Cathy's Place: Alaskan Cruise

Sim and I with John and Carol cruised up the inner passage from Vancouver, BC to Seward, AK. It was a 7-night cruise with stops in Ketchikan, Icey Strait Point, Juneau, and Skagway. We saw 2 glaciers, whales, bald eagles, and native Alaskans. I met my very first Eskimo! We ate a lot of good food on board the Celebreity Millenium. We went canoeing on a lake near Ketchikan; hiking on a trail to the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau; took a narrow gauge train in Skagway to British Columbia, and visited the Hubbard Glacier. On the ship we sat in the hot tub, played trivia, saw shows, and did some dancing. I also had a very nice massage on the first sea day. The views from the ship of the sunsets/sunrise were glorious. They lasted for hours! The sun set very late and rose very early, but it never got dark, just a few hours of twilight. I would look out the window multiple times during the night to admire the beautiful twilight/dawn scene. We were on the right side of the ship so it often faced north. The sun rose in the northeast and set in the northwest.

Much of the inside passage in Alaska is a rain forest. The Pacific temperate rain forests eco-region which occurs on west-facing coastal mountains along the NW Pacific coast is the largest temperate rain forest on the planet. Rain coming from the Pacific falls before it gets over the mountains keeping the ground very wet. The tree canopy obscures most of the sunlight. Because the soil is so close to bedrock, trees grow on nursery stumps with shallow roots. When the stump eventually decays, it leaves an open space under the new tree's roots for hibernation. So bears like it there. There are plants that also grow there to help the bear's digestive system when he hibernates, and gets it going again when he wakes up. It's very handy. We had a lovely hike through the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. We also learned that the Alaska state flower is the Forget-me-knot, the state bird is the bald eagle, and the state tree is the Sitka Spruce.

As far as ship food went--I preferred eating the sushi for lunch on our sea days rather than eating in the dining room, but it did cost for each roll I ordered ($10). The main dining room was very careful about fixing meals to suit John's taste. The main chef or his sous chef came every night to our table to discuss the next day's meals. The buffet on the 10th floor was not good. It was always open but I never wanted to eat there. It did bug me that you had to purchase bottles of water. They wanted a fortune for WiFi service so we didn't have any on the ship. Our TV never worked properly. They never gave us any info about ports of call other than what excursions you could purchase (which were all $$$). So I would not choose to go on Celebrity again. I guess I have been spoiled by Viking and Cunard.