aussielozzie18

  We spent a week in Victoria before our cruise and loved it.  We (me & my two young adult children) enjoyed walking around the water’s edge to Fisherman’s Wharf for an early dinner on a warm evening. That’s something you could do in your short time frame there.

Skagway - we all enjoyed our self drive from Skagway up to Emerald Lake stopping at all the scenic viewpoints, the suspension bridge, Carcross desert along the way.  
 

Sitka - we booked a small group private tour that took us to scenic lookouts as well as the Raptor Centre & the Bear Fortress - we all enjoyed it a lot.

Junea - lots and lots of things to do there.  Have fun researching.

We cruised Grand Princess in May just gone.  You are going to LOVE cruising Glacier Bay NP!  
 

The benefit of cruising with Grand Princess for us was the long days in port.  I made sure to get off as soon as we docked to explore the town centres when it was still quiet - and then again after returning from excursions.  Usually, at least two of the other ships had either had their all aboard or were departing whilst us Grand Princess cruisers still had time to wander/shop in town.

Also, as others have suggested book something that gets you out of town.  We hadn’t planned to book an excursion in Sitka but when I discovered Quantum of the Seas was going to be in port with us, I decided to book a small group tour that got us away from the masses and also returned us back into  town centre after the Quantum cruisers needed to be back on board their ship.  That was a really good decision.

@grapau27 Happy Anniversary you to you both Graham & Pauline 🥂💐

We left Vancouver on the 30th April.  Beautiful snowy scenes when we self drove from Skagway up to Emerald Lake. Would have been the same for those that did the White Pass Railway on the same day.   I expected Emerald Lake to be completely frozen over but it had melted enough for us to see the beautiful colours.

Be aware that some tour companies do not open until mid-may.  Chilkoot Tours which are hugely popular in Skagway for their rail/small bus combo up the Yukon - did not offer tours until the week after our cruise.  A couple of other tour companies were the same.  Nevertheless there are plenty of excursions still available in the early season.  
 

Dressing in layers is always the key in Alaska but even still we were surprised how warm it was in the first couple of days.  I didn’t pack swimmers for the open pools.  I should have.

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

Feeling like new empty nesters, we are slowly getting back to our normal routine of longer hikes and walks.  
 

Our church owns quite a few acres of land, and a farmer leases part of it to plant crops.  This year, he agreed to plant sunflowers, several rows deep, along the outer edge.  
 

Weather was not nice enough Sunday for photos, so I went today fo a couple pictures. 

 

One of the local photographers has been using it for a nice background. 
 

 

 

 

Love this!  Makes me happy seeing these.  Wouldn’t last long in our area though - the cockatoos would call it a buffet.

4 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

 

 

My daughter just sent a couple of pictures.  She got new bulbs for her "new" chandelier, and she gave us an "after" shot of cleaning her stained-glass window.  She found the chandelier at a thrift store, and it needed a lot of cleaning and a little rewiring.  Looks great in her foyer.  You can't really tell from the picture, but a couple of the stained-glass panes are cracked and some of the panes are loose from missing lead.  She'll need to find someone who fixes stained-glass windows.  That's well beyond my skill set.  I did however build a new wooden frame with a plexiglass insert that's mounted and sealed outside of the stained-glass window.  It lets in light but my daughter won't need to worry about bugs or cold air coming in from the cracks.

 

 

Beautiful!  Love the paint colour  and the light on the banister too.  That chandelier is a find.  Never seen one at a thrift shop here.

12 hours ago, Bracarense said:

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies.

 

We're seeing it as a "one time" opportunity as going from Europe to Alaska isn't that easy and the world still as a lot of places to look around.

 

So far and with your help we have an idea of must-do ports.

I guess that at each port we'll end doing excursions to explore the region.

Are Cruise Line shore excursions the option to go or local ones are safe to do.

We have done both, as the locals are usually a lot cheaper and as good as or even better but, the "miss all aboard" risk is always there - we only had one close call, but it was in the Mediterranean and I think it would be more manageable than in Alaska...

 

 

We cruised as a one & done a couple of months back (from

Australia).

Princess ✅Glacier Bay NP ✅

Researching excursions did my head in.  So many options.  I was happy to do either cruise or private.  Found the pricing for the most popular excursions very similar whoever you booked with.  Private was good if you wanted to be in a smaller tour or if you needed a time that the ship couldn’t offer.

You pay in full at the time of booking any excursion.  I found that both Princess and private were happy to refund pretty promptly if you changed your mind - obviously as long as you do  it within their booking t & cs.  
 

Book as soon as you see an excursion you like.  The popular ones do sell out.

Just to give an idea of how we mixed it up;

Sitka - private small group tour - raptor centre/bear sanctuary/scenic lake viewpoint/walk through park t

we were 4, tour total on the tour was 10.

Junea - one  did the seaplane & lodge lunch through the ship tour

two did a private transfer to Mendhall Glacier

one  stayed on the ship and relaxed by the pool 

Skagway - we hired a car from Avis and drove up the Klondike Highway.  Booked months ahead, no deposit, paid on the day.  Visited the Suspension Bridge, stopped at all the lookouts and drove up to beautiful Emerald Lake.  Saw a bear on the side of the road on return drive to Skagway.

Ketichan - one did the Deadliest  Catch fisherman’s tour through the ship.

one did a kayaking tour through the ship.

two had a relaxed day shopping for souvenirs.

We flew into Vancouver because we can get a direct flight and it’s a great place for doing touring pre-cruise.

Our original plan was to fly to Anchorage, explore Alaska ourselves before joining a one-way cruise from Seward to Vancouver but the pandemic stopped that.

I instead we pre-toured Canada (better exchange rate) and then did a 8 night return cruise of Alaska from Vancouver. 

Lots of options. Enjoy the research.  Alaska is amazing.  Glacier Bay NP was the highlight for us.

From the ABC, dogs 🐶 will be permitted on the new ships.

16 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

We're finally back home in Florida.  It was great seeing our daughters in Cincinnati, and we got a lot done on my older daughter's 130-year-old house, but we're exhausted. I think a couple of days of doing nothing is in order.  Although my daughter loves her old Victorian house, I much prefer our modern house with a lot more space.  

 

There's still a lot more to do, especially with her landscaping.  We cleared out a lot of garbage trees and shrubs around her yard, that likely grew as weeds for years.  We kept and significantly trimmed a few other larger trees that were in good shape.  We also got rid of most of the wintercreeper that had overgrown and was tangled in her chain link fence.  Someone years ago planted it for ground cover, and possibly as cover for her fence, but I doubt if it was ever maintained. There were many wintercreeper roots that were 3-4 inches thick that we couldn't remove from the fence.  We cut it off at the ground and will need to wait for it to die and then cut/chop/scrap to remove it from the fence.  That will probably be next summer.  She now has mostly a blank slate from which to build a new landscaping plan.  

Definitely sounds like a lot of work.  Well done & enjoy your rest.

We have a patch of area in the very back of our garden, hidden by our large shed, that DH had dumped cuttings and larger tree limbs and has vines grown  all over it. I have decided to work on getting rid of it, bit by bit, each fortnight when it’s green bin time.  Was doing it late on Sunday afternoon with rakes, saws etc but wasn’t wearing gloves.  Light  bulb moment of how dumb that was - never seen a funnel web spider in our garden - but if I was to, this would be the perfect environment.

Did you discover any critters as you were clearing out the garden?

Here downunder we are heading into Spring 🌸

 last weekend I unpacked & wore my shorts for the first time

Took the heavy blankets off the bed

Can walk Max for longer after work (so he can spot more bunnies & avoid more cats)

Wildflowers are out

Going to the cherry blossom festival this weekend 

And the definite sign of Spring -  this conversation in the car  last weekend:

DH: You just sneezed 10 times!

Me:  It was “only” 7

DH:  Soon to be 10…..

Camp Nana papa & summer of fun - just wonderful. Love seeing all the photos of the happy grandkids.

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Happy 45th Anniversary to you, John.  Wishing you many more. 

+ 1 @Ozark_Kid 💐🥂

5 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

Do you know when they changed the Premier Package? When I booked the Alaska cruise, it was $80 per day. Considering it included tips, wifi (up to 4 devices), 2 specialty & unlimited casual specialty restaurants( which I guess would be their version of Playmakers, Johnny Rockets, etc) and a few other things such as photos & fitness classes, it seemed liked quite the deal. 

 

Quite the deal, considering that I just payed $65 for the drink package on Adventure, the extra $15 gets you a lot more.

 

The changes to the Premier package only happened in the last week.  So it’s very new.  

Still happy to stick with the standard fare.  We all survived in Alaska without internet, fancy desserts and no specialty dining.  More than happy with our meals in the MDR on the Grand for those 8 nights.

@Momof3gurlz Lovely photo of you and your gorgeous grandkids.

I will have to look up an onion volcano.  Not heard of that before.

53 minutes ago, MancGirl21 said:

It’s lovely to see the pictures of Avalon, that is where my aunt lived. She moved there from the UK in the 90’s, my cousins her daughters had already emigrated there before her. I have never been but my mum went to visit her sister a few times.

Your Aunt chose a lovely place to live on the Northern Beaches.  My parents are both from England.  They met on the ship  travelling from England to Australia when they were in their late 20s.  They lived in Manly first then moved further up the Peninsula to live.

After a lovely sunny Saturday in Sydney yesterday, it was a bit drizzly today but we still enjoyed the walk from Palm Beach to Avalon Beach with a side detour to do the loop walk at Bengally Headland.    
 

First beach after Palm Beach -

Whale Beach

Some colour along the way

Views from the  headland loop walk.  Normally you can look back towards Palm Beach but it was obscured by the drizzle.  Out to sea view instead.

It was lovely walking through the headland, after the Heath there was lots of wildflowers in bloom.

Then we walked down to the southern end of Avalon Beach.

Only surfers in the water today.

Avalon Beach

We finished  off with a healthy lunch at Avalon. For me - three different  Goodness balls - falafel, beetroot and  brown rice.
 

@sgmn Congratulations on the upgrade.  Enjoyed your photos from your world cruise segment.  
Saddened to read your former work friend passed. 57 is too young.

4 hours ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said:

I’ve missed a few days here due to driving back to Pittsburgh from Alys Beach FL.  Ended up being about 15 hrs one way.  split the drive into about half over 2 days.  Compared to flying I think I prefer the drive (as long as I have the extra vacation time to use).

 

We had 14 total in our house at the beach.  10 adults and 4 kids (10,6, 2 and 2 yr old).  The pool was amazing  and a short walk to the beach.  There was even a golf cart with the house.  I snapped some quick pics before the kids took over the pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stunning!  Nevermind the beach I wouldn’t want to move from that pool.

5 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I suspect Sympathy OTS is rocking and rolling today because of Ernesto.  They are due to arrive at Cape Liberty, NJ tomorrow morning.    

They missed a port so  they have plenty of time and  are cruising very slowly back to  New Jersey.

What a great birthday party @h20skibum.  Happy 12th Birthday to your grandson.

@Momof3gurlz  Love that you are a mom of 3 girls and have 3  grandsons.  Hope your youngest grandson recovers quickly.  

8 hours ago, brillohead said:

I got the pathology report back on my melanoma excision -- all margins are clear.  The chunk they took out of my shoulder was about 2"x1".  I could tell how long it was based on the incision, but I wasn't sure how wide it was. 

Best outcome.  Big relief.

I think the spiralling levels of anxiety amongst young people is partly the reason why some are not in a rush to get a licence these days.
 

My brother & I got our licences as soon as we could. My brother’s first car aka his pride & joy was a second hand Datsun 1600.

6 hours ago, akcruz said:

Hoping this works here.  Sharing a video our neighbor in the Poconos took last night.  Our house is just down to the right.  Turn up the volume for best viewing.

 

 

 

Whoa.  My DD has been sending me  videos of the big bears & mumma and baby bears she sees regularly.  Thankfully no fighting bears seen yet…

I got quite excited when she sent me a video of a skunk.  Never seen one before