Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

wowzz · October 1, 2022

Harry - good photos (again!)

I have to ask - did you have any blue skies at all during your cruise? The weather looks remarkably like November in the UK !

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

OK, we are here. Nugget Falls.

Wiki can tell you more than I ever can – guess in the old days when Mendenhall was bigger, the waterfall was onto the glacier:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nugget_Falls

Time for some opera music - Flower Duet:

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

12 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Harry - good photos (again!)

I have to ask - did you have any blue skies at all during your cruise? The weather looks remarkably like November in the UK !

Thanks for the kind words and continued reading of the thread.

Yeah, we had one blue sky day while we were at Ketchikan. Here was the video I took of the float plane taking off in Ketchikan (next day on the cruise report) and you can see the blue skies in the back.

20220811_065839.mp4

The long range forecast was calling for rain at Hubbard glacier/ISP/Juneau prior to our departure so I was pretty worried about a big rain out sailing and all 6 of us packed umbrellas just in case. Thus when it didn't rain at ISP or Juneau, I was just relived that it was dry. Hiking/walking in the rain wouldn't be much fun.

So it was a case of expecting/preparing for the worst and when it didn't happen, you are just happy with whatever else happened

wowzz · October 1, 2022

4 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Thanks for the kind words and continued reading of the thread.

Yeah, we had one blue sky day while we were at Ketchikan. Here was the video I took of the float plane taking off in Ketchikan (next day on the cruise report) and you can see the blue skies in the back.

20220811_065839.mp4 101.2 MB · 0 downloads
The long range forecast was calling for rain at Hubbard glacier/ISP/Juneau prior to our departure so I was pretty worried about a big rain out sailing and all 6 of us packed umbrellas just in case. Thus when it didn't rain at ISP or Juneau, I was just relived that it was dry. Hiking/walking in the rain wouldn't be much fun.

So it was a case of expecting/preparing for the worst and when it didn't happen, you are just happy with whatever else happened

Thanks - the video was more like the Alaska I was hoping for.

An Akaskan cruise plus land tour is on our bucket list, but I'm not sure that 14 expensive days in miserable weather is making my wallet sing !

I'm as cheapo as you are !

Edited October 1, 2022 by wowzz

harryfat1 · October 2, 2022

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

Thanks - the video was more like the Alaska I was hoping for.

An Akaskan cruise plus land tour is on our bucket list, but I'm not sure that 14 expensive days in miserable weather is making my wallet sing !

I'm as cheapo as you are !

One can never predict the weather in Alaska but if you want to play the odds - try for a cruise in June as that has the lowest rain on average. Here's a sample link for Juneau.

https://www.rssweather.com/climate/Alaska/Juneau/

But even at 3 plus inches of rain per month, that's still enough rain to mess up your dream vacation if you end up showing up in the wrong week.

Ketchikan is typically your highest chance for rain as it averages 140 inches of rain annually. They have a rain meter right at the port to show how much rain they have had that season.

https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/?c1=50238970&c2=55363000

According to this, they only get 100 sunny days per year or 27%. We were lucky to have caught sunny sky at Ketchikan when other 2 cities were overcast.

I would imagine on a 14 day tour, you might run into a rainy day or two just by the odds of rain in Alaska somewhere.

Rain gauge at Ketchikan:

Being from the west coast, I don't consider Alaska to be "bucket list" as it's close enough to home for me to fly 2 plus hours to Vancouver or less than 5 hours to Anchorage. It takes me longer to fly to Florida for a Caribbean cruise and I have never heard of anyone saying a cruise to Caribbean is on their bucket list.

For us from west coast, a cruise to Norway or Iceland is bucket list as that's exotic enough. That's probably your version of Alaska being on the other side of the pond. Always interesting to have different perspective.

harryfat1 · October 2, 2022

Just like the glacier pictures from previous posts, you will be bombarded by different angles of the same thing:

Panoramic shot of the area

harryfat1 · October 2, 2022

With more people showing up by the hour, harder to find a time slot when nobody else is at the waterfall

My wife climbing up to get a better angle

Some adventurous person climbing all the way up (see red arrow)

Here's a video of the waterfall so you can hear the force of the water:

wowzz · October 2, 2022

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

For us from west coast, a cruise to Norway or Iceland is bucket list as that's exotic enough. That's probably your version of Alaska being on the other side of the pond. Always interesting to have different perspective.

That's a very good comparison.

I can drive to Southampton and do a seven day Norwegian fjord cruise from there for not much more than the cost of flying to Seattle from the UK.

4x4bob · October 2, 2022

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

One can never predict the weather in Alaska but if you want to play the odds - try for a cruise in June as that has the lowest rain on average. Here's a sample link for Juneau.

https://www.rssweather.com/climate/Alaska/Juneau/

But even at 3 plus inches of rain per month, that's still enough rain to mess up your dream vacation if you end up showing up in the wrong week.

Ketchikan is typically your highest chance for rain as it averages 140 inches of rain annually. They have a rain meter right at the port to show how much rain they have had that season.

https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/?c1=50238970&c2=55363000

According to this, they only get 100 sunny days per year or 27%. We were lucky to have caught sunny sky at Ketchikan when other 2 cities were overcast.

I would imagine on a 14 day tour, you might run into a rainy day or two just by the odds of rain in Alaska somewhere.

Rain gauge at Ketchikan:

Being from the west coast, I don't consider Alaska to be "bucket list" as it's close enough to home for me to fly 2 plus hours to Vancouver or less than 5 hours to Anchorage. It takes me longer to fly to Florida for a Caribbean cruise and I have never heard of anyone saying a cruise to Caribbean is on their bucket list.

For us from west coast, a cruise to Norway or Iceland is bucket list as that's exotic enough. That's probably your version of Alaska being on the other side of the pond. Always interesting to have different perspective.

Here is a tip for taking photos in the rain. I am sure that you know that putting a plastic bag over your camera and then trying to take a good photo is very hard.

On a nature hike up through the forest above Mendenhal Glacier, on a rainy day, the guide handed everyone getting off the bus that had a camera a bright yellow wash cloth???? Hmm I wondered to my self, will he also be handing out bars of soap so we can take advantage of the rain?

Nope, he explained that we should cover our cameras with wash cloth. When it gets wet, hide the camera under our coat and wring out the wash cloth. Worked like a champ.

They were bright yellow so the guide could be sure to collect them at the end of the day.

Since then I have always carried a wash cloth in my camera bag for a rainy day.

Bob

Edited October 2, 2022 by 4x4bob

dani negreanu · October 2, 2022

20 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Wiki can tell you more than I ever can – guess in the old days when Mendenhall was bigger, the waterfall was onto the glacier:

Sad to see that the glacier has receded even more -- pic taken in July 2013. I hiked alone to the Falls, as you can see, it was a very hot and sunny day, and since DH had a "close encounter" with melanoma, he remained at the Visitor's center.

A kind soul took my pic 😁

wowzz · October 2, 2022

2 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

Sad to see that the glacier has receded even more -- pic taken in July 2013. I hiked alone to the Falls, as you can see, it was a very hot and sunny day, and since DH had a "close encounter" with melanoma, he remained at the Visitor's center.

A kind soul took my pic 😁

It's ironic that cruise ships and the aircraft that fly cruise passengers to travel on those ships, contribute to the reduction in the glaciers !

By cruising in Alaska, we are all causing the glaciers to reduce.

dani negreanu · October 2, 2022

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

It's ironic that cruise ships and the aircraft that fly cruise passengers to travel on those ships, contribute to the reduction in the glaciers !

By cruising in Alaska, we are all causing the glaciers to reduce.

I thoroughly agree with you. It's kind of a "catch 22" situation....

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

4 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

Sad to see that the glacier has receded even more -- pic taken in July 2013. I hiked alone to the Falls, as you can see, it was a very hot and sunny day, and since DH had a "close encounter" with melanoma, he remained at the Visitor's center.

A kind soul took my pic 😁

Nice picture with the sunshine and both the waterfall and the glacier in the background.

I think the water level at the lake area has changed as the water fall isn't as forceful as before and it's almost impossible to combine the waterfall and glacier in the same picture nowadays

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

16 hours ago, wowzz said:

That's a very good comparison.

I can drive to Southampton and do a seven day Norwegian fjord cruise from there for not much more than the cost of flying to Seattle from the UK.

If you plan to do a 14 day land and cruise, I believe you need to cruise into/out of Vancouver as the typical Seattle sailings are roundtrips unless it's the rare repo cruises at start/end of the Alaska season.

If you fly into Seattle, then you have to endure a long 3+ hour bus to go across the border to Vancouver.

Yeah, if we want to do a cruise to Alaska and not even fly, we can do a roundtrip from San Francisco. We live 45 minutes away from the SF cruiser terminal if we are super Alaska fans and can go every year.

I know people locally that the only cruises they have ever been on are to Alaska since they can just depart from SF but that's not our vacation style as we prefer new and different experience on the next cruise.

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

9 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

Here is a tip for taking photos in the rain. I am sure that you know that putting a plastic bag over your camera and then trying to take a good photo is very hard.

On a nature hike up through the forest above Mendenhal Glacier, on a rainy day, the guide handed everyone getting off the bus that had a camera a bright yellow wash cloth???? Hmm I wondered to my self, will he also be handing out bars of soap so we can take advantage of the rain?

Nope, he explained that we should cover our cameras with wash cloth. When it gets wet, hide the camera under our coat and wring out the wash cloth. Worked like a champ.

They were bright yellow so the guide could be sure to collect them at the end of the day.

Since then I have always carried a wash cloth in my camera bag for a rainy day.

Bob

Thanks for the tip on the wash cloth. Didn't know that trick.

I guess with the wash cloth it'll be useful even if it doesn't rain as you can use it to wash your face at rest room breaks.

With cell phones being so good in taking still pictures, it's becoming increasing difficult choice to bring the SLR camera on a trip. In the past few years, we just brought our cell phones on vacations.

For Alaska, I drag out the mega zoom but left the SLR at home as my wife didn't want to deal with it as historically she uses the SLR and I use the zoom. For our next Caribbean cruise, I can't justify taking the SLR with us. It'll be just the cell phones and maybe one water proof camera for the beach area that we bought many years ago.

If we ever make it to Norway or Iceland from our bucket list, then we will need to decide whether or not to lug all the equipment out there.

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

OK, onward with the trip report.

After we got enough of the Nugget Falls pictures, it was time to move to another spot at the area to get few more close up pictures of the Mendenhall Glacier before we head back to town on the Blue Bus.

So back at post #473, there's picture that showed 2 trails. One is Nugget Falls that we just finished and the other one is the "Photo Point" where we are headed for now

There are info signs along the trail

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

This trail is closer to the visitor center and very well paved. If mobility is an issue, take this trail instead of the Nugget Falls as it's flat and much shorter.

Looking back at visitor center

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

If you are reading this and trying to decide between north or south bound one way trip, here's one drawback of the south bound:

By time you get to Juneau, you will have already seen Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay National Park. You will have more than enough glacier pictures to bore all your friends and enemies on your vacation presentation. Then you come to the ever receding Mendenhall Glacier and it just doesn't have the "WOW" factor.

Whereas if you come up from Vancouver and Juneau is likely your second port after Ketchikan, this may be your first (maybe only) view of the the glacier as many ships this season have not made it very far in Endicott Arm to see a glacier.

So seeing the Mendenhall glacier will provide a bigger "wow" reaction (regardless of what it used to look like few years ago) if you are sailing northbound. Whereas for Southbound folks, this is more of a "OK" experience in comparison to others we saw just few days ago.

Thus you may be more "tainted" in your view of Mendenhall depending on which sailing you are on.

At any rate, few more pictures and it's time to head back to the parking lot to wait for the Blue Bus that comes every 30 minutes at top and bottom of the hour.

Lots of people at the end of the photo point trail

Park ranger on site to answer any questions

Walking back toward the parking lot

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

Forgot to take a picture of the welcome info sign on the way there as we were too anxious to walk up. Taking a picture on the way out

Bus driver schedule for various ship tours as display at the front - doesn't apply to us as we are on the cheap school bus. These buses have better seats and temperature control

Nope. Not our bus as it's green. But operated by the same M&M company. Maybe they are part of the whale watching or other tours that also stops here. If they are Bob's photo tour, you might see some yellow wash clothes on board

This is the closer lot. Not for us. The shuttle lot is further away

Shuttle lot is where the white canopy is

A lot of people already waiting at the canopy area but they boarded a "white bus" - dang, how many colors of buses are there for Mendenhall?

Looking back at Mendenhall one last time - those are the better buses

Our bus finally came

Made it back to Juneau cruise port area. Always feel good to see our cruise ship whenever we come back from any land tour.

Anyone has the paranoid feeling that your ship will take off without you when you come back from your tour? Leave a comment below. I always have that anxiety on non ship based tours.

Anyway, here's a new group of people getting ready to board the same blue bus that dropped us off. These people are probably mostly from the Discovery Princess as they docked at 12:30 and the time stamp for this picture is 1 PM. Or they could be Bob's relatives form our cruise that waited for 5 hours since 8 AM trying to negotiate a better rate...😜

Notice the difference in how crowded this bus in loading compared to ours back on post #457. So try your best to get to Mendenhall ASAP to beat the crowd

harryfat1 · October 3, 2022

When we got back to the port, the Discovery Princess has docked at the prime location right in the front of the dock even though it came in the latest as Princess assigned the best spot for her newest ship.

With 5 ships in town that day, it was very crowded in the shops/sidewalk area in the afternoon. Especially with Discovery Princess just docked

Note how nice looking the wood is compared to the older dock from my previous photos?

For all you Diamonds International fans

Not sure if you can see it but the Discovery unloaded tons of passengers as they walked off the gangway. The entire season the Discovery had been sailing near 90% capacity and you can tell that she has a lot more passengers than the Majestic

Loads and loads of passengers streaming out of Discovery Princess (red arrow area)

harryfat1 · October 4, 2022

So where are we going now? Back to the ship for lunch as it’s after 1 PM? Not yet.

During our various travels throughout the years, we have tried to visit as many state capitol buildings as possible and Juneau being the capital of Alaska, we had to make a short stop to see. So far we have seen Hawaii/Washington/Oregon/California/Nevada/Arizona/Utah/Wyoming state capitols so we need to add Alaska to the list.

The building is just few blocks up the hill in downtown Juneau so that's where we are headed next.

My original plan when we were staying until 5 PM in Juneau under the old itinerary was to go back to the ship for lunch after Mendenhall and then come back out. However, with a shorten stop, we don't have time to go back to the ship so it's essentially one long excursion for the day.

Enough talking. Time for pictures

Nope. Not our ship. Discovery Princess. So you ask why am I taking pictures of another ship? Answer: Because it was there. Our ship is way back there and the Discovery Princess is right in front of us on our way to the Alaska State Capitol so you take pictures of what's in front you.

Besides, Princess is pretty shy about telling people the names of their ships in hiding them in small fonts unlike other cruise lines where the name of the ship is front and center. In-Your-Face Naming. So if I tell people this was our ship, unless they look very closely at the small name, they'd never know.

Gee, I wonder what is the name of this ship? Not sure, honey, I can barely make it out 2 miles away...

image.png.77131c945fe7ca7356e65d37fb76172f.png

Hey, another mooring line. How about that? Take a picture...

And more...

Edited October 4, 2022 by harryfat1
Forgot to add the bird pictures - No, I am not giving you the bird in that sense...

harryfat1 · October 4, 2022

This picture shows the 3 ships docked in a row - 2 Princess and 1 HAL. RCI has a ship way on the back end of where we docked and they have shuttle buses that transfers them to town if people can't walk. NCL has to tender in.

So at least for this day, the HAL and Princess ships have the best docks. I assume that has to do with their seniority in cruising in Alaska in getting the preferential berths.

Our waiter, who is Filipino, said his favorite port in Alaska is Juneau as the port has lots of food that caters to his taste buds as it has really good Filipino food. You can tell there are quite a few food stalls right by the park area next to the pier. Saw what appears to be workers from various cruise ships eating there.

Down the street and across the street to climb a hill to get there

So where are we? Nah, we don't need this. It's an easy walk to get there

harryfat1 · October 4, 2022

So, this is it. Yeah, not the most impressive state capitol out there. One YouTuber ranked it last in terms of overall appearance of the 50 state capitols out there. Not having been to all 50, I can’t comment on his vote but in terms of rating this compared to what we have seen so far, it’s not the most WOW state capitol we have visited.

This is where losing couple of hours of port time hurt us as there is a free guided tour later in the afternoon but since the ship had to depart earlier, we couldn’t do the tour. Instead, we just did a quick look around and left.

Bear statue outside

Looking back to where we were - not a far walk

Yeah, no dome

This dude ranks it the worst state capitol in the US - you be the judge

harryfat1 · October 4, 2022

Although it was easy to just walk in to see the Alaska State Capitol. In our state of California, to walk inside the State Capitol, you have to go through metal scanner like boarding a cruise ship with police guarding the area. This one is just a walk in with hardly anyone inside. I have seen more people in a public library than this state Capitol.

Next time we make it to Juneau, I will want to do the free tour