14 Days on the NCL Sun to Alaska...May 2017

At the end of Endicott Arm we reached Dawes Glacier. Having not seen South Sawyer Glacier I am not able to compare, but in my opinion this glacier was pretty impressive. Unfortunately the lighting was not the best for photos.

Two small ships were also in Endicott Arm with us...the National Geographic Sea Lion and also the Alaskan Dream. I would love to see Alaska on a small cruise ship...but knowing I could take several cruises on a large ship for the same price is enough to keep me from following through with the dream.

Love the color of the water close to the glaciers...

More spectacular scenery as we sailed towards Juneau...

When we reached Juneau, the Sun tied up at the Alaska Steam Ship Dock...the closest to downtown. This was convenient for most...but for us...not so much. I had reserved a car from Juneau Car Rental which was located next to the AJ Dock...the one I think Norwegian often uses, but it was a mile and a quarter from where we were.

The guys are in good shape and also good sports so they agreed to walk to the car rental...in a steady rain...and then return to pick us gals up. Juneau Car Rental has older, high mileage cars and for $59.80 (including tax) we ended up with a black Lincoln Continental!

In my travel research, I ran across information on the Treadwell Gold Mine, the largest in existence a century ago, which had operated on Douglas Island...just across the bridge from Juneau. If you are looking for something unique and non-touristy to do while in Juneau...you might want to check it out! Here is some information I found online:

It was raining the whole time we were at the mine, but we had good rain gear to keep us dry and enjoyed the solitude as we snooped around.

If you are interested, here is a link to a map and a Walking Tour of the Treadwell Mine

Before leaving the island, we made a quick stop to look at the spirit houses in the Douglas Indian Cemetary.

Back in Juneau we headed to Mendenhall Glacier. We first spent a short time looking around the visitor's center. My friend had a National Park Pass which enabled the four of us to get free entry...but I got the idea that the gal working at the front desk would have probably not charged us anyway because it was getting so close to closing time.

We walked the 3/4 mile Nugget Falls Trail...still in the rain. By the time we got there most everyone else was gone and we had the place to ourselves. It had only been 3 years since our last visit, but it was apparent that the glacier is shrinking.

Even if it is receding, Mendenhall is still massive. Notice the canoe in front? It gives a sense of the scale of the glacier.

We had brought along some sandwiches which we ate under the protection of the pavillion. A group of high school students were there taking photos before their prom. The girls looked lovely...but very cold!

After stopping for gas, the guys dropped us off at the ship, returned the car, and then walked the 1.25 miles back to the ship in...you guessed it...the rain.

It had been a long, full day so we opted to skip the evening entertainment...a comedian. We had a late snack in the buffet and then called it a night.

Oops...I just realized I forgot to include a close-up photo of Nugget Falls in the last post.

Here is a link to a 6 minute video from our time in Juneau...and it includes the falls! Believe me, they are much more impressive in a video than in a still photo anyway. :)

I want to thank you for your very detailed blog posts. I read these boards even though our Alaska trip is completely land-based, because the trip reports often contain reviews of Seward, Anchorage and Denali, which we will visit--I followed your directions in your beginning post and wound up at your blog. I have to say that your 2014 Alaska blog posts were so entertaining and captivating--so thank you! I will read along with your more recent trip report as well.

And your photos are awesome!

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! We are sailing on the Sun from Vancouver to Seward and back in August/September of this year. And we are so excited!

I'm loving your review! Thank you for taking the time to do it!

Thanks to all who have responded. I get a little more motivated when I know people are reading!

On to Day 7 of the cruise...Glacier Bay. Hard to believe but our previous Alaska cruise would be ending already today. After our last few cruises, we are getting spoiled. I think it is going to be harder and harder to book ANY cruise that isn't longer than a week now.

Unfortunately our day in Glacier Bay wasn't the blue sky day we had hoped for. It was raining and the view from our balcony was...non-existent.

The fog did lift a little as the morning went on...

At the end of the Tarr Inlet we reached the face of Margarie Glacier where we spent some time. The captain rotated the ship so that both sides had a chance to view the face.

We watched from our balcony and then went down to deck 6 where we would be undercover and out of the rain.

We were fortunate and got to see the glacier calve several times. At a distance, the falling ice chunks didn't look very large, but I'm sure they would have been massive to anyone sitting in a canoe!

Loving your review! Will be on the Sun in August for a 7 night Southbound from Seward! We were on RCI Radiance in August of 2015. Your photos are bringing back great memories, and anticipation for new ones!

Glacier Bay - continued

The HAL Volendam was also in Glacier Bay with the Sun.

This Un-Cruise ship, the Wilderness Explorer, sailed towards us through the fog...isn't this a surreal photo?!

If cost weren't a factor (which it is) I would love to experience an Uncruise in Alaska. Before we even took our first cruise, I fell in love with Alaska after reading a blog from a Cruise Critic member (Shazzah). She and her husband did 3 weeks of cruising on Uncruise ships (including this one!) and her photographs are some of the best I've ever seen. Here is a link to the blog in case you are interested: Uncruise to Alaska

Here is the same ship in front of what I think is Reid Glacier. Definitely the way to see the glaciers up close and personal!

With the wet weather, I'm sure many people just ventured outside to take a few pictures at the face of the glacier, and then went back inside.

However...we kept watch from our balcony and were able to spot some seals and otters. Not as many as we saw on our last cruise...but they were still there!

Glacier Bay - continued

Another close-up photo from Glacier Bay:

You can see we had a steady rain...

At 1 pm we attended a Glacier Bay ranger's presentation in the main theater. At the end of her talk, the ranger suggested we go outside because we would be passing by South Marble Island and would be able to see a large group of sea lions. We were quite a distance away so without binoculars you would not have been able to see anything (and the distance and speed of the ship made it impossible to get a decent photo.)

A zoomed-in view...

Some more photos from our Glacier Bay day:

A Celebrity ship passing by around 9:30 pm.

That night we had the 3rd of our 4 speciality dinners at La Cucina. I am a little embarrased as I think back to that night...

Since we had the dining package we asked what was included. The waiter told us that we could order unlimited soup & salad, appetizers and dessert but only one main course. I will post the menu here and then explain what happened...

I ordered a caprese salad to start and then decided to get a pizza as an appetizer. I "assumed" that the pizzas on the menu were small, personal-sized pizzas and the waiter didn't give me any reason to believe otherwise so I requested the Mozerella, Italian Sausage & Pancetta pizza. My main course was the Shrimp Fra Diavolo and dessert was Affogato (which was good but too much caffeine that late in the evening for me.)

The pizza was brought out after I finished the salad and it was a FULL SIZE PIZZA!! There wasn't even enough room to set it on the table!! I did not want to see it go to waste, but there was no way I could ever eat a whole pizza by myself...and I still had my main course & dessert coming!

The manager happened to stop by our table about that time and I apologized that I wouldn't be able to finish the pizza (and neither DH or our friends were willing to help!) I told him I wished I could do a carry-out and he said he would make that happen!! So...I ate one slice and then the rest was boxed up and waiting for me after the meal.

I actually enjoyed the pizza more than I did the main course so I was happy to be able to enjoy the rest later. I packaged it into some ziplock bags I had and put it in our cabin fridge! Cold pizza is one of my favorite snacks!!

The show in the main theater that night was put on by the Sun production cast accompanied by the Sun showband. The singers and dancers were all brand new on this cruise so we were seeing the shows performed for the first time by the cast...and they were outstanding!!

Coming up next...a big day in Skagway!!

Just got my video from Glacier Bay uploaded to YouTube so figured this is an appropriate spot to include the link. This cruise included three of the big-time glaciers...Sawyer (but since we couldn't make it up Tracy Arm we saw Dawes Glacier instead); Glacier Bay; and Hubbard Glacier. I decided I would just do one video covering all of the glaciers rather than separate videos for each. Unfortunately you won't see any of Hubbard on the video...because we didn't see any of the glacier on the cruise. :(

Here is the link:

I see this review has already faded to the 2nd page...that means it is time to get going on the next port...Skagway. Stay tuned...hopefully I will get another installment up this weekend.

Have enjoyed reading your posts and seeing your photos.

It was a great cruise - keep posting it is brining back lots of great memories.

Cheers!

Dennis

:):):):):)

Reading...and the excitement is building for my Aug 2 Island Princess cruise-tour. It'll be my first time in Alaska.

Thank you!

Have enjoyed reading your posts and seeing your photos.

It was a great cruise - keep posting it is brining back lots of great memories.

Cheers!

Dennis

:):):):):)

Thanks, Dennis! It was fun to meet and talk with you and put a face to the name that I had seen so much on Cruise Critic.

Reading...and the excitement is building for my Aug 2 Island Princess cruise-tour. It'll be my first time in Alaska.

 

Thank you!

Only about a month away for you!!

You will have a great time. Our first cruise was on the Coral Princess and even though I loved our NCL cruise, I think Princess just does a better job in Alaska.

May 22 - Skagway

Our day in Skagway started early. This was our 12th cruise overall and can you believe, this was the first time we had ever ordered room service! By doing so I figure I got a little more sleep and we were able to walk off the ship right after it arrived at 7 am. The Sun was docked at the Broadway Dock which means we were pretty much parked at the end of the main street in town.

The four of us walked the short distance to Avis and picked up our rental...a Toyota Corolla. I still had Murray's Guide downloaded on my iPad (from our last trip) and was the designated narrator for the day. The guide is an excellent mile by mile description of the drive up to the Yukon. Our only glitch was that we set our odometer reading back to "0" a little late so the mileage on the car didn't exactly match the numbers in the guide. It got even a little more confusing once we reached the Canadian border and were dealing in kilometers instead of miles.

We didn't run into Goldilocks, but it didn't take us very long until we came across the first of the Three Bears. This black bear was sauntering down the highway so we pulled over to watch. And just as we were excited about seeing a bear...he was excited about seeing tourists! He turned around and walked back to our car...and then proceeded to put his front paws on the hood and look at us through the windshield!! We were left with some muddy paw prints, but luckily no scratches on the rental car. (As surprised as we were, I managed to catch the close-up view on video which I will post shortly...)

I guess we weren't all that interesting because he hopped down and slowly walked up the hill.

Having the rental car gave us the luxury of being able to stop whenever and as often as we wanted...which was pretty often! The weather had started out with fog and low clouds, but as we made our way up to the summit of White Pass, blue skies began to appear.

Bear #2 was a giant brown bear who was intent on munching on dandelions and didn't really pay much attention to us.

Our friends are big Iditarod fans so we made it a point to stop at the Tagish Lake Kennel run by Michelle Phillips (who finished 13th in this past race.) We opted to not do the sled dog ride (they pull a 4-wheeler) but instead just spent some time playing with the puppies. (They had the most beautiful blue eyes!!)

At the Bove Island lookout, we could still see plenty of ice on the lake.

Wonderful review and photos! I remember reading your Coral Princess review several times when we were preparing for our June 2016 Star Princess cruise. Thanks for taking the time to do them.

I don't think driving this highway would ever get old...

Do you see the mountain goats in this photo? No...me either. But my DH has an eagle eye and just driving down the highway could see them!

There were quite a few goats on the side of this mountain...with the zoom on my camera I was able to get a recognizable photo.

At mile 73, we reached the beautiful Emerald Lake. This is one spot where a photo just doesn't capture the beauty.

This was our second time to drive this route, but the last time Emerald Lake was our turning around point. In my research I had read about the Robinson Roadhouse which sounded interesting and it was only about 15 miles further. Here is a little info on the site:

I'm guessing not many others make it this far since we were the only ones at the roadhouse. We walked around exploring the abandoned buildings and then ate a picnic lunch on one of the tables by the parking area.

For some, this may not be an exciting stop, but I enjoyed it and found myself trying to imagine what this might have been like a little over a hundred years ago when it was a bustling stop for miners.

After leaving Robinson's Roadhouse we began the trip back towards Skagway. We stopped to get a photo of the Carcross Dessert, but didn't get out of the car since we had explored here a bit last time. Also...we needed to watch our time...we had evening plans back in Skagway.

But...there is always time for ice cream! The Matthew Watson General Store has delicious ice cream served in homemade waffle cones. The ice cream is $5/scoop, but by paying with our credit card, two scoops was only $7.43 because of the favorable exchange rate. (Also...our card does not charge the 3% foreign transaction fee that some do.)

Part of the town of Carcross is being developed with tourism in mind but we searched out more of the "real" Carcross.

We finished up our ice cream while watching people walking across the wide sandy area along the river.

Even with a time constraint, we couldn't resist stopping for numerous photos...

And when we saw a few cars pulled over on the side of the road, it was a sure sign of...a BEAR. This would be #3 for the day!

The railroad runs between the shoreline and the highway...

The train stopped in Fraser.

Just before crossing the bridge into Skagway, we took the turn onto Dyea Road. A short distance down this road is an overlook that gives a great view of the city...and all of the cruise ships in port. (Also...note the location of the airport runway at the lower edge of this photo...this is where we would be heading next!!)

The guys dropped us off and then met us back at the ship after returning the car.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful review with us! I can't wait to read the rest. We went to Alaska for the first time last fall, and have another booked for 2018. It is just beautiful! Thanks again! Kim

Thanks for sharing this wonderful review with us! I can't wait to read the rest. We went to Alaska for the first time last fall, and have another booked for 2018. It is just beautiful! Thanks again! Kim

Our first cruise to Alaska was going to be a "once in a lifetime" trip...and that was only 3 years ago. Sounds like you couldn't even wait that long! ;)

I agree...Alaska is BEAUTIFUL!