*Dead* Off to the last frontier (and back)! Oct 1-8 aboard the Encore in a 2-bedroom Haven suite.

[Grimix]

One thing I intended to mention, but forgot. There were not too many kids on this cruise. Some (few) districts have a fall break, and our Tahoe group's kids were on it. Our roll call had mention of some back east districts also had a break. There were kids but not many! Our kids were actually in school. At least in California they allow you to do an independent study for up to 10 school days. Essentially all the homework is online so the kids are able to keep up, and the school still gets paid for the days unlike an absence. My youngest and daughter have no problem in school, and we had no concerns about them falling behind. My eldest does have a diagnosis of autism (which is why I absolutely hate the autistic design shirt scams that proliferate roll call groups! If you see one of those don't buy it. It's just someone scamming you!) We were a little concerned about him keeping up. He did a great job though and was able to complete his assignments while on the cruise (He did complain about having to do homework on 'vacation'. I told him it's better homework and vacation, than homework and no vacation...) He missed a math test while we were gone, but did awesome on it!

 

The whole thing is a win-win for us! We get to travel when it's cheaper, and the school still gets their money!

[Grimix]

I'm back. Sorry about the delay, but the weekend happened!

 

Before we head to day 3 I'll finish up another Haven bar story. I had seen a bunch of people drink Johnie Blue the night before. Knowing it was around $200 a bottle I decided I would have a glass. I'm not much of a scotch/whiskey/bourbon drinker, but the neighbors are really getting into it. (One neighbor has a whole room dedicated to his purchases and always brings around different bottles in a backpack when he comes over...) I wasn't an IPA drinker before moving into this neighborhood, and they got me on that bandwagon so I'm trying to see if I can acquire the taste. (It's getting easier for me.) It was good, but I wouldn't pay $200 for a bottle. What made it interesting was the next night the Johnnie Blue bottle was gone from behind the bar. I asked the bartender and he said it was all gone. I should have asked, but I'm wondering if NCL is rationing the expensive liquor and does one bottle per cruise. I don't know, but kind of suspect it because the bottle was full on the first night. Either way I wasn't really planning on having another. Since I was having a whiskey the wife thought it was time to have a Smoked drink and went with the Smokey Old Fashioned. She decided it was a little sweet, and after that first time later in the cruise asked for it not-so-sweet and it was made to her liking! (I will say when they smoke the drinks the bar smells fantastic!)

 

 

Today is Juneau. As many know you on this route you don't hit this port until 2pm. That left us with the morning for a leisurely breakfast, and to do some further exploring of the ship. The kids were feeling lazy so they got room-service breakfast, and the wife and I headed down to the Haven restaurant where being only two were able to easily get a nice table for 2 by the window. After a great breakfast we headed back to the room to pick up the kids and go check out the galaxy pavilion.

 

The wife didn't want to do any of the rides (she can get motion sick) so the 3 kids and I did an hour pass. There were several 'rides' that were broken and they told us everything that wasn't working before we made the purchase to make sure we were ok with that. The kids started off on the Jurassic ride (my eldest is one of the worlds biggest (pun intended?) fans of dinosaurs. (You can show him a dinosaur picture he'll name it and the period it roamed...) They did the draw your own roller-coaster, some robot battle game, Descent, walk the plan. Then we went to the (5D?) theater where you sit and shoot aliens as a group of 6 in 3D. The attendant told my wife she should join us even though he knew she didn't have the wrist band. So all five of us shot up some whatever they were. (Yours truly managed the high score... 🙂 )

 

 

 

 

After that we finished the hour doing the race car simulation. That one has no VR goggles, but the car does jerk around. All-in-all outside the plank ride there were really no lines. I would never get the unlimited pass. An hour was enough to do everything there you'd like to. I have a PlayStation VR2 at home, so none of the VR is as good as that, but they do add motion into it. The kids had fun, but were also ready to leave after the hour. I will note that they do give everyone wristbands so you can't share the hour like you could with the unlimited arcade package where you just have to swipe your card but have to wait a bit between swipes.

 

We headed back to the real world of our cabin to relax a bit. We head out to the Haven restaurant for a 'quick' lunch before we get in Juneau. We watch us pulling into port while enjoying a nice lunch (one of the few we actually ate. Lunch tended to be the skipped meal, as there is too much food to eat 3 times a day for us...)

 

 

There two HAL ships in port. That's downtown past the second ship. I forget their names. I think one was the Westerdam or something like that. If you look at the picture you might see something unusual. Blue sky. Apparently we were very lucky as the Sun doesn't often make an appearance here, and it had been raining somewhat hard the previous weeks we were told.

 

When I was planning excursions for this port as this was our first (hopefully not last) Alaskan cruise I felt we really needed to do the Mendenhall glacier. I heard reports from some that their excursions were cancelled because the commercial permits to visit the glacier had been used up during the summer (Although I'm sure the ship probably had some pre-purchased permits because there were still busses taking ship passengers there.) I know you can often do it cheaper by taking the Blue Bus for around $50/person than on the ship, but that was almost certainly out because of the permit issue. So I decided I'd rent a car. Normal car rentals are done at the airport so I'd have to take transportation there to pick up our ride. That didn't sound appealing. The other method I heard was Turo (a peer-to-peer) rental which I'd heard of before but never used. I read on the boards that you can usually rent some that are within walking distance from the port. I decided to look into it and found a Tesla that I could get for around $250 all-in. So it was comparable to the Blue Bus, and MUCH cheaper than going through NCL (plus, it being a Tesla I wouldn't have to bother putting in gas before returning it!) About a month and a half before our sail date I get an email from the owner saying his Tesla had been vandalized, and he offered to change me to his other newer Tesla. I agreed, but about 2 weeks later I got notification from Turo that my reservation was canceled, with no explanation. So I went on to see what else was available. There was almost brand-new 2023 Subaru outback for the same price, but no reviews yet. I decided I'd risk it. (The rental is only about $150 a day, but insurance (check your policy because apparently not may will give you collision for peer-to-peer rentals, and the 'free' insurance with Turo has a $3000 deductible. I got the expensive one $80 that had a $0 deductible. I don't know Alaska, and for $20 more it was worth the peach of mind) and fees add another $100. For this rental we had to pick up the car at the owners house which was right past downtown.

 

So we go to the concierge to be escorted off the ship. (I'm not sure if this is the stop, but my wife did tell me she heard some people say how did they get down here so fast, they must have a short-cut we need to find... Escorting off the ship is one of the great benefits of the Haven!) We get off painlessly and have a choice to make. We can either take the free shuttle a mile into town, or just walk it. Having eaten so much, and deciding avoiding the bus-loads of people we decided to just walk (and it was a beautiful day!) Not many chose our path. The majority took the shuttles. The walk was pretty easy and a nice one which took us only about 15-20 minutes. We got to walk past both HAL ships (The Encore looked nicer, but maybe I'm biased!) and into town. Our rental was on the other side of downtown. While we were going downtown my wife asked me where we pick up the rental. I told her at the owners house. I held off telling her that detail because I knew she would think it was a little sketchy. She grumped about it a bit, but as we approached the owners house (about another 0.5 miles) the owner texted me to let me know he'd unlocked the car and where the key was located. Luckily the listing had a picture of the car as when we got to the general vicinity there were lots of Subarus! It was in his driveway. Unfortunately it was locked. I texted him that, and about a minute later he said he'd remotely unlocked it. Sure enough were were able to get in and start our glacier excursion. The car was as advertised and really comfortable for our family of 5.

 

We took the 15 minute or so drive out to the Glacier, and were able to park very close to the visitor center. The fees for parking here aren't required after September so we all got in for 'free' (minus the taxes I pay each year.) We saw the glacier and it was amazing to us! I really wanted to hike to Nugget Falls. Before we left I was a little concerned because traveling late in the season I know there is less sunlight. We get into port at 2pm and google told me sunset was around 6:30pm. I was hoping to have enough time to do this hike before it got dark. As it turned out we had no problem. The other advantage of taking our own car is we beat the busloads of NCL tourists! We had a nice easy mile walk to the falls. It isn't a challenging hike and well worth it!

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by Grimix

[Grimix]

As you see you can get pretty close to the falls if you wish! Funny story about this last picture. My wife has some anxiety about injury (her time in the emergency department where she saw the results of actions...) and was taking pictures from farther away when she saw my boys walking over to the falls. She shouted yelling at them to STOP! And wait for us. I was closer and got there, and since they were already there decided to take some photos (she also like photos.) After picture time we walked back to join their mother. And my wife asks him why he was ignoring her! The youngest says "I didn't hear you. I kept walking expecting to hear you calling us back, but since I didn't hear you I kept going!" Needless to say the falls are pretty loud!

 

On the way back the trail started getting a little busier. When we got back to the visitor center (which may have been open, but we didn't bother going in) we saw one of the cruise line buses had finally made it here. Score one for Mendenhall on our own! We load back into the car and head back to drop the car off. We had it until 11pm (when the ship leaves) but we had only rented it to get to the glacier, and had no other stops in mind. We wanted to explore the town a little before night fell. I put in 2 gallons of gas (cheaper than California!) which was a little more than we used and headed back to the owners house. Parked the car and we walked the very short distance to town. It's a cute town. There was still a lot open in Juneau, probably because it's the capital city. 

We probably had time to do the Tram (Would have been 'free' for the first two with the $50 off excursion), but if you remember the wife is a little afraid of heights, Also there was a long line... We decided we'd stop by the Red Dog saloon. We peeked in and they have the sign (that I saw at all the drinking establishments) that minors weren't allowed in. I'm not sure of the laws in Alaska, but apparently minors aren't even allowed in a brewery we passed that served food. The wife and I really wanted to go in and have a drink because it looked cool (and our friends told it was really neat. That they had Wyatt Earp's gun hanging behind the bar, and told us the story about it. Apparently he left it for some reason or other, but we were drinking when the story was relayed so I didn't get the whole thing... 🙂 ) 'Luckily' they had no such restrictions in the gift shop located right next door. They do have an entrance to the saloon there so the wife and I peeked in and it looked fun, but maybe on a sans-kids return! The wife had to buy a couple souvenirs even though we never actually made it into the bar. We all decided to head back to ship as we'd seen enough for the day.

 

We did take the shuttle back to the ship instead of walking this time. We were back on and in our cabin by 5pm.

 

 

Got back in time to view the sunset before heading out to dinner!

 

[Grimix]

On 10/13/2023 at 3:48 PM, Grimix said:

The whole thing is a win-win for us! We get to travel when it's cheaper, and the school still gets their money!

Just wanted to update on this. My daughter has been on the same Soccer (non-comp) team for 7 years now. We've made friends with several of the families and click with one set of parents. The wife of this family is the principal at one of the local schools. My wife was discussing the trip with her at the soccer game this weekend, and she said thank you for doing the Independent study. She confirmed they do get the money for the 'missed' days (at least here in California!)

[Grimix]

So Ketchikan was one of the days I specifically did not book a speciality dinner in because the ship didn't leave until 11pm. The wife and I had contemplated getting off and going back to the saloon for a drink, but decided against it as we were tired from the day already. I believe I mentioned it before that my wife is a vegetarian. The Haven menu is lovely, but is a bit lacking on vegetarian options. (She loved all the options she tried there!) I know they can be more accommodating with advanced notice, but we decided to just space out our visits there. Tonight I suggested we try the local. I know they have the pretzel bites that my kids would love. We went there around 6 and had no problem getting a seat. The dinner was great. We ordered some drinks. Maybe it's just placebo, but the drinks again weren't as good as the ones in the Haven. The wife was against disappointed in her margarita, and decided she wouldn't be ordering outside the Haven anymore... I had a Tito-soda my maintaining drink on this cruise. I'm normally a beer drinker, but outside the district brew-house the beer selection is poor. I believe the only IPA they have at the normal bars is Goose-Island, and I'm not a big fan of that one... Anyways, we ate dinner while enjoying Royal Flush (I think) play some classic rock. The wife and I planned on hitting the comedy show later at 9:30, and the kids had some iPad/iPhone time planned so we finished dinner and headed back to the Cabin.

 

The wife (freshened up) and I (already fresh as can be) headed over to the Social to watch the late night comedian. He was a Juneau local and he made some jokes about seeing the sun in Juneau and about how rare that was. He was good. Not great, but the wife and I had a great time! We headed back to the Haven bar and decided to have a night cap while we sailed out of Juneau. Great day in the capital of Alaska!

 

(0 whales seen up to this point even though I guess Juneau is a great place to see them...)

[Grimix]

Out of sequence because I don't remember which night, but one of these days the wife and I had headed down to the Cavern club to catch the Beatles tribute (I think it was the early years?) We showed up about 15 minutes early and found some seats by a table occupied with 2 but had two empty chairs. The nice couple invited us to join them. They were (obviously, via accent) from Boston, and we enjoyed talking with them before the show. We had gone to one of their (different band) shows on the Bliss (I think the Psychedelic years) and enjoyed it so wanted to hit at least one this year. They put on a great show again. Maybe because we know all the songs, but we had a great time. We later encountered the couple again later in the Haven during the week so we had fun catching up for a bit. I would encourage you to see at least one concert in the Cavern club if you like the Beatles at all. If you don't then I would advise you to stay away and go to one of the other musical acts that are playing around the ship! 

[cruiseny4life]

On 10/13/2023 at 3:13 PM, Grimix said:

The kids loved it, especially the mozzarella sticks (I know that will make cruiseny4life happy...) this was probably the most diverse meal my sons would have all week.

They are soooooo good!!! Haha, thanks for thinking of me. 🙂 

 

1 hour ago, Grimix said:

 

As you see you can get pretty close to the falls if you wish! Funny story about this last

That's where I would have been too! It's nice to see adventurous kiddos, even if a brother is almost being thrown in. I'm not surprised those falls overwhelmed everyone's sense of hearing!

 

1 hour ago, Grimix said:

Just wanted to update on this. My daughter has been on the same Soccer (non-comp) team for 7 years now. We've made friends with several of the families and click with one set of parents. The wife of this family is the principal at one of the local schools. My wife was discussing the trip with her at the soccer game this weekend, and she said thank you for doing the Independent study. She confirmed they do get the money for the 'missed' days (at least here in California!)

I'm a former charter school director. Except for those kids that missed dozens of days a year, I encouraged parents to take their children on vacation. We did not receive payment for their attendance (NYS), but the experience is far more valuable than sitting in the classroom. Thanks for taking your kids on an enriching vacation! 

[Grimix]

6 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm a former charter school director. Except for those kids that missed dozens of days a year, I encouraged parents to take their children on vacation. We did not receive payment for their attendance (NYS), but the experience is far more valuable than sitting in the classroom. Thanks for taking your kids on an enriching vacation! 

That was our experience in New York. The teachers really encouraged the kids to go out and explore (obviously not the whole school year, but the teachers were really happy to give them their homework for the week, and excited for them) California they seem to really discourage it. The welcome back video we sat through 3 times (3 different back-to-school days for 3 different schools my kids attend) had the superintendent reminding people to schedule vacations for when school was not in session. That if your child missed too much school you would be referred to CPS. I agree with you that they will remember these experience more than they will remember a week of missed school. My son is taking marine biology and he saw and experienced first hand some of what they were learning about in class in real life.

[Grimix]

Today is Skagway! The only day I actually had a planned ship excursion for us. From reading here it sounds like the Whitepass train is a home-run, and therefore was on my must-do list! I would have liked to do one of the helicopter land on a glacier tours, but the wife is deathly afraid of helicopters. Maybe a fixed wing ride over a glacier? Nope. She doesn't like small planes. Her uncle is a private pilot, and the only small plane she will travel in because she knows he's very careful in everything he does. He used to own a helicopter, and had a license for it, but got rid of it because he felt it was too dangerous (probably why the wife won't fly in one.) I'm happy to report though, after talking with fellow passengers and seeing their pictures from their helicopter adventures she is beginning to thaw and said maybe if we come back to Alaska she might do it. So you're saying there's a chance!

 

I wake up and look out our balcony window and see a beautiful hillside covered in trees and some fog. Being an 'early' train ride (I believe 9:30) the wife had pre-arranged breakfast ensuite which the butler brought at the time requested. While he was setting up I headed to the Horizon Observation lounger to grab some pastries (and an Almond Croissant to make Sthrngary jealous...) and bread for the carboholics in the cabin. While there I saw this out the front windows,

 

 

Wahoo! This is what I pictured when I thought about Alaska! Wonderful snow-capped mountains! And there was more to see throughout the day!

 

While the wife was getting kids ready I was getting the tickets. They had left the tickets in an envelope on the desk upon embarkation. I opened them up and saw a big notice about being sure to bring your passport or original birth certificates on the excursion because we'd be going into Canada. The wife said really? She has a wallet thing that contains all the passports but didn't really want to take them because they take a fair portion of her purse space. As we're headed down to the concierge to get escorted off I'm looking at the tickets and realize the tickets the note is stapled to is for someone else! There is also all of our tickets, but no note stapled to any of those. I ask the concierge if we need our passports for our excursions, and show him the note that I said had someone else's tickets attached. He tells me no, we don't need them for ours. Let this be a lesson to check your tickets when you board. Luckily our tickets were fine, but the other person may have been missing theirs. If it had been the other way around we'd have been scrambling at the last moment! The wife was happy to be able to leave our passports back in the cabin safe.

 

After debarking you MUST take the short shuttle into town. We're told because it is unsafe to walk the relatively short distance after the recent rock-slide. (The concierge's message he left every morning on our phones said to allow 45 minutes before your excursion start to get to town. That was obviously conservative, because it only took us about 15 minutes.) The shuttle drops you right by where you can board the train if you purchased them from NCL. (Otherwise I believe you have to go to the actual station in town which is about a half mile walk I think. Not bad, but if you have challenges with that it could be an issue.)

 

We walked around a bit because we weren't really sure where to go. Turns out that gigantic line is for our train. This was the largest line of our Alaskan voyage (of course being in the Haven we weren't sure what a line was. Off the ship we were brought back to reality! And no, I didn't announce to the others in line that were were Haven and they should move aside for us as I did see some Haven people do last year when leaving the terminal at the end of the cruise. Luckily the staff told them the Haven doesn't exist here, and they'd have to wait with everyone else.) They had people standing by the line telling us it was indeed a line and answering any questions. Someone asked if they would have room for us (since we were near the end of the line) which they were assured there were more than enough seats for all of us!

 

Once the line started boarding things moved pretty quickly. As we got to the train the guy told us board an car with the step stool in front of it. As we got to the first one with the step stool we were going to just go into that one, but another guy told us a different story that we need to board the first car with a stool at the front of the train. Ok. Whatever we get on the car and it's actually empty except for us. We move towards the front, and decide to avoid the furnace that each car has as it puts out a LOT of heat! We give the heater a seats distance and the temperature is moderate enough for the wife who gets hot easily. 

 

The train ride was absolutely fantastic! Just beauty everywhere you look! I'm sure you've all seen pictures from it, but I'll add my own here. The narrator on the car was so good my wife thought it was a recording. He kept making notes like looking back because we normally don't get to see this clearly to the glacier that I suspected it was a real person doing it live. Sure enough he comes through on the way back (I suspect mostly to receive (well deserved) tips) to say hi to all the cars. They tell the whole gold-rush story of Skagway and it keeps you entertained as you sit back and take in all the scenery. If you haven't done it I would definitely suggest this excursion for any Skagway stop!

 

[Grimix]

Love me some snow-capped mountains!

 

We passed two trains on the way back while we were on the way up. Everyone waves to each other as we pass.

 

The first of the two tunnels you go through. Yes it gets dark inside them! Be sure to look out the left as you exit the first tunnel. There's the rumor a Yeti likes to play with dynamite there. I actually asked my son if he saw the Yeti. He thought I was joking and didn't believe me. On the way back he saw him, and now he doesn't know when he should believe me. Just the way I like it to keep him on his toes!

 

The second tunnel.

 

Don't worry, the rail line no longer goes over that bridge. They built a new one and let the old one Patsy Kline itself...

 

This is the old gold-rush trail. Apparently this was worse than the line to get on the train except you had people hauling up gear. Some of which you can still see down there rusting away since the 1800s.

 

You do enter Canada, but since we don't get off no passports needed I guess!

[Grimix]

Editors note: Trying to do smaller posts as I lost another one when trying to add pictures. When copy/pasting from google images things usually work fine. When trying to get stuff from Mac-OS Photos they come out as a non-jpeg file and don't show. Then if I drag the photos in to the bottom bar they tend to come in upside down. So my solution is to save them to a folder. Open them in preview (Where they show up rotated correctly) and then rotate them one way. Save. Rotate back the other way and save. Then when I attach them they come up the right way. The image tools could be a little better here.

 

Anyways sometimes when futzing with the images I do something and if the page reloads I lose everything. So I'll be playing it safer with a little smaller posts so I don't lose too much at a time. (I only have so much time waiting for my code to compile that I can't be posting here all day!) I'm a software guy; not IT. Although most people assume if you do software you know how to fix all the computer problems. I write software for unmanned aerial vehicles and if you have a general C++ question I might have an answer. If you say my browser is locking up when I upload a picture you're on your own. I didn't write that crappy software. My software hasn't made any of our planes crash yet! *knocks on wood*

[RocketMan275]

The Skagway train was the highlight of our cruise.  We took the VIP version which we felt was very worth the extra cost.  There was one are with rotating easy chairs.  Only about 20 passengers.  Full bar.  Lots of snacks including sandwhiches.  The best part was a dedicated tour guide which allowed passengers to ask questions.  

[Grimix]

After the glorious train ride (have I recommended it enough to you?) we got off to explore the town before heading back to the ship where we had Cagney's scheduled for our specialty dinner.

 

You can see my daughter can barely handle her excitement to have her picture taken with the unbare bear at the translation. Unfortunately the one major piece of wild-life we did not see this trip was a real bear.

 

Another Red named saloon we weren't able to enter because of our baggage... I mean kids! They must really like the color red up here in Alaska, or more probably they really liked their prostitutes and red-lights as this one offers brothel tours. (I'm guessing the Red Dog used to also have a brothel affiliation...)

 

I believe we ended up stopping by the pop-corn store here as the kid really wanted some. The store clerk gave us some extra bags with some sealing tape in case they gave the kids problems trying to get back on the ship with open food. Turns out they were more than capable of finishing the pop-corn before then so those weren't needed.

 

We got back to where the shuttle dropped us off, and there was another giant line waiting to board another train headed up the mountain. There was also another giant line for getting the shuttles back to the boat. This is where the landslide really sucked. The boat looked to be about 100 yards or so away (in my picture of the shuttle stop in a prior post you can see the Encore in the background), and we were told we wouldn't be allowed to walk back so had to wait in the line for the shuttles. Eventually we get on but there seems to be some confusion. Someone official is telling the shuttle driver he needs to move because he's blocking the road, and he leaves, but now there are no shuttles for us except backwards. We head that way and get on (I'm pretty oblivious because I'm following the family to make sure no one gets lost, and just board the shuttle after them.) 

 

My wife is talking to her seat mates while I board (got behind a couple other people.) I sit with my youngest who I was herding, and when it gets time to get off the lady across the aisle says you can go I don't have an issue with you, but I'm not letting those people off! Turns out she was talking about the people my wife was talking to. I had no idea what was going on. After we got off my wife tells me the lady and partner she was sitting next to were yelled at by this other woman because she thought they were cutting the line. I  think it was all confusion about the end shuttles leaving and the line going back on itself because there were no more shuttles where we were, but I mean we all got where we going so what's the problem? I guess I lucked out by getting on later, although I probably looked I was cutting the line too. My wife and the other women laughed about it as we boarded the boat. I guess they hadn't put up with it (I know my wife doesn't put up with any crap...) and let the woman know about it before I even boarded which probably made the other lady even angrier. We're on vacation people! No reason to get angry! 

 

 

[sprint180]

Two things.....I love Octopi.  It makes me very happy when I get to use the word.  Also, I loved Choir of Man.  I've seen it three times on the ship.  Don't miss it!

[Grimix]

13 hours ago, sprint180 said:

Two things.....I love Octopi.  It makes me very happy when I get to use the word.  Also, I loved Choir of Man.  I've seen it three times on the ship.  Don't miss it!

Glad I could help, because I too love that word, AND Choir of Man!

[Grimix]

So after we got back to the cabin we got ready for our dinner at Cagney's. My wife, the vegetarian, loves steakhouses. Not for the meat, but for the sides! Our plan at Cagney's is to order our meals, and the kids to order off the kids menu (like I mentioned before the only one that likes real meals is my daughter, and she only likes the meat; not the vegetables.) and then we give wife's steak to our daughter. *Gasp* I know! Against the terms and conditions! Rule breakers! The servers didn't care, and my wife enjoyed the plethora of sides (I think we ordered most of the sides!) and the daughter devoured her Filet. As neither of us are seafood aficionados so we didn't have any starters (I do find it weird that all the starters at Cagney's are seafood based...) I had asked for a wine list to order a bottle of wine for dinner. When the waiter returned I asked which were the the available bottles for the premium + package. He said they're all listed on the left, and I'd get 40% off of them. I said I thought we got bottles at dinner with the package, he said he didn't think so and would check. When he came back he said no only 40% off bottles, and asked if I would like a bottle. Nope! I'll drink it by the glass then! I had the rib-eye which was probably the best steak I had on the cruise. It was done to a perfect medium rare and was a nice cut of meat. (Not impressed with the steaks in the Haven... Probably should ask for the filet there since it's harder to mess up or get a bad filet...) After sampling the deserts and a couple coffees we were stuffed and ready to return to the room.

 

The bottle thing was annoying me as I've been reading here quite a bit and don't recall reading a thread about it (as bottles were no problem on our cruise last year, and I had ordered one at Los Lobos.) When I got back to the cabin I checked my spending account and noticed that I wasn't charged for the prior bottle, but I did notice I was be charged 3 $25 service charges a day. I had pre-paid gratuities from my TA so I assumed I wouldn't have to pay gratuities. Seeing 3 charges I quickly figured out like everything else those only applied to the first two people in the cabin. That $75/day ate up all my OBC ($300 was refundable from my TA, and $100 from stock ownership wasn't), but thems the breaks! After being disappointed by spending an unexpected extra $500 on my cruise I decided to read the terms and conditions for the Premium + drink package, and sure enough the bottle of wine at dinner was no longer here, just the 40% off. I guess my reading skills here must be lacking as I don't recall seeing the threads berating this change. From further reading once I got back it does seem that some waiters will charge you for 4 glasses and give you the bottle, which is probably what happened at Los Lobos had I checked the receipt. You live, you learn! Since you are entitled to 2 drinks per transaction I wonder if you can 'force' the bottle by just ordering 2 glasses apiece when we order drinks. Will try that next cruise!

 

After that we went back to the cabin and the kids did their nightly electronics run, and the wife and I headed back to the Haven bar to talk about our days at Skagway with the new friends. Check another bar closing down for us! Gotta make my money back on the drink package to pay for those gratuities!

 

Tomorrow is what is considered the highlight of the cruise. Cruising Glacier bay!

Edited October 17, 2023 by Grimix

[Grimix]

So we wake up on glacier bay day! I look outside and it pretty foggy and hard to see the land that's out there. Oh oh! This is supposed to be the highlight of the cruise! It's why you take the Encore at this time and not the Bliss (unless you've done glacier bay before...) There is also a slight drizzle going on. I check my phone and see several messages in our roll call group. Darn it! While I was closing down the bar people were out on the deck and the northern lights were going on! There were some great photos.They did say you couldn't really see them well with the naked eye, you needed to take a picture to actually make them visible...

Screen capped from the thread...

 

View from the balcony entering the bay.

 

Oh well, disappointed at missing the lights, and the gloomy fog outside I figured we might as well head over to the Haven restaurant for a nice breakfast. Always geeted by name we got what tended to be our normal table for 5 one row from the windows at an oval half booth table. My daughter always zooms for the chair with the view. We had to make her move because she did this everywhere and it was starting to annoy the wife and I. We paid for this cruise, and we should get a nice seat every now and then! We watched the mist covered land masses (not sure which are islands) and it did appear the fog was lifting somewhat.

 

After breakfast we head back to the room to relax and see what we could off our balcony. You could hear the ranger talking on the ship's comm outside the room. I tried to get the talk to come on the TV but it wasn't coming on. I ended up propping our door with a shoe so I could hear what she was saying. Let me tell you... She was NO WHERE near as talented as the person narrating our whitepass train ride. He sounded excited about what he was talking about, she sounded like she was reading a script and not very excited about what she was saying. But if you listened to what she was saying it sounded like she should be excited, but no emotion came through her reading... It is what it is!

 

The first glacier is a drive by, the Lamplugh glacier. the star is the John Hopkins way at the end of the bay where you do the pirouette.

 

The dividing line is not land, it's just different colored water. If I could have heard the narration well she probably explained it. I suspect that it's due to the glacier being fresh water, and the rest of the bay being salt water. If I'm wrong you can correct me since it's just my theory. The channel finally did start working as we neared the John Hopkins glacier but here I could only hear a little through the propped open door and out on the balcony...

 

You sail for a while more and finally get to the John Hopkins glacier. 

 

Not the beautiful sunny day you'd see on the wikipedia page for this glacier, but still pretty!

 

We went up to the Haven sundeck as we were approaching the glacier to get a forward look. It was raining, but at least we finally got to break out the waterproof windbreakers we had packed for this trip!

 

Not the day for glacier viewing, but we lucked out on weather everywhere else! At the entrance to the Haven sundeck they had their alcoholic coffee and hot chocolate station (also Salmon chowder if you're into that kind of thing.) The wife and I have a couple of Irish Coffees (Bring your keycards because they do swipe them!)

 

Since glacier bay is one of the rare time passengers are allowed onto the bow of the ship (It's usually crew only, and you could see them occasionally lying out there and hanging out from our DOS Balcony on our Mexican Riviera trip last year) we decided we should head down there and experience it. There is quite a line you have to navigate. They had a big loop entering the port side, and you exit on the starboard side. I feel a little bad for people in the cabins lining these cooridors because it must make it a little harder for them to navigate with all the people filling up the hallways. When you get up there you aren't allowed into the very front of the ship as that is roped off. Also they have a much larger alcoholic coffee/hot chocolate/salmon chowder station right there. You definitely don't have to be in the haven to be able to partake of that! They also have a picture station set up to take your picture with the glacier in the background.  We walked out and looked, pretty much the same view as from up top, but hey, we were on the bow!

 

The kids are obviously thrilled to be out in the weather and the great outdoors experience something probably many of their friends haven't done! You can see it written all over their faces!

 

The captain announced that we would be staying here an hour, and rotating the ship so all could see it from wherever you were located. We headed back to the cabin so could experience it in a little quieter surroundings on our own balcony. I think the captain turned the ship around twice in the time we were there.

[Grimix]

I'm going to say now that I screwed up the dinner nights. I believe Skagway we did the Haven again for dinner. It was actually tonight that we did Cagney's... I saw the picture of us 'dressed' up by the 'chandalier' yes it is god-awful. Especially when it isn't lit up with colors... Whatever they wrapped that thing with is horrifying...

 

 

Now that I got that dinner messed up we can go back before dinner and as we were leaving the bay. On the way out I kept seeing things in the water that looked like logs from our balcony. I pointed them out to my wife and she said they're just logs. I pulled out the cheap binocular I had brought ($40 from Amazon) and pointing them at the 'logs' you could see they were moving. They were sea otters and they were all over. I called the wife over and gave her the binoculars. She looked through them and said I was right. I may not remember what I had for dinner, but darn if I'm not going to remember my wife telling me I'm right! The last time was probably several years ago! The kids all came out and we enjoyed watching the sea otters for an hour.

 

You 'finish' glacier bay fairly early so it's kind of like a sea day. In the afternoon we decided we'd head down to the arcade as my kids enjoyed that for an hour on the Bliss. On the way down we decide to check out the entourage room. We peek in and the guy in charge gets there quick (since no one under 18 is allowed.) He tells us about the program and asks if we want to sign up. Essentially there were about 7 teens in the club. 6 of them were sitting on a couch staring at their phones, and the 7th was glued to a video game. Sometimes I worry about the next generation (my kids included!) The kids weren't interested, and my youngest would have been separated anyways so we continued the few more steps to the arcade.

 

The arcade was mostly empty when we arrived. We told the kids they could have 10 swipes each. The youngest and daughter started with Guitar Hero.

 

 

While the wife and I played the air hockey. Not a fan of the air hockey table they have there. They are trying to be cute and the table is curved like half a cylinder (not quite as drastic but still) and it doesn't really add to the gameplay. I let me wife tie me because if you remember the story from last time I beat her and she was upset. Now she was upset because she realized I let her get the last goal for a tie. Sometimes you just can't win!

 

My eldest (the dinosaur lover) spent the whole time killing dinosaurs... He finished the first two levels before we left, but probably swiped more than the allotted 10, as he swiped as soon as he died to continue the game...

 

After that we did our dinner at Cagney's you can read about it above in the wrong place!

 

After dinner I went out to see if I could see the Northern Lights this time. I went up to the Sun deck and found some of our new friends from the Haven bar enjoying the hot tub. They said they were looking for the lights too, but didn't see any. The haven sun deck is not the place to be looking for them. That place is lit up like a Christmas tree. I went back to our cabin to see what I could see on our balcony.

 

I captured this which wasn't visible with the naked eye, but I'm suspecting this was light from a city (which I suspect was Juneau after looking at the location the photo was taken and consulting a map...)

 

We chose not to close down the bar this nights and went in early and watched a movie. We were tired from our ship fun, and closing the bar last night. One disadvantage of this trip is that we didn't eat to miss breakfast so we were usually up by 7-8 and didn't sleep in. So 'late' nights at the bar hurt more!

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Grimix

[Grimix]

We wake up to Ketchikan. This is a relatively short port with the last shuttle back leaving before noon I believe. I had made no plans for Ketchikan, and thought we would just head to creek street and see what we could. Luckily our plans didn't unfold that way!

 

Looking out the windows we can see rain. We break out our weather gear and had a quick breakfast in the cabin because of our desire to get out and see as much as we could in such a short time. The concierge escorts us down again and we use as much of the cover we can find getting to the warehouse style gift shop that stands between the docks and the shuttles downtown. The shuttles are two story busses and of course the kids wanted to ride on the top. We got on and took the 15-20 ride into town. We get off the bus and you're dropped off in this parking lot with a couple of small excursion huts. They're hocking their wares as we pass, namely a wilderness excursion to find wildlife. I walk past immune to this stuff, but the wife sees something about bears having been seen by the creek recently, and they tell her $75 per adult and they have 8 spots left leaving in 5 minutes. The wife calls me over, because she wants to see wildlife, and that's probably half the cost on the ship. They offer 1/2 price for the kids, and said they'd only charge my 16 year old as an adult. He saw I was wearing my 49ers cap and said "Go Niners" for you I'll do $70 per adult. My wife was already sold so we loaded up into their small shuttle bus that holds around 16 people. The person helping us onto the bus (who turned out to be the boss) saw my hat and threatened to not let me on. He was of course a Seahawks fan. My wife made a point of telling him we got $5 off because we were niners fans. Hopefully she didn't get the other person in trouble. 🙂 He probably gave us a better deal to spite his boss! (Or just to make a sale. Might have even have claimed to be a cardinals fan if I was wearing their colors...) We talked football a bit. People can root for different teams, have different opinions and still get along!

 

Our driver seems to be an itinerant seasonal worker. She came from New York City, but has been wandering across the country doing odd jobs. Back country stuff in Yellowstone, this was her first (and she says only) year in Ketchikan, and she's moving on to our neck of the woods to teach snowboarding at Squaw in Tahoe (You can call it Pallisades, but it's always been Squaw to me) She was great (once again much better than the ranger in Glacier Bay!) One of the first things she said, "I want to be honest with you. I know most of you want to see a bear. We probably won't see one today because it is very late in the season, but we'll do our best!" She had asked everyone if they wanted to be dropped off downtown or back at the ship. We had wanted to do creek street so asked if we were stopping there. She said we weren't, but could drop us on the way back if we wanted. We told her we'd let her know. My wife was having second thoughts about whether we should have done this excursion at this point...

 

Our first stop was Totem Bite park. We were pretty much the only group there. She was telling us how this is all a rain forest, and we got to experience what the call liquid sun-shine. I think she said it rains on average over 300 days a year. During the winter they have 17 hours of darkness. Probably not where I'd want to live... but I loved visiting!

Yes they had totems as well! This is in the communal cabin example.

 

We loaded back on the bus and we headed to just outside the salmon hatchery. They're a little creek that leads into a pond and then the ocean here. There are lots of seagulls around, and we can see seals swimming in the pond. There are also loads and loads of dead salmon all over the rocks! 

 

Here you can see one of the dead ones in the river. Don't we all like seeing dead fish? She told us all about the life-cycle of the salmon. She says by the time they get here they are mostly zombies. You could see them swimming up the creek, and they didn't look like they were in great shape!

It was here that I saw the third of four bald eagles we saw. (She called them Alaskan Pigeons). This is from far away and zoomed in. (I forgot to mention when driving to the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau we saw two bald eagles sitting on top of a light pole.)

 

Our guide kept talking about her bucket list, and those things she had checked off. Many in Alaska. She said just last week she got another one when she caught a wild salmon with her own hands, cooked, and ate it. She was determined to repeat the feat for us so went out into the river in some waders and her dress (?!)

 

Sure enough she succeeded! Then took the fish to members of our group allowing them to take a picture holding it. (None of my party was particularly interested in holding a smelly fish, but others were!) When we were done with the pictures she threw the salmon back into the creek and it swam away for what are probably its last few days of life... My daughter was pretty entranced with this performance however!

 

When we got back on the bus she asked us for a vote. Who wanted to go to the beach, and who wanted to go to the waterfall? I think everyone chose the waterfall... Raining in Alaska didn't seem like prime beach weather. She took us off to a waterfall by the side of the road and we all got out and took our pictures. She said this was the start of the second hardest hike on the island. It went up quite a long way, and involved rock climbing and I think ropes...

 

 

This was a quick stop and we loaded back up. I of course had to ask what the hardest one. (I think I helped with her setup...) She said it was the traverse across the length of the island via the highest peaks. She said she had attempted it earlier in the season with her friend and thought they might have to get help because the weather turned. She said she plans on doing it before she leaves for Tahoe because her momma didn't raise a quitter.

 

As we drive back town she says we have time to do the beach as well if we're still interested. Several were, and I was ok with it since when am I getting back to Ketchikan? I'm glad we did because it was a nice pitstop. She said this was the main swimming hole for the residents. She says the trees leave their tannins in the water which makes it darker and therefore warmer. As you walk down towards the ocean there are some tide-pools. We saw several crabs and a washed up jellyfish. As we got down to the ocean she reaches into a tide pool and pulls out a starfish. 

 

She handed to us to hold and take pictures with before putting it back.

 

We got back in and she asked us again if she wanted us to drop us off on Creek Street. I looked at the clock and it was 12, and I think all aboard time was 12:45, and I'm pretty sure there were no more shuttles! So naturally I said ship, and so did everyone. We saw creek street as we drove by, and it looked like fun, but neither my wife nor I regretted going on this tour. Our guide made it interesting and fun for all of us! The advantage of taking this tour is we didn't have to stand in line for a shuttle to return! She got us back in plenty of time, and we even had enough time to do a little souvenir shopping at the dock before boarding and getting ready to leave Ketchikan. It was a surprisingly fun stop for us!

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Grimix

[Grimix]

We're back aboard fairly early in the day. The wife and I have a date night at Onda planned (no kids!) but we do plan to spend time with them before our 8:30pm reservation. Still more than enough time for the kids to (grumpily) do some homework!

Speaking of reservations we had made one for 5:30 at the escape room in the Galaxy Pavilion. We've only done one or two but my kids love them! We showed up at our appointed time ready to get in so we could get out as quickly as we can. The escape room is designed for 6 participants, so when we signed up they said there is a chance there would be someone else with us. When we checked in we found they had made a mistake and there were two others (an older mom, and her adult daughter) joining us. They said they only had 6 VR headsets so someone would not be able to view the intro video, but that it doesn't affect the escape room at all. (You only do the VR in this outside room.) I volunteered to skip it since I've got a VR headset at home, and it actually has better VR than the ships headsets... As the video started the other mom decided she did not want to do the VR as it made her sick so I took the headset and finished the intro. I'll not go Into spoilers but it wasn't a very tough escape room. We managed to escape. My kids tended to want to dominate the puzzles but luckily the mom/daughter didn't seem to mind, and we made sure they were able to participate as well. (Along with letting some of my other kids doing some of the puzzles as my youngest wanted to do everything...) I won't spoil it for the rest of you but we did respectably. We were out in 26 minutes, and the attendant said the average about 35 minutes... My kids were really happy. They like winning!

 

The kids wanted to do laser tag again, and the boys wanted to try the go-karts again (They had been kicked off the Bliss track because the people there didn't seem to want to put up with kids driving. Granted my eldest is one of the worst drivers I've ever seen. Luckily he has no desire together a drivers license because he says there are too many rules...) We  first to the race track. There was a long line, and they said it would be at least 45 minutes. There was a Haven line, but they said it was only for certain times (No idea what those times are!) The attendant said the line should be smaller in a little bit as people start heading for dinner. We decided to do Laser Tag first. The wife didn't really feel like doing either so left the kids with me as she returned to the cabin for some alone time. The kids had a great time doing the laser tag last year. They loved that I had (unintentionally) made a kid on the other team cry because I had shot him so much. (I was just doing what I was told. Hitting shield, running in and shooting people...) The line wasn't too bad, and it looked there was only one group ahead of us. Each game is 5 minutes. 

 

Our turn comes up, and we go into our waiting 'room' on the said and hear the spiel from our 'coach' who tells you the triggers on the side and main trigger are the same. Hit shield and you can't be hit for 10 seconds, after which you can hide and the shield will recharge. He tells us aim for the gun and not the vests. Looking at the guns they had removed the wire between the gun and vest, so I suspect there was some issue they were having with them as they seem to have disconnected the vest sensors with the cable. We wait a while and nothing is happening. Some of our guns seem to have joined the game, and others haven't. The supervisors work to try and fix the issue, but after 10 minutes it still isn't working so they reboot the system. About 10 minutes later everything is rebooted and most guns are fine, mine still it says it's trying to sync. There was another gun on the counter and the guy says use this one. The trigger is broken, but you can push it forward manually between shots. Fine... I'll take the broken gun so my kids can win this game...

 

About another 10 minutes later (lots of problems!) the game starts. I'm going through with my shield blasting the kids on the other side and I feel I have to shoot them 5 or six times before they die. I'm ducking behind blocks between shields and repeat. I was probably 'killed' 3 times. One time I pop up and see about 5 or 6 of the enemy just groups around one of ours. I must have shot everyone of them several times and they're still just hanging out, none of the guns are changing colors so I finally figure my gun isn't working at all. When I did see people die that I shot before it was because one of my team members shot them. I take the gun back to the desk and tell them it's not working, and ask if I can get my money back. He says no problem, and while he's processing the refund one of the other guys comes over and sees the gun I put on the counter and says that's where my demo gun has gone to! I told him it wasn't working and he said it doesn't work in the game. Well that explains why no one was dying! (I was the high scorer last year in our game, and looking at the board I wasn't even listed!) My kids went on to lose by about 5 kills and were disappointed, but when I told them I wasn't playing they felt better about it saying that if I had been there we would have won. (And yes we would have, I'll make the other kids cry for my kids!)

 

We headed back to the racetrack and he line had definitely died down. There was only one group ahead of us. My daughter didn't feel like doing the cars so went back to the cabin to spoil my wife's alone time. We got on the track and the kids did better this time. They were still slow, and I think I lapped them at least once. I'm pretty aggressive on the track. The brakes are for losers! I had one person who kept getting the blue (let the other person pass you light) in front of me, and eventually managed to pass him, and after that I had a pretty clear track most of the way. (It's like that feeling you get when you've been in stop-and-go traffic for an hour and finally the traffic clears and you can go full speed!)

 

Now it was time to return to the cabin to get ready for my dinner, and let the kids do their electronics.

[Grimix]

When I get back to the cabin the wife tells me we need to hurry or we'll be late for our reservations. Looking at my watch I see it's almost 8:30! I take a quick shower, and get dressed and we head down to Onda. We go to the Maitre-D station and scan our cards, and they tell us it will just be a moment. As we wait several cruisers come out telling us we're going to love it. It was their favorite meal on the ship! We're excited as we do like Italian food. Some of our favorite. A couple minutes later we're seated at a little two top, and soon are ordering a couple glasses of wine and perusing the menu. We sampled much of the menu (non-entrees) and the waiter even allowed the wife to order a pizza as an appetizer. It was all delicious! It was the best meal we had on the cruise (including the Haven restaurant.)

 

While we were eating a man in a suit comes talking to the tables asking how everything is. When he asks me I say the food was outstanding, but that we were a little disappointed that they seemed to have gotten rid of the bottle with dinner option on the premium plus package. He immediately says, oh please let me get you a bottle of what you're drinking so you can take it back and enjoy it on your balcony! He asks what we're drinking. I was drinking the Sangiovese, I like my sour wine! The wife was doing the Duckhorn merlot (She normally did the Duckhorn Pinot Noir as she prefers it over the merlot, but I had seen that the merlot was listed as $120/bottle vs the $99 for the Pinot. And since we had the premium plus she should try something different. (This was before the man came and offered us a bottle, and the wine I was drinking was priced at the same price as the merlot, so we weren't gaming the system!)) He comes back and gives us a bottle of the Duckhorn (Total Wine lists it at a $50 bottle, so pretty nice) wrapped in a napkin rose!

 

Now that's service! After sampling the desert menu, and being stuffed  we were ready to leave, and head back for a night cap. I looked at my phone and see it's 9:15. There is NO way we were in that restaurant for only a half hour. Looking back at my watch I see it's says it's 10:15. Oops, I didn't set my watch back earlier on the trip, but my phone had changed. That means we showed up an hour early at Onda (and it was very busy, probably because it was 7:30 and not 8:30) and they sat us without even questioning us for being an hour early! Once again, great service for us entitled Haven passengers who just show up when we want (even it was accidental!)

 

We headed back to the Haven bar for our nightcap. We see a couple we had talked with earlier. We say Hi, and the husband says it's bed time for him! The wife tells him why don't you go to bed, I'm going to stay and chat. He leaves, and the three of us proceed to be the last three in the bar. Great night, but time for bed! Tomorrow is essentially a sea day with just a short stop in Victoria to satisfy the law. 

 

Still 0 whales (for us) seen this cruise! 😞 And no bears!

[lepidoptera]

Your writing is great and I am enjoying your review very much. 

[nhtravels]

Great review!  It's making me want to pull the plug on Alaska for 9/24!  

[Grimix]

14 hours ago, lepidoptera said:

Your writing is great and I am enjoying your review very much. 

Thanks, it's stream of consciousness so probably many spelling/grammar errors as I think faster than I type. 🙂

[Grimix]

13 hours ago, nhtravels said:

Great review!  It's making me want to pull the plug on Alaska for 9/24!  

I would. It's my favorite cruise so far! (But I'm not all into beaches like others which is the typical Caribbean cruises I've taken in the past. Still loved them though!)