Jewel Adventure to Alaska

[Shayhooper]

Hi!

 

I am not a frequent poster on these forums but after reading so many reviews from people like Sdmike, Gambee, and Mitsugirlys I promised myself that I would write one after my trip. First off, a great big thank you to the previously mentioned posters and many others that convinced me, and more importantly my husband, to take the incredible trip.

 

OK, so let me start by introducing myself. My name is Shay and I am 41 years old living in Vancouver WA, which pretty much is a suburb of Portland, OR.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Shayhooper

[Shayhooper]

Hmm, lets see if I can do better with the into pictures.

 

[Shayhooper]

I traveled with my husband Brian, 30 years old.

 

My son Colby, 17 years old.

 

 

My daughter Callie, 4 years old.

 

 

And finally, Callie's travel and overall life companion, Monkey.

[Shayhooper]

Sweet! I think I have the picture part of this figured out. Just a word of warning about my pictures, they will not be as good as other reviewers nor will there be many of the ship itself. Everything was taken with my Iphone and honestly there have been many other people who have posted better pictures of the ship.

 

On to day 1!

 

Vancouver Washington is approximately 2-1/2 hours away from Seattle. After doing a bunch of reading I decided that we should be at the pier by 10:30 AM so I planned on a 7:30 AM departure. Of course plans never work out the way you want and we left about 20 minutes late. Even with the brief delay, and a quick pit stop for coffee and gas, we arrived at the Republic Parking Garage at 10:30 AM. We had prepaid for the parking (I believe $110) and quickly were directed to a nice corner spot. The car was unloaded and we were directed to an elevator which took us 2 floors down to a skybridge that lead to terminal.

 

NCL had several people who directed us to the luggage drop off. There was no line to drop off the luggage, more people directed us to the check in, and again no line. 10 minutes later we were all checked in and sitting in chairs waiting to board the ship. Shortly after 11 AM there was an announcement that any families with children under 5 years old were welcome to board early. In all my research I had never heard about this and boy oh boy did we take advantage. With our "early boarding excuse" aka Callie in tow, we were the 2nd ones on the ship!!

 

Once on board, we immediately went to the customer service desk to get a few extra room keys made. The trip was initially booked with Callie and myself in a balcony room 10616 and Brian and Colby in an inner room 10615 - right across the hall. We had an extra key made for each room so Colby, Brian, and myself all had a key to both rooms.

 

Immediately after getting extra room keys we zipped up to the 12th deck, registered Callie and the kids club, and then deviated from my original plan which was to eat a relaxing lunch at Tsars. Brian and Colby wanted to check out the buffet so off we went to the Garden Cafe and had our first experience with the Washy Washy crew. "Washy washy, good for you, good for me, good for us" quickly became a fun song for Callie.

 

Even though we deviated from the initial Tsars plan I was glad we went to the Garden Cafe before it got busy. The choices for food there was almost overwhelming! The children's buffet was not set up but my gosh there were plenty of choices. After wandering around for a few minutes we all found something to eat and settled in to review the scenery.

 

Here is where I should interject with my family's cruising experience. With the exception of Callie, all of us had taken at least one cruise previously with Carnival. I have taken 3 previous cruises with them starting in 1997.

 

In comparison to the Carnival buffets, this one was clean, bright, and offered many more options. This impression carried over to our initial tour of the pool and sun decks. As we chilled out on a couple of deck loungers, I was also impressed that we were not approached frequently with bar servers pushing the drink of the day, another improvement from my Carnival experience. We literally had 1 server approach us gently and never again had an offer. It was refreshing.

 

After a brief rest on the deck loungers we had to cope with one of our many "Callie being difficult" episodes. Those of you with young children will hopefully understand. Even though she is very actively parented and has the added benefit of an almost adult big brother she is frequently what they call "high spirited." To be perfectly frank she had some rather memorable moments where she really was being a brat. Yup, I had *that* child which people often complain about. In her defense, she was often over tired, over stimulated, and frankly 4 year old children do not have a great attention span. Anytime she was behaving poorly she was quickly removed and had a time out.

 

So, after resting on the deck loungers was no longer an option we took a quick tour of the gym and spa. Callie was not pleased that we curtailed her sliding down the loungers in the spa. She requested a potty break so I took her to the restroom in the gym where we discovered that the toilets were too high for her to manage on her own and that the loud flushing noise freaked her out.

 

Luckily shortly after 1 PM it was announced that our rooms were ready! Woohoo! We rapidly made our way down to deck 10 to check out our digs for the next week. Having cruised before I was prepared for how small the rooms were but overall was impressed with how clean and functional they were. The balcony was lovely. My previous worries about the balcony were alleviated by the child lock on the door and high glass walls.

 

Brian took Callie over to the inside room for an overdue nap while Colby and I relaxed on the balcony. Unfortunately the call for the safety drill woke up Callie too soon so we took a cranky overtired kiddo to the Blue Lagoon. Our initial plan to placate her our Iphones failed miserably when the crew notified us that phones were not allowed. Ugh! Callie sobbed during the whole drill.

 

I am about out of battery on my laptop so the rest will have to wait until later. Next up, our first evening at sea!

[Shayhooper]

tAfter our grumpy drill we went back to our rooms in hopes that we could get Callie to nap. No such luck. She did relax a bit with our Kindle Fire that we loaded up with a few movies to entertain her. While she decompressed our luggage arrived and we all unpacked. The empty suitcases fit nicely under the bed, closets handled the things we wanted to hang up, and there were plenty of shelves.

 

Since Callie was calm we decided that we should make some dinner plans. It was a spur of the moment decision that we choose Tepanyaki (sp) at 5:30 for dinner. Looking back on it, I wish we would have decided to do it later on because Callie was still cranky. We had our first time out because she wanted to bang the delicate ceramic spoons on the table which our waiter feared would break. After that incident though, the experience was amazing! The chef entertained all of us but paid special attention to Callie who was truly enthralled. The food, especially the filet, was outstanding and even though it was very loud we loved the whole experience. It was a bit amusing to see other people stand outside the window watching the show. All in all it was well worth the extra money, though I was a bit surprised to get the bill with an added tip line. I was under the impression that gratuities were included for everything so I was not sure how to handle it. As a former server and also preferring to err on the side of the waitstaff, we tipped 15%.

 

We left the dining room and decided that it was time for Callie to go to bed. As we approached our rooms we met our room steward, Brian. My husband tipped him immediately and mentioned that Callie would really enjoy towel animals. Oh boy did I regret that. Brian was lovely and came back a bit later to make her an animal. She demanded a monkey, which he was not prepared to do but accommodated her anyway. Callie was barely interested and in general acted like a brat. UGH! It was sooooo her bed time.

 

My husband and I settled Callie down in the inside room. We left the lock open so she could simply pull her door and Brian provided our room with a door stop so she could see into our room. She made several stops back and forth between the rooms before she finally conked out for the night. Man was she tired.

 

My husband and I settled ourselves down on the deck, cracked open the complimentary bottle of Merlot that Costco provided, covered up with a blanket we brought and watched the sunset. The highlight was the sunset as the bottle of wine was atrocious. Ack! It was a really really bad bottle of wine. We each had a single glass and left the rest.

 

Colby after dinner took some time to tour the ship further. He checked out a couple of musical acts and had good things to say about a jazz band he found. By about 9:30 all of us were tuckered out and turned in for the evening.

 

Our first impressions were very positive. The crew was very visible and friendly but not pushy. They really went out of their way to coax a smile out of Callie, chat with Colby, and ask if we needed anything. We quickly learned the first day that elevators were huge choke points so we almost always took the stairs. Everything we saw was bright, clean, and there was excellent signage. Despite a cranky preschooler it was really a fantastic day!

 

Next up - day at sea.

[Shayhooper]

A couple of pictures:

 

We installed what we called a "listing string" which was simply a red shoelace that would tell us how much the ship was listing from side to side. The first sea day was the worst and was really quite mild. Otherwise we rarely saw the shoelace move that much.

 

 

Our red wool blanket - best idea ever! We loved having this for chilly evenings on the deck.

 

 

The really bad bottle of wine with the 2nd best idea ever - the binoculars that we borrowed from a coworker.

 

 

And while I am on best ideas ever, I didn't take a picture of them but I brought 3 refillable water bottles. Instead of taking expensive ship provided Aquafina bottles we always had our own. Saved us a ton of money.

[terrydtx]

Can't wait for the rest of your review, for your first one on CC, you are doing a spectacular job so far. We will be on the Jewel for our first NCL cruise Dec. 1st from New Orleans.

 

Terry

[MariTenor1]

Shay...loving the review. Having cruised with our son since he was 9 months old, I can relate. We learned early on that afternoon naps were a must!

 

@Terry. We have our first cruise on NCL on Jewel out of NOLA in March. I'll look forward to your review!

[Shayhooper]

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but I was caught up doing laundry, grocery shopping and watching The Newsroom.

 

On to our first day at sea! I woke up earlyish at about 7:30 and attempted to sneak over to the inner room to see if Callie was awake. She was quietly playing with her toys but Colby also woke up when I opened the door. Oops.

 

Since all 4 of us were awake we decided on Tsars for breakfast. All in all a pretty good choice. Service was prompt, coffee was filled on a regular basis, and I thought the food was tasty. Colby loved the coffee but was not impressed with his French Toast or the small cups offered for the coffee.

 

During breakfast we had mapped out all the different things we wanted to do throughout the day. First up was a stroll over to the library for the Suduko and Crossword puzzle. The library was filled with a bunch of people who said they had seen some orcas which of course was exciting to hear. Sadly, we never saw any despite some serious looking. After the library we strolled over to the deck where Colby and Brian attempted to play ping pong but spent more time chasing the ball after perhaps a volley or two.

 

Brian, Colby and I knew that we wanted to do trivia at 10:30 so we decided to take Callie to the kids club for the first time. I left the guys to their amazing ping pong game and zipped over to the kids club with Callie. She was excited to be with other kids and went in with a huge smile. What a relief. I met back up with Brian and Colby and the 3 of us went down a few decks to Magnums for a very entertaining 45 minutes of trivia. At the end of the questions we switched papers with the "Carlos Danger" team. We appreciated their team name and they appreciated our Keanu Reeves answer to the "Who composed the music to Star Wars, ET, and Raiders of the Lost Ark" question. Obviously, that was one of the questions we got wrong.

 

All 3 of us went back up to deck 12 (which was always really crowded and hectic) to retrieve a happy Callie. We reviewed our options for lunch quickly. Garden Cafe was a zoo that seemed to be more stress than enjoyment, so that was out. Callie was a bit rambunctious so the more formal Tsars was out. We settled on Blue Lagoon on deck 8. Initially it was really really loud because there was an art history talk going on in the atrium. Abby, the hostess, tucked us away in a corner so the noise level wasn't too bad and fortunately the talk ended a few minutes after we were seated. Food was fine, nothing too stunning. Pretty much pub food with the exception of the really delicious fish and chips.

 

After lunch came the highlight of Callie's day - Story Time with Dora. Callie adores most of the Nick Jr programming and had been looking forward to "meeting Dora" since we booked this trip 9 months ago. As we went down to the Fyzz Lounge (Colby opted to go back to the room to take a shower) Callie was literally bouncing up and down with excitement. Once she saw the crowd though she became really afraid and clung to me crying. The Nick staff came out, introduced Dora, and did a fantastic job of engaging the kids. After a few minutes I was able to sit Callie by herself and stand close by against the back wall. She had a blast! The entire experience was age appropriate, organized, and most of all fun. Story time lasted about 30 minutes then it was off to nap.

 

 

Brian and I took turns throughout the trip napping with Callie in the inner room. Honestly it was never a chore. Both of us are fans of a nice afternoon nap and love the inner rooms for them because they are so dark and quiet. Add in the gentle rocking of the boat and you have the perfect recipe for an amazing nap.

 

Nap was followed with a quick snack at the Great Outdoors, our go to place when we weren't in the mood for Blue Lagoon. That day was chilly and wet but we liked it because it was never crowded. We seriously will avoid crowded chaotic places if it all possible.

 

Finally we had come to the part of the day that I had been looking forward to the most - Martini Tasting! Since Callie had napped, snacked, and enjoyed her earlier time at the kids club, we thought it would be no problem to drop her off this time. Boy were we wrong. Callie for some reason decided that she "wanted Mommy and Daddy" and sobbed when I was signing her in. The staff were not concerned a bit, distracted her while I hid around the corner. Two minutes after I left, she was fine. Sweet!

[Shayhooper]

Off to the boozefest! The Martini Tasting was held at Magnums where there was a small crowd of perhaps 20 people. Brian and I shared a table with a lovely older German couple named Herbert and Ingrid. Their English was not the greatest, his better than hers, and we no absolutely no German but even with the language barrier we truly enjoyed hanging out with them. The martini tasting cost $15 each and consisted of 4 different 1/2 sized martinis along with some interesting information. My only complaint - it was A LOT of booze in a very short amount of time. The first was a classic vodka martini which was very strong. 2nd was a tasty apple martini followed by a pomegranate that I loved and then a chocolate that Brian didn't care for. Brian also volunteered to blow a bottle cap into a bottle. Even though he was not able to do it, he was rewarded with a "woowoo" shot. A couple who sat behind us gave me their reward "woowoo" shot they received for answering a trivia question correctly.

 

Needless to say, Brian and I were quite tipsy when we made our way up to the kids club to pick up Callie. Luckily Colby helped keep Callie entertained during dinner at Azura which we went to right when it opened at 5:30. Shortly after we arrived I took Callie to the restroom (something she insisted on doing at almost every single meal) and overhead that the wait to get in was 45 minutes long. Obviously we made a good choice to arrive right when it opened. Once again the food was tasty and the service prompt.

 

Initially we had planned to relax in the room after dinner but Callie said she wanted to go the kids club. They were doing a fairytale parade at 9:00 so we had a few hours on our hands kid free. Both Brian and I are Billy Joel fans so we were pleased to see that Atrium was having a piano player doing Billy Joel songs. We found a great table, ordered a few espresso martinis that Herbert and Ingrid had recommended earlier and chatted with people at the adjacent table. Turns out our table neighbor lives close to us and we discussed local politics in a very boozy manner. We certainly didn't need the espresso martinis or the round that followed but man were they good. The company, the drinks, and the music that we sang along too the whole time were all amazing.

 

The Billy Joel music was over with almost perfect timing for us to see the fairy tale parade. The kids were paired up with a partner, walking in a line, singing songs all throughout the ship. Seriously adorable.

 

 

Callie was happy to see us at the end of the parade. Colby and I ran to the Great Outdoors for a quick snack while Brian got Callie ready for bed. Before the rest of us turned in we discussed our options for breakfast the following morning. Brian, Colby and I had early plans right at 7 and the kids club opened then as well. We decided to have breakfast delivered to the room at 6:30 AM so that we could all graze while getting ready for the day. The card was filled out and everyone turned in for the night.

 

Next up - Juneau.

[Shayhooper]

Before I get into Juneau I would like to cover what I call our First World Problems. Minor things that bugged us but nothing put any sort of damper on our vacation. In no particular order they are:

 

The rooms had no iron. I was shocked that in all my research I had not come across this little tidbit. Perhaps the rooms description mention it or other higher category rooms have them but ours did not. We had Brian's nice shirt and pants pressed and otherwise walked around wrinkled. None of us are fashion people so we really didn't care.

 

There was no coffee maker, only a hot water heater and instant coffee. I could have sworn that the room descriptions said there was coffee makers but again I must not have been paying close attention. Instant coffee is not my thing but it also wasn't a hardship to go to the Garden Cafe or Atrium for coffee.

 

Sinks and toilets were really tall, so tall that Callie could not manage them by herself. We mentioned the predicament to our room steward Brian and he found a really bulky but effective step stool for her. Had I known I would have brought our collapsible one.

 

Our shower door stuck a bit and honestly I prefered to the bathroom layout in the inner room to the one in the balcony room.

 

We never ended up using it but the couch that turns into a pullout looks really uncomfortable as a bed. As a couch it was OK but I could not imagine someone sleeping well for an entire week on that pull out.

 

That is pretty much it for my complaints.

[Shayhooper]

Monday once again started off with me waking up early because I was so excited to get me first glimpse of Alaska. Anticipating that it would chilly on the balcony I put on extra clothes and ventured out into very mild 60 degree temperatures. I woke up Brian to check out the gorgeous views but he was more excited about the cell service we finally had and crawled back into bed to update Facebook and check on soccer scores. *sigh*

 

Today was the day that Colby had been looking forward to the most - salmon fishing. Taking some good advice from others I had book a few seats with Captain Ken at Northern Lights Charters several months ago. The charter was outstanding.

 

We woke up Callie, who does not wake up well, and got ready while enjoying the breakfast we ordered the night before. Callie was grumpy even though she was treated to something we never ever have at home, Froot Loops.

Yeah - waking her up is a decision we always regret.

 

All of us dressed quickly while we waiting for the ship to finish docking. All my other previous cruises had a really obnoxious sound of the anchor dropping so it was shocking that I never heard it on this ship. Perhaps because we were higher up that rooms on other ships? Brian zipped Callie up to the kids club for their port play program while Colby and I packed a backpack to take with us. Ken called right at 7:00 on the dot asking if we were off the ship yet. Clearly he was anxious to get moving! Colby and I left the ship as soon as we heard the announcement that they gangway was available with Brian following a few minutes behind. We found Ken easily and he took us down to the dock and his boat.

 

Brian joined us a few minutes later and started a chain of events that made us look very flakey to Ken. Frankly I am stunned that he took us out because Brian forgot the check to pay for the charter that I had written the week previous in the room safe along with all our cash and credit cards. Brian offered to run back to get it but Ken really wanted to get a quick start and said we could get the check after the charter. Wow - he was really trusting. Not sure I would have been in his shoes.

 

So off we went! The weather was cloudy with just a bit of drizzle first thing in the morning. Right off the bat we caught 3 salmon followed by a slow period when I simply enjoyed the scenery. Calm water, lovely views, and with my binoculars I saw several eagles. Ken was able to coax a few down so we got an awesome closer view of them. Simply beautiful!

 

 

 

The total catch for the day was 6 fish which the other two people on the boat caught 2 of. The company that processes the fish charges $85 to ship them so our fishing companions decided that we could have their 2 fish. Woohoo! As we headed back to the dock Ken gave us the paperwork to fill out for the company that would be processing the fish. It wanted basic contact info, shipping info, and of course a credit card for payment. Doh! We didn't bring our credit card. At this point Ken would have been well within his right to simply throw us overboard because we were clearly flakes that were scamming him. I could see on his face that it was a very tempting idea. Still, he acted like a pro but was very clear that we needed to get the check for the charter and credit card for the processing very quickly. Once we got back to the dock Brian sprinted back to our room while Colby and I sat with Ken. He was gracious enough to take some pictures for us while we waited.

 

 

[russianmom]

Enjoying your review and pictures!

 

My kids both reach the sink ok but we are traveling w/ friends in Feb and their daughter is quite a bit smaller. I just made a note to her to pack their collapsible stool. Thanks! :)

[terrydtx]

Great review so far and this has to be the most complete and comprehensive review of the Jewel I have seen or read from the last several years. I can't wait to se the rest. Love your pictures too.

[Shayhooper]

Brian was able to make it onto the ship and back to Ken's boat within approximately 15 minutes. I'm hoping that Ken felt reassured when he saw the check had been dated last week with my signature on it but I'm also betting that he deposited that check as soon as it was humanly was able. Even though he never expressed it I still felt absolutely horrible about the worry Ken must have been feeling during the entire trip.

 

 

A few pictures later the 3 of returned to the ship to get Callie for lunch. The kids club was closed with a sign on the door that they had taken the children to Tsars for lunch. Well that made our lunch decision easy. Off to Tsars we went only when we got there the kids weren't there. The 3 of decided to enjoy lunch anyway (I actually got to sit for an entire meal without taking Callie to the restroom!) and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. After lunch we picked up a happy Callie and headed back to the rooms for relaxing afternoon of reading and napping.

 

Dinner was actually a very easy decision because we needed to go to the Dora meet and greet at 6:00, which meant that Tsars which opened at 5:00 was our best option. We dressed accordingly which is rare for the men in my life to wear anything with a collar.

 

We arrived 15 minutes early and were the 3rd table seated. Our expectation was that we would be able to finish our entrees before 6:00 and Callie and I would skip dessert. The plan was less than successful because service was sooooooooooo slow that night. So slow that by 5:55 we did not have our entrees yet even though tables that were seated after us did. We had hyped us this Dora meet and greet for quite a while now, including using it as leverage for good behavior (if you don't behave we are going to have to tell Dora that you are not making good choices), so skipping it was not an option. I left with Callie but on my way out mentioned my disappointment to the hostess.

 

The Dora meet and greet was once again fantastic. Well organized, upbeat, and fun. Callie was beyond excited when we learned that not only would Dora be in attendance, but Diego too. This is the stuff that 4 year olds dream of. The line moved quickly and soon Callie was saying Hi and hugging her two favorite Nick Jr characters. Brian and Colby showed up right before it was our turn.

 

 

 

I have heard before on these boards that NCL likes to nickle and dime you with added costs for things but honestly I didn't find that to be the case. This is another one of those times that I was pleasantly surprised. Since the cruise photographer was taking professional pictures of the meet and greet I expected that we would not be able to take our own pictures. That was not the case. Not only were we allowed to take our own pictures, the Nick staff members took pictures with our phones for us. Well done NCL! Just about every family that attended would have shelled out the bucks for one of those pictures but instead of thinking of your bottom line you thought about your young customers. I was very impressed and my daughter was thrilled.

 

Since I still hadn't had dinner we next went to Blue Lagoon where our evening continued to be improved. Abby the hostess and Anil the server were fantastic with Callie and overall were simply fabulous. Poor Abby though, she initially thought that Brian was my son and that he and Colby were brothers. Brian is my 2nd husband and Colby is my son from my first marriage. Since I am 10 years older than Brian and he also looks much younger than he is, especially when he has shaved, we have encountered this frequently. Abby was pretty embarrassed. Not a big deal to us though.

 

2nd dinner, as we called it, went well and we all went a separate ways afterward. Callie and I back to the room for her night time, and Brian and Colby to the comedy show. A bottle of wine was delivered with apologies for the snafu at dinner. We never drank it (not huge wine drinkers and were still a bit leery after the horrid bottle from Costco earlier) but appreciated the gesture. We all were in bed by 10 PM completely tuckered.

 

Next up - Juneau.

[Shayhooper]

Oh - I just realized that I incorrectly associated the first stop with Juneau. It was actually Ketchikan. My bad!

[Shayhooper]

Enjoying your review and pictures!

 

My kids both reach the sink ok but we are traveling w/ friends in Feb and their daughter is quite a bit smaller. I just made a note to her to pack their collapsible stool. Thanks! :)

 

You're welcome! Wish I had thought of it myself but I also appreciated the solution our room steward came up with. It should also be noted that the loud flushing also freaked her out. Not much you can do about that one. :)

[Shayhooper]

Great review so far and this has to be the most complete and comprehensive review of the Jewel I have seen or read from the last several years. I can't wait to se the rest. Love your pictures too.

 

Aww - thank you! Sdmike did a really good comprehensive Jewel review which has a great deal more about the ship and food. A seriously good read.

[trish99]

Enjoying your review. We'll be on her in November and I'm thrilled to finally get a definitive answer on the coffeemaker vs kettle question.

[Always Cruising]

I'm enjoying your review very much - would love to do Alaska in the next few years. What I have to say, though - is how impressed I am with your son Colby. What a great big brother he is! So involved with his sister, and having fun without any teenage "attitude" - looking forward to the rest of your cruise review.

[Shayhooper]

Enjoying your review. We'll be on her in November and I'm thrilled to finally get a definitive answer on the coffeemaker vs kettle question.

 

The balcony room had a kettle but the inner didn't have anything. Perhaps higher level rooms have a coffee maker? The good news is that where we were on the 10th floor mid-ship-ish there was always easy access to decent coffee.

[Shayhooper]

I'm enjoying your review very much - would love to do Alaska in the next few years. What I have to say, though - is how impressed I am with your son Colby. What a great big brother he is! So involved with his sister, and having fun without any teenage "attitude" - looking forward to the rest of your cruise review.

 

What a lovely compliment! He is a pretty awesome kid but I am awfully biased. His family and I are all very proud of him.

 

Colby and Callie together are almost always a joy. They do have their typical sibling moments, which is a bit surprising considering their differences in age, but for the most part they are buddies. Always have been.

 

[trish99]

A kettle is actually better for me. Bringing a drip over the cup coffee maker with my own filters and coffee. In a balcony room, so this is perfect.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[trish99]

I'm enjoying your review very much - would love to do Alaska in the next few years. What I have to say, though - is how impressed I am with your son Colby. What a great big brother he is! So involved with his sister, and having fun without any teenage "attitude" - looking forward to the rest of your cruise review.

 

Where's the like button?? Agreed!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Shayhooper]

Before I get into our day at Juneau, I would like to touch briefly on the bedding. Honestly I had a hard time sleeping the first two nights for several reasons. Excitement, caffeine loaded alcohol drinks, and new surroundings all contributed I'm sure. Another contribution was the pillows and bed. At home I am ridiculously spoiled with a tempurpedic bed and pillows. Obviously this bed and pillows were not what I was accustomed to but it was still reasonably comfortable. The bedding itself was both soft and smooth - really very nice. By Monday night I had figured out a pillow configuration that worked for me and slept much better after that. Brian, Colby, and Callie had nothing but good things to say about the beds.

 

OK - now onto Juneau. For real this time.

 

During the planning portion of this trip we were initially planning on doing the afternoon excursion that takes you very close to the glaciers on a small boat. As we got closer to our departure we changed our mind. We weren't sure how happy Callie would be on such a trip and didn't want her put in the kids club for several hours. Additionally the cost for all 4 of us would have exceeded $750. Right before we left we put an offer in on a new house that was accepted so I was feeling that we really needed to be careful with our cash. With that decision made, we then struggled with coming up with new ideas. Cruise ship sponsored tours typically leave me cold and with a young child my preference is to be flexible. We settled on renting a car from Juneau Car Rental company. Their office is approximately 1/2 mile from the dock and the cost for a mid size with a car seat was a whole whopping $58.

 

We all woke up early again but were happy that our day was going to start a bit later. Even though the ship docked at 7:00 AM, the car rental place did not open until 8:00 AM. The four of us had a quiet breakfast at Blue Lagoon that was enjoyed by everyone except Brian. He said his scrambled eggs were powdered and gritty. Brian went off the car rental office with Colby, Callie and I following a few minutes behind at a more sedate pace. By the time we arrived Brian had dealt with all the paperwork and was coming out with the car seat and some maps. The car we got was an older but clean (not sure the year) Allero with over 150k miles. It wouldn't have been my first choice for a long visit but for a short day it was perfectly acceptable, especially for the cost.

 

 

By 8:30 we were on our way to Mendenhall Glacier using the well marked map. It took about 25 minutes to get there. We parked the car, piled out, and started walking along the trails. The shallow creeks had plenty of salmon and signs that bears come by, we didn't see a single bear. Bummer. Pretty salmon though and scenery though.

 

 

 

We continued along the path until we finally saw the glacier. Wow was it impressive.

 

 

 

There was a sign indicating a short hike to a waterfall that intrigued me. Off we all went on the well traveled dirt path through some heavily wooded areas. A short time later we turned a corner and were faced with perhaps one of the most breathtaking scenes I have ever come across.