Alaska Cruise Day 6 – Ketchikan

June 21, 2007

Today, our port of call would be Ketchikan. It’s considered the first city of Alaska since its the first sign of civilization as you head North into Alaska from its Southern most tip.

Our scheduled arrival time was 1:00 pm. I think we were originally scheduled to dock in Ketchikan, but the port was overcrowded, as have been all the ports, and it was announced we would be tendering in at 1:00 pm with the ship later docking at 3:00 pm once another ship had left port.

Since our planned excursion, The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, had a planned 3:00 pm start, we planned to tender in. That actually works out well since the kids, and myself, like the tenders. They become mini boat rides. Most of the older folks don’t like tendering in because of getting in and out of the tender boats.

This is where Celebrity screwed up. I don’t know if they figured most folks would wait for the docking instead of tendering or what, but they fouled up the tendering process pretty bad and pissed off a bunch of folks. The tendering process was supposed to start at 1:00 pm, so we arrive at the theater to get our tender tickets about 12:45. We got tender ticket #7 which meant we would be on the seventh tender. They also had another room of folks with excursions between 1:00 and 2:30 that they were tendering separate from the folks in the theater.

Normally, when we have tendered in before, they run about 6 tenders to keep a steady stream of folks going. Today, they were only running three tenders which made for a slow operation. I have never waited more than 15 minutes for a tender before. After waiting 90 minutes, we finally got our tender. Turns out it was the last tender before they docked.

90 minutes? Wow, lucky I was on vacation and not gonna get mad. A lot of other folks couldn’t say the same thing. Celebrity had some pretty irate folks that were worried about missing their excursions, a lot of them the same one we were on. They had given out tender tickets all the way to 18, that I know of, and these folks all waited in the theater like we did. Everyone could have used the 90 minutes of waiting to do something else besides sit in the thearer waiting for their tender ticket to be called. I have no clue why they were only running three tenders. I guess they wanted to have to load back on to the ship as few craft as possible. All in all, they managed the tendering/docking process pretty poorly.

In the end, it was kind of funny for us. Being the last tender, the ship was actually moving and enroute to the dock while be boarded the tender. When we separated from the ship, we circled behind the Mercury and headed to the docks. In some irony, we actually docked in our tender at about the same time as the Mercury was just docking and send its mooring lines to the port personnel. The other ships in port were the Celebrity Summit, the Holland America Volendam and the Princess Coral Princess.

Once in Ketchikan, we headed to the lumberjack show. As usual for Ketchikan, it was raining – not a heavy rain, but a soft rain, a little bit more than a drizzle. This was the first bit of rain we have encountered on the cruise. The weather has been usually wonderful for Alaska. Ketchikan gets like 200 inches of precipitation (snow or rain) in a year.

We ended up with a front row seat at the lumberjack show. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the show, but the kids were very excited. I must say, the say completely surprised me. It was exactly like you see on ESPN or outdoor channels, but was very entertaining. They also threw in a few comedy sketches. They did a wonderful job of getting the crowd into the show and keeping your attention for the entire time. I would say that as our excursions went, it was my favorite.

As part of the show, there was a competition between two teams. The audience was divided into two sides to cheer for their side. When a competitor won a competition, he gave a piece of the remaining wood chip to an audience member to help keep score. Being in the front row, we were in prime seating for this. Sean and Savannah each received a wood disk after a sawing competition. They call them their free souveniers. They are about 15 inches in diameter and an inch or two thick. Of course, the kids wanted to keep them. Figuring there was no way ship security would let them bring them on the boat, we said sure. To my surprise, they were allowed back on the ship with them. Security looked at them a bit funny, said something about cutting boards and just let them back on. Now, we have to get them packed in our luggage.

After the show, we did a bit of shopping in town before heading back to the ship. Dinner was once again very enjoyable. Since Suzanne’s birthday was a couple of weeks before the cruise and my sister Barb’s birthday is a week after the cruise, I let the maitre de know this. They brought out a couple of birthday cakes to help celebrate and sang them Happy Birthday. Suzanne, of course, loved the attention and was all smiles. My sister, however, hates the attention and gave me several glares. Oh well…

The evening’s entertainment included the cruise ship version of the Newlywed and Not So Newlywed game show. It was 30 minutes of nonstop laughing. The kids wanted Suzanne and I to be a part of the game, but we weren’t anxious and didn’t even try.

After the game show, comedian Don Sherman took the stage. We had seen him before on the Mexico cruise last November. He is a very, very funny guy. About half way through the show, however, he suddenly began talking very slow and looked a bit confused. He said he wasn’t feeling well and said he was going to have to go. He walked off the stage, but about 5 seconds later came back. He apologized saying he had gotten very dizzy. Don must be 70 or 80 as he has been around a long time. He started his show back up, but after about 5 more minutes excused himself again. The cruise ship director came out and started to conclude the show and give the plans for the night and next day. After about 30 seconds, Don Sherman came back out. He apologized once again saying that this had never happened before. He talked about dizziness but felt fine now. He couldn’t remember what parts of the show he had done and what parts he hadn’t done. The crowd told him the last joke he had done and he picked up the show from there and completed it in excellent form. Like I said, he is a very funny man. I am not sure why the cruise ship personnel let him keep coming back out as there was clearly something wrong. He seemed fine at the end, but I hope the medical staff checked him out anyways. If you ever get a chance to see a Don Sherman show, do so.

We turned in for the night at about 11:00 but since we were losing an hour due to a time change, it worked out well. Tomorrow is a day at sea, our final full day of the cruise, enroute back to Vancouver.

Alaskan Cruise Day 5 – Hubbard Glacier

June 20, 2007

Today, the itinerary of our Alaskan cruise onboard the Celebrity Mercury called for us to cruise Glacier Bay and visit the Hubbard Glacier. On our last cruise to Alaska, this was a highlight for us.

While Suzanne and the kids slept in late, I arose for an early breakfast at 7:30 with my mother, aunt and sister and her husband. I wanted to be able to get up on deck early for a prime spot to watch the icebergs and scenery on our approach to the glaciers.

The weather couldn’t have been better – clear skies and not too cold. The naturalist on board stated that todays conditions were a once or twice a season conditions with incredible visibility. He was actually giddy with excitement because of everything he could see and relay to us.

It was again neat to see icebergs close up as we approached the glaciers. Of course, some people were a bit nervous to be that close to icebergs and in some cases, pushing them aside with the vessel. Last cruise, we saw seals, sea lions, otters and other animals on the icebergs. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any creatures on the bergs this time. In fact, the icebergs were much smaller in size and fewer this time around too. I don’t know if it has anything to do with it being 2 or 3 weeks later in the season or not.

The glacier was busy with other cruise ships just like the port cities. When we arrived, the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas was first in line and navigating through the ice field to the glacier. They reported very thick ice up close the glaciers so we wouldn’t be able to get as close as everyone had hoped to get. We stayed back a bit while they took a look at the glacier, then it was our turn.

We had a nice view on the top deck right at the railing. The view was breathtaking. Words cannot do it justice. The naturalist added many nice discussions to the view and let us know what we were seeing. Eveyone was hoping to see the glacier calving (process of pieces falling off into the ocean). However, we didn’t get close enough to see it with the naked eye though the naturalist reported many such occasions using binoculars. We had our video camera zoomed in really far and think we captured a few, but will have to wait until we get home to see for sure.

We stayed as near to the glacier as we could for about an hour taking lots of pictures and enjoying the wonderful view. Then, it was time to go and let the next ship, the Holland America Oosterdam in for her turn. For those who have been reading my daily log, you will notice the many ships we have encountered on this cruise. What’s amazing there is that each place, for the most part, is different ships. This is a busy place this time of year. Cruise ship passengers certainly outnumber the local Alaskan population.

Evening was again another formal night with another fantastic meal. The meal was capped off by the Baked Alaska parade and celebration. We have really enjoyed the evening meals with our group. We don’t always see each other for breakfast or lunch, but have made a point of dining for dinner together except for the one time they were on an excursion.

After dinner, we enjoyed the Celebrity Singers and Dancers production show. It was quite enjoyable. It was also the first show that my mother and aunt have attended as they have been early to bed most nights. They were glad they went. Suzanne sang a couple of karaoke songs later in the evening. The night was capped off by the Grand Buffet. The chefs worked all evening and night to prepare the visual beauty and presentation of the buffet. The first half hour was only for pictures. The eating of the buffet began at 12:30 am. I was still full from dinner and didn’t eat a thing. We were in bed by 1:00 am to prepare for our next destination tomorrow, Ketchikan.

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