Day 6 - Catch, As Catch Can - August 12, 2021

 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.