Your correspondent is sitting on the balcony catching up on documenting our trip. There is no cell reception out here just off the Canadian coast, so we’ll do our final post once we get back home.
Karen and Jenny will find out later today if they won a free cruise when the winners of the raffle are announced in the bingo lounge.
NEXT: Disembark, fly home.
We were scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan before 11:00am this morning, but there was some sort of ‘delay’ at the port. This caused the ship’s crew to scramble around rescheduling shore excursions and getting tickets out to everyone before our ship docked for the day.
None of our group had shore excursions planned for this day. Our plan was to get off the ship and spend a leisurely day walking around the town of Ketchikan.
One thing we’ve learned on our trip so far is that plans can (and usually do) change quite quickly.
As it turns out, our ship is apparently too big to dock in downtown Ketchikan. Our alternate port was the former site of a paper pulp mill at an inlet several miles from downtown. This port is in an industrial area bordered by a scrap metal holding area on one side, and a dirt and gravel parking area on the other side. An old refurbished warehouse serves as a covered passenger embarkation site (and a place for all the souvenir vendors to congregate). Our ship finally docked at around 11:00am.
We had nearly 3000 passengers trying to get off the ship and get to their respective shore excursions in time to allow them all to return by the 5:00pm departure hour. None of us realized, until we heard a ship-wide announcement, that the 20 to 25 minute bus ride into town would cost each passenger $8.
Getting off the ship involved us all waiting in a long line in the stairwells and elevators onboard. Once off the ship, Jenny volunteered to wait in one of the rapidly-growing lines in the warehouse to buy our bus tickets, while Carla led us outside to the parking area to get into line for our bus (this is a good example of the ‘travel savvy’ that Jenny and Carla have developed on their many trips).
There were further delays while a broken-down bus was moved out of the way. Within about 30 minutes or so, we were on our way to Ketchikan. We had enough time to take a quick walk through some shops, watch some salmon climb the fish ladders on the river near the old ‘red light district’, and then wait in line for our bus ride back to the ship.
Since this was the first sunny day of our trip, we all met on some deck chairs outside for mojitos and our afternoon trivia game. After that, we had an outstanding dinner at the Cagney’s Steakhouse. Some of us topped off the night with a concert by a boy-band-meets-Motown quartet.
NEXT: Our final day at sea.
Our ship came into the land-locked State Capital of Alaska this morning, where Karen and I had booked an early morning bicycle ride. Due to the ongoing weather advisory for southeastern Alaska, we were still experiencing cool and rainy conditions as we met our bicycling guides on the dock.
We piled into a van hooked to a trailer full of bicycles and drove out of town into the Mendenhall Valley. After putting on our helmets and rain gear, we biked out to Mendenhall Lake, where we caught our first glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier.
From there, we rode along gravel paths and power line access roads to the other side of the valley up into the entrance of the glacier observatory parking lot. Due to time constraints, we did not get too close to the glacier.
After a couple of photos, we met up with the van and drove back to town for the second half of our ‘Bike and Brew’ excursion, where a local fish and chips place hosted a beer tasting session for us thirsty bikers.
Although there was not much ‘biking’ on this outing, there was definitely lots of ‘brew’ (at least for me). Our server had several large pitchers of Alaska Brewing Company beer prepared for our tasting flight of five different beer styles. There were ten bikers in our group, but only about half of us were beer drinkers. Karen grabbed a quick bowl of salmon chowder and stuck around for a few sips of beer before leaving to catch a shuttle back to the ship.
Meanwhile, several full tasting cups were beginning to pile up around those of us who remained. I visited with two young newlywed couples in our group as we all did our best to leave no beer behind. After doing my best with the amber, alt, IPA, porter and brown ale, I decided I’d try to clear my head by walking a mile back to the ship.
By this time, the wind had picked up and it was beginning to rain more heavily. When I got back to the ship I realized I was somehow still a little thirsty.
As I got on board, Jim was standing just outside the ‘District Brewery’ (our onboard beer headquarters), waving goodbye to Carla, Jenny, Eileen and Gary, who were all down below on a small boat leaving for a glacier watching excursion.
After Jim and I had a couple of beers (just what I needed?), we went back to our respective cabins to rest up for the afternoon.
Later on, Karen and I met up with Ted on the observation deck to watch the icebergs and glacier as our large ship followed the smaller excursion boat (the one with the rest of our group on board) into an inlet. Ted had taken the smaller excursion boat a couple of years earlier and he described the experience of hearing and seeing the ice ‘calve’ from the main body of the glacier. He also explained that their earlier cruise ship was smaller than the ‘Encore’ and could therefore get closer to the glacier than we could today.
Before long, our ship stopped to allow the smaller excursion boat to come close enough to unload its passengers onto the ship. A short while later, we all met up for our afternoon trivia game, and had dinner. Afterward, some of us went to bed, while others attended a Beatles tribute band show in the main auditorium.
NEXT: Ketchikan
We spent the entire day Monday steaming north toward Icy Straits. With one less passenger on board (see previous notes on the rescue at sea), there was even more food and drink available for us remaining passengers.
Early on Tuesday morning, we woke up in a port called Icy Straits, near the small Alaskan town of Hoonah. Norwegian Cruise Lines and the people of Hoonah have entered into a partnership which ensures that a steady stream of tourists come into this small locally owned port.
Our first activity of the day was a whale watching trip. It was cold and drizzly weather out on our small excursion boat, but we were prepared for it. Along the way, we spotted a brown bear foraging on the nearby shoreline, a pod of orcas, and a couple of humpback whales. When we returned to the ship, we even caught a glimpse of Jim, who was not feeling well that day and had remained onboard.
After a quick bite to eat, we took a short gondola ride over to the museum and shops area. Hoonah’s modern history began in the early 20th century when it became a major salmon cannery. In more recent times, it has developed a timber and logging industry while maintaining a fishing and seafood processing presence. Of course, the cruise ship business has also had a considerable influence on the local economy.
The town of Hoonah is actually about a mile and half away from the dock. There is a nice shoreline pedestrian trail leading into town. I spent the afternoon walking over to check out the community, where I spoke with a few of the local residents, who mentioned how nice it was to have visitors return to their town after nearly 18 months of pandemic lock-down.
I took shelter from the rain on the porch of the City Hall. While waiting there, I took advantage of the strong cellular signal and uploaded some photos for the blog. The rain and wind continued during my walk back to the ship through a portion of the the local rainforest.
We all met up again later for our daily pre-dinner trivia game.
NEXT: Juneau
With a small craft weather advisory in effect when we left Seattle Saturday night, our captain set a northerly course toward Alaska. The 10 foot seas were no match for our huge ship, although we could feel and hear the engines at times as we rolled across the water throughout the night.
Some of our group got up early (too early it seems, since our clocks did not automatically change to Alaska Time) for breakfast. Others slept in, or simply enjoyed a leisurely morning getting ready for the day ahead.
The itinerary called for a 1:00pm arrival at Icy Strait Point, where we all were going on a whale watching cruise beginning at 4:00pm.
Jim was the first to notice that at sometime around mid-morning, our ship began sailing south! We continued south for at least the next hour or two. The rest of us realized something was up when we came to a complete stop in the open ocean.
Shortly after we stopped, a large yellow helicopter began to fly in wide circles above us. The markings on the chopper identified it as a Canadian ‘sauvetage’ (rescue) aircraft. The Canadian rescue crew was standing in the open doorway as they flew over, and we knew we were about to see an emergency air evacuation take place.
Our ship does not have a helipad, so the evacuee was wheeled out onto the open foredeck on a gurney. In order to provide optimum conditions for extraction, the ship had to be positioned correctly so that the waves and the wind would allow the helicopter to hover just above the deck. This process took well over an hour and involved multiple flyovers. Carla was on the observation deck checking things out (see photo below).
Once everything was in place, the rescue crew and their gear were lowered by cable onto the deck. Then they hooked up the cable to a basket containing the evacuee and winched it up in the air and into the side door of the helicopter. After this, the rescue crew were lifted up and the aircraft flew away to the cheers of all us onlookers.
From what I could gather from multiple sources (none of this could be verified), the evacuee was a woman who entered into some sort of medical distress sometime on Saturday night. After onboard medical consultation and observation throughout the night, the staff ordered an emergency air evacuation. Because we were in such remote waters, and had already passed through Canadian territory (at least the populated part), the ship had to turn around and head back toward Canada in order to get us in range for a helicopter rescue.
By the time we finally turned around to go back northward, we had lost (according to Jim’s estimate) more than 5 hours of travel time.
Needless to say, we did not arrive at Icy Straits at 1:00pm.
Our group met up at 5:00pm for a rousing, and slightly unruly, game of trivia and cocktails. Then, it was off to dinner and a show.
During dinner, the captain came onto the P.A. and announced that the rescue operation had put us so far behind schedule that (1) we would be at sea again for the entire day on Monday; (2) we would not arrive at Icy Straits until Tuesday morning: (3) the entire Skagway leg of our trip was now cancelled; (4) all onshore excursions for Icy Straits would either be refunded or rescheduled - Skagway’s excursions would simply be refunded.
We tempered some of our disappointment by attending the ‘Choir of Man’ floor show, which featured 9 energetic guys dancing and singing Scottish/Irish pub songs. By the end of the performance, the entire audience was singing along.
NEXT: Another day at sea…
After a great seafood dinner last night at Anthony’s Fish House, we called it an early evening in order to rest up for what we knew would be a long day today.
Speaking of ‘we’, I should introduce our group. In one way or another, we’ve been hanging with this crowd since we all worked together at Disneyland beginning in the early 1970’s. Carla and Jim are experienced travelers, with a particular talent for initiating, planning and organizing trips and activities. Jenny and Ted have also traveled extensively and know the ropes when it comes to navigating the ins and outs of ocean cruising. Eileen and Gary add to the depth of knowledge with their background of having been on many previous cruises. We’re glad to have them as our shipmates.
The original plan today was for us to go across the street to the boarding dock and begin the process of checking in for our cruise at around 11:30am. This included getting tested for COVID-19 before being allowed to board the ship.
At around 11:00am, word got out that maybe we should get into the large line that was forming in front of our hotel. So, we left our baggage in the hotel lobby and walked a few blocks down the street to take our places at the end of what was becoming a fast-growing line of anxious vacationers.
Instead of heading toward the ship, the line went back down the street to our hotel, and then snaked down into a set of downstairs conference rooms beneath the hotel. This is where the Covid testing was taking place. By the time we had presented our identification and proof of vaccination, it was 12:20pm and we still had not been tested.
After a short wait, we got tested. Then, the real wait began. There were hundreds of us seated in a large room watching a large projection screen with numbers popping up every few seconds. These numbers corresponded with our test samples, and when our numbers were displayed on the screen it meant our tests results were available for review (and, presumably, we could go get in line to board the ship). The estimated wait time for test results was 25 to 30 minutes.
The problem for us was that this single testing site had to administer more than 4000 tests (3000 passengers, and 1000+ crew) before the ship could sail. After nearly another 90 minutes, none of us had seen our numbers come up. Then, those of us who had been waiting the longest were called to the front of the room, where we were summarily given our pink wristbands, signifying that we’d tested negative for Covid. How this was verified was a mystery to us, since the staff consulted no listing before handing us our wristbands. Nevertheless, we quickly retrieved our baggage and headed for the ship. As we passed by the testing line outside the hotel, we noted that it had grown to an even larger size than when we joined it earlier that morning.
It was getting close to 3:00pm when we all gathered at a lunch buffet on the boat. Just as we sat down to eat, we started getting texts and emails telling us our Covid test results were ready for review. After a quick check on the testing website, we verified that we had all, indeed, tested negative for the virus.
After our late lunch, we went our separate ways to either tour the ship or return to our respective cabins to tidy up and prepare for dinner. We met up again for a game of Broadway musicals trivia, had some cocktails, ate a late dinner, and turned in for the evening (at least some of us did - we’ll know more about that tomorrow, did Jenny go dancing?).
NEXT: At sea all day on Sunday
We’re going to Alaska again - this time on a huge floating hotel named the ENCORE, from Norwegian Cruise Lines. Things are much different this time, which I’ll briefly discuss below.
We have to show proof of vaccination.
We also have to pass a dockside COVID-19 test in order to board the ship. Testing positive means an early return home. The pre-trip excitement continues to build for us.
Norwegian has made a lot of the cruise preparation easier through our use of their proprietary app, so we’re hoping for a relatively smooth experience on boarding day (this Saturday).
We’ll be cruising with three other couples, who are much more experienced sea cruisers than us. They’ll be introduced to the blog as our trip begins. This post is also a test to see if I can use Karen’s iPad as the tool for our daily dispatches. So far, so good. We fly from OC to Seattle tomorrow. See you in Seattle.
NEXT: Seattle, Dockside Passenger Loading Adventures, Bon Voyage (hopefully)
