Ruby Princess Alaska Jun 28 - July 5 2015 Photo Review

[judynorth]

A HUGE THANK YOU for this information. I have been trying to insert photos in my posts and have had no luck what so ever. Other posters told me to us "Bucket Photos". It didn't work for me. Picasa and the process sound so much easier. Again - Thank you. Can hardly wait to give it a try.

 

Okie1946

 

You are welcome, Okie 1946. I hope it works well for you. If it does, be sure to print out the instructions for later reference. As they say, how soon we forget!:rolleyes:

[LoveCruisin72]

John, the Ruby is gorgeous inside too. We have cruised on her twice, once in the Mediterranean and once in the British Isles.

[LoveCruisin72]

Thanks for sharing, John! I'm a foodie too so I always take photos of my food. Really enjoyed all your photos and comments!

[irvinejohn]

Thanks for sharing' date=' John! I'm a foodie too so I always take photos of my food. Really enjoyed all your photos and comments![/quote']

 

It's my pleasure to share my experiences with all of you. Cruise Critic is chock full of useful information that I have used to make informed decisions on my vacation choices, and I wanted to show my support as gratitude to all the posters before me.

 

Yes my favorite part of the reviews are pictures of the food. :)

[irvinejohn]

Day 4 – Tracy Arm and Juneau

 

The Patter for today said the forecast was sunny with the chance of rain in the afternoon. I expected something like that with the earlier forecast with 20% chance of rain. However I was surprised to see that the temperature was 47 degrees.

 

I set my alarm for 5AM and probably was on the Promenade by 5:30. I was dressed in layers and it was cold. The first thing I saw when I opened the door to the outside Promenade was floating ice.

 

 

I don’t know if this was an iceberg with most of its mass hidden below the water but I was elated that the weather was clear and we were headed toward a glacier. The Captain did seem to maneuver the Ruby away from all the ice though.

 

The floating ice/iceberg was a brilliant blue color and the water was a glistening aqua color. It seems that the ice absorbs all wavelengths of light except for blue so that explains the color. A glacier is a river of ice that grinds over the land and pulverizes it. These particles get mixed into the ice and become part of the glacier melt. Later in the day at Mendenhall, you could see that the water around the glacier was indeed murky. At Tracy Arm you needed the right light condition to see the aqua hued water.

 

 

It was scenic with all the colors and there were many waterfalls rushing down from the mountains that enclosed us. I mostly stayed on the Promenade near the bow so I don’t know how the views would have looked elsewhere.

 

[irvinejohn]

After a while I headed back indoors to get a hot chocolate from the International Café. There was quite a long line with other people ordering hot beverages. Later in the morning I saw a hot drink station set up on the Promenade but it wasn’t there at 6AM. With my beverage I headed out to bow of the Promenade where I was able to last about 30 minutes before the cold chased me indoors again.

 

I noticed a line of people forming up at the entrance of the Princess Theater. I think they were people who purchased the excursion that left on the boats to get up close to the glaciers. They had the perfect weather today and I thought this might be one of the excursions to splurge on. Later in the morning, the Ruby did stop to unload the passengers and then turned around to begin our return journey. By this time it had warmed up considerably and you could go without a jacket.

 

I think I returned to the cabin to wake of the kids so they could see Tracy Arm as well. We were able to see a glacier off in the distance.

 

 

 

I wasn’t certain we would be able to view it which is the main reason I rented the van for Mendenhall in Juneau. I didn’t want to leave Alaska without seeing one.

 

Tracy Arm Fjord was very scenic, but I don’t know what I may have missed on the occasions I went back inside the ship.

 

 

 

[irvinejohn]

We ate breakfast at our usual spot in the Horizon Court.

 

I’ve noticed the sign for the Crab Shack at what seemed to be the end of the Horizon Court on the left side of the ship. I’ve peeked in to what appeared to another dining venue, but I had no idea how big it was. On the Zaandam, a section of the Lido Buffet is cordoned off during dinner to form Canaletto, an Italian themed dining venue with an extra fee of $10.

 

After breakfast, this time I decided I was going into this section of the Ruby to check it out. It was much bigger than I expected and actually larger than the Horizon Court so there was more seating here. This section of the buffet was Caribe Café. It extended all the way to nearly the back of the ship, and wrapped around to the other side to meet with the other half of Horizon Court on the right side of the ship. At the back there were doors that led outside to the Outrigger Bar and stairs that descended to the aft pool. This pool is actually on deck 14 and the corridor on the Riviera opened out to the pool at the back of the ship.

[irvinejohn]

After dropping off the twins at Pelicans, I heard an announcement of a Norman Love Chocolate Demonstration in the Piazza at 9:30AM. So I went to go see the chocolate presentation. It was already getting crowded and I took a spot on the stairs. I was tired from waking up early in the morning so I don’t remember everything that was mentioned regarding chocolate. I do recall that white chocolate is actually cocoa butter so that is why it has three times the calories of dark chocolate. Samples were brought to those on the floor of the Piazza so I was unlucky, but it was available afterwards for anybody who came down for a closer look at the samples. Since I was tired I went back to the cabin for a nap.

 

[renaissancewoman101]

Love your trip report. Will be going on an Alaskan cruise early Sept on the Crown Princess. Just curios, did you guys end up doing any ship excursions, or excursions from private vendors?

[irvinejohn]

Thanks for you comments.

 

We didn't do any ship excursions or private vendor excursions, but I rented a van in both Juneau and Skagway for a DIY tour to save money and have the flexibility to go where we desired. Official Alaska excursions seem very expensive.

 

Originally if I considered an excursion, I think I would like to take the Deadliest Catch Excursion since I do like to watch the show when it is on.

 

After experiencing Tracy Arm, I would also be interested in the excursion that takes you to up to the glaciers, but only if you are not cruising Glacier Bay.

 

It is so hard to see a whale from the ship or shore that the 100% whale guarantee in Juneau is appealing, but whale tours here in SoCal can be as low as $12 for an adult with a Groupon ad. There is no guarantee that you will see a whale though.

[irvinejohn]

We pulled into the port of Juneau during lunch. I could see the Zaandam was already at the berth behind us and closest to the Mt. Roberts Tram. There was another HAL ship behind the Zaandam, perhaps the Amsterdam. The Oceana Regatta was getting ready to leave. Unlike Tracy Arm, the weather in Juneau was overcast.

 

 

 

[irvinejohn]

I took a picture of my lunch plate today. I think I have been getting a salad and the protein at the carving station (those meats have been dry). This time I opted out of the salad and got a beef stew, gnocchi again (it was supposed to have shrimp this time but I didn’t see any), a couple of pot stickers from the limited Asian selection, and a slice of pork. It is still nothing that special for a lunch on a cruise. I was thinking maybe I will try a hamburger from the Trident Grill if I did not like the offerings at the next lunch buffet.

 

 

For desert I selected a key lime pie. There was a mango mousse and I got it as way since there was a nice contrast in color. I preferred the key lime pie.

 

[irvinejohn]

It was harder to plan for excursions with a group of sixteen. And half of the group had already been on an Alaskan cruise before. I spent a fair amount of time beforehand determining what I would like to see in Juneau and Skagway. I proposed renting vans in these two ports because it would give us the most flexibility to tour on our own and it seemed many of the best attractions were not within walking distance of the ship. The experienced half were OK with doing walking tours or taking local buses, so I booked the largest passenger vans available.

 

About six weeks before the cruise, AVIS was already out of minivans. I know I should have settled this earlier. So I contacted Juneau Rental Cars and Sourdough Rentals in Skagway about the availability on our days in port. Both of these local vendors offered used vehicles as rentals, and were more affordable than AVIS. I contacted Juneau initially via their website and Sourdough via e-mail at sourdoughrental@yahoo.com. The Sourdough domain was in transition at the time. Both vendors responded within a day and soon I completed the reservations via phone. In Juneau I was able to rent an eleven person passenger van and in Skagway an eight person passenger van.

 

Since I was going all the way to Alaska, I wanted to see something uniquely Alaskan and that meant a glacier for me. I read that you weren’t guaranteed to see the glacier in Tracy Arm, so I prioritized Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

To get to Mendenhall, the most convenient manner seemed to be the specialized Blue MGT or White busses for $20 per person round trip. The alternative is to take the local public bus for a dollar or two but it only got you to about a mile of Mendenhall Glacier. The 11 person van cost about $125 to rent so it was obviously cheaper than the $220 it would have cost all of us to take the MGT Blue Bus. And with the rental we had a place to leave our belongings and could make our own schedule. Furthermore, any waits for a bus would be complicated by rain so I thought to make the visit to Mendenhall as pleasant as possible and be budget conscious, the best option was to rent the van. Additional bonus saving is that it would have cost $20 per person to take a shuttle to the Alaskan Brewery Company too.

 

Since we docked late, it seemed that Mendenhall would be a mad house full of tourists with four (actually five) cruise ships in port. So I determined that we would visit the sites in order from the dock as we traveled to the Alaskan Brewery Company, Auke Bay, and the Shrine of St. Therese and then loop back to Mendenhall at around 4PM at the end.

[irvinejohn]

My dad’s knee flared up from all the walking in Ketchikan and he was thinking about not getting off the ship in Juneau. But we convinced dad, mom, and my youngest brother to come along with us, my family of six as well as my sister and BIL. So this group filled up all eleven seats. My brother’s family of five planned on visiting the local souvenir shops and then taking the local bus to Mendenhall. If possible we will try to get there at 4PM and meet up.

 

When we got off of the Ruby, I asked the security guard which dock we were at. The answer was Franklin or B dock. I knew than that while we were further out of town than the HAL boats, we were actually closer to the Juneau Rental Cars location near the cruise ships.

 

The group who will be riding in the van waited for my BIL and me as we went to pick it up. I followed he map of the rental location that I received from Juneau Rental Cars. We went up the small hill to the right of the passenger loading/unloading zone along Thane Road and then walked toward a very industrial area to the right on Mt. Roberts. When we turned right again at Jacobsen at the commercial fuel station, I thought we had made a mistake and walked in a circle somehow because the Ruby was there before us again. I confirmed our location in our map and then realized it was not the Ruby but the sister ship Grand Princess at AJ dock. So there were actually five cruise ships in Juneau today. I didn’t notice the Grand earlier because I did not look forward from the Ruby.

 

We asked a guy walking his dog if there was a rental car company nearby and he confirmed that we were close and it was just a left into the next parking lot. Sure enough as the map indicated, we found Juneau Car Rentals’ cruise ship location in a small shack emblazoned with the words “Rental Car” in red. Overall it was about a five to ten minute walk to get to the shack. This time the berth assignments worked out in our favor.

 

Inside the shack quickly confirmed we quickly my reservation and signed the rental documentation. There was no attempt to upsell us on insurance, and then we got recommendations on where to go given our time boarding time.

The worker told us the Macaulay Salmon Fish Hatchery is good because the chum salmon were running and you can also see eagles attracted by the fish. He also mentioned that the Shrine of St. Therese was good spot to potentially see whales because the waters dropped off 1,000 ft. there. Eagle Beach was nice too but it was probably too far for us. Of course we were already planning to go to Mendenhall and then he also gave us directions to the Alaskan Brewery Company as well and a map with our stops circled. It was a very easy customer friendly experience and I would recommend Juneau Car Rentals if you plan to rent, especially if you have a larger party.

 

The eleven person van was a Ford Chateau with 100K miles on it already. But it was clean and worked fine, although we couldn’t figure out how to get the rear AC on. We just rolled down the windows a little.

[irvinejohn]

The Macaulay Salmon Hatchery was our first stop in a revised itinerary. It is located only three miles out on Egan Drive. Make a left on Channel Drive and follow the road to the hatchery. You can see the hatchery from Egan Drive.

 

I would not have stopped here without the recommendation from Juneau Car Rentals, because I had no way of knowing that the chum salmon has returned to spawn. There is a fish ladder leading from the Gastineau Channel into the hatchery. Through the window, you can clearly see the salmon swimming upstream. It was harder to see them by peering down on the ladder.

 

 

 

However there was something like a holding pen at the top of the ladder chock full of fish. The salmon in the pen attempted to frequently leap out of the water to cross over to the next section. This holding pen was near the unmanned pay window for the tours. There were quite a few busses already there and there was a line out the door of the hatchery. We decided to forego the tour in order to stick to our schedule. The kids really enjoyed this stop.

 

 

The birds knew where the fish were. Here is a cropped image of an eagle and another bird sitting on a nearby roof.

 

 

So with this one stop we saw salmon and an eagle.

[irvinejohn]

The second stop was the Alaskan Brewery Company to visit the sampling and souvenir room. The site was about two miles after the hatchery and was harder to find compared to our other destination. From Egan Drive turn right on to Vanderbilt Hill Road and then another right to Anka Street. Shortly after, the second right on to Shaune Drive will take to the Alaskan Brewery Company. It is the brown building attached to the structures that look like a grain silo. You know you missed Shaune Drive, like we did, if you arrive at the Home Depot and Costco on Anka.

 

 

Only my dad, myself and my BIL sampled the brew. They sample is a generous 6 oz. glass and they also gave two bottle caps to serve as tickets for two more samples. It was crowded inside. Who would think otherwise with free brew? I don’t remember the first one I sampled but the second was a raspberry wheat which was very good. Both of my samples are not sold out of Alaska however. Since I was the driver I passed on the third sample. We bought some souvenirs and proceeded onwards.

 

In or Zaandam visit to Mexico, my BIL and I would always get a glass of Pacifico at every port. We should have done the same thing in Alaska with the Alaskan Brewery Company beer. I will have to stop by BevMo back home to get some and reminisce.

[judynorth]

 

So with this one stop we saw salmon and an eagle.

 

The "other bird" is a juvenile eagle.

[irvinejohn]

The "other bird" is a juvenile eagle.

 

Thanks Judy. You truly are a wealth of knowledge. I had wondered why the eagle was OK to let another bird sit by so closely.

[irvinejohn]

Since we stopped at the hatchery we no longer had any time for Auke Bay, which is where all the whale watching tours depart from. This was a place with good chances of seeing sea life but I didn’t see any boats clustered in the Bay so it seems that the whales were likely somewhere else.

 

The Shrine of St. Therese is about twenty-two or twenty three miles away from the cruise terminal or about eighteen miles from the Alaskan Brewery Company. There were mile markers along Egan Drive/Glacier Highway and there is a small sign for the left turn to the Shrine. Just be on the lookout for it around the Mile 22 post.

 

As we were driving it started to sprinkle lightly. The roads never got wet however and it the raindrops stopped as we arrived at the shrine.

From the parking lot you walk down past some rental log cabins and across the land that connects the shrine with the mainland. A porcupine was headed in the direction of the shrine. We stayed well away from the porcupine since we were not certain if it could shoot its quills out.

 

 

It is a very quiet and serene place. Visitors are welcome to come inside the church. There were not many people at the Shrine although it seemed there were more people arriving when we were leaving.

 

 

 

 

I liked all the moss growing around everywhere. The moss is confirmation that Juneau is a rain forest zone.

 

 

The boys played a little bit along the shore and I rounded them up for the trip to Mendenhall. I heard several large whooshing noises as we were walking back away from the rocks to the grass lawn area, but thought nothing of it. My wife then said “whale” and we all looked back in the direction of the noise. We saw the whale as it came up several times. It wasn’t much of a view but we saw a whale in a chance encounter.

 

This is a cropped image of the whale.

 

 

I saw a whale on the cruise to Mexico as it surfaced only once but didn’t hear it. I didn’t know they could be so loud. If you really wanted to see a whale, the tours out of Auke Bay offer a guarantee since the whale feeding areas are near Juneau.

 

My longest lens was a 200mm, which is equivalent to a 4X zoom on my full frame camera. My sister bought a point and shoot with a 20X or 30X optical zoom, so her pictures may have come out better for the wildlife shots.

[judynorth]

Thanks Judy. You truly are a wealth of knowledge. I had wondered why the eagle was OK to let another bird sit by so closely.

 

Thanks. We have quite a few eagles around here and photographers are always posting pictures of eagles on Facebook on the Virginia Photographers page. Some of them are lucky enough to have eagles nesting in there back yards. They are beautiful and majestic birds and wonderful parents.

 

I just alerted my DH to your review and I am sure that he is reading it right now. We will be on our way to Seattle next Sunday to begin our cruise.

[irvinejohn]

It was already running late and we did not make it back to Mendenhall Glacier until 4:45PM. We picked up our rental before 2PM. My brother had just left Mendenhall Glacier to walk to the local bus stop and we saw them. I dropped off my riders and went back to pick them up to taxi them to the bus stop. So at least I saved them the long walk back there. My brother said it was very crowded earlier with all the tour buses, so our plan to save Mendenhall Glacier for last worked out well.

 

My brother’s family who took the bus left the Ruby about the same time as we did, shopped, and returned shortly before we did. The drawback with the local bus is that it is a local bus and stopped everywhere such as the airport. It took them about one hour to get to the bus stop and then you had to walk the final mile to get to the glacier. They didn’t do the hike to the Nugget Falls because they already had to walk far. I wonder if there is some agreement with the city and the tour operators which makes it harder to use local transportation to Mendenhall Glacier. You can save money to get Mendenhall Glacier on the local bus, but you need to account for the longer time it takes to get there.

 

We planned on hiking Nugget Falls Trail to get closer to the waterfall and glacier. My parents stayed behind and went to the visitor center. The rest of us walked at a quick pace along the trail. We crossed a few bridges and other smaller waterfalls. There was a large steam of visitors walking back as we went toward Nugget Falls.

 

There were only a few people left when we reached the base of the falls, so it was easy for us to take pictures of Nugget Falls and Mendenhall Glacier. Looking back, you could see that the visitor center also had a nice view, so it wasn’t necessary to do the hike to see the glacier. The blue in the glacier probably would have been more intense on a sunnier day, but it wasn’t raining either. I think it was 6:30PM when we arrived back at the visitor center. It was open until 7:30PM, but we wanted to make it back to the Ruby for dinner with our new dining assignment and proceeded back toward the cruise terminal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along Glacier Highway/Egan Drive, the skies opened up with rain. Fortunately we had already saw everything we wanted to see and with the rental, the rain wasn’t much of an issue. The rain lightened up to a sprinkle near the cruise terminal. I refilled the vehicle at the final gas station that was pointed out to us by Juneau Car Rentals, dropped off our passengers at the unloading zone, and returned the van. My BIL accompanied me again and we went straight to the Michelangelo Dining Room upon boarding the Ruby.

[irvinejohn]

Here is another picture of the rocky shore around the Shrine of St. Therese. It's a nice view of the channel with the distant snow covered mountains in the background.

 

 

We saw the whale farther out behind these rocks. It was still pretty close to shore though.

[irvinejohn]

Thanks. We have quite a few eagles around here and photographers are always posting pictures of eagles on Facebook on the Virginia Photographers page. Some of them are lucky enough to have eagles nesting in there back yards. They are beautiful and majestic birds and wonderful parents.

 

I just alerted my DH to your review and I am sure that he is reading it right now. We will be on our way to Seattle next Sunday to begin our cruise.

 

So nice! Have a fantastic voyage!

[kjoeb]

John Wayne is our closest airport but it is also the priciest. So Jet Blue out of Long Beach Airport turned out to be the best deal for us. Jet Blue had not yet introduced baggage fees yet, so it we didn’t have to worry about packing so efficiently, although we still aimed for about five days of clothes excluding the formal wear and cold weather gear. It was the first time for us on Jet Blue and the first time we have flown as a family since my sister-in-law’s wedding five years ago.

 

It was also the first time out of Long Beach. My brother-in-law dropped us off on his way to work and Long Beach Airport is surprisingly and refreshingly small. I avoid LAX if at all possible because of all the traffic getting there and all the lines at the airport. At LGB instead, from the drop off to the curb to check-in counter was maybe twenty feet. After literally exiting check-in, the waiting area before the security gate is an outside covered corridor. We didn’t know what to expect at the gate but it turned out a modern terminal probably built for just Jet Blue, which was one of three airlines servicing Long Beach. The only thing unusual was the usage of old style open gangways/stairs to board both end of the plane.

 

During the flight the kids did jockey for the window seats, but the video monitor with live TV streams kept them entertained while we dozed after our typical last minute packing. Only my oldest son had earphones so he all the kids took turns. Jet Blue does sell earphones in case you really needed them.

 

I live about 10 minutes from john wayne airport. it just too easy to pass it by and go to long beach. Alaska air has been good to me. i'm glad to see that Irvine is visiting Alaska. 9 times for me. Irvine, ca ken I also enjoy glacier bay and hubbard glacier.

[Singinman]

Judy did indeed inform me of this review.

 

I've enjoyed reading it and viewing the pictures. Next Monday will begin two weeks of taking our own pictures. Every cruise brings up a discussion on how to deal with thousands of images. This year we are taking a new laptop which Dell calls a half and half (tablet & laptop). We also have lots of memory cards. I like to have my images backed up at the beginning thus the laptop and I have enough memory cards so that I might be able to get through the trip w/o reformatting any for new pictures. If we have to abandon ship, my card case goes in my pocket.

 

Seriously, your review is a pleasure and a help. We have a car reserved at Juneau car rental and at Avis in Anchorage. For those looking to save money, renting a car is a good option. We are not going to Skagway this trip or we would have another rental car reserved. The first time we went to Skagway, we took the bus tour to the Yukon. The second time we rented a car (for four people). Total cost for four people was $98 dollars, including gas. That is less than one bus ticket.

 

I'll be checking in regularly until the end.

 

Thanks