You can see a larger version of each photo by clicking on the image.
As you have perhaps read elsewhere, this year marks our 50th wedding anniversary. Philip and Yvonne very generously bought us a seven day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. There follows an account of a marvellous trip to the icy North.
Starting in Vancouver made it easy for us as all we needed to do was drive to Nanaimo, where we left the car, and take the ferry and local bus to to Canada Place in Vancouver. We boarded the Celebrity Century just after noon, a very slick procedure for about 1800 passengers.
As many of you might know, food and drink is available at essentially any time of the day and night. As we boarded we were told that there was a buffet lunch awaiting us. True indeed. We were ready for that and afterwards we took our cup of tea outside.
We left Canada Place and made our way out of the harbour to pass under the Lion's Gate bridge.
We then enjoyed our first evening dinner in the main restaurant. There were two modes for dining, fixed times in two settings with the same companions or flexible eating, which meant you could go into the restaurant at any time in the evening. We chose the latter and were immediately seated at a pleasant table for two on the upper level. This made life interesting as you could look down and see everybody below and what they were eating. The wait staff were pleasant and attentive at all times and we chose to sit at one of their tables each evening, possible because even though it was open dining you could book ahead at a time of your choosing.
We made our way north up the Georgia Strait, now the Salish Sea, and we hoped to pass by Comox in the daylight. This was not to be because we stopped short and never moved until we had retired for the evening. This was due to the fact that there is a narrow passage north of Comox that can only be passed through at the right condition of tide and current and that happened at about 3 a.m. We hoped to see where we live on the way back at the end of the voyage.
As compensation we were treated to a pretty sunset.
The first full day was at sea as we made our way north by Port Hardy and then into the open sea passing the Queen Charlotte Islands (now Haida Gwai). We had a big surprise that day because as we entered the cabin during the day we found some gifts from David and Sam; a bottle of champagne, rose petals, flowers and two bath robes.
There were always plenty of activities available if you were interested and we took in a talk by the on-board naturalist who was very informative and told us all about where we were going and what we might see. He gave five separate talks over the week and was always interesting.
Our first port of call was on Tuesday afternoon, we had left Vancouver on Sunday evening. The sea was flat calm.
This was at the First Nations settlement at Hoonah on Icy Strait. A new port of call for cruise ships was developed there a few years ago.
The traffic is limited to one cruise ship at a time and as we arrived on schedule at 1400 the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Rhapsody of the Seas, was about the to up anchor and leave so that we could tender into the dock.
The Rhapsody of the Seas
Icy Strait
Our cruise ship, the Celebrity Century
We didn't go on any ship tour here, we took the lifeboat tender to shore and walked into the small community down the road from the dock. The dock was by an old fish processing plant that has been turned into a museum.
As we walked down the road we had a good view of the ship. Our cabin was one level below the bridge as far forward as you could go. This gave us a very quiet location
There were a few unusual things to see.
And we passed by this fishing boat that we took a photo of especially for the Angels in Salem, Massachusetts.
We had a very helpful cabin steward who looked after us well the whole time. To amuse us each evening there was a towel sculpture awaiting our return.
Overnight we moved out to the Pacific Ocean for what was to be a highlight of the trip, the Hubbard Glacier. This glacier is a the far end of a large bay. The glacier is six miles across and some 300 feet high at the nose. As we approached there was a magnificent range of mountains ahead with Mount Elias being quite prominent peeping through the clouds.
We approached with some caution through a field of ice that had come from the glacier. Hubbard is one of the few glaciers that is actually advancing. It travels many metres a day forward and breaks up into large chunks - calving. This happens all the time. You hear a dull thud and somewhere there is a cascade of ice falling into the water. Since the front edge is 300 feet high the splash can be quite large.
Another glacier close by Hubbard
Glacier calving
The crew launched a lifeboat that went to collect some ice samples. They hoisted them onto the deck and then proceeded to make some ice carvings.
One of the carvings was later available in one of the bars.
The "just to prove we were there photo"
Our next port of call was Juneau which we reached after the next overnight sailing. Juneau is the capital of Alaska and is situated in the panhandle, a long way away from most of the state. Cruising to Alaska is very popular and there were three visiting cruise ships that day, and that is quite common. It is also a very rainy region and we arrived into a drizzle but that didn't last too long. The big attraction here is another glacier, the Mendenhall Glacier, just out of town. We took a local bus the the visitors' centre where the sun was shining and then walked a short distance to the foot of the glacier. Not as wide as Hubbard but quite spectacular in its own way.
Nettle Falls
Another "we were there photo".
We returned to Juneau and took a gondola ride up the hill by the port. This was run by members of the local First Nations Band. At the top there is a choice of walks into the alpine meadows and a view down to the quay.
There was large selection of flowers on the walk.
A word about dining. Food is available at all times, the regular breakfast, lunch and dinner but seemingly at anytime there was something to tuck into. Some people seem to be eating continuously!
We usually had breakfast and lunch in the upstairs restuarant buffet style but sometimes had food in another cafeteria with a more "healthy" choice. The menus change all the time, so if you missed something one day you might be out of luck. As mentioned earlier we had flexible dining each evening in the main dining room and here the menu was always different but with a great range of choice for the main course, meat, chicken, pasta etc. The quality was very high and Celebrity is known for its good food.
There was also another option available each evening. There was a special restaurant available for an extra charge. Here you can enjoy a very high quality leisurely meal in extra pleasant surroundings. Two evenings are declared to be "formal" where people dress up a little. On previous cruises more people appeared in evening dress but this time there was less of that, although everyone looked very well.
We chose this evening to go the the up-market restaurant as part of the anniversary celebration. We were treated very well, with about five different people doing the serving. The menu was technically four course but they made six with some extras.They even gave us a special cake which we had delivered to the cabin since we were more than full. It was a rich chocolate cake that was larger than we could handle so we ate it the next day, sharing it with a pleasant couple we had met from Australia.
Our final stop was Ketchikan. Here we arrived just after lunch but, as we were a little ahead of schedule, we had to wait until a berth cleared, there were four other cruise ships making a call this day.
Ketchikan was the most commercial stop we made. We even were given a free umbrella in a diamond store, which we didn't need that day as it was dry, but Ketchikan has a very high rainfall record, so we were lucky. We walked around the town and into a tourist area called Creek Street. This used to be frequented by the local ladies of the night, might still be perhaps. There was a series of shops along a rushing stream.
There was very good museum to visit and among other things there was detailed map of the waterways in the region. We had travelled along many of the channels in the map.
Our last day was at sea as we made our way back south to Vancouver coming back the way we had come past Port Hardy and Comox. During the day we went on a tour of the kitchens, the engine control room and the bridge.
A nice touch was an opportunity to thank the crew for their hard work. As many as able gathered in the main theatre. The captain gave a little speech thanking us!
By evening we were just north of Campbell River where we were this time able to see our passage through Seymour Narrows where there used to be a large submerged rock right in the middle of the channel. This was blown up a few years ago in what was at that time the largest man made explosion (other than the atomic bomb).
We carried on into the dusk and came to a halt just off Comox because we were well ahead of time in terms of docking in Vancouver the next morning. We were joined by another cruise ship and we have no idea when we got under way again.
So into Vancouver on schedule to the minute.
It was a great trip and no wonder it is such a popular destination. At any one time there are more than twenty cruise ships up in Alaska somewhere. Highly recommended
