July 7: Skagway, Alaska

 Welcome to Skagway!

Today we were docked at the Broadway dock, a prime location for easily getting into town. Except…

I received this notification. Sorry scooter people, you can’t come and go as you please yet.

I showed up at the 10:30 AM time ready to head off the ship only to be told the gangway wouldn’t be in place until 11:00 instead. Well, the heck with that. I walked myself down the steep steps while the wheelchair and assist guys carried my scooter on down those same steep steps. And off I went.

Today’s plan was a compare/contrast day. First, compare and contrast the slide area. Guests on ships docked at the forward dock have to take a tender (water shuttle) to get to shore. No ships in today though. And no visible progress on the slide.

Today

Last year

These past two years when I’ve been here post-Covid, the town has been depressing. So many store fronts closed, shops we used to visit for sale, for rent, for lease. Looks like the town is back now. My favorite place for a patty, the Sweet Tooth Café, unfortunately is now a Diamonds International.

Before

Now

The best Thai food in Alaska at the Star Fire is now a different type of establishment.

Scooter at Starfire pre-Covid

The times they are a changing’

How is the huge rhubarb looking?

Ed’s hand in the Skagway rhubarb, July 2013

My hand in Skagway’s rhubarb today

Food and drink at the Skagway brewing company? Today’s cup of chili with focaccia bread certainly did not disappoint.

Something new and cool at the hardware store - a display of ducks passengers have dropped off. Cool. (At least I think it was the hardware store. Didn’t look at the sign but I think that’s where the hardware store used to be/still is.)

Quack quack 

We will be heading up the channel for a beautiful sail away tonight as we work our way to Glacier Bay tomorrow. See you then.

July 6: Juneau, Alaska

 Hello from a dreary-looking Juneau.

With it being rainy/misty and Scooter not being able to handle wet roads well, today had to be a stay-on-the-ship day. Okay by me. I’ve been here plenty of times, just like Ketchikan, so I filled my day with random things. 

I started by people watching. With today’s low tide the ship only had one gangway open when we first arrived. That meant everyone going off the ship had to leave from Deck 7. Two lines had formed, one coming from the back of the ship and one coming from the front of the ship, with both converging at the elevator bank. I sat in Crooners with a vodka and cranberry (gotta get started on that drink package - they’re definitely making money off me with my alcohol consumption being next to nil) and watched the hundreds of folks trying to get off the ship. 

Even if I wanted to leave the ship I wouldn’t be able to right away. Announcements were made letting those with scooters and wheelchairs know they wouldn’t be able to leave for a couple hours until a second gangway was put in place. The first open one only had steps.

Two hours later all can go ashore

For breakfast I stopped by the International Café again for another Egg McMuffin sandwich. Today’s was much better than the other day’s.

Today - yum yum

Earlier in the cruise - unwelcome runny yolk surprise

I watched the man overboard drill. They basically toss a dummy into the water and a rescue boat gets sent to go pick it up. See the little orange thing with the yellow hat? He’s saved!

I checked out the lift to get into the theater. 

Even though they have a set of ramps, 

they also have a lift for the stairs. 

Looks complicated

It made me wonder why they didn’t figure out some way for wheelchairs and scooters to get to the Sanctuary. I was hoping to use it when I go to Hawaii on this ship in a couple months but it looks like access is only available by climbing stairs. Total bummer.

I spent time on the balcony (it’s a covered one, thank goodness) and watched people on the dock below and watched the tram go up and down the mountain. Poor people won’t be able to see a thing when they get up there.

I had a piece of free pizza on the pool deck

and compared it with the other day’s only-free-if-you-have-the-package pizza at Alfredos. Both tasted about the same. 

I tried one of their only-free-if-you-have-the-package premium desserts. Regular price? $12. Amount of waste? Ridiculous. 

The DaVinci

 

I watch a Carnival ship sail away from Juneau.

We’ll be sailing away from Juneau and onto Skagway where I hope the weather will be a little bit better.

So long, Juneau. See you a couple weeks!

July 5: Ketchikan, Alaska

Today was an early morning in Ketchikan with a 6 AM arrival. By 7:30 the International Café was cleared. You’d never see it this empty on a sea day.

No Ed, that’s not coffee I’m drinking.
It’s just hot chocolate.

Even though I had no excursions and nowhere to be and not really any plans for the day (This is my 27th visit here. Seriously, I looked it up!) I knew I had to get off early because we had other ships coming in. Ketchikan is no fun with throngs of people cramming the sidewalks so I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

We were docked at pier 2 today, which is a prime location. 

We were plopped right in front of the Ketchikan sign and right by The Rock statue. 

Having no particular plans, I just explored the area on Scooter. We found fruits and flowers.

 

 

Unique things made from wood like totem poles and benches. 

 

  

We found creeks. And Creek Street. 

Too early in the season for the salmon run

A bear, wolf, and a dog (sign).

  

We found ships, boats, and float planes. 

Hey, that’s us!

Holland America coming in

Royal Caribbean on its way in

Here comes Celebrity

Aleutian Ballad crab boat tour

Time for takeoff 

Can’t get weather much better than this.

I ended my time ashore by grabbing a bench on the dock in the warm sunshine, munching on some popcorn from the kettle corn shop, and watching the Holland America ship getting ready for the day.

Yay, no sweatshirt needed.

Up tonight, Sabatini’s for dinner. And up tomorrow, Juneau, Alaska! 

July 3: Grand Princess Embarkation Day

It’s embarkation day! My luggage arrived just before 9 o’clock last night and I had a good long sleep and it’s cruise ship embarkation day so all is right with the world.

One of the nice things about staying at Pan Pacific Canada Place is they’ll take your luggage to the ship and the next time you’ll see it it’ll be in your cruise ship cabin. They do suggest a 3 to 5 dollar tip as it’s considered a room to room transfer. And here’s a tip for booking the Pan Pacific…since it’s an extremely pricey hotel with some nights being $500+ I book the date I need (never book nonrefundable) and keep checking the price. I’ve consistently found it plummets within a week of the stay date. I just give them a call when I see it drops, and this time it dropped to $252 (not including taxes). Saved me more than a couple hundred dollars from when I first booked. 

But no more talk about the Pan Pacific, let’s talk about the cruise. I’m booked in a handicapped accessible balcony cabin. It’s a beautiful room so either they redid the rooms or this is one they have converted from a regular room. I was on this ship last year in a handicap mini suite cabin and this one is SO much better than that one. I’m excited to have this cabin all to myself for a whole week.

I had some excess onboard credit attached to this booking so once I got on board I purchased the Plus package. It includes Wi-Fi, crew appreciation, up to 15 alcoholic drinks (no way I’ll be drinking all that), all the water and coffee and sodas I could want, some desserts, fitness classes (and no way I’ll be using those). If I had purchased the package ahead of time I would have to pay insurance because it would’ve been part of my cruise fare but once onboard I didn’t have to pay the insurance - plus I could use my OBCs. Ka-Ching! Even though I cruise a lot I’m all about saving money.

First drink, Captain’s Bounty. 

Such a beautiful day in Vancouver.
As seen from deck 15, ready for sail away! 

Can’t get a nicer evening headed out to sea than this one 

Tomorrow we have a sea day and I don’t usually post to the blog on those days but if something exciting happens I just might. Otherwise I’ll see you in Ketchikan on Thursday. 

One thing I definitely don’t want to talk about right now are the wildfires in Alaska in that are greatly impacting the three places I’m going to be visiting next week. It’s a bad situation for those living there and working there so I can’t really complain if my land tour takes a hit because of it.