Putting a half-day trip to Cape Cod as a travel log entry is a bit of a
stretch. Anyways, it's a beautiful place known to provide amazing ocean
views from the ridge of sandy dunes, fresh air and tasty mushrooms -
sorry, not giving you an exact location :).
In the beginning of October rains took a break for few days - which
supposed to be a good time to pick mushrooms. Well, we did found some -
but most of them did not make it through the rainy weather. And they say
"grows like mushrooms under the rain" - go figure! Full report is
uploaded to Cape cod Mushrooms gallery.
would maximize visual impression without too much lecturing
makes little to none physical challenge
does not punch a hole in the wallet
We have picked “Glacier and gardens” bundle and I think it did the trick – especially that Juneau was our first port of call.
We have booked shore excursion with NCL in advance. There are some pros and cons in it.
On the good side, it gives you certain peace of mind and convenience of
on-line booking from NCL website. Tour buses are dedicated for your ship
only – they are waiting next to the pier and know exactly how many
people have booked, do if you happened to be late to get off the ship,
they will wait for you.
On the opposite side, price is on the higher side: Glacier Gardens
excursion is $20-$25, and visitor center at Mendenhall Glacier is $3, so
we have paid about $40/person extra for bus transportation and the
peace of mind. Buses are waiting for people running late, so if you
happened to be among the first to leave the ship, you may have to wait
in the bus for a little while.
Glacier gardens are just a short drive from the pier (well, everything
in Juneau is just a short drive). Nevertheless, bus took us through all
of the “downtown” Juneau, and the drive was long enough to feed us with
all possible information about Juneau.
Glacier Gardens tour is about 1 - 1.5 hrs and if I have to pick one word
to characterize it it is “unusual”. There is a story about creation of
the gardens that I leave aside – in case you are going to take a trip on
your own, I do not want to ruin your chance to hear it first hand – but
the fact that such a beautiful garden was never planned to exist, is
unusual. Upside-down trees with beautiful annuals blooming on their
roots are one of a kind – I do not think I have ever seen anything like
this – even at the pictures. Explosion of colors for such a northern
location was amazing – I still do not understand how gardeners manage to
get such flower festival given short, cold and rainy summer. I haven't
seen that colorful petunias in much warmer climates like Seattle or
Boston.
Overall landscaping of gardens is
very nice – even though they are much smaller than you may guess from
advertisement. Booklet says gardens are about 50 acres – which probably
refers to the total area of the property, while landscaped part is more
along the line of 5 acres. Still, few acres of beautifully landscaped
gardens with wooden sculptures, waterfalls, rock gardens and unique
upside-down trees is quite unique sightseeing.
Site also includes a greenhouse/gift shop/snack bar, that displays very colorful fuchsias and petunias in various
arrangements.
If you are gardening enthusiast or just like flowers, you will be impressed like we were - please take a look at more pictures from Glacier Gardens. I also shot a short video clip in the gardens - link is on your left.
After short narration about story of gardens (which is not that long ,
BTW – gardens were established in mid-80s) we were placed on the
“shuttles” - some sort of gas-powered golf carts – and driven to the top
of 580 ft hill. (Tour guides insist on filling up each vehicle, so if
there are few large groups at the boarding station, there may be some
hiccups).
Dirty road going up is narrow, steep and partially supported by wooden
structures, so it is not quite typical dirty road as well.
Views around
it might be typical for the area and can be seen anywhere around for
free – but for us who were first time at these latitudes in America, and
probably not getting there again for a while, Alaskan Rain forest is
quite an experience – it's just a wilderness of plants growing on
nothing and fighting each other for a glimpse of a sunlight.
At the top of the hill there is a system of wooden decks/ramps, arranging something like an observation deck.
You can see Juneau international airport from the top, Chilkat
mountains and Mendenhall valley. In theory, we should be able to see all
the cruise ships docked in Juneau – but weather may impose some
corrections on this, so we couldn't. Again, it is not most amazing view –
bit quite unusual – have you ever seen a plane taking off, looking at
it from the top?
On the way down, which takes much less power from the car engine leaving
possibility for the conversation, tour guide gave us some overview of
rain forest ecology. We were told that there are no crocodiles and
jaguars in Alaskan rain forest, and not even shakes – the only compelling
danger is mosquitoes.
Well, there supposed to be bears (that we haven't seen alive for the
whole cruise) and we were taught how to distinguish a black bear from
grizzly bear: if you run away from the bear and climb a tree, black bear
would climb after your and eat you, while grizzly bear would just knock
down the tree and eat you...he-he...
After 90 minutes at the garden, we have boarded the bus and have had
another short (about 15 minutes) drive to the Mendenhall Glacier. We
have read an ad that this is “the only glacier accessible by a car”. It
is true to a certain degree – you can get to a point where you can see
the glacier and from which you can hike to the glacier – but it's about
1.5 mile from the visitor center and the end of the road to the glacier
itself.
We were given a bit more than an hour at the visitor center – plenty of time to take pictures
Mendenhall Glacier
and explore visitor center, but definitely not enough time to hike to the glacier, even if we were up to.
Views of the glacier are pretty good, though. You can also see multiple
icebergs floating in the beautiful, glacier-formed Mendenhall lake. We
were surprised by the milky-green (!) color of the water, created by
huge amount of silt dispensed by the glacier. We were also surprised how
dirty is the glacier itself – it is nothing like crystal-white
show-covered mountains, glacier carries with it a lot of dirt and silt
from the ground it displaces, so it has layers of blue ice interleaved
with earthy-dark membranes.
Since we could not reach the ice, visitor center provided everyone a
chance to touch it at least – they pull out smaller icebergs from the
lake and place them on display for everyone to touch.
We could also see other options of exploring the glacier “from aside” -
there were people hiking to and from glacier, people kayaking to the
glacier and people helicoptering to the glacier – and it makes plenty of
people, needless to say.
We were told about possibility to see a wildlife and “don't feed the
bear” rules. Well, the only wildlife that can be seen from the visitor
center are sea gulls – about 1:1 ratio to the number of people visiting.
There are some stuffed wolfs and bears displayed in the visitor center,
though. Visitor center also has three telescopes to see closer views of
the glacier – much closer than 250 mm lens I have on my camera, so do
not miss that.
And probably more impressive than glacier and birds is an energy of
flowers and trees – there is no crack or cavity in the rock that is not
occupied by a flower, moss or a tree.
On the way back, driver had given us a choice to get off in the middle
of the downtown Juneau or to be taken directly to the pier. Downtown
offers few more attractions, including “tram” - cable-way to the top of
the 2000 ft Mt. Roberts. It's about a 1 -1.5 mile between downtown and
the pier where NCL sips dock (others are even closer) and there are free
shuttle buses running between downtown and piers, so you have a nice
option to extend your shore excursion if you wish.
If you managed to read to this point and still like it, you can find more pictures of Mendenhall Glacier here and a short video clip of Mendenhall Glacier on your left.
Cruising on board of modern ships is already quite exciting. Visiting
Alaska is one of most unique sightseeing one can imagine. Combine both,
and you get truly once in a lifetime experience!
Our Seattle round-trip cruise included Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagaway,
Glacier Bay and Victoria. We were lucky enough to catch sunny noon at
the Glacier Bay, and have had wonderful time cruising Frederic sound on
the way to Juneau.
To keep long story short, we were extremely satisfied with the trip, and I can happily recommend it to everyone.
And if you want to know more about the cruise, you can take a look at detailed review.
We decided to book our Alaska cruise with NCL for very simple reason: we
cruised on Norwegian Spirit in 2005 and were pretty satisfied - so you
can call us loyal NCL customers.
With the party of 5 we could not fit one cabin, and NCL site does not
allow you to book two at once, so my wife decided to call. Overall,
dealing with NCL over the phone was quite pleasant - live person picks
up the phone quick, and is able to address your questions and issues
quickly. However, net win was marginal, because they had to make two
separate reservations anyway. It is not a big deal, however created us
some hiccups trying to book shore excursions from two accounts at the
same time.
Either way, booking of the cruise and shore excursions as well as
on-line check-in on the NCL web-site were overall quite pleasant and
convenient.
Cruise was rountrip Seattle, so to get there from Boston we had to fly,
which I generally hate - especially speaking of 5 hr long flight. Jet
Blue made it as nice as possible - simple on-line booking and check-in,
no lines to drop-off luggage, leather seats with reasonable leg room...
The only thing one needs to keep in mind is the fact that they cut costs
by all possible means - so, they charge you for meals and even for
headphones (bring your own, any standard headphones will do).
Seattle - capital of Washington state (I can never understand why
Washington City and Washington state have to be 4ooo miles apart -
sorry, could not resist :) ).
Given that travel from Boston to Seattle is about 9 hours "door to door"
we decided not to challenge the fortune and stay overnight in Seattle
both before and after the cruise. So we have had two full days there -
plenty of time to admire the Emerald city.
We used an opportunity to visit most popular tourist attractions:
Seattle duck ride, Space Needle, monorail, Seattle Aquarium and
Underground Seattle tour - detailed report of our experience in Seattle can be found on a separate page.
Our overnight stay in Crowne Plaza hotel was also pretty nice - rooms
are clean, personnel is knowledgeable and friendly, there is a bar and a
restaurant on the second floor and value for the money was more than
reasonable - I suspect we paid way below the street price because we
have booked via NCL.
Transfer from the hotel to the pier was a little disorganized. First,
cruise line (or lines?) place 100+ people in the hotel, so lobby in the
morning was pretty packed with people waiting for shuttle buses and it
was not quite clear which bus is for whom etc.
Secondly, it is normally 15 min walk from Crown Plaza to the piers, but there happened to be a street parade on 4th avenue,
totally blocking the traffic. It took us about an hour to get to the
pier, and even though bus driver tried to entertain the crowd with
improvised city tour, sitting in a traffic jam is not most pleasant
part of the trip.
Boarding the ship was another long wait. Even with on-line check-ins and
plenty of people preparing travel documents at the pier, having 2000
people to go through security checkpoint, photographed, key card printed
etc. takes a lot of time. While I do not blame anyone and can call
boarding well arranged, it is still just a boring waiting time - we
spent somewhat another hour there to get on board.
Everything changes as soon as you are passing checkpoints and board the
ship - you feel on vacation from the first minute. I need a separate
page to tell about the
Norwegian Pearl - if you have never been on a cruise ship, it is
something that is hard to explain in plain words. "Floating town" is
probably most accurate analogy, and all big cruise ship are somewhat
similar in that respect.
Picture on the left is our ship, but it is taken in Ketchikan, not in
Seattle - please do not get confused by the shore view. But it gives
some feeling of the size of the ship.
One thing that cruise companies do not want you to pay attention to, is
the weather. The ship is great, food is great, entrainment program is
amazing - but you went to Alaska Cruise and you are expecting
extraordinary scenery, right? Well, Alaska has about one sunny day per
week, so your ability to do sightseeing is quite limited.
First day of sailing was announced in the itinerary as "cruising the
Inside Passage". In reality, we were within sight of land for 3 hours
during the day. Plus, weather was foggy to say the least - you can judge
for yourself from the photo on the right, and if you like to see more, I
have whole gallery of "cruising the Inside Passage" day.
Given not-much-to-see conditions, we spent the day making ourselves
familiar with the ship. which I consider time well spent. On the same
day we also had a dinner at teppanyaki on board of Norwegian Pearl, and
we find this traditional Japanese restaurant one of the best of its
kind.
Juneau
Norwegian Pearl has arrived Juneau at 2 pm sharp (if you can apply
"sharp" to the docking procedure that takes more than half an hour).
Before that, we have had one of the most beautiful mornings of the whole
cruise - starting about sunrise, ship was traveling the Alaska inside
passage for real. Norwegian Perl was traveling between Baranoof, Kuprianoff and Admiralty Islands, slowly unwinding beautiful views of snow-covered mountains and sapphire-blue straits while approaching capital of Alaska.
Juneau itself is nice tiny city, slightly disfigured by one and only 15-story federal building in the state.
Nevertheless, we left the ship, boarder a bus and went all the way to Glacier Gardens Rainforest and Mendenhall Glacier adventure - our first shore excursion of the cruise.
Skagaway
On the scale of any mainland state, Skagway (or Skagaway - you can see
both spellings) is one of the tiniest towns possible - about 800
permanent residents. Emerged from fishing village during gold rush at
the end of 19th century, town now leaves on selling memorabilia of gold
rush to the tourist - successful enough to triple its population during
the tourist season. Seriously, there is nothing in the town but few
restaurants, gift shops and famous tourist attractions.
Norwegian Pearl was docked in Skagaway for the whole day - 6am to 8pm,
leaving plenty of time to take shore excursion and explore the town.
Photo on the right depicts very famous for 100+ years "Red onion saloon"
- and there are much more photos of Skagaway on this site.
Glacier Bay
Glacier bay is probably most beautiful part of the whole cruise, and we
were very lucky to have beautiful sunny weather there. Norwegian Pearl
has entered Glacier Bay national park early in the morning, and spent
most of the day cruising narrow inlets left out by retracting glaciers.
Combination of emerald water, blue sky, white clouds, sparkling ice and
rocky mountains is a must see of the cruise - you will see for yourself at glacier bay photo gallery.
Ketchikan
Ketchikan - salmon capital of the universe and yet another rainy day of the Norwegian Pearl Alaskan cruise.
Our excursion in Ketchikan was a boat trip to the Misty Fjords, and it was amazing despite the weather (photo gallery of Misties is here)...
While much bigger than Skagway, Ketchikan is still mostly
tourist-oriented town: whole "downtown" of Ketchikan is an amazingly
beautiful collection of gift ans jewelry shops, sparingly interleaved
with bars and restaurants. If you have few thousands to spare, you may
find downtown Ketchikan a nice place to spent your money - I can't say
that I like it a lot - may be I do not have enough to spare :). After
the excursion we took a stroll through downtown and have found beautiful
samples of sculptures made by native Alaskans out of Mammoth bones,
neighbored by huge offering of rare ammolites. There is also very good
selection of fur coats and jackets - all in all, it is cold there in
Alaska!
Victoria
Victoria - the capital of British Columbia, Canada.
After leaving Ketchikan the day before, ship spent most of the day
sailing, with arrival to Victoria scheduled for 6pm. So, we were limited
to about 4 hours in this beautiful old city, which is unfortunate - I'd
say, it deserves more. Despite much less exotic climate, city exhibits
very charming old architecture and nice landscaping throughout - not to
mention beautiful Butchart gardens where we spent most of our time
ashore (see photos).
Since this is the last slide of the story, there should be some sort of the line drawn here. So, here is the bottom line:
Alaska Cruise worth every penny invested in it - it is most amazing
vacation week one can imagine. Go for it if you are in doubt!