walked through the town and it had really sprung up since the last time I was here. It was very commercial. In the area around the Tramway, there were tons of ticket places where you could get Whale Watching ferries, trips to the Mendenhall Glacier, helicopter adventures, all sorts of activities. For whatever reason I didn’t take pictures of all that.

These Diamonds International and Tanzanite International companies are everywhere. I’m pretty sure they have contracts with the cruise ships.

There was a whole section dedicated to International Food Trucks and kiosks.

On our last trip, we made it a point to visit the Red Dog Saloon, but this time it wasn’t calling to us. Also, it wasn’t smack in the middle of town. None of the stuff I showed you previously was there on my last trip if I remember correctly.

I continued up the street as Google Maps was directing me.

It became less and less commercial and more “small towney”.

Then I found it! My destination! It was still about 10 to 9AM so I just sat across the street on a bench checking the DIS and playing the “open, open, open” game.

I gave them the printed out email prescription and they wouldn't accept it, so I called Dr J and got her voice mail. Luckily she called right back and said she would call in the prescription.

It took a little bit to fill but by 10AM I was on my way back to the Tram where I could catch the Shuttle back to the ship. As soon as I left the pharmacy, I popped two of the little coughing pellets! Finally I could take them again, we had rationed them so well and I believe Fran may have had one left. I also picked up an inhaler that was supposed to help suppress her cough.

You were on a mission, and it seems like it has grown a lot since you were there. I get tired of seeing all the Diamonds International stuff everywhere, it is in almost every port we have been to. It just gets old. Glad the Dr. was able to get your scripts sent in.

By 10:15 I was back in the stateroom with Fran trying to figure out what to do for breakfast.

The only place still serving breakfast closed in 15 minutes so we gave up on that and decided on Goofy's Galley for some sandwiches and fruit. I got the roast beef and horseradish.

She got the turkey and cranberry.

I can nontraditional food for breakfast and so can David but I know a lot of people that can't. How were the sandwiches?

After food we headed over to Diversions for our excursion. We got dispensation to park the scooter in the lounge as pushing the scooter up the steep ramp of the gangway would have been a lot of work. Not that Fran walking up the ramp isn't a lot of work, but she has to do it anyways, no point in me walking the scooter up the ramp simply to park it.

The excursions director accompanied us to the dock and introduced us to the representative from the tour operator. She got us on the bus and to our downtown meeting place for the flight excursion.

As soon as they saw Fran they had a concern for her walking down to the plane. They gave her the option to back out, but she went ahead with it.

Slowly we made our way down to the dock. That’s where we came from,

There’s where we were going.

Getting Fran into the plane was a bit of an ordeal. Her legs don't bend right and she needed me to push her butt for each step, but eventually she got in the plane.

I hate to hear it was such an ordeal to get her in the plane, but glad she got to experience to flight.

Here is our flight path.

very nice.

Here we are on our way.

At this point we are still on our approach to the glaciers.
We were going to fly over 5 different glaciers.
Many many many years ago all these peaks were covered with glaciers. When the ice age ended and the snow melted, the first plant life to come back were the lichen s you see at the top of the mountains.

Most of the glaciers are receding. At one time cruise ships could come up into this inlet (early 1930s) but the silt from the terminus of the glaciers eventually blocked the inlet and made it too shallow for ships to navigate.

[Continued in Next Post]

What a site that would have been to be a cruise ship and see these glaciers this big and numerous.

[Continued from Previous Post]


This is on approach to the Norris Glacier

Looking up the Norris Glacier.
There’s that bright blue color again.
Here we are flying over the Norris Glacier.
Then we flew over Norris Mountain to the larger Taku Glacier.
OK, after agonizing over the pictures, I just decided to show you all of them unless they are blurry or otherwise unacceptable. This view is looking out Fran’s window up the Taku Glacier.

the pictures are stunning, color me green with envy.

I believe this is the Hole in the Wall Glacier.

As we make our way up to the last couple glaciers of our trip we fly past the Taku Lodge, if you look carefully at the dead center of the picture you’ll see it. There were several adventures that included a stop here and a lunch followed by a boat ride back to town. We considered this, but they were several hours longer than the fight alone and most included Salmon, which I don’t like despite trying it numerous times.

I believe that this is one of the Twin Glaciers.
I think it was the East Twin as I believe that now we have reached the West Twin Glacier.

I don’t think we followed the flight plan exactly, and I believe at this point we reached the farthest point of our journey and started back to Juneau at this point.

I love these “ripples” in the glacier. I’m pretty sure this is an optical illusion and they are very very deep.

Such breathtaking views, How many times did you just think WOW when you were looking at them?

There is where we would be flying back out of where the glaciers were.

[Continued in Next Post]

[Continued from Previous Post]

After this we left the region where the five glaciers were situated and started to head back to Juneau.
There’s that lichen again on the top of the mountains. Too high for trees to grow.
All the way back to Juneau you could see these waterfalls on either side of the waterway.
And if you look up there in the distance, you can just barely make out the port and our ship.
See it now?

beautiful scenery, yes I can barely see it.

Getting Fran out of the plane was a little bit easier than getting in. They finally decided that perhaps a ramp would be better for her and they let everyone else get out of the plane first and then put the ramp up to the side of the plane. It was a lot easier for her that way.
The tide here was very low. It didn’t affect our ship so much, but it definitely affected the boarding area for the planes.

glad to see there was an easier way out. and that is a low tide.

[Continued from Previous Post]

Looking back at the Wonder from our vantage point.

Fran made the trip back up, it was challenging. Getting up the dock ramp was a little easier than going down. A little.
That’s a steep slope!
And here we were back up at the top where their flight offices were located.
I made it!

very cute picture of you, you look good in that color of orange

We were just in time to be seated at Triton’s for lunch (they close at 1:30PM).

They started us off with rolls and butter.
We both started with a Caprese Salad. I don't care for Rocquette (Arugula), so I took it off before they added the dressing.
Fran got a steak & cheese sandwich on a croissant. The potato chips were really good.
I got the lobster ravioli which was an appetizer but I think they gave me an entree sized portion.

lunch looked really nice, that lobster ravioli would have been a star for David!

As we were eating our lunch, Fran said that she really hurt from trying to get into the plane. She asked what our excursion for tomorrow was and I told her it was also a plane like that. She pleaded with me to let her out of tomorrow’s excursion. She said I could still go, but would really appreciate if I didn’t make her do it. From my experiences on our Florida trip where she went back to the room and I hung out with Jim and Alberto, I realized that it was OK to do something without her, and she would be fine on her own.

I hate to hear that she was in that much pain after the trip, but glad that you have a work around that would make both of you happy, that is truly the key.

We stopped by the port adventures desk after that and tried to see about canceling Fran's port adventure for the next day as it was pretty much the same thing as today, and she explained how difficult it was for her to get in and out of the plane. Since excursions are non refundable there was little chance of a refund, but they told her to come back that evening and the gal we spoke with said she would have an answer that evening.

So we went back to the room and she took a nap for the rest of the afternoon. In the small plane the seats were very low to the ground and I had to sit in a manner which irritated my left knee. I was walking with great difficulty and pain so I took some ibuprofen.

I went up to the jacuzzi but didn't have nearly as good of luck as the day before. It was kind of like people soup and I didn't spend nearly as much time up there as the day before. I came back to the room and my parents were back from their excursion. I threw on some clothes and they came over for some wine on the verandah before we sailed away.

Sounds like that was a rough plane ride for both of you, hope the ibuprofen helped.