7/2/09 Jueanu Alaska..last port

Our last port of call on our Alaskan Cruise. Juneau, the capitol of Alaska, home of governmental home of Sarah Palin. This is our first view of Juneau from our balcony..an actual city! The weather was gorgeous, we got into the high 60's with sun! We were told by our bus driver that they typically have 30 days of sun the whole year. On the agenda this day was whale watching and seeing the Mendenhal Glaciers. We had to be at our tour pick up point at 7:15 am. We boarded a bus (we had a great driver) who gave us a narrated tour of our route and also since we were a few minutes ahead of schedule stopped so we could see this glacier, which I can't remember the name of. We had like 5 minutes to pile off the bus take pictures and jump back on.. it was worth it.
We were taken to the docks and we all got onto the whale watching ship. The captain and crew were great in helping us spot whales and making sure everyone was safe and comfortable. There was a marine biologist on board who gave us a lesson regarding the whales and the habitat and their behaviors.. there were both Orca's and hump back whales. We were told if we spotted a whale before the crew, be sure to call out and let them know. You could either sit inside and watch out the windows or you could go on the 3 decks outside. The very top deck was closed while we were traveling for safety but opened when a whale was spotted. Not far out to sea we spotted a whale, it turned out to be a mother and her calf. The calf as youngsters are apt to be was playful and gave us a great view as he(she) jumped and spy glassed us and played.

We also saw sea lions and bald eagles. The whole trip was about 3 hrs and a lot of fun.
After the whale watching we boarded the bus again and headed to the glacier. We had an hour there. By now we had seen a number of glaciers and I was wondering what the heck we would do for an hour. The tour driver kept saying the one complaint was that an hour wasn't enough time. I didn't get it until we got there. He said he would be back at the spot he dropped us at and be sure to get on the right bus, by the number of the bus. There was a large visitors center and trails down to the glacier. We opted to hike the trail which was very easy to maneuver. Along the way we say a beaver dam and a sign pointing out bear scat.. which is as close to a bear as we got.
We saw the glacier, which is huge and really breath taking. As we hiked along, we were walking at the edge of a river and pieces of the glacier were washed up here and there. We stopped and took pictures and kept hiking, it was so beautiful. There was a huge waterfall near the glacier that we wanted to walk down to but didn't think we had enough time for. We sent Tianna to run down there to see it. No, one hour was not enough time at all, we needed at least another hour. We didn't even make it to the visitors center. We got back on board the bus but after waiting a good 10 minutes we had to leave several of the passengers behind since a lot of the other passengers had other tours to catch. Those left behind would have to call a taxi to get them back to the ship.
Once back to the dock of the cruise ship, we tried to go find some lunch but everything was so crowded we didn't think we had enough time. We had to be back on the ship by 3:00pm. So, we just walked a little bit around town, finished souvenir shopping and caught a tram back to the ship. After getting back on the ship we high tailed it to the buffet for a quick, late lunch. Tonight was another formal night.. and lobster was for dinner.

The lobster was good.. I mean I love lobster but it was lobster. Our table mates, Jackie, Noah and Kevin were dining again at the steak house so we ate their share of lobster. We were such pigs!! Tianna didn't go to dinner with us but came down later for desert and some of the smoked salmon appetizer.
Tonight, the show was a Vegas style stage show.. it was kind of boring...tomorrow out to see headed back to Vancouver.

OCEANO

On Saturday we stopped by Oceano the "seafood" restaurant in the Peppermill for a quick bite. Tianna's choice since they have sushi and sashimi. It isn't very good but she likes it. After being seated the "back waiter" formerly known as the busboy came by to ask if we would like bread. Yes, we would. The bread comes, then he appears with the plates and some butter. He places Tianna's plate down then gives a kind of gasp.. then he says" the plate is dirty, it has bread crumbs. Do you want it or do you want me to get a clean plate?" Well, sure, I'd love a dirty plate, who knows what else is on there besides bread crumbs!!! Actually, I said yes, I would like a new plate but I did say loud enough for him to hear, what kind of idiot asks such a question. Really, who in their right mind would even ask such a question??? Wouldn't you just say I'll be back with a clean plate? He even seemed put out that I didn't want that plate and had to get a new one. So, I did get a clean plate but that made me wonder about the cleanliness of the whole place. I didn't say anything to the waiter as he didn't seem to be any more on the ball as the back waiter.. We had the Spider Roll and Octopus Sashimi.. not very good.. as to be expected but Tianna liked it.

7/1/09 Skagway Alaska

Its hard to believe our cruise is half over..today we are in Skagway. Yesterday we tried to book a tour but were told they were all sold out..at least the affordable ones. We asked about going to town but the girl at the excursion center said that there were no taxis and it was about a 10-15 minute walk into town. At this port we had all day, until 8:00pm. As we got off the ship and walked toward town, there was a kiosk with the White Pass railroad tour, which was supposed to be "the" tour to take here. We asked about it and booked a tour at 12:30..this through the cruise line. Then we asked about how we get into town and were told that just a few feet away was a bus stop for the shuttle into town. From what we were told on board the ship we would get off the ship and there would be nothing..I think the crew needs to get off more often. We took the shuttle into town- it looked something like Old Sac.. the old western theme.

But..this WAS the town of Skagway..a tourist trap. The main business here was jewelry shops.. expensive high end jewelry shops! That was the first shop we went into.. my sister saw a piece she liked but the price..$3000.00 !! I can't remember the name of the stone, it was pretty but not that pretty. She wasn't interested after she found out the price but boy they were hard sell, they kept dropping the price then even brought out the manager and a Royal Caribbean discount..I think they got down to about $1800.00.. still too much. Since this was the first shop we went into Jeanne had a good excuse to not buy and shop around more. The whole street is nothing but jewelry stores and souvenir shops. We went to lunch at the Red Onion Saloon, which used to be a brothel and they give tours of the upstairs, which is where the "women of the night" did their business.

It was sandwiches, nachos, etc.. just bar food kind of stuff for lunch, but it wasn't bad. We then had to hurry back to the dock to catch the train for our rail tour. I have to say it was pretty on the way up but on the way back I think everyone in our car fell asleep. I don't think it was worth the price.

After the tour, Tianna and I went back into town and did some souvenir shopping, Jeanne went back to the ship..poor thing, she kept getting migraine headaches.building made of drift wood

These are just a few more shots of around town. On the way back I was talking to the shuttle driver, asking her if this was just the tourist part of town and if there was a suburb, this is the whole town. I was wondering because I didn't see a gas station or grocery store. She said the one grocery store was at the end of town and deliveries were made once a week typically from Seattle and if they ran out of anything at the store, you were just out of luck until the next delivery. One thing I forgot to mention was the price of ordinary goods. I don't know about in Skagway but when were were in Icy Straight we went into a store which was like a convenience store here, but it was their main market. Most things looked like it must have come from Costco in Seattle. Those big packages of toilet paper we get at Costco for about $15.00.. well, there it was $29.00!! Even at this time of year there was very few fruits and vegetable.. mostly canned goods and frozen foods. Maybe in larger cities things would have been a little different but I don't think so. So, anyway Tianna and I did our souvenir shopping after our rail tour and everyone was talking about the Fudge Shop so of course we had to go there and buy some fudge..which was very good. We headed back to the ship just in time to dress for dinner.. another casual night. Tonight I had the Potato Gnocchi and Tianna had the Tempura Halibut and Shrimp. We ended up swapping dishes.. The Halibut was delicious!

At dinner on the cruise, like I said you can have anything and as much as you want..so far I was good. After dinner Tianna and I went to the Crew Talent Show.. Jeanne to bed. The show was the best of the cruise. The different crew members performed and I was blown away at how talented they were. Most sang, the bar guy did the bar flair thing, the personal trainer from the gym did a modern dance routine and the cruise director and his staff did a skit which was just hilarious.. it was a great show.. not it's off to bed, but Tianna ordered room service, cookies..and fell asleep before it even arrived.. oh well, we can have it for breakfast.

6/30/09- Tracy Arm Fjiord

Today we will be going through the inside straight..through the glaciers. The ship will go into the straight then turn around a sail back out so that each side of ship gets to see both sides of the straight. We wake up to a cold foggy morning. I went out onto the balcony to snap these pictures and hurried back in. Normally a sweat shirt is enough but today I put on my heavy jacket. As I stood out there the scenery was so beautiful. After standing outside for a while I had to go in and thaw out. This is the coldest weather we have had. We had our coffee and just kept watching the scenery go by. I put on my gloves and jacket and headed back to the balcony. I was waiting for the glaciers. The first one I saw was beautiful, actually it was just a piece of a glacier and as we slowly made our way down the straight we saw more and more ice flows and a lot of seals catching a ride. Tianna was interested for a while but after a few pieces of ice she headed back inside to watch a movie probably Mamma Mia which was on every day in 9 different languages.

This is what everyone was waiting to see. The actual glacier. The tire track looking markings are from the dirt and debris from the mountains as the glacier shifts and moves. It was so awesome to see. Everyone was out on their balconies or at the windows. I saw on of the tenders head out and they were fishing for glacier ice. If they were able to get one they were going to make an ice carving out of it. I think they did get one, I saw them trying to pull something up.

After spending a good portion of the day watching ice flow by we decided to to check out the line dancing class. Tonight was country western night on the Centrum dance floor.

This was fun, there were only about 5 of us out there but we learned a couple of steps.. this could have been the Achy Breaks or Boot Scootin Boogey.. it's a lot harder than it looks.

Time for dinner, we had a casual night. We decided that since everyone dresses way more casual than expected we decided jeans with a nice top and heels would be just fine. Tonight I had the smoked duck salad, the shrimp and scallop gratin and Indian food.. I don't know what it was called but it was an eggplant dish and Tianna had the pasta. The Indian dish was really good, they redeemed themselves.

After dinner and before desert all the waiters put on a dance show for us.Then it was time to put our dancing lesson skills to the test. We went down to the dance floor to see what was going on.

Some where here we are out boot scootin.. the cruise director and his staff put on a fun dance night. After dancing off dinner Tianna and I headed to the theater to catch a comedy act. The shows they put on every night was really good. Jeanne, my sister headed off to bed. Actually for not doing much all day I was also tired.. I slept so well on this vacation. I think it was the lack of stress... nothing to think about but what to eat or see..

6/29/09 ICY STRAIGHT POINT ALASKA

Our 3rd day and first day into Alaska. Icy Straight Point..a tiny fishing village. I think if it were not for the tourism there probably wouldn't be a town here any more. Our bus driver said fishing was the primary industry but with the high fuel cost and the low cost of the fish many cannot make a living fishing any longer and are doing what ever they can to make a living. Which in the winter has to be very hard when they have huge amounts of snow and the temperature dips well below zero. We had to take a tender to the dock and there was a large "barn" like structure with all kinds of souvenirs, a crab shack, and another restaurant. We walked a little ways and there was a little kiosk where you could get a ticket for a tram to town. We took the tram which let us off at one of the buildings in town. We just walked around for a while at the docks and around town, which was was really small.

the docks

view of part of the town

our fresh crab lunch..we saw them unloading the crabs as we docked the tender in town.

After we toured bought souvenirs we headed back to the ship. The weather was decent, no rain and not overly cold. We went to the Solarium which was warm but Tianna jumped into the pool and right back out again. She said the water was too cold.

Tonight they had a tribute to the 70's. We caught this show on the main dance floor after dinner.. This was the cruise director's staff as the "Village People".. it was a great show. Later that evening Tianna and I went to the Magic show. The show was very good..as we found most of the shows to be. Jeanne went to bed.. she slept and slept and slept!!! Here she had been complaining of insomnia and once on board I guess all the stress just sailed away and she caught up on all the sleep she missed. Tomorrow we will be going through Tracy Arm Fiord..inside passage and should be seeing glaciers.

6/28/09 OUT AT SEA

Our second day we were out at sea. This is the beautiful view we woke up to this morning.

After room service of coffee, juice and some pastries we headed to the buffet (this became our morning ritual) to see what else was available. After breakfast we went up to check out the pool and solarium. There was a kiddie pool, the regular pool and the solarium pool. There was also a rock climbing wall and miniature golf course.

Tianna at the Solarium Pool

Tianna and I by the pool

Jeanne with the "pool man"

As the day progressed the seas got rougher and rougher.. Tianna and Jeanne ended up sleeping for most of the day. I was fine and went out to the Solarium where it was nice and warm and just relaxed and read a book.. so nice to just do nothing. By evening both Tianna and Jeanne were feeling better so they were ready for dinner. Tonight was formal night so we got all dressed up which was fun. Though as I said some had no concept of formal or even appropriate dinner attire. I started with the Cesar Salad which wasn't very good...had the Roast duck for and entree which was good but could have been more rare. Jeanne and T both started with the Escargot which they said was good. Our table mates Jackie, Kevin and Nohah went to Chops that night, that is the 5 star steak house. They said it was very good. We had planned to go to the 5 star Italian restaurant but never did make it there. I also had the Tomato tower which was pretty good. After dinner we headed to the buffet so Tianna could get her ice cream. After which we went back to our stateroom and bundled up and sat on the balcony... cold, windy but relaxing. The seas are picking up again.. going to go to bed before it gets really bad. Sunset is at 10:15pm. Tomorrow we hit our first port in Alaska.. Icy Straight Point. We need to set our clocks back one hour.

Escargot


Eggplant Tomato Tower
Roast duck

Lemon Souffle

Cherries Jubilee

ALASKAN CRUISE 6/27/09

one of the many lines we stood in to board the ship

our Royal Caribbean ship


view of several of the decks

Saturday the 27th we boarded a flight to Vancouver BC early in the morning..we were headed for our Alaskan cruise. My sister, Tianna and myself. After landing in BC it was lines, lines, lines,

lines.
Around 2:00p.m. we finally got on board the Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas. It is one of their mid sized shipped and it was about the right size. No standing in line for for various activities.
Our stateroom was a Jr. suite, which was good sized (we got all our stuff stowed and had plenty of room) plus a nice sized balcony. After we boarded we were so tired (we were up at 3am) we just put our clothes and things away and went out to the balcony and just chilled and watched the view of Vancouver. It was a beautiful day in Vancouver so it was our one chance to be outside and be comfortable. Our dinner seating was at 6:00 p.m. but earlier in the afternoon we headed to the Wind Jammer which is the buffet to get a bite of lunch. This is where I got all excited because they had Indian food.. Channa Masala, Chicken Curry, etc. but it turned out to be awful! I never did try it again in the buffet, they had different items every day for both lunch and dinner..Shankari has me spoiled. Dinner was casual this evening.. the policy in the dining room was no jeans..but there were people in jeans, sweats, shorts. Casual is not being a slob..there was one family there that had no concept of dressing for dinner. We did end up wearing jeans for dinners later in the cruise but, stylish jeans. The first night I started with the Vadalia Onion Tart and the Smoked salmon tepenade. The food was OK..not great, kind of disappointing. The service was wonderful and our wait staff was a lot of fun. Plus, anything on the menu was available whether you wanted two appetizers or entrees or a dinner just of deserts. After dinner we took a tour of the ship..and went to bed early.

Carved fruit to welcome us aboard at the Wind Jammer Buffet

Our table mates, Ramona and Desmond and Jackie, Noah, and Kevin. We were entertained almost every night by Noah, aged 5 and his magic tricks

our head waiter, Pedro
our waiters, Royal and Anthony

Onion tart, one of our appetizers

smoked salmon tepenade