North to Alaska

G'day all,

After cleaning up and moving out of the house we headed off to Canada place in Vancouver to board our cruise liner. After getting settled in our stateroom we set out to explore the ship. With 4 stateroom levels and 5 and a half entertainment levels we quickly learnt where we would be spending most of our time. The main areas we were interested in was the pool and bar Lido deck and the deck with the library and a couple of other bars.

After participating in the obligatory evacuation drill at 4pm we headed up to the Lido deck where there was a embarkation BBQ. After some awesome food and some Alaskan beers we headed for an early night after a big day.

MS Volendam

Embarkation BBQ on the Lido Deck

Thursday morning, after a sleep in, as it was our first day full day on holiday's, we headed up to the Lido deck for our buffet breakfast. Following breakfast we found the Explorer's lounge and started to think about what we were going to when we arrived in port. Because it was a full day of sailing we decided we needed to be active so we visited the gym for an hour and then had some lunch.

After lunch we had booked in for a Beer tasting for the Alaskan brewing company. We tried 4 different types of beers: white ale, summer ale, American pale ale (APA) and an amber ale. It was entertaining and we managed a few top-ups from other guests who were not finding the beer as tasty as we were. Erin's favourite was the summer and Marty's was the amber ale.

Selection of Alaskan Beers

On this night the dress code for the ship was formal so we were supposed to dress up. Turns out this was only for the dining room but we got dressed up anyway (in our smart casual) as we weren't sure. After dinner we played a game in the library and then headed to the theatre to watch Skyfall.

The service was so good on the ship that our house keeper would make our rooms twice. Once in the morning to make the bed, and again in the evening to turn down the bed and leave us towels folded as some type of Alaskan animal, as shown below. We got a seal, crab, bear, whale, eagle and turtle.

It's a Bear

After the beauty of getting an extra hours sleep due to a change in time zone we headed to breakfast on the Friday morning. Following breakfast we went for a swim in the pool on the lido deck and had a time relaxing by the pool until lunchtime.

Day 3 bought about our first port of call at Juneau. When we were allowed off the ship at about 1.30 we went to get the bus to go to the Mendenhall Glacier. The Mendenhall glacier is the only glacier of the Juneau Ice-fields that can be accessed by vehicle. The rest is only accessible by plane or helicopter. At the Mendenhall glacier we did a short hike (3km) around to Nugget Falls in order to get a better view of both the falls and the glacier. As it was raining we were very soaked by the end of this so we went to dry off in the visitors centre and learn about the retreating glacier.

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls, Juneau

Juneau is the capital of Alaska and has about 30,000 people living there. The only way you can get into Juneau is by plane or boat as there is no roads heading in or out. There are roads in Juneau but they don't go anywhere out side of Juneau.

After this we got the bus back into downtown Juneau. We had a look around the shops and had a drink and dinner at the Red Dog Saloon. This was a stereotypical American pub with moose heads on the wall and a country singer playing the guitar. After this we were still very wet and cold so we headed back to the ship. After showering and getting changed we decided we would head to the library to play some trivial pursuit and relax quietly.

A Saloon with real Saloon Style Swingin' Doors.

Day 4, Saturday, of the cruise was a stop in port at Skagway, Alaska. The ship arrived at 7am and after breakfast we headed into Skagway by 8. Our first stop was the National Park Service Visitors centre to grab a trail map. We then headed on a 3.5km hike to Yakatania Point and Smugglers Cove. This was a fairly light hike but gave good views of the inlet and mountains around Skagway. This hike took us about an hour. When we got back it was still early so we had a look around town for a while. We did a bit of souvenir shopping and Erin started her holiday charm bracelet that is going to have a charm symbol from every place we visit. From here we headed back to the ship for lunch.



Mountains surrounding Skagway from Yakatania Point

Following lunch we headed back out for another hike, this time on the Dewey lakes trail system. This hike involved a 500ft climb over 0.5mile up to Lower Dewey Lake. We then hiked around Lower Dewey lake before heading further onto Icy Lake. Icy Lake was the strangest colour green, it looked amazing. Further on from Icy lake was Upper Reid falls but as we tried to find it the path got a bit confusing and we could not find our way. After a while we turned around when we were worried we were going to get lost and backtracked our way to Lower Dewey Lake and back down to Skagway.

Lower Dewey Lake, Skagway

Old White Pass - Yukon Train

When we got back into Skagway we headed to Skagway Brewing company and had a taster of a pale ale, IPA, brown, porter and a blonde. After this we were very tired so we headed back to the ship for a soak in the hot tub before dinner. After dinner at 7pm there was an event in the crows nest bar for all Aussies and Kiwis where we got discount drinks. We headed to that and as we were having our drinks we saw a seal frolicking in the water next to the ship.

at 8pm we went to check out the ship comedian, Kevin Jordan. He was very good but a lot more focused on the general older crowd on the ship. There was another show after him in the piano bar which was a guy playing a mix of Billy Joel and Elton John. We had another drink here before heading back to the Crows Nest for the classic rock section with a band playing. We had a few more beers here while watching night come in. The sun set at 10pm but we could still see the surrounding mountains until midnight.


On the Sunday we cruised Glacier Bay. This was a entire day on the ship. But by the time we had breakfast the ship was almost at the end of Glacier Bay and by 11am it had anchored near two Glaciers, Marjorie Glacier and Grand Pacific Glacier. On the way it also passed the Reid Glacier and the Lamplugh Glacier.

Marjorie Glacier was 21 miles long coming from the fairweather mountains and 1 mile wide where it reached glacier bay. It moves at 7ft a day and is therefore a expanding Glacier. As we watched we saw parts of the glacier continually fall off into the water. The sound that went with it was like a thunderclap. As it was an expanding glacier there was many different shades of blue through the ice.

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay

Erin and Marty at the Margerie Glacier

Near the Marjorie Glacier was the Grand Pacific Glacier which was black because of it building over boulders and the rock face. It went 33 miles back from where it met Glacier Bay, over the border and into BC, Canada. The Glacier mouth at Glacier Bay was 2 miles wide.

We were anchored at these Glaciers for a while and when a passenger saw a bear on the opposite side the captain swung the ship about to try and see the bear. We didn't see it.

After doing some stuff on the computer for a bit and having lunch we headed out to the back of the ship to watch the scenery go by as the ship sailed out of glacier bay. On the way we passed some good animal viewing points and we saw some humpback whales, some sealions on an island and some otters playing around the boat.

Sunset over Glacier Bay

It was the formal night on the ship and as it was not practical for us to bring formal clothing we decided to have an easy night. So we had a few beers before dinner and then played cards on the Lido deck for a while. Also due to it being the formal night they had a dessert extravaganza with lots of different cakes and pastries and many chocolate sculptures. This was open to everyone and was at 10.30pm. After we had enough sugar we decided to head to bed.

Port of call for the Monday was Ketchikan. The boat docked at 10am so after we got up at 9am and had some breakfast it was time to get off the ship. First we headed to the visitors centre to get an idea of what to do. We picked up a walking map of the town and we did the downtown walk, which focused on the river where salmon return to spawn in the fall and the older part next to the river, which was once the prostitution district now called Creek Street. Near the end of the walking tour we were back near the ship so we went back on board for some lunch.

Creek Street, Ketchikan

After lunch we headed back onto shore and headed toward the west end of Ketchikan. From the map we had we saw there was a hike up to some good viewpoints behind Ketchikan. This was the rainbird trail and gave some really good views of the bay and surrounding islands and mountains. After this we walked back along the waterfront and returned to the ship.

After a rest in our stateroom we got ready for our fancy dinner in the Rotterdam dining room and headed to the Ocean bar for some pre-dinner drinks. After our fancy dinner in the dinning room we headed to the piano bar for a night cap and to listen to the piano man once again. He was playing songs from New Orleans which was enjoyable.

Marty and Erin with view from Rainbird trail, Ketchikan

Tuesday was our last full day for the cruise which was a day of sailing the inside passage back to Vancouver. After losing an hour sleep as we changed time zones again we woke up late and headed to breakfast. After breakfast Marty went to a disembarkation info session and then we relaxed for a while in the explorations lounge.

We again played on the computer for a while, then we headed to lunch on the lido deck. We spent most of the day playing tabletennis, going to the gym and watching the scenery go past as the ship made it's way back to Vancouver. We spent the afternoon doing washing and uploading our photos onto the computer. After dinner we packed everything up and then went to watch the movie for the day, Silver Linings Playbook.

After this we had an American style late night snack and then went to bed as we had an early start the next day, disembarking the ship at 7.15am.

We had an awesome time on the ship and in Alaska but we were ready for the next leg of our trip, 2 weeks camping through the Canadian and American Rocky Mountains.


Cheers, Erin and Marty

View from Lookout on Rainbird trail, Ketchikan.