A Golden-Grand-Slam-Outta-the-Park Alaskan Cruise! COMPLETE 7/18!!!!!!

[ShellB8585]

I have just found this TR and looking forward to following along. Alaska is high on my bucket list but DH isn't convinced yet. (I'll get him to come around one day) All looks fantastic so far!

 

[seelyt2]

Just found your TR and read all the way through and am caught up....yay! I've read most of your other reports and you're just so darn funny and a great writer !

My co-worker was on the Princess the same week that you went to Alaska on the Wonder and am wondering if she's on the Princess boat in your background pics (probably?), and my family is going on DCL to Alaska this summer....the same week that you did so your report is really getting me excited!!! Am looking forward to the rest of your TR.

I'm relieved to know that the Red Onion has chicken tenders for DS17....my son has no sense of adventure when it comes to food, but I'm sure he'll love the wall art LOL!

I'll have to check our your TR for San Francisco since we're planning on going there and DL in 2016. So many trips, so little time

Thanks for posting and getting us all excited!

Tara

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Whale watching is what I want to do most when I finally make it to Alaska. I hope you weren't disappointed.

 

[MEK]

Tritons is a really pretty restaurant and your servers are too cute!

The food looks delish!

So that was a Princess Cruise ship? It looked pretty cool.

More please!

 

[rentayenta]

Yay caught up too.

I am one of those that always orders a sundae or Mickey bar for dessert too. I think it's the kid in me.

Dinner looks delicious. I really liked the lamb on the Wonder. I am a carnivore. I didn't have any fish and not sure if I had chicken other than in my salad at Triton's for lunch one day. The meat was always prepared perfectly.

Your servers are darling.

 

[JKSWonder]

On our last Fantasy cruise, our server brought Mike the escargot to try. Mike was horrified and wouldn't touch it. Our server was disappointed, but I told him he was trying to get a steak and potatoes only man to eat escargot. The man eats no vegetables. It just wasn't going to happen. After that, our server clearly favored me for the rest of the trip, which was completely fine (more than fine) with me, but Mike was less than thrilled.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

thanks Tammie! What kind words! It was a disappointment, make no mistake, but we rallied and I am so glad! I think next time I would lie to do the train up and drive back, or do the Dyea Dave thing- the Yukon looks beautiful.

My parents did the train and loved it! I think they took that out of Skagway??? They were on Princess. They really enjoyed it - their one and only cruise - us kids gave it to them for their 50th anniversary. I'm so glad we did because I don't think my Dad could do it now and it was always their dream.

 

[CRdisMom]

loving the idea of multiple desserts. Drooling is an understatement. The kids laugh that I am reading and reading about cruises, especially since I said I wouldn't ever, never, ever get on one. Oh well , things change. I wonder does crab taste fresher up there?

 

[jenseib]

I am so hungry after reading that last update....I need to get some breakfast now.....sadly it will only be yogurt

 

[Beth D]

Can't wait to hear about whale watching! That sounds right up my alley!

Do the Alaskan cruises feature more seafood? I'm definitely a landlubber when it comes to food choices, so the deck meals don't sound appealing to me.

Ellen - i work in a similar industry and work with vendors overseas ordering items. We place all our orders in August for new goods to ship before the next busy summer season. July - November/December is my busiest time of year. That is why we pull our son out of school every Feb or March to do family vacation. Last year was the first summer vacation I took in 15 years, and it was in mid-June, before the busy time.

We're off to Orlando in a few weeks (we always stay offsite), and have a cruise for next year on the Fantasy. We are super excited, as we just found out we will be on one of the "Star Wars" days at sea ships! DH, DS and I are all super huge fans. We haven't told DS about it yet!

 

[tdashgirl]

I love seeing the restaurants, thank you! Did you son say why the Creme Brulee was not up to his standards? I love Creme Brulee Although, your Grand Marnier souffle is verrrrrrry tempting.....

 

[Deborah Farr]

Ellen - for some reason I cannot find the rest of your report on the cruise past dinner at Tritons. Please let me know how to find it, we are taking this cruise this year and your posts are SOOO helpful.

 

[momof3girls1boy]

Loving reading about your trip! Lots of good info for our upcoming trip in late June. Thank you so much for taking the time to write your TR! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[jenseib]

Ellen - for some reason I cannot find the rest of your report on the cruise past dinner at Tritons. Please let me know how to find it, we are taking this cruise this year and your posts are SOOO helpful.

She is still writing and I know she has been pretty busy lately. She'll get back when she has time.

 

[RGirl]

Hey cruise buddy! I am SOSOSOSOSOSOOOOOO happy we are cruising together this summer! I agree, the Alaska cruise is the best- but a cruise on the Fantasy doesn't suck either, lol!!

OMG - Ellen, I am thrilled. I was very much looking forward to this cruise for a long time, but knowing we will be onboard together makes me look forward to it that much more. It will be so fun!!!!!

Oh, I am really wanting to try Princess one day too. My newest bucket-list item is a world cruise - Princess and Cunard seem to be the main lines that offer something like that. Of courses, I will have to win the lottery to do it, see my kid through college, retire, be 80 years old, etc, but hopefully, you'll be onboard with me!

Looks like y’all had some great DCL eats. Can’t wait to hear more about how you enjoyed the Alaska cruise. I sooooo want to do it again. But I also want to take Willow everywhere else in the world! I need a limitless travel budget and infinite time off work!

 

[podsnel]

Hi again! So....sorry I have been MIA- I DID get crazy busy- between my kids, my clients, the PTA... I know, I know, you have heard it all before! But that's really how it is! I do have a little time this morning (otherwise known as my house is a disaster after the weekend and I am avoiding the big clean up by doing this instead....). I will get to replies later, but for now, on to Juneau!

We remembered to order room service the night before, thank goodness, because the port time for this one is crack of way, waaayyyyy too early. But it's good it is so early, because you really want to get out and see some animals here. Juneau is the best port for whale watching, and we were booked with Rum Runners- a private excursion, not through DCL. I highly recommend this company, the price was about the same as what we would have paid for a big boat with 50 other people- and we would book them again and again. So, we were meeting them outside at 7 am or so- it was still dark outside, but part of that was due to the rain that was going to be a part of our day. We found our taxi easily, and away we went. It was about a 15 minute ride I think to the port.



We met our captain, Chris, and his naturalist, Shirlena, who is also a Yoga Instructor and reiki master. Got on the boat, and it was time to look for whales-



Onboard, we were offered coffee and other beverages, along with some tea bread. Very thoughtful. Shirlena talked about the whales, and used a plastic whale model to describe what we would be seeing, and what those behaviors meant. Something especially unique about Rum Runners is that they travel with a dog- Brandi- who was very sweet and who we all enjoyed.











Brandi is the new dog- over the winter, they had sadly lost their dog, Moon, who was reputed to bark when she saw whales- and then the whales would be curious and come over to the boat to check her out. Brandi is a puppy in training.



It honestly was not too long before we found humpback whales- rain or not, we could not have had a better day. Because they were EVERYWHERE!!! Here are some of my many, many pics.















They swam around us, they swam under us. We must have seen 30 of them. I do not think this happens every time, so please do not count on so many if you go. Just feel very blessed when it works out this way!



Here the whale was so close, you can barely see her in the photo- but we could feel her blow-









Back in a few- have to take care of a call-

 

[podsnel]

On with the whales!





So then on swam right to us...RIGHT to us....



Tyler said, "Hey- do you need to move the boat or something?" lol- but, of course, the boat was not moved, we just sat still, and watched the whale dive under us and then come out the other side-



Yea...THAT was COOL! I would love to show you the video...but it was on Timmy's phone, which died right after we got home. Oh well- take my word for it, that was thrilling. They were still right next to us-







We were totally surrounded. The four of us were completely impressed. What's also interesting is that we had a Captain and naturalist who do this for a living- they see these whales all the time- and it was no less thrilling for them. Just remarkable to spend the morning in the company of earth's greatest mammals...





I don't know if you noticed, but their tails are all different- they are like fingerprints, each whale's tail identifying one single, majestic animal. Shirlena had a book of tails- all their photos- which identified each individual. Naturalists track them this way, seeing the same whales in Hawaii during their breeding season. Here in Alaska, in summer, they are eating. Here is a site with more info on the humpbacks- http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/ABL/Humpback/AboutHumpbacks.htm The water is densely rich in small fish and krill which they filter from the water through their baleen. They don't sing in Alaska, either (that they do when breeding in the winter months). And they don't really eat in Hawaii (or Japan, or Mexico). No one knows why they breech (jump out of the water); it could be to clear off barnacles, or it could be a social thing, but I like to think they do it for sheer joy. It takes a huge amount of effort and strength to hurdle themselves out of the ocean, so, make no mistake, those are some VERY strong whales tales we saw (even though we did not witness any breeching).

Moving inside to warm up (in case you did not notice, ummm, it was REALLY raining this day), we next headed to an isolated island where sea lions were sprawled all over the beach...











Cont'd next post-

 

[tdashgirl]

Oh, just breathtaking!!!! I love that Rum Runners brings their pup, I am a dog person

 

[podsnel]

This beach was a lot of fun to watch- I felt like we were in an episode of National geographic! There was not another boat or plane or human in sight. It was spectacular! We caught a glimpse of a sea otter-



He was so cute!! Sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction by the fur trade- they are now thriving once again thanks to conservation efforts. It was a mystical kind of a day out there (i.e.- cloudy and rainy)-



Around the corner, we came upon another animal group, this time, seals-





Even Brandi appreciated how cool they were-





This new system is really aggravating- I have to keep changing the size of my font every 3 seconds- I wonder what I am doing wrong?

We headed back to port, past a couple of nice homes, the latter of which belongs to the attorney from the Exxon Valdez disaster-





We saw some bald eagles, including these-





This post is making me very frustrated with the font. FYI.

We (I want to throw my computer right now) had had a great day with an abundance of wildlife scored in Juneau and in the company of some wonderful people (and a very sweet lab).





The tides are pretty drastic here- check out all these barnacles on the exposed dock-



Thanks, Chris and Shirlene- for the best rainy day we have EVER had.





Our taxi was waiting, and Chris said he would take us anywhere we wanted to go- the driver agreed to take us to Mendenhall Glacier and wait 20 minutes while we checked it out, then drive us back into town and drop us off at Tracy's for lunch. Good deal!

Now, the Mendenhall Glacier is one of the only Glaciers (or is it THE only glacier?) you can drive up to to view. It is receding rapidly, and they don't expect this situation to last much longer, sadly. You could easily spend hours here- walking on the beach and getting much closer to the glacier itself, and walking on many of the other trails that were around there. But we had spent 4 hours whale watching, so for us this was going to be more limited for 2 reasons- 1. we were wet and cold and 2. we wanted to eat crab at Tracy's. Next to the whales today, the crabs were at the top of our must-dos! So- here is our 20 minute visit to the glacier....









And just to prove it really WAS summer, a loosestrife and a lupine-






We walked back to see the stream where the salmon were running...



The red is a sockeye salmon-









I know it's hard to make out, but you CAN see how red the salmon had become. Fascinating, the salmon run.

Up next- that Tracy's got some legs!!

 

[micandminforever]

The whale watching pictures are incredible. Thanks for posting, the more I read your trip report the more I am ready for our trip