Waiting to set sail

    We boarded our ship around 2:00 PM, but it won't set sail for another few hours.  Meanwhile this ship - either the Statendam or the Oosterdam - had just set sail for Alaska.  We'll be seeing a number of other cruise ships along the way, including the two Dutch ships.

Seattle Skyline

    From the other side of the ship, you could see the Seattle skyline.  Including the world-famous Space Needle.  The top of the needle is painted orange right now, in celebration of its (50th?) anniversary.  Apparently when it was first built, the top was orange.

    I visited the Needle the day before the cruise.  I didn't go up it, but took some way-kewl pics.  For now, I'm limiting this blog to pics taken during the cruise.  I could append them after the cruise pics, but it's more likely I'd just post them on a separate blog.  Don't hold your breath.

What flag is that?

    There's Old Glory, alongside some sort of martime flag.  But up above is the flag of the country that the ship is registered in.  And that flag/country is?

     Yeah, good luck with that.  We'll post the answer in the comments.

XX

    This pic is for anyone who enjoys sitting out in your backyard, drinking a few beers.  The cruise will provide you with a bucket of ice, and four Dos Equis as you wait for the ship to set sail, or to watch the movie by, or just because.  Kewl, huh?

The Motley Crue

     I think we're still waiting to sail.  Left-to-Right : Liz, Donna, Jason, and Jasel, with yours-truly snapping the pic.  And no, I don't think the lady behind us is passed out drunk.  I am at a loss to explain what she is doing, though.

    We'll be seeing a lot of this area.  It became known as "Jason's Nook".  As fine of a Smoking Area as you'll find on the ship. 

Let's Dance!

    The first official activity upon setting sail (not counting the mandatory life-jacket drill) was some line-dancing.  Ask the girls what songs were played.  I'm thinking Achy-Breaky-Heart.  Please note that the only men that engaged in this were crew members.  The rest of us guys had more sense.

Lots of women dancers

    But among the women passengers, this was a very popular activity.

Seniors

    Especially among the ...ahem... senior-type women.

Synchronicity

   It was fun to watch.  The synchronization left a bit to be desired.  I don't think the participants are quite ready for DWTS yet.

Bon Jovi!

    Bon Jovi was the featured singer on the first night of the cruise.  He's actually a very down-to-earth guy .  He thanked us for coming on the cruise, and braving the cold, crisp air to hear him sing.  He even handed out blankets to the passengers, so they could be comfortable in their lounge chairs during the concert.

Bon Jovi - part two

    Okay, I'm kidding.  Bon Jovi wasn't really there.  But the cruise did show a different concert on the top-deck big-screen every night.

    Some of the other feted luminaries :  Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, Pink, Phil Collins.

Refills

    A word about (non-alcoholic) drinks and refills.  If you plop down $37 on the first day of the cruise, you get free soda, water, coffee, hot chocolate, and milk shakes the rest of the way.

     They put a sticker on your cruise card, and give you a "magic cup".  You can see one of the latter at the far right in the pic, with the red coke bottle image on it.  You carry this magic cup around with religiously the first 24 hours, then realize that the stamped on the cruise card will get you a clean cup every time.

    This was one of my impromptu photos of Liz and Donna.  They're blissfully unaware of my shutterbugging, as they educate the bartender on how to make a proper margarita.  The bartender, OTOH, sees me. 

Ketchikan

    Good-bye, Blue Skies!  Hello, Alaska!  The first port of call is Ketchikan.

    I should mention this came after one of our two days spent entirely at sea.  And that once you leave the Puget Sound waters for the open ocean, the waves get decidedly rougher.  And that we all discovered this around 4:00  in the morning when we were fast asleep.  Dramamine, anyone?

Disembarkation

    So for the first time in just under 2 days, we're off the boat.  It's about a five minute walk into Ketchikan.  I snapped tis photo of our ship as we headed into town.

    FWIW, our cabin is about 80% towards the back of the ship, two decks down from the top, and on the "inside" of the liner.  That is, we had no portholes or sun decks.  More about the rooms later.

    Newbie Tip #1 : If your cruise is going to take you out on some rough water (San Francisco to Hawaii is infamous for this), and you are prone to seasickness, try to get a cabin close to the front of the ship.

    Newbie Tip #2 : If you do feel yourself getting seasick, get out of your cramped little cabin, and up on outside decks.  You will find it much easier going up there.

Fishing Boats

    You will see lots of fishing boats at the Alaskan ports.  Fishing and Tourism are about all you have for Industry in these parts.  And once winter sets in, the tourists are gone, and the fishing conditions suck.

Friendly Natives

     The natives were quite friendly - all touchy-huggy.  The humans weren't bad either.

Very friendy Natives

    I am not a touchy-feely person.  But when the native's this big, you let him pat you on the shoulder.

It's a Rainforest

    This area of Alaska/Canada is a rainforest.  Ketchikan averages 12 feet (144 inches) of rain per year.  Makes Phoenix's 6 inches of rain (or something like that) seem rather feeble.  But we are a desert, after all.

    Ketchikan's record for yearly rainfall, comemmorated by this sign, is 202 inches.  That averages out to more than a half-inch of rain every freaking day.  Wow.

Real Men wear Kilts

    The first order of business in Ketchikan was to get some coffee.  Don't even dream of a Starbucks here.  But be happy that the guy running the coffee-shop isn't afraid to be caught wearing a skirt.  Um, I mean, kilt.

Ketchikan Houses

    A couple of the houses in Ketchikan.  Liz is happy - she has her coffee. 

More Fishing Boats

    We didn't do any of the cruise-sponsored tours.  Most of those were bus-rides around the towns, or bus-rides up into the forests and mountains.  They ran about $60 per person.  And since you could see the terrain from the ship and from the towns, it seemed like a waste of money.

   So the girls spent their time in port shopping, and I snapped some pics, then headed back to the ship to read and relax.

That's a Glacier, not Dirt

    We've left Ketchikan; next stop is Juneau.  We'll get there mid-morning, but if you get up early and are out on the deck at 7:00 AM, you have an opportunity to see a glacier.  Liz and Jason did; I stayed in bed.

    This picture, believe it or not, shows the glacier.  Of course, over the millennia, dirt has been deposited on it, and plantlife now grows on it.  But it does dump a few, small icebergs into the sea.

    I'm sure there are some spectacular glaciers up in Alaska proper.  But I'm kinda glad I slept thru this one.

Icebergs are Blue

    FWIW, the icebergs from this glacier looked blue, not pristine, Hollywood white.  The ones shown here are fairly puny.  I saw a larger one one morning, about the size of a large rowboat.  But because it was blue, I didn't realize what it was.

That's a mountain, not a glacier

    AFAIK, this is a mountain, not a glacier.  Kinda hard to tell them apart, eh?

Juneau

    We've reached Juneau.  I am simply is awe of the mountains behind the city.  Those are huge cruise ships to the right.  But the mountains make them (and the high-rise buildings in the city) look like toys.

Sister Ship

   We met up with our sister ship, the Diamond Princess,  here.  ANAICT, it is identical in size to our ship.  And is flying the same flag.

Zooming in on Juneau

    A zoom shot of the city and those gawdawesome mountains.  We won't be making it to downtown Juneau.  I'm sure the natives have a low tolerance for gawking tourists.  Instead, we'll only be in the edge of town, where they have a bunch of kitschy gift shops.

Looking south from Juneau

    Looking the other way from where I took the last two pics.  Are those fantastic clouds, or what?!  Of course, if I had to see them day in and day out for months at a time, I might change my attitude.

    But so what.  I'm an Arizonan and this is a wonderful change from blue skies and 100+ degree weather.

Cable Car

    You can take the cable car to the top (presumably) of the mountain next to our ship.  I thought about doing it, then considered.

    Although the ride up will be awesome, you'll be passing through the cloud bank on the way.  So the view from the top is going to be ...well... the tops of clouds.

    Second, there are four cruise ships parked at Juneau right now, each with, say, 3000 passengers.  Everybody only has the one day to do Juneau.  That means 12,000 other people waiting in line to get on the cable car.  Thanks, but I'll pass.

The tourists in Juneau

    And here we are - along with 12,000 other tourists - prowling the gift shops with our de rigueur shopping bags.  Few of us have umbrellas.  All of us have money to spend.

Alaskan Lingerie

    It's certainly not a bathing suit.  I'm thinking it's much better than rubbing noses together.

Cable Car Route

    Here's a better shot of where that cable car takes you.  Up through the clouds.  I imagine there were blue skies and sunshine at the top.  But I still wasn't missing that Arizona-type vista.

The Viking

   Jason and I hung out here for a while.  It's a bar, but it also has free Wi-Fi, which is important since you don't have that while asea.

   If you suck up to the ship's crew, they'll tell you where the free Wi-Fi is in the ports.  In Juneau, it was here at the Viking.  In Ketchikan, it was a bar called The Asylum.  Thank you, crew! 

Upper Deck

    Back on board the ship; waiting to set sail.  This gives you some idea of just how big the Big Screen is.  And in better weather, you can perch on those bar stools to the left and enjoy the show.  Or work on your tan on those lounge chairs to the right.  I'm almost certain I'm shooting this from "Jason's Nook".

Kewl Clouds

 

    Looking out across the bay at Juneau.  The multiple layers of clouds were simply amazing to this desert rat.

Statendam at Juneau

    We played tag with five other cruise ships, including this one - the Statendam.  None of them did the exact same ports-of-call schedule as we did.  But I'm sure we were all hop-skipping around the various ports, trying to stay out of each other's way.

The front of the ship

    Looking back from the top deck front of our boat.  And a lower deck to the right as well, with no one out sight-seeing on it.  One last look at the streaky clouds, and the snow on the mountains across from Juneau.  Next stop, Skagway!

It's raining!

 

    They don't call this a rainforest for nothing.  The crew was kept busy squeegeeing (sp?) the decks, keeping the lounge chairs out of the rain and passing out blankets - dry blankets - to those brave or foolish enough to sit out on the deck.

Jason's Nook

    Jason's Nook is wet and deserted.  The Upper-Deck Smokers will have to hang out somewhere else for a while.

A beaming smile

    Jason is unperturbed though.  We're sailing towards Skagway, and the weather - cold, cloudy, and rainy - couldn't be any more perfect for our next port-of-call.

Texting or Reading?

    Liz is hanging out on the deck - but under the side-roof.  She's either texting or reading her Kindle Fire, I can't tell which.  Her jacket tells you all you need to know about the temperature.

Bonjour Skagway

    Welcome to Skagway, the northernmost point of our cruise.  Population : 1800 when it's Tourist Season; 900 when it's not.

Cruise Graffiti - Parte Une

   The first thing you notice when disembarking is the large amount of graffiti on the nearby rocks.  But this is no ordinary tagging - this was done by (on behalf of?) the various cruise ships that have visited over the past few decades.

Cruise Graffiti - Parte Deux

   This is an un-zoomed shot of some of the Cruise Tagging.  Those are decent-sized trees and there's no pathway to the rocks.  Only a rocky shore and rough terrain.

   So tell me, how did they manage to do that upper graffiti? 

Cruise Graffiti - Parte Trois

    One last pic of the high-class hooliganism.  Note that one of the ships we've been playing tag with - the Statendam - was here way back in 1988.

Our ship

    Heading into town, turning around to take a pic of our ship.  It truly is majestic.

    I have no idea how they get those anchoring lines down to the dock.  They're flexible, right?  So if you tried to lower them down, they'd just drop straight down into the ocean.  And obviosuly, you can't shoot them "up" from the pier into those little holes.

    So how do they do it?  This is one of the mysteries of the cosmos that I'm probably destined to never comprehend.

More fishing boats

    Or not.  Somehow, these boats look more recreational than industrial.

Choo Choo

    The cruise offered a train-ride tour at Skagway, but we didn't take it.  Judging from the number of empty seats, a lot of other tourists also declined.  I'm not sure where it went or how long it took, but we were more interested in prowling the town.

Blurry Liz

    To boot, the automatic focus function on my camera was acting up.  I'm not sure if it was due to the cold weather or not.  Ketchikan and Juneau were just as cold, and the Canon performed just fine at those stops.

    I fiddled with it for about 15 minutes before it decided to start working again.  This pic was taken during the fiddling.  Hence, Liz is slightly blurred due to photographic issues, not because either of us were staggering drunk.

Downtown Skagway

   There was just one main shopping street, seen here.  As shown on the left, Skagway does have some interesting Russian architecture.  Plus you could buy hammer-and-sickle t-shirts, caps, etc.  And a bunch of those Russian dolls-within-dolls-within-dolls.

    We're gonna head up this street until we hit the edge of town.  By now I was tired of jewelry, furs, and knick-knack shops.