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!
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