Ken the cruiser

After another tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we went to an enrichment lecture presented by Pete Griffin. Then we were off to the theater to watch the evening show entitled My Journey to Broadway with singer Krystal Washington, one of the production cast singers.

Thanks! All I have is an iPhone SE. But I have found if I take a bunch of pictures, I can usually can find a few that will work. On our Otter, Eagle and Whale excursion yesterday, I took over 580 photos! 😂

Just curious, if Skagway was replaced with Sitka on May 1 (according to Cruise Mapper itinerary below), we were wondering why you were still anchored in Sitka the next day as well, May 2, when we arrived on the Grand Princess Wednesday morning at the northern Sitka pier? According to their below posted schedule, which of course could be wrong, you were supposed to be cruising the Tracy Arm Fjord on May 3. I’m just curious. 😁

Here’s our Skagway excursion for tomorrow where we meet in the theater at 7 am tomorrow morning. That means we have to eat breakfast in the buffet! 😱

Had a fun time on our excursion today. First we headed to the Glacier Gardens Rainforest that took about 15 minutes from the ship to drive there. When we got there after a short introduction about their upside down trees, we hopped on a 16-passenger open-air shuttle that took us to the top of the forested garden area. At the top there was a vista viewpoint to take some photos of the surrounding area. Stellar Jay looking out over Gastineau Channel. Then we headed back down the mountain where we spent about 20 minutes relaxing in a greenhouse-like setting. Some folks just hung out and looked at the flowers while others either had a quick snack or checked out the gift shop. Then we headed to Mendenhall Glacier and were given about 90 minutes to check out the area, which worked out just fine. Barclay’s Willow Blossoms While we were waiting for our tour bus to pick us up, a fun thing happened. A Porcupine decided to cross the road near us to have a little bite to eat. As you might imagine, there were quite a few folks including us that wanted to watch! 😁 Then it was time to head back to the ship. After we got back and had an afternoon snack up at the buffet, we headed to the cabin to relax and watch life pass us by for a while. 😁 Black-legged Kittiwaks and Herring Gulls flying around behind the ship.

We have arrived in Juneau!

Thanks! We’re going to go to Guest Relations, thanks to @Nikulai, this evening to get on the notification list. This way we’ll hopefully at least have a better chance of seeing them if they appear again. Update: Just called Guest Relations and we’re on the List! 🕺💃🏻 Tonight and maybe even tomorrow, as we will be farther north in Skagway, is looking pretty good! 🤞

Good morning as we approach Juneau as we enter into Stephen’s Passage! And another pretty day! 😁

Here’s what we will be doing in Juneau!

Day 4 - May 3 - Juneau, Alaska

And we’re off. Next stop Juneau, Alaska tomorrow morning! After a tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed to the theater to listen to a variety of popular songs sung by Travis Turpin! Then it was time to head to the Explorers Lounge to participate in a very funny Murder Mystery Music Trivia. Then it was back to the cabin! However, with all the clouds, I don’t think there will be any visible Northern Lights tonight!

Then it was time to board our sightseeing vessel and head out! This is what the vessel looked from a distance. Herring Gull Bald Eagles flying over us. Bald Eagle sitting on a sign admiring Mount Edgecumbe which is a dormant volcano. Stellar Sea Lions Raft of Sea Otters wrapped up in some kelp. A sea otter came out to say hi! Bald Eagle nest Now we’re headed to a cove where there are eight Gray Whales which turned out to be the highlight of the excursion!! If you look real close, there is a small Sea Star on the right side of the photo. Annahootz Mountain Then it was time to head back to the ship! What an awesome excursion we would recommend to anyone that was thing about booking it! 😁

What a day to go on such an awesome excursion! We started off getting in a bus and driving south for about 15 minutes to the southern part of Sitka, where the main part of town is located. HAL Nieuw Amsterdam anchored off the southern part of Sitka, which was not scheduled to stop in Sitka on their itinerary. A couple of Bald Eagles flying over the bear rescue center. Bald Eagle Golden Eagle Peregrine Falcon who is very proud of his fancy wings! Great Horned Owl Bald Eagle Another Holden Eagle

Never heard back from them. My guess is my request wound up in the bit bucket. Maybe we might pop by Guest Relations in the coming days and ask if there is a notification list we can be added to. If we do, I’ll let you know. However, if you go ask them first, let me know what they say.

Thanks for posting that! We contacted Crew Chat to see if someone can call us when folks on the bridge see the Northern Lights. The Crew Chat member said they would contact us once they get feedback on our question. It will be interesting to see what happens next. The worst they can say is no.

Good morning from just outside of Sitka, Alaska! Got up briefly again this morning around 5:15 am, to hopefully catch a glimpse of a beautiful sunrise over our first view of Alaska! Now if we were cruising around Admiralty Bay in Antarctica, everyone would think this was a sleeping whale. But way up here, I’m not so sure. In any event, I’ll let you be the judge. For me, my vote is that it’s some type of marine wildlife. 😁 Then I went back to bed for a couple of hours, and here’s where we are now. The interesting thing is we’re only supposed to be sharing the port with the Quantum of the Seas today. However, the Nieuw Amsterdam is currently located near where we’re going to be docking in Sitka a couple of hours from now. I guess time will tell if they are having issues or just slowing passing through the area. 🤔

Here’s a description of our excursion tomorrow, which I’ve got to say looks pretty awesome! 😁 And the weather looks like it’s going to be cooperating as well! But we will still bundle up and bring our heavy coats, especially since we will be cruising around on a boat looking for wildlife to start things off! 😁

Day 3 - May 2 - Sitka, Alaska

Tonight after a tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed to the Vista Lounge to watch an impromptu comedy show by Michael Wilson which was hilarious! Afterwards we headed to the theater to watch the production show, Sweet Soul Music, which was very entertaining! We then snuck out right before CD Sofie finished her closing remarks and got front row seats to watch the Yes/No Game Show in the Explorers Lounge. Then it was time to head back to the cabin to chill and get ready for tomorrow’s arrival at Sitka!

We usually get to the early show around 30 minutes beforehand and play Gin Rummy until showtime using the little table in the armrest between us. We then leave just before the CD finishes his/her closing remarks which usually allows us enough time to beat the rush to the Explorers Lounge, and when necessary the Fusion/Vista Lounge. I guess for this cruise we will need to develop a plan to get good seats for the lectures, if they continue to offer them in the Vista Lounge. But since we’ll be on the cruise for 3 legs, we should have it mastered by the time it’s over. 😂

That’s weird they would have their gambling events, bingo and Deal or No Deal at the same time. The Patter said it was the game show Survey It in the Vista Lounge from 1-1:45pm. In any event, hopefully you got good seats!

We totally agree. It appears Deal or No Deal was scheduled for the theater from 1-2 pm, and we guess they didn’t want folks to come pouring in while that was going on. We’re also guessing, in hindsight of course, that a lot of folks stuck around after the 1 pm game show in the Vista Lounge to watch the lecture. Lesson learned if that scheduling scenario comes up again. We’ll be going to the game show to make sure we get a good seat for the ensuing lecture. 😉

Rule #1 when thinking about trying another cruise line, don’t ask for comparisons with any other cruise line. But I will say this. Both Princess and HAL, and on rare occasions NCL, put more thought into creating their longer itinerary combinations than Celebrity with their cookie-cutter 4-11 day itineraries. 😁

One piece of knowledge we gained from the lecture was to check out https://happywhale.com/browse when looking for any recent whale sightings in a given area around the globe. In this example there have been two reported sightings in the past month where we are currently headed, Sitka, with a lot more sightings noted in the Inside Passage. He also mentioned there is a potential for possibly seeing the Northern Lights tomorrow evening around midnight once we depart Sitka if the sky is clear. Here’s what NOAA is predicting for the next two nights. 🤞

Went to the afternoon lecture “Welcome to Alaska” given by Pete Griffin. He did a good job, although the way the Vista Lounge is setup with a very slight seating incline, we had a hard time seeing any of the three screens. My hands were high in the air when I took this picture. Lesson learned: go at least 30-45 minutes early to get a good seat if a lecture is presented in the Vista Lounge.