Post by Merlot Joe on Jul 24, 2005 21:02:06 GMT -6
Alaska Inland Passage trip report July 16 to 23, 2005.
Getting there was a little easier than getting to Jamaica. We left home Friday afternoon July 15 to spend the night in Oakland so that we could get a little early jump on this vacation. The Oakland Airport Hilton is very nice upscale hotel. We had a relaxing dinner with a few drinks, and then caught some sleep for our trip.
Up early Saturday morning we caught the Hotel Shuttle to the airport for our flight with Alaska Airline. Now remember earlier in another thread I told you that I would tell you the rest of the story. Well here goes. These guys make Air Jamaica look like they know what they are doing. Were do I start? Both flights to and from Seattle where over and hour delayed. They broke all 3 of our travel bags on the way home, (bent the pull handles on Denice’s bag, tore our garment bag, and also tore my bag.) Their reply to this, we are not responsible for any damage to luggage read your ticket stub.(you know what my reply was) When boarding the plane, they don’t do it by rows they just say everyone aboard and the rush is on, takes forever to get the plane loaded, since everyone is fighting for carry one luggage space (ASSHOLES). In Seattle it takes them 30 to 40 minutes on average to get the bags from the plane to baggage carrousel, every flight. Needless to say, I will never use this airline again.
Any way once we got to Seattle, Princess Cruises picked us up and took us to the ship. They take your luggage from you at the airport and the next time you see it, it is in at your cabin door aboard ship waiting for you, nice. Once at port you do the check in and security screening. They are very quick, took less than 20 minutes for the number or people they are doing at once (the airlines should take some lesions). Here is where you get your all-inclusive ID, ROOM KEY, and SHIP CHARGE CARD. Without this you go no place.
Once aboard we went to our room. Now those of you that have been on a cruise know that your cabin is not real big. Ours was 198 square feet, well used square feet by the way. But it was cozy and home for the next 7 days.
Had a little lunch and a short nap and then went topside for the 5:00PM cast off. Well if you have watched the Love Boat, it’s petty much the same. Lots of fun.
Pictures: These guys love to take your picture. Once you get checked in even before you hit the boat they take your picture. When you get on the boat they take your picture. At every port when you get off the boat they take your picture. On the formal nights they take your picture. Denice didn’t like any of them so……………………..
Meals: Food is A-1, excellent, not to be out done. It’s all you want 24 hours a day for your trip. Seven separate restaurants for dinner along with the buffet. The buffet for breakfast and lunch along with the Pool Grill and Pizza Counter. Ice Cream Bar where you can get banana splits, ice cream sundaes, to a simple ice cream cone. Little do I have to say, that I/we, mostly I indulged well during the week on their fine selections of foods. I didn’t want to insult the head Chef. ;D
We had the personal dinning option, which meant we could have dinner at any restaurant at whatever time we wanted during the evening. Just make a reservation. You can still have the set time seating if you like early or late, but we opted no to do so.
Liquid refreshments: There are 15 bars on the ship. Every place you turn has a bar in it. Drinks are not included in your travel price this is where your little ID card comes in handy. Mine was pretty well used by the end of the week. It’s kind of like Hedo, once you start drinking, well you know. Prices are very reasonable. $4 for a cocktail, $6 for wine, and $3 for a beer. Sodas are $1.50. Ice tea, water, coffee, hot tea, are all you can drink free of charge.
They have just about every Liquor you can think over aboard, along with 15 different types of beer, and a pretty good wine list. (More on that later).
Entertainment: It was great. Every night there was a show in the main show room one at 8:15 and repeated again 10:15 so if you missed the early one you didn’t lose out. Two nights the show was done by the ships dancers and singers, both were well-performed equal to a stage production in Las Vegas. Had comedian by the name of Elliot Max, he was a riot and a very fine singer from the UK by the name of Darren Lynton who did lots of Neil Diamond and Tom Jones songs, and a Ventriloquist by the name of Kenny Byrd that had a pretty funny show. Lots of activities during the day if you do not go ashore. Also has a casino, spent some time their one $240 Monday night on a $1 slot machines. Of course they have their disco, and other musical venues threw out the ship. Almost something to please everyone.
We went to 3 lectures held by a gentleman by the name of Michael Modzelewski who spent two years alone on a wildlife island in the Inland Passage area of Alaska. The first was about his two years on the island, which I found totally intriguing. What an adventure. The others were very enjoyable and educational about life in Alaska, it’s people, the animals, fish, and birds, and the countryside it self.
Ports of Call:
Sunday, the day was spent at sea getting us up to the Inland Passage. Slept late 8:15 (that’s late for us), listened to Michaels first lecture, toured the ship, shopped on the ship, had some lunch, took a nap, then dinner, a show and a little partying.
Monday, our first stop in Juneau, the Capital of Alaska. Population 30,000 and the city can only be accessed by air or land. No roads lead into or out of Juneau. We took a tour of an old but still working gold mine and learned how mining was done years ago and how it changed over the years to the modern technology they today. Gold Mining is like farming underground so they had my full attention for the 2-hour tour. We also panned for some gold and both Denice and I got a small amount to take home.
Weather that day: Cloudy with on and off drizzle most of the day, temp around 60.
Tuesday, stop two was Skagway. Population 800, and all 800 who live there work in the tourist business from mid-May to mid-September then 795 of them do nothing the rest of the year due to the cold and extremely bad weather they get. The other 5 are the 3 Police Officers and 2 Firemen. We took a tour and traveled on the same bus that President Harding did when he visited Skagway in 1923 and learned of some of the town’s history of how it was a gateway stop to the gold fields by thousands in the early 1900’s. Weather that day: Over cast cool and windy early around 55 but turned warm 70 and dry.
Wednesday, stop three was the Scenic Tracy Arm tour. It really wasn’t a stop we were still on the ship as it went up what the call the Tracy Arm section of the Inland Passage Route. Ever been up close and personal with a 400-foot tall glacier before? What a sight. Magnificent!!! The trip took about 4 hours on the ship. Weather that day. Slightly over cast. Cold as hell out side the ship in the low 50’s at first, dropped to the low 40’s later, with a nasty wind chill, but dry.
Thursday, stop four was the city of Ketchikan. No tours, did our own walked around town did some shopping. Ketchikan is known as the first city in Alaska. This is where many people settled down during the gold rush. Also the fish and timber industry for Alaska was established there. It is the fourth largest city in the State. Weather that day. Cloudy heavy drizzle but warm around 70 all day.
Friday, our fifth stop was to be and evening stop in Victoria, British Columbia Canada, but we could not dock due to extremely strong winds of over 50 miles per hour, so the ship had to stay at sea. The Capitan said it would be unsafe to try docking in such strong winds.
Wine tasting: They had a wine tasting on Wednesday afternoon. They tasted 4 wines and the Head Waiter gave a talk about wine. Most people believed him since they didn’t know any better, but he was full of shit and didn’t really know what he talking about. We tried a Australian Sauvignon Blanc which was very good if I do say so myself, a Chardonnay from the Napa Valley (sucked) a Pinot Noir for the California Central Valley very good and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley (sucked to much alcohol smell to it. Burnt your eyes when you tried to smell the wine. Bad after taste also.
The wine list was worldwide. I am a snob and try to stay with Sonoma County Wines from California. They had a couple of them from home so we drank them. If you asked for the house wine they would say, it’s from California if you don’t mind. The second time a waiter told me that, I told him I wouldn’t drink the vinegar they make in other countries. He asked why and I told him, he understood.
Friday after noon you get your evection notice in your mailbox around 4:PM. Sound familiar? It gives you all the info about when you get off the ship, your connection information and port information.
Here is some info on our Ship. Princess Cruises ship: Diamond Princess, 18 stories tall, 952 feet in the length, 116,000 gross tons in weight. 2,670 passengers, 1275 crewmembers. She was put into service in April 2004. She will spend this mid-May to mid-September in Alaska, then from there she is going to the Far East, then to Australia/ New Zealand then to the South Pacific next April 2006. A beautiful ship, with a fantastic way to spend a week. She has a twin sister ship called the Sapphire Princess also doing the Alaska run, but she is headed to the Mexican Rivera in mid-September.
Well we like this cruise so much we already booked one for next summer while we were aboard the Diamond Princess. July 15, 2006 to July 22, 2006 on a Western Caribbean Cruise on Princess Cruises out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, aboard the Caribbean Princess. Stops in Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Caymen, and Princess Cays. Hey if any of you want to join us, please do we would love the company.
Well we enjoyed our trip to Alaska, very relaxing, very fun, and very educational also. Learned a lot about our 49th State and its history. We would highly recommend it.
Working on some pictures for you guys, when I get them together I will either post them or give you a site to go check them out at.
Joe & Denice.
Getting there was a little easier than getting to Jamaica. We left home Friday afternoon July 15 to spend the night in Oakland so that we could get a little early jump on this vacation. The Oakland Airport Hilton is very nice upscale hotel. We had a relaxing dinner with a few drinks, and then caught some sleep for our trip.
Up early Saturday morning we caught the Hotel Shuttle to the airport for our flight with Alaska Airline. Now remember earlier in another thread I told you that I would tell you the rest of the story. Well here goes. These guys make Air Jamaica look like they know what they are doing. Were do I start? Both flights to and from Seattle where over and hour delayed. They broke all 3 of our travel bags on the way home, (bent the pull handles on Denice’s bag, tore our garment bag, and also tore my bag.) Their reply to this, we are not responsible for any damage to luggage read your ticket stub.(you know what my reply was) When boarding the plane, they don’t do it by rows they just say everyone aboard and the rush is on, takes forever to get the plane loaded, since everyone is fighting for carry one luggage space (ASSHOLES). In Seattle it takes them 30 to 40 minutes on average to get the bags from the plane to baggage carrousel, every flight. Needless to say, I will never use this airline again.
Any way once we got to Seattle, Princess Cruises picked us up and took us to the ship. They take your luggage from you at the airport and the next time you see it, it is in at your cabin door aboard ship waiting for you, nice. Once at port you do the check in and security screening. They are very quick, took less than 20 minutes for the number or people they are doing at once (the airlines should take some lesions). Here is where you get your all-inclusive ID, ROOM KEY, and SHIP CHARGE CARD. Without this you go no place.
Once aboard we went to our room. Now those of you that have been on a cruise know that your cabin is not real big. Ours was 198 square feet, well used square feet by the way. But it was cozy and home for the next 7 days.
Had a little lunch and a short nap and then went topside for the 5:00PM cast off. Well if you have watched the Love Boat, it’s petty much the same. Lots of fun.
Pictures: These guys love to take your picture. Once you get checked in even before you hit the boat they take your picture. When you get on the boat they take your picture. At every port when you get off the boat they take your picture. On the formal nights they take your picture. Denice didn’t like any of them so……………………..
Meals: Food is A-1, excellent, not to be out done. It’s all you want 24 hours a day for your trip. Seven separate restaurants for dinner along with the buffet. The buffet for breakfast and lunch along with the Pool Grill and Pizza Counter. Ice Cream Bar where you can get banana splits, ice cream sundaes, to a simple ice cream cone. Little do I have to say, that I/we, mostly I indulged well during the week on their fine selections of foods. I didn’t want to insult the head Chef. ;D
We had the personal dinning option, which meant we could have dinner at any restaurant at whatever time we wanted during the evening. Just make a reservation. You can still have the set time seating if you like early or late, but we opted no to do so.
Liquid refreshments: There are 15 bars on the ship. Every place you turn has a bar in it. Drinks are not included in your travel price this is where your little ID card comes in handy. Mine was pretty well used by the end of the week. It’s kind of like Hedo, once you start drinking, well you know. Prices are very reasonable. $4 for a cocktail, $6 for wine, and $3 for a beer. Sodas are $1.50. Ice tea, water, coffee, hot tea, are all you can drink free of charge.
They have just about every Liquor you can think over aboard, along with 15 different types of beer, and a pretty good wine list. (More on that later).
Entertainment: It was great. Every night there was a show in the main show room one at 8:15 and repeated again 10:15 so if you missed the early one you didn’t lose out. Two nights the show was done by the ships dancers and singers, both were well-performed equal to a stage production in Las Vegas. Had comedian by the name of Elliot Max, he was a riot and a very fine singer from the UK by the name of Darren Lynton who did lots of Neil Diamond and Tom Jones songs, and a Ventriloquist by the name of Kenny Byrd that had a pretty funny show. Lots of activities during the day if you do not go ashore. Also has a casino, spent some time their one $240 Monday night on a $1 slot machines. Of course they have their disco, and other musical venues threw out the ship. Almost something to please everyone.
We went to 3 lectures held by a gentleman by the name of Michael Modzelewski who spent two years alone on a wildlife island in the Inland Passage area of Alaska. The first was about his two years on the island, which I found totally intriguing. What an adventure. The others were very enjoyable and educational about life in Alaska, it’s people, the animals, fish, and birds, and the countryside it self.
Ports of Call:
Sunday, the day was spent at sea getting us up to the Inland Passage. Slept late 8:15 (that’s late for us), listened to Michaels first lecture, toured the ship, shopped on the ship, had some lunch, took a nap, then dinner, a show and a little partying.
Monday, our first stop in Juneau, the Capital of Alaska. Population 30,000 and the city can only be accessed by air or land. No roads lead into or out of Juneau. We took a tour of an old but still working gold mine and learned how mining was done years ago and how it changed over the years to the modern technology they today. Gold Mining is like farming underground so they had my full attention for the 2-hour tour. We also panned for some gold and both Denice and I got a small amount to take home.
Weather that day: Cloudy with on and off drizzle most of the day, temp around 60.
Tuesday, stop two was Skagway. Population 800, and all 800 who live there work in the tourist business from mid-May to mid-September then 795 of them do nothing the rest of the year due to the cold and extremely bad weather they get. The other 5 are the 3 Police Officers and 2 Firemen. We took a tour and traveled on the same bus that President Harding did when he visited Skagway in 1923 and learned of some of the town’s history of how it was a gateway stop to the gold fields by thousands in the early 1900’s. Weather that day: Over cast cool and windy early around 55 but turned warm 70 and dry.
Wednesday, stop three was the Scenic Tracy Arm tour. It really wasn’t a stop we were still on the ship as it went up what the call the Tracy Arm section of the Inland Passage Route. Ever been up close and personal with a 400-foot tall glacier before? What a sight. Magnificent!!! The trip took about 4 hours on the ship. Weather that day. Slightly over cast. Cold as hell out side the ship in the low 50’s at first, dropped to the low 40’s later, with a nasty wind chill, but dry.
Thursday, stop four was the city of Ketchikan. No tours, did our own walked around town did some shopping. Ketchikan is known as the first city in Alaska. This is where many people settled down during the gold rush. Also the fish and timber industry for Alaska was established there. It is the fourth largest city in the State. Weather that day. Cloudy heavy drizzle but warm around 70 all day.
Friday, our fifth stop was to be and evening stop in Victoria, British Columbia Canada, but we could not dock due to extremely strong winds of over 50 miles per hour, so the ship had to stay at sea. The Capitan said it would be unsafe to try docking in such strong winds.
Wine tasting: They had a wine tasting on Wednesday afternoon. They tasted 4 wines and the Head Waiter gave a talk about wine. Most people believed him since they didn’t know any better, but he was full of shit and didn’t really know what he talking about. We tried a Australian Sauvignon Blanc which was very good if I do say so myself, a Chardonnay from the Napa Valley (sucked) a Pinot Noir for the California Central Valley very good and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley (sucked to much alcohol smell to it. Burnt your eyes when you tried to smell the wine. Bad after taste also.
The wine list was worldwide. I am a snob and try to stay with Sonoma County Wines from California. They had a couple of them from home so we drank them. If you asked for the house wine they would say, it’s from California if you don’t mind. The second time a waiter told me that, I told him I wouldn’t drink the vinegar they make in other countries. He asked why and I told him, he understood.
Friday after noon you get your evection notice in your mailbox around 4:PM. Sound familiar? It gives you all the info about when you get off the ship, your connection information and port information.
Here is some info on our Ship. Princess Cruises ship: Diamond Princess, 18 stories tall, 952 feet in the length, 116,000 gross tons in weight. 2,670 passengers, 1275 crewmembers. She was put into service in April 2004. She will spend this mid-May to mid-September in Alaska, then from there she is going to the Far East, then to Australia/ New Zealand then to the South Pacific next April 2006. A beautiful ship, with a fantastic way to spend a week. She has a twin sister ship called the Sapphire Princess also doing the Alaska run, but she is headed to the Mexican Rivera in mid-September.
Well we like this cruise so much we already booked one for next summer while we were aboard the Diamond Princess. July 15, 2006 to July 22, 2006 on a Western Caribbean Cruise on Princess Cruises out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, aboard the Caribbean Princess. Stops in Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Caymen, and Princess Cays. Hey if any of you want to join us, please do we would love the company.
Well we enjoyed our trip to Alaska, very relaxing, very fun, and very educational also. Learned a lot about our 49th State and its history. We would highly recommend it.
Working on some pictures for you guys, when I get them together I will either post them or give you a site to go check them out at.
Joe & Denice.
;D
;D