Ruby Princess - Alaska Inside Passage - June 22 - 29, 2019

[jaycruising]

 

 

 

 

 

[jaycruising]

 

 

 

Since it hadn't taken me too long to get to creek street and explore I took my time walking back to the ship and did a little shopping on the way back.

 

Painted fences.

 

 

 

[jaycruising]

This Seabourn ship had to tender in today.

 

 

 

It is a really pretty port.

 

 

 

Our ship.

 

 

[jaycruising]

They have these massive staircases to get into peoples homes and if the staircases lead to more then one home they will be named as streets.

 

 

 

I made it back to our ship right around 8:30am and found mom on a bench. Our tour was scheduled to meet at 9:05. This morning we were booked to go on Adventure Kart Expedition. We had booked this tour through the ship as well, first because of our short port time, so we could make sure we made it back to the ship, and also because I could not find the tour for less through another provider.

 

We were ready a little bit early and on the bus, so I took the chance to talk to our driver today before taking off. He is a student at Bringham Young University in Utah and this is his third summer up in Alaska. I asked a few questions about the buses and tours as they all seemed to be related in each port that we stopped at and it turns out the drivers are all employed by Princess Cruises and Holland America Line. They train them quite well. And most enjoy the job since they keep coming back.

 

It was a 25 minute drive to the Adventure Karts location, and our driver gave us a lot of interesting information about Ketchikan, I really want to come back and explore more.

 

Our tour started off with a safety review of course, then we get our helmets and they have rain gear if needed, we did not need it. But I did take a jacket to sit on.

 

The route is 12 miles roundtrip with 2 stops.

 

 

Our first stop was at a scenic overlook.

 

 

 

 

 

[jaycruising]

 

 

 

 

This is our guide for the day, he was in the lead kart.  He is a local of Ketchikan and actually just graduated from high school this spring.  Our other guides was also local and it was great talking to them.  He told us that they have a survival requirement in school here where they must go out for a weekend with next to no supplies and survive.  It is a mandatory class that they have to take because of an accident one time where they did not survive due to not having the right survival skills.

 

 

Here is mom in our kart.

 

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This guy was also along with us, the driver was the photographer that was along with us.

 

 

Back on the kart for our next stop, it was a short drive, and at this stop we went to see a waterfall.  It wasn't very strong because they hadn't had rain in 3 days, which is considered a drought for them.  They also had granola bars and water for us at this stop.

 

It was a short walk up to see the waterfall from where we parked the karts.  Some of the flowers along the way.

 

 

 

 

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This is Juvenile Hemlock, you can actually eat it, we tried, it was pretty good.

 

 

 

 

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Then it was time to make our return journey, most people switched drivers at this point, I just let mom drive again.  We had no stops this time, so I took some shots while we were moving.

 

 

 

Kart selfies!

 

 

 

 

In no time we were back at our starting point and a new group was getting ready to head out.

 

[jaycruising]

I wished I could have gotten photos of all of the wildflowers but we were just going too fast.  My only complaint about this excursion was that there were not more stops and that it was more of a loop trip, instead of one way there and the same way back.

 

I found these back at the starting point.

 

 

 

It was so much fun and we were so dirty when it was over, there was dust everywhere. We had to wait about 15 - 20 minutes for our bus to get back to take us to the ship.

 

All aboard time was 12:30 and we got back to the ship a few minutes after that. The line to get back on board was huge so we didn't have to rush. The water in the marina was full of jellyfish, but I just couldn't get a good picture of them.

 

Once we got back on board I went straight to desk 7 as I wanted to try and get some pictures of the float planes. People sure look at you when you are as dirty as we were.

 

 

 

 

[jaycruising]

 

 

Then it was time to go back to our cabin to watch sailaway.  Ketchikan is beautiful!

 

 

 

 

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Not sure I would want to drive this road in the winter.

 

 

 

 

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Some small Buoy's

 

 

 

 

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It was such a beautiful sailaway, if I hadn't been so hungry I may have watched longer.  But I also really needed to take a shower, so after that we headed up to the buffet to grab a bite to eat.  I had to get some more pictures out the window it was so pretty.

 

 

 

Pilot boat picking up.

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by jaycruising
spacing

[jaycruising]

After lunch we went back to the cabin, I watched a show on my iPad and mom read for a bit, but I am pretty sure we both had a nap.

 

We got up and started getting ready around 6pm, it was formal night and we had also been invited to the Captain's Circle welcome back party at 7:00pm, so we headed to that. They had cocktails, wine, beer and other drinks along with Hors d'oeuvres. They had a few speeches and then did a couple draws for a bottle of champagne, we didn't win.

 

After the party we headed to the dining room for dinner, I started with the escargots, they were amazing. The lobster dish was a little different, but still pretty tasty.

 

I wanted to head down and take some sunset shots, but the ceiling was too low to get any great pictures.

 

 

Back to the room and to chill out and early to bed.  We were pretty exhausted after a couple early days.

 

I hope you are still along for the story and enjoying it, I will be back with the rest as soon as I can.

[Tucker in Texas]

On 7/25/2019 at 10:16 PM, jaycruising said:

 

 

 

The right hand side is the view side when going southbound.

Would it be the same going northbound? 

[jaycruising]

23 hours ago, Tucker in Texas said:

Would it be the same going northbound? 

 

Nope, you want the left side (when facing the engine) for the northbound trip. 

[Tucker in Texas]

If I remember correctly (and it has been many years since I took this excursion),  instead of turning the train around once you are at the summit, they unhook the engine and run it around to the former end of the train which then becomes the front.  Is this correct?  If so, then the "left" side going up would be the "right side" going down.  In other words, if you score a left seat, stay on it (lol).  Thank you for your help.  I have a friend that is going on this cruise the end of August so researching for her.

[jaycruising]

1 hour ago, Tucker in Texas said:

If I remember correctly (and it has been many years since I took this excursion),  instead of turning the train around once you are at the summit, they unhook the engine and run it around to the former end of the train which then becomes the front.  Is this correct?  If so, then the "left" side going up would be the "right side" going down.  In other words, if you score a left seat, stay on it (lol).  Thank you for your help.  I have a friend that is going on this cruise the end of August so researching for her.

 

I have heard that as well, but from those that I have heard from or read recently it actually does the loop just past the 20.4 mile marker to turn around and head back.

 

[KC2019]

Thanks for the amazing amount of info! 

 

Was the Kart excursion very bumpy? (It looks like it may be hard on my neck). What did your mom think?

 

Thanks!

[KC2019]

Thanks for the amazing amount of info! 

 

Was the Kart excursion very bumpy? (It looks like it may be hard on my neck). What did your mom think?

 

Thanks!

[silky***]

Hi Jamie, love your beautiful photos. May I ask which camera/lens did you take with you? Also, do you know that the name of the captain & Maitre d by any chance? Thanks!

[jaycruising]

On 8/15/2019 at 6:13 PM, KC2019 said:

Thanks for the amazing amount of info! 

 

Was the Kart excursion very bumpy? (It looks like it may be hard on my neck). What did your mom think?

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, I was away with no internet for a couple of weeks.  

 

The Karting is bumpy and they do not recommend it for people with back or neck issues.  My mom is actually the one who picked that excursion.  We come from Northern Canada and go quading and the main road is a dirt road, so we are probably not the ones to check with.

 

On 8/19/2019 at 9:33 AM, silky*** said:

Hi Jamie, love your beautiful photos. May I ask which camera/lens did you take with you? Also, do you know that the name of the captain & Maitre d by any chance? Thanks!

 

Thank you so much!  I use a Sony Mirrorless, A6000 and I had my stock lens 16-50 and a 55-210 Sony lens.

 

I have all of the patters, so now that I am back home again, I do have that.  We had Commodore Giorgio Pomata and the Maitre d'Hotel was Michael Boonzaaier.

[jaycruising]

Alright, back in the land of internet again.  I have a place in Northern Saskatchewan and was there for a few weeks, it is gorgeous, but no internet and barely cell signal there, I love it.  This was my sunset one night and I pretty much had the beach to myself.

 

 

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

 

June 28th, Victoria BC

 

Got up around what I thought was 8:30, I totally forgot about the time change and it was actually already 9:30.  We had wanted to go for breakfast again in the main dining room, but since we had slept in we missed it.  So instead we headed up to the breakfast buffet, we were able to quickly find a table and headed off in search of some food.  The eggs Florentine was delicious!  It was also quite cold this morning, the coldest we'd had the whole trip, I actually had to go find a sweater.

 

After we finished breakfast, we headed around to the shops and to check out the shops.  I usually like to buy a ship Christmas decoration, but they didn't have the model ship version, so I passed.  I'm not a big souvenir shopper, I don't really wear logo'd clothing, and would rather have my pictures as my reminders, they are framed and covering all of my walls.  So after some unsuccessful shopping we decided to get a table in Crooners and play cards and have a few drinks.  Oh and I can't forget the people watching, I love the people watching!

 

After a few hours it was time to head back to the room and begin the dreaded packing 😞. While doing anything I can to avoid it, I went and spent some time on the balcony, watching the scenery and there were so many fishing boats.

 

 

 

 

 

We finished up most of our packing and then decided to go and play Name That Tune Trivia.  Turns out that it was ABBA, neither of us are fans, so we did terribly.

 

We were scheduled to arrive into port at 7:15pm and all aboard was 11:30pm.  Since we had a short time in port, we have both been to Victoria and that I refused to pay for an excursion through the ship in USD for an excursion in Canada when I am Canadian, we decided to stay on the ship or nearby.  We had at one time talked about going to Bouchart Gardens, but it is so far from the port and given our times, it wasn't great.

 

So instead we headed down to the main dining room and we got to enjoy a fantastic last supper in the dining room.  I finally got Fettucine and then they had surf and turf, the shrimp were huge.  Since we were already in port when we went to the dining room it was pretty quiet in there, which was nice it gave us a chance to visit some more with our favourite server and also a chance to say good-bye to her and also the hostess, we got to know both of them a bit and they were both fantastic ladies.  I love getting to know the staff.

 

After we finished eating I decided to go and walk around the port just a little bit.  There really isn't anything to see at this port, they have a tiny souvenir shop and a window selling drinks and some snacks.  I also wanted to get some Canadian wifi so that I could download some more shows on my iPad.

 

In port with us was the Norwegian Joy and the Nieuw Amsterdam again.