Voyage to Alaska, the final frontier PART 1

Life At Sea

My cruise to Alaska was fantastic! When I was on the ship it was so relaxing, I took a lot of time to simply read and enjoy my holiday! The food was really exquisite and it was all inclusive in the ticket price so I felt freedom when ordering like I never have had before! I tired lobster and escargot, and had 4 course dinners every night! The crew were so attentive and helpful, I know they work so very hard - they work 10 hour days for 10 months with NO days off at all!! It is so humbling thinking of the way they served us so much and in such a gracious and kind manner with such intense work schedules!

In the evenings we would watch various shows - live bands, bingo, full stage productions, magicians, comedians - a whole range of things! My favourite way to spend the evenings was to see the show at the main stage, then go to the little piano bar where you sit around a piano and you all just have a big sing a long!  The pianist who worked there would play whatever you wanted and you would just have fun and sing! After the piano bar I would pop in to the Queen's Lounge where a covers band played and I would dance for a little bit before going off and reading my book. 

One night my room mate and I were sitting in the Queen's Lounge watching the band when this lady (who it appeared had some mental illness) began to get very excited in the music and started picking up her dress hem and flashing everyone! The worst part was that she wasn't wearing any underwear at all!! We were all so shocked and surprised we didn't quite know how to react so I just started cracking up laughing! It was so hilarious, I had to leave the room because I was laughing so much it was becoming rude! 

At dinner my room mate and I would sit with 4 other people - always the same people for dinner, which was so neat, we were able to get to know each other and chat about our plans for the evening and what we got up to in the day. One day, after being in large waves rocking the boat all day I felt a bit sea sick and I threw up a few times, but it was no big deal, once I had thrown up I felt great again! Haha. A big blessing to me was that at night I always slept well, despite the rocking of the ship.

Juneau, Alaska

Juneau was our first Alaskan port to stop in, and also the port where I was able to meet up with a couchsurfing local who showed me around which made it extra special! Stepping off the ship at just after 7 in the morning I was greeted with a plethora of jewelery shops opening up their doors and ushering in the hordes of cruise ship passengers to come and spend up large at their shops. In my naivety I had not realised that Alaska was filled with jewelery shops! That seemed to be a major economy factor for them - and people were definitely buying up large! I could not understand it at all! Hhaah. There were so many jewelery shops and they were all in such fierce competition with each other that they offered the cruise passengers free things just for walking in to their shops - I had no interest in the jewelery shops, but I did pop in to several to get the free stuff! I got so much stuff for free it will probably last me my entire lifetime.

After the early morning rush in the shops, I took time to have a good look around the downtown area, it had a lot of character and charm, lots of little bungalows and cute houses. In the mid morning I met my couchsurfing host at a neat local coffee shop and then she took me out in her car to the far end of the entire town of Juneau to a very special church called the Shrine of St Therese. You walk from the carpark through a forest and then down to a beach, and then you follow a rocky causeway to a tiny island. You walk through the trees and moss until this beautiful stone church appears in front of you. It really is an incredible place, and it really takes your breath away. We walked around and saw inside the church too, then we just stood and enjoyed the amazing view of the water and the islands. We saw several humpback whales out in the water in front of us. It was such an amazing sight to behold.

After the church we headed towards Mendenhall Glacier - it was raining so the visibility was not great but it was still magnificent. Glaciers are so neat, such interesting things to watch and see! Later on I said goodbye to my wonderful couchsurfing host and walked around the downtown area a little longer, stopping to buy cinnamon rolls and chatting to various locals, and even meeting locals who had been to NZ (what a buzz!). I went to the Alaska State Museum which was so interesting, and I learned a lot about baleen too, and spoke to the helpful staff to get some more information. I then headed back towards the ship, got there and saw a long line of people going back onboard so I ran off (literally) and took the Mt Roberts Tranway to the top of Juneau and saw the town from above. At the top of the tramway I watched a movie about Alaskan natives, and saw a bald eagle close up! A long time ago it had been shot in the eye by accident by a hunter and so it couldn't see. It was a lovely eagle, and so neat for me to see it close up!

I headed back to the ship and was promptly told off by the staff that I was late! Luckily, only by a couple of minutes, so I raced upstairs and sat down at our dinner table just in time! Thank you Juneau, for showing me your real side, beneath your exterior of jewellery shops!

In my next post I will tell all about Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria, British Columbia. Stay tuned!