Happy September! I went back and forth about how to write this What I Did on My Summer Vacation blog post. I guess I'll just tell it like it was...
We spent the summer living on a cruise ship in Alaska! Even though we've been going to Alaska by cruise ship over 20 years now, this time we left in June and returned home after kids were already back in school in August. We had a predictable schedule with the itinerary being the exact same week after week after week (after week). The home port was Seattle, Washington and we visited Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, Alaska, Victoria, Canada, had some scenic glacier cruising, and had a couple sea days. Again and again and again (and again). And nope, we never tired of it.
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| Who could tire of this view each week leaving Skagway? |
We were there for the beauty of Alaska and we sure got it. We had rain, fog, wind, and a little sun and it was all simply spectacular.
We also had multiple nights of the Northern Lights appearing off our balcony.
We were also there for my birthday (a big one with a zero at the end of it), Ed's birthday, and our 41st wedding anniversary. The restaurant manager and pastry chef made sure we had special cakes for the occasions.
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Ed was given three cakes.
This was his breakfast cake! |
The restaurant manager and pastry chef also took care of us each night at dinner, making special dishes and desserts.
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| Shrimp with champagne and garlic made just for us? Sure! |
We were also there to gamble. We had casino offer cruises and Princess gave us a lot of free play to use in the casino and we sure used it. Some weeks we had $200 to spend in free play and some weeks $1500! It had to be used up before we could cash it out, but we were able to manage winning quite well so we took plenty of cash home to deposit into our bank account. It's being used to book more cruises, of course!
Then the last week we were using the free play on a 10 cent poker machine and hit a Royal Flush and walked away with another $1200.
We also were there to visit some old friends. And then unfortunately we came across some others who desperately wanted to be our new friends. As we were in the top 3 of the most traveled guests onboard we ate lunch at the Captain's table each week for the Most Traveled Guest Luncheon. Being in the top 3 also gets you a special recognition at the Captain's Circle Cocktail party later in the week. There were a couple passengers onboard for a few weeks who really, really, really wanted to be our "friends" and be invited as our guests to the party. After the interactions with them we've decided we are more than happy to dissolve back into the rest of the crowd for our next cruises.
And while we didn't plan it, we also wound up being in Alaska for some significant events. We were docked in Ketchikan on the day a tsunami was issued in Alaska because of the earthquake in Russia. Then we were a day out from our scenic cruising in the fjord when a significant landslide created a tsunami. Here is an interesting article from the Alaska Earthquake Center on that event. And then we were in Juneau on the day a flood warning was issued and residents evacuated because of a glacier outburst. We'll go with a PBS article for information on that event.
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| No tsunami in sight |
We were also in Juneau when we wound up in a mob of screaming teenagers. Took these old folks some time to figure out what the big deal was, but seems there were some TikTok influencers (like with millions of followers) near where we were sitting. It was quite the thing to watch. And surprise - these young people were actually on our ship acting like regular young adults with none of the antics we saw onshore, or antics we saw when we looked at their social media pages. I definitely won't be sharing any of those links.
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View of the ship from The Hangar on the Wharf Restaurant.
Who knew what would await us when we left the building? |
And yet it wasn't the only interesting experience. A TV film crew was onboard filming a documentary about Princess Cruises to be shown primetime in the UK. The casting director contacted me about possibly appearing in the show. When she found I wasn't interested in participating in the overpriced ship excursions (and being all rah-rah about it) they passed. Just fine with me.
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| Ketchikan is just as pretty without an overpriced ship excursion |
It was a great summer vacation, one I wish I could take again. But I'm not thinking about next summer. Fall is on my mind as I'll be heading out on my solo trip next month. I'll be joining the Ruby Princess for a little California Coastal cruise, followed by a Mexican Riviera cruise, followed by a cruise to Hawaii. I'll be live blogging that one, so check back next month to follow along on my next cruising adventure.
Happy sailing!
