I’ve now been on two cruises. Two different boats. Two different airports, two different cruise locations. And they were both really great. I consider myself an expert now. In case anyone needs to know anything about cruising, I’m your gal. Just kidding, it’s all still a little bewildering although this one did go smoother getting on and getting off the ship because we were a little more educated.
I’m not going to lie, we were completely spoiled by doing Disney first. I am not sure anything will ever be able to compare to that. The ship was brand new. The cabin was spacious. The picture window had a great view. We had a completely enchanting dining experience each night. We found plenty of things to do, and even missed a few we never knew about. The only complaint I had about Disney was that the pools were too small and Skylar would have had more fun with a friend.
Both ships we’ve been on have been HUGE. Ginormous. This time we had a room with a balcony and I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to just a window room. The balcony was great. We loved having the door open, or sitting out there with a drink. Some people spend their retirement cruising and I can entirely see why. The room is cleaned up every day by lovely stateroom attendants and they even leave towel-art on the bed each time. The rooms are bigger than you expect them to be – they’re really not the teeny tiny porthole rooms you have seen in movies. Think somewhere between Jack and Rose in Titanic. (Ok, a little closer to Jack than to Rose… but still).
We had four port days and two cruising (at sea) days. I spent a lot of time on our sea days writing my book about my mom. It was truly great. We had dinner at five each evening and two of them were “formal” nights. I bought an outfit which was not exactly formal but it was really nice! Especially for me, who shies away from anything to do with dressing up. I spent time shopping, trying on clothes – something I haven’t done since 2010 probably – and I bought the outfit. Complete with a cute gold necklace. And then I forgot to wear it.
We went downstairs on the first formal night and I looked around and thought – why are all these people dressed up? And then a half second later… “oooohhhh. Shit.”
So I wore it the next night instead. Who cares anyway?
It was Alaska. You expect it to be cold. I brought all the things the “how to pack for an Alaskan cruise” article told me to bring. Long underwear. Layers. A jacket. Hat and gloves. Sweaters. Jeans.
It was 80 degrees in Alaska.
I ended up wearing none of that except the jeans and the three new tee shirts I bought at the ports. People kept saying how this was the nicest weather they’d had in forever. The best weather week ever! And I was pleased – of course I was. 80 is still better than 109. But, no sweaters, which I had especially bought. No raincoat (thankfully!). No misty, gray skies. Which meant that I had a clear view and saw EIGHT bald eagles! I absolutely was thrilled with that! Bald Eagles remind me so much of my Dad, so that was a lovely experience to have. I was able to see the glacier they’re so proud of from far away. I should have done an excursion that included that glacier, but I didn’t know how cool it would be and so I didn’t.
The excursions are expensive. I mean, really really expensive. The train ride we wanted to do through the mountains was almost $300 per person. We ended up doing the whale watching and salmon bake instead. The whale watching was neat if not a little cold while skipping the boat over the waves all the way to the site. We saw a lot of whales, but not as close up as I was hoping for. Only saw one whale breach, and missed a lot of other whales by staring in the wrong direction. Then they took us to the sea lions laying on the buoy. Super cute! One of them was ringing the bell with his tail – on accident I presume, or we really did see something special.
The salmon at the salmon bake was to die for. Ridiculously delicious. Sweet setup with lights strung everywhere and a cute little waterfall. And blueberry cake. We ate so many desserts on this trip it’s truly amazing we didn’t gain ten pounds each.
One of the other excursions we did was the Skagway old fashioned trolley tour with a stop at the graveyard of all the people who have died in Skagway (not a lot!). Seriously I think they have a modern cemetery now but the old one was pretty nifty to see. We heard all about the Gold Rush and the shoot-out that happened and the fact that Skagway has no doctor at all so if anything major is wrong with you, you have to be willing to pay $25,000 for a helicopter to Juneau, or else willing to be buried there. Their graduating class had seven kids in it. Everyone goes to school in the same building. It’s really like another age and time out there.
Then we toured Sitka on our own. I don’t know how much of the island they used to film the movie The Proposal, but Tony and I then watched that movie that night and saw absolutely nothing familiar.
We walked through the National Forest there. Did not see any bears, except for the Giant Brown Poodle that gave me a serious start when I saw it. He was only walking out with his owner, unaware that he was probably giving more people than just me heart attacks. We saw the salmon swimming upstream! Listened in on a tour guide’s spiel. The salmon swim upstream to their spawning spot then lie there “like zombies” until they lay their eggs and then they die. Someone asked if they eat those salmon and the guide said nope, the birds do! (And probably the bears do too, I presume). It was very interesting and very cool to see. There were probably hundreds of thousands of salmon just lying on the bottom of the riverbed.
The last place we visited was Victoria, British Columbia. Which was absolutely gorgeous. Flowers literally everywhere! I can’t even keep flowers in a planter alive, I honestly don’t know how they do it. And even though Tony and I both were feeling the effects of a cold (I am still coughing today) we both had a blast in Victoria. We rode a bus to a winery and sampled some great wines and enjoyed the fabulous view. Then we rode the same bus to a distillery in town. Beer and whiskey – Tony was in heaven! I got some great pics of him enjoying the samples. The guide there was a total hoot and we had a lot of fun listening to him.
Honestly this post could go on and on about the ship and everything on it, but it’s got to end somewhere. So I’ll finish up with a list of things I brought and didn’t use: a little iron (this was Tony’s idea but at least now I own one), Tony’s cowboy hat which he wore twice – on the plane both times, our own cups with lids (they gave us cups to use since we bought the refreshment package), all the stuff for colder weather, a hanging shoe organizer and Tony’s formal jacket. Oh we might as well have not brought the swimsuits either as I tried the hot tub only once and was very disappointed to find it barely warmer than bathwater. We DID use the magnetic hooks and the poo-pour-ee spray!
I highly recommend the cruise to Alaska. Given the chance we would certainly go again, although we would prefer to see different towns and cities. I would love to take Skylar, so she can see the Bald Eagles and the mountains!