Monday, June 10, 2013
The Whole Cruise-- One Long Post
A few months ago, my friend Martha and I decided that we should do something, go somewhere, this summer-- take some trip that would somehow mediated the (dreaded) fact that we are both going to turn 40 this year. We had thrown several ideas around-- and then, both of us saw the same episode of Top Chef, and episode in which the final four contestants were put on an Alaskan Cruise boat and sailed through what we think was Tracy Arm Fjord, and we decided we had to go see it for ourselves. We picked a cruise line and ship, Holland America's Zuiderdam, that sailed the coast line specifically so we could go through the Fjord and Glacier Bay- and on June 1, 2013, we were off.
Day One-- The Herd
And, we were off really early-- our flight left North Carolina at 6:15 am. From the time we got to the airport at 5, we were herded from line to line until we were on a boat in Vancouver. (Seriously, if you want to go to Alaska, just go get in a line-- eventually, you will be shuttled there like cattle.) We stood in line to get boarding passes and check our luggage, stood in line to go through security, stood in line to board, and folded ourselves into the last row of a hopper plane to Chicago. And then, we stood in line to get off the plane, followed the flow in the airport to move through one concourse to another, stood in line to have our passports and boarding passes checked again at the gate, stood in line to get breakfast at McDonald's, stood in line to get on our second plane, and then once again folded up to fit into plane seats for the four and a half hour flight to Vancouver, and then stood in line once again to get off the plane.
The Vancouver Airport must have been recently remodeled. It is one of the nicer (and most efficient) airports I've ever been in. And, it has lovely displays like this one.
When we finally made it to Canada, we stood in line at passport control before going to stand around the luggage carousel. This is where the herding usually ends for most travelers-- but not for cruisers.
Once we collected our baggage-- and then handed it back over to the cruise people waiting a few feet away-- we went to stand in line to get on a shuttle to the docks. Our shuttle driver gave us a narrated tour of our trip through downtown Vancouver which included facts about the low voltage energy source for their trolly system (which can run even when all the other power is out since it is an independent energy source) and information about how the traffic lights work in conjunction with the crosswalk lights (which he kept saying was unique in all of North America. He seems to think that no one else has signals to tell pedestrians when it is safe to cross streets-- he even recommended that we implement them in the US. It was strange-- Martha and I never figured out what was so special about the crosswalk lights that we believe are the same as those which we know are in every city in the US. But our driver insisted that this ingenious system of crosswalk signals is the reason why Vancouver has the largest elderly population in North America, a population which is thriving because they can all safely cross streets in Vancouver, and Vancouver alone). He also provided recommendations for places to visit should we return to Vancouver, like the public library and a small Catholic church which was saved from being torn down in the 1990s by being declared a World Heritage Site.
Our shuttle ride to the dock would have seemed to signal the beginning of the fantastic part of our journey, but really it was just the conduit to the next leg of herding. We were herded into a security line where we went through metal detectors, then through passport control again, and then into a line to get boarding cards for the boat. We were photographed for security reasons at the desk to get our boarding cards; we'd been traveling for about 14 hours at this point, so I'm sure they are great photos. Had anything happened to us while at sea, I'm sure these are the photos the news stations would have been provided which was horrible to think about. And then, we were finally allowed to get on the boat! It made the whole thing finally feel real-- and gave us a few more opportunities to stand in line.
This was my first time on a cruise (Martha has been on cruises before). The one thing I learned quite quickly is that there is no end to the opportunities to eat-- which was actually a good thing when we first got on. A McDonald's breakfast biscuit is not as filling as one would think. So, we went to the Lido Deck and, yes, stood in line to get food. There were quite a lot of options really-- it's a little overwhelming. It took a while just to walk around and figure out what was available, but we finally got food and iced tea and went to eat outside on the deck-- and we were reminded why we chose this particular cruise experience. Even though we were still docked in the port, the scenery was amazing. (There are photos throughout this-- and none of them do the scenery justice.)
And, it really wasn't too cold on deck-- there are some wind barriers placed along the side, and seated next to these allows lovely, wonderful viewing and a pretty decent shield from the elements. I wouldn't sit out by the pool (though, there were those who did use the outside pool-- they are braver and made of sturdier stuff than I am), but June in Canada/Alaska isn't a bad time to be outside, and so we relaxed for a few minutes eating salad and pasta before going back inside to get ice cream (because, who isn't going to take advantage of "free" ice cream-- I know we technically paid for it, but still, there was the chance to eat ice cream at pretty much every meal and snack time for seven days and we at least needed to indulge at the beginning) before, yes, being herded through one more drill-- the emergency procedures.
At 4, the emergency warning sounded in our rooms and we were all moved through the boat, guided by traffic officers, to our assigned assembly stations where we stood until all passengers were accounted for. (Passengers who did not participate were not going to be allowed to sail-- room 4133 never showed up to our assembly group. I don't know what happened to them, but I have visions of those deviants being bound and blindfolded and made to walk the plank... I'm guessing they were actually sternly reprimanded and then allowed to sail anyway. That said, we passed their room a lot because we were on the same level of the ship, and I never saw them.) After we were all assembled, we were instructed in how to put on a life jacket and given some basic procedural information: in the event of a real emergency, we were to first go back to our rooms and put on warm clothing and gather documentation and medication and wait for the signal to head to the assembly areas-- we were not go there until signaled because the crew needed time to gather first (or, abandon us on board as they save themselves). (We were specifically told not to bring our cell phones to the drill, but I can guarantee you that in a real emergency, everyone would be on the phone-- including me.) Parents were told that in the event that they were not with their children, they should go to their assembly stations and wait on their children to be delivered to them by a crew member (which I didn't see happening-- parents were really going to wait calmly for their children to be delivered?). We were given lots of other instructions as well-- all of which assume that in an emergency, passengers are going to remain calm and organized. I'm guessing not a single one of these instructions would be followed if our ship went the way of the Titanic.
The rest of our first day was rather uneventful-- or, we were too tired to notice the "events." We got dressed for dinner after a short, post-emergency drill nap, and were seated with two ladies from the eastern part of Canada and a couple from Australia (just about everyone on the boat seemed to be from Australia). We struggled to make conversation-- not because our dinner companions weren't lovely, but because it's hard to talk through jet lag-- and then went back to our room and went to sleep. There were shows going on all over the ship-- lots of things to do really-- but we'd been up for more than 24 hours. So, we went back to our room.
On board, rooms are attended to a couple times a day, and at night, the crew leave towel animals waiting. Apparently, this is quite standard on cruise ships so Martha wasn't nearly as enchanted by them as I was-- I took pictures of them every night. We think this one is supposed to be a lobster, but we wouldn't swear by it. In any event, he had to be removed from his comfy resting place before I could go to sleep.
Day Two: At Sea
I woke up on day two because I could actually feel the boat rocking-- not in a bad way, but it still woke me up. So, we got up, got dressed and went to get breakfast-- not any less overwhelming than lunch was the day before. There are a lot of options-- and people on the cruise take advantage of them. It seemed to be the goal of most of our fellow travelers to eat as much as possible. It was kind of amazing actually- but I suppose that's one way to get your money's worth from a cruise. Again, we ate outside on deck-- and again it was gorgeous. What's really incredible is just the sheer vastness of it all. Our cruise stayed near the coastline for most of the voyage, so on one side of the boat are lines of mountain ranges, some covered in lush green and others in snow caps. On the other side were island masses and open sea. There's just so much open space and seemingly undeveloped land-- extraordinary and kind of hard to imagine before seeing it since I've lived on the east coast all my life and so my normal "scenery" is housing and shopping centers and highways. There were times, looking at it through my binoculars (which I did after lunch on the second day) that it seemed fake... that might be the binocular effect. Or just the fact that it seems to beautiful to be real.
I actually went to the gym after breakfast-- there are lots of things to do on board on a day at sea, but a lot of them seemed designed to sell some service. Like, there was an informational session on acupuncture and its benefits which I'm sure ended in a pitch for on-board acupuncture sessions. And, there were endless presentations by gift and jewelry stores on board. Even the trip to the gym presented an opportunity to be sold something-- a package to the thermal suite or sessions in the therapeutic whirlpool (both of which were really tempting until I found out how many hundreds of dollars these perks cost). The gym was well worth it though-- it's at the front end of the boat and the cardio equipment faces an expansive window which, on our first full day at sea, faced a large mountain range. I stared at it for an hour as I "ran" on the stride machine. I've never worked out in such gorgeous setting before.
After the gym, I was ready for lunch-- this time just salad (it is actually possible to be relatively healthy on a cruise-- it just seems like this was mine and Martha's unique goal, in stark contrast to most of our fellow passengers. It's not like we were being health nuts or dieting or something... we just weren't gorging ourselves at every opportunity which made us a little self-conscious at times. Like at dinner later that day.) After lunch, we explored the boat and found all the different bars and show spaces and gift shops. And, we went to the lower promenade deck to use our binoculars for the first time (we had each borrowed a pair and wanted to try them out before our real sightseeing adventure in Juneau). I wish I could have taken pictures through the lens of the binoculars-- it's a much different view than the camera or naked eye provides. Through binoculars I could see the details of the mountain ranges and the snow peaks looked like they were mere inches away. It was terribly windy-- but totally worth it. (It is a little hard to take pictures out in the open air of the ship-- the winds are strong which makes it hard to hold the camera steady... but I persevered.) Look how amazingly blue the water is!
After our ship and deck tour, there was yet another chance to eat. Our particular cruise line serves high tea everyday, so at three we went to the dining room for British tea (there was a different tea culture or theme featured every day, though we didn't make it to tea every day to find out what they all were). Martha and I chose a few selections as the plates we were handed were small. This did not deter our fellow passengers, however, many of whom simply took several plates so they could maximize their trip through the buffet line. (Those serving in the buffet line tried to pile food onto our plates and seemed confused when Martha said she didn't want a sausage roll because her plate was full-- I'm guessing the crew isn't accustomed to restraint of any kind.) We sat with a whole table of Australians who were all on some tour together (it got confusing-- there were multiple tour groups on board and so the cruise was a part of a bunch of different travel packages. And, all of the tour groups seemed to originate in Australia, which made it more confusing.) and enjoyed our little tea cakes and finger sandwiches (which were served on mini-bagels which is decidedly not very British, but they were still yummy) and then decided that post-tea time was nap time.
After nap time, we got dressed quite quickly in formal wear (this was the first of two formal evenings on board) so that we could go to the cabaret show before dinner. The show was good-- it featured an astounding number of costume changes, more impressive because they all included wig changes as well-- comprised of well known hits from the Beatles, Cher, Elton John, and other tried and true singers which clearly play to the somewhat older traveling set we were on board with (we were on the younger side of the average age-- which isn't a bad thing when you're on a 40th birthday celebration trip). But the best part was at the end-- the big finale releases balloon and streamers into the audience and the audience bats the balloons around. And then, the performers take their bows and the audience stands up to applaud and the balloons are left to float down. The guy sitting on the couch bank next to us failed to notice that what went up came down again and when he cut short his standing ovation to sit, he collapsed onto the balloon under him which produced a popping boom louder than his applause and caused him to turn a bit red. It was great!
After the show, we went to dinner where we were seated with the first American couple we'd met, and another couple from, of course, Australia. Conversation was nice and dinner was good, but at the end both Martha and I were really full (and, we had had a few tea cakes earlier, so we had already had a lot of sweets) and declined dessert which seemed to bother the American woman next to me. I think we seriously disturbed some cruise ship etiquette by not participating in eating everything available to us. (Dinner can conceivably be four courses-- Martha and I generally chose to have either an appetizer or a soup/salad, but man of our fellow travelers had both before their entree. However, choosing to only have one instead of both, which about half the diners seem to do, is not as egregious as skipping dessert.) After the American woman was served her tiramisu, she made some comment that it was so light that even "our little athlete" (referring to me-- I had been having a lively conversation about tennis with the Australian couple earlier) could have eaten it. Being full and declining dessert (I had coffee, but that apparently didn't cut it) does not make you popular on a cruise.
Post-dinner we went to the piano bar where we seemed to be the only non-Australians in the group. Those sitting near the piano kept requesting silly, folksy tunes from Australia (like Dancing Matilda, which I had never heard of, though Martha seemed to know it) and the (American) piano player, Jimmy, knew them all. It was surreal. Playing Australian songs also incites all the Aussie's to yell, "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy" at random intervals, though I'm not sure why (and, when Jimmy asked them why they do that, they said they didn't know either). Finally, near the end of the night, Jimmy played Billy Joel's Piano Man (which all the Australians knew as well, of course) which made it feel a little more familiar, but had we woken up the next day in the southern waters surrounding Australia, I wouldn't have been surprised.
Night 2 towel animal (I like how a lot of the towel animals were given eyes):
Day 3: Whales and Glaciers
Having felt shamed by our lack of gorging (this became a theme throughout the cruise-- apparently Martha and I never ate enough. This according to others-- we felt like we ate plenty!), we decided to get room service for breakfast. It was actually far more pleasant than trying to brave the lines on the Lido Deck and it meant that I got a full carafe of hot coffee to enjoy slowly. We also got a reasonable breakfast (yogurt and granola and English muffins) without being chided for not piling up the food on our plates. It also made for a lazy morning before docking in Juneau at 1 and heading out on our glacier and whaling adventure.
Because we didn't dock until 1, we had time to sit on the deck and watch the coast leading into Juneau go by.
There are a surprising number of people who live on this desolate coast- where they get groceries, I have no idea, but I spent a while staring at their houses through binoculars (so, it looked closer than this)
which then made me really dizzy and gave me an opportunity to really try my sea bands, wrist bands which are supposed to stop sea-sickness by applying pressure to the underside of the wrist. I don't think I was really sea sick so much as looking through binoculars while on a moving boat is a bit disorienting. Or maybe I was-- but in either case, I was pleasantly surprised that the sea bands worked (or, I felt better because I was no longer looking through binoculars but instead lying motionless on my bed. At any rate, by the time it was time to disembark, I felt better.). Getting off the ship gave me a chance to get a look at our ship for the first time (it was hard to see in Vancouver because it was in port with so many other ships. It looks really big in the picture, though it was really quite small compared to other ships. I think that's why it was able to go through Glacier Bay.).
The whole excursion was something of a whirlwind-- even though we left a few minutes early, we only had about an hour at Mendenhall Glacier which is just about enough time to walk to the glacier (about a mile hike), enjoy it for a few minutes, and hike back (it feels more like a hike on the way back since it's straight uphill in that direction). There is a visitors' center at Mendenhall Glacier that has displays and a movie that explains the history of the glacier, it's progression and recession, etc. (I think) but we never got to see it because we opted to see the glacier up close and personal. So, most of what I've learned about the glacier, other than what it's like to stand really close to it, is from reading about it after I got back home (we couldn't even look up information on the ship because internet access was so ridiculously expensive-- it just felt like being robbed to have to pay 75 cents a minute, so we forewent it for the week. It was like living in the dark ages.) However, I did learn, on the bus ride there, that Mendenhall Glacier is a receeding glacier as are 95% of glaciers. Only 5% are still advancing due to increased rain (which eats at glaciers) and rising temperatures.
We were not allowed to bring food or drinks on the path (probably the only time we were actually discouraged from eating) because of the chance of running into woodland creatures like porcupines, goats, or black bears. There were warning signs all along the path about the bears
but really, there were a lot of people around and the salmon hadn't truly started migrating yet-- it didn't seem like an area bears would really want to venture. We never saw any. (The whited out warning is about keeping dogs on leashes-- I'm not sure why that is no longer a recommended precaution.)
Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles long now; it's receded about 2.5 miles in about 500 years, though about 1.75 miles of that recession has happened since 1958 (when the lake was created). It was originally called Sitaantaagu, and then renamed Auke Glacier in 1888 and then renamed again in 1891 in honor of Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (though I'm not really sure why because most of his work seemed to have been with earthquakes.) The changing names don't make much sense to me, but the glacier is amazing.
(I don't know who those people are-- but having them in the photo gives a nice sense of how vast the area is.)
I don't think the pictures really do it justice, but what I'm hoping comes out in them is that the ice is actually blue.
Drawings of ice cubes often depict ice as blue, but I've never really gotten that since ice in ice cube trays isn't actually blue. I know that blue is the universal symbol for cold and ice is cold... I'd just never seen ice that was actually blue-- until now!
There is also a huge waterfall at Mendenhall Glacier.
The video does it more justice-- you can get a better sense of its size and power.
Waterfalls in Alaska, in general, are seasonal-- they happen when things are melting. Though, I'm guessing at least some water gushes from this one year round since, despite what the glacier would suggest, Juneau is one of the warmer Alaskan cities. It was pretty warm when we were there-- we certainly didn't need the coats we had with us, at least not until later.
After rushing to see the glacier and then walking quite quickly back up the path (dodging all the tourists who clearly weren't in the time crunch we were), we got back on the bus to go to the Auke Bay where our whaling boat was waiting. Our bus driver did give us lots of information about Juneau and Alaska in general-- like, there are about 32,000 residents of Juneau (which seemed small until we got to Skagway the next day which has less than 1000 year-round residents) and that you can't see Russia from the govenor's mansion (which we passed). We also learned that Juneau is impossible to enter or exit by car-- you can only get in or out by plane or boat because it's surrounded on all sides by either water or forest/mountain. It made me think you might go stir crazy living there, especially in the winter. And, we learned that although it rains a lot in Juneau, there is almost never thunder or lightening-- it happens maybe once a year.
We got off the bus and onto the whaling boat and headed immediately for Orca Lodge for the salmon bake (because we hadn't been fed in a couples hours-- in fact food had been discouraged for the hour before-- and I'm sure the tour people thought there would soon be rioting). As we pulled up at the lodge, there were two bald eagles sitting on top of the post. (This was one of the few times that people mentioned seeing wildlife that I too saw. I missed a lot of mountain goats and bears... they were always on the side of the ship, train, boat, etc. that I wasn't on.)
(The boat was moving as I tried to snap the picture... they were centered when I started taking the picture.)
We got off at the lodge, walked up a rather free-swinging bridge and entered straight into the food line-- there was no other path available. We were going to eat whether we wanted to or not (and, I probably would have opted not since it was about 4:45 and not an ideal dinner time... but the only way in was through the food line and the people at the lodge seemed really proud of their food and were very nice, so it seemed like it would be rude not to take some. This was only the second full day on the cruise-- the ridiculousness of the food pushing became funnier and funnier to us as the days went on. The only way to avoid having food pushed on you was to hide out in your room.)
The salmon was really good ( and I'm not really a fan of salmon). We learned all about salmon from our bus driver as well (there are five kinds: chum, silver salmon, king salmon, pink salmon, and sockeye salmon-- we were eating silver salmon at the lodge.).
I think it is different when it's caught minutes before you eat it-- I'm not sure I've ever had fish so fresh. We weren't at the lodge long (though, long enough for many of those in our group to go back to the buffet line at least once more)-- just enough time to eat and go look at the "fish tank" which contained fish and sea life that had been brought up earlier that day (they return them to the waters later). I've never seen a purple starfish before-- the colors of the animals were incredible (though it was a bit dark around the tank so they don't look as vibrant in the photos. It made me really excited for the snorkeling adventure I had signed up for later in the week.).
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But, after just a few minutes with the sea creatures, it was back on the boat to go off in search of humpback whales (just as a warning so you don't get your hopes up-- there are no whale pictures forthcoming. They're too unpredictable and fast to take pictures, especially with a point-and-shoot camera.)
Getting back on the boat was its own fiasco; Martha and I took empty seats near a window upstairs which, apparently, someone else had been sitting in on the way to Orca Lodge and it became this whole drama. The woman in the couple was clearly upset that she wasn't getting to sit in the same seat, Martha was trying to tell her that if it was a big deal, we could just move, the woman behind us was loudly exclaiming that since they hadn't left anything on the seats, they couldn't expect to have them back, and the husband of the woman whose wanted her seat back was getting mad at his wife for assuming she owned the seats. The whole thing reverberated through the boat as people who hadn't "saved" seats were displaced in turn. It's an interesting psychological moment-- there is a stange attachement to seats that I don't quite understand. It made a little sense later as some people refused to get out of their seats when we got to our whale watching spot-- I suppose if you were going to refuse to go outside then being close to a window was important (though still presented a limited view, I'm guessing. I was outside on deck for much of the 2 hours we were actually chasing whales).
We saw lots of humpback whales including a mother and her calf; mothers and their babies swim in unison which is pretty cool. None of the whales fully breached the water, or at least I feel like I never really saw a whale face. I saw a lot of the "humpbacks" and tails and lots of spouts of spewing out of the water. And we saw sea lions (Those I got a picture of since they sit still, lounging lazily on the bouy. However, they are a little blurry since the boat was moving.).
It is really quite cool to watch the whales breach the water and dive back down-- the enormity of them becomes quite clear when you see them that close. There was never going to be a moment, however, when they were just hanging out. They came to this area in Juneau to feed and spend 22 hours of the day doing just that since there is no food available at their breeding grounds. And, to feed, they largely have to be underwater where the food is... that we saw so many come to the surface seems rather incredible.
We spent about 2 hours out on the water (in the rain and the cold, I might add-- though there was no way Martha and I were going to go back inside and try to fight for a seat near a window to watch; that could have been a bloodbath) looking at whales before we headed back to the dock to get back on the bus (which was incident free even though we legitimately could not remember which seats we had originally been in and so I'm sure we sat in a different spot) and return to our ship. There was only about an hour left before we had to be back on the boat to take off again, so we never got to go into the actual city of Juneau, but I don't think that kind of sight seeing was really the point of any of these stops. We did really fabulous excursions, but none of them were to the cities themselves (though, to be fair, at this point the cities are largely there to serve as gift shops for the cruise ships that are coming through so it doesn't seem like there is much "cultural" to see in the towns proper. All the interesting sights are things the excursions took us to. Or, at least that's how it seemed to me.).
Our salmon dinner had been at 4:30 that day-- which meant that by late in the evening, we were both really hungry. We debated ordering room service-- and ordering everything on the menu just to see if they would bring it all to us since we couldn't decide what we wanted (and, room service food is "free") but then we realized there was late night snack so we headed up to that (in our pajamas which was so much better than having to dress up to go to dinner in the formal dining room). Late night snack is its own strange frenzy with people gobbling up last minute desserts (probably for the 4th or 5th time that day); I did, however, get a cup of the best soup I had on board. I wish I knew what it was-- it was Asian inspired but not like any soup I've ever had before. It was really good though- good enough that I kept looking for it for the rest of the week and was a little disappointed that it didn't return. And thus ended day three-- eating at 11 pm.
Night 3 Towel Animal:
Day 4: Skagway
Day 4 found us entering another port: Skagway. The actual town is located right off the dock and is about 4 blocks, so we got to see some of it. But first, we took a 4 hour train ride
up White Pass and the Yukon Route to an elevation of nearly 3000 feet and back down again. The scenery changed quite a bit as our elevation changed. We started off quite green
and then ended up in snow.
It was wonderfully scenic and interesting since, while it seemed rather insurmountable, it was once home to many paths that settlers used as they tried to make their way into the Alaskan frontier to hunt for gold. This was basically our starting point:
Amazingly, while I was snapping pictures as the train took off, just about everyone in our car pulled out snacks-- clearly there was anxiety about having to go a few hours without being fed. I thought it was nice that the train company provided complimentary bottles of water... but I do get that's not the same as food (though where the others all got food from, I don't know).
Lots of people, and even more horses (since those travelling didn't properly know how to take care of their horses, didn't have enough food for them and loaded them down with too much weight) died along the way and those who did make it through couldn't really make a living off the scant amont of gold available. Only the first arrivals really made any money off of gold; the rest made money off of swindling those who came behind. You can tell that it used to be much more inhabited because of signes like this one for Brackett Road (though there is no road left) which marked a toll point (2 cents a pound for freight, $1 a horse and $10 for a wagon which seems expensive even by today's standards when I think about it. Tolls on highways aren't that for cars).
The rush to find gold in this area began around 1897 and led quickly to the need for the railway we were taking our tour on.
On the way up, we passed by other historical markers, like Buchanan Rock which was painted by the Buchanan Boys Tour Group who came from Detroit to visit Skagway each year from about 1920-1930.
And, we passed Bridal Veils Fall (though, as noted earlier, waterfalls don't photograph well--this one came out ok, though) which cascades down 6000 feet and derives from two glaciers: Mt. Cleveland and Mt. Clifford.
There were smaller, seasonal waterfalls along the way as well. I managed to get a fairly decent picture of this one.
And, we passed Inspiration Point from which you can see back into the harbor where our cruise ship was parked (it looked so tiny).
The railroad itself was completed in July of 1900. We passed by the now unused (and quite rickety looking) Steel Bridge
which was the tallest cantilever bridge in the world when it was built in 1901 (It remained the tallest until 1969.) on our way over a different, more sturdy bridge and into a 675 foot tunnel which was created in 1969.
You can get a sense of what the approach to the tunnel was like from video (it's shaky... it's hard to take video on a moving train of the moving train).
On the other side of this bridge is the primary trail people used to to go through Skagway on their way to the gold, though it's quite hard to figure out how they were all able to traverse that terrain (and, apparently, it was a really crowded trail). We ended the journey up at White Pass, elevation 2888 feet
which is at the Canadian/US border and is marked by both flags as well as a small gold post.
There is also a larger set of flags marking the spot which also includes the British Columbia flag and a couple others.
Here, the engine moved to what would now be the front of the train, we "flipped" the backs of our seats to face forwards again and there was a mandatory seat switch so that those who were on the inside on the way up were now on the outside on the way down (the inside view is better-- several people in our car tried to defy the mandatory switch, clearly believing they deserved inside seats both ways but Martha and I did manage to get our new, inside seats [we were outside on the way up) even though it took some real jostling). It does take less time to get back down the mountain-- gravity at work.
We arrived back with a couple of hours to kill before the ship left again, so we wandered through the four blocks of Skagway which is still set up to look like the frontier town it once was, though most of the shops now sell jewelry (surprisingly, not all gold) and souvenirs.
There were a few historical sites, like this replica building of The Mascot Saloon which was originally built in 1898 and was opened and closed several times until 1916 when it was closed for good,
a very small museum in which we learned that the last shot of the Civil War was actually fired in Alaska (who knew they even had a real stake in it? It wasn't much of one since this "last shot" was fired two months after the surrender.),and a few retired train cars scattered around,
but mostly, it felt just like walking through souvenir land so we headed back to the ship to find food (it had been about 6 hours since breakfast and we were snackless on the train-- we were legitimately hungry by this point).
Back in the room we decided that we couldn't yet brave the food frenzy, so we ordered room service snacks-- cheese plates and a plate of fruit which went really well with the bottle of sparkling wine that had been waiting on us since we arrived on Saturday. Room service really is a nice alternative to the chaos of the food decks-- and it comes 24 hours a day which is fabulous. (We clearly weren't the only ones who appreciated room service because the couple times we called, we were put on hold to wait.)
Our other dining strategy was to ask to be seated by ourselves. I'm sure it made us seem unfriendly, but it was better than feeling the pressure to eat food we didn't want. And it saved us from having to make small talk with people when we were too exhausted to think. Some of the people on board-- especially the Australian masses-- were really fun and lovely. It's just so hard to be lively and conversational with complete strangers for hours (and dinner really did take at least an hour and a half if not longer--it sort of depended on how many courses fellow diners ordered) after sigtseeing all day.
At the end of the evening, we decided we should go take in a different entertainment venue, so we went to see Barbi and the HAL Cats (the HAL Cats are made up of whichever musicians onboard are available/scheduled that night and the lead singer changes too, so sometimes they were Ricky and the HAL Cats... or someone else). They were working really hard and I felt a little bad for them because it really wasn't a dancing crowd in the lounge with the exception of one Australian woman (who, like most of the other Aussies on the ship was trying to boister energy by yelling "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" and waiting for the "Oy, oy oy" response. I think this is how they were finding each other all over the ship because it happened at random a lot. It's much like Marco/Polo.). She seemed to be having a good time dancing around on her own and talking to the band-- and maybe it got more lively later. We left to go to bed so we could be up early to listen to the park rangers talk about Glacier Bay-- which we were going to be entering at around 6:15 am.
Towel animal, night 4:
We also got a towel rose that evening...
Day 5: Glacier Bay
It is somewhat difficult to find an Alaskan Cruise that goes into Glacier Bay, but everything we read about Alaskan Cruises suggested it wasn't worth the money and time if Glacier Bay wasn't a part of the cruise. Holland America's Zuiderdam is one of the few that takes that route and that is the main reason we chose that line and ship (though, it turned out to be a good choice for other reasons-- it really is a nice cruise line and much more upscale, according to Martha, than others. For example, all meals are served on china and all the glasses on board are actually glass. It's clearly not a cruise line catering to drunk 20-somethings who break things.) So, because our entire choice had been largely dictated by this day in Glacier Bay, we were up early to see as much of it as possible-- and to hear the information provided by park rangers who came aboard that morning to talk while we were going through the Bay. The ranger was broadcast into staterooms on a closed circuit channel and broadcast on the viewing decks which was nice because it meant we could learn about the glaciers while we stood out on deck watching them-- and the approach through Glacier Bay to them, like in this video.
This was really the first day that it felt like we were in Alaska in terms of weather; the whale boat had been cold, but it was moving fast and it was raining. But, Glacier Bay is actually cold in a wintery way (I can't imagine what it would be like in actual winter). Not a bitter cold, but that peaceful, gentle cold like right after it snows. What's amazing is how blue the water is-- it's actually turquoise (I'm not sure if you can tell how true blue it is from the pictures...).
It's due to the silt that runs into the water from the glaciers. What you can tell from the photos is how blue the ice is... which amazed me again, the same way it did at Mendenhall Glacier.
As we got closer and closer to the top of the bay, approaching Margerie Glacier, the chunks of ice coming our way got bigger. (It briefly occurred to me that steering towards ice was the downfall of the Titanic... but it seemed like the captain and park rangers knew what they were doing.) It was unbelievably beautiful.
Glacier Bay is a protected national park that didn't exist the way we see it today a couple hundred years ago. In 1750, it was at its maximum extent during the "little ice age". The bay itself didn't even exist then-- it was all ice. It's recessed more than 65 miles today, though there are some glaciers in the bay which are still advancing. It's just that most are not. Apparently, there are bears, mountain goats and even moose roaming in the park-- and, yet again we saw none of them. But, we did get really close to Margerie Glacier, one of the largest.
And, we saw pieces of the glacier fall off which was really cool (and, doesn't always happen).
Even though they were relatively small pieces (in comparison to Margerie Glacier herself) falling off, it was still quite loud when the pieces broke. It really does sound like thunder-- I can't imagine how loud it would be if a large piece fell. Again, it was a little hard to get on camera-- there's no predicable pattern or timing. Pieces fell from a general area, but not a clear section. And they fall quite fast at random intervals. I got a little bit of it in video. And you can see the falling motion/splash in some of the pictures (like the one above).
A Holland American tradition is to server pea soup while in Glacier Bay, and so at about 10:30 am, the crew started coming around the deck handing out soup. (Nothing happens on a cruise ship without food!) The soup was really good; however, Martha went back to our room to grab her iPad to take photos with and left her remaining pea soup in our room which, when we returned later, had congealed to a solid mass (truly solid-- we turned the cup upside down and the spoon stayed in it and nothing dripped out) which was a little scary. It makes me wonder how much lard was in that soup-- and glad I only ate a small cup of it.
We were at Margerie Glacier for a while during which the park ranger was silent. The whole thing was quiet and serene-- which made the falling pieces seem even louder and more thunderous. I took video to get a sense of the vastness-- and the sound (or lack of sound) of it.
And then, after getting a good look, we took off back down the bay to go by Lamplugh Glacier (we went inside for a bit to warm up) which is considerably smaller than Margerie Glacier (I sort of feel like we should have gone there first because it seemed less impressive after viewing Margerie).
There was a really cool waterfall coming through a cave in the glacier and out into the bay.
It was pretty amazing actually, but try as I might, I couldn't really get the impact in photos or video-- it was a lot better through binoculars. (It's coming out to the right of the jutting ice mass in the picture above.) You can see it a little better in the video because it's moving.
We headed back out of Glacier Bay-- back through the chunks of ice I had been watching for a few hours in the morning-- and that seemed like a good time to get lunch before heading in to watch that afternoon's Dancing with the Stars at Sea competition.
Dancing with the Stars at Sea is a Holland America thing; each day, dancers on the boat teach one dance to whomever shows up and 4 professional dancers (the stars) choose passengers as their parterns to compete. The two top performers from each day compete on the last day to win the chance at a free cruise on which they will compete with other winners from other ships in the line (how they finally get chosen for the free cruise is a little unclear to me-- it may very well be a lottery system). The day we went, they were doing the Cha Cha. It was quite entertaining, really. And, the judges were truly kind-- I think it was impossible to get less than an 8 and it was unheard of to get a less than enthusiasic review. The two top scorers from that day went on to perform in the finale on Friday (which we also went to see... more later).
From Dancing with the Stars, we went to that day's tea-- tiny cupcake tea. This time, there was no buffet of food; cupcakes were brought to the tables on trays. This ruined it a little for me because I was looking forward to seeing how many cupcakes passengers would try to balance on their plates and I missed that glutonous display. However, gluttony must have been alive and well because when Martha and I took only one cupcake each, the steward refused to move from in front of us, holding out the tray in disbelief that we were only taking one. We had to tell him twice that we didn't want any more-- he seemed disappointed.
Because were on the boat all day (and, pretty much out of Glacier Bay by 1:30 or so), there was a lot of entertainment planned. So, that evening, we went to see the magician/illusionist who was really pretty good. He did a lot of standard illusions—like making the lady in the box disappear, pulling birds out of seemingly empty hats and scarves, linking and unlinking seemingly solid rings. And then, there were tricks that included his two French poodles who were adorable and very well trained. Tricks with them included making one of the dogs disappear into a box that collapsed and then reappear later, in another trick, from a mound of scarves. The dogs totally steal the show.
From the magic show, we headed to dinner—as did everyone else who was at the magic show. And, again, it was like they hadn’t eaten in weeks. We got pushed aside as people tried to race down the hall to be in line first. One woman shoved people out of the way as she pushed her daughter forward through the throngs. It was crazy—and utterly unnecessary since we were all going to get to eat. Martha and I decided once again that we weren’t up to eating with our fellow, ruthless, passengers and asked for a table alone.
Night five towel animal:
Day 6: Ketchikan
Our last day of shore excursions was in Ketchikan. We were told that it always rains in Ketchikan—and it did. I don’t think it ever stopped raining while we were there. However, I was going snorkelling, so it didn’t really matter. (Martha had elected to go up in a float plane for her excursion.)
I have never snorkelled before; I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but it was a little more precarious at first than I would have thought. I was also a little unprepared; I was the only one who got on the bus without a towel. Honestly, it didn’t occur to me that there wouldn’t be one available to me later—I guess it should have though because the night before, two purple towels had mysteriously appeared in our state room. There was no explanation for them, but somehow I was supposed to know that these were the towels the ship was providing me with to take on the snorkelling excursion. A note would have helped (they provide notes about everything else…). I was the only one who didn’t get “the note”, however—everyone else had their purple towels with them. (Fortunately, there were towels at the snorkel shop as well, so it all worked out. And, it also meant I was kind of right in assuming that there would be towels provided later in the day.) The mysterious purple towels made a lot of sense, but only in retrospect.
The bus we took to the snorkel shop went past downtown Ketchikan; as in Juneau, my only view of the town was through the bus windows. But, it looked like the other towns we’d docked at—small and filled with souvenir shops. We also passed an area with a lot of totem poles—going to that village was a possible excursion as well and probably would have been interesting. But, I was on my way to get a close-up look at sea creatures (you, however, will not get such a look… there are no pictures because I don’t have an underwater camera. It looked a lot like the photos from Orca Lodge, only with a lot more coral and much bigger.). So, it kind of looked like this (without the toy whale):
The first task was getting into the wet suit; it’s a 7mm wet suit, which is apparently quite thick for a wet suit, so that we could get into the cold water and be warm. That is was so thick also made it that more difficult to get into—I did pretty well until I had the sleeves almost up and then I got kind of stuck. And, since I then couldn’t move my arms very well, I couldn’t really “twist” to pull the suit the rest of the way, so one of our guides had to help me. But really, none of us seemed able to completely do it by ourselves, so I think I did pretty well. From the snorkel shop, we got back on the bus and drove about a mile to the beach.
Getting from the bus to the beach was actually the most dangerous part for me—we signed waivers on our way to the snorkel shop that acknowledged that any water activity presents a certain amount of danger, etc. But, it said nothing about walking down a steep, rocky slope and, in my case, doing that blind (I had to trade in my glasses for goggles… and I don’t see well without my glasses.). There was a real chance I was going to kill myself on the rocks before I ever got to the water. I did put my goggles on to help me a bit—it made the ground clearer so I could see the rocky terrain, though the perspective was still a bit off. But, having made my way to the beach, the truly hard part was over—or at least the part where I really thought I could have gotten hurt. (I don’t really think anyone would have let that happen. I’m pretty sure our guides were watching us pretty closely… I’m not positive though since I was so focused on watching the ground for rocks I was going to slip on.)
Once on the beach, we donned flippers and got in the water. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to breathe and to be honest, I was really uncomfortable for about the first five minutes. The breathing is a bit counterintuitive and it’s kind of a matter of working against the fear in your brain that says you’re not supposed to stick your head under water and breathe in. (It also took a few tries to get my gear tight enough; at first, water kept getting into my goggles.) Our guides were really helpful and patient though; they were really fabulous, especially since there were only a couple of us who had ever been snorkeling before.
What was truly surprising was how warm it was in the wet suits. We had been told that it would be warm even once we were in the cold water, but it’s kind of hard to believe until you are in the water and it’s pretty warm. Not toasty, per se, but comfortable and enjoyable. I had actually been much colder back at the ship waiting on the dock for the bus to arrive than I was at any time in the cold Alaskan waters. And, after the first few minutes of sort of struggling to learn to breathe with a snorkel, it was really lovely. I saw tiny jellyfish go by (the only creature which seemed to be smaller in Alaska than in east coast waters) as well as swam over large banks of coral. I ran my hand into the middle of schools of small fish—probably some baby salmon (the adult salmon aren’t quite migrating yet). And our guides, who were equipped with weight belts so that they could dive down deep (the wet suits are so thick that they cause you to float—you have to fight really hard against them to get under the water), brought up sea creatures for us to see and hold, like sea cucumbers (which are surprisingly heavy), sea urchins, and many different starfish including a purple one like the one from Orca Lodge as well as a bright orange and pink one. I’ve only seen brown, and relatively small, starfish before. Our guides said that the cold water makes everything grow bigger and that seemed to be true (except in the case of jellyfish).
We were in the water for close to an hour—and then it was time to head out. Getting out of the wet suit is easier than getting into it, though a surprising lot of water comes out when you take the boots off. I knew that there was water in the wet suit, that it wasn’t air tight. I think I just thought I would have been a lot colder with that much water in the suit. I just kept being surprised by how warm I was the whole time.
Once back on the cruise ship, I decided to take a shower and get something to eat rather than head into downtown Ketchikan—it was raining pretty hard by that point. And, I was covered in sea water. And hungry since breakfast has been hours and hours ago. Martha was back from her amazing float plane trip but wasn’t hungry, so I braved the Lido deck on my own—and nearly got into a fight with an elderly man over pizza. I got to the pizza station as the last pieces were being taken. But, the nice steward near the station called in the back for more pizza and soon the chef was bringing out fresh slices. All of the sudden, like it was some kind of mating call, there was a long line of people behind me to get the fresh pizza and this man was pushing me from behind to get me out of the way so he could grab his own pizza. He’s lucky he looked to be about 70; I wasn’t actually going to get in a fight with an elderly man—but again I was shocked by the sheer desperation with which people went after any and all food. And, some of them had clearly been on the Lido Deck for a while; they were at tables with piles of plates. I, on the other hand, hadn’t eaten in about 6 hours… I managed to get two small slices of pizza and then headed away from the throngs at the buffet and went to eat by the indoor pool where I thought people might be a little more calm.
That evening, we went to see the final song and dance show of the cruise, a show featuring songs from stage and screen. Again it was good—and they performed the theme song from Titanic. I was expecting they would, but I think I would have been disappointed had they not. They also performed Purple Rain—not that I don’t love a good Prince ballad, but Martha and I might have been the only ones in the audience who know who Prince is. From the show, we went to dinner. And, from dinner, we went to the piano bar to kill about 45 minutes before the Dessert Extravaganza was scheduled to begin. (The piano bar theme that night was Elvis; I really liked Jimmy, the entertainer who was in the piano bar all week, but I really don’t like many Elvis songs. We left after a few numbers to take pictures of the dessert before the eating onslaught began.)
On this second to last night, instead of late night snack, there was the Dessert Extravaganza.
Every dessert you can think of was set up around the indoor pool, beautifully displayed
and surrounded by ice sculptures as well.
And, as expected, it was complete chaos and frenzy. There was no order to it and there were multiple lines for different stations: chocolate fountains, ice cream, cakes, etc. Martha got something off of the sugar free dessert table, mostly because the line was short (though she said it was really good). I got a crepe in an orange liqueur sauce-- again because the crepe line was short (I don't think people knew what it was) but it was good too. And then it became too overwhelming and not worth the fight, so we retreated back to our room, and to our latest towel animal:
Day 7: On the boat
Our last day of the cruise was a day at sea, heading back to the Vancouver port.
It was filled with views like this which were lovely, but actually had seemed more amazing on the first day, before glaciers and mountains and whales. Still, not a bad day at sea...
We did decide to brave the Lido Deck for breakfast on our last full day—we got there close to the end of breakfast so it wasn’t too crazy. And then, we killed some time on the boat until it was time for lunch. The day before, I had discovered (a little late) that there is a separate food area near the indoor pool; it served burgers and hot dogs and there was also a taco and nacho bar set up. So, rather than fight through the buffet, we went to the pool and ate from the taco bar which was really quite good, especially the empanadas. And, we finished lunch just in time to go to the Dancing with the Stars at Sea finale.
In the finale, passengers who had won the previous three dance specific competitions were all competing against each other for the chance to be the winner of this cruise and to, somehow, be entered to win the chance to compete on behalf of the Zuiderdam in a Dancing with the Stars at Sea battle between ships which meant winning a free cruise. Again, not quite clear to me how the actual competitors on this cruise are going to be chosen… I still think it has to be some kind of lottery. The passengers and the professional dancers were really good—and really good sports—about all of it. I’m pretty sure the girl who actually one had some ballet dancing; she seemed a little more fluid than the others. Better, however, was the woman sitting next to us who, as our cruise director Hamish (totally cute and delightful) was drawing out the suspense while announcing the winners, was quite loudly muttering, “come on, come on, come on” clearly really impatient to find out the winner. As soon as it was announced, she and her husband raced from the theatre. I assumed they were going to tea which was soon going to start (and everyone rushes for food) but it turned out they were headed to see the magician's Friday show. I saw them when I got to the very crowded lounge he was scheduled to perform in. He needed a bigger space; seats were long gone and the woman was complaining to her husband, “ Where did all these kids come from? And why do they all get seats?” (I have to say, there were probably about 150 kids on board and I rarely saw any of them, which was nice. But, an afternoon, family-friendly magic show does seem like the place where they would be likely to mingle with the adults. I’m not sure why she thought they didn’t deserve seats.) People were pushing in behind me and I was getting really smushed and a bit claustrophobic, so I just left.
Then, there was more time to kill until we entered Alert Bay, a small bay where we were going to be serenaded by a trumpeter. It was also where a town boasting the tallest totem pole is located and we were supposed to be able to see said totem pole, but I don’t think anyone did-- I know I didn't. We did see the trumpeter, however. He would race past the boat and then play a song as we passed him. He did this about five times (again, a little hard to film since we were moving and he was moving...).
If you liked him, you can apparently tip him online.
And then, we went to our final dinner where, at the end, we were treated to a parade of our stewards and chefs
and the Dance of the Baked Alaskas.
It didn’t film very well—but you can tell how the pastry chefs are all dancing by with electric candles and Baked Alaska. And, some of the stewards were clearly having a good time.
The Baked Alaskas were giant—all week long, there had been a signature Baked Alaska on the dessert menu (the ice cream flavor and toppings changed every night), but they were always served in relatively small silver bowls. These were on plates—and they were then given to tables after the dance. This is remarkable only because I assumed that they were for the whole table to share until I saw one table where one man ate the whole plate of Baked Alaska while his fellow diners ordered other desserts. It was a nice summing up of the whole food craze of the cruise.
We ended our night with a few minutes in the piano bar listening to Jimmy sing songs about leaving or returning home and then went back to our room to pack… and to see our final towel animal.
Day 8: Leaving
By the end of our cruise, according to the cruise log we were given, we had sailed 1,974 nautical miles (1 nautical mile= 1.15 statute miles) aboard a ship with 1916 passengers and 823 crew members. The fastest we ever went was 23 knots, though we were usually going slower, and we consumed 57,000 gallons of fuel (diesel) a day.
We were in the first disembarkation group because we had a relatively early flight. Getting off the boat was much less of a herding experience than getting on (they just want passengers off—new ones would be getting on in just a few short hours). And, everything went amazingly smoothly—especially at the Vancouver Airport where all the security and customs agents are friendly and organized. It was the best run airport I’ve ever been in and it took us no time to get to our gate even though we had to clear US customs before getting on the plane (which did make flying into Chicago a lot easier as well). It took a lot of hours—but we got back to North Carolina with no hitches or delays.
Being back is strange mostly because now I really feel like I’m on a boat. My equilibrium is really out of whack—I’ve been told this will clear up sometime relatively soon, but in the meantime, I find myself having to hold onto walls at times to get around my house without falling over. It’s an interesting remnant of the trip—but the rocking sensation without the view really isn’t the same.
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