Alaska Cruises in the Summer - Part 3

Day 4 (May 30, 2023) Koningsdam docked at Skagway from 7 am to 7:30 pm. The night before, my friend suggested to try room service breakfast menu. Why not? No extra charge. Just don’t choose anything from Indulge section on the menu. It was very convenient, just filled out the menu and hung it out on our door before 2 am. 

Next morning, it was delivered directly to our stateroom😋

This time we also joined a tour through Expedia Cruises Shore Excursions and it started at 11:30 am in front of the Southeast Tours office. Although the weather in Skagway was very nice (not like Juneau, raining during the whole trip), we needed to walk 10 minutes from the pier to its downtown area and we had no idea where the office is. It is between 2^nd and 3^rd Avenue, we almost missed the office since in front of it there were tour buses blocking its sign!

By the time we found it, there were only two separate seats left on the tour bus. What again 💢 How come everything we were the last two to come 😐

Well! Our excursion was called Skagway City and White Pass Summit tour. The highlights included journey up the scenic Klondike Highway past glaciers, waterfalls and majestic mountains. It travels parallel to the historic White Pass Trail🚊much of the way to the 3292 foot summit. 

White Pass Train is expensive that’s why I picked this tour. White Pass train ticket was around $140 USD, my tour was about $70 USD (half the price). But I was told it is worth it to ride on the train after I finished this trip so I did the train ride in July, again stay tuned for my blog of July’s Alaska cruise 😎

If you can enlarge the map below, you will see my route along Klondike Highway on the yellow line. It also indicates White Pass Railway with black dotted lines.

We were on a mini bus with less than 30 passengers. The scenery was quite nice, just appreciated the nature ❤

Here we reached the top! This was a breathtaking view. Hard to describe, got to see and feel it in person 😃

Photo to prove I was there (曾到此一遊)

Alaska is part of USA and this tour was crossing the Canadian border 🍁 and then back across the US border. No wonder other excursions did not require Canadian passports except this one. 

Now we were going down to see the view of Downtown Skagway and shore. There were four ships at Skagway including Royal Princess, Grand Princess, Celebrity Solstice and our Koningsdam. Royal Princess and Celebrity Solstice were with us in Juneau! Let’s see if we would see them again at other destinations.

How come taking us to a Cemetery? 💀💀💀

By reading the name Gold Rush Cemetery, we can tell there was a gold rush🪙 Yes! In 1896, gold was found in Klondike in Yukon, Canada. Although Skagway is located more than 700 km away from Klondike, it was the closest port to Klondike. 

The first name on the sign is familiar. Ah! I watched a musical performance💃 in Days of ’98 Show in Skagway in July. The story was about Jefferson “Soapy” Smith who built three major criminal empires, in Denver and Creede, Colorado (1879 to 1896), and in Skagway, Alaska (1897 to 1898). He was a well-known gangster in US at that time👤

The second name on the sign is Frank Reid who killed Jefferson Smith on July 8, 1898 but he also died 12 days after on July 20, 1898. Reid has been considered as a hero👨

Behind the cemetery, there is a trail to Lower Reid Falls. The waterfall is named after Frank Reid.

I think the scenery was more attractive on the ground? What do you think?

When we returned to Downtown Skagway, the driver asked if anyone would like to go back to the port. Yes, me and my friend. Only two of us? Well, I gave $5 USD to the driver since it saved us from 10 minute walk 😊

Again our travel was a budget trip so we went back to our ship for some food before we walked back to and browsed around downtown.

While we were having our light meals, we looked at other cruises. Royal Princess is larger than Celebrity Solstice, it has more decks. 

There were a few orange tender boats coming back to Royal Princess. These boats are normally used for transporting passengers to the shore where the cruise cannot park at a dock. I wondered why there were tender boats in use? I only recalled my ship Koningsdam used tender boats to transport passengers to Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explore where a large ship cannot access. But I didn’t join this excursion as it costed more than $250 USD.

Look at the other side, we can see the balcony cabins at the very back of Grand Princess.

What is the advantage of staying in a rear-facing balcony cabin? The balcony is usually larger, it’s quiet as not too many passengers will pass by your stateroom.  However for those who are sensitive to seasickness💫 rear-facing cabin or adt cabin is not recommended since its movement is stronger than the cabins in midship. Also passengers in rear-facing cabin on the lower deck might hear vibration from the engine. When I had dinner at the back of its main dining room, I could feel the vibration from the cruise’s engine.

What do you think of when you look at the front of a ship in this photo? All of the sudden, I could think of Hayao Miyazaki's animation 宮崎駿動畫! I am in one of his animations😊

Map of Downtown Skagway. According to Wikipedia, the population in Skagway in 2020 census was 1240. In the summer, the population doubles in order to handle more than 1,000,000 visitors each year.

Why this area is called Skagway? Its name is from Tlingit word “Shgagwéi” since it was originally inhabited by the Tlingit who are Alaska Native Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America.

Although the map shows 1^st Ave to 22^nd Ave, I believe many tourists only walk up to 7^th Ave. That’s what I did too 😊 There are many colourful and historical buildings.  

Arctic Brotherhood Hall covered with more than 8,800 pieces of driftwood in façade was built in 1899. Now it is a visitor information center.

Golden North Hotel was built in 1898, a year earlier than Arctic Brotherhood Hall.

How do you like the buildings in Skagway? Let’s go inside its train station … not big but much more artistic than the modern train stations.

I saw some cute penguins in a souvenir shop, then I remember I purchased one from Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. I thought they look the same. In fact, Skagway’s penguins (left photo) are lovely but more like from a wild place. Hong Kong’s penguin (right photo) is more like a super well-fed domestic pet … haha! 走地鵝和飼養鵝的分別😂

This picture in the visitor center shows how Downtown Skagway (Broadway Street) looked like in 1898. 

If you can enlarge the map above, you will see the route Koningsdam traveled. They are all in red boxes: started with Vancouver at the bottom, then to Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay at the top, the last port was Ketchikan in the middle before we headed back to Vancouver. 

If you find this map not interesting enough, the animated map below can satisfy you with mountain, ocean, Aboriginal and animal drawings. You still can locate Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan in red circles on the map.

There are quite a few nice shops in Downtown Skagway. Here is one of them with many delicate Indigenous artworks. The shop looks clean and bright. Even the fashion is simple but high-quality.

In the evening, we returned to our cruise. Another towel animal was waiting to welcome us back in the stateroom. What do you think it looks like?

This time we had a late dinner. My choice was Trio of Salmon with Garlic Herb Roasted Chicken and Mango Mousse Terrine as dessert.

At night, my friend had another funny story again! Not shampoo gets in her eyes. But banana was missing from her sight 😅 Remember in the morning there was a banana for breakfast (see picture! see picture!). She didn’t eat. Where was it? Must be taken by Putu or Aris (our room attendants). I mean they cleaned our room too well which was supposed to be good 😉

Solution: Put the banana in safety box next time, ok? 😂

Alaska Cruises in the Summer - Part 2

 

Day 3 (May 29, 2023) Koningsdam docked at Juneau from 1 pm to 9:30 pm. Since it didn’t arrive in Juneau until afternoon, let’s have breakfast🍞in Lido Market again in the morning. Every time when I walked upstairs to deck 9, I passed by Greenhouse Spa so I decided to take a photo of its price list. Last night (May 28) each of us received a gift card of $70 USD for the spa, I thought we could have a good use of it. I told my friend the prices are $50/$75/$100, either we didn’t need to pay anything or just $5. Then my friend told me that’s the minutes of service not the price😂

The price ranged from $178 to $1135! Now you know I don’t do spa often that’s why I read the content completely wrong 😅. I recall my company’s administrator who also cruised on Koningsdam to Alaska in August told me the spa staffs only earn 18% service fee (that means if we pay $459 USD, the staff earns $82.62 USD). 

Two mornings in a row my friend couldn’t wake up as early as me due to her dramatic stories😆

First night shampoo got into her eye so she had a hard time during the sleep (solution: bring your own shampoo which is gentle enough even for babies👶)

Second night my friend was greatly affected by the waving of the ship so she had a hard time to sleep again (solution: bring Gravol ginger tablet🫚)

Since we didn’t know we could use our Holland America navigator app on our cellphones🖁to message each other on the ship even without wifi or data, everyday I told my friend which area I would sit for my breakfast. It was nice to enjoy a cup of hot coffee with continental breakfast by the ocean view window in the quiet place.

Here we were at Juneau! There were 4 cruise ships at the same time including my ship (Koningsdam), Eurodam, Royal Princess and Celebrity Solstice. In this picture, the one in front is Holland America Eurodam and the one behind is Royal Princess. 

I thought I would never board on the Princess ships since the body design of Holland America ships is way more attractive than Princess ships. Never say never, I joined Princess cruise later in July to Alaska again😉. It’s itinerary was better and provided more variety of desserts (my favourite ❤). Although Holland America wins with outside beauty, Princess has some great inside beauty 😍

We have joined Expedia Cruises Shore Excursions for all the ports (Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan). At Juneau, our tour group started at 1:30 pm while we couldn’t get off the ship until 1 pm (very tight schedule)! Once we got off, we needed to find our Juneau City & Mendenhall Glacier tour group which was 10 minutes away from the pier. The gathering location was outside Mount Roberts Tramway (where is it???). Imagine in the pouring rain ☔ we needed to walk fast and ask the locals for the right direction to find our tour, it was a bit of pain. Once we found it, we were asked to wait for our bus and there were at least 8 buses there. By the time we got on the bus, it was full with only 2 separate seats left as we were the last 2 to board. Due to the rainy weather, the bus windows were foggy so we couldn’t see anything outside when the bus driver introduced Juneau’s historical downtown district. I didn’t find it enjoyable on the bus😔

It was about 20 minute ride from Downtown Juneau to Mendenhall Glacier 🧊, we were given about an hour and 15 minutes to walk around in this area. By reading the information signs, I had high expectation of the glacier although I understand that the size of the glacier is much smaller compared to 1958 when we saw its photos in Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. It is worth to look around in this visitor center and it can be accessible by stairs and also an elevator for those who cannot walk very well.

However due to the drizzling weather, the glacier was not as spectular as I expected. I would love to see it’s unique light blue colour to be standing out. Luckily I could see a piece of beautiful blue colour ice floating on the lake!

About 30 minute walk from Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, there is a 377 feet Nugget Falls  equivalent to the height of 26 storey building, very magnificent! Since we had little time left after taking photos around and the road was a bit wet (天雨路滑), we didn’t have a chance to go to the Nugget Falls. But don’t be disappointed, I went to the Nugget Falls during my second time to Mendenhall Glacier in July. Stay tuned for my blog of July’s Alaska cruise😃

Upon return to the pier, we saw a lineup for king crab🦀. Our travel was a budget trip so we headed back to the ship for some food before we visited Downtown Juneau.

Here’s the view of Downtown Juneau from deck 10 of our cruise 😊

Remember I am a dessert lover 🍰💖 I saw lots of Lime Jello in Lido Market, very tempting! Once I tried it … “No! Doesn’t taste good”! It did not have the lime flavour, strange taste anyways. 

Still I was glad I approached the dessert station and met the friendly staffs there. By seeing their smiles, you can tell I am a potential diplomatic ambassador … haha! 我是一名成功友誼外交大使❗

We still had more than 2 hours left so we got off the ship again. I would like to revisit the booths selling excursions which I didn’t have time to do that earlier.  I wanted to get some information for my July trip. They were ALL GONE😟

My colleague told me to find the public library for free wifi in Juneau. Guess what? It was Memorial Day on May 29. A holiday and library was closed 😏

Never mind then. Just walked around in rain ☔ and saw Juneau City Hall, kind of old and worn. The big picture of Native Art is the most attractive part of this building.

We passed by an interesting shop … many colourful lamps (讓我想起神燈) 🫖, very magical! There were lots of vibrant colour potteries. It was like we entered into a fantasy world 🌈奇幻世界.

At night, a towel animal was waiting for us in our stateroom. What do you think it looks like? It reminded me the first time I was on a cruise back in year 2012, our room attendant put a towel animal in our stateroom every night. Have a good night🌙⭐