2016 July 30-Aug 7 Alaskan cruise

We booked this cruise in July 2015 with Bonnie Buchanan at CruiseOne. We have used Bonnie to book several cruises for us and she always does a great job. We got a balcony room…and in doing so we got the liquor package free. I prepaid the gratuities, preordered all of our excursions, preordered the photo package, preordered the internet package, and preordered the specialty dinner package. So everything was paid for ahead of time.

Saturday-We boarded Alaska Airlines and flew direct to Seattle. We took a taxi from the airport to the Waterfront Marriot…. cost was $47 plus tip. We checked in and our room was ready…654. We had a beautiful view of the water and a king bed.

We walked down to Ivar’s for crab cakes and a bowl of clam chowder. It was delicious.
Then we took a ride on the Ferris wheel…amazing views of the city.

Sunday-We had breakfast at the hotel… Steve had an American breakfast and I had dungenous crab eggs Benedict. We then had a bellhop take our luggage across the street to the Norwegian Pearl. We checked in and had lunch at O’Sheehans. We both had the chicken pot pie. It was delicious.

We got our room at 1:00…11630. We are VERY pleased. The room is exactly what we wanted. There is lots of storage…a king bed…a full sofa. We have a wonderful balcony.
We did the safety drill…then went to a bar for some wine during the bon voyage party. Even though we have the liquor package…. we have to pay the port tax on every drink until we get in international waters.

We had dinner at Summer Palace. We both had a salad and lasagna.

After dinner we went to the show at the Stardust Theater.
We came back to the room and Steve processed pictures while I sat on the balcony. I saw a whale blow several times and then I saw his tail. Needless to say I was excited.

Monday…. today is a day at sea. We are now three hours behind home. We had breakfast at O’Sheehans. While eating we saw a sea turtle, a whale and a school of porpoises. We had lunch at Summer palace…chicken salad sandwiches. I bought an Alaskan scrapbook kit and a crossover purse. We got our pictures taken in the Crystal Atrium. Dinner was a Cagney Steak house. We both had the lettuce wedge, filet mignon and baked potato…. I had raspberry crème Brule and Steve had Apple crisp. At dinner tonight...there was a group of 20 people sitting nearby...Bubba...ordered the 36-ounce porterhouse steak...and as I watched him devour it.... he then picked up the bone and gnawed on it like a dog for at least 15 minutes.... this is a first for me...his wife...got a lobster tail...which she picked up with her hands and ate the meat out of...she also picked up her baked potato and ate it with her hands. They were loud and obnoxious….and we were offended and laughed at the same time.

After dinner, we listened to a wonderful stringed trio while we had a martini…mine was chocolate...Steve’s was dirty vodka. We toasted memories of past trips…and those we shared them with.

Tuesday…We had breakfast at O’Sheehans. I had French toast…Steve had an omelet. We are in the inside passage…. mountains on both sides. As we are sailing, we have seen no less than 15 whales…Steve got some wonderful shots.
We had lunch at o’sheehans…I had fish and chips…steve had tuna fish.

We arrived Juneau 2:00…and got on a bus to take us to the whale watching boat. We saw Bald eagles, sea lions and seals and WHALES. We saw a waterfall, and point retreat lighthouse and the Mendenhall Glacier. We arrived in port and the Sun princess, Radiance of the seas, the Star princess and the NCL jewel were already there.

We had dinner at summer palace. We both had chicken cordon blue.

Wednesday…. we pulled into Skagway about 6 am. It is raining…for the first time on this trip. Ah yes…memories of Adak come flooding back…gray dreary days…back in 1973 and 74...when we lived in the Aleutian Islands. Skagway does have trees…The same ships we saw yesterday are in port here in Skagway.

We had breakfast at O’sheehans…. then headed ashore. We got on a bus that took us to Fraser British Columbia. We then boarded the White pass railway back to Skagway. Upon arrival to Skagway we got back on the bus and went to liarsville…where we had a baked salmon lunch….and a show…and panned for gold. (we actually skipped the panning for gold…. Then we got back on the bus to the red onion saloon and brothel. We took a tour of the brothel. We then walked back to the ship.

We saw two otters but no bears….and that’s still on my wish list. I am not sorry we did this today but once is enough.

We had dinner at Indigo…we had escargot and beef chateaubriand. Not crazy about this restaurant.
Thursday…We had breakfast at summer palace. we went to Glacier bay today. The water is like glass…small icebergs everywhere…mountain goats…. a tufted puffin… harbor seals… otters and Glaciers! Reid Glacier, Margerie Glacier….1-mile-wide 250 feet tall….and the mother of all glaciers…Grand Pacific Glacier…. johns Hopkins glacier…lamplugh glacier…. rendu glacier…. Carroll glacier.
Dinner tonight le Bistro…an upgrade. We had escargot…Steve had lamb and I had lobster. It was excellent.

Friday…we pulled into Ketchikan about 6 am. WE had breakfast at o’Sheehans…. then headed to the pier. We walked a few blocks to the lumberjack show. It was very funny. Then we took a bus to the Saxman Native American Village. We watched a film…. watched some dancers…. heard stories about Totem poles…and went to a carving demonstration…but the carver was not there.

We stopped at a store called Tongess trading company. I got some things for the kids.

We left Ketchikan at 1:00…. I saw an orca swimming...but Steve did not get a picture. Then we saw an orca breach! Steve missed the breach but got the splash.

We had lunch at o’sheehans…meatloaf…and it was pretty good! Dinner tonight was at Teppanyaki…an upgrade Japanese restaurant. The cook…Warren …was very entertaining.

Saturday…we headed for Victoria….it was foggy and rainy and cloudy most of the day…so our plan to watch from the balcony was not realistic. Instead we skipped breakfast…had lunch at o’sheehans…. took a nap…shopped and drank.

We had dinner at summer palace…both had chicken parmigiana. we arrived Victoria at 6pm. We boarded a bus for the butchart gardens. They plant a million flowers every year. It was beautiful. There were fireworks at 9:30.

We arrived back on the ship and settled our photo account. I had purchased the 35 picture package but upgraded to the 55 and got the usb.

We arrived Seattle at 6am. Showered…packed and disembarked. We caught a shuttle to the airport. We flew home on Alaska…no issues. We got home about 7:30pm.

One of the things that is very different about NCL….is that they don’t blow the horn…. they seldom make announcements….and the shore excursions are not very organized. We did find on our last day…it was very rainy and foggy…and they did frequently blow the horn.

Another observation…. there are 912 children on this ship…. if you are adults bothered by the noise of children…this is not the time to cruise to Alaska…perhaps June?

We have had the trip of a lifetime…and are very pleased with NCL. We would absolutely cruise with NCL again. The things we would do differently…a bigger photo package...a bigger specialty dinner package.


Next cruise…European River Cruise in September 2017 on TAUCK…stay tuned!