Serenade to Alaska 8/1/04 Part 4:Skagway and Juneau

[fajitapita]

Wednesday, August 4: Skagway!

The Coral Princess, and NCL Star and Spirit joined the Serenade for a beautiful day at Sakgway. It was warm with few clouds. DH and I were going horseback riding, so we got off the ship and walked to Southeast Tours for our 10:30 excursion. We rode up with 7 other passengers in a van over Whitepass into the Yukon. Our driver was great, gave us a lot of history and information about Skagway, and let us out whenever we wanted to take pictures. We drove to Emerald Lake (saw the sign for the Cinnamon Cache Bakery) and met Joni and her team of horses. I hadn't been on a horse since 1977 when I was 7 (too tired to to the math? I'm 34), and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. My horse, Spirit, took very good care of me and seemed to know I was an inexperienced rider. DH's horse, Shelly, was good, too, but kept wanting to snack along the way. We stopped at an area overlooking Emerald Lake (beautiful!) to take pictures and then rode some more before we dismounted and took a rest and more pictures. The horses were great and really seemed to know the trails. We mostly walked the horses but did trot in a few areas. After a 10 minute break, we rode back to the ranch, watered the horses, and then watered ourselves with sodas and some yummy baked goods. We were also treated to some poetry written by a real live cowboy. Our driver dropped us back in town by 4:30, although he would have taken us to the ship. I would highly recommend this excursion, as we got to go over Whitepass, see Emerald Lake, ride horses, and get out to take pictures whenever we wanted to. For more information, visit these two sites:

http://southeasttours.com/03_skagway_yukon_horseback.html

http://www.yukonhorses.com/default.htm

Tonight was Alaskan night in the dining room, and probably the least attended as many people were still on excursions as we didn't leave until 8:30. I had salmon and potato bake, salad, halibut, and white chocolate truffle cake- all very yummy. We went out on deck for sailaway, and it was absolutely beautiful! If the weather is good, go out to the very front of the ship on deck 5 for sailing out of Skagway. Saw waterfalls, whales spouting in the distance (starboard side), and the water was incredibly smooth. We hung out in the Safari Club, read books, and shared a brownie from the Seaview Cafe. At 10:30 we went to the theater for Variety Showtime: Flash and Fever performed again, this time with an incredible ladder balancing act. We also saw Yakov Noy, a visual comedian, who was probably my least favorite of the trip. When we returned to our room that night, there was a rabbit on our bed! No, it didn't sneak on board in Skagway, we had our first towel animal creation of the cruise!

 

Thursday, August 5: Juneau!

Coastal Helicopters (http://www.coastalhelicopters.com/t_icefield.htm) met us by the AJ Pier at 8:00 (evidently they actually don't have permission to park onsite, but they got as close as they could) and drove us to the airport. After we paid for the excursion we were ushered outside where our helicopter was waiting. However, we couldn't board it as the battery wasn't completely charged yet. A few minutes later we still couldn't board as a fuse had blown. Luckily another helicopter was on its way back so we boarded that one instead. (Glad we didn't take the other one!) We had a great flight over to Herbert Glacier, and I got a chance to videotape most of it as I was lucky enough to be in the front seat! DH was sitting in the back with another passenger and took lots of pictures. We landed on the glacier and spent 15-20 minutes walking around it. The weather was perfect, and I only wore jeans and a light windbreaker- no gloves even! On our way back we flew over Mendenhall Glacier and got a great view of that and the waterfall near it. Coastal dropped us back at the ship. We dropped some of our gear off and then went back out to catch the shuttle- $2.00 ticket good for all day. (Here's a tinly little gripe against RCI- why don't they just consider this part of your port fees and offer "free" shuttles? If we tendered in, we wouldn't have had to pay an extra $2.00 to be tendered in. FYI AJ Dock is the furthest away from the town and would have been a MUCH longer walk than the one we had in Skagway.) Juneau was pretty busy that day as there were 4 other big ships in port, too- Dawn Princess, Celebrity Infinity, HAL Veendaam, and Crystal Harmony. We did a little shopping and picked up a cute t-shirt for our DD (at home with Grandma and Grandpa) at the Del Sol store. Today we ate lunch at the Seaview Cafe. I had a Cuban sandwich and DH had a tuna melt- both very good, but the onion rings and french fries left a bit to be desired... Decided to play mini-golf and use the Solarium as most people seemed to still be in town. As we sailed away, I saw an eagle swoop down, catch a rather large fish in its mouth and "swim" with it to shore where it proceeded to tear into it! It was a bit windier tonight during sailaway, but the waters were still calm. Dinner tonight was crab cake, salad, fresh catch of the day, and apple cobbler with a scoop of icecream- all very yummy. Many whales were spotted during dinner and people kept standing up and going to the windows. After dinner we went to the Schooner Bar (lots of great windows- one of the main reasons I love this ship- you always know you're on a ship) to spot whales as it was getting too cold outside to be on deck. Tonight's entertainment was the second production show- Stage to Screen. The RC singers and dancers did a great rendition of Hairspray, Westside Story, Sweet Chairty, Little Shop of Horrors, and (my favorite) Chicago. At 10:30 we went to the Safari Club to watch the hilarious Quest game- a definite must, especially if you've never watched or participated. Tonight's towel animal- an elephant!