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Trip Report: NCL Pearl, 5/7 - 5/17 - Alaska!

April7901

By April7901,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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April7901

April7901

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I didn’t make a lot of notes on the trip up, and to be honest, didn’t hear a lot of the commentary since I was outside. But I’ll just post a bunch of the photos – you can see for yourself how pretty it was.

 

18338854456_325798bc4a_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18177545210_31af23c902_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

17742661834_ba68927985_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18177554770_1088650841_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18366849681_84edd9fe4e_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

17744639793_a904c6a2b5_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

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April7901

April7901

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Once we arrived in Fraser, the Customs officials boarded the train and checked our passports. Once they’d finished that, we met back up with Kevin and re-boarded our bus. We circled around and cleared customs again before hitting the road.

 

I have notes, but I’m honestly not sure I can distinguish between what’s what and where’s where. On the way up, here’s what we saw / stopped at: Lake Bradford, Lake Tutshi (pronounced too shy), Lake Tagish, Emerald Lake (this one’s obvious!), Caribou Crossing (lunch and dog cart ride), Carcross. We made a few stops along the way back to see different views of these things as well.

 

Again – I’ll just post the series of photos and you can admire ;)

 

18306872556_8560221104_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18334775251_32b74d7be6_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18145492418_5a7a7e3b88_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18145494468_6b67e2ded6_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18177544808_00d680d3a9_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

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April7901

April7901

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18333350545_da5c65463e_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

This is a cantilever bridge – one of only seven or eight in the world? It’s only anchored on the one side – the other side is left unattached so it can move with earthquakes and such.

 

18145517648_f677d0510e_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18329396382_641ab92017_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18366933761_1d284c083a_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18338953676_cf544b0376_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18177646470_1480e326dd_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

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April7901

April7901

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17744726903_5e8c3094af_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

Once we returned to Skagway, I hopped off the bus in town and wandered down Broadway to do some shopping. My first stop, though, was to the Skagway Brewing Company to taste their Spruce Tip Ale – which turned out to be better than I was expecting. I wandered around for about an hour, maybe more, before hopping the shuttle back to the bus around 4:00.

 

I hit up O’Sheehan’s for a snack, and then went to the 80s music trivia in Magnum. I was a hot mess, and the songs were about half obvious and half extremely obscure. I did discover a new wine to enjoy, an Argentinian torrontes.

 

I went to the solo’s gathering again, but our numbers were dwindling. ☺ It was mostly just a nice chance to see some folks and have a drink and relax.

 

I hit up Indigo for a late dinner, and that was about it for me. It had been a long day, and I had to make it through two more port days before the next sea day!

 

Tonight’s towel animal:

18147150199_3ca39a66b5_z.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

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April7901

April7901

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April, loving your trip report and looking forward to photos from Glacier Bay. Also, I feel like you were wildly productive when you weren't at the bar with us ;)

 

-Michael

 

Yeah... you guys were bad influences! ;)

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Cruise_More_Often

Cruise_More_Often

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April, my husband and I are loving your trip report!! Thank you. It has made us want to do another Alaska cruise, including the Chihuly glass exhibit in Seattle. Your pictures re amazing! I know it's all the photographer . . . but what camera are you using?

 

Your otter encounter at the Vancouver Aquarium looked like great fun. Here's a picture I took while participating in the Puffin Encounter at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward. This little guy flapped his wings on command:

 

4%20-%20This%20guy%20will%20flap%20his%20wings%20on%20command-M.jpg

 

Looking forward to following your future posts and pictures.

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April7901

April7901

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April, my husband and I are loving your trip report!! Thank you. It has made us want to do another Alaska cruise, including the Chihuly glass exhibit in Seattle. Your pictures re amazing! I know it's all the photographer . . . but what camera are you using?

 

Your otter encounter at the Vancouver Aquarium looked like great fun. Here's a picture I took while participating in the Puffin Encounter at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward. This little guy flapped his wings on command:

 

Looking forward to following your future posts and pictures.

 

 

The Sea Life Center is on my short list of things to do - it looks so amazing.

 

I use a Canon Powershot SX50. It's got a 50X zoom, and shoots in 12.1 megapixels. It's got lots of options and settings - not quite a full DSLR, but you can fool around with it. That said - 99.9% of my photos are taken in "Auto" mode. My theory is that it's there, so why not use it?

 

I haven't edited any of these photos, but there are a handful that I think, with a little tweaking, would be really spectacular.

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Dawn1004

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Bove Island was beautiful - mirror reflection almost. Am so glad you posted the photo of Bove Island, as I just couldn't remember it's name,

 

 

April, did you manage to see the little avalanche while on they train? It was when we were going around that big loop, that was pretty cool.

 

I'll put my hand up and say we were really happy with this tour, seeing a lot more than 2012 when we went up and back on the train (still amazing to do).

 

 

When we were disembarking, you said goodbye to a lady who was sitting near the self disembark line, I think she was from Florida or Miami, she'd been on board for a number of weeks, she was an absolute hoot, when you went, she really sang your praises and was amazed by everything you did and saw. I didn't grab her name, but she was a really nice lady.

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April7901

April7901

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Bove Island was beautiful - mirror reflection almost. Am so glad you posted the photo of Bove Island, as I just couldn't remember it's name,

 

April, did you manage to see the little avalanche while on they train? It was when we were going around that big loop, that was pretty cool.

 

I'll put my hand up and say we were really happy with this tour, seeing a lot more than 2012 when we went up and back on the train (still amazing to do).

 

When we were disembarking, you said goodbye to a lady who was sitting near the self disembark line, I think she was from Florida or Miami, she'd been on board for a number of weeks, she was an absolute hoot, when you went, she really sang your praises and was amazed by everything you did and saw. I didn't grab her name, but she was a really nice lady.

 

I don't think I saw the avalanche - darn! Guess I'll have to go back and try again ;)

 

I really enjoyed the day in Skagway. I'm also very glad I did the bus trip back - while I enjoyed the train, I'm so thrilled with all the scenery we saw on the way back, too.

 

I know who you're talking about but am also drawing a blank on her name. Dee? She was great - she came to some of the solo gathering stuff, and I ran into her a few times on shore. I blame her for the ring I bought in Ketchikan, too ;)

 

PS: I haven't forgotten about finishing this! I've had two nights in a row of theater, but I'll get back to it tonight with Sitka!

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April7901

April7901

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May 11, 2015

 

Sitka is where it all fell apart – my journaling AND my photography. My apologies in advance.

 

I knew that Sitka had a very mixed audience – some of you on CC love it, because it’s so non-touristy. Some of you didn’t care for it because it seemed like there wasn’t much to do.

 

I’m still not sure where I fall on that spectrum. I enjoyed my day, and it was nice to not be inundated with shopping. The area was beautiful. I do wish I’d have had a little more spunk / energy to explore, but as the third port day in a row, I was pretty beat.

 

I’m certain I did a room service breakfast. I more than likely went to the morning trivia. We could get off the ship at 10:00. Here’s where I’m inserting a rant. Every. Freaking. Morning. We. Were. Late. Not a lot late, but it was almost always 10, 15 minutes. Seriously, in Alaska – where we were literally three hours away from any destination, but had 8-10 hours to get there – we were still late. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were an early trip and they were still working out the kinks or what, but it was mildly annoying. /rant

 

Anyway. I finally got off the ship, and my destination was to find the shuttle into the downtown area, where I was meeting Paul from Gallant Adventures for a wildlife tour. My instructions were to meet at the covered shelter overlooking the harbor. So, at the end of the pier, I hopped on the next shuttle headed downtown. Getting off the shuttle downtown, we were right outside the visitor’s information center (which has great restrooms). I admit that I had a little trouble finding Paul, but in his defense, that was because he was trying so hard to find us ☺. Before long, the other two couples (also CC folks!) also got there, and we walked over to a ramp that led down to Paul’s boat.

 

There was a small area in back where you could stand and walk around, and a cabin that fit six fairly comfortably. I had thought that I might stay outside, but it quickly became apparent that that was a terrible idea. The seas were a bit rough that day.

 

A bit rough is a bit of an understatement. For as small a boat as we were in, it was pretty choppy, to the point where Paul was turning around about every 15 minutes to make sure we were all OK and not on the verge of being sick. Unfortunately, the seas also made it tough to spot whales – for our untrained eyes, it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between a whale and a wave. It also made it nearly impossible to take photos. It was tough to stand, and the camera just couldn’t figure out where to focus. Eventually I just gave up.

 

Fortunately, Paul’s eyes were better than ours, and he spotted some gray whales that we went to find. No breaching or anything spectacular, but lots of backs and a few tails. We think we spotted one humpback. Lots of sea otters and seals / sea lions. More importantly – lots of BABY sea otters. Remember my obsession with babies? One of my coworkers had reminded me that stealing a baby was probably not a good idea, but it was tempting. Those little fuzz balls are adorable. ADORABLE.

 

A couple fun moments towards the end of our trip – we were near some islands and watching some sea lions (or seals? I still can’t tell the difference..). I looked away for a minute and realized that something was swimming right at us – straight at the boat. Turned out to be another sea lion, but it was a curious little thing. Got within a few feet of the boat before turning toward the island.

 

The second one, which I think actually happened earlier, but we came upon two sea otters. One kinda moved, and the other one was apparently asleep – because when the first one moved, he jolted awake with a classic look of “Who? What? What’s going on?!” It was super cute.

 

It was a fun trip out with Paul. Certainly would’ve wished for a smoother sea, but it was fun to have a different experience!

 

The few photos I managed:

 

18513007451_7cb557eb8e_b.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18324914669_b47a222868_b.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

18484843306_fcab22c799_b.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

After returning to where we’d met Paul, I did some wandering around and shopping. The stores were more interesting because you really didn’t encounter the junk stores – like, say, Tongass Trading (I shopped there. But seriously.). I didn’t buy much, though.

 

I then headed back to the ship. I had thought about visiting the Raptor Center and Fortress of the Bear. But after bouncing around all morning in the boat, and two long port days before, I was really tired again. So, back on the shuttle and back to the boat.

 

A shot of the Pearl:

 

18511126305_c800bc9979_b.jpgUntitled by april7901, on Flickr

 

I’m sure I went to grab food somewhere when I got back on, and probably a drink. I hit up the evening trivia, which was a Silly Songs trivia in Bliss. I was horrible at it. ☺ I went to the solo’s gathering, and I must’ve ate dinner somewhere. I think I also went to the late show of Pure Variety, but I left early. I just wasn’t impressed with the first chunk of production shows.

 

That was a wrap on Sitka!

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bonvoyagie

bonvoyagie

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I can relate to the days running together - even on a 7 day - let alone this 10 day.

 

As for being late - I would chalk that up to it being the first voyage of the season and it could have even been the first time the captain had been to AK - you never know. I know in June of 12 our captain was on time or early into every port.

 

Also Sitka is not a normal NCL port so they may have underestimated the time to get there and get docked.

 

Another cruiser here is posting his travels on the Jewel and said that they ran into thick fog heading into Skagway. On our trip in 12 we had fog on the way into Juneau - which of course was in daylight so it did not slow us down that much.

 

I am enjoying your review very much - would love to do an AK cruise more often - have done three to date 02,03,12.

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