The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist!

[jenseib]

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I believe I had been going back and forth from deck 7 and our room taking pictures

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I loved seeing the waterfalls on the mountains.

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Needless to say, Juneau’s surrounding area is gorgeous!

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We got so far in and then turned around and backed the rest of the way in.

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[jenseib]

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Up next….This is not the way I would run things!

[jenseib]

As you can see, today was sunny and no signs of rain. It wasn’t very cold either really.

Juneau is one way in and one way out. Obviously the big ships can’t fit under that bridge.

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Juneau’s port area isn’t as cute and quaint as Ketchikan’s but it still had a lot to see.

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And this is what was in store for us today.

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[jenseib]

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We decided to go to the buffet this morning for a nice breakfast. I think Skip went earlier and Claire and I went together.

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After breakfast we headed outside to watch the world go by.

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The Grand Princess has arrived!

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Our excursion today was a visit to Mendenhall Glacier and then whale watching…with a 100% guarantee of a whale sighting or you would receive $100 back. I believe it was stated that they have never had to give out the $100, so that was a good sign that we would be seeing a whale today!

When looking over excursions, Juneau actually had several that I wanted to do, but when it came down to it both whale watching and the glacier were 2 things I REALLY wanted to do. I debated it a bit over another one that really caught my fancy, which left at 1:30 and would take you out to Tracey Arm on a small boat and then you later meet up with the Jewel and get back on. I had read reviews of it and it sounds amazing. It was a bit more costly and I even looked if I could do both, but the timing wasn’t going to work. In the end I went with my gut feeling and went with my first choice.

I then had a few people tell me I shouldn’t have wasted my money on a whale excursion because I would see plenty from the ship. Now I had thought, well that might be true, but I bet it would be better on a boat that would stop near the whales and linger…..and thank goodness I didn’t listen to those people as we all know how many whales I have seen at this point….Last official count…a big fat ZERO!

Our tickets said to meet in the theatre at 7:30 AM. Now I had assumed this would be like DCL and you would all meet here and taken off the ship together as a group and then off to your excursion. Well that was a big mistake.

Most excursions were meeting here and they would just call off the names of each at a certain time and tell you to get off the ship and find the person with the sign for your excursion. Had I known it worked this way I would’ve just gotten off the ship with Florentina.

So we waited a short time in the Stardust Theatre and they rattled off excursion names and we left with a larger group of people….and didn’t make it too far and were at a standstill. They couldn’t get the people off fast enough and we were stuck on the staircase for quite some time. Skip grumbled that if we had left out the other exit we could’ve walked right off and he was right…but we didn’t know that earlier. The line was so slow and once we got to the correct deck we then had to weave down a narrow hallway before getting to the gangway.

It was funny as there was a family group there and were obviously separated and they were hollering back and forth…carrying on a conversation. Skip was laughing and I swear he was about to join in.

“Uncle Mike! Freddy is with Uncle David already and they are off the ship”…”Great, can you call them and tell them we are on our way”. …”Sure thing, What did you have for breakfast today, we just went to the buffet”. …”We went to Moderno and it was really nice, they sure do take care of you there”.

We were just totally cracking up. Half the ship was filled in on what the family had been doing for the past 24 hours.

Finally we made it off the ship. You can see the 2nd gangway off in the distance in this next picture and as you can see no one is on it.

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We now knew that if any other excursion called for us to meet anywhere on the ship we were just going to get off on our own instead. It just wasn’t run very well in my opinion. I must say I like the way Disney does it better. They walk you right through till you are safely in the hands of the tour operator.

[jenseib]

We then headed towards all the buses.

 

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We were at the furthest pier in Juneau and unlike Ketchikan there really isn’t anything very close to the dock. Yes you can walk to things but it is a little ways away. I have been told there is even a shuttle bus running back and forth, though we never had a chance to use it today.

 

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A look back up at the Jewel and her life boats.

 

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A plane!!!!!

 

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[jenseib]

The Mount Roberts Tramway.

 

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We were directed to our bus and found some seats. I don’t remember out bus drivers name, but he was really a nice young guy…and pretty cute too. He said he would be taking us to each of our destinations today and he also liked to give info on Juneau as he drove along.

 

Soon we were on our way.

 

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The dock area itself is a bit more industrial looking.

 

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There goes the tram!

 

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About here is where the tourist area starts. Not too far from some ships, but from ours it would be a good 10-20 minute walk.

 

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[jenseib]

Our driver talked most of the way, pointing out things and giving us info on the city.

 

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Up next…..Mendenhall Glacier!

[jenseib]

As we drove along our driver talked about the area and how he liked his job (I think this was his first season doing this if I remember right) and he was really interested in the history and the area and knew the names of different mountains and told us stories about the areas we passed.

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It wasn’t long and we were out of the town area and it was very pretty.

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Selfie time.

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And then all of a sudden I saw it from afar as we drove by!

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Our guy parked up, told us which bus to come back to and how long we had there, which was basically an hour.

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It was just so stunning to see. And we were told today was an exceptionally clear day too.

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There is a trail that takes you to this waterfall. I believe it’s about a mile away with an estimated 20 minute walk each way.

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We hit the bathrooms and looked around the area from the parking lot at first.

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We then started down towards a trail.

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Real Live Icebergs!!!

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[jenseib]

Skip asked if we wanted to walk to the waterfall, but we only had about 45 minutes left and I knew our walk would be slow because of his bad hips…and I didn’t want to be the one blamed when he was hurting later, so I told him we better pass on it.

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A look back at the visitor’s center.

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We took a shorter trail. Stop for a picture please!

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Look at that gorgeous sky!!!

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Can you see the people at the waterfall?

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We got to the lookout area and just enjoyed the scenery. We were all wowed! A family was trying to get a picture and I asked if they wanted me to take it so they all could be in and they were thankful. They then took a picture of us too.

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It was just so amazing there. The beauty was overwhelming.

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I was obsessed with the icebergs.

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Airplane!

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Sadly this glacier is receding back at a fairly fast pace. At one time it came out to the waterfall.

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Pose for me again!

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And we handed off the camera to Claire…scary I know….and she took about 15 of us.

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We then decided to head back to the visitors center and check it out.

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As you can see, Skip took off his coat. It was getting pretty warm.

 

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[jenseib]

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We headed up inside the visitor’s center taking the elevator up. Claire questioned why till I gave her the choice of all the stairs. LOL.

The views were fantastic in here too.

I’ve always been one who thought some of the most beautiful places in the world are where the palm trees, blue oceans and sandy beaches are….This ranks right up there. I could spend hours just enjoying the scenery and taking pictures.

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We wandered around looking at the displays.

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We also looked through several of the telescopes.

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And then we hit the bathrooms one more time and headed off to the bus.

Luckily everyone followed the rules and we got back on the road right away. Next we were going to the docks to go whale watching….yippie!

Up next……There is only a 10% chance you will see an Orca.

[jenseib]

We headed off to Auke Bay where we would catch the boat to take us out whale watching.

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Our driver told us about how he had been hiking a certain mountain recently and while he was there he ran into a Timber Wolf. He said it was really such a cool thing to see. Sounds a little scary though too.

Before long we were at our next destination.

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We made our way off the bus and onto the boat.

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The lower half of the boat has seats and is enclosed but it has windows all around it. The upper deck is outdoors and we are allowed to go up and down as much as we want.

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We soon started to take off.

This boat is from the Cayman Islands….that had a long trek here.

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Our Captain was Pete I believe. He told us today we were actually going out further than the normal area they go to as there has been reports of exciting activity. He said if we saw whales along the way he would most likely not stop as where we were going had more promising surprises for us. He said if by the time we got there it was done then we would back track to the other whales. Ok, then, this sounded exciting.

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[jenseib]

Sammy was our guide for this. She was a college student working here for the summer. I am not sure what her major is, but she knew A LOT about whales, which makes me think this is her field. The Captain even said he learns stuff from her every day.

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She started out by tell us safety rules and life jacket locations. She told us how cold the water is, so you really don’t want to go for a swim, but if you did fall in to try and stay calm. If you see someone fall in to yell and point your finger at them and never look away so that they would be able to pull the boat to them for a rescue. She said it’s amazing how fast you can lose sight of a person if you look away.

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She told us how this was an extremely clear day and this is not what it usually looks like here. She said normally you never see the tops of the mountains as there is usually a mist of fog. We saw the tops of the mountains pretty much all day long. Wow!

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Sammy talked about the whales we would be seeing today…..Humbacks. She said many people come on this tour expecting to see orcas but this is not an area where orcas typically hang out. She said there is a 10% chance of seeing an orca on this tour, so don’t get your hopes up. Darn….but I actually knew that coming in.

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Sammy pointed out different mountain ranges and we had a map that kind of helped us get our bearings.

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The also offered free hot chocolate (and coffee too I believe) and some donut holes to snack on. Skip went up and got some …..well when he came back he wasn’t really sharing. He got cocoa for Claire but wasn’t going to share the donut holes and she had a few tears (lack of sleep was catching up to her) and he gave over a few, but none for me. So I got up and got myself some …and by then there were literally only a couple of donut holes left and then he was stunned I didn’t bring more back for him. There were a few tense moments over these stupid donuts….but life goes on.

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And who can get too mad with a view like this.

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With this tour they really respect the whales and she told us that they only approach the whales from the side as to not scare them and also will only get so close to them. I understand how that is important. However I saw several of the smaller boats on this tour get pretty darn close and that would be pretty cool….but I will respect the whales.

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Sammy talked the whole time. She had kind of a dry sense of humor as she would spew out all this info and then throw in a joke in a serious tone and see if we were listening and I would look up at her each time…thinking that can’t be right…and sure enough she would crack a smile.

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Coming up next is Point Retreat Light. I took about 4 million pictures and also headed upstairs for a few.

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Point Retreat Light provides aid in navigation through the Lynn Canal.

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