Canada “Take off, eh”

Today we cruised into Vancouver harbor. Since Radiance of the Seas is a small cruise ship, we went under the Lionsgate Bridge. I literally ran up to the pool deck to watch! We cleared it by 15 feet!

We docked at the Canada Place cruise terminal. 

We had to be out of our cabin by 8, but our disembark time was 9:30 so we ate breakfast in the buffet. Then we went to our departure area to wait. Finally at 9:45, they called our number and we got off the ship. 

I had booked airport transfers through Royal Caribbean and that worked really well. It was a 30- minute bus ride to YVR Airport.

Unfortunately after that, nothing went well. We had to move our morning toiletries from our carry-on to our checked bags. Unfortunately I missed a small bag of them. (More about that later.) The American Airlines baggage check in was a disorganized mess. We were directed to stand in one of two lines, but the agent working our line walked away, and the other agent ignored the people our line! We literally stood there for 20 minutes until the agent returned! Sean was pretty mad and so was I by the time we got to the counter, Fortunately both of our bags were under 50 lbs. We also failed to notice that the TSA-Precheck didn’t print on his boarding pass. We walked through the LONG security line, and he was kicked out and told to go back through the regular security line! I went through the PreCheck line, and of course they wanted to check the contents of my bag and took most of the stuff out. (There was a woman with an infant in front of me, and they dragged out all of her baby’s milk bottles and her diaper bag.) Over on Sean’s side, the agent dumped out my toiletries because it wasn’t in their “special baggie” which US airports stopped doing years ago. They also gave Sean a hard time about his CPAP machine and took it out of the case. By the time we met up after passport control, we were both pretty pissed off. We ate lunch and then waited at our gate. We had booked the window and aisle seats and left the center seat open. The very last person who walked on the plane took the empty center seat. Oh well. At least we were on our way home!

We flew right by Mount Rainier on our departure. 

Fortunately once we got to DFW things went smoothly again. We got our bags, and took the shuttle to Express Parking. We parked for FREE thanks to Sean’s Disabled Veteran license plate! At 9:15 PM, we finally made it home. The cats were very happy to see us! 

Tomorrow will be a day to catch up on laundry and unpack. It was really a great trip! 

Last day at sea!

Today is the last day of our cruise, and it was a “sea day” which means no port stops. 

Thankfully, we were both able  to sleep late today. Mid- morning, we did a tour of the main galley kitchen. It was very interesting to see how the ship prepares a huge volume of meals several times a day. I found it very interesting that all of the bread and pastries are made on the ship. 

They also do all of the prep work overnight for the following day. 

After the tour, we had a nice brunch with mimosas and champagne! 

I spent the rest of the morning attending two enrichment lectures. The first was another topic from the RCMP lady.  

The second was a Q&A the ship’s captain and the hotel director. It was very interesting. The captain said Alaska cruises are quite challenging because there is a lot of small boat traffic, and you also have to watch for whales.

After that, I went to a lecture by the naturalists who discussed whales and orcas. I learned a lot!

Then, Sean and I played Classic Rock “name that tune.” We only missed 1, but the winners had a perfect score. It was still fun!

Afternoon was spent packing our suitcases to be ready for disembarking tomorrow morning. 

We have to be out of our cabin by 8:00 AM and our bags have to be in the hall tonight by 10:00 PM. Since our ship is a small one (by today’s standards), we will cruise under the Lionsgate Bridge as we enter Vancouver harbor at 6:15 AM. I definitely want to see that!

A beautiful day in Ketchikan

Ketchikan is one of the rainiest places in the USA. 

Fortunately, we had absolutely perfect weather: sunny and 65 degrees!

Our ship pulled into port and docked right at the downtown boardwalk. We had a couple of hours before we met up with our excursion for today, so we walked around downtown and headed to Creek Street. 

This was the old “red light district” back in the gold rush days. Now the little houses are full of shops and art galleries.

The creek had spawning salmon in it, and there was also a fish ladder to help the salmon get up the creek. There was also a harbor seal swimming around. 

We watched this for a while, then headed back into downtown for some shopping before our excursion. 

At 11:30, we walked back to the pier and met the crew of the Aleutian Ballad for the “Bering Sea Crab Fisherman Tour.” We were some of the first people on the boat, so we got the best seats right in front.

The tour consisted of two guys showing us how commercial fishing is done. 

They pulled up a long line, and several crab pots. We go to hold the Box Crabs, as well as some of the “bycatch”: dogfish shark, huge prawns, and starfish. 

The guides also caught King Crab and an octopus to show us.  

We also got to see some Bald Eagles up close! The guides tossed fish to them, and one even caught it in the air! 

The guides also caught an octopus! It was pretty slimy so they didn’t let us hold that one. But it was really neat to see! 

They sold king crab legs, so we had to try some. It was very good! (We ate it too quickly to get a picture.) 

I also had to have an Aleutian Ballad t-shirt.

This was a really neat excursion!

After it was over, we walked around downtown a little more before getting back on the ship. The Tongass Trading Company has a huge store here, so I got my magnet. We were both tired, so we headed back to the ship after that. 

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah)

Icy Strait Point isn’t really a town. It’s a purpose-built cruise port operated by the local Tlingit natives. The nearest actual town is the little fishing village of Hoonah a mile away. 

We had a later start this morning, so we tried to take our time getting ready. The darn time difference still had me awake at 6. We ate breakfast in the buffet, then headed off the ship. It was a very foggy day (more about that later.) Our whale watching excursion (with a local guide with a 10- person boat) was scheduled to meet at 10:30.

We strolled through the port buildings and then walked along the boardwalk. There’s a museum that used to be a salmon cannery, and a HUGE gift shop. 

I got a magnet to add to my collection, and a little jar of cottonwood hand salve that was made locally. We then walked back to the meeting point for the tour. 

At 10:30, the excursion boat captain arrived and promptly announced that he was cancelling our tour due to the fog. We were heartbroken! What made it worse as that we saw several other tour boats that did go out. Sean said he had seen a “Last Minute Excursions” desk in the visitor center, so we hustled over there. Fortunately, they said they would still be going out, and they still had seats on their boat! Unfortunately it was $100 more than we would have paid the local guy. We both agreed that “we are here, let’s make the most of it.” We paid, and met the tour group literally 5 minutes before it left! It was actually the cruise ship’s excursion, which had a huge 100+ person boat. 😕 Oh well. Hopefully we would get to see whales.

We headed out into the fog. As soon as we could, Sean and I staked out a spot on the bow so we could get the best view. The wind and mist was COLD! We motored about 20 minutes away to a spot where the guides said a pod of humpback whales usually hang out. And there they were! 

The boat spent over an hour observing a pod of whales! The male whale was “singing” while he was under our boat. Thankfully the fog lifted around noon and we had a wonderful view! 

The pod even surfaced right by our boat!

The fog was totally gone by1:30, it turned out to be a perfect beautiful day! We also saw bald eagles, sea lions, and an otter! 

For dinner tonight, we are trying a specialty restaurant: Samba Grill Brazilian Steakhouse. We’ve never bothered with the specialty restaurants on previous cruises because there is an extra charge for them. This time, Royal offered a nice discount, and we weren’t particularly fond of the main dining room menu tonight. 

It was interesting! We’ve eaten at Texas De Brazil before, so this was pretty similar. Service was a little slow, but it ended up being a nice evening. The waiters also recognized our 30th anniversary with a song and chocolate cake. 

It was a good ending to another fun day!

Skagway and the White Pass Rail

Today was an EARLY day but well worth it! We rode the historic White Pass all the way up to Carcross Canada. 

I booked this independently because our cruise line only offered the shorter version, and we wanted to see it all!

When I was a kid, I played the computer game “Yukon Trail” so I really wanted to see all of the places in the game.  (I wasn’t great at it, so I usually died in the Yukon River, and I never made it to the end.)

We boarded the train in Skagway, and went up over 2000 feet! It was a COLD morning (45) so it was pretty foggy. The scenery was still beautiful!

We crossed into Canada near Fraser, BC. 

The customs agents boarded the train and checked everyone’s passports, then we were on our way again.

We made a whistle stop at the Bennett ghost town. In the “Yukon Trail” game, you stopped here and had to wait out the winter and built a boat to float Lake Bennett and the Yukon River. That’s what the Stampeders had to do, too. 

In 1898, the Stampeders built a beautiful church that winter. It was also used as a social hall. When they all left in spring of 1899, the church was abandoned. It is still there today.

Our train ended at Carcross, Yukon Territory. We had 45 minutes in town before we got on the bus to head south.

 We made a few short stops on the way down. The first was at Emerald Lake.

Then we crossed back into the USA. We stopped at the “Welcome to Alaska” sign. Unfortunately the beautiful view was covered by the fog,

Finally we ended our ride at downtown Skagway. We did a little shopping and had a few drinks before heading back to the ship. 

Our ship was at the Broadway Dock, which was an easy walk from downtown. 

We also saw a cute Harbor Seal enjoying a salmon. 

It was another really fun day!