2013 Berth Schedules & Maps of the piers

[Krazy Kruizers]

The last 2 years we were on the Amsterdam and docked at pier 4.

We were able to use either of the shuttles to get back and forth from town -- free.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Here are two ships docked at the Railroad Dock, taken from aboard a ship at the Broadway Dock. Broadway is closer to town, but if you're taking the White Pass & Yukon train, you can board right at the Railroad Dock, which is convenient. I like the Railroad Dock; interesting rock cliffs painted on by the crews of all the ships that've been there over the years, and it's a nice walk into town from there too.

 

 

 

 

This is looking into town from the ship (at Broadway Dock).

 

 

Great!!

Years ago we docked at the railroad dock -- loved looking at the writings from the various crew members from ships now long gone.

Lately on HAL we have docked at the Broadway pier and had to walk to the train which was moved closer to us -- no walk to the main railroad.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Here are two ships docked at the Railroad Dock, taken from aboard a ship at the Broadway Dock. Broadway is closer to town, but if you're taking the White Pass & Yukon train, you can board right at the Railroad Dock, which is convenient. I like the Railroad Dock; interesting rock cliffs painted on by the crews of all the ships that've been there over the years, and it's a nice walk into town from there too.

 

 

 

 

This is looking into town from the ship (at Broadway Dock).

 

 

Great!!

 

Years ago we docked at the railroad dock -- loved looking at the writings from the various crew members from ships now long gone.

 

Lately on HAL we have docked at the Broadway pier and had to walk to the train which was moved closer to us -- no walk to the main railroad.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you Mary!!

[MilliesMom]

Thank you Mary!!

 

You are welcome. Always good to share info with each other. Love Jenbo57's photos ... great visual perspective.

[kamac56]

We were in Ketchikan last aug on princess and had the long walk however there are Eagles in them there trees. So we stopped numerous times to take pictures and before up know it we were in town. Not a bad walk at all.

[bonvoyagie]

Here are some links to the city's web cams so one can watch "real time"

 

Juneau: http://www.juneau.org/cam/southcam.php

 

Skagway

railroad dock http://www.wpyr.com/webcam/dock001M.jpg

harbor overview: http://www.wpyr.com/webcam/ftp.jpg

 

Ketchikan: http://webcamketchikan.com/

 

happy cruising

[Jenbo57]

Thank you for sharing your photos. It is greatly appreciated.

 

You bet. This site is all about cruisers helping cruisers, right?!? :D

[MilliesMom]

We were in Ketchikan last aug on princess and had the long walk however there are Eagles in them there trees. So we stopped numerous times to take pictures and before up know it we were in town. Not a bad walk at all.

 

I don't remember seeing any eagles in Ketchikan. However, saw them all over on a walk into Juneau. Truly a beautiful bird.

[MilliesMom]

Here are some links to the city's web cams so one can watch "real time"

 

Juneau: http://www.juneau.org/cam/southcam.php

 

Skagway

railroad dock http://www.wpyr.com/webcam/dock001M.jpg

harbor overview: http://www.wpyr.com/webcam/ftp.jpg

 

Ketchikan: http://webcamketchikan.com/

 

happy cruising

 

Thank you. This will be great.

 

You bet. This site is all about cruisers helping cruisers, right?!? :D

 

I so agree.

[MilliesMom]

Thanks to Bonvoyagie's links above, I found another photo of the pier #4 in Ketchikan. In this photo the Island Princess is docked at Pier 4. Photo was taken in area of Pier 3.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Both times we were on the Amsterdam, in Ketchikan the bow of our ship faced inland.

[MilliesMom]

Both times we were on the Amsterdam, in Ketchikan the bow of our ship faced inland.

 

Wonder what makes the determination of which way they face.

 

I just can't wait to be there again. It's been years.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I was told once that the captain determines whch way he wants to dock a ship -- not really sure of that explaination.

For years when we did Caribbean cruises the port side faced inland just about all the time. Then a couple of years ago we were on the Noordam and the port side faced out to sea in every port. Back on the Noordam last fall -- different captain -- and once again port side faced inland.

[bonvoyagie]

Here are some interesting things on the Port / Starboard questions As to how the hsips park in AK - I believe that it is up to the harbormaster to determine the parking order and direction - but the captain is the ultimate power on the ship.

 

From Fodors http://www.fodors.com/community/cruises/port-side-vs-starboard-side.cfm I like the def of Posh :)

 

and from Wikipedia

Starboard (right)

Man sailing a corbita (a small coastal vessel with two masts). Marble relief, ca. 256 AD, probably made in Africa Proconsularis (Tunisia). Found at Carthage.

 

 

The origin of the term starboard comes from early boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, they were steered by use of a specialized steering oar. This oar was held by an oarsman located in the stern (back) of the ship. However, similar to now, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to be affixed to the right side of the ship. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered, descendant from the Old Norse words stýri meaning "rudder" (from the verb stýra, literally "being at the helm", "having a hand in") and borð meaning etymologically "board", then the "side of a ship".

[edit] Port (left)

 

An early version of "port" is larboard, which itself derives from Middle-English ladebord via corruption in the 16th century by association with starboard. The term larboard, when shouted in the wind, was presumably too easy to confuse with starboard[1] and so the word port came to replace it. Port is derived from the practice of sailors mooring ships on the left side at ports in order to prevent the steering oar from being crushed.

Larboard continued to be used well into the 1850s by whalers, despite being long superseded by "port" in the merchant vessel service at the time. "Port" was not officially adopted by the Royal Navy until 1844 (Ray Parkin, H. M. Bark Endeavour). Robert FitzRoy, Captain of Darwin's HMS Beagle, is said to have taught his crew to use the term port instead of larboard, thus propelling the use of the word into the Naval Services vocabulary.

[edit] History

 

Before modern standardization, quartermasters were advised to follow the rotation of the bottom of the wheel. Thus, when obeying a "hard a-starboard" command, the QM would turn the bottom of the wheel to the right, or starboard. This applied the left rudder and the ship turned to its left, or to port. Steering with the bottom of the wheel was apparently an approved way to learn helming more than a century ago.

The nautical reason for a "hard a-starboard" command to turn left seems related to the tiller and not the rudder. A tiller is pushed to the right, or starboard, to apply left rudder and turn the vessel to the left.

[MilliesMom]

Bonvoyagie ... thank you. Very interesting.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Here are some interesting things on the Port / Starboard questions As to how the hsips park in AK - I believe that it is up to the harbormaster to determine the parking order and direction - but the captain is the ultimate power on the ship.

 

From Fodors http://www.fodors.com/community/cruises/port-side-vs-starboard-side.cfm I like the def of Posh :)

 

and from Wikipedia

Starboard (right)

Man sailing a corbita (a small coastal vessel with two masts). Marble relief, ca. 256 AD, probably made in Africa Proconsularis (Tunisia). Found at Carthage.

 

 

The origin of the term starboard comes from early boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, they were steered by use of a specialized steering oar. This oar was held by an oarsman located in the stern (back) of the ship. However, similar to now, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to be affixed to the right side of the ship. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered, descendant from the Old Norse words stýri meaning "rudder" (from the verb stýra, literally "being at the helm", "having a hand in") and borð meaning etymologically "board", then the "side of a ship".

[edit] Port (left)

 

An early version of "port" is larboard, which itself derives from Middle-English ladebord via corruption in the 16th century by association with starboard. The term larboard, when shouted in the wind, was presumably too easy to confuse with starboard[1] and so the word port came to replace it. Port is derived from the practice of sailors mooring ships on the left side at ports in order to prevent the steering oar from being crushed.

Larboard continued to be used well into the 1850s by whalers, despite being long superseded by "port" in the merchant vessel service at the time. "Port" was not officially adopted by the Royal Navy until 1844 (Ray Parkin, H. M. Bark Endeavour). Robert FitzRoy, Captain of Darwin's HMS Beagle, is said to have taught his crew to use the term port instead of larboard, thus propelling the use of the word into the Naval Services vocabulary.

[edit] History

 

Before modern standardization, quartermasters were advised to follow the rotation of the bottom of the wheel. Thus, when obeying a "hard a-starboard" command, the QM would turn the bottom of the wheel to the right, or starboard. This applied the left rudder and the ship turned to its left, or to port. Steering with the bottom of the wheel was apparently an approved way to learn helming more than a century ago.

The nautical reason for a "hard a-starboard" command to turn left seems related to the tiller and not the rudder. A tiller is pushed to the right, or starboard, to apply left rudder and turn the vessel to the left.

 

Interesting.

[pdcat21]

Does the fact the Solstice does not have a berth assigned in Juneau while the other three ships do mean that Solstice has to tender?:eek:

[bonvoyagie]

Considering that they can handle up to 4 ships - three on the main docks and one at AJ and there are only a total of 4 ships - one princess, two HAL and yours. HAL and Princess get first dibs on berths so CEL will be slotted in after them. Last year the Infinity tendered (AMP is tendering) and since the Solstice is taking the Infinity's place it will probably also tender.

[pdcat21]

But if there are only four ships that day, why would anyone have to tender?:confused: It didn't even show a code for anchoring. I know Solstice is the largest ship to sail in Alaska, but she has a berth assignment at all the other ports. I'm just confused.

[MilliesMom]

But if there are only four ships that day, why would anyone have to tender?:confused: It didn't even show a code for anchoring. I know Solstice is the largest ship to sail in Alaska, but she has a berth assignment at all the other ports. I'm just confused.

 

You could contact:

 

Ketchikan CLAA Operations <ketchikan@claalaska.com>

 

They are the agency that sets up the listings. They should be able to answer the question for you. Just be sure to give them the DATE your ship will be there. They are pretty quick to respond.

 

I thought it was strange that there is no listing for your ship either. Normally if a ship anchors/tenders in, there is a code for it:

http://www.claalaska.com/pdf/2010/BerthCodes.pdf

I don't see any anchor codes for Juneau.

[bonvoyagie]

it could very well be about total size of all the ships in port. At 1033' the Solstice is around 100' longer than the three other ships in port. But due to the pecking order in AK ports, she will be the last to get a docking spot and would be forced to tender if the only slip left was too small.

 

Because she is so big they could also be waiting for her to arrive to see if she will fit in the availble space.

[cutetrill]

I'm curious, there are only going to be two ships in port on the day that our ship (the Island princess) will be docked in Juneau, but they still docked us at the Franklin st Dock which is the second farthest away and the other ship, at the Alaska steam dock which is the closest. Why wouldn't we have been able to dock closer? Is the Island princess too big or something?

[bonvoyagie]

Some of the issues around docking revolve around pecking order - the first dock in Juneau was once known as the Princess dock because they built it. Princess rented it to other lines to use - as long as there was not a Princess ship in port. Princess along with HAL brought the modern cruise industry to Alaska and they are still being rewarded by getting first dibs on docking spots.

[CatgirlNC]

Thank you- this is awesome! I looked up the days we are in port and which other ships will be there. Now I'm going to look up the pax #s for those ships to get an idea of how many other cruise tourists will be in town those days. I'm such a nerd. :) The day we go to Skagway, we'll be the only ship.