Trip Report: ALASKA. Northbound Hubbard Glacier. Millennium. June 22, 2018.

DS is usually the keeper of the Daily for we three.

Find the pdf of today's Daily here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rjlCXIDg52YhxM88ZWHzy_NbF2ub2Zyv/view?usp=sharing

 

I haven’t tried using google drive to share anything on the forum yet…so let me know if there are issues! I have ALL the Dailies and will be posting them. If there is a better way to share these pdfs…please advise!

The link worked for me! :) Sailing this itinerary at the end of August. Thank you so much for posting!

Following along! We are sailing on Holland America next month (!) and I am trying to absorb everything I can about Vancouver and sailing to Alaska. I'm really enjoying your report, and have added some restaurants to the list of places to try, thanks for sharing!

The link worked for me! :) Sailing this itinerary at the end of August. Thank you so much for posting!

Excellent! Thanks for the feedback.

Following along! We are sailing on Holland America next month (!) and I am trying to absorb everything I can about Vancouver and sailing to Alaska. I'm really enjoying your report, and have added some restaurants to the list of places to try, thanks for sharing!

How exciting! I can't wait to go back to Alaska myself! We really enjoyed Vancouver. It's a great town. I could easily spend more time there as well. Thanks for reading!

Today is a SEA DAY.

The Daily:

https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive?ogsrc=32

No agenda. No alarms. Sleep in to your heart’s content.

I wanted to see the naturalist talk today. Having a naturalist onboard feels unique to Alaska. Most reviews of their talks are positive…across all the cruise lines.

Music trivia, for sure…

The Thalassotherapy pool was also of great interest. I had high hopes in the therapy aspect of said pool.

The dark shade was pretty effective in the room. I thought for sure I had slept IN…

8:24 AM. NOT the big sleep I was hoping for. At 8:41 AM, I gave up on returning to dreamland and hit the shower.

Getting dressed. Wondering how long my guys would sleep. How could I leave a message? There were no pens or pads of paper in the room…

Announcement chimes that bring the movie Grease to my mind…Captain’s Announcement.

9:45 AM. Everyday…you can hear Captain Nikolaos speak. It’s a pretty fabulous start to the day. We like Captain Nikolaos. So ironic that he is the current Master of Millennium. He was the Master of our very first Celebrity sailing on Constellation during Spring Break 2014.

My family remembers Captain Nikolaos vividly because of the way he says his own name in his pronounced and ear tickling Greek accent.

Have you seen Lord of the Rings? There is ONE LINE…Aragorn says Lagolas…drawing out the LAAASSS in a deep voice. "Lagos" is the one word line. Aragorn is trying to get Lagolas’ attention. The way Captain Nikolaos says his name immediately brings to mind this line.

So his name stuck. And every time we hear the Master speak and announce himself…we repeat his name in the manner that Aragorn says Lagolas. Nee-Koh-LAHS…heavily emphasized and drawn out LAOS.

You think you can sleep in as long as you want on a Sea Day…but you can’t sleep past that announcement.

Unless you have the power of teenager sleep.

DS sleeps on with minimal stirring. DH was up now!

A quick shower. Buffet breakfast time!

Breakfast on the ship is challenging if you want to sleep in.

I firmly believe that there should be breakfast available THROUGH lunch on a Sea Day. We’ll call it the BRUNCH station. Just one section! Pretty please?

LATE Breakfast had started at 10:00 AM. We were greeted with the visual of roped off buffet. One station is available. I was sad. The offerings looked sad.

A woman with an omelet!!

Where?

The isolated cooking/prepping food station on the Port side of the buffet…toward the back, but not the back itself…the mirror image of the Poached Eggs / Pizza station on the Starboard side…makes made to order omelets during Breakfast AND Late Breakfast. After which, it transforms into the made to order Pasta station. From 12 noon until 1 AM.

Salsa. The bane of DH’s cruising.

He just can’t believe something so common as salsa isn’t readily available ALL OVER the buffet. Hasn’t Celebrity SEEN Seinfeld? Salsa is the number condiment in the US!!

Not today…but everyday following…DH finds where the ONLY salsa is available during breakfast at the buffet. The Poached Egg station. It’s there for the Mexican style Benedict. Unfortunately…there are no jalapenos in the salsa. They use bell peppers instead.

Who ever heard of bell peppers in salsa? DH wants to know. Why is it so hard to get normal salsa on a cruise ship?

Out of 6 cruises…the only cruise that offered what DH would call normal salsa…was the one Carnival sailing we took out of Jacksonville.

DH and I orchestrated excellent omelets this morning.

Enjoying my own breakfast. Thinking of DS. Wondering if we should wake him before late breakfast ended…

Here he comes waltzing down the buffet with a big platter of bagel, cream cheese, smoked salmon, kippers and red onion in one hand…bacon, sausage, and hash brown patties in the other.

Dude knows how to cruise.

Or at least, buffet…

WHY the cream cheese was orange...or peach colored...is still a mystery. It tasted mostly normal. Whatever flavor it was wasn't strong...but you had to HUNT to find normal, white cream cheese. Each set up with the bagels is unique. Keep looking if you haven't found it yet.

An advantage to cruising a ship you have cruised before…or the same class of ship as previous cruises…you develop habits. Having habits is very helpful for when you want to find your people on board. DS knows where we like to sit in the buffet…he found us easily.

Time for the latte habit to be indulged.

Off to Bacio.

Bacio can be crowded on a Sea Day…

Today we easily found seating.

Bacio has a new-to-me page in its menu. NEW coffee cocktails. The old favorites are still available…I think Aspen was my previous flavor of choice…but now there was a whole new page added to flex our Premium Beverage Package spending power upon.

My guess is that the new-to-me page might be new to the baristas as well. The consistency isn’t there yet. It’s common for bartenders to have their own flair…to pour a more or less stiff drink…but I saw baristas need to refer to the menu…following the menu as a recipe…so the drinkability was greatly affected. Some were much, much better than others…a couple were so off…they didn’t taste like the same drink at all.

Most of these new concoctions have whisky and espresso AND…whatever. My favorite was The Highlander…which also had coconut puree in the mix. So. Good.

DH ordered the one with pineapple…but it was TOO SWEET for him. I thought it was pretty tasty…I drank his cocktail…but I preferred the coconut one.

IIRC these new coffee cocktails are all $12?

We had a couple drinks…or a few…I was expecting to see Mom. We always seem to meet in Bacio. But no Mom.

DH decided to have a free consult with the acupuncturist on board. Just to see what he would say about his knee. We headed to the spa to make that appointment. The acupuncturist gets busy…probably more busy on a Sea Day…so DH had slim pickings for time slots. 6:00 PM.

What now?

Dad is a creature of habit. We knew we could find him in the gym on a Sea Day morning. We were basically there already so we wandered over to the gym area.

Bingo!

DS likes to eat lunch in the MDR. Even with a late breakfast…lunch in the MDR is what you do on a Sea Day. We told Dad our lunch plans…we had thought we would all meet up there. But it was not to be.

In hindsight…looking at this day…we should have talked a bit more about our Sea Day expectations.

Lunch was served from 12 noon to 1:30 PM. We were aiming for 1:00 PM, trying to give a little more time for our breakfast to settle…but not arriving at the last minute. Still. I believe that service was thrown off by the popularity of lunch in the MDR today. There was quite a line waiting to be seated when we arrived. They opened the other side of the dining room for seating.

Our seating was a little odd because we were operating under the expectation that we would be joining up with Mom and Dad…so our party of 3 was seated at a 6-top…and we ended up having the whole table to ourselves. Dad found us…Mom was already in the MDR when he had returned to the stateroom after his workout. They were eating while we had just ordered.

It’s nice to be served lunch. Service was fine. Food was fine.

Mom and Dad joined us as we were finishing and we all headed out to Music Trivia in Cosmos at 2:15 PM.

Movie Themes. Only the instrumental beginning of the song is played. Name the MOVIE in which the song appeared. We thought for sure our multi-generational team would do better than it did!

Regardless, trivia is fun. Music based trivia is our favorite. No surprise.

The naturalist talk wasn’t until at 4:30 PM.

Time for more coffee flavored drinks! Daily crossword. Daily Sudoko. We do like to hang out in Bacio...

MickeyLive is the on board naturalist. He isn’t AT ALL what I thought on board naturalist would be like. CD Steve was very excited to have him this season. Steve STOLE Mickey from a different ship…we were all in for a treat CD Steve said.

https://www.facebook.com/MickeyLiveShow/

CD Steve is right. MickeyLive is informative and entertaining. I think my expectations were more along the lines of a park ranger. Dressed in almost Safari garb and giving something more seminar like. Mickey was more energetic. And way more internet socially savvy than I anticipated.

The title of the talk was Alaska Lifers. A generalized, overall look at Alaska. He had some very funny, can you believe they did that? stories. Bacon, bears and selfies...Oh my!

The big reveal at this first talk is the picture CD. Submit 4 pictures you take during your cruise vacation to him. There is a designated “drop off” time each day…with the Skagway day being the final deadline. I think you just have to bring your SD card to submit photos. Everyone who submits their 4 pictures will get a free CD with ALL the pictures submitted.

I’ll admit. This was very exciting to hear.

I’ll also admit…in the end, I decided not to participate.

I’m going through a time where I’m trying to simplify my life. Downsize our living space. Downsize our stuff.

Downsizing stuff is hard.

I decided that…as cool as this idea is…I didn’t want other people’s memories. It’s true that I may have gotten pictures of things that I did see myself. Maybe someone else with a sweet camera with all those lenses got a better picture than my own. The deciding factor was that the deadline is BEFORE Hubbard…SO…I opted to keep it simple…I knew that I would have enough pictures of my own to sort…I didn’t need to add more that weren’t even mine to the mix.

It’s the best idea though.

If I follow through with my own plans for my photos from this first Alaska cruise…I would participate for subsequent cruises.

I’m very sorry to say that this is the only talk with Mickey that we attended. He announced that digital photography would be his next topic. What I didn’t understand is that he would have three DIFFERENT topics the next day…digital photography was just the first. It’s my own bad because I am not the keeper of the Daily…

Many of the talks are in the evening. You have to prioritize the talks over the other evening activities…and work it with when you eat dinner… I would have enjoyed the talks but then my evenings would have had to have more planning to include the talks in our schedule. Our evenings ended up being more go with the flow than planned. So no more talks for us.

We did have a bit of a plan sorted for this evening.

This Elegant Chic night.

DH had the 6:00 PM acupuncture consult. We wanted to see the 7:00 PM show. We decided to all meet up at Cellar Masters at 6:30 PM.

Everyone parted ways until then.

DH and I paused in Rendezvous for that second Fuller’s London Pride I’ve already discussed.

Then off to the acupuncturist for DH. Off to the stateroom to primp for Elegant Chic night for me.

In short order, we were all meeting in Cellar Masters grabbing our drinks to take into the theater. More London Pride for DH and I.

Tonight’s show is the Celebrity original production Elysium:

In the land of Elysium, a fairy tale unfolds between the forces of good and evil as the kingdom is threatened. The struggle for the rightful rulers to regain control is a journey of self-discovery, inner strength, and unexpected forgiveness in this original story that touches the heart. Starring the Millennium Production Singers and Dancers.

This is the NEW Elysium.

Mom and Dad saw Elysium on their Transpacific sailing. THAT show’s description had something to do with the seasons. NOW we have a brand new description for this rather odd attempt to have a battle between the dark and the light side.

The current production team is WELL suited for this battle. The one female lead is sultry with curves for days and long brown hair and hips swinging with attitude as she belts in a lower range while stalking across the stage singing a rendition of popular rock in a voice with just enough grit to make it work. The other is elven or fairy like…all dainty and pale in coloring with a higher pitched singing range that manages to not be screechy.

That’s all I ask. Please don’t be one of THOSE soprano voice that hurt your ears.

I was very impressed with the staging. A simple set with a raised platform. Enter stage left or right directly onto it or walk up either stairs on the sides of the set. Center stage has a revolving area AND a floor flexible enough to create stairs and up to three raised “runways”. The stairs come and go. The runways come and go and change heights depending on who is taken the lead in the vocals.

Many of the songs are mashed ala Pitch Perfect. Roar and Fight Song are a great mash up.

The costumes fit well and have just enough flair without being too tacky. The knee pads on the dudes though… WHY were they wearing SHORTS with knee pads? It’s a look!

And there she is. Whoever she is. That one dancer that I just LIKE to watch.

The show was dynamic. Felt like it was in constant motion with the ever changing staging. The songs were all popular songs from many decades. I also remember We Will Rock You and Dream On.

I enjoyed the show.

Theater and dinner. Dad had made a reservation for us tonight since we had a definite plan. No wait for us following the show.

I know I ordered fish for dinner tonight. It’s entirely possible that tonight was my Alaskan Rock Fish night. Every night, I recall there being one or two items with the descriptive ALASKAN in the title.

I only know about Rock Fish because DH and I are hooked on the series Alone. On the History Channel. Ten participants are dropped off in a remote wilderness location…each one is ALONE. They are allowed to take 10 items of their choice to help them survive. Clothes doesn't factor into those 10. Neither does some standard equipment provided by the production…like a first aid kit, etc. Fishing LINE counts as one item. Sleeping bag. Axe. Knife.

They also have 45 pounds of camera gear to film themselves during their struggles to be the last one standing.

The first two seasons are located on Vancouver Island. The north side. This setting is the same rainforest that we are all cruising by and visiting! The participants catch a lot of Rock Fish...if they're lucky. I had never heard of rock fish before.

Had to have it.

DS ordered it as well. We both agreed. Rock fish is YUMMY. Highly recommend.

The Sommelier helped me with my wine for the evening. I am not a wine connoisseur, but I enjoy wine. I prefer red. But I ordered fish…help me find a red that will work with my fish…

No problem.

That’s the one thing about the beverage package. It makes it very easy to drink wine with dinner. The Sommelier will keep your glass filled…unless you tell them to stop…and there’s no concern over paying for each glass.

The downside might be that you might have a lesser wine because the Sommelier may steer you toward a wine that is readily available and somewhat popular. This is a good technique for offering good service. As I’m not too picky about my wine…it all works for me.

Mom and Dad continue to make runs to Cellar Masters!

Service seemed to roll more this evening.

We enjoyed some after dinner music in Rendezvous.

DS really wanted to see the adult comedy show at 10:45 PM. We had missed the comic on the first night… This might be our last chance to see a comedian…

Mom wasn’t interested…so just us three went to the comedian.

The comedy was exactly as I thought it would be…focusing on adult topics…like prostates. And other ailments and struggles associated with aging.

It wasn’t really that funny…

Not wanting to end the night on THAT note…we headed up to the Cosmos for some disco!

But we didn’t last long because it was late. Time for bed.

We would wake up in Ketchikan tomorrow!

Friends are AWESOME...

Thanks Margaret for bringing my attention to the link that doesn't work!!

Here is the new and improved link for the Daily...Sea Day: Inside Passage!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A4X-IzIHUL9xUZth2aM1RcLs5X2W-NwC/view?usp=sharing

Hi Anita, still loving your posts. At the beginning of your post, I believe you mentioned your mom and dad would be staying in one of the newer OV cabins that used to be in the conference room area. We stayed in one of those OVs in May on our B2B in Alaska and absolutely LOVED it. How did they like the cabin?

Hi Anita, still loving your posts. At the beginning of your post, I believe you mentioned your mom and dad would be staying in one of the newer OV cabins that used to be in the conference room area. We stayed in one of those OVs in May on our B2B in Alaska and absolutely LOVED it. How did they like the cabin?

Hi, Karen. Anita asked me to answer your question.

Short answer. We didn't stay in the OV cabin on Deck 3.

Longer answer.

The only times that we haven't cruised in AQ on Celebrity... three times; two times were with Anita and family sailings and we were in Concierge Class and the third time we sailed in a Sky Suite. I would say that a balcony is pretty much an important part of my cruise "experience."

This sailing to Alaska was such a different cruise for us! As Anita has already mentioned, her phone call about the cruise came out of the blue, left field, whatever.... as a total surprise. We usually book our cruises pretty far into the future; as an example, right now we have a future booking for Spring 2020 that was made last December. So, quite a bit into the future. Usually booking when the ship is pretty empty and the bookings are brand new.

Looking at the stateroom availability and the pricing.... gosh, it was NOT the pricing or the availability that I'm used to seeing. I simply couldn't justify the pricing for, actually, ANY of the staterooms that I was seeing. Pretty discouraging, as a matter of fact. In speaking with Anita about the situation, she looked at the deck plans and asked me if I would consider the OV on Deck 3.

We made the booking. And, it became something of a joke among us because we were going to go from a suite on our previous cruise... to the OV on a lower deck than we've ever cruised. Lots of jokes about helping the crew row the ship... bringing plenty of bandaids.... having to learn to talk like salty sailors. Actually, we didn't think that it was going to be anything but fun because we would be with family....

and THEN.....

I got an email from Anita as we were on our Millennium cruise coming back from Japan. A series of sea days. Very enjoyable, by the way! BUT, she informed me that pricing had really gone way, way down and there was a significant reduction. So much so, that (believe it or not!), we could have changed to a Sky Suite for the same price that we usually pay for AQ. But, guess what?!? There's NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, that a ship can do with a current reservation while you're on board! Even with a suite concierge to help you! Even with a Future Cruise Planner meeting privately with you in Michael's Club! Even with a suite manager's assistance! Nothing! (As an aside, because of this experience, I did call into Captain's Club and asked if they could have helped me with this situation and was told that they would have tried to assist me......).... moving on..... The only thing that they said they would do is provide me with a phone call to Miami, which meant that I would be speaking with Miami around 2:00am, ship's time. Ridiculous....

So, I decided that it was OK that this opportunity for changing my reservation had come and gone. Still cruising to Alaska with family.... still having a positive attitude. Besides, I didn't want to be separated from them at dinner. So, that would have been a problem with Luminae and/or Blu.

And, THEN..... prices dropped again. And, THEN... my brain started working. For $400 (total), I could move from OV to a guaranteed AQ. Yes, I wouldn't be eating in Blu for dinner. But, we could certainly enjoy BLU for breakfast! OMG, eating breakfast in Blu or trying to find a table in the buffet for 5 people?!? Not to mention, coordinating breakfast with wake-up times... people who really, really enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning and don't really, really want to wait for other people to wake up? AND, not to mention, enjoying a balcony? Yes, it's Alaska. Yes, the balcony might not be something you'd want to sit on for a long time.... but there's enjoyment from just having fresh air, stepping outside for even a brief moment to grab a photo, sitting down for just a few minutes of a day....

No surprise. We upgraded. And I was really surprised to have them assign me a stateroom on Deck 11 in less than a week. I expected to have to wait until maybe even embarkation day before I knew where we would be....

Member123, from your post, it appears that you hit the jackpot. We never get that lucky as we usually travel B2B to Alaska and it is always hard to take advantage of the price drops when keeping the same cabin becomes a necessity. We did two separate balcony cabins on one B2B cruise and will NEVER do that again. We have taken 24 cruises to Alaska on various lines with various cabins and were pleasantly surprised with the new OV cabins (converted from conference room). When we book inside we usually spend most of our time up on deck taking pictures so the inside doesn't bother us too much. And, when the weather was on the bad side, we found the great view from the cabin to be refreshing --- somewhat like a balcony only protected from the elements (rain, wind, etc.)

Thanks for letting me know about the cabin, I appreciate the post.

Karen,

Are you close enough to the Alaskan departure ports that it can be an impulsive cruise for you?

Unfortunately, we're not able to do ANY impulsive cruising since the Mexican cruises were discontinued by the lines that we like to sail; all of our cruises involve some significant air travel as a result... definitely not an impulsive opportunity, even with Southwest Airlines fares.

Please tell me what was so bad about moving staterooms that you've declared you'd never do it again.... and are in a position where you have to have the same cabin B2B?

We do a good number of B2Bs, as well. I absolutely get the not-wanting-to-move staterooms agenda. Absolutely. But, we've moved several times and it's never been a problem for us. We do plan accordingly and make the move as painless for us, as possible. I've joked with my husband that I'm going to buy hangars before boarding so that I can even hang up my underwear for the stateroom move.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what went wrong with your move.... as I'd like to avoid whatever issue you had in the future.

Member123:

I wish we were. The closest departure port would be Seattle and we don't care for the port times that the itineraries have to offer. For our B2Bs we need to travel out of Vancouver. We also have family commitments so we can't take off on short notice --- although it will happen one of these days.

Our bad experience was with Celebrity. We were switching cabins in Seward after our northbound trip was completed. We had an excursion planned in Seward so timing was everything for us. We were told that our room stewards would be advised of the switch and we didn't have to worry about anything. WRONG! Neither room steward (current nor new) knew anything about the move. We were told to contact Guest Services and they would have to make arrangements for us. An hour went by and we had not heard anything so we called and were told that someone would be coming by. WRONG! After many phone calls and talking to room stewards we finally got things straightened out. The whole ordeal was so frustrating and something we didn't need. We had also hoped to do a little exploring in Seward prior to our excursion but that time was cut short by the room fiasco. Since we always do an excursion in our turnaround-port, we decided that we would never again do a cabin switch during a B2B.

Ketchikan!!!!

Our first port! Our first time to set foot on Alaskan soil!

Looking out our window first thing in the morning…RAIN!!

Totally not surprising. It is a rainforest after all… Liquid sunshine, they say!

These photos were taken after we returned to the ship. I had held off on the picture taking in the morning…hoping to get some sunshine! It was not to be…so other than the fact that these photos are missing the throngs of brightly colored raincoat wearing people seen earlier that morning!..this is the view from our Starboard side stateroom 9000 window.

Looking to the left…I spy with my little eye the famous tunnel! Purported to be the only tunnel that you can drive through, around and over:

Looking directly forward…this is Dock Street heading to a T in the distance:

And looking to the right…you can see the Cape Fox Lodge on the hillside. Also seen in the photo above…the Lodge is the collection of gray A-frames peeking through the trees and overlooking Ketchikan below.

First…some logisitics.

Today’s Daily – Ketchikan, Alaska

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhzH5FBs3rWPxiql9tuAmje3kTjo4Uc-/view?usp=sharing

The Daily has the forecast of Rain. High 57F. Low 48F.

If ever you are curious as to where your ship will dock in Alaska…bookmark the following site:

http://claalaska.com

For ease of use…I’ve navigated to Alaska Cruise Schedules>2018 Schedules:

http://claalaska.com/?page_id=1551

Select your port from the list and you will be taken to a calendar showing all the ships that are scheduled to be in that port each day, for what times, and at which dock. You may need to go to each port’s website in order to figure out which dock is which…but your information hunt starts here.

So, for example…going to the Ketchikan port site:

https://www.ktn-ak.us/port

The map shows you where Berth 2 is…and the calendar says Millennium should be in Berth 2…and that’s exactly what happened!

If you care to know these things in advance…

I knew I’d be wearing my raincoat for most of the day. But I didn’t think simple long sleeves would be as warm as I would want to be. I wore a short-sleeved merino wool shirt, my fluffy fleece vest, and then my raincoat. I wore heavier technical fabric pants (water resistant) and my hiking boots (my waterproof shoes) with Smartwool socks.

My guys opted to wear only their long-sleeved merino wool shirts under their raincoats. Water resistant technical pants…and their hiking boots, which were their waterproof shoes too.

Our touring was scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM. We docked at 7:00 AM…so we figured that our later start to the day would avoid the crush in the buffet and any queue for debarking. We were absolutely correct.

Navigating the fully opened buffet with ease…this morning I found the Poached Egg station open. YAY!!

Eggs Benedict…and variations…are one of my favorite treat breakfasts. DH likes waffles…I like Benedict. You can order the classic with Canadian bacon, spinach, smoked salmon and Mexican style, which has tortilla chip strips, guacamole, and salsa. I ordered a combo of spinach and smoked salmon. The eggs were runny…as they should be…the sauce wasn’t too thin or thick and wasn’t broken…Gordon Ramsey would approve. And so did I.

Walking down the buffet, I added what I would call country style breakfast potatoes…basically large cubes of potatoes roasted with onions and bell peppers. Done.

This…with a variety of fresh melon and pineapple…was my breakfast everyday from this day forward. The guys made do with the coffee in the buffet. I had some English Breakfast Tea.

We headed to Bacio to meet with Mom and Dad and head out for our Ketchikan adventure!

Now if everyone recalls…we had scheduled a private tour for Ketchikan…and sadly…that tour was canceled. As it turns out…our tour guide was struck down by the flu…and the meds he was taking to combat the symptoms knocked him out. I can sincerely say that I’m very happy this happened before our tour…if our guide was contagious WITH us…not having realized the full extent of his illness…then we all would have been at risk for wrecking our lovely vacation.

Been there. Done that. Mom developed pneumonia on our TA in 2015…NO THANK YOU. So all in all…I will still claim that this was Providence looking out for us…despite the sudden knowledge that our entire plan for the day was erased and we were suddenly without a thing to do in Ketchikan.

You might think this would put a damper on the day…as we learned about the cancelation at the last minute. It’s true that the situation caused me a bit of stress. I had made all the touring arrangements…and now I felt a burden to be a tour guide for the family. I was, after all, the only one that had done any research…

DH pumped up my spirits…saying that I knew more than I realized and I would do just fine leading us around. Everyone was happy to just BE in Alaska…so no worries. Let’s just have fun in Ketchikan.

Alrighty then.

Powered with the strength of the AT&T cell towers…we called upon our faithful smarts to locate the nearest coffee shop where we could regroup and pick a direction for beginning our day.

I saw this sign later in the day…it’s a good motto:

We found a coffee shop with some indoor seating. Along the way…we grabbed some smoked salmon samples that were basically in the doorways of the open shops. Highly recommend…very tasty treats. Admired windows full of typical souvenirs.

Over coffee I did some research on the fly…I actually called up my roll call thread where I had posted several links to websites about Ketchikan.

DH was bumming because he didn’t remember his ball cap. When we were packing…we asked DS if he’d want a ball cap on a rainy day…something with a brim to keep the rain off his face. DS wasn’t interested…and somehow DH didn’t end up grabbing his hat for himself after that exchange. DH had time to backtrack a store or two to grab a cap that he had admired while I refreshed my memory of things to do in Ketchikan.

Coffee consumed. New hat adorned. We headed to Creek Street.

Here’s a handy map of Ketchikan:

http://www.alaska.org/guide/downtown-ketchikan-walking-tour

We made our way to the Chief Johnson Totem Pole.

I posted the story of this pole earlier in the thread…but here it is again:

http://csukach.net/legend-of-the-fog/

Over coffee…I had called up this story and read it aloud to my family. So we could figure out the figures in the story on the totem when we saw it.

There’s a foot bridge right there that accesses Creek Street:

In this area…everything is over the water. The boardwalk. The stores. You can see the rain in this photo!

The water in this area looks calm. We were in the middle of Creek Street. Heading to the left…we headed toward the Salmon Ladder and Married Man’s Trail. There’s a viewing platform that overlooks the falls. A colorful mosaic salmon overlooks the river…

One thing that the pictures can’t portray is the SOUND of this area. The rushing water is a powerful sound…reaching into the quieter water…drawing you closer to the bridge and the more rugged looking falls under the bridge.

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You follow the signs for Married Man’s Trail. It was peaceful and quaint. Surprisingly, there were few tourists here. We weren’t alone but we weren’t battling people for space…

There’s a riverside to many shops…where the shops themselves overlook the water. You walk on the HILL side of the shops on the boardwalk or the trail. The hillside encroaches on your head space…looming over you with the tall trees of the rain forest swaying far, far overhead.

You may feel like you’re walking along a back alley but the signs let you know that you are headed in the right direction.

The trail ends at the falls…and right before the end of the trail, you come upon wood stairs. The urge to reach the top of those stairs is irresistible. I knew they led to the Cape Fox Lodge where we would be get a great view of the harbor and see some totems…so upward we went.

Looking down at the “entrance” to the stairs:

Commenting on the umbrella...not a bad option. It wasn’t raining that hard and the rain did come and go. I wouldn’t have wanted to have my hands occupied by carrying an umbrella though. I was very happy to have my waterproof camera and to have hands free for picture taking to my heart’s content.

I also can’t imagine dealing with an umbrella for going in and out of the stores…

Nor for being around others when we did encounter tighter quarters…

I saw many people wearing the cheap single use ponchos. Those emergency kind that you can find for about $1. I’ve used those touring Disney in the Spring. I would prefer those ponchos to an umbrella, if you didn’t already own a good raincoat.

The wooden stairs flatten out on boardwalks…turns to a gravel path…returns to a boardwalk…stairs. The treads were lined with a gritty surface so they didn’t feel slippery…even in the rain.

DH on the trail sporting his new hat!

When you reach the end of the boardwalk…there’s a more hiking style path that winds through the trees to reach a wooden platform that offers a great overlook of Ketchikan.

Looking back toward the wooden trail from the hiking path:

Looking over Ketchikan’s harbor from the overlook. You can see the ship docked in Berth 1:

And you can see Millennium in Berth 2:

Keep going up though…

You’ve accessed the Lodge from backside…the working side. The Lodge is on stilts…you are at sub-basement level…it isn’t lovely…but the path will wind around to the front.

It’s worth it.

Here’s a handy map of Ketchikan:

 

http://www.alaska.org/guide/downtown-ketchikan-walking-tour

 

We made our way to the Chief Johnson Totem Pole.

 

I posted the story of this pole earlier in the thread…but here it is again:

 

http://csukach.net/legend-of-the-fog/

 

Over coffee…I had called up this story and read it aloud to my family. So we could figure out the figures in the story on the totem when we saw it.

 

There’s a foot bridge right there that accesses Creek Street:

 

 

In this area…everything is over the water. The boardwalk. The stores. You can see the rain in this photo!

 

 

The water in this area looks calm. We were in the middle of Creek Street. Heading to the left…we headed toward the Salmon Ladder and Married Man’s Trail. There’s a viewing platform that overlooks the falls. A colorful mosaic salmon overlooks the river…

 

One thing that the pictures can’t portray is the SOUND of this area. The rushing water is a powerful sound…reaching into the quieter water…drawing you closer to the bridge and the more rugged looking falls under the bridge.

 

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You follow the signs for Married Man’s Trail. It was peaceful and quaint. Surprisingly, there were few tourists here. We weren’t alone but we weren’t battling people for space…

Thank you so much for sharing all of this information. I don't know if we'll have time to do the entire walking tour, but this definitely highlights some points of interest.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this information. I don't know if we'll have time to do the entire walking tour, but this definitely highlights some points of interest.

I'm happy to share! I'm glad it's helpful! I think picking out whatever is most interesting to you is the way to go...that's in essence what we did.

Great info! I am dutifully taking notes!

Perhaps you are going to get to this, and if so I don't mean to jump ahead, but about how long would you say you spent walking along Creek Street and going up to the lodge/overlook? We have plans in Ketchikan, but I want to be sure to see Creek Street as well. If we have time I'd love to hike up to the overlook as well, but I worry about time.

Thank you so much for sharing such detailed information!

Great info! I am dutifully taking notes!

 

Perhaps you are going to get to this, and if so I don't mean to jump ahead, but about how long would you say you spent walking along Creek Street and going up to the lodge/overlook? We have plans in Ketchikan, but I want to be sure to see Creek Street as well. If we have time I'd love to hike up to the overlook as well, but I worry about time.

 

Thank you so much for sharing such detailed information!

Great question! I hadn't thought to include the passage of time.

My only way to tell time is to look at the date stamp on the picture files. From the time that I took the picture of the Chief Johnson Totem Pole to the time that I take a photo of DH and DS at the end of Creek Street...just over 90 minutes lapses. I just told DH that info and he is shocked!

That doesn't include the time it took to walk to the Creek Street area...but we didn't take a straight path there...you should be able to call up the distance you would walk on a map app as that is all street walking.

I will be sharing pictures and more details, but to sum up, from the totem pole, across the bridge, down to Married Man's Trail, overlook the bridge and the falls and the area where the Salmon Ladder is (according to the map...hard to tell when there are no salmon around), up the stairs...we had a fun encounter with a sweet older doggie that I won't really detail, but just to point out that we were leisurely...down the side trail to the overlook, around to the Lodge, checking out the totems, in the Lodge...bathrooms break and fun conversation...back down the stairs and then to the end of Creek Street...shopping in the one shop for what felt like a long time!...and looking at the window display at Dolly's house.

The time stamp of the photos indicates that we meandered our way up to the Lodge in just under 30 minutes.

I'm very happy to answer any questions to the best of my knowledge!

In the deep recesses of memory…I had “bookmarked” four locations where we could find totems. Totem Bight State Park…Saxman Village…the Totem Heritage Center…and funny enough, Cape Fox Lodge.

http://www.experienceketchikan.com/native-american-totem-poles-3.html

My memory classified them as Totem Bight SP is far north of town…much time would be taken in travel to and from…and this summer, they started charging a nominal admission fee. Saxman Village charges a nominal admission fee for an untoured visit. Paying the full admission fee (quite a bit pp) gets you the full experience…it might feel touristy…I thought of it as the totem pole amusement park. Totem Heritage Center is a building…so it would be an indoor, attend a museum experience…with a nominal admission fee. Cape Fox Lodge would be free but the totems are short…so not as impressive as seeing the taller ones in the area.

They are authentic though. Carved by Master Totem Carver, Lee Wallace…who comes from a long line of wood carvers. A 1988 article talking about a then young Lee Wallace:

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-11-20/news/mn-599_1_totem-pole

As you can see…NO ONE was there with us as we were admiring the totems…and having great fun taking pictures with them.

DH is 6’ 1”…so you can see that these totems are really accessible. You can easily see the pictures and the work involved:

One huge benefit to making it to the top of the hill…and the Lodge…BATHROOMS!!

It’s not easy to find public restrooms when touring around any downtown.

The interior of the Lodge is inviting. Casual. Rustic. With Native Art and Craft on display all over the place. The lobby looks like a family room with a rock faced fireplace on one wall…and the view of the town dominating another. I’ve been in so many empty hotel lobbies…but I recall feeling that there were many people lounging all around…relaxing in front of a fire and admiring Ketchikan from above.

There’s Millennium below!

Taking a photo of our ship…we spoke with a couple lounging before the view all about their stay at the Lodge and Ketchikan… and all the successful fishing they had had on their week-long stay. They couldn’t recommend Baranof Fishing Excursions more…excellent fishing experience with them. I’m citing this website for my own future reference:

https://exclusivealaska.com

You can even take advantage of the free water dispensed in the lobby before heading out to continue your Ketchikan exploring.

Having made the effort to climb the stairs…it would have been nice to ride the Funicular down to Creek Street level…but it was not in operation this day.

We could have taken an alternate route down to street level again…but it didn’t look as picturesque as the way we first traveled…so we simply backtracked down the hillside.

I was excited to see a giant SLUG in our path…just like the slugs that they eat on ALONE! I’ve never seen such a big slug…it was at least 4 inches long…

DS was the first to spot an Eagle flying overhead. At least he’s pretty all sure it was an eagle…

Back on Creek Street…we backtracked to where we had first entered…and continued on in that direction.

DH was attracted to a beautiful display of knives in a window. We all decided that we could do with a spot of totally typical tourist shopping. I bought a beautiful package of postcards that are watercolor paintings depicting different Ketchikan scenes. Also available was a package of watercolor paintings of different SE Alaska coastal towns.

The locals working the store were so friendly. We asked for some advice regarding lunch…

And with that heading…we eventually continued on our way to the end of Creek Street.

We passed by the historic Dolly House. The employment application posted in the window is worth reading…very entertaining. The woman working the doorway was also VERY funny. Completely in character…inviting us to tour the house.

We didn’t.

We continued on. Pay attention to some of these buildings. They have informational signs detailing their historical value and role in the growth and development of Ketchikan.

When we reached the end of Creek Street…we found the beginning. You can see Cape Fox Lodge on the hillside:

All throughout our touring…we could hear the cheers and roars of a crowd. It was the sound of the Lumberjack Show. The crowd was obviously having a good time!

We were headed to the Alaska Fish House.

https://exclusivealaska.com/fish-house

DS was all about fish and chips.

The very helpful and friendly local store worker had written down several options on a paper map we had of downtown. We had simply asked him…where do YOU like to eat lunch? Alaska Fish House was recommended for the fish and chips…and it happened to be kinda sort of in the direction of going back to the ship…

Worked for us.

The Fish House is located very near the Lumberjack Show. There is an outside seating area, but as it was raining…and the area was soaking wet even if it wasn’t raining at that very second…no one was sitting there.

Everyone was crowded into what is a relatively small room with picnic bench like seating on one side and bench seating on the other. It’s communal seating. Find a place to park yourself and snag it.

We had arrived close to 12:30 PM. There was line out the door to order and the tables were PACKED. You order your food and they give you a table sign. When your food is ready…they find you to serve it. Our party of 5 was split into 3 and 2 to find seating.

If you’re friendly…talk to your tablemates. We ended up sitting with one other couple also sailing on Millennium and another couple on their honeymoon also sailing Millennium… We all had a grand time talking about our days in Ketchikan and Vancouver…and where we are from, etc etc. Typical over-food talk with people you just met.

One couple left and another couple came…they were sailing on the Solstice. More fun conversation over food.

DS debated what kind of fish to get. Halibut, Cod, or Salmon. He’s had cod many times…but halibut and salmon! The halibut was expensive…and I knew that we would be ordering it in Juneau…so I told him we’d be getting halibut further along the trip…so he went for the salmon.

I mentioned that I’m a soup lover…they had Smoked Salmon Chowder on the menu. I really wanted it…but I also wanted to try the Salmon fish and chips. DH and I ordered one of each to share.

The salmon fish was a breaded style fried fish. DS will tell you that it’s the best fish and chips that he’s ever had. EVER. He LOVED it. I thought it was very good too…BUT…the chowder was AMAZING!!!!

Everyone who had the chowder agreed…and someone asked one of the servers for the recipe!

Really?

They’ll give away the recipe!!!!

They will.

Ask for it and you can get your own print out. OR…you can be traveling in Boston and writing your trip report…realizing that you didn’t scan in the recipe and wondering if they have it online…

https://exclusivealaska.com/alaska-recipes?page=2

TA DA!!

I think I might have to work my way through these recipes. The food was good.

It’s not fine dining. It FUN dining…with excellent fresh seafood.

AND…they have local beer on tap!!

Mom got something dark and tasty. DH and I had a local IPA. Yummy beers.

DH’s knee was getting a bit bothersome again. All aboard was 2:30 PM. We had 60-90 minutes to get back to the ship. We headed back with the intent to meander.

Suddenly, we were flagged down by a server from the Fish House! She had our purse!

No she didn’t.

Oh my!

Someone had left their handbag. Not a small handbag. Not something I would have thought would be easy to forget. A brief glance in the purse showed that her phone was also in the bag. I’ll tell you…Mom and I were concerned that one of the ladies from Millennium had forgotten her purse.

Feeling very uncomfortable…but willing…the Fish House person dug out the wallet in the bag to find a photo ID…after seeing it, Mom and I didn’t recognize the woman as being anyone we had met from the Millennium. I’m telling you that the server would have let us take that handbag back to the ship with us…but we didn’t want to jump the gun if it didn’t belong on our ship!

The woman’s PASSPORT was in her purse too!

If she had her Sea Pass…she could get on that ship without remembering that she didn’t have her purse…so we can only hope that the security bag screening would be the big light bulb moment for her…and she would have time to retrieve her bag. I hate to think of the consequences to the remainder of her trip otherwise.

Remember your stuff!!

We slowly made our way along the street that wound around the waterfront toward the ship.

We entered another appealing store with many local wares.

One of the coolest things in THAT store were all the different cribbage boards! Made out of antlers and all sorts of other local materials…they were truly functional art.

We didn’t rush…we just looked at what caught our eye.

In front of Berth 2, there’s a shore excursion building. It’s a building of booth. Each booth representing a different excursion. At this time of day…it was virtually empty.

You can also find all the tourism brochures for all the different cities in Alaska. I grabbed a ton of dream about material for reading on the ship.

Boarding the ship was easy enough. There was a bit of a line. If you are wearing a hat, they will ask you to tip it up as you walk through the metal detector. I think they had little mini hot chocolates available…

It was a simple…but wonderful day in Ketchikan!

Now we had an entire afternoon to enjoy the ship!

Backtracking... just a bit... to the Cape Fox Lodge.

Just to put a bit of information in your information-packed trip report, I thought I'd comment on my visit to the Lodge's gift shop. There were a few items in the shop that I should have picked up there because I didn't see them anywhere else on our itinerary!

Of course, these are items that are of particular interest to me and might not appeal to anyone else, but just in case.....

The Lodge's git shop has copies of a local author's cookbooks. They are, of course, seafood! The author is the galley cook for a commercial fishing vessel based in Ketchikan. I didn't know that at the time, but this probably explains why the cookbooks weren't available "further down the road." Anyway, here's a link to her information. I think these small, spiral bound cookbooks would be a really appropriate, practical, and thoughtful souvenir. http://ladonnarose.com

My introduction to a salt bar was at 150 Central Park on the Oasis of the Seas! That was a real awakening of what various salts could do to enhance flavors of any particular dish. Since then, I've been playing around with a lot of different salts. In addition, a chef informed me that if I could collect salts from various different locales on earth that I would get every, single mineral that my body requires, healthfully. Intriguing. It's become a bit of an obsession, and I do love to collect (and use!) salts. The Lodge's gift shop also has a collection of Alaskan Sea Salts. And, here's the link to their story:

https://www.alaskapureseasalt.com/out-story/

Also, just to make mention. We were also told that the Lodge's restaurant is one of the best in Ketchikan, because of the quality and variety of menu items. It would be a beautiful setting for a destination lunch. I'm SUPER happy with the lunch we had at the Alaskan Fish House! But, for a different style of lunch, I think you'd be happy going to the Lodge, as well, especially if the Funicular is working and/or you didn't have the inclination to make the walk. Although I can tell you that the walk wasn't strenuous, even with the on/again/off/again rainy day.

Such fun to read your preplanning trip review. Alaska should really hire you for your in-depth review. I’m sure you & your family will have a stupendous adventure. We’ll be in Vancouver for a September 2019 cruise to Hawaii & I’m saving your Vancouver notes mmmm waffles! Maybe I’ll be able to eat them by then! Almost Bon Voyage!

 

 

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I'm thinking of hiring her for my next trip abroad! Anita, I hadn't seen this when I met you on the ship. Enjoying reading it now - and looking forward to seeing what you had to say about the cruise itself.