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Back from Alaska (with photos)

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Exterous

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Jun 20, 2006
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The wife and I recently spent a week in Alaska on a cruise. We departed Vancouver and headed north to stop by Ketchikan, Icy Straight Point, Juneau, Skagway and then Seward before flying back out of Anchorage.

Unfortunately, due to some flight changes by Alaskan Airlines, we didn't get to spend much time in Vancouver although the city is beautiful





The weather was phenomenal in Vancouver which was a trend that would continue throughout the entire trip as it was much warmer and sunnier than normal for Alaska. It also gave us the best sunset of the cruise



The day after Vancouver was spent at sea which was mostly spent sleeping and napping as its been a very stressful and tiring last couple of months for us. Seriously - we took a 4 hour nap in the evening, missed our dinner reservations and still went to bed at 11pm

Our first stop was Ketchikan where we went to Toten Bight State Park (for $4 for the bus)




and then on to Creek Street for some perfect lighting

(Not HDR)



Its a pretty cool little area built over the creek which used to be the Red Light district for the town but is now full of shops with mostly locally made souvenirs.
 
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Exterous

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Jun 20, 2006
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The next stop was a tiny spot at Icy Straight Point. Its a privately owned area that limited the number of buildings and cruise ships that can stop by. Because of that there isn't a whole lot to do. This is both good and bad. One of the tings we noticed is because such a large part of the local economies are cruise ships many areas are almost entirely tourist traps. One area has a winter population of under 1,000 people but swells to 3,000 in the summer to accommodate the 1.2 million cruise ship visitors from May to the beginning of October. Many employees end up staying in campers with camp site rentals going for $900 a month!


The bustling port of Icy Straight Point

Anyway we chose this port to do our whale watching so after some hiking on the local trails we headed off on our 7 person boat. Again we were quite lucky on the weather as the night before the forecast for the day was rain with 5-6 foot seats. Instead we got sunny, warm and 1 foot seas.

Our Captain was great and managed to get us quite close to both Orcas and Humpback whales






Not to mention these guys who were out sunning themselves in the 75 degree weather



Juneau was up next where we had decided to do the '2 mile hike' up to Mount Robert's Tram. This was before we realized the closer trail head was closed so it was a 2 mile hike before we started the 2 mile hike and then forgot to take into account the 0.5 mile ascent. So it took us a bit longer than we had planned but the views were great and it was an great way to burn off those extra calories we were getting from 1st and 2nd lunch.

We did take the tram down which is normally $20 but free if you spent $20 in the gift shop. It wasn't outrageously priced so we picked up a few things there


We then took the town shuttle out to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls and the much easier (flatter) 1.5 mile hike to see the falls




And then it was off to the next port
 
purbeast0

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,643
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damn the scenery there is amazing. would love to do that one day.

so it's warm enough even around the glaciers and stuff, to swim in the pool on the ship?
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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Jodell88 said:
I really want to go to Alaska.

Thanks for the pics.
Click to expand...

Its a great place - you should go! :D

IronWing said:
Is there a trail out to the glacier itself?
Click to expand...

Not at this location unfortunately. About the only way to reach the ones we went to were via helicopter at the cruise rapey price of around ~$450 per person. I didn't try at the port once we gor there because there is one near Anchorage that you can hike out onto so we planned to save our money and do that. Unfortunately there was a terrible accident on Highway 1 which was going to turn the 5 hour round trip into an 8+ hour round trip. It was about 15 miles in both directions of traffic at a dead stop as there was no road that you could detour around. If you had to go north (which we needed to) your option was Highway 1 or plane. Its the only negative thing that happened on the trip
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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Skagway was after Juneau and probably our favorite stop of the cruise. Its a neat little town but we were really glad we got out and about early. There were three cruise ships in port (All the stops but Icy Straight had at least 3 with most having 4 in at a time) so by 11am the streets were packed with tourists.



This was the 'light' traffic. Fortunately we were headed out to a Musher's camp so we missed the solid stream of tourists on both sides of the main street.

Once we got to the camp we got on some wheeled carts that were pulled by a mix of Ididarod veterans and some still in training. Apparently they use the heavier carts for weight training in the summer before switching to lighter carts and sleds for endurance later in the year



The pups were super friendly and always ready for petting or a nice ear scratch



It was interesting to see that the Ididarod vets would lean forward even when standing and usually had their lines taught - ready to run at a moments notice



And, of course, we couldn't leave without holding the next generation of sled dogs



The second to last day was a visit to Hubbard Glacier. We thought that we wouldn't get to see much as it was dark and dreary on the way to the glacier but as we approached there was a break in the clouds and the weather was sunny and clear around the glacier. It was interesting to see that the only sunny spot of any decent size was at the glacier itself but the Captain informed us that the glacier has its own microclimate so you never really know what kind of weather you will see when you get there


Cloudy on the way there and back


Great weather at the glacier

We got to see a Seal from our balcony floating on a nearby iceberg on our way in



We had hoped to be there a bit longer and get a bit closer but the tides changed and ice started to build up around the ship



So it was time to turn around and bid farewell to the glacier

 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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Mayne said:
Gorgeous.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

purbeast0 said:
damn the scenery there is amazing. would love to do that one day.

so it's warm enough even around the glaciers and stuff, to swim in the pool on the ship?
Click to expand...

Not really even with our abnormally warm weather. Near Hubbard Glacier the temp dropped quite a bit (45 degrees F?) so it was a jacket for me and a sweatshirt and light jacket for my wife.

Three of the days though were fine for outdoor pool use. The day we left Vancouver it felt much more like a day in the Caribbean than Canada\Alaska. Royal Carribean has a line of ships with an enclosed Adults only pool and whirlpool area that they use for Alaska cruises so we were able to use those throught the trip
 
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Denly

Golden Member
May 14, 2011
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Jodell88 said:
I really want to go to Alaska.

Thanks for the pics.
Click to expand...

I went Alaska cruise back to back in 2013/2014, same Holland America ship. They're small ship and can get into Glacier Bay, I can tell the Glacier retreated a little when compare pic. So go sooner rather than later.

If you're from the east coast try to arrive a couple days earlier to adjust the time different.

I so want to watch milky way but fall asleep early everyday.
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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E

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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One last picture from Skagway:


After the Mendenhall Glacier we headed to Seward for our last port of call. We had no time to spend in Seward as our bus to Anchorage was leaving at 8am and we had to get off the ship by 6:45am.

The ride was narrated and the narrator was great. We had a stop along the way at the Alaskan Wildlife Preserve







 
brainhulk

brainhulk

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2007
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Did they serve baked Alaska on the boat? My uncle who was a Navy Chief used to make some delicious baked alaska

Baked_Alaska_(5097717743).jpg
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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We got to the Anchorage Airport around 11am which meant we still had almost 16 hours until our flight. As a side note the Anchorage airport is still really busy at 1am and even into the 2am range with about 33% of the shops still open.

I had booked us a rental car for the day and it was off for some more sight seeing. Even in Anchorage it was warmer than expected, hovering around 70. With it so warm we decided not to do some of the hiking we had planned since we would be in the same clothes for ~36 hours by the time we would get home.

So the first car stop was Point Woronzof which is a small park at the end of one of the airport's runways. Quite a variety of traffic from small single engine all the way up to the massive 4 engined cargo planes not to mention a C-130





Then we headed to Lake Eklunta hitting numerous parks along the way and then to the south of Anchorage



Trees along the coasts of various lakes would often have all their branches blown in one direction



Alaska in general seems to be open late in the summer with the light lasting well past 10pm (this was taken around 10pm and the river picture below around 10:45pm). I am not sure if they ever close the park entrances either



The train was kind enough to come through while we were standing near the tracks





At about 11pm we headed back to the airport and returned that car shortly before midnight. We then settled in as our plane didn't leave until 2:40am. Fortunately we were exhausted so we slept almost the entire flight to Seattle and on the one to Detroit.

The trip was great with only a few sprinkles of rain the entire time. Recommended packing is usually cooler weather and a fair bit of rain clothing but our rain jackets never got used and my shorts got more use than my jeans.

Also, oddly enough, we ran into a number of other people from Michigan. The couple we sat near the first night at dinner live about 20 min away. We were also pretty sure that we were the youngest people on the ship not traveling with their parents.

We had a great time and Alaska is a very beautiful place and we would absolutely go again. Maybe not by cruise though - its a great way to reach a lot of places that are only accessible by sea or small plane but there is so much to see I think we'd do more of the central and north the next time as opposed to the south

A few more random pictures:

Float planes are a major way a lot of small communities are reached. Alaska has the highest pilot:resident ratio of any state at about 1:100

 
techs

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
28,559
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0
Wow. Alaska is one beautiful place and your pics really show it off well.

Thanks for sharing!
 
skyking

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,775
5,937
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:thumbsup:Nice pics man, thanks for sharing.
We will have to do this one day. My wife and I are not much for crowds so we have never been on a cruise, but I think we will give in one day.
 
E

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,569
3,762
126
techs said:
Wow. Alaska is one beautiful place and your pics really show it off well.

Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

Thank you and you're welcome :)

skyking said:
:thumbsup:Nice pics man, thanks for sharing.
We will have to do this one day. My wife and I are not much for crowds so we have never been on a cruise, but I think we will give in one day.
Click to expand...

I am not a big fan of crowds either but they aren't too bad unless you want to do things at peak times.* If you eat lunch at noon its crowded but 11:30 or 1:30 and its not bad. If you get off the ship early there are rarely crowds but if you wait till 8am then its busy. If you are more willing to walk or take the stairs (and help burn off all that food) its less crowded than waiting for elevators at peak time that stop on every deck.

It also helps if you get to know the ship a bit. Leaving one of the ports the deck 11 aft rail was packed with people 2 deep trying to get pictures. I had earlier found an out of the way stairway off to the starboard side that lead down to an aft seating area 2 decks down with the same view and shared that space with maybe 7 other people (Had seating for ~40 and standing room for many more) I've found this to be pretty consistent across the 3 cruises we've been on

*There are a few caveats for limited time\room events
 
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