QuattroRomeo

Carcross Desert.

Just beautiful.

Yukon sign and a truck selling handmade souvenirs on the side of the road:

We all gasped when we got out of the bus for these vistas:

Our bus, and the guide is speaking.

Sawtooth mountains

Heading out of Skagway on tour, railway train running alongside us, no traffic!

Boardwalk, Juneau

I will backtrack a bit here to add some photos that I have finally managed to extract, and continue the food review later. Juneau Gold panning guide, shots around Juneau.

Glad to hear someone embarked quickly!! There were a lot of lines ....

Enough different ships for all of us I think! Thank you for commenting.

🙂 looks about right!!

Interesting question- when I first started packing, I included sweaters, sweatshirts, gloves, boots, socks, earmuffs etc. That was based on the long- range forecast, and watching the port cams. When I checked again a few days before leaving, it had changed dramatically, basically a heat wave in Alaska. I quickly ditched some sweaters and added blouses and short sleeved tops. Forgot to pack sandals and wished I had. Too warm for socks. Many crew members told us it was cold and rainy the week before. During our week, there were plenty of people using the outside pool and hot tubs on the aft deck... The last day was cool and rainy, but not cold; a light jacket and shoes worked fine. And I wore a light jacket when standing outside on deck during Glacier Bay day. So I would say to check the forecast regularly. We had sun and warmth and were very lucky.

Food! We tried the MDR for breakfast the first morning. What a mess. The host led us to a middle table with people all around us; so much for spacing people apart. Took forever for a waiter. Asked for coffee, had to ask again for cream. We ordered the corned beef hash. Wow. A shadow of its former self. Yuck. Lots of staff running around looking busy, but not sure what they were doing. A few of us at different tables just rolled our eyes and shrugged. The coffees were poor, not a surprise on many ships for MDR, but this was bad. Asked for tea instead. The majority of our bill onboard came from ordering coffees elsewhere. We never ate in the dining room again; it was just too disorganized. p.s. what is it about ships that they cannot provide proper coffee cream? A pet peeve of ours, on all lines.

We found that there was little left of what we used to like about HAL. The captain gave maybe 1 announcement per day. We used to like hearing the mariner readings and such throughout the day. Nothing was announced to say what we were seeing or passing by at the time. A couple of small towns on the coast before we reached Ketchikan for example- what were they? Could he not say something? The ship itself lacked the traditional nautical look inside that we used to like. Of course they can't do anything now about the design of the ship. Maybe just the wrong one for us. The promenade view was definitely lacking. Nothing was available on paper. We know that all lines are moving toward more automation, but when it is slower than paper, what is the point? For guests that is! We don't typically use cell phones so online everything is a pain. But Navigator wasn't the greatest to use, doesn't do much offline, and didn't always work. Ditto the tv screen applications in the stateroom. We like to get receipts for purchases, not to be told to check our account online. What do you compare it with? Standing in the line at Guest Services to get anything printed is not a great alternative. Having all of the music venues so close together was kind of odd, would have preferred different areas with music throughout the ship. Okay, end of rant!

Glacier Bay My favourite day, on board anyway. Beautiful clear skies, warm enough to stand outside for hours and take in the view of the glaciers. It would have been even better without the lifeboats obstructing the view on so much of the promenade deck. Deck 5 fwd was opened on this day as well, and deck 12 was also great for viewing. The other ports, while pretty, are similar to landscapes we have at home, so they weren't as arresting for us as perhaps for others. But Glacier Bay is quite stunning, and we were blessed to have such good weather. There were a couple of park rangers on board for half the day in Glacier Bay. One of them gave great narration over the loudspeakers as we cruised along. Thank goodness for that!

Ketchikan We didn't book a tour here, just walked about. Another warm sunny day, flowers blooming. Mostly souvenir shops again, several nice totem poles about town though. When we got to the Creek St bridge we followed the creek in the salmon ladder direction instead of the direction of the Dolly's stuff, winding our way through town where people actually live. Later we walked to the Alaska Fish House for lunch. Had a double order of both salmon and halibut fish & chips to share one of each type. Expensive. The fish itself was very good, but the portions were small. Didn't care for the batter on them, and the fries were terrible.We were expecting maybe some freshly cut fries like we get at good fish & chip places at home. But not these, and they had some kind of coating on them, bbq spice or something that ruined them for me. The small portion of cole slaw was very good.

Forgot to mention that the tour company was with Frontier Excursions & Adventures in Skagway. According to our guide, the owner is quite an accomplished rafter, doing Level 5 rapids. Connor went with him on a level 5, first time he ever went over level 4, and couldn't believe how difficult it was! I know zippo about rafting rapids , but it was a good story... At any rate they do have a more subdued rafting tour as well if anyone is interested in that and their schedule works out.

When we got back to Skagway everyone got off in town rather than at the port, to wander around a bit. Bought a few trinkets. We went into a small convenience / grocery store and looked at the prices out of curiosity. It is expensive to live in the north! I recall a pack of 3 bell peppers for $9.. The owner was a bit of a redneck; DH asked jokingly if they took Canadian dollars, and he barks back "i don't want your damn Canadian money". Alrighty then... We caught a blue shuttle bus back to the port ($5 Cdn, $3 US. Less for a round trip. I think it was cash only). I do have some photos of the scenic drive; once I figure out how to upload them from my regular camera and not just the tablet I will add a few!

Skagway continued. At the Caribou Crossing lunch stop, we of course had to have a look at the sled dogs and puppies. The poor pups must have been tuckered from the heat, snoozing splat on the ground. Who doesn't like a puppy picture? The adult dogs were barking away and there was cool water dripping on them from above:

The specialty coffees were indeed in the Crow's Nest Exploration Cafe, Fwd deck 12, but also at the Grand Dutch Cafe, midship deck 3. Probably not as quiet a spot as you would like, but there is a seating area behind the cafe that is sort of sectioned off and faces the Promenade deck.

Yes, they are deeper. You can see it on the deck plan for 4043 & 4044.

We were in 4043, which is literally around the corner from the Forward elevators/stairs. Wasn't noisy. Deck 4 Aft rooms were blocked off in both hallways as quarantine cabins, so I don't think aft balconies would be an option on deck 4, but of course there are other decks. Our room is the last one in the indented section of the ship and the next cabin forward from us was on the jutted out part. So our balcony was sort of triangular between the 2 beside us.