Alaska Cruising Part II (Day at Sea & Ketchikan)

The Island Princess cruise ship apart from being a relatively boring ship as cruise ships go (no water slides or movies under the stars or really anything fun), certainly never let anyone go hungry. In the cruise pack that we got before our departure, they instructed us to determine if we wanted to do "traditional" dining or "flexible" dining. Traditional dining is the experience everyone thinks of when cruising. You're seated at a table with 8 or 10 others with the same dining time, the same dining companions and the same wait staff each evening. With flexible dining, you used the other dining room on a first come, first served basis at the timing and party size of your choosing. In addition to the two dining rooms, they had the 24-hour buffet, 24-hour complimentary room service (which was great for breakfast), and 3 specialty restaurants that weren't complementary. There were two pools side by side; one was supposedly indoor while the other was outdoor. They both had glass enclosures around them, but the "outdoor" pool had no glass ceiling. Toward the upper decks they had shuffleboard, a gym, a spa and basketball with a casino, reading room, lecture rooms, and shops down below. Spa treatments were extremely overpriced and the exercise classes at the gym were also extra. Outdoor activities on the ship were out because it was Alaska...and it was cold...really really cold! You would think that in August, the temperatures would be mild, and I suppose they were. The daily temps were in the upper 50s or lower 60s, but coming from hot and humid summer temps along the mid-Atlantic seaboard, the sudden shock of 40-60 degree weather was too chilly for us. 

The ship had more activities in the evening. Twice during the week they had a pretty good comedian, and twice during the week they had performers do a pop/broadway medley show. Other evenings one could enjoy some karaoke or night club-like dancing. I even tried my hand at Princess Idol, though I sadly didn't make it past the first round. Haha! 

Our first day on the ship was a full day at sea. The waters were a little choppy, so I was glad to have taken bonine immediately upon waking. My husband and I tried to have a plan for the day so that we wouldn't be bored, though the daily activities didn't really sound all that exciting. For breakfast, you had 3 options: the traditional or flexible dining rooms with a fancier, sit down breakfast, the 24 hour buffet which had a good assortment of hot and cold breakfast options, and an in-room continental breakfast delivery. When we first arrived we gave a breakfast card to our room "attendant" who was to be our personal "guy" the whole week. The card had our selection of juices, bagels, cereals, fruit, etc. Then every morning, the breakfast would be delivered to our room. This came in so handy. In many cases we still went to the 24-hour buffet for breakfast, but I enjoyed having some food options in our room throughout the day. 

After breakfast on our day at sea, we went to the gym for a run. There were a lot of people there (the gym got less and less crowded throughout the week) on that first day, but we were still able to get 2 side by side treadmills with a view of the ocean. We ran for 45-60 minutes and then made our way to the "indoor" pool for a refreshing swim. I noted above that it was cold. And cold it most certainly was, but the pools were heated and the glass enclosure radiated heat from the sun, so it was plenty warm enough for a dip. We ate lunch at the 24-hour buffet (we ate there a lot!) and then looked at the different afternoon activities. One activity that stood out to me was a lecture about the different precious stones that are native to Alaska. I always enjoy buying jewelry when we travel as a souvenir, so this lecture was right up my alley. Little did I know that the entire thing would be sales pitch for diamonds and investment tanzanite more so than stones native to Alaska, and the next day I would learn why. 

We then walked around the ship for a while, shopped a bit in the shops below deck, and made a reservation for dinner in the dining room. The food in the dining room was amazing! We were able to get a table for 2, but the "flexible" dining room was so crowded and cramped that although we were at a table for 2, there was barely enough room to walk between our table and the other tables for 2 surrounding us. That night we enjoyed one of the evening performances, and walked around the ship some more. I was glad we only had one day at sea. I would get very bored on the ship if we had more than one day. The two days of scenic cruising at the end would be much more exciting, right? Oh gosh...I really hope so!! 

The next morning would be the day of our first port of call: Ketchikan. We approached the port right at dawn, and I was able to capture this picture. 

Our arrival at Ketchikan

Before setting sail, we had pre-registered for all of our shore excursions. This is where we suffered from severe sticker shock. The activities, were all obscenely expensive, beyond the point of reason. Had we not been on a cruise with limited options for how to spend our time in the ports, I would have (and still did to some extent) balked at the prices.

In Ketchikan, we signed up for the Bear Country & Wildlife Expedition. It was only a 3.5 hour tour (which still left us some time for exploring the town after we were done) and for two people, it cost $400. I still have to pick up my jaw off the floor when I think about how we spent that for a hike in the woods basically. Still, we saw some pretty amazing things.

We had our tickets for the tour, and they were numbered. As soon as we got off the boat, we saw a huge sign with our number on it, so we knew exactly where to go. We hopped in a 15 seater van and were on our way. Along the 30ish minute drive, we saw this guy just hanging out. That's right, it's a bald eagle. I thought it was really cool to see one of those in the wild.

Bald Eagle in Ketchikan

We got to the place for our hike through "bear country". The guide gave us some important instructions about what to do if we actually encountered any bears. But the layout of the adventure was very well designed. Most of the time, we were on these ropeways which were above the ground.

I think this sign speaks for itself! :)

Rope bridge system that kept us off the ground

We had been walking for about 45 minutes with no sign of any bears when suddenly someone saw this little guy in a tree near us.

Young black bear just out for a morning climb

Sadly, he was the only bear we saw that day. We would see grizzly bears off the coast a few days later playing in the water...and I was glad to be on a giant cruise ship.

After the hike through black bear country we went to a wildlife preserve to see where they rescue animals who are hurt. Here are just a few friends we met.

Where's Santa?

A Who from Whoville

Since our day began at 7AM and only lasted a little over 3 hours, we were back to our ship around 11AM. We went on board and ate lunch at the buffet. Ketchikan certainly had some eateries, but we had the mentality that we already paid for our meals on the ship, so we made a point to take advantage of being able to hop on and off the boat at our leisure.

As soon as we got off the boat after lunch, it became very clear to us why the person during yesterday's lecture pushed diamonds and investment tanzanite so much. The streets (all 2 or 3 of them) were positively lined with one jewelry store after another. Every once in a while there would be the souvenir junk shop with every magnet, shot glass, key chain, and tshirt you could ask for, but the overwhelming majority of stores sold precious and semi-precious gemstones.

I certainly enjoy looking at jewelry, so I indulged a little bit. I got myself a pretty pair of topaz (inexpensive) earrings and a ring. The cruise ship staff told us that it was almost the end of the season, and soon the shopkeepers would close the shops here and take their wears down to their Caribbean shops. I should have realized that Ketchikan wouldn't be my only opportunity for shopping of this nature. It wasn't until Skagway when we had a chat with a local that the truth unfolded.

One jewelry store after another...

Our day in Ketchikan was shorter than the others, and we had to be back on the boat by 2pm in order to sail up to Juneau. Back on the boat, tonight was one of the 2 "formal" nights. Since we are light packers, we decided that we would skip the formal nights. We ate dinner at the buffet, enjoyed the evening show, and hung out in our itsy bitsy cabin the rest of the night. Neither of us were interested in going to the headache inducing night club, so we turned in early, excited for our big day in Juneau.

Read all about my exciting Juneau adventures HERE.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler