First trip to the final frontier - 8 night Alaska - 9/11/23 - completed

[bcwife76]

I love how lush Sitka is! It's a town you don't hear alot about as DCL (at least) only stops there maybe once or twice every season. What a pity, seems like a gorgeous town with a rich history.

The Sommelier Bin is DA BOMB! I've scored a couple of glasses of Moet that way and a very nice red one time. Never had Skywalker there though, wow! We love the Skywalker Pinot Noir, but it's very hard to get outside of California (unless you order on their website) and it's $150US a bottle to buy on the ship (which we, admittedly, have done once)

 

[ukintheus]

The Sommelier Bin is DA BOMB! I've scored a couple of glasses of Moet that way and a very nice red one time. Never had Skywalker there though, wow! We love the Skywalker Pinot Noir, but it's very hard to get outside of California (unless you order on their website) and it's $150US a bottle to buy on the ship (which we, admittedly, have done once)

That just cracks me up that you guys have bought a bottle on the ship. I will take the $12 a glass and be very happy with it. Sitka was really nice and by far our favorite port in terms of just getting off and walking around. We didn't see any of the typical cruise ship shops (try saying that in a hurry! LOL) and so it just seemed more authentic.

 

[ukintheus]

Sunday, September 17 – Ketchikan

Today was our last port day and we elected to make it pretty chill and have a go-with-the-flow kind of day. I managed my usual morning routine of popping out of bed at about 7 am, snapping a couple of photos and then going back to bed.

Scott must have woken up about the same time as I pulled back the curtain and we watched the world go by for a bit.

We eventually got ourselves moving and went out and watched as we sailed into Ketchikan. It looked like the weather was going to be a bit dreary again today and the forecast was the usual “showers”.

Celebrity beat us in this morning – I think they were the only other cruise ship in town, if I am remembering correctly.

We were docked right around 9 am right in the middle of town which was going to be handy seeing as we just wanted a quick trip around town today.

We decided that we would try breakfast in the dining room this morning as we hadn’t done that yet, and we were starting to run out of time. Tiana’s was open this morning.

In a shocking development, I decided to forego eggs benedict and went with the Southern Hash. Scott got the exact same thing, but skipped the cheese. Mine is first, his is second with the lovely melted cheese missing.

After breakfast, it seemed the weather appeared to be cooperating and staying dry, so we got ourselves organized and we were off the ship just after 10 am. Again, Google was our friend today and we took the most direct route to get to Married Man’s Trail, and then work our way back down from there. It took us past a homeless shelter, and some not so touristy streets, but nothing that was concerning or worrying. We did get an offer from a homeless man to “help us out”, although quite what that would entail, I don’t know, probably best not to.

Married Man’s Trail begins the boarded walk down to Creek Street. The river seemed to be flowing pretty good and was more like rapids.

There was a salmon ladder right as we started, which was much more along the lines of what I expected a salmon ladder to look like than the one in Sitka yesterday.

I know it’s all a part of the life cycle, but it seems a bum rap to me that right at the end of your life you have to swim like crazy, dodge a ton of obstacles and things that want to eat you, only to get to where you are going and die within about 24 hours. Poor fish.

Again, there were a lot that were dead up on the banks, and high enough that it made me wonder if the river had been even higher at some point.

Quick selfie by the decorative fish even though the smell around this particular point was pretty strong.

It’s not a long walk to get to the start/end of Creek Street at all. I think it took us about 25 mins and that was with stopping a lot along the way to watch the water, the fish, and take photographs.

There were a lot of shops and a good amount of people strolling along doing some shopping. Seeing as neither of us are shoppers, we didn’t make it into any of them. There looked like there was some cool local artists though so I’m betting there were some good souvenirs.

Of course, Creek Street is known for being the old red-light district of Ketchikan and there were several pieces of history posted along the buildings about their origins.

It was really interesting to me that “Dolly” had lived in her house from 1919 until 1973. You just have to wonder what kind of changes someone like that sees in their lifetime, and I bet she had the best stories!

Dolly’s is pretty much at the end/beginning of Creek Street, so we took a few photos from the bridge as it was much busier, and definitely more like the touristy hustle and bustle you would expect.

They are cute buildings though, and it made for an interesting walk along the river which is about all we were up for today in terms of excitement.

 

[ukintheus]

The only other thing on our hitlist today, was to find somewhere to have Alaskan King Crab. It’s not something either of us really care about eating one way or the other, but it’s Alaska and I didn’t want to have any regrets about us (me ) not eating it. I Googled places that we could try, and found a place not far from the cruise pier that got good reviews. We walked past this place on the way and wondered if it was any good, but a quick search on Trip Advisor didn’t show that it served king crab, so it was nixed and we continued on.

We also passed the Lumberjack Show, which I seem to recall is a pretty big ticket item for DCL excursions. It wasn’t anything I had researched at all, but here’s a photo anyway!

I will add that everywhere that we went today was really close, and an easy walking distance from the ship. We made it to the place we chose to eat, Anabelle’s, at about 11:15 pm and we hadn’t left the ship until just gone 10 am.

They were obviously just beginning to get the lunch service rolling, and they seemed a bit unorganized in seating people, but we waited while they were figuring it out. An older couple arrived (I’d bet a bunch of money they weren’t from our ship ) and he was telling us (loudly I might add) that they “always” come and eat at this restaurant when they are here. All right then! Sounds like we picked a winner. It looked very nice inside and it had a Brown Derby feel to it from Hollywood Studios, which was cool.

The service was a little off, and they definitely seemed like they were still trying to get their day started, but they managed to get wine to the table, so that solved the issue of what to do while we waited.

We struggled a bit with what to order as we didn’t want to order too much, and it was hard to figure out exactly how much crab you would get, plus the prices were steep.

We settled on the King Crab Leg and the half pound of Dungeness Crab. Here is the Dungeness.

And…when they say king crab LEG for $59.50, they mean exactly that.

We laughed so hard at this because I know what Scott’s face looked like, and I imagine that mine was no different. I guess there’s a reason we don’t order crab. It was funny after all of our consternation about not wanting to order too much. Not a problem! And, the Dungeness was way more tasty at about half the price. At least we checked the box of having had king crab in Alaska.



We managed to miss a pretty heavy rain shower while we were in there, and so we skipped any dessert and decided to get back to the ship while it was still just sprinkling. In nicer weather, I probably would have taken a better look at this statue, but Scott took some quick photographs despite the drizzle.

It was about 1 pm when we got back onto the ship and we were glad of a warm cabin. The rain had settled into a pretty good misty drizzle that was just enough to make it feel like a chilly English winter day to me.

Both of us wanted something to warm us up so we went up to Cove to get a coffee. I always forget that they have yummy stuff in their pastry cabinet and we didn’t eat anything, but this would have been a great cruise weather-wise to hit it up for an afternoon snack.

I’m pretty sure I had Frangelico in this one and it was very tasty, as well as much hotter than the one I’d had with Baileys from French Quarter.

We decided to hang out up there as it wasn’t particularly cold, just damp, but we didn’t realize that the curved window behind us had been broken at some point and was missing, so it didn't take long to where we were too chilly to stay there with the breeze coming straight through it.

And besides, we had seen in the navigator that the Haunted Mansion was playing at 2:30 pm and it was perfect timing to do something for the afternoon.

There weren’t very many people there at all, and even up to the start of the movie it wasn’t even half full. Good time to go watch evidently.

And then this happened, despite his apparent shock at the fact that I had even looked at the pastries up in Cove. I’m 100% sure he muttered the words “How can you be hungry?” as I looked at them. Hmmm…

I really enjoyed the movie, and I always enjoy it more when it’s something I wanted to see in the theatre at home, and yet was too lazy to actually go. After it finished, we had just enough time to go back to the room for a bit before dinner. Our tip envelopes had been left this morning and I got those all dealt with..uugg..already!!??. I decided to leave the one for our stateroom host, Leonel, with my own version of a towel animal. It’s a towel rolled up, not very creative! Note to self to take a towel folding class next time I see one available on the ship.

Time for dinner! Today flew by for a day that we were doing nothing! Tonight, we were in Animator’s for the animation show with the rotational menu.

Side note while I think of it. We were talking to our next-door table mates about their day. In our conversation this evening, Mrs. Next-Door had been telling us that they had decided to start collecting souvenirs on this trip. Her husband had got t-shirts from fire stations in every town they had been to. Her son was getting license plates and her daughter was getting snow globes. And they had about 20 items each. 20 snow globes. I tried to casually ask how she was going to pack all of that and she replied “oh, I’m taking the snow globes in our carry on”. I felt so bad, I’ve read so many times about people making the same mistake, but I also felt like I needed to say something to her about the liquid limit in carry on. Which of course she hadn’t even thought about, ugg….I could feel her pain as it began to sink in. Long story long, she managed to get them all into their suitcases and she texted me after they got back to Chicago and they’d all made it!

Now, Scott and I have no problem with liquids in our carry on because we drink it all. And, speaking of which, they have added Prisoner to the premium wine package which was a really nice surprise, and this wasn’t the first night we ordered it, just the first night I got a photo.

Scott got the Malaysian Chicken Satay and I had a bite of it, but skipped an appetizer tonight.

We split the Roasted Filet of Beef Wellington and the Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb. Both are some of our favorites on the rotational menu as they are usually both really good, and tonight was no exception.

Dessert was strawberry cake something, but I didn’t take a photo of the menu, so I don’t know exactly what it was. I can tell you that strawberries, cake and cream would probably not be something I would turn down even if it didn’t taste all that great.

 

[ukintheus]

As we were right by the screen, I was able to get a couple of good photos of our drawing creations. Awful as usual. It seems like it should be so easy, and then when the pressure is on to actually draw, we completely flake. Scott’s followed by mine.

We popped back to our cabin and I got some pics from outside but they all came out pretty blurry. It was supposed to be another fairly rocky night, but it didn’t seem like it was too bad. Just a few white caps.

We didn’t really see anything on the navigator that appealed to us, so we stayed with our staple of going to French Quarter for an after dinner drink where I managed to get this bad selfie, which is actually the best of about 4!

Got a good photo of the drinks though! Manhattan for him and chocolate martini for me. Chocolate martinis are soooo good, but they are sooo small. About a milkshake glass full would be a way better size.

Server Nick brought these madeleines out to us. I’d never seen them offered in any of the bars before, but maybe they have them as part of the stuff they offer with coffee, like the beignets. Good though!

We wanted to try something different tonight, as we were ready for a change from sitting in French Quarter, and decided to give Cove a try instead. They had backdrops set up in the lobby, so I forced Scott to stop and take a couple of photographs so we could at least feel like we got somewhat good use of the free photo package.

Cove was pretty empty, but the crew were setting up for a tasting class so they were relatively busy. I had been thinking about how we could do our own tasting as we have done almost all of them that the ship offers, and wanted to do something different. We decided on a tasting of 3 Japanese whiskeys. The bar tender suggested these three. Two were a blend and one was a single malt. I think the cost was right around $71 for 1 shot of each, and we shared them. When I looked them up online the Toki blend is US $44, the Mars Maltage blend is US $130 and the Komagatake single malt is about US $135.

We got chatting to the crew up there, both of which were from Goa, and so it was a pleasant way to pass a bit of time, and we basically had the whole place to ourselves. We left before they started setting the drinks out for the 10 pm tasting, so that they could get on with their work. All in all, I’m glad we tried something different, but it’s nice to have all the background behind each drink at the tastings.

We were ready to tuck in for the night and had this little one waiting on the bed. I haven’t mentioned it recently, but opening the door for cold air was pretty much a nightly ritual and it was nice to get a good blast of fresh air in there and tuck up under the comforter. It was such a great way to go to bed every night.

Coming up: Our last day (boo) – at sea

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Looks like you had a great day in Sitka! The historical park and raptor center were awesome.

Juneau would have been the place to get a good size King Crab Leg at Tracy's Crab Shack.

 

[ukintheus]

Monday, September 18 – At Sea

Today was going to be all about being lazy, which included a delayed hop out of bed to take some photos outside. It was cloudy ahead of us.

But apparently, we had already missed the sunshine this morning!

We were finally moving by 8:45 am and decided to get coffee from Cove Café before hitting up Cabanas one last time. It took me a minute to even realize what this was, I was turning the cup all kinds of ways before the penny finally dropped.

Much easier!

Decisions had to be made in Cabanas on what the “last” breakfast was going to be. The muesli was an easy call.

And then I went with this, which was a major let down. The egg was the “fake egg” and it had been sitting way too long so it was more like a flavored brick than anything else. The potatoes were decent, but it was definitely a bad call….sigh…

Scott managed to keep his winning streak at breakfast alive and well though with this omelet, sausage, hashbrowns and potato combo. All it needed on there was a grilled tomato.

Time to figure out what to do next. Scott wanted another coffee and so we found a couple of chairs outside Cove to pass some time and watch the world go by. The one set of chairs next to the missing window that we had discovered yesterday, were a lost cause today as the cushions had got wet, and so nobody was able to use them. It was a bit chilly and I loved the fact they would roll blankets and leave one on each chair. So handy to just have a blanket there to cover up with.

I got cold just sitting there so after about 20 minutes or so, we abandoned that idea and ended up back in the warmth of the cabin.

We killed about an hour or so relaxing and reading before we needed to make our way down to Cadillac Lounge for a 1 pm Champagne Tasting.

Our one and only tasting this cruise! I think with there being so many port days, it wasn’t really on our radar to try and do any others. Some that we might have done are later in the evening and I figured that may not work out this trip.

The tasting was sold out, but I guess we took this before everyone else piled in.

We have done this once before, maybe twice, but a while ago, and the chocolates were a new addition for us.

The champagnes were Moet & Chandon Imperial, Tattinger, Veuve Cliquot and (not pictured) Moet Ice.

Veuve Cliquot used to be my favorite, but since we did a blind tasting on one of the ships years ago, I realized that it actually wasn’t. Tattinger tasted better to me. Moet Ice is delicious as well. I love them all, what can I say. Sitting opposite us were a father and daughter (in her mid-20’s I’d say) from Florida. They were interesting to talk to. He was an air force veteran who had obviously been “up there” in the ranks. They had done a LOT of cruises (FL resident discounts helped there I’m sure) and obviously were no stranger to concierge. But, I just have to keep a comment from the daughter preserved for future memories. Somone asked about how long you should keep Veuve Cliquot as she had received a bottle as a gift. Daughter comment….and I quote “…Veuve is the Coor’s Light of champagne..” Just gonna leave that there.

Having learned lots about champagne, mainly from our table mates , we headed back to the cabin to check on the outside world. We were passing by lots of interesting towns and the captain gave a narrative of places at one point.

The passage through this area seemed slower and it just gave me a feeling of the whole world up there being on a slower pace. It was so relaxing just watching everything go by.

We got a bit snacky and ordered some buffalo wings from room service. Looks like at least one has been swiped already before I took this.

We alternated hanging out on the verandah and watching the towns and scenery go by with packing….blah.

But, packing requires alcohol so we opened the prosecco that had been delivered a few days ago.

Our diligent watching outside eventually yielded some results on some whales. There were only one or two that we saw today, but it was nice to end the trip with a sighting at least.

With our packing done, and the possibility of more whales, we decided to go down to deck 3 and see what we could see from there. It wasn’t anywhere near as cold, but it was still a bit misty and cloudy.

 

[ukintheus]

We repeated our previous “lucky whale sighting” process of walking around the deck so we saw both sides. It didn’t work today, but we got some exercise in (if you could call it that – we were really walking slowly.)

After a while we began to see some breaks in the clouds and the weather brightened up a bit and showed off that Alaskan beauty.

There were no more whales to be seen and I was getting chilly again. We popped up to deck 9 and I grabbed a hot chocolate to take back to the room.

The early dining time worked out really well for us this trip, and we didn’t have long before we needed to be back in Tiana’s. Tonight we had the Mardi Gras menu. Our next-door table mates had taken the kids to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique today and done the Princess Royal tea. So cute! They brought all their spoils with them to dinner.

I got the Sautéed Gulf Shrimp and Grits and Scott got the Boudin Sausage Fritters. I really like the shrimp and grits and Scott is always disappointed in the boudin being from Louisiana. I did try to warn him to be fair…

We then shared James’s Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Big Daddy’s Roast Prime-Rib of Beef. Both of them were really good, but the prime rib really does stand out between the two.

Between dinner and dessert was the Mardi Gras parade. These photos are horrible, but they’re the best I’ve got.

Our servers posing for their end of cruise photo. Both of them really worked up a sweat dancing and I am always amazed when servers can continue to put on a “show”, even though they’ve done it soooo many times.

We stuck with the tried and tested favorite desserts tonight. My favorite off the menu is the Chocolate Doberge Gateau and Scott’s is Tiana’s Buttermilk Beignets. I thought we were sharing, but evidently the beignets were inhaled before I even got around to looking to try them. We also handed out our tip envelopes this evening as we were not going to be doing breakfast in the morning.

We elected to skip everything this evening and went back to the cabin straight after dinner, knowing that we had a fairly long travel day ahead of us tomorrow. Boring, I know. Mr. Lobster was waiting for us at the foot of the bed, along with the comment card.

I like going to see the Til We Meet again gathering, but I wasn’t up for staying up that late this evening. We were still sailing past towns on the coastline which made for some interesting viewing while we pondered how the trip could have gone by so quickly!

We elected to keep our luggage and do express walk off as there was a non-stop flight to Houston at about 11 am that we were hoping we could be switched to if we could get to the airport early enough. This was the first time I could remember keeping our luggage and we really liked not having to juggle packing liquids.

Coming up: Debarkation

 

[ukintheus]

Tuesday, September 19 – Debarkation

I think the last day of every trip report begins with the same thing. I didn’t sleep well. True to form I had a night of being restless and by 6 am Scott was awake as well and I opened the curtains to watch us sail into Vancouver.

The forecast was for rain in Vancouver today and it looked a bit gloomy.

It wasn’t long before we were approaching Canada Place.

We got ourselves moving to get the rest of our stuff packed and Scott made a quick trip up to Cove to get one last coffee. Getting back to reality was sneaking up on us quickly and I took these last couple of photographs as we were docking and they were the last decent ones I got.

We joined a very long line to do express walk off, but we breezed through customs and immigration and decided to take a taxi as it was drizzling off and on and we couldn’t be bothered to walk to the train station. We were in a taxi and on our way to the airport before 8 am, so the whole process didn’t take long at all. We tried to get on the non-stop flight to Houston, but couldn’t get seats, which was a big bummer as we then had to wait for our check in window to open for our flight, which took a while. We grabbed a bite to eat before heading to our gate, all of which happened before 10:40 am. I know that stuff can happen, but I really wish I had rolled the dice and just booked the 11:05 am direct flight as we would have made it easily. Oh well, next time. We had a connection in Denver but everything went smoothly and we made it home on time that evening.

And that’s a wrap for our Alaskan adventure! It really was one of the best vacations we have ever taken, and it’s easy to see why people say you should try an Alaskan cruise, even if it’s just once. It definitely was amazing, and it gave us the wanderlust to try other cruises in other countries with a transatlantic and a Norway/Iceland on the list for sure. So many places to see and so little time!!

 

[bcwife76]

I love the last day of the Alaskan cruise (sounds silly I know) because you sail so close to land. You do on the way up as well, of course, but at the beginning of the cruise I'm like go go go to other activities Not to be pedantic but all the scenery you saw on the last day was actually all in BC, not Alaska Once you leave Ketchikan you are in Canadian waters very quickly (before you are even in bed on your Ketchikan night).

 

[bcwife76]

Argh, didn't mean to hit reply Imagine calling Veuve the Coors like of champagne I'm glad your debarkation day was smooth, too bad you were unable to switch to the earlier flight but to be honest, YVR can be quite the gamble and you obviously were just able to hit everything in a good stride. You booked a placeholder I imagine?

 

[ukintheus]

I love the last day of the Alaskan cruise (sounds silly I know) because you sail so close to land. You do on the way up as well, of course, but at the beginning of the cruise I'm like go go go to other activities Not to be pedantic but all the scenery you saw on the last day was actually all in BC, not Alaska Once you leave Ketchikan you are in Canadian waters very quickly (before you are even in bed on your Ketchikan night).

You are Canadian, you have every right to be pedantic. Once we left Vancouver and sailed out that night, mentally I was in Alaska all the way. It was really nice to be sailing so close to land as there was a lot to be nosey and look at.

Argh, didn't mean to hit reply Imagine calling Veuve the Coors like of champagne I'm glad your debarkation day was smooth, too bad you were unable to switch to the earlier flight but to be honest, YVR can be quite the gamble and you obviously were just able to hit everything in a good stride. You booked a placeholder I imagine?

The champagne tasting was funny. Her Dad also was telling us about a bottle of Krug that they had had at home. It struck me as funny that they would go to the champagne tasting at all.

Yes, got a placeholder booked. We would like to try a transatlantic next but 2024 already has two Royal Caribbean cruises booked so it may have to slide to 2025.

 

[TheChanClan]

Really enjoyed your trip report. We took the same cruise (minus Sitka) back in 2014 and seeing your pictures really brought it all back. I loved how you could always see beautiful mountains/waterfalls/trees etc from the deck regardless of where you are, compared to Caribbean cruises where you see a lot of ocean between the port days (not that the ocean isn't beautiful, but it all looks the same). Thanks for your detailed posts and all the pictures! You two are adorable!

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

I am so far behind in “everything”, just now reading your report (April 2024). We went on our third Disney Alaskan cruise this past July, pretty much the same as your trip. The private glacier excursion was AWESOME! The highlight of our trip.

Have you been on a Rocky Mountaineer train trip? I think you both would enjoy it. We did our first and not to be our last, trip this past October. I highly recommend it for adults who enjoy photography (as your spouse and my spouse are) and trips that are pretty much all inclusive and relaxing. (Train ride during the day, stop for hotel lodging at night, and repeat... drinks, food and lodging, all included.)

I have finished Skagway. Off now to continue reading.

 

[ukintheus]

I am so far behind in “everything”, just now reading your report (April 2024). We went on our third Disney Alaskan cruise this past July, pretty much the same as your trip. The private glacier excursion was AWESOME! The highlight of our trip.

Have you been on a Rocky Mountaineer train trip? I think you both would enjoy it. We did our first and not to be our last, trip this past October. I highly recommend it for adults who enjoy photography (as your spouse and my spouse are) and trips that are pretty much all inclusive and relaxing. (Train ride during the day, stop for hotel lodging at night, and repeat... drinks, food and lodging, all included.)

I have finished Skagway. Off now to continue reading.

I haven't even heard of a Rocky Mountaineer train trip but it's intriguing to me because my sister lives just outside of Knoxville. Edited to add: I see it's not east side of US, but I will look into it for sure. Definitely something to start researching, thanks for the tip! I am very far behind as we took a RC cruise on Odyssey in February and I promised my family I would do a TR. Haven't even thought about starting organizing photos yet.

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

I’m going to be a negative nelly here, but it’s hard to find a photographer on the ship that really takes a good photo IMO.

I agree.

Our meandering didn’t take us far and we landed in Cadillac Lounge,

Our favorite place to hang, especially during happy hour.

Great, great shot!!!

Bayview Pub

While we were in there some of the other customers were talking about how “Disney cruise” people had just shown up on some type of excursion. It had to do with having shots, which was intriguing. Maybe I had missed a really good excursion after all!

We took the Sitka Culinary Adventure July 2023 and I think this was the place where we ended up standing (in very crowded group) around the pool table and were given one shot of "something (not worth remembering) and a tiny food sample to "enjoy". We were not pleased with the tour but looking at the 2024 tour it appears it has been revamped so maybe now it is better. Looks like you guys had a much better Sitka day than we had.

Sitka was really nice and by far our favorite port

We will need to go again and follow your itinerary instead of our previous one.

Off to keep reading.

By the way, if you want more info regarding "our" experiences re: Rocky Mountaineer, feel free to DM me, email or facebook me.

Smiles,
Kate

 

[ukintheus]

We took the Sitka Culinary Adventure July 2023 and I think this was the place where we ended up standing (in very crowded group) around the pool table and were given one shot of "something (not worth remembering) and a tiny food sample to "enjoy". We were not pleased with the tour but looking at the 2024 tour it appears it has been revamped so maybe now it is better. Looks like you guys had a much better Sitka day than we had.

We will need to go again and follow your itinerary instead of our previous one.

That would make sense that it was a culinary type tour. Sitka was such an easy place to do a DIY day for sure.

I did go and quickly check out the Rocky Mountain train stuff and it all looked very interesting. We are going to try and do some type of Norway/Iceland cruise next year, or a TA so that's on my planning "to do" list. We will probably not be going DCL though, unless some type of good deal comes up.

 

[Stinasmom]

Wow!
Your TR is comprehensive! Thanks for taking the time!

I have a question for you regarding the glacier excursion... Was it really worth the $309 pp given that the ship made it's way into the area and pretty close, at least for some great pictures? Would you do it again?

We are also going in September (2024) and should have similar ice conditions to where the ship can meander into the area. So, I'm debating whether or not to spend $618 to get closer... be on a smaller vessel, possibly see or get closer to wildlife...?

Thanks for your opinion!

Marcy

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

Got a good photo of the drinks though! Manhattan for him and chocolate martini for me. Chocolate martinis are soooo good, but they are sooo small. About a milkshake glass full would be a way better size.

Love chocolate martinis but they are way too small...

Yes, got a placeholder booked. We would like to try a transatlantic next but 2024 already has two Royal Caribbean cruises booked so it may have to slide to 2025

We have this TA in our plans. Who knows, maybe we will meet up.

Before saying goodbye, we have cruised DCL Alaska three times and if I had my way, we would cruise Alaska at least three more times. But, next time we are in Alaska, it will probably be an interior trip. I think Rob would prefer a change of scenery.

Looking forward to your next trip report.

Smiles,
Kate

 

[ukintheus]

Wow!
Your TR is comprehensive! Thanks for taking the time!

I have a question for you regarding the glacier excursion... Was it really worth the $309 pp given that the ship made it's way into the area and pretty close, at least for some great pictures? Would you do it again?

We are also going in September (2024) and should have similar ice conditions to where the ship can meander into the area. So, I'm debating whether or not to spend $618 to get closer... be on a smaller vessel, possibly see or get closer to wildlife...?

Thanks for your opinion!

Marcy

I think there is something about getting that close that is worth that crazy price, if it’s something that you can swing. I wouldn’t compromise doing other excursions in other ports because you CAN see it from the ship. There is something about being close if it calves and you can also hear the ice cracking. I think doing it if it doesn’t stretch the budget too bad, is an opportunity that is hard to beat.

Thanks for reading along! It was an amazing cruise and I hope you love it!