2016 Alaska Day 10: Icy Strait Point

This day started slowly. We "slept in" until 8:00AM before breakfast in WJ.  We went down to Schooner for the 10:00AM trivia but, for once, no one was there.  So we (D, E, R, A, J) went ashore.  (M,C,H,N were off independently today, as were S&W).  We spent about 90 minutes ashore, working through the Cannery museum (pretty good) and then taking the very short nature trail hike.  I took a total of 2 pictures onshore, and W took only about a dozen.  I'm using some of his photos here.  The dearth of photos is kind of representative of what we all felt about this port.  To E and me (now on our 3rd Royal cruise) this port is one of those "if you build it, they will come" places.  It offered nothing of serious interest to any of us.

Radiance at the new dock that just opened in May of this year.  This photo is taken from the Nature Trail.

This sign kind of encapsulates the whole port to me.  "There's nothing over here....so go over there and maybe you'll get lucky."

The major attraction of ISP: the six person zipline.  It certainly looks dramatic.  Given the choice between this and the multiple line trip we had in Seward, I'll take the variety of Seward.  I'll also take the lower price and the fact that the ride isn't over in under 90 seconds.

A bald eagle sighting.  This is one of W's photos - not sure where he saw this.

A typical view on the Nature Trail.

M, C, H & N did make the walk from port into Hoonah where they observed some local totem pole artisans at work on something that will later be installed at National Park HQ at Glacier Bay.  They enjoyed the chance to stretch their legs on the walk but otherwise didn't find much to inspire them.

We were all back onboard in time for lunch at WJ.  D, E, R, A & J went down for Flags of the World trivia where the boys did all the work!  DEJ could all ID Brazil, but every other flag was a mystery to us.  The boys, however, rattled off all the rest of them, ultimately placing 2nd with 11/15.

We all (sans S and W) then gathered back at Radiance Links for a family minigolf tournament.  I squeaked out a one stroke win (with +3 for nine holes).  I'm not sure that's worth bragging about!  From there, S,R&J went off to a presentation by someone from the RCMP, E&A went to play ping pong, M&N went to the climbing wall, and I went to grab a drink and read on the balcony.  To each his own...

N takes on the climbing wall.  An accomplished climber, she took the most difficult route, using only the limited number of blue steps and the wall contours.

We all met again for a pre-formal dinner drink in the Centrum.  After dinner, we went to the 2nd headliner show, this time featuring a acapella doo-wop quartet called The Alleycats.  This was a typical mix of music and comic banter that was quite good.

Finally, we all went over to Schooner to the piano bar of Derrek Wayne.  He was fantastic!  The whole room was really into things, no one more than N&H who were both (very) well lubricated and ready to sing.  At one point they grabbed Derrek's tip jar and canvassed the room on his behalf.  He couldn't have asked for better advocates.  The room finally broke up about 11:40PM.  That might have been because it was the end of Derrek's normal time...or maybe the bar ran out of booze.  Either one is plausible.

"Hands.....touching hands....reaching out....touching me, touching you!!!"

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2016 Alaska Day 9: Skagway

Another early start to the day as we were to meet with Chilkoot Charters at 7:20AM. We were taking that White Pass and Yukon Railroad from Skagway to Fraser, at which point we'd continue by Chilkoot bus to the Yukon, making it as far north as Emerald Lake. From there we'd turn around and return via bus to Skagway. As per advice from CruiseCritic we sat on the left hand side both directions. (Had we started on the bus and ended on the train we would have sat on the right side both ways.)

We walked past all the trains that were on the siding by the ship and went to the end of the pier to meet our driver (Kevin).  There were actually three different Chilkoot buses waiting, so the dispatcher who checked us in gave us the bus number and driver name, and we found Kevin holding a clipboard with his name showing.  In addition to the 11 of us there was another family of 5 joining us.  Kevin did a quick intro before driving us through Skagway to where our set of train cars awaited.  We were assigned to the very last car in the train.  That car ended up with more than the 16 people in our bus as at least one other busload was also placed in our car...but we were not crowded at all.  Several people sat solo and there were still a few empty benches.  Being the last car in the train was great for the serious photographers as the back deck gave them unimpeded views.

The train winds its way through lush green forest.

We enter one of several short tunnels on the line.  Each train car has a small viewing platform at each end of the car.  You can't hear any of the narration while on the platforms, but the views are great.

I'm not sure why this picture of a pair of trees in the foreground makes me so happy...but I like it so included it here!

This rail bridge was in use until sometime in the late 1960's.  The track now continues past this to a more modern steel bridge. The jumble of wooden supports on the far side is as confused as it looks.

This is another view of the bridge shown above, taken as we crossed over the river on the newer bridge.

And here is that newer bridge!

For those only going one-way on the train the ride ends in Fraser, BC.  Here you wait for Customs agents to board the train and look at your passport.  Once that is complete you exit the train and reboard the Chilkoot bus.  Kevin was waiting for us and took us further north.  We made a couple of photo stops, one at a lovely lake whose name I can't recall, the other to look over Bose Island.  We drove past the Carcross Desert without stopping, past the town of Carcross, and stopped a bit north of town at the very tacky Caribou Crossing.

The mosquitos are really a hazard here.  This picture tells you everything you really need to know about the lunch stop.  Tacky.

At Caribou Crossing we were given about 75 minutes to grab lunch (included in our tour) and wander around the museum - which included an interesting history of the NWMP and a pretty impressive collection of stuffed animals - the dog kennel, small zoo, etc.  Lunch consisted of baked chicken that had been brushed (after cooking) with BBQ sauce, a baked potato half, creamy cole slaw, and a white roll with butter.  Water pitchers on the tables were supplemented by soft drinks and beer from the bar (for a fee).  The food was forgettable.  It fills your stomach, nothing more.

Following lunch we reboarded the bus and then continued north until we got to Emerald Lake, where we stopped for about 15 minutes for pictures.  Today's skies were pretty, blue and clear, and the lake was absolutely stunning.

Emerald Lake - stunning!

Finally, we turned back around to the south.  Kevin first drove through the small town of Carcross pointing out some landmarks...including a historical tidbit that the basis of the Trump family fortune started in the Yukon with Grandpa Trump.  We stopped for 25 minutes in town where we all got our passports stamped, and then headed over to the bakery to buy one of the cinnamon buns that everyone on CruiseCritic rave about.  (Alas, we should have tried eating it right away but instead took it back to the ship with us to enjoy "later".  That turned out to be a few days later, at which point the bun had started to go stale.)  We also dropped by "The Outhouse at the Arthouse" to make use of the facilities, but also spent some time looking at the art on display.

A particularly striking work at The Arthouse at the Outhouse.  This is "Icarus Descending", constructed out of driftwood as well as items from other artists' works.  The Art Collective had hosted a day in which each artist destroyed one of their works, and the others assembled new art out of the scraps.  Icarus's colorful face was constructed from strips of another artist's painting.

Further stops on our way south included the Yukon sign, where we pretty much just jumped of the bus, stood at the sign for pictures and then reboarded.  This stop was really short mainly because there were 3-4 full size buses already here and the place was overwhelmed with people.  Kevin instead stopped us off at Bridal Veil Falls where we were left alone with more privacy for more pictures.

H and N conquer Bridal Veil Falls.

The weather in the Yukon was was the best of the trip.  The mountains work in a way that causes the clouds to pile up on the south (Alaskan) side, while the north (Canadian) side tends to get fewer clouds.  The blue skies here are taken from our stop at Bridal Veil Falls.

The single-cantilever bridge.  The right-hand side of the bridge/roadway isn't connected to anything.  This is an earthquake safety measure.  The idea is that, in a major quake, the roadway can bend and flex from its one attachment point to land on the left.  If connected at both ends of the roadway it would be more likely to crumble.

We thought it likely that this trip would be our last chance to see bears.  Our fleeting sighting in Denali would have to do for the whole trip, however, as we came up empty.  Kevin kept saying that certain sections of the drive were good bear sighting areas, but he was driving so fast that we really had no chance to spot anything.  Given that he picked us up and dropped us off exactly on time I suspect his driving speed was no faster than any other tour - but it felt rushed in some places.

We took our leave of Kevin in the town of Skagway rather than at the docks and wandered around town.  As we got closer to the docks we stopped at the National Park Service visitor center just in time to take in their little movie about the gold rush and about the building of the railroad.

Returning to the ship we enjoyed our own little discovery: S's luggage had arrived!  She was able to finally wear her own clothes to dinner.  We ended the night with a succession of events: music trivia in Schooner (we did OK, but didn't win), Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire at the Colony Club (cheesy - no need to go again),  and finally the first Headliner show, a guy named David Meyer playing something called a Xylo-Synth.  It was definitely different, and he was definitely a virtuoso on it.  Having said that, none of us are likely to run out and buy any xylosynth albums.  A few of his numbers were accompanied by his (former cruise ship dancer) wife.  We agreed that her presence did not enhance his performance.

The weather today was outstanding - so we finally got to enjoy sitting out on our balcony reading as we left Skagway.

Drink, book,view.  To me, this is the signature picture  of any cruise..

If we ever come back to Skagway again we'll probably try to find something else to do.  We're glad we did the train trip.  The views were beautiful - but honestly the views EVERYWHERE in Alaska are beautiful.  Railfans will enjoy the opportunity to ride a narrow gauge line.  The bus portion of the tour is likely the only way to get into the Yukon without renting your own car - but it all seemed so rushed.  We'd drive like crazy to get to a stop for 10-15 minutes of pictures and then repeat.  Kevin was an engaging tour guide - he had a particular love of history that aligned well with several of us.

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2016 Alaska Day 8: Juneau

We pulled into Juneau early in the morning, followed by the SilverSeas Shadow. Our docking berth was right by Tracy's Crab Shack. In fact, as we passed by we could see someone standing outside holding up King Crab legs! Following our WJ breakfast we got off the ship and met our driver who took us over to the dock to board our Harv and Marv charter. As we were a group of eleven we had enough folks to qualify for our own boat Captain Gabe and spotter Jackie helped us aboard The Alaskan and away we went.

Gathering for the H&M shuttle.  As promised, the H&M greeter was easy to spot in her orange jacket.  From left to right: E, S, W, A (back of head), H&M greeter, J, unknown (background), M, H.

The day was pretty nice out - there was some overcast but things weren't too grey.  An early stop allowed us to view a large number of harbor seals, but the whales remained elusive for the first hour or so.  The radio chatter between boats indicated that everyone was still searching. 

A fishing boat heading out.  Given that this was a Sunday I think this may have been an excursion boat.

 

A mess 'o harbor seals relaxing on the rocks.

Finally, sightings were made and most of the second hour was filled with lots of whales.  None of them were jumping as we had seen during the Kenai trip, and there were no orcas, but we saw our fill of humpbacks.  

A pair of humpbacks moving along majestically.

A humpback showing its tail as it takes a sounding (i.e. dives deeper).

The highlight came just as Gabe was suggesting we move on from the place we'd hung out for about 20 minutes.  Within seconds of him saying that a pod of four whales appeared about 50' away from our tail, heading directly for us!  They passed alongside us and we got some great photos!

Four humpbacks pass about 30' off our starboard side.

A seal.  There were lots of seal sightings in the same areas we saw the whales.  We found that we could typically predict where the whales would show up by looking for seals.

We were supposed to also go to Mendenhall Glacier post-trip, but something got messed up.  I actually found that one of the Kaylas from H&M had left me a voicemail earlier in the morning apologizing that the transport for Mendenhall had fallen through and that they'd refund the $7 per person we'd paid for that part of the activity.  Jackie wasn't sure what the story was but thought that it was because H&M was handing us off to another company for the Mendenhall visit, and the other company had probably flaked.  The H&M shuttle stopped at a bridge to let us take photos of Mendenhall off in the distance, but we never made it to the visitor center.

Missing Mendenhall wasn't the end of the world.  We asked H&M to drop us off in at the downtown stop rather than back at the dock and went to lunch at Hangar On The Wharf.  After a stop to look (but not buy) some Ulu knives we made our way over to the Mt. Roberts tramway and saw the film, looked through the museum/nature center, and then took the nature trail.  While on the nature trail I managed to grab a couple of more geocaches.  M,N&H skipped lunch and instead found the trailhead for the 2.5 mile hike up to the top of the mountain.  We met up with them in the restaurant/bar, where they were working to build up a bill for $10+ for each - by doing that, they got a free ride down the tram.  (We had paid $33 each for our tickets.) After getting back to the base of the mountain we stopped to get some ice cream before reboarding the ship about 5:45P.

Heading up the Mt. Roberts tram.

A view of Radiance (on the left) and the Silver Shadow, from the top of Mt. Roberts.

Having boarded after our MDR dinner time we called up room service and had them send over a number of cheese plates so we could invite everyone over to our staterooms for wine and cheese.  Following that we all went down to WJ around 8:30P for a late dinner.  This was the first time we had eaten dinner at WJ.  It was very quiet - almost empty, in fact.  I'm not sure if that's normal for the time of night we were there, or is something unique to Alaska.  I had thought I'd read that WJ put out white tablecloths for dinner, but that wasn't the case for us.  I know that there are legions of folks who never enter the MDR and eat all meals at WJ.  We won't be joining that group.  WJ is OK, in moderation. 

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2016 Alaska Day 7: Hubbard Glacier

The (Calving) Glacier Says "Moo"

Being our first day of the trip without an early morning activity we were able to sleep in a little bit before meeting for breakfast in the Windjammer. We really liked the layout of the WJ on Radiance. It felt much less crowded than those on Oasis or Enchantment. Walking in you immediately have a view to both sides of tables, giving you an early opportunity to scope out possible seating. Additionally, the WJ staff seemed much more aggressive (in a good way) about asking you your party size and helping find a table. The food stations themselves also seemed better spaced out than the other ships we've been on. As a large group we often found ourselves eating in the Rita's Crabshack space, where most of the tables were arranged to support 10-12 people. As the winds were rarely blowing this was actually a pretty mild place to eat. As the cruise moved further south we started to see a few people moving out to the fantail and eating in the open air.

Following breakfast D, E, and A went to one of the first of many trivia events various members of our group would take part in.  This time it was Harry Potter trivia, where we were pleasantly surprised to find that the questions were different than the same contest on Enchantment.  We scored 24/25 but lost in a multi-team playoff.  I represented the team at the playoff and couldn't help but laugh at the obscure tie-breaker question: "What phone number did Arthur Weasley dial to get into the Ministry of Magic?"  Of course, someone knew the answer right away and beat us out for the priceless prize (RCCL highlighter pens, most likely).

A panoramic view of Hubbard Glacier, taken from the balcony of port cabin 9250.

Later in the day we made it into the bay fronting Hubbard Glacier.  In fact, we made it REALLY close.  Sounds like we may have been more successful in closing on the glacier's face than prior cruises.  It was here that our stateroom arrangements gave us a huge advantage.  D&E had the coveted aft 9256, while S&W had the neighboring 9258.  (I booked the cruise on the 1st day of sales.)  R,A&J shared 9250 on the port side (2 doors away from us), M&C had 9248, and N&H had 9246.  So we had both aft and port cabins just a few feet from each other.  This allowed us to keep moving from port balconies to aft balconies as the ship turned circles at the face of the glacier.

From L to R: H, W, N, S, C, and M hanging out on the balconies of port cabins 9246 and 9248.  Photo taken from 9250.

There's no question that the port side of the ship is HEAVILY favored.  About the only time the starboard side would face the glacier was as it passed by during a full rotation of the ship.  In general, the port side remained broadside to the glacier's face most of the time.  Given the freedom to rush port to aft balconies as needed we enjoyed spectacular views of the glacier throughout the afternoon.

As folks may be aware. the ship launches a small boat while at the glacier.  I assume it has some critical duties to perform that are related to keeping the ship safe, but one of the fun things they do is try to locate a chunk of ice to bring onboard for display (and maybe to create an ice sculpture from - I'm not sure about that).  We did see the boat as we spun around, but if they did capture a chunk of ice we didn't see that.

The small boat.

Closeup details of the "fingers" of ice at the top of the glacier.  The characteristic blue hue of the glacier was evident all day.

As expected, we got to see a number of calvings. It seems to be the case that once you sight a calving you should continue to keep looking in the same area for additional activity, particular if you want photos. Most of the time we were there there were two "hot spots" on either end of the glacier, each with multiple calvings. Near the end of our time there we finally saw a HUGE calving event, dead center in front of us. A very broad section of ice broke off and plunged down. It was so large that it created a large wave that radiated out and swamped some rocks. Judging distances is really hard, but best guess is that the breakaway was a few hundred feet wide and about 50' tall, and the wave generated was about 1-2' high. Awesome!

 

The really huge calving in progress.  Ice is coming down across the entire width of the photo, and the large chunks hitting the water are starting to send up a wave of water radiating out from the bottom of the glacier's face.

Another view of the same.  The whole face of the glacier from the water to about half the way up is collapsing.

As mentioned earlier, S's luggage had not yet shown up.  On day of sailing, when it became evident that her suitcase was MIA, Guest Services had provided her with a few T-shirts and a handful of complimentary laundry vouchers.  They continued to search the ship as it was possible that her bag had been mis-delivered (although it seemed unlikely that anyone getting the wrong bag would have kept it and not said anything).  The next day they contacted the hotel where it was determined that the bag had been left onshore.  Annoyingly, since it was the weekend the hotel couldn't commit to having the bag arrive in Juneau on Monday, so they finally committed to Tuesday in Skagway.  Royal continued to offer laundry and T-shirts, and also picked up the bag in Skagway to deliver to S.  Obviously this was a less-than-ideal situation for S, but she made due.  What else could she do?

That night was formal night in the MDR.  Most of the folks I saw entering the MDR made attempts.  S borrowed an extra dress that N had packed so she was able to abandon her custom trip T-shirt for at least one meal.  We took a number of photos on the MDR steps and then relaxed at the Schooner before heading over for the first production show, Pianoman, featuring music by Billy Joel, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Barry Manilow.  Given that all the source material was from male artists it didn't allow the two female vocalists as much opportunity to shine as the men.  Overall the dancing was stronger than the vocals.  We were all unimpressed with the comedian.

Having a drink in the Centrum before dinner.  Left to right: W, S (in borrowed dress), E, R (both standing), H, C (both seated), M (foreground, bottom right).  In the background you can see others dressed up for formal dinner.

We rounded the night out with the Majority Rules game at the Colony Club, hosted by Gemma (who was completing her contract and rotating off as we left) and Colin(???) from Jamaica.  Gemma, in particular, was a hoot. 

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2016 Alaska Days 5 and 6: Seward

The Alaska Railroad: The Beautiful Section

This was an early wake-up day. Unlike the depots in Fairbanks or Denali, where you could arrive 20-30 minutes pre-boarding without problems, the Anchorage Depot advises you to arrive at least 60 minutes ahead of time, and this advice was confirmed by the folks at the hotel. (The AKRR folks actually have a nice PowerPoint presentation that walks you through how to best navigate through the depot.) Since we were traveling GoldStar this time our tickets included breakfast on-board, so we timed things to simply wake up, shower, and then meet in the lobby to walk back to the train station by 5:45AM.

Once at the station we waited in line to check-in and turn in our luggage.  Unlike the smaller stations we did not have to present all our photo IDs.  In an attempt to speed things up the Anchorage station handed me (the nominal Group Leader) a form to sign where I agreed that everyone traveling with me was who they said they were.  So only I showed an ID and, in return, I was given all our boarding passes and an envelope with eleven GoldStar lapel pins.  We took all this outside and across the street in order to pose for our first full group picture.  (N, H and J had arrived the prior night, after most of us had gone to bed.)   We also took this time to hand out the custom T-shirts we'd had made (at customink.com) for the trip.

The gang is all here!  From left to right: (kneeling row) M, A, D; (standing row) W, S, H, J, C, R, E; (on wall) N

There's widespread consensus on Cruise Critic that this section of the railroad is the most scenic, and we found no reason to disagree with that opinion.  This was a truly glorious segment of the trip.  Upgrading to GoldStar was totally worth the extra expense for so many reasons, as the following pictures can hopefully illustrate.

N and H show off their morning Bloodies.  Each GoldStar passenger gets two beverages as part of their train fare.  As you get them from the bar (those legs in the center back are standing at the bar) your boarding pass is punched.  Collectively, we enjoyed Bloodies, Screwdrivers, Alaskan beer, sparkling wine, coffee, hot chocolate, and various soft drinks.

One (of many) beautiful views from on board.  I probably could have taken this shot from Adventure class...but I'm not sure I would have had as wide a window to shoot through.

Yeah, it's really amazing out there...

Representative of the hundreds of waterfalls you'll see throughout Alaska.

Another reflection shot.

A pair of Dall Sheep, captured by W's camera.

All of the above shots were taken BEFORE breakfast!  What a way to start the day... :-)  For some reason I forgot to take a photo of the breakfast menu.  R had biscuits and gravy, others had French toast with reindeer sausage. I had an egg scramble with peppers. Breakfast was definitely better than dinner.

Our original plan had been to book at the Holiday Inn at the small boat harbor.  However, back in December 2015 when we were making arrangements the hotel's website wouldn't allow any bookings for June, and when called the hotel also declined to accept any bookings without explanation.  It turns out that an ownership change was underway and the hotel was being re-branded as Harbor 360 Hotel.  Not knowing that, we booked at Best Western Plus Edgewater, instead.

Seward

We arrived at the Seward depot and looked around for the hotel shuttle.  Not finding it, I asked the general town shuttle driver (in the yellow school bus) if she was the best option for our hotel, to which she replied "if your hotel doesn't have a shuttle".  I ended up calling the hotel and was told that the driver was on the way.  This minor inconvenience was - unfortunately - an omen.  Strike one.  The shuttle did arrive, but had so many passengers that they had to make a total of three trips to get us all.  Half our party made it onto shuttle #2, three of us had to wait for shuttle #3, and three others decided to make the walk from the station to the hotel.  (The latter group did this happily - they wanted the chance to stretch their legs.)

Once at the hotel none of our rooms were ready.  Strike two.  The hotel kept telling us that they'd had a lot of check-outs that day and they were scrambling to catch up.  That may be true, but my point of view is that this was THEIR problem...and they were trying to make it ours.  Rooms weren't available until a couple of hours after check-in time had passed.

We passed some of this time by having lunch at Zudy's Cafe, which was about 1/2 a block away. The panini sandwiches and soup were nothing to write home about, but they filled empty stomachs.  After lunch D, A, and W made a quick geocache grab just outside the restaurant - but it was a bit too cold and damp to really enjoy the views of Resurrection Bay outside - in lieu of going to the Alaska Sealife Center or taking a trip to Exit Glacier - so we eventually all returned to the hotel lobby to wait for our rooms and/or excursion pickups.

H, N, and A all went off to a dog sled place.  I didn't organize this one so not sure of the details, other than that they had a great time.  They made the reservation only about 2 hours before the event, which surprised me - I figured most stuff would be pre-booked long in advance.

The place that I went with M, C, S & W *was* booked long in advance, and necessarily so.  We went zip lining with Stoney Creek Canopy Adventures.  None of us had ever done this before (both H and N had prior zip line adventures so had earlier declined the option to go with us).  We had a BLAST!  For me, this was the best thing we did the whole trip.  After we did a bit of "ground school" on a very short line suspended about 8' above ground, learning how to read the guide's hand signals, brake, spin, and hand-over-hand up the line in case of stopping short of the platform, we were driven up the mountain to the real thing.  We experienced 8 lines of differing lengths (all about 70' above the ground), crossed three rope bridges, and also did 2 rappels (of about 45-60' each).  The guides (Mike and ??) did a great job of introducing us to new skills with each line - we all felt nothing but confidence as we went along.  In addition to the five of us there were also three people from another family, for the maximum group size of eight plus two guides.  No cameras are allowed, but they took a few standard pictures and made them available for $8 per person on the web.

M takes off.  This was the 4th or 5th zip of the day.  The longest line was about 1400', and can be seen to the right in this photo, over the pond.

D handing in the air before starting his first rappel descent.  One of the guides is below me, on the belaying line.  While I was totally in control of my descent he was there to arrest my fall if I'd done something stupid (like let go).  No chance of that, though!

Meanwhile, while the rest of us zipped between trees or rode behind dogs, E, R and J did something critical to success on our upcoming cruise: they visited Safeway and bought 10 bottles of wine (as we had 5 staterooms booked)!  While waiting for the yellow shuttle bus to pick them up after shopping they spent a few minutes inside the Chamber of Commerce talking to some locals and soaking up a bit of Seward flavor.

Once we were all back to the hotel (and finally all in rooms) we gathered again and went for a walk along the shores of Resurrection Bay.  The wind had died down so the walk was much more pleasant than it would have been earlier in the day.  We passed by the marker for Mile 0 of the (original) Iditarod; a skate park - with local children out in shorts and T-shirts on what was, for them, a warm day; and part of the camping area built on top of what used to be Seward's industrial district.  Most of Seward's port industry was literally wiped out by a post-earthquake tsunami in the early 1960's. 

Small group shot at a memorial marker near they Alaska Sealife Center.  From left to right, H, E, A, R.  Just prior to taking this shot D and A had gone off to grab another nearby geocache.

We returned to the hotel for a short rest before walking down to Chinooks Restaurant.  We'd made a reservation as soon as we arrived in Seward, figuring that seating 11 people might be challenging.  Indeed, they mentioned that they already had 3 large parties booked but offered to seat us at 8:15PM.  That wasn't a problem for us so we gladly took them up on the offer.  They seated us right on time and we enjoyed our first family dinner together.

Waiting to order at Chinooks, taken by E.  On the left side of the table, starting in the foreground: S, C E, N, H.  Down the right side: J, R, D, M, A.  Out the window is a view of the small boat harbor.

The quality of dishes varied.  They had a smoked sablefish appetizer that we all agreed was excellent.  We were sorry we'd only gotten one to share around the table. The mussels with chorizo and ceviche appetizers were good, but not great.  We ordered the smoked scallop mac and cheese entree as a shared appetizer and it was very good - it would have been too rich as an entree!  The house salad was very good.  The salmon w/chipotle entree was deemed to be excellent salmon unfortunately overwhelmed by the glaze.  The halibut w/chimichurri was very good, as was the cod.  I can't recall what anyone had for dessert, which is probably an indication that they were average.  They did bring us something with a candle in it in celebration of S's birthday.

We finished up our night with a walk back to the hotel.  We did pass an ice cream parlor on the way and debated stopping in, but at this point (about 10:00PM) we were all tired and didn't want to extend our night any further.  It should be noted that the yellow bus free town shuttle stopped at 7PM, so unless we hired a cab we had no other option than to walk both directions.  Total distance was 1.3 miles each way, so we burned off some calories.  I should note that my mother-in-law J is 84 and is going to outlive all of us.  She took the walking completely in stride (no pun intended)!

Friday, June 24, 2016 (Seward and start of cruise)

We got up early for breakfast as we had an 8:00AM Kenai Fjord boat tour with a 7:10AM pickup scheduled.  (BTW:  Kenai is pronounced KEY-nigh, not KEH-nigh or keh-NIGH.)  Breakfast at the hotel was awful.  Strike three.  We've stayed at Best Western Plus properties before and the quality here was NOT in keeping with the brand.  The scrambled eggs, in particular, were terrible.  I'm always prepared to substitute oatmeal when necessary, which I did here.  This was, perhaps, the most glue-like oatmeal I've ever had.

And now comes strike four, which by itself forever condemns this property for us.  As per their process, we took all our luggage down to the lobby with our ship luggage tags on.  They were to take all our bags (plus many others - lots of folks heading to Radiance staying there) over to the ship while we checked out and went on our excursion.  This they did - for ten of us.  S's bag somehow never made it to the ship.  Her bag would not show up until DAY 4 of the cruise, at Skagway.  The details are sordid.  Suffice it to say that the hotel screwed up MASSIVELY.  (Royal Caribbean, on the other hand, deserves TONS of kudos for the way they handled things.  More on that later.)

If we ever return to Seward we will NOT stay here again. 

Our shuttle arrived right on schedule and took us down to the small boat harbor where we were assigned to The Tanaina.  The tour was enjoyable mostly for the novelty value - we can now say we've seen another National Park.  Overall, however, it is just a long boat ride.  We hit some unexpectedly rough water on the return part of the trip, which normally (I think) ventures through long stretches of the Gulf of Alaska rather than the calmer waters of the fjord.  The captain returned to the inner passage at some point which helped, but both E and R were uncomfortable for the last part of the trip.

Even "just another boat ride" has some pleasant surprises.  We did come across a pod of orcas, as well as a humpback that was repeatedly breaching.  While we saw more whales in Juneau, it was only on this tour that we saw orcas and breaching, so glad we did the tour.

An otter, seen soon after leaving the harbor. 

Three of the four orcas that were swimming close to us.

Our jumping humpback.  He did this 8-10 times while we were within range.  The boat captain had seen him from a long distance and announced "we've got a jumper ahead" before speeding up the boat in hopes of catching him still in action.  Success!

Once the boat tour was over we walked over to the cruise terminal.  This was an easy 15 minutes away.  When we arrived (around 3:30P, if I recall correctly), M realized that he'd left his passport in his luggage.  D'oh!  What happens in cases like this is that the shore staff fill out a form requesting a luggage search, since M couldn't board without his passport.  However, since the luggage had been delivered around 1PM it was considered likely that his bag might already be in his stateroom, so they also suggested that we all board so C could go to their stateroom and check for his bag herself.  It took us about 20 minutes to clear security, get onboard, and make our way to the rooms.  Bags were not yet there, but M&C's bags arrived within about 15 minutes so C went back ashore with M's passport and got him checked in.

After several days of living out of luggage we could FINALLY unpack!  Noticing that our group of 11 was spread among three different tables (despite an email to the dining team a few weeks earlier requesting that we all be seated at a single table that had been acknowledged) D&E made haste to the MDR service desk to straighten things out.  We got all of us reassigned to our own table of 11 in time for the first night's dinner.

We took time to get settled into our staterooms before meeting in the hallway to do a quick tour before our 5:30P MDR seating.  Well, MOST of us met in the hallway.  N wasn't there.  Why not?  Well, turns out N is a natural-born rum runner.  Seeing that no one made any attempt to count the bottles of wine we were bringing on board she had left the ship, hoofed it back to Safeway (she's young and in great shape - she might have run both ways), and was bringing back two more bottles of wine!  The rest of us wandered around the ship, with D, E, R & A (the only ones with prior cruising experience on Royal) leading the way.

With the expertise of seasoned vets, we made sure to time our arrival at the Centrum bar to allow us to grab our first drink of the cruise just prior to dinner.  We went into the MDR and took our seats, and met our waiting team (Reynato, assisted by Roi).  These guys did a good job taking care of us throughout the cruise.  Unlike prior trips, Roi offered a 2nd roll service quickly - points to Roi.  And Reynato was one of those waiters who saw that we liked to taste each other's dishes and started bringing us several extra appetizers and desserts in addition to whatever we'd already ordered.

Post-dessert (which this time included a candle in celebration of W's birthday) we had a quick muster drill that took less than 15 minutes.  Shortest one we've experienced so far.  We all returned to our rooms to prep for the Welcome Aboard show before calling it a night and sleeping soundly.

Thanks for reading!  

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