Trippingpara's 'Legend'ary Alaskan Cruise Photographic Review

[trippingpara]

23 minutes ago, jc4me said:

Thank you so much!  That sounds like a reasonable price.  Will have to see if our group is interested.  Your review has certainly got me excited for our trip in May.  Based upon your review, we have rented a Jeep in Skagway to do our own thing.

 

That's awesome!  Glad my review has been helpful.  You will so not regret renting the Jeep in Skagway.  That drive is spectacular!!  Just be prepared to stop like every 5 minutes to stare in wonder. 

[trippingpara]

5 minutes ago, penguin85 said:

following

 

Welcome to the party Penguin85!  Thanks for joining us.

[trippingpara]

 

 

Ketchikan (cont.)

 

From the Liquid Rain Gauge, we made a beeline for the picturesque Creek Street. 

 

 

 

 

Of course, once we were there, we had to go check out Dolly’s House (the last working brothel in Ketchikan).  It was surprisingly small.  Neat, but I felt it was a bit overpriced since it was so small.  A couple small rooms and then you were outside.  I expected a bit more for $10 per person.  We then continued walking up Creek Street (saw some harbor seals frolicking in the small, protected harbor inlet there). 

 

 

 

At the end of Creek Street is the Married Man’s Trail which we then took to Park Ave and turned right to begin our trek towards the City Park and Deer Mountain Hatchery.

 

 

 

A lone salmon leaps out of the water trying to get up stream to spawn in Ketchikan Creek.

 

 

We stopped at the Harris Street Bridge to watch the salmon.  It took us a second to realize that the bottom of the shallow Ketchikan Creek was not black but a light brown.  All of the black that we saw were salmon resting.  You could have walked right across the wide creek and never touch water, they were so thick in there.  It was incredible to see so many salmon just sitting there resting for their upstream battle.  You didn’t need a fishing rod to catch them, just a simple net would have grabbed hundreds of them in a single swipe.

 

 

Yep, all that black is salmon!  You can see the natural bottom of the creek at the far edge of the creek near the opposite bank.  That's a lot of salmon!!

 

 

After watching them for a while, we continued on to the Deer Mountain Hatchery where they breed all different types of salmon to ensure their survival.  Unfortunately, I forgot that today was the Sunday before Labor Day and they were closed for the holiday.  Right next to the hatchery is City Park and the Totem Heritage Center.  We stopped in both and checked them out.  The Totem Heritage Center was small but neat.  It was cool to see real totem poles up close and personal.

 

 

 

We spent about an half an hour in the Heritage Center before heading back the way we came to Creek Street.  As we strolled back into the main port area, we stopped at Annabelle’s for dinner.  I had read in a couple different reviews recommending the place.  They were not wrong!!!  At first glance, I thought they seemed way overpriced.  But the service was great and once we got the food, I retracted my earlier thoughts.  I had a halibut sandwich with clam chowder and Lady Trip had a chowder sampler which included the clam chowder, seafood chowder and their salmon chowder.  Holy crap that salmon chowder was incredible!!!!  We also both had the Alaskan beer flight paddle which included their amber, APA, white and IPA beers.  Quite delicious!!

 

We finished off our meal there with their peanut butter pie with coffee.  Man, we needed a wheel barrel to push us back to the ship!  Our waiter gave me a to-go cup of coffee as we headed out the door.  Very thoughtful and much appreciated.  As we strolled back to the ship, we hopped into a couple shops for some souvenirs (since this was our last stop in Alaska).

 

 

Up next:  Sunset...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trippingpara]

Ketchikan (cont.)

 

Once we were back on the ship, we just chilled and I enjoyed a nice cigar on Deck 10 and watched the sun set.  B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L !!  Before we knew it, we were casting off and heading back out to sea.  Damn Father Time!  That guy needs to take a serious break and ease off this time marching on thing he's got going on!!

 

Well, that was about it for today.  Until next time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up: Sea Day...

 

[kristinp36]

On 11/6/2018 at 4:12 AM, trippingpara said:

Ketchikan (cont.)

Standing on that pontoon in the middle of that beautiful inlet was one of the most peaceful moments of my life.  Wildlife was every where.  Bears strolling along the shoreline, eagles soaring overhead, harbor seals and sea lions cruising alongside us and salmon jumping all over the place.  The six of us just stood on the pontoons in awe.

 

Michelle gave us binoculars to see the animals even better.  There was a cabin near the edge of the water.  We watched a woman come outside and walk over to the water.  Apparently a salmon had jumped out of the water near her, so she went over and grabbed it.  At that moment, a large black bear came out of the woods right behind her.

 

Captivated, we all stood there terrified that we were about to see the latest installment of "When Animals Attack".  The elderly lady turned around and raised the giant salmon high about her head and started walking towards the bear in a threatening manner.  The bear smartly ran away along the shore line.  He (or she) clearly did not want to mess with this sassy lady!  We were dumbfounded.  I don't think any of us city slickers are cut out for living in the wilderness of Alaska!

 

There is no way that you would find me walking outside in bear country without a bazooka and here was this older lady taking on a bear with a salmon!  I bet ya, she can cut down the mightiest tree in the forest...with a herring!!  Okay, extra credit goes to those that actually understood that reference.  Again, you young'uns can Google it - that movie is hysterical.  If you don't understand it or don't think it's funny, you clearly have not had enough to drink then!

 

Eventually, Michelle stuck her head out the window and told us it was time to get back on board.  The group of 4 with us were on the Celebrity Solstice which was departing at 3 pm so we needed to be back by 2:30 pm for them.  Michelle had me climb into the co-pilot’s seat which was an act of contortionism that would make any circus performer proud!  It was cool sitting up there and the views were even better.  She circled the Ketchikan harbor so both sides of the plane could see the ships before she dropped the nose down and landed right next to a luxury yacht.  Her landing was butter smooth!

 

After docking, Michelle took a bunch of pics of us, gave us a DVD of our flight and a map showing where we had flown.  I have to say, that time on the pontoon made the entire trip.  I vaguely can recall anything from the flight-seeing part of the tour, but the landing and hanging out in the middle of that inlet was pure paradise!  If you get to come to Ketchikan, I cannot recommend Michelle and Island Wings enough!!

 

Once we were all finished at the terminal, they loaded us back up into the van and dropped us back off in front of the rain gauge again.  We really didn’t have anything else planned for the day.  We had 6 hours to just chill and roam around the 4^th largest city in Alaska.

 

Here are some shots of coming back into Ketchikan and landing in the harbor.

 

 

 

We toured with Michelle back in 2015.....my favorite excursion by far

Edited November 12, 2018 by kristinp36

[Anyislandwilldo]

Tripped across your review...ha-ha....  Love your writing style and your pictures are outstanding.  I can't imagine what they would look like after your finish your studies!  Thanks for sharing!.

[trippingpara]

On 11/18/2018 at 8:13 AM, Anyislandwilldo said:

Tripped across your review...ha-ha....  Love your writing style and your pictures are outstanding.  I can't imagine what they would look like after your finish your studies!  Thanks for sharing!.

 

Thank you so much!!  Glad you "tripped" across my review!

[trippingpara]

Monday, September 3^rd 

Sea Day, somewhere in the North Pacific

 

 

I will never get sick of waking up to this view!

 

Today was a pretty uneventful day.  Except that I finally won a Stick on a Ship and became instantly recognizable whenever I went for the rest of the cruise.  I even had a 10-year boy from India congratulate me and told me he will always remember me.  Great, just flippin’ great!!

 

Well, the day started out slow as we woke up in a lazy mood, a perfect mood for a sea day.  We went to breakfast in the MDR, chatted with a few people including a couple that lives nearby us in Taunton, Massachusetts.  I then went back to the room and downloaded my photos onto my Surface Book Pro while Lady Trip went down to the casino to try her luck.  I generally have no luck in a casino so I tend to steer well clear of them.A sampling of the towel animals across the Lido Deck.

 

Well, Lady Trip apparently didn’t have too much luck either as she ended up about $500 down.  Not a good day at the casino!  I find it easier to just hand my money straight off to Carnival.  It’s much simpler that way.  Most of the day went by without us doing too much.  A pretty, hazy, lazy day.  We met up again with our friends from Texas (Mr. and Mrs. Aggie) and chatted with them for a while.  We slipped away briefly to grab a quick bite to eat.  They were still sitting out on the pool deck on Lido when we returned, so we decided to join them.

 

Bad idea!! 

 

 

They were just ramping up for the Hairy Chest contest.  Like the casino, the Hairy Chest Contest is something I generally steer well clear of.  Not because I find it boorish, juvenile or even stupid.  I avoid it mainly because Lady Trip has a nasty habit of bus-chucking me at the worst possible moment.  I thought I was safe this time because, well, basically I growled at her.  That usually warns her off.

 

Unfortunately, my growls and bared teeth had no effect whatsoever on our Aggie friends.  I eventually ended up being the 6^th and final contestant for the Hairy Chest contest.  If you’ve never seen the Hairy Chest contest, you have either been living under a rock or have never cruised before.  It is a tried and true method to get men to act like complete imbeciles.  Thankfully, when it comes to acting like a juvenile delinquent and a complete fool, I have no equals!

 

Thank the ever-loving Lord above that Lady Trip was too busy laughing to actually stop and think to record the event.  This is a woman that will record herself putting lipstick on, yet she didn't stop to think "Hey, my husband is dancing around like he is having an epileptic seizure in front of thousands of people and they are all cheering him on.  I might want to record this!"

 

Thank God for small miracles!  Well, if she had recorded it, she would have captured a lot of booty shaking, some butt rubbing, a couple Austin Powers moves and well...generally a middle-aged man making a complete arse out of himself.  To everyone's enjoyment!

 

Well, the competition was fierce and we were slowly whittled down from 6 contestants to 4 and then finally down to 2.  When the final voting took place, there wasn’t much choice.  It was pretty clear that I was the winner.  My competitor fought a fierce campaign and was very gracious and a true competitor.  Thankfully, he too won a bottle of champagne and a ship on a stick.  He deserved it.  Mainly because he made as much of a fool of himself as I did!  Ahh men.  We truly can be a bunch of buffoons!

 

I tried to spend the rest of the day in hiding as everywhere I went people were congratulating me and calling me “Donna”, my alter ego during the contest.  Don’t ask.  I really don’t want to relive that memory.  We met back up with our Aggie friends as Lady Aggie was signed up for karoke at 4 pm in the Red Frog Pub, so we went for moral and alcoholic support.  She sang “Sweet Caroline,” which as Red Sox fans, is a one of our favorite songs.

 

We closed down karoke and we went our separate ways for dinner (they got all fancied up for the second formal night while we were in shorts, drinking and smoking cigars on Deck 10 – it was amazingly warm today).

The two bottles of champagne that we had won so far along with our very first Ship on a Stick!

Here I am popping the cork on one of our bottles of champagne on our balcony.

After dinner, we met back up with the Aggies for some Gin Rummy at the Alchemy Bar.  Due to their bus-chucking me into the Hairy Chest contest, they owed me some drinks there, so it was all good.  That was until Lady Trip beat the living snot out of me at rummy.  And I don’t mean she simply beat me, I’m talking about a good ol’ fashion whipping like a redheaded step child kind of beating!

 

You know, I have no idea where that say came from.  I personally have no idea why a redheaded stepchild should be beaten any worse than any other child.  Oh wait, that was probably politically incorrect too, wasn’t it?  I should probably be saying that no child should be beaten, redheaded or not.  Or stepchild or not.  Don’t beat children people, it’s not nice.

 

Where was I?  Oh yeah, getting my backend beaten like a rented mule.  What?  That’s politically incorrect too?  Who did I piss off now?  Anyways, I think you’re getting the picture.  It wasn’t pretty at all.  Thankfully, Lady Trip was pretty worn out from the butt whipping that she gave me, so she was nice and politely bowed up from another game by claiming that she was tired.  Actually, I think she was afraid that I wouldn’t like her back into the room if she didn’t get there before me!  Of course, I wouldn’t do that…well…maybe…that was a pretty nasty beating she gave me.  But seriously I would never do that (if you could see me, you would notice that I am shaking my head yes, as I am typing out “no, I would not do that”).

 

Well, we said our goodbyes, and shuffled off back to our room.  For the record, I did let her back into the room and I actually even let her sleep in our bed.  I was going to make her sleep on the balcony but she actually enjoys that so I figured it was probably much more of a punishment to make her sleep next to me than it was to sleep on the balcony!  The funny thing is, Lady Trip got a heck of a scare when she walked into our bedroom and our steward and created a little stuffed man for her in our bed.  She jumped a mile in the air.  Quite funny! 

Until next time…

 

Coming up next: Victoria and a ton of whales!

 

[pghsteelerfan]

First off, congrats and a big high five to Lady Trip for "bus chucking" you into the men's hairy chest contest!!!  LOL!!!  That brought back vivid memories of our sea day on Liberty cruise in 2015 in which my husband was bus chucked into the same event, with help (unknown to me a the time) from a couple other CC members who we got to know on our Liberty cruise and still remain friends with.  My hubby is so low key and does not like attention drawn to him, let alone being a center of attention in such an event.  Unfortunately for my hubby, it was all caught on video!!!  The wife of one of our friends who was a willing participant had a lounger by the pool and right in front of where the contest was held and she got the whole thing on video.  They gladly shared that video with me after the cruise, so I have it.  🤣  Hubby gets to work from home today, so he's sitting here with his laptop while I'm here with side splitting laughter and he looks over wondering what the heck I'm laughing at.  I told him "you don't want to know".  But then again, maybe I should tell him so he knows he isn't the only guy "bus chucked" into that event.  He came in 3rd out of 7, so no ship on a stick or champagne for him, but we were both glad he was eliminated at that point so he didn't have to participate in the final showdown.  Even though he wasn't the winner, he was still recognized around the ship and even while in Barbados from a few others from our ship.  I did get a few growls and bared teeth on each of those occasions.  Oh, love the towel person!!!  Thanks for the laughs and Happy Thanksgiving to you!!!

 

 

[bound4dbeach]

On 10/7/2018 at 10:19 AM, trippingpara said:

The Uncruise 36 passenger ultra luxury vessel, Safari Explorer sails close to the edge of the Lampugh Glacier towing a large RIB boat for even closer viewing opportunities. These passengers even get the opportunity to kayak up to the glaciers!

...  the picture of this is Phnominal- I am curious, are you using a polarizing filter or anything else to get these colors?   Are you tweaking the colors in post production, or are these the ACTUAL colors?    I had friends tell me that the colors of the glaciers are incredible & pictures can't really capture it.      

 

I'm headed to Alaska on a cruise in Sept and want to be ready.     When you are taking these pics on-board, are you using a tripod/monopod?    I just got a 70-300  lens- hopefully that will cover what I need.   It should for what I paid!

[trippingpara]

16 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

First off, congrats and a big high five to Lady Trip for "bus chucking" you into the men's hairy chest contest!!!  LOL!!!  That brought back vivid memories of our sea day on Liberty cruise in 2015 in which my husband was bus chucked into the same event, with help (unknown to me a the time) from a couple other CC members who we got to know on our Liberty cruise and still remain friends with.  My hubby is so low key and does not like attention drawn to him, let alone being a center of attention in such an event.  Unfortunately for my hubby, it was all caught on video!!!  The wife of one of our friends who was a willing participant had a lounger by the pool and right in front of where the contest was held and she got the whole thing on video.  They gladly shared that video with me after the cruise, so I have it.  🤣  Hubby gets to work from home today, so he's sitting here with his laptop while I'm here with side splitting laughter and he looks over wondering what the heck I'm laughing at.  I told him "you don't want to know".  But then again, maybe I should tell him so he knows he isn't the only guy "bus chucked" into that event.  He came in 3rd out of 7, so no ship on a stick or champagne for him, but we were both glad he was eliminated at that point so he didn't have to participate in the final showdown.  Even though he wasn't the winner, he was still recognized around the ship and even while in Barbados from a few others from our ship.  I did get a few growls and bared teeth on each of those occasions.  Oh, love the towel person!!!  Thanks for the laughs and Happy Thanksgiving to you!!!

 

 

Sounds like your hubby and I need to set up our own support group for 'Bus Chucked Husbands Anonymous'.  LOL, Oh crap!  Lady Trip just walked by, saw your name and said "Ooh I like her!  Go Steelers!" ... Sigh.  I can't win.  I. Just. Can't. Win!

[trippingpara]

11 hours ago, bound4dbeach said:

...  the picture of this is Phnominal- I am curious, are you using a polarizing filter or anything else to get these colors?   Are you tweaking the colors in post production, or are these the ACTUAL colors?    I had friends tell me that the colors of the glaciers are incredible & pictures can't really capture it.      

 

I'm headed to Alaska on a cruise in Sept and want to be ready.     When you are taking these pics on-board, are you using a tripod/monopod?    I just got a 70-300  lens- hopefully that will cover what I need.   It should for what I paid!

 

Hi bound4dbeach,

No, I did not use a polarizing filter.  I only use those when there are extremely sunny, blue skies and I want to capture that vibrate blue of the sky (i.e., used heavily on Caribbean cruises!).  However in Alaska, it was way too overcast for a polarizing filter to be of any real benefit.  Those are the ACTUAL colors of the glaciers.  I always shoot in RAW format which will capture all of the colors that are present (and even colors that our eyes are not seeing well).  In post processing, you can then bring those colors out.  That is what I did here.  If your camera is set to shoot in jpeg format, you will not be able to capture those colors.  So to answer your question, there is some post processing done (mainly to brighten the boat to standout more) but those are the actual colors of the glacier.  Here, the glacier had just calved so more of the vibrate blue is visible.

 

I did bring a tripod with a detachable leg for a monopod but rarely ended up using it.  I was moving around too much and got stick of constantly adjusting and moving the tripod.  It was easier to handhold the lens and use the deck railing for support.  I learned in the Marine Corps various techniques to support my rifle in the field for long range shooting.  The exact same support styles they use translate over to a camera, especially when using larger lens like the 70-300mm.  I use my camera strap in the same manner that a sniper uses the rifle sling and then use whatever support is around me (deck railings, trees, etc.,) and follow the same breathing techniques and am able to capture long range photos that look like a tripod was used.  Which means my tripod collects a lot of dust!

 

Also keep in mind, if you are going to be up on the top decks taking photos, it will be VERY crowded so a tripod maybe problematic to set up and move around.  I stayed on our balcony the whole time since we had a wraparound aft and were able to see both sides.  If you have a balcony on either the port or starboard side and intend to stay there, then a tripod will work great as you will not need to move it around much.  I hope this helps!!

 

Cheers!

[bound4dbeach]

Thank you for the info- I was afraid you were going to say RAW... I really need to look into it more.  I just take so many pictures that it is just daunting thinking about how much time I will need to spend after the trip in post processing.     I know that RAW saves all the info, so it does make sense.

 

your pictures are truly amazing and what I aspire to be able to take!

 

thank you again for your response.

 

happy thanksgiving!

[trippingpara]

2 hours ago, bound4dbeach said:

Thank you for the info- I was afraid you were going to say RAW... I really need to look into it more.  I just take so many pictures that it is just daunting thinking about how much time I will need to spend after the trip in post processing.     I know that RAW saves all the info, so it does make sense.

 

your pictures are truly amazing and what I aspire to be able to take!

 

thank you again for your response.

 

happy thanksgiving!

 

Hi bound4dbeach,

 

Thank you for the compliments, you are too kind!  RAW is really the only way to go if you want to capture truly good photographs.  Not only do jpegs not capture everything well, they are also compressed files so you are losing quality there as well.  Converting RAW files over to jpeg really does not take a lot of time.  I take several thousand photos on every trip and several hundred in just a simple portrait session.  Time is money so I need to be quick in my editing or I'm losing money.  I use software like Adobe Bridge to help me select what photos I actually want to edit (vs. the ones that are okay but not really worth spending a lot of time on).  So out of several thousand, I might only edit a couple hundred.  You can also do what is called "batches" where you can edit and convert photos in mass.  I do this to all photos that were taken at the same time/place so they all have the same "feel" to them.  It's a huge time saver too.  I hope you post some of your photos on your cruise, I would love to see them!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

[trippingpara]

Tuesday, September 4^th   

Victoria, British Columbia

 

 

Our last port of call.  Unfortunately, this was the port that I was looking forward to the least.  I mean no offence to Victoria as it looks like quite a beautiful city, but for the life of me, I could not find a tour that interested me.  Everything I could find was either whale watching or a brief tour of the city with a drop off at Buchart Gardens.  I wanted to see more of the city than just Buchart Gardens and I don’t mean a drive by in a giant bus.  I’m all about experiences and driving by and gawking out the window isn’t an experience to me.  But hey, I’m weird like that.

 

As for the whale watching, I live in New England and whale watching is all around me.  I’ve been on hundreds of whale watching tours and I’ve seen a gazillion whales spitting a bunch of water and then wagging their cute little tails in the air.  Been there, done that.

Notice the sun halo circling the photo.

 

We slowly got ready as I wasn’t in much of mood to rush.  We ate breakfast and finally got off the boat about 40 minutes after they opened the pier.  Okay, for me, that seemed like eternity.  I’m normally one, if not THE first one off the boat as soon as they give the go ahead.  Anyways, we talked about looking at the tours being offered at the visitor center at the port but ultimately decided to continue with our original plans which was to walk around downtown Victoria and then catch a bus up to Buchart Gardens in the late afternoon, tour it in daylight and then watch the lights come on as dusk rolled around and then catch the bus back.  Nothing too exciting but it should be interested and very pretty.

 

As we walked into downtown, we stopped at the Fisherman’s Wharf.  Now that place was cool!  I love houseboats and there were some beautiful ones there.  And some really cool and funky restaurants too. 

 

 

 

 

We saw several whale tour places and several of them had signs with orcas on them.  Now I really wanted to see orcas but everything I read said that they would probably not be there except maybe a lone resident one, if you were lucky.

 

I decided to stop by at one of the booths to see what they were saw on their morning tour.  The friendly attended looked up at me and said, “mostly humpbacks and orcas,” with a smile. 

 

“You had me at orcas,” was my response.  Lady Trip just laughed and nodded her head.  Several of our friends had asked us before we left to get them photos of orcas.  Guess our plans are changing!  We signed up, paid the lovely lady, got our boarding passes and agreed to be back at the pier in 2 hours.  We decided to finish our walk into downtown to see where the bus station was and to verify the schedule.  We had just found out that the bus schedule had changed to the fall schedule this morning, so I was a bit nervous on its frequency.  We never were able to find the bus terminal (it wasn’t where the helpful volunteer at the visitor center told us was).  But we did find a different bus tour terminal and looked up the new schedule and yep, it wasn’t going to work out.  There were now less stops and more infrequent.  There would be a very high chance of missing our ship coming back.  Nope, not risking it.

 

 

 

 

 

We made the hard call and decided to drop the gardens from our plans for the day.  When life hands you a bunch of lemons, you smash the little peckers and mix them with some vodka and get the party going!  At least that what’s my grandma always told me!  We headed back to Fisherman’s Wharf (which was a lot further away than I expected it to be), and grabbed some halibut and salmon burgers before we checked in for our tour.

 

To be continued...

 

 

[trippingpara]

Victoria (Cont.)

 

We climbed onto a 60 ft catamaran with 48 of our closest friends and promptly grabbed a seat front and center out on the bow.  Yep, I knew that I was going to freeze but I didn’t care.  I wanted to see me some orcas and if I had to chuck a few kids overboard to see them, I was fully prepared to do so.  After a brief orientation, we headed out.  They had asked us if anyone needed to be back right on time (it was a 3.5 hour tour so we were scheduled to be back by 5:30 pm).  Almost everyone on board (minus a couple) were from Carnival so we were all like “as long as we’re back by 9:30 pm, we’re cool!”

 

 

 

And we were off.  Like a rocket!  Once we cleared the main harbor, Captain Rod kicked it into overdrive and floored it.  We headed west and then north up the strait on the western end of Vancouver Island.  We rocketed on for quite a while before the captain suddenly slammed on the brakes (actually boats don’t have brakes, he just cut the engine – useless piece of info #47).  We had just ran into a flock, gaggle, pod, herd or whatever you call a large group of Dall Porpoises.  These guys are very rare to find.  They’re fast and they tend to get bored quickly so at best you get a fleeting glimpse of them.

 

A Dall Porpoise breaches right by our boat.

 

Nope, they hung out and played a while with us.  The captain would spin the boat at high speed in a tight circle and then kill the engine and we watched the porpoises play in the large wake that circled around us.  As they really started to play, he floored it again and a couple of them started to chase us and play in our bow wake.  It was soooo cool.

 

Up next:  The Herd...

 

[trippingpara]

Victoria (Cont.)...

 

But, we finally had to move on.  We continued our northernly course again and ran into a few more humpbacks.  The captain came on a few minutes later and said that they were reports of a massive number of humpback sighted just a bit further north.  And just like that, we were off again.  About 20 minutes later, we found them.  And the reports were accurate!  One of the naturalists onboard was new to the ship and had just come back from a 2-month long research mission counting humpback whales further north.

 

She was so excited seeing so many at a single time, she just ran back and forth from side to side giggling like a little kid.  It was sooo damn cute to see an adult so excited over it.  I have to say, that within minutes, I completely forgot everything about me not being interested in seeing humpback whales.  I was dumbfounded.  They estimated that there were over 90 whales in our immediate vicinity.  They were everywhere.  They dropped a microphone into the water so they could record their calls.

 

The captain killed the engine and we just drifted surrounded by such beautiful creatures and their explosive spouts coupled with their incredible bugling calls and hypnotic cries.  I looked over at Lady Trip and she was standing there with tears streaming down her cheek.  And she was not alone.  I looked around the bow and several dozen people were standing there with tears in their eyes watching Mother Nature and her gifts to us at work.  I had to admit that I needed to take a few minutes, put my camera down and just stared out at all of them.  Some were so close that it felt like you could touch them.  There was no crowding on the boat like normal tours with everyone vying for that best vantage point to see them.  There was no need to.  Stand anywhere on the boat and you had a fabulous view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up:  Orcas, Sea Lions, Otters, oh my!

[trippingpara]

Victoria (Cont.)...

 

 

All 3 of the naturalists were going crazy.  The head naturalist who had been doing this for 13 years said he had only seen it like this about 5 times before but never with this many.  It was by far the most he had ever seen at once.  As if this wasn’t enough, the captain broke in with a sudden shout…”Orcas!  Port bow!”

 

I looked up (I just happened to be standing at the very tip of the port bow).  A pair of orcas leapt out of the water 100 yards ahead of me.  They were unmistakable.  I had seen a lot of orcas when living in San Diego at Sea World.  I fell in love with them there but it always bothered me seeing their massive dorsal fins bent in half (in captivity, orcas’ dorsal fin hangs limply at the top not erect like they do in the wild).

 

 

 

These dorsal fins were standing tall and proud!  John Holmes would have been proud of these guys.  One of the naturalists shouted out that it was a male juvenile orca with his dad.  Papa was out teaching his boy how to hunt.  It was fascinating to watch.  They saw something as they suddenly turned on a dime and dove down.  With them preoccupied, we decided to slowly start heading back home.  It was tough trying to move the boat with all of the whales around us.  By law, the captain cannot operate the engine when he is within a certain distance of a whale.  Well, they were everywhere, near and far.

 

Suddenly the orcas reappeared.  I was in heaven.  A pair of orcas playing and hunting around close to a hundred humpbacks is such a rare sight that you could do this for years without ever seeing and experiencing what we were.  By the way, before anyone freaks out, the orcas were not hunting the humpbacks.   That would be like a gerbil (a rather nasty one grant it, but still a gerbil) trying to hunt a silverback gorilla.  It would not work out very well for the gerbil!!  Same thing goes for the orca.  It is just no match for a humpback.  In fact, there have been many recordings of humpbacks protecting dolphins and seals from orcas by running interference and occasionally swatting their massive tail to keep orcas away.

 

A proud dad teaching his son how to hunt

 

They are such amazing animals!!  The captain announced that it was 5:15 pm and we were scheduled to be back by 5:30 pm and we were over 1 ½ hours away from port.  I think we were going to be a bit late.  The captain was finally able to break us out of the massive field of whales and once again, he was able to put the pedal to the metal and rocket us back to port. 

 

Actually, just outside Victoria, he slowed down and stopped right next to a gorgeous old lighthouse sitting on a pile of rocks out where the Victoria Harbor meets the strait.  One set of rocks were covered in Steller Sea Lions while the actual lighthouse island was covered in California Sea Lions.  There was also a lone sea otter just chilling out watching the circus that are sea lions around him.

 

 

 

Stellar Sea Lions

 

California Sea Lions

 

Otter just chillin'

 

Up next: Touring Victoria...

 

[SenatorsFan]

What a stellar set of photos these are! 😎 I'm so glad you got to see all these magnificent creatures.

Heather

[2Shoes2Go]

Sorry if this a dumb question, but I’m so curious. What are those hoopy-looking structures around the animals? We were on the same cruise and I remember seeing those “hoops” in other places, on the voyage. Please tell me what they are.

Beautiful pictures! Thank you!

[trippingpara]

18 hours ago, SenatorsFan said:

What a stellar set of photos these are! 😎 I'm so glad you got to see all these magnificent creatures.

Heather

 

Hi Heather, thank you so much!  It was truly and honor and a wonderful experience to be able to see such wonderful animals!

[trippingpara]

16 hours ago, 2Shoes2Go said:

Sorry if this a dumb question, but I’m so curious. What are those hoopy-looking structures around the animals? We were on the same cruise and I remember seeing those “hoops” in other places, on the voyage. Please tell me what they are.

Beautiful pictures! Thank you!

 

Hi 2Shoes2Go,

If you're referring to those hoopy-looking things in the water, I believe that those are stalks from giant kelp beds.  I saw a lot of them when I lived in San Diego.  They float to the surface once they die off and break away from the sea floor.

[2Shoes2Go]

Fascinating! Thank you!

[trippingpara]

Victoria (Cont.)...

 

We hung out at the rocks for about another 15 minutes before the captain rocketed us back home.  We finally arrived back to the Fisherman’s Wharf and tied the boat up.  The 3.5 hour tour that we paid for had turned into a little over a 5 hour tour.  That was an experience that I will never forget and this was one time that I have to admit, even the world’s greatest photograph would not do it justice.  That was simply an experience that one just needed to go through to fully understand it.  Even now, a dumb Neanderthal Jarhead like me has misty eyes just reliving that tour.

 

As we got off the boat, we realized that we still had a couple more hours to explore, so we headed out across downtown Victoria.

 

Parliament Building

 

Fairmont Empress

 

I had heard about Fan Tan Alley and really wanted to see the narrowest street in North America.  Okay, weird stuff like that interests me.  Don’t ask me why, just accept it and move it, it’s easier that way.  Unfortunately, after we walked 45 minutes to get there, a locked gate blocked the street.  Yeah, it’s that narrow of a street that a simple gate can block your way.  We shrugged our shoulders, snapped a couple pictures anyways and headed back to port.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodnight Canada!

 

We finally made out way back to the ship and dinged ourselves back in.  We were happily surprised when we got to our cabin to find a note from our new friends, Mr. and Mr. Aggie stuck in our card slot.  They were hoping to possibly meet up with us for another brief round of cards and to properly say goodbye.  They left their contact info just in case we couldn’t.  That is exactly why we cruise!!  We meet great people from all walks of life and create lasting friendships.  In fact, we are booked on our next cruise in the Baltics with several couples that we met on the Vista inaugural cruise.  It’s going to be like a giant reunion!

 

Lady Trip and I decided to run down and actually try the MDR for our last night on the ship.  I couldn’t cruise Carnival and NOT have a Hot Melting Chocolate Cake!  It didn’t disappoint!  Service was pretty decent, not super-fast but not super slow either.  The food was good and served hot so I was pretty happy.  We left the MDR and headed out to see if we could find Mr. and Mrs. Aggie.  Our normal tromping grounds of the Alchemy Bar was closed so we continued on to the main lobby bar.  Sure enough, there they were.

 

We settled in for another quick round of Gin Rummy.  I’m happy to say that I flipped the tables on them and actually won.  By a lot!!  They’re now convinced that I was actually trying to shark them by losing so badly the first night.  Trust me, I wasn’t.  Well, that was about it.  It was finally time to say our goodbyes and head back to our room.  Of course, we also had to run into our other new friends, Mr. and Mrs. Law from Florida.  We ran into them every single day after we met them at the first sea day brunch.  They were very cool and a lot of fun.  I must admit, I secretly liked Mr. Law’s shirts.  They were definitely loud and proud!!

 

Now it was time to head back to our cabin and start packing.  Ugghh!!!  Until next time…

 

 

Next Up:  Seattle...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trippingpara]

Wednesday, September 5^th   

 

Seattle, Washington

 

 

 

 

Our final day on vacation.  This was the day that I was dreading.  Until I learn how to stop time, I’m just gonna have to learn to deal with the never-ending march of time.  So, time marched on and the rooster from hell started its godforsaken squawking way too early.  We grudgingly climbed out of bed and waited for our room service breakfast to arrive.

 

Well, we waited and waited.  I finally looked outside our door and yep, sure enough, there was our menu still sitting on the door.  I guess that answers why no magical little person has shown up with our coffee in the nick of time.  We saw a bunch of menus on doors when we went to bed so we figured that they were still serving room service breakfast on debarkation day.  Guess not.

 

Anyways, we grabbed all of our luggage (we did self-assist) and headed to our assigned meeting point on Deck 2 in the Follies Lounge.  Right on time, the staff from the Shore Excursion desk came in and got us moving.  We had to head back up to Deck 3 to disembark.  It was surprisingly not that bad moving around the ship with a ton of luggage.  It was pretty orderly.

 

For those that are interested, Carnival is now participating in the Port Valet option.  That means you can turn your luggage over to the port, and they will automatically check it in with your airline so you don’t have to haul them around from ship to airport.  Pretty cool.  Mr. and Mrs. Law took part in that.  I hoped it worked out well for them.

 

We had signed up for the Seattle Essentials tour with airport drop off.  Even though we had already seen both the Space Needle and Pike Place Market, it was worth the money to go back there and see it again plus get a ride to the airport and have someone handle our luggage for us.  We thought the price was pretty reasonable too.

 

Like I said, we went to the Space Needle for about an hour and then to Pike Place Market for about 2 hours.  We also got to see a few other places around town like Pioneer Square, Amazon and Starbucks headquarters, the stadiums and a few other places as we made our way to the airport (we didn’t stop at any of these spots, just drove by them).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was about it.  Before we knew it, we were dragging our luggage, looking very forlorn as the newly arriving Carnival cruisers rushing by us as they were being whisked onto their transfer buses to the Legend.

 

And like our vacation, this little story must come to an end too.  I will leave you with this…if you get a chance to cruise Alaska, DO IT!  ...But don’t expect it to be perfect or as you have expected it to be in your head.  Because it won’t be.  Weather is unpredictable and will change on a moment’s notice.  Wildlife won’t come out on your schedule and won’t sit still for you.  Excursions that you dreamed of will be cancelled at the last minute. 

 

A lot went wrong for us on this trip.  The two excursions that I dreamed about did not happen.  One was flat out cancelled and another was changed substantially from what I wanted.  Wildlife that I expected to photograph were either not seen at all or I was not able to capture a good quality photo of them.  Yes, at times I was very bummed about these things.  Lady Trip was convinced that I was having a horrible time and would never sail to Alaska again.  Honestly, that thought never occurred to me.  I was having the time of my life.  Okay, so it was a different time than I had imagined but it was still a wonderful time!  If I get to cruise to this mystical world again, I might do things a bit different, but I would absolutely go back on another Alaskan cruise again!!  Till next time...