June 2023 Viking Alaska and the Inside Passage
This is a learn as I go experience. It is always helpful to have people make suggestions about what works and what doesn't work and to that end, I will continue to include commentary for each days stops, along with pictures and I will also include "all pictures" in one place so you can just breeze through them at your leisure and don't have to check each day.
June 18 - Happy Father’s Day - picked up Helen and are spending the night at an airport hotel, so we can be ready for our 6 am flight 😜 already started the trip by forgetting our Viking luggage tags, so will see about doing “ghetto” tags once we get there …. Even as I wrote that, I have no clue what that means, but will figure it out 😂
And so the adventure begins …. Arrived at the airport - danish for breakfast and soon to be on our way!
Arrived in Anchorage at 1230pm. (4hr time difference) 😜 Left for the Port in Seward at 2pm and arrived around 430pm. Coming through Moose Pass, we were informed that the residents did not want a local gas station … because they didn’t want a store called “Moose Pass Gas” …. LOL. Joan arrived an hour later and after catching up and making sure all of our excursions were coordinated (poor George) we went for dinner. It is now 9:15 and the Sun does not set until 11:30pm. 😎 this will take some getting used to - sunrise will be at 430am.
After a good nights sleep we are having breakfast via room service and off to the first excursion - picture of the description is included - not gonna do all that typing 😜 It’s an all day thing, so no other pics until tonight! Weather is nice and cool, with showers throughout the day - typical for us LOL
Arrived in port at 8am - Took a bus to the edge of town, then walked back to the ship - a little less than 3 miles. We visited a couple of museums, which were interesting and had lunch at The Fat Mermaid, which was delicious 😋 Our last stop was a stop at the Convention Center, where we viewed a film on the gold rush and formation of the town of Valdez, along with a documentary on the 1964 earthquake …. Wow. We leave port at 3pm, so this is it for the day!
June 22 Sailing Yakutat Bay Today, being a sailing day, we had a later breakfast and then enjoyed a planetarium show - something new to Viking. After a light lunch, we ventured out to the deck (it has been quite chilly and extremely foggy) in order to see the Hubbard Glacier. We were lucky, as it seemed to clear as we entered the bay and we were able to view the glacier. Went down to the spa this afternoon and utilized the sauna and wave pool - so all in all, it has been a relaxing day.
June 23 Icy Strait Point - This was a delightful stop - fully commercialized and a tourist stop, but charming all the same. The gondola ride to the top was challenging for me, being afraid of heights, but the ride down provided spectacular views!
June 24 Skagway, Alaska - seems like this happens every trip, that I get behind on the blogging - internet and Wi-Fi are spotty and then I get caught up in other things 🤣the trip up the mountain on the train, following the path of the gold miners provided stunning views and stark realization of what the miners had faced, seeking their fortunes.
June 25 Juneau, Alaska - Juneau is the only state capital that is inaccessible by car! Overcast and a little drizzle kept us from exploring too much!
June 26 Sitka, Alaska - Sitka was a delightful little town - the capital of Russian Alaska. The theatrical dance performance 🎭 of different periods was enlightening. Again, rain and drizzle ….
June 27 Ketchikan, Alaska - (July 11) Near the end of our cruise (and most cruises) the wifi gets really bad and I find that I am unable to post as much. Also, during the end of this one, we started to get sick with an upper respiratory virus of some sort - I managed to sleep mine off with a bottle of Nyquil, but George got it and it turned into a nasty bronchitis which has taken him quite some time to shake.
Enjoy,we are going July 28. Chombo
ReplyDeleteYou will love it! Enjoy!
DeleteEnjoy. Think of you often. Great pics
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