Anchorage

!Wednesday 28th
So we had elected to do a ship's tour on our way from Whittier to Anchorage.  It is about 80km and an ordinary transfer (you have no alternative) is almost as much as the tour.  I should note that the majority where carrying on to Denali National Park and the lodges owned by Princess.  Others had morning flights out of Anchorage, so that left s relatively small number who either had evening flights, were renting a car or who were staying in Anchorage.  I would have to say with hindsight that this was the best value tour we had taken.  I know it's only money, but ....

We had a full bus of 50 and our driver was a retired music teacher (born etc on Anchorage) and filled us with many stories as well as songs.  To summon us back to the bus he had an antelope horn, which amused others around our various stops. A quick tour of Whittier took 5 minutes, as there is nothing there!  We then queued up to go through the 2 mile tunnel out of Whittier.  This is a combined rail/road tunnel and is one way with defined opening times each way.  Our northbound was scheduled for 9.00 and we only had a 5 minute wait.  Amazing engineering through the mountain with a glacier on top.

Onwards to Portage Visitors Centre, where there was a large blue iceberg parked outside. They assured us that they hadn't towed it from the glacier but it was just natural according to the wind direction.  I forgot to mention that it was cold and wet, the worst day we'd had, but the showers came and went and it was not too bad at the Centre.  However we then moved on to the little (comparatively) boat onto Portage lake and then up to the glacier itself.  Being a small purpose built boat, we were able to get up close.  However the rain & wind chill did not encourage us to stay on the top deck for long.  A great mini cruise and well worth it, which is more than can be said for our next stop at a gift shop (what else) and cafe. Distinct unmemorable 😠

By some chance of confusion or something, some of the passengers convinced our driver that we were supposed to also go to the Wildlife Rescue Centre and after he checked with his office we got the OK.  I won't go into the details other than to say that we were extremely lucky.  Anyway we saw all the wildlife in a semi natural environment.  Vivian was excited yo see both brown & black bears, particularly as they just happened to wander into view for a short time while we were standing there.

Moving on, a 45 minute drive along the foreshore to the airport, where we dropped off half the bus load and then 15 minutes into Anchorage.  Vivian was soooo relieved to see our bags sitting there!  We were all set to walk the 7 or 8 blocks to the hotel, when one of the staff at the Hospitality Centre said that our hotel would pick us up.  Sure enough after a phone call and 10 minute wait, the van arrived and delivered us here.  We're on the 9th floor and have a great view towards the south.  OK, it is a 2* hotel but it has all the services necessary and a good dining room.  It is a little out of town - see above, but after today, there is little benefit in being in the CBD.  But I am ahead of my self again.

Thursday 29th
Had a great sleep and didn't make breakfast until 9.00. Fortunately it is on until 11.00, so no rush.  Another overcast day with temperature around 11 degrees.  Donned our coats and trotted off.  Well Anchorage is a bit of a nothing town.  If you took out all the governmental agencies, there would just be a few hotels.  The hotels to do well, as a large number of cruise ship passengers have a night or so before or after there cruise.  However as I mentioned earlier, Princess and their sister line Holland America, heavily promote their Denali packages.  Back to Anchorage, we walked and walked - even had a hard time finding a cafe.  We are certainly very fortunate in NZ.  Resorted to Starbucks in the end and then headed off to the stream by the railway to see the salmon, which we had been told were running.  We had thought it too early, but we still went and had an extensive walk through the backblocks of the town.  We eventually reached the spot and when talking with 2 lots of fishers, found out that it was low tide and the salmon don't come until high tide.  We were not going to stand there for 6 hours, so walked back to town for a bite to eat.  By now it was after 3.00 and we still could not find any cafes or other eateries.  We did in the end and then came back to the hotel, where at last the blog is completely up to date.

Onwards to Anchorage

Tuesday 27 May
Must have been a big day yesterday as we slept in until 8.00 and only just made breakfast in time.  Funnily, we were not the only ones as we soon found out.  We are basically heading west across the Bay of Alaska towards Whittier & College Fjords.  Yesterday's wonderful weather has been replaced by cloudy, cold weather with the odd light shower.  We did our mile walk in between the drizzle and sighted another whale along the way.  We finished off our coffee card (from our Ocean Princess cruise) and caught up with Wilson & Jenny from West Australia - he was the former Australian Cabinet Minister I mentioned earlier.  Well that filled in a couple of hours ☺ and it was time for lunch and then Vivian was off to bridge again.

Unfortunately the time has come to pack our bags and work out what we may need tonight/tomorrow. It has been a bit of a nightmare as we were given luggage tags and details for disembarkation, which turned out to be wrong, even though we'd queried it.  So fingers are crossed that we get reunited with our bags in Anchorage.  Actually the bag packing turned out to be a pretty simple job although I'll leave the locking part until after dinner.

At about 6.00, we entered the College Fjords (which are named after various US colleges).  Unfortunately the weather was not the best, but we made our way up Harvard Sound and got as far as Yale before the ship stopped.  We could see numerous glaciers and also got to see many Otters & Seals playing alongside the ship.  BUT, what we saw most were substantial icebergs.  I have the feeling that these originated as pack ice, as they were much thicker than the ones we saw yesterday.  Anyway the Captain was erring on the side of caution as I am sure he didn't want a Titanic on his hands, not that they were that big, but clearly there was a lot under the water.

By 7.30 we decided that we'd go down for dinner before the crowds descended - which they didn't...  Anyway, forgot to mention that we met up with this English couple, much older than us, about 4 nights ago.  Hazel & Terry come out to NZ/Australia every year and had a great affinity with us.  Purely by coincidence we ended up with them at our table every night.  We'd turn up to the dining room door and there they were.  The same happened tonight.  Very pleasant company and Terry was an Accountant/partner in a major London practice (I see from his card that he has an OBE, but we never asked about that.  Anyway the amazing coincidence is that when we first met them Vivian said that we lived just north of Auckland and immediately Terry said "is it near Warkworth?". Turns out that they have friends in Warkworth who they visit when in NZ.  On our 3rd dinner, somehow we were talking about where they live just out of London, near Windsor and we suddenly realised that we had stayed in their little village when we were in UK 4 years ago.  Incredible.

In good Princess tradition, the parade of the Bombe Alaska took place (just as we had finished main course).  Given that we were at anytime dining, our timing was perfect.  To keep up my reputation however, I still had to have my Princess Loveboat Dream as well.  For those not in the known, it is a simple chocolate mousse which I have every night on every cruise.  Who said I was predictable?   Anyway, got back to the cabin and had the bags outside our door by 10.15 and in to bed.  No sooner had we just about got to sleep, when the thrusters came on and I found that we were berthing at Whittier at 11.00.  ahead of schedule.

Wednesday 28 May
Had a final breakfast onboard and disembarked at 8.30.  Our adventures of the day will be revealed in a later post, as it is currently 10.30 pm, although it looks like midday outside!!

Voyage of the Glaciers

Here are a few photos of our journey northbound on the wonderful Island Princess,

Ketchican - Creek Street

Ketchikan

Our "Duck"

Arriving at Juneau early in the morning

The Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau

Salmon bake in Juneau

Skagway

Skagway on way to Mushers Camp (no, not us on horses!)

Mushing buggy

Our team of Alaskan Huskies

Our leaders having a rest

9 week old husky puppy

Still Skagway 

Main Street Skagway

Glacier Bay

Up close to the glacier

College Fjord - numerous glaciers

Whittier - blown down from Portage Glacier

Cruising Portage Lake

Portage Glacier

Portage Animal Refuge

A bear at last!!

Glorious glaciers

Today we have had the most glorious day scenic cruising Glacier Bay.  The weather was perfect and clear and we were able to see the mountain peaks, which is special according to the National Park Ranger on board.  As this is a National Park, the ship is not allowed to serve coffee in paper cups and there were no wooden stirrers or paper napkins.  Fortunately such restrictions were not applied to the bathroom!

I initially woke just after 3.00 and could see that it was daylight outside, but just before sunrise.  Needless to say, I didn't linger long and eventually woke just after 6.00 when we were entering the Bay.  Today was the day we needed our woolies (but not the thermals yet) as while it was clear, it was very cold, particularly on the shady side.  Took tons of photos and at the end of the bay we stopped alongside the glacier, which was about 250 ft high.  This is a growing glacier and is moving at 2ft a day.  While it would have been great to see a big chunk of ice fall off, we had to be contented with some small falls, which were probably still 10 ft.  The noise the glacier makes is just like thunder and is cracks & creaks along.  The Captain turned the ship around so people on the other side could get a good view and this was opportune for us to retreat to the cabin to enjoy in comfort.  Following that we retraced or tracks and diverted into another bay, which had a large number of icebergs -  some of which were really quite large.  About this time the crew gathered all the deckchairs 😂

Seriously though, the bay was full of the ice flow and it looked spectacular.  This second glacier is retreating at a faster rate however.  The overall history of the area is fascinating.  To date we have not seen bear or moose, but have seen whale, seal & numerous bald eagles.  As we have now left the bay the weather has changed and the cloud descended, so we are extremely grateful for the day we have experienced.

As usual this blog works backwards, mainly because we had no satellite service yesterday when we were in Skagway.  Also a beautiful day, but we were berthed under a hill, so it was cold until we ventured into town.  However we had elected to go the the Musher's Camp and experience the dogs and ride a wheeled version of a sled.  Great dogs, although the Alaskan Huskies are nothing like we expected.  They are lean & tough and most of the Mushers were up at this camp to keep their dogs on training for the long distance sled races held in Alaska.  Things we knew nothing about.  The team of dogs is normally 16 and the ones we had had no trouble pulling 7 of us around the circuit.  Clearly they really enjoy it.  We also saw some new puppies and Vivian got to hold one, which tried to chew her scarf. 

We were up about 1,000 ft and had some great views on our way up and back.  We elected to get off the tour in town and walk back to the ship in the sun.  The town is pretty well original and the historical nature has been preserved.  It was interesting to walk on true boardwalks throughout the town.

The previous day we had been in Juneau, the capital of Alaska and we walked into town and up to State Capitol, where they provided a free tour of the building and the debating chamber etc. right up Vivian's alley.  What I did learn however is that Alaskans do not pay income tax, but actually get an annual rebate from the oil royalties which are invested by the State in a permanent fund.  However it is not enough to start a new gold rush, just for the dividend.

On the afternoon we visited the salmon hatchery which was not what we had expected.  Whereas we farm salmon, this operation is purely about producing salmon to the released for others ( fishers, birds & bears etc.) to catch.  Those that survive return to the hatchery were they are "helped" with the reproduction cycle and turned into fishmeal or whatever, which is not as bad as it sounds, as all salmon dies after spawning.  Still seemed a little sad 😢

Following the salmon, it was on to the Mendenhall Glacier, which was great, but after today's experience, not quite as impressive.  We trekked a mile or so to the waterfall which runs beside the glacier, but we were a long way away from the face.  The walk however did us good, as our ships circuit has been lacking.  After this it was time for the salmon bake (smoked salmon), which was nice but the whole thing a little too "touristy" for me.  Yes, I know we are tourists, but.............

I am hopeful of uploading some photos in a couple of days when we reach Anchorage, as this area is clearly not a good area for satellites. I will not go into the frustrations I have experienced, but the end is in sight.  On that note, it is sad to think that tonight we'll get out disembarkation papers and we have just one more day (& 1 more glacier). It has been really great and we've met some great people and tonight we'll meet the Captain (from Wales) at the Captains Circle Cocktail Party, so must away and get respectable.

Ketchikan can

What a difference a day makes.  We woke at 6.00 (new US time) just as we were tying up. It was cold and overcast, but nothing like yesterday. The good news was that we could see the weather clearing in the north.  Sure enough by the time we eventually decided to disembark at 8.00 the sun was shining. Our "duck" tour was not until 10.30, do we accidentally found the free shuttle bus into town and had a great driver who told us where to go.  We got off at Creek Street, which was the red light district and visited Dolly's establishment at Vivian's behest.  The 2 women on the street were most entertaining and told some great stories.

We wandered back to the ship as I had not bought either hat or sunnies and by then it was bright, although still chilly.  There were 3 other ships in port and this will apparently be the norm until the middle of September.  The population is 14,000 and they expect over 10,000 visitors each day.  Outside of the season, almost all the shops in the old town close and they have less than a couple of dozen visitors.  Another interesting fact we learned is that the annual rainfall is 13 feet.  They had 5 inches yesterday, so we were really lucky with today's lovely weather.

Our trip on the amphibious vehicle was really good and we went around the old town and saw where the salmon come up via the salmon ladder to spawn, but we are too early.  The view from the water and commentary were excellent.  We were back I'm time for lunch and went up to watch our sail away from the balcony.  We were surprised to see that the Norwegian line ship behind us had gone and was replaced by a Celebrity ship.  So it seems that they have upwards of 6 ships a day in port for half a day.  We are currently heading north towards Juneau and going through a pod of whales - but we can't tell what type they are, but there are plenty of blowholes.

The Captain's Cocktail party last night was a pretty tame affair and even the Captain did not attend as he was on the bridge because of the weather. However we had an hilarious evening with a Real Estate Agent from Texas and a former Australian Cabinet Minister.  As always, such fun that we missed the show (again), so we plan to do the show before dinner tonight.  Our trip tomorrow I'd not until after lunch, so we can look forward to another lazy morning.

Island Princess

Well we are onboard & I am sitting on our balcony in shorts and t-shirt.  It is pleasantly warm and sunny. Pleased we packed summer clothes as well.  We had a relaxing morning and it didn't take long to repack our bags and go down for breakfast.  I uploaded the photos (previous post) and it is amazing how much I had forgotten about the process since the last cruise.  All set now thankfully.  Anyway, we were doing that when we were visited by a Fox Terrier (& handler), to to bedbug sniffer search.  I must say that I have never heard of that before.  Apparently the hotel does it every 3 months.  So we learn something every day.

We left the hotel about 10.30 & it was less than 15 minutes to the cruise ship terminal. Considering that there were 3 ships in port, the process was extremely smooth and we were aboard not long after 11.00.  We actually made it to the main dining room for lunch!  We had our first experience of US Border officials and were duly fingerprinted and photographed.  Vivian was unimpressed, but I suspect that we' all go through this a few more times.  Funny that our "Aliens" queue was !such smaller than the US/Canadian one.

Thursday 22 May
Spoke too soon 😣  No sooner had we moved away from the dock, then the sky darkened and the temperature dropped.  We decided to do the sailaway from our balcony with a coffee in hand.  It was lovely, but by the time we cleared the heads, we too headed inside as it was decidedly cold - hey we've got plenty of warm clothes.  Headed off for dinner about 7.15 - we are Anytime Dining this time (set dinners were all booked out and anyway the first sitting is 5.15, which is really far too early, particularly up here where the sun rises at 5.30 and sets at almost 9.00).  We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table, as we elect to share with others.  Funnily, on other cruises the tables have been 6/10, but this was just 4.  Had a very interesting time with a couple of teachers from Utah, who we keep bumping into now.

This morning we are about half way to Ketchican and the temperature has dropped to 13 degrees, it is cloudy and now misty with a swell of 5 odd metres.  The ship's foghorn is sounding constantly.  The Captain assures us that as we turn towards land and our next port the swell will subside.  The ship was built for the Panama Canal, so is a little narrower (but longer) so a following swell is amplified a bit and there is a reasonable amount of roll.  All adds to the excitement.  We are only in Ketchikan for half a day and have a City tour on amphibious "duck".  Oh, we did our walk around the deck this morning and it is 2.8 circuits for 1 mile. Not many others on the circuit I must say.

It is formal night tonight, so hopefully we can slip into dinner while the rest fight over their free champagne.  There are 2 theatres on this ship as well as a performance lounge, so not quite the same congestion for shows later on.  Both theatres have comedians tonight, so it probably depends on time/length of dinner which one we may do (or none!).  As we enter US territory overnight, our clocks go back 1 hour, but that is not going to worry us as we are still waking up early.

Vancouver photos

Day 1 at Yacht Club

Stanley Park

The suspension bridge

Vivian on treetops

Murray taking a break

Yogi & Vivian

"Enjoying" the cliff walk

Shannon Falls

Up the gondola

At the cafe

Yet another suspension bridge

With Rohays & Don at the Falls

1st stop - Vancouver

Well, we are well and truely immersed in Vancouver and feel as though we have lived here for years. But more of that shortly as we must always start at the beginning.  Sunday, we drove to Fiona's and had a delicious lunch and introduced Tiger to her new home before Fiona drove us to the airport.  We duly presented ourselves at the airport, having previously checked in online.  Now I've the check in online with other airlines and assumed that we'd rock up and have our bags weighed and ticketed and that they'd check passport and we would be off.  No, no, although I'd got the boarding pass, I still had to use one of those infernal machines which have taken over all of the Air  New Zealand area like a scene from Dr Who.  All this so that we could declare that we'd packed our bags, didn't have anything naughty in the bags and deal with those sticky paper luggage tags BEFORE taking said bags to a real person, who checked passports, weighed the bags and sent them on their way to wherever.  We sure hope we see them again, but as this is a direct flight, the odds are pretty good.

So up we go and pass through immigration (once again self service), remembering to take off glasses, as these we not allowed on our passport photos - but it makes it hard to read what you supposed to do without glasses.  Vivian had the audacity to smile for a start and the gate did not like that!

On to the dreaded scanning machine, where we both passed with flying colours, except it was Vivian's turn for the random "wand over".  Funny thing was that we had had a " discussion " on Saturday about the liquids, sharp stuff, etc. which had mean't a bit of a repack of the suitcase.  Anyway, plastic bags in top of my backpack which I put to one side while removing my "man bag", but before I could produce said liquids etc. the official shoved the bag through the scanner with no comment.  Seems our discussion earlier was unnecessary☺

We had plenty of time for a coffee and must say that the Atomic Coffee at top of the escalator was very good, which was great as it will be our last Flat White for a month.  While enjoying our coffee and people watching,  we noticed a large number of elderly (OK, they we generally old) wearing gold tags.  That ruled out a Mormon convention!!  It turns out that this was a group of 60 from Tasmania, who were travelling on our flight and then going on a Norwegian Line ship for Alaskan cruise and then a trip to the Rockies.  Given the age and condition of some of them this was to be a mammoth event.  One lady had to be attended to with oxygen about half way through the flight, so hope they are enjoying the thought of the return journey.

Although we were a little late departing wee arrived pretty much on time and were met by our friends Rohays & Don.  They were so thoughtful and provided us with water, orange segments and grapes to keep us sustained while they drove us to our hotel.  I think it was about 4.00 when we checked in and were surprised when Rohays said that they'd be back at 7.00 as they were taking us out for dinner.  Now this is still Sunday, after we had already had most of a NZ Sunday plus a 13 hour flight.  Amazingly we were still feeling as fresh as .......? I of course take "No More Jet Lag", which I swear by.  Anyway Vivian had a rest for an hour or so, I sorted our the WiFi and after a shower and change we were all set, for what was a fabulous evening. We were taken on a drive around the city to get our bearings and headed off to the Yacht Club for dinner.  The weather was warm enough to sit outside and admire the view.  Starting to worry about all the winter clothes we packed.

We got back to the hotel about 10.30 and had no trouble getting to sleep.  Surprisingly. We were awake before 6.00 on Monday.  Monday was a little cooler to start with, but progressively warmed during the day.  By the time we got to Rohays & Don's for dinner I had to borrow a pair of Don's shorts.   We saw a lot more of Vancouver and are actually starting to get our bearings.

Tuesday was another big day and we were up relatively early to catch a free shuttle to go to Capalino Suspension bridge, which is on the north shore.  Fortunately we were there early and went across before the crowds as this is a large bridge which sways quite considerably, particularly when a lot of people start moving.  Vivian handled it well, along with the treetop walk, but was less impressed with the cliff face walk over the river. 

Rohays & Don picked us up from there and we drove north towards Whistler to visit the new Sea to Sky Gondola at Squamish.  The gondola only opened on Friday and rises 850 metres.  Absolutely amazing views.  Yes, another hot day.  We also trecked up to see the Shannon Falls, which were full of spring melt. All in all, quite an active day, finished off with hospitality at Rohays & Don's yet again.

Well, the day has arrived and we are going down for breakfast, repacking our bags and walking down a couple of blocks to our ship for the next phase of our holiday. Vivian has just commented that she is a bit sore from all the exercise yesterday.

Updates and hopefully some photos will follow as time & technology permit.