Ruby Princess Review-ish 7/3-7/10 (Alaska)

[heffy2]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures! Wonderful review so far.

[ar1950]

Having been up Tracy Arm twice and now seeing your pictures of Endicott Arm I would say that you missed nothing. The pictures are great. Thanks for posting.

[gnatz007]

The Coral was waiting for us in Juneau...

 

Juneau

Weather: Mid 60’s, Cloudy

Clothing: Jeans, Fleece, Rain jackets (in the backpack)

• Carrying on with our “do it ourselves” theme, when we got off the ship, we hopped onto the bus that leaves for Mendenhall every 30 mins. We hit it perfectly and were immediately on the bus and on our way to Mendenhall. Our Driver, Frank, was awesome. He was hilarious, giving us various historical facts, and other interesting Juneau tidbits.

• The bus ride to Mendenhall was about 25 minutes, including a slight slowdown for an accident. (we never found out how the driver was, but hope they were ok).

• As we got close to the glacier we could see it on the road up. It was awesome! There is something about Glaciers, that seeing live, just leaves me impressed.

• Once there, we hiked straight to the glacier. It’s a very easy path that is wide, and pretty flat. There were strollers on the path, and they weren’t having any issues. The walk is pleasant and easy.

• After a little time enjoying the glacier we headed back to the very crowded visitors center. By the time we got back to the visitors center we had to shed our fleece because it was very warm.

• There is a small path that you can take to walk around the stream to see the salmon, but there was nothing going on in the stream, so we decided to head back to the Roberts tram and check that out.

 

 

 

• The tram was almost empty by the time that we got back so the ride was a quick one to the top for us.

• Once on top you are treated to a fantastic view. I agree with others, if you can’t see the top of the tram because of clouds, don’t go. The cool factor of the tram, is looking down on the cruise ships and the water way. There is a looped pathway that you can take that has more excellent views of the ships. There are also totems carved in the tree’s which we were digging on.

• While up there it started to lightly sprinkle. This last about 5 mins. But finally, we were able to actually use our rain jackets for something other than wind. The sprinkle was actually refreshing because we were quite hot from walking around.

• If you are in a rush to get back down the tram, plan on a wait. The line going back down the tram was about a 15 min wait.

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by gnatz007

[gnatz007]

The Coral left while we were up on the top of the mountain. it was like an Alaskan cruise postcard watching them leave!

 

 

 

[calisilent]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures! Wonderful review so far.

 

I'll second that! I love your pictures and detail! I'm so excited to go!

[gnatz007]

Tonights dinner menu. I guess we were so famished, I didn't any pictures other than my dessert.

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

While I work on the Skagway And Yukon photos, here is the time lapse of Endicott arm showing Dawes Glacier.

 

[YOUTUBE]uZ8Ct3cbTa0[/YOUTUBE]

Edited July 17, 2016 by gnatz007

[gnatz007]

Skagway / Yukon

Weather: Sunny 75

Clothes: Convertible Pants, T-Shirt, (Fleece in the morning).

• The trip into Skagway is spectacular! If you are an early riser, I recommend getting up a little earlier and check out the view as you come in.

• Neither of us were very excited about taking a long train ride. I don’t dig on confined spaces (like busses, etc). So once we booked the cruise, almost the same day, we booked a car with Avis. This was less than one train ticket… for us, a no brainer.

• Once we were allowed off the ship, we headed directly to Avis to pick up our car. The walk was short, and easy. I couldn’t tell, but it felt like we were the first ones there. We were winning the amazing race!

• Previously I had picked up the Murrays guide. During our drive to Emerald lake it was full of information. With camera gear and iPad in hand, we set off on our adventure.

• The South Klondike highway is amazing and I can’t recommend it enough. Around every bend we were in awe. Plan on a good 5 hours with stops to take pictures and frankly just to suck it all in.

• Rather than yammer on about it… I’ll just show pictures instead. Sorry if it’s too many, this was absolutely our favorite.

 

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

We decided to hit the Welcome to Alaska sign on the way up to the Yukon, since there was nobody there. It was a great decision, since on the way back it was PACKED with two tour busses full of people wanting to get a picture. We had it all to ourselves!

 

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

• After we came back into town, we hit a couple of the Skagway highlights, turned in the car, and walked around town for a little bit to check it out. Then returned for some pizza and to get ready for dinner and sail away. Once again, it’s a sail away not to be missed… beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by gnatz007

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

Thanks for sharing with us and for the generous flow of photos!

 

Nice job!

 

Norris

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

Goodnight from Skagway!

 

[gnatz007]

Thanks for sharing with us and for the generous flow of photos!

 

Nice job!

 

Norris

 

You are welcome... Sorry if its an annoying amount.

[dianef]

We were on he same cruise,with our family of 8,and had a spectacular time.We have been to Alaska about 12 times and on about 80 cruises and this was the best time I had on a cruise.We had great weather and Skagway was the best.In Skagway we did the Dyea Dave tour to Emerald Lake.It was from 8:00 till 2:30 and it was wonderful.We were in a van with 18 people,so much better than a bus.Did many stops and saw some beautiful scenery.

 

Love reading your posts,and reliving the wonderfule week,especially the great food in the dining room.

 

We took a tour,off the ship,to Mendenhall Glacier and walked to the falls.Would have liked some more time there.

 

In Ketchikan we took the public bus to Totem Brite Park.Had a nice time there.

 

Will enjoy reading anything else posted about this wonderful cruise.

[DiRonT]

Beautiful pictures - loving this review!!! Can you tell us what camera you used (1) for the still photography and (2) for the time lapse photography?

[gnatz007]

Beautiful pictures - loving this review!!! Can you tell us what camera you used (1) for the still photography and (2) for the time lapse photography?

 

I shot with 3 camera's on this trip

for stills:

Panasonic Lumix GX7 with a 20mm f1.7ii, and a 45-200 zoom. I may have used my Lumix 45mm on some shots, but I can't remember ;)

Iphone 6s

 

For Timelapse I used a Gitup Git2 action cam on a tripod.

 

I also did a walk around tour of the ship that I will post later that was all done on the Git2 and stills using the iPhone 6s.

[azbeachbum2016]

I already said it but will say it again.... I love this review!!! Thank you so much for putting in the time to post it! Love all the pictures and ideas of what you did in port and the idea of the weather and your clothing!! Helping me so much in planning ours!!! Thanks again!!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[gnatz007]

Sea Days

Weather: low 60’s, cloudy, sunny, partly cloudy ;)

Clothing: same as before, jeans, fleece, tshirt, polo, suit for formal day.

• On both Sea days leading up to Victoria, we did a lot of nothing, and loved it! We watched the young chef’s decorate for a little bit, took a tour of the galley after a cooking demonstration. Walked a lot around the promenade to get our steps in. And just had fun being with each other doing a lot of relaxing.

 

 

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

• I did get up early one morning and took a tour of the ship before there were very many people on up and around. So I put it all together in a video for our kids so they could see how the Ruby differed than the Star. We are also booked on the Coral next spring, and since it’s a mirror of the Ruby I figured that would get them excited for next year.

 

[YOUTUBE]pF3zwUbjjDo[/YOUTUBE]

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

Our absolute favorite! We asked about it all week!