Live From the Grand Princess, 22-Day Alaska B2B, Apr 30 - May 22

[Ken the cruiser]

20 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

Wonderful thank you so much. Will be up early as always so just hit the IC.

Don’t forget, you get to eat breakfast in Sabatini’s, which is definitely a huge plus!

[Ken the cruiser]

Had a fun time on our excursion today!

 

 
This was our tour boat which had plenty of room, as the excursion was definitely not sold out.

 

 
Here was the route we took, from Ketchikan (bottom left) to the Rudyerd Bay (top right).

 

 

And off we went.

 

 
A glimmer of blue sky!

 

 

 

 

 

 
New Eddystone Rock

 

 
We finally made it to Rudyerd Bay where it seems there is a waterfall around every corner! 😁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Saw a couple of Harbor Seals while cruising around the Rudyerd Bay area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to turn around and head back to Ketchikan.

 

 

 

On the way back we briefly stopped by this small rock island loaded with Harbor Seals.

 

 

 
Then the boat slowed down as they spotted a Humpback Whale! 😁

 

 

 

 

and finally we saw it’s fluke!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@cr8tiv1, who would have even thought it was feasible this early in the season. But there it was as we were making our way back to the Grand. The very elusive Ketchikan Pigeon! 😂

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Ken the cruiser

[Nattyg1723]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

The very elusive Ketchikan Pigeon! 😂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love the iridescent purple on him 🙂

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off! Next stop Juneau, Alaska! 
 

 

 
and maybe, just maybe if clear skies prevail, we might see something special after the sun goes down! 🤞🤞

 

Edited May 10 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Just looked at the display of officers, and it looks like we have a new Captain along with a new CD.

 

Edited May 10 by Ken the cruiser

[treesah]

Every time I visit Alaska or see pictures of that magical place, I repeat it in my head:  Than you, Bill Seward, you're my hero.  Alaska folly, indeed!

[Ken the cruiser]

OK, when the mention of the potential for Northern Lights makes it to a major news station, now we’re really starting to get excited, especially since all we’re seeing on our cruise right now is clear sky! 😁

 

Severe solar storm expected to supercharge northern lights on Friday

 

The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued its first "severe geomagnetic storm watch" since 2005. Auroras might be seen as far south as Alabama.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/northern-lights-visible-us-where-solar-storm-rcna151643

 
* Here’s the 30-minute link to use to see if/when you might be able to see them in your area!

 

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast

 

 
* Here’s the 2-day link to see if the potential is going to be there tomorrow for you t see them in your area!

 
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-viewline-tonight-and-tomorrow-night-experimental

 

 

Edited May 11 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Just got these photos from our son who lives in Montgomery AL!

 

 

 

Edited May 11 by Ken the cruiser

[cr8tiv1]

See...I told you so.  You could have seen pigeons and lights without leaving home.

 

Spectacular.  

[Ken the cruiser]

27 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

See...I told you so.  You could have seen pigeons and lights without leaving home.

 

Spectacular.  

Thank you so much for sending us the original NL article, which I forwarded on to our son. I mean who would have guessed they would be able to see the Lights all the way down in Montgomery! 😁

[cr8tiv1]

Fingers and toes crossed that you will be as fortunate as your son with an even more intense display.  Too bad you are "heading" north (bow) and your cabin is "heading" south (stern/aft).  You may need to get your big boy long johns out for this event. 

 

My words do not do justice.  I am soooooo excited for you.

[Ken the cruiser]

The “show” for us hopefully won’t be long now. I collected the following data at 8:35 pm local. It also looks like we’re going to be in an awesome position to view the NL from our aft-facing cabin as the ship is heading south at the moment. Then will turn west before finally turning north towards Juneau! 🤞

 

 

View to the west as the sun is setting at 8:35 pm.

 

 
View to the north from our balcony.

 

 
View to the east.

 

 
Current Aurora Forecast in 33 minutes, or at 9:08 pm if I’m understanding this chart correctly.

 

 

Edited May 11 by Ken the cruiser

[cr8tiv1]

Just how much did you pay the Captain to turn the ship for your viewing pleasure?

Edited May 11 by cr8tiv1

[treesah]

6 hours ago, treesah said:

Every time I visit Alaska or see pictures of that magical place, I repeat it in my head:  Thank you, Bill Seward, you're my hero.  Alaska folly, indeed!

My apologies.  I meant to say, "Seward's folly".

[Ken the cruiser]

While we patiently waited for the sunset to finish, I took this photo at 9:34 pm.

 

 
We finally got to see the Northern Lights in all their glory starting around 10:13 pm!
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This is where the Lights started to fade away from our aft viewpoint, and we called it an evening. What was funny was that we got the call from Guest Relations letting us know the Northern Lights had started after we came back inside. I guess us folks out back got to see the Lights before the folks up front did.😁

  

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 12 - May 11 - Juneau, Alaska

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Juneau, Alaska! The first few photos were taken at 4:40 am while we were cruising up Stephens Passage.

 

 

 
Then when we arrived in Juneau on this cold but pretty morning with the Carnival Spirit docked there in front of us.

 

 

 
BTW the two main reasons my NL photos weren’t as crisp as others you may have seen is because there was slight haze last night and more importantly my iPhone SE doesn’t have the option to slow the shutter speed. However, I just downloaded NightCap which should solve my issue for the next set of NL we hopefully will see on this cruise! 

[Ken the cruiser]

We took today off from going on an excursion and just walked around Juneau. We originally had an excursion booked that included going to a “whale park”, formally known as Overstreet Park (listed at the top of this town map), but later cancelled it and decided to just walk to it.

 

 
Along the way we stopped to see how long the Tram line was, and as one might imagine with 3 ships in port (so far), it was quite long so we moved on. Basically, we stayed on the “water” side of the street and continued to head to the whale park. Along the way there were no shortage of totem poles! 

 

  

 
and some huge marigolds! 
 

 

After walking through town and eventually past an old pier, we saw this sign which directed us down a boardwalk to the Overstreet Park.

 

 

 

and more totem poles! 😂

 

 

  

 

We finally made it to the park about an hour later and found plenty of benches to sit and relax on and take a few pictures. 😁

 

 

to include its star attraction!

 

 
Then all of the sudden after taking a bunch of pictures from different angles, water started shooting out from all directions! What an awesome idea the artist had when designing this work of art!

  

 
About that same time, about 40 people showed up out of nowhere and started taking pictures! Remember that excursion I mentioned earlier that we cancelled? I guess the park employee turns on the waterworks when an excursion shows up because as soon as they left, it stopped! 😂

 

About that same time a cool breeze had popped up, so we decided to start heading back to the ship.

 

  

Some Harlequin Ducks we saw on our walk back to the ship.

 

 

 

An old pier that has definitely seen better days. In the background, the Carnival Luminosa is positioning itself to eventually pull in right behind the Grand.

 

  

Someone had planted some tulips in the center median that I couldn’t pass up taking a picture of! 😁

 

 

When we got back to common pier area, there was this huge Raven sitting on top of a statue!

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off! Next stop is Skagway tomorrow morning!

 

 

 

This evening after dinner, we went to a special 7 pm North to Alaska lecture in the theater featuring Libby Riddles, and really enjoyed her presentation!

  

 

 
We then headed afterwards to the Vista Lounge to watch the always funny Marriage Match Game Show!

 

 
Then we headed back to the cabin to hopefully get ready to see more Northern Lights,

 

 

although the clouds, if they get any heavier, may become a factor. We will just have to wait and see. Tonight, it looks like the NL should be lighting up the sky starting around 11 pm. So fingers crossed! 🤞
 

 
On the bright side like last night, we’re first heading south out of Juneau then heading west before turning north to Skagway! 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 13 - May 12 - Skagway, Alaska

 

 

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

Hawaii news reported that some were able to see the Northern Lights at 4 AM.  Nothing for me in my state.  Too much light pollution.  City folk.  

[Ken the cruiser]

12 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Hawaii news reported that some were able to see the Northern Lights at 4 AM.  Nothing for me in my state.  Too much light pollution.  City folk.  

That’s too bad. It’s definitely not looking too good for us tonight after looking up at the sky a few minutes ago. Too many clouds.

[cr8tiv1]

When I taught in Connecticut, one of my students was interested in the Iditarod.  So she wrote to Libby.  I was pleasantly surprised when my student received a personal letter from her.  
 

So sorry about the weather considering aft viewing would have been perfect.  I still don’t know how you wrangled coming and going in the correct directions. 

[aussielozzie18]

Really enjoying your TR.  You are doing a lot of the things we were interested in doing on the  30th-8th May cruise but had other commitments, so I love your daily reports with photos.   We did see Libby Riddles though.  Such a passionate and interesting speaker.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Haines, Alaska rather than Skagway, as was originally planned. Apparently we were scheduled to dock at the Broadway pier rather than where we were docked last week along the mountain side. However, due the potential maneuvering issues with a nearby construction vessel and the current 25 mph winds, we were diverted to Haines for the day. That maneuvering issue was why the NCL Spirit and Carnival Luminosa were allowed to dock in Skagway and we were not.

 

 

 

 

 

We even had a Bald Eagle stop by to welcome us to Haines! 😂

 

Edited May 12 by Ken the cruiser