Aussie Navy Wife

Thursday, June 27, 2013

ALASKA CRUISE ~ AMAZING!!

Alaska Cruise ~ 2013

After our wonderful cruise experience with Carnival cruises last year, we decided to take all the kids on a 7 night Alaskan Cruise!

We had seen some previews of the cruise, looked over Google at photos and did a heap of research before heading off.

I am a planner and with every trip we take I spend hours, upon hours looking at every possible idea, attraction and scenic routes to add to our itinerary. I have everything planned to the day! Then I look for discount coupons, codes for ticketing etc, etc. When you travel with 5 children, these things all count!

Alaska was no exception and although we were on a cruise, we still had port visits that needed planning! Here's a map of our cruise:

We set sail from Seattle and headed out of the Puget Sound and into the inside passage. After a day of sailing we arrive in Tracy Arm Fjord. To wake up and see the most stunning cliffs, snow capped mountains, waterfalls everywhere, bald eagles flying over head and this brilliant icy blue water, was just breath taking!

One thing I had not planned on was taking an excursion off the ship to explore this wonderful place up close and personal! The excursion was not the cheapest and something we will never get the opportunity to do again, so Col & I really wanted to embrace it. After talking to the staff at the kids club on the ship, we headed to the bookings desk and handed over the loot!! Best money we spent!

The kids were settled into their clubs and we boarded a small vessel and headed off on our kid free adventure!

Our first stop was Misty Falls. Just beautiful! The picture says it all!

Then we sailed up to Sawyer Glacier passing by seals resting on icebergs! It was truly magnificent

Sawyer Glacier

We left Sawyer and headed to South Sawyer Glacier. Little did we know that we were about to witness the most spectacular ice calving!! First you heard the big cracking sound, then the pieces began to break off splashing into the water with a thunderous roar before sending waves out through the fjord. It was amazing!! We saw 2 calving's, the 2nd was the biggest. Sadly Col thought he had the video camera on record, but it was on standby!!! Lucky for us another traveler gave us their copy.

South Sawyer Glacier

After spending 3 hours in the fjord it was time to return to the ship! This was an experience that we will never forget and thanks to several hundred photos, we cant!!

A great photo of the Carnival Miracle by the Sawyer Glacier

When we returned to the ship we went and collect the kids and took them outside to see the glacier. The older 2 had been out to see it already, but the younger 3 were impressed!

Skagway:

The ships next stop was Skagway. I had found a tour on Trip Advisor and happily booked a local guide called Matt, who was now running his own private charters.

given there was 7 of us, we booked the van out exclusively and again had an amazing experience!

Matt took us to many points of interest including Tutshi River, Tutshi Lake, we built inukshuks, skimmed rocks in the Tutshi Lake, Emerald Lake, Caribou Crossing Dog Mush to play with the husky pups, lunch in the town of Carcross, up into the Yukon and we passed through 4 different eco systems!

We were also fortunate enough to see 2 bears by the side of the road, one on the way out to the Yukon and one on the way back!

You can check out Matts website here: Skagway Van Tours

Welcome to Alaska!!!!

The gorgeous Tutshi River!

Juneau:

Our morning in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, was wet and much cooler than our previous days in this glorious State! So we rugged out and headed to the cab terminal to start the days itinerary!

First stop was Mendenhall Glacier. Whilst there we took a short walk out to Nugget Falls, which also gave us a better viewing point of the glacier. We saw some bear prints in the sand by the falls, but no bears in person! It was quite pretty but sadly visibility was poor due to the weather!

Mendenhall Glacier & Nugget Falls

The cab returned for us and dropped us off at the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. We enjoyed a quick guided tour and took a look around the small aquarium they had there. It was a short port visit so that concluded our time in Juneau. Off course the clouds lifted as the ship set sail!

Ketchikan:

Today we went on a bus tour to the Saxman Village. Saxman Native Village is known for their collection of Native American Totem Poles, the largest collection of standing Totem Poles in fact, but that's hardly the end of it! There is a gorgeous Clan House, Native Carving Shed, Gift Shop, a short walk through the rainforest, and active eagles next just across the street.

In the carving shed the natives put on a welcome dance for us. They asked if anyone wanted to partake and of course hubby jumped at the opportunity! Taquira also joined in. They got to wear the traditional clothing and were shown some moves!

Taquira (3rd left) and Col (in the front) doing some native dancing!

Some of the many totem poles at the village

We left the village and went into town to catch a lumberjack show. They split the crowd into 2 groups and you had to cheer for your lumber team. They competed in many events showing us their skills. Some of the crew are part of a television show. The kids were happy to meet them after!

The kids with the crew from the Lumberjack show!

Victoria B.C ~ Canada

Our last day on the ship had a 3 hour port call into Victoria B.C. The ship didn't dock until 7:30pm so the kids went off to club and Col & I took a quick bus tour out to Craigdarroch Castle. The castle itself was well presented and we got to self tour through most of it. The family sold off most of the land, so it wasn't as grand as I'm sure it was in its day. We felt the bus tour was a rip off as entry into the castle was a quarter of the price we were charged. The bus also did the usual tour thing of here is this out that window and look out that window at this! Due to it being night, we really didn't see too much. We did get to have one 10 min stop in town to grab some photos of the parliament house.