Ketchikan, Alaska

Our first top on our five-day cruise was Ketchikan.  We had just visited in October and had no plans other than wondering around and trying some local food and beverage. 

 

NCL cruise ships dock at Ward Cove where you take a shuttle bus to the center of town.  There was a woman on our bus transfer from the airport to the cruise pier that had again boarded our bus at Ward Cove.  We visited with her on the ride to town and learned she was a widow traveling alone as she checked off bucket list items.  She ended up asking if she could tag along with us, which was quite enjoyable.  We were also dropped off at a different spot than our previous trip, which made for some new scenery. 

 

We walked Flo, our new friend, to Creek Street and up Married Man’s Trail.

 

We spotted the salmon ladder although it must not be salmon season because it was empty.  I heard when the salmon are spawning it looks like the water is boiling.  It would have been really neat to see but now we know how to get to it on any future visits.

We continued our walk taking photos of the totem poles as we passed.

 

We said goodbye to Flo, who had shopping to do as we had eating/drinking to do.  We continued to 108 Taphouse & Burger Bar where I ordered a local beer flight and we shared an interesting menu item that caught my attention.  Alaskan Cheesecake Bites: strawberry cheesecake wrapped in Indian Fry Bread, dusted with graham cracker crumbs, and served with a scoop of Tillamook vanilla ice cream.  Kenyon also ordered some fry bread.  OMG!  It was amazing and I enjoyed every single bite.

 

Our second stop was The Asylum for another local brew and a bite to ear at the nearby historic Burger Queen.  I really liked the bar tender at The Asylum, he was so nice.  It was definitely a local’s bar and had that laid back vibe.  We shared a two-piece fish and chips (amazing) and a bacon cheeseburger (just so-so).  It was a good experience and if we went back, I’d get the fish again.  Plus, the vibe was just fun. 

We had nice weather, overcast, with bits of sunshine here and there.  It was quite cold as long as that sun stayed hidden, so we ventured back to the ship.  I don’t know when we will be in Alaska again, but I have enjoyed visiting this little town and found the food and beverage to be a great way to explore.

If you missed it, you can read about our time on NCL Sun here ß

21 Days To Vacation

I have been anxious to check in for our cruise and the day has finally arrived!

 

A few months back we booked a return cruise to Alaska, an abbreviated trip this go-round, to turn triple the points earning us platinum status with Norwegian Cruise Lines.  Our five-day cruise only has two ports, Ketchikan, AK and Victoria, BC with two days at sea.  It will be great to visit Victoria again as we missed that stop in October due to COVID and Canada not allowing entry.  It was almost 12 years ago that we last visited Victoria during our first Alaska Cruise.

 

It’s difficult to decide what to do at port on this trip since we just visited Ketchikan.  The one thing I wanted to do but wasn’t offered last time was the trolley tour.  So we may book that this trip.  I also scoped out some breweries/bars and we could try a well-known restaurant, Burger Queen.  With the daylight hours of traveling in May, we are actually at port quite late.

 

In Victoria we plan to walk around.  I found some of the scheduled stops if we booked the food tour through the cruise line so we may do that on our own.  I want to check out this macaroon shop and also pick up a Starbucks mug for my collection.  We are looking at perhaps booked one of their city tours.

 

With two days at sea, I have no idea what we will do.  I plan to do some relaxing and some drinking!  This is the first time we will be sailing with the alcohol drink package, so I am excited to say the least.  On our last cruise, I kept thinking how fun it would be to visit all the bars.  Well, now I have a reason!  I just may not have somebody to visit the bar with since my parents won’t be along on this trip.  I tell ya, I really liked vacationing with my parents.

 

We still have 21 days to go but oh am I excited!

Alaska Cruise: Ketchikan, Final Sea Day, and Disembarkation in Seattle

You can read my recap of our ship, NCL Encore here ß

You can read my recap about Embarkation Day, Sea Day, and Icy Straight Point here ß

You can read my recap about Glacier Bay and Juneau here ß

 

Our third Port of Call was Ketchikan and we had officially run out of beautiful weather by the time we came into port the following morning.  In hindsight, I am glad all other days were nice because having to navigate the rain/cold just one day made the whole trip worth it.  NCL must dock the larger ships outside of town due to their size and in doing so, they have built a new dock at Ward Cove.  The downside to being so far out of town is that you don’t get to just walk off the ship right there in town.  The good news is we were able to get directly on a shuttle bus and 20 minutes later, we were dropped off in the center of town.

 

We didn’t have an excursion planned as the local city tours were not being offered through the cruise line.  We set out on foot towards historic Creek Street stopping at a local salmon shop along the way.  We found the Tongass History Museum and thinking it was a good place to use the bathroom while also having a break from the rain/wind, we took a tour.  It was a neat little museum with a lot of history.  They offered discount admission both their museum and the Totem Heritage Museum.  We rode the free shuttle bus to that location and got a short city tour for free.

 

The shuttle bus dropped us back off at Creek Street where we walked around and found Dolly’s House, a local attraction the cruise ship mentioned would be fun to visit.  The admission was $10 and that didn’t feel like money we wanted to spend so we snapped our photos and moved along. 

 

I had been on the hunt for an Alaska Starbucks mug from their You Were Here series.  A local told me to check Anabelle’s which we also found out was known for their chowder and beer.  We knew we needed to visit!  The service was rough, but the chowder hit the spot on a cold day.  Our Google search yielded a Safeway just one mile away that had a Starbucks and after a quick phone call confirmation, Kenyon and I hailed taxi for the two-mile round-trip visit to secure a mug.  We met my parents at the visitor center to board the shuttle bus making our way back to the ship.  We were supposed to watch Choir of Man that evening, but the show had been rescheduled to the following day and we opted for a low-key evening with dinner and an early bedtime.

Our final sea day was another rough one.  Along with our beautiful weather dissipating, high winds and rough seas accompanied it.  Boy was the boat rocking.  We just had one day at sea before arriving back in Seattle so it was bearable.  We slept in during our last day and had a leisurely sit-down breakfast at Savor.  Mom, Kenyon, and I attended an information talk/Q&A with the Captain and the Chief Engineer to learn all about the mechanics of the ship.  It is quite impressive on how it all comes together.  I made one last trip to District Brewhouse and took in some Deal or No Deal, where I Lost.  We had early dining reservations at Q’s Smokehouse and you better believe we had another delicious smoked margarita (we had two).  The BBQ was so good.  Mom and I took in the first showing of Choir of Man and I absolutely loved it.  I kept my re-schedule reservation for the 10pm and show and went again by myself.  It was just as great the second time.  The show will now have a US Tour so I may need to try and catch it in the future. 

 

Our bags had to be outside our door by midnight for the Port Valet program who would whisk them away and send them straight to the airport to be collected in Idaho.  We woke up the following day as the ship was about to dock in Seattle.  The skyline told me our trip had come to an end.

 

With our flight home at 6pm, the plan was to disembark and spend the day in Seattle on a hop on/hop off bus.  Little did I know that COVID would shut them down until 2022.  EPIC FAIL!  We made our way on foot to Pike’s Place as I really wanted to snag one another special Starbucks You Were Here mug that you can only get at that one original location.  I didn’t anticipate I’d stand in line for one hour!  But, I did it and I now have two more mugs in my collection.

 

We took an Uber to the Space Needle but decided not to go up for a visit. 

 

I will in the future because I heard the took out the metal cages and put full glass plus, they removed the restaurant, and it is now a full rotating circle with windows.  Next time for sure.  We were starving and I love when I get a chance to visit Old Spaghetti Factory and I knew they had some locations in Seattle.  The downtown location was closed but we found one that was on our way to the airport.  We boarded a Lyft and ate a delicious lunch before deciding to then Uber our way to the airport.  We arrived four hours early but were hoping we could find the Alaska Lounge and camp out since we booked first class airfare, we were able to use the lounge for free.  Once we made it through airport security, we beelined it to the lounge and sprawled out.

 

Thank you to Alaska Airlines for having a lounge with free Starbucks espresso, Freestyle Coke machine, beer, cider, well alcohol options, and a food/snacks.  It was time well spent and we really enjoyed the downtime.  I brought up the BSU game on my iPad for my parents to watch.  It as really a highlight of our travel.

While I didn’t think I Alaska would be a repeat destination, I really enjoyed this trip and I would go again for sure.  The time spent with my parents was priceless and I will remember this trip for the rest of my life.

Alaska Cruise: Glacier Bay and Juneau

You can read my recap of our ship, NCL Encore here ß

You can read my recap about Embarkation Day, Sea Day, and Icy Straight Point here ß

 

We woke up the following morning bright and early to try and grab a good spot at the Observation Lounge in preparation of cruising Glacier Bay.  Little did we know, the good spots were already taken. I wasn’t happy with the location we picked since the view was partly obstructed.  Eventually we moved upstairs to the Garden Café which had better views, food, coffee, and good company as my parents and Kenyon were all together.  The scenery was amazing.  We had the best day of weather since cruising began in August with no rain, sunshine, and crystal-clear water that provided reflective views.  It was simply spectacular.

 

I spent most of my day running up and down the stairs at various times in order to get photos outside on the lido deck.  There was a guy sitting in the hot tub which was genius.  I wish I had thought of that.  What a great way to stay warm while you are cruising in frigid temps.  We were lucky enough to catch some ice calving, although difficult to try and get on camera/video.  A park ranger boarded the ship and spent several hours pointing out what we were looking at while providing a commentary throughout the day.  We were able to pull right up to John Hopkins Glacier sitting just feet from the edge.  The captain maneuvered several 360 degree spins so we could all get a good view.

The bow of the ship on Deck 8 was opened specially for our day in Glacier Bay.  You don’t often get this opportunity so Mom, Kenyon, and I made sure to visit.

 

Simply spectacular!  I couldn’t quit taking pictures as we were just so lucky to have such beautiful weather.

Our second Port of Call was Juneau.  My parents had visited Juneau 46 years ago and so we were most excited for this port.  We arrived at 8am and it was a bit chilly, but we were going to have another beautiful day of sunshine.  After a sit-down breakfast in Savor, we disembarked and boarded the complementary shuttles, which dropped off at the base of the Juneau Tram as we had tickets to ride.  Kenyon and I rode the tram when we visited in 2010 and it was still just as fun.  It is also the best way to get a bird’s eye view of your ship.

Here is a time-lapse video I took from the observation center of the tram ride in just 20 seconds.

 

Once we were back on the ground, we made our way to Red Dog Saloon to try their signature Duck Fart Shot made of 1/3 Kahlua, 1/3 Baileys, and 1/3 Crown Royal.  It was quite tasty.  We also had some local beer.

 

The atmosphere was neat experience, and the servers were dressed up in old time costumes.  They looked quite cold.

We continued further into town to Bullwinkle’s Pizza Parlor, another location my parents visited on their trip.  The owner was mildly impressed to hear our story and we were able to score some free pint glasses with the logo.  We shared a delicious pizza although a bit overpriced if you ask me. 

 

Shopping wrapped up our day and we boarded the ship as we headed to our final Port of Call.

One more recap to go.

Alaska Cruise: Embarkation Day, Sea Day, and Icy Straight Point

You can read my recap of our ship, NCL Encore here <—

The embarkation process was pretty seamless, although there was a lot of waiting and several check-points before getting on the ship.  This is the first time we have booked transpiration from the airport to the pier through the cruise line.  The benefit being that I think we officially “checked in” one we spoke to the NCL personnel at the airport.  I was a little fearful we would miss our 30-minute check-in window because there was just so much waiting.  We waited at least 20 minutes for the transportation bus to arrive for our pick-up.  But, once we dropped off our baggage and boarded the bus, we arrived at the convention center across from Pier 66 for our COVID test.

The line for COVID testing was long.  I am not sure what the hold-up was but I do know that if you follow the instruction and sign up ahead of time, it went a lot faster.  You are whisked to an area for a swab, my gal was quite aggressive, and then sent into a big waiting room while you hold your breath until you see your number and the numbers of those in your party.  We got the okay to board!  A few more check points later and we finally made it.

We boarded the ship about an hour after we were dropped off for our COVID tests, so not bad for overall timing.  The buffet was first up as we were starving and a short time later we were able to get into our rooms.  I went back to the lido deck so I could take some photos of the Seattle skyline.

We hit up the District Brew House to share two beer flights and then eventually made our way back on the lido deck for sail away.  

After watching the Cruise Monkey’s videos, I just had to get myself a big hand to wave during sail away.  I was a little delayed in getting up there in time so I pretty much waved to the water.  HA!  But, it is the experience that counts.  As we pulled into Icy Straight Point, I got my big hand back out and waved at the guys helping us dock.  I’ll will be packing this again on future cruises.  It cracks me up you can see the guy on the slide behind me!

Our first day was a sea day, which was pretty low key.  There was really high winds and very rough seas so the boat was really rocking!  We attended the Cruise Next cocktail party for latitude member, which I was able to take Mom and Dad with me.  I am still thinking about that delicious smoked margarita we enjoyed.

We had reservations for dinner at Cagney’s Steak House and literally oohed and aahed over every bite.  It was amazing.  Mom and I attended an evening show called Company of Men and called it a night.

Our first Port of Call was Icy Straight Point, which we did not dock until 2pm.  

It is a recent economic development between the towns members and Norwegian Cruise Lines where the locals are stakeholders.  These were the first ships to sail to Icy Straight Point, which will be a regular stop on all future Alaska cruises.  The storm that we encountered as we made our way north had damaged the zip line and the gondola, which was a huge bummer.  I also heard the nearby Native village of Hoonah was not accepting visitors due to COVID.  For anybody with an excursion, they really lost out.  I also heard that whale watching was amazing so anybody that did that really lucked out!

We did not have an excursion booked and made our way on foot to the canary, which is an old salmon packing plant that is now a museum attraction.  It was really neat.

The highlight of Icy Straight Point is the beautiful scenery, a locally brewed red ale beer, and fresh halibut and fish.  It was delicious!  We also had beautiful weather and thankfully a break in the rainy season of September/October.

As there wasn’t much to do, we boarded the ship again and eventually convinced ourselves we needed another bite to eat.  Oh man were we stuffed.  It was a great first few days to start off our cruise.

I’ll be back with more.