Alaska Cruise 2025 - Thoughts on the trip (08/23/25)

 

Some thoughts, looking back on our trip...

• If one needs to fly across multiple time zones to take an Alaska cruise, make sure to arrive at least a day or two in advance of the cruise to: (1) Get used to the new time zone, and (2) Have some wiggle room in transit arrangements, so that a delayed flight won't cause a person to miss the cruise.
  
  
• San Francisco is a wonderful city to spend a few days exploring.  We loved our visit to the De Young museum to see the exhibition of Paul McCartney Beatlemania era photographs.
  
  
• San Francisco is a mass transit friendly city.  However, like New York, rerouted bus routes are poorly communicated to riders via their transit authority's app.
  
  
• San Francisco's Passenger Cruise Terminal is near the heart of town, and relatively inexpensive to reach via local ride services or cabs.
   
• One should book all Alaska shore excursions way in advance of one's trip.  Several excursions were sold out by the time we boarded the ship.  We were glad that we booked our trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad months in advance, as this 2½ hour excursion often sells out.
  
  
• In Juneau, there is an area in the center of the tourist district where cruisers can buy independent tours.  Most of these tours are professionally run, and are priced lower than those tours sold by the cruise line. We bought our Juneau excursion via shoreexcursionsgroup.com, and had only the minor inconvenience in finding the bus that would take is to the glacier and back.
  
  
• Although one can take Juneau's public bus system to the Mendenhall Glacier park, I would not recommend it, as one would still need to walk a distance before reaching the park's tourist center. I'd rather spend more of my time walking within the park, than spend it walking to the park.
  
  
• Glacier Bay is only reachable by ship.  Only 2 ships may enter the park in a single day.  One may see wildlife while cruising in the park, we weren't that lucky.  Focus on getting a cruise where one spends as much time viewing glaciers as possible - seeing a glacier calve is an amazing sight.  
  
  
• In Ketchikan, we went to see the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show.  We could have booked our tickets on our own, and used Ketchikan's free seasonal bus system to get from our pier to the show and back.  From the show, it's a short walk to Creek Street and the town's arts district.
  
  
• At many of Alaska's ports, one can book excursions for whale watching.  If one hasn't seen a whale breach before, it's an awe inspiring sight.  As for me, I've seen enough whales on my trips to Cape Cod, that I don't find breaching interesting anymore.
  
  
• Many people will enjoy sled dog mushing and glacier fly-over excursions.  These tend to be expensive, but most people who take these excursions feel they are well worth the money.
  
  
• Our cruise gave us a full day in the 3 Alaskan ports we visited.  We didn't visit any of the more popular ports (Vancouver, BC and Victoria, BC).  Instead, we spent ½ day in Prince Rupert.  And that was the perfect amount of time to spend in this port, as there isn't much to see except what's in the Museum of Northern British Columbia.
  
  
• Assuming one is returning to the East Coast after the cruise, one should book flights as close to 12:30 pm to arrive in one's home city to get home by midnight.  With this being said, I prefer to return from San Francisco on a "Red-Eye" flight, so that I can sleep on the plane AND have more options when I get home.
  

I highly recommend visiting Alaska's inside passage if at all possible.  The landscape and wildlife are unique and can be awe inspiring when the stars align just right.  

Alaska Cruise 2025 - Juneau, AK - Port Day #2 (08/17/25)

 

Juneau, AK, the 49th state's capital.  And we had a shore excursion scheduled to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier.  It was raining out, and I wasn't that interested in going out, as I hate going out in the rain.

But first....

RQS and I got up early, so that we could reach the meeting site by 10:30.  We had breakfast in the buffet, and were out the door by 9:30.  

When one gets of the ship at the pier we were docked at, one has a 10 minute walk to the center of the tourist district.   And we had to do it in the drizzling rain.  Both RQS and I were glad that we brought rain gear with us.  Once by the tram, we had 45 minutes to kill.  So we hung out across the street from our meeting place, in a relatively dry place.

Eventually, we crossed the street to find our tour guide.  Although we did so, we had to wait an extra 15 minutes in the rain before the bus arrived to take us to the glacier. Our driver was a man with a beard that would qualify him to be a member of ZZ-Top. Once on the bus, the driver talked about life in Alaska, and about how he home-schooled his daughter as a single parent. (I'd have loved to find out more, but it would have been way to impolite to ask.  Let's say that this 15 y/o daughter knows how to hunt, skin and tan an animal's hide, and cook the meat from that animal.  Father and Daughter meet the definition of the self-reliant frontier people that people associated with Alaska.

   

We reached the park, took some glacier pictures, and then hung out in the visitors center until our bus returned to take us back to town.  If the weather had been better, we would have walked to Nugget Falls.  But that's something we'll do if we ever get back to town.  Arriving in the center of Juneau, we decided to get some grub at Tracy's King Crab Shack.  Yum!  Although the food was expensive (this is Alaska, with its high prices), it was good. After lunch, we walked back to the ship with a couple of pit stops for souvenirs. We picked up some snacks for us to eat, a book on pre-statehood Alaskan bordellos, and some venison jerky for TCL.  Once on the ship, we decided to rest for a while....

Dinner time came, and we headed downstairs for dinner.  Although we requested our usual shared table, no one came to share it until we were being served our main course.  This didn't stop us from having a nice conversation with the people who ate with us.  And then, we were off to the main theater to hear Trenyce perform.

Trenyce is a singer who got her start on TV's American Idol show.  Even though she came in 5th, she has made a career out of her singing.  Tonight, she sang songs made famous by Diana Ross and Whitney Houston - and she made them her own, while performing them in the style of the original artists.  This performance made up for last night's lackluster show.  

All too soon, it was time to go to bed - and we did just that. 

 

Alaska Cruise 2025 - Glacier Bay - Scenic Cruising Day (08/16/25)

 

Glacier Bay.  It's a national park where only two cruise ships are allowed to enter it on any one day, and we are on one of those ships.  It's a place where nature has been allowed to run wild, and I am grateful that I have the chance to see it before global warming ruins it.

- - - - - -

One thing I've noticed where RQS and I differ greatly is in our sleeping habits.  If I wake up, I tend to stay awake.  If she wakes up, it's easy for her to stay asleep.  This is not usually a big problem, as I will often go into another room and do my thing.  But when it's in a cabin, it's something else.  I have to find ways of doing my thing without disturbing her. And that can be tricky when we have an inside cabin.  Luckily, we have a balcony cabin for this cruise, and we'll be able to see glaciers without leaving the cabin if we want to do that.

Around 9:15, we went to the buffet for breakfast.  Not much to say about that, save we were on the opposite end of the ship from where the Park Ranger was scheduled to give a talk about Glacier bay.  By the time we reached the theater, there were almost no seats left, and we had to walk to the front row to find seats.  Of the 2 presentations we have seen this cruise, the park ranger's presentation was the best. After the presentation, we walked back to our cabin and watched Alaska glide by from the comfort of our balcony for a while. 

 
After lunch, we moseyed up to the lounge where the park ranger was talking.  She noted several things about Glacier Bay park that made the cruise a little bit more interesting: Why the color of the water can be a shade of aqua, how fine glacial silt can be, what causes icebergs to calve from glaciers, etc. Even though what she said was interesting, I found it relaxing to see Mother Nature in her majesty.  All too soon, the park rangers were dropped off at the entrance to the park, and our ship started on its way to Juneau.

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Dinnertime came, and we sat at our usual table with some people we ate with before. Although it was noisy, we were able to enjoy a good meal and good conversation.  Unfortunately, I took a chance with another Indian chicken dish and struck out.  Such is the life of someone who gambles with food.  At least, the creme brulee was good. 

Later on was the stage show.  It was a 30-minute song and dance extravaganza, where the performers sang (and danced to) music from around the world.  One problem: more than half the numbers stunk. One of the decent tunes was an abbreviated version of Iz's "Somewhere over the Rainbow" / "It's a Wonderful World" medley. The men performing "Nessun dorma" and the woman doing Alicia Keys' "New York" did a great job on their tunes.  However, the show was ruined for me because the cast ruined "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Mas Que Nada", both tunes I've loved from childhood.

With that being said, it was another good day in the great white north.

 

A quick note: I could be away for the better part of a month next year

 

The above is a cruise that I might be interested in taking with a friend who knows me as Mario.  Why so, you might ask?  Well, it's hard enough to pack for a trip as Marian, and I am uncomfortable flying into Vancouver in Marian Mode and having to deal with Canadian customs.

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The itinerary below would allow me to visit ports in Alaska I have yet to visit, and would also allow me to visit Skagway again as well.  (I shouldn't ignore that this cruise sails into Glacier Bay, one of the "Must See" places on an Inside Passage cruise. 

The tail end of this cruise ends up in Hawaii.  It's not as good as NCL's 7 day cruise around Hawaii, but it allows the cruiser to schedule his/her own tours of the same places which NCL's 11 day Hawaii Cruisetour goes to.

There is one person who has expressed an interest in joining me on this cruise.  However, I don't think it will come off.  It would be nice to take this cruise, but I am still aiming for the 11 day ALL HAWAII trip.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that I can make to Hawaii in 2022.

What would you do in my shoes?  Should I take the Alaska/Hawaii cruise, then spend an extra 3-4 days in Hawaii?  Or, should I spend the money on NCL's 11 day Hawaii Cruisetour?

 

 

 

 

 

An impromptu dinner with Vicki, plus some vacation plans

 

Both Vicki and I enjoy Greek food.  So Vicki decided to treat me for dinner at the new Greek restaurant in town.  Since this would be a last minute decision for me, as I expected to be very tired after work, I had to provide for doing two things.  First, I'd have to call Friedrich to check up on the status on my AC service call.  And then, I'd have to change into something comfortable and pretty for going outside in this weather. (I dress more warmly for work, as the AC is cranked up to counter the heat coming from the computers and imaging equipment found at every desk.)

I met Vicki at 7, and we decided to eat at an outside table.  (Inside tables were all taken.)  We talked about many things, including our former loves.  (She'll always wonder about one road not taken. And I'll always wonder if a former love really knew what she wanted when she met me.)  One thing we both agreed on is that I was lucky to only have had a "minor flesh wound" caused by my former love - things would have been much worse had we been living together or had been married when her real personality finally came out in an argument.  But enough on that topic - she'll never admit that I had valid points in our dispute, and it would be pointless to argue with someone resistant to acknowledging alternate points of view.

- - - - - -

Lately, I've been looking at future cruise trips.  All of these involve cruises to/in Hawaii.  The first of these vacations is the shortest (10 days), yet the most expensive.

This is a 7 day cruise out of Honolulu, coupled with a 3 day tour of its island's (Oahu) most popular tourist attractions.  It is only offered by one cruise line (NCL), as it is on the only American owned, staffed, flagged, and built ship operating at the present time.  I won't go into the reasons why most ships fly "flags of convenience" here. But this route is the only regularly scheduled route restricted to American flagged ships, and why it is the most expensive option on my list at roughly $6,000 for a solo traveler. (It was priced less before the pandemic, but post-pandemic prices have zoomed upward due to reduced capacity and pent up demand.)  Couple this trip with airfare, excursions, taxes, port fees and gratuities, and I could be spending $9,000 for a trip I could have once taken for under $6,000.  Right now, there is one important advantage to this cruise - all passengers must be vaccinated for Covid-19 before taking this trip.

Next on the list is a 15 night cruise out of Los Angeles.  This is on Princess, and has a much shorter time in Hawaii than the first cruise due to its foreign flagged ship.

Do I really want to spend more time on a ship and see less of Hawaii to save a few bucks?  I could cut down the money I spend to roughly $5,000 - and I can afford that with little trouble.  However, some of Princess's cruises allow unvaccinated passengers on board, and I don't want to deal with the hassles these passengers may present.

Second to last might be the longest cruise of the choices on my list - 18 days.  I'd be flying in and out of Vancouver, and then cruising to Hawaii on Holland America,

This might be the best option, as it allows for an overnight in Honolulu before the trip back to Vancouver.  Next to sailing on a ship that is based in Hawaii, this provides the most time in Hawaii that I can find at a reasonable price - in the $6,500 range for the vacation. 

Lastly, there is the most interesting option, a cruise that combines 2 bucket list trips into one: Alaska and Hawaii, leaving from Vancouver, BC and ending in Honolulu, HI.

I'd like to visit Skagway again, as well as seeing Juneau and Glacier Bay for the first time.  But do I want to pack for both summer and late fall / early winter weather?  Then, there is the extra factor that I would be leaving from a foreign port, and that I would want to travel in Marian Mode as much as possible.  Do I want to put up with these hassles? This could be a $7,500 trip without any extra plans. But there is an option for this trip that I haven't mentioned.  I could take the train to Seattle, spend a couple of days there, then another train to Vancouver, and spend a day there before the cruise.  I expect that this will add another $2,500 or so to the cost of this vacation.

Which option would you choose, and why?  Since I prefer to travel as Marian, I'd like to hear what you have to say....

 

 

 

PS: I have 3 travel guides for places I'll never have the chance to visit:

1. Molvania
2. San Sombrero
3. Phaic Tan

I wonder what you might have heard about these places.  Would you visit them, just for the unreal experience?