Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Ketchikan, Alaska

Cruise Day 3

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Today we are in Ketchikan and the weather is cool and rainy.  We weren’t surprised as Ketchikan gets quite a bit of rain.  Last time we were here it poured so at least it’s not that bad today.  Ketchikan is a small town on the southeastern coast of Alaska and has a population a little over 8,000, but during the summer when as many as five cruise ships visit a day, that population can double.  Ketchikan is a very popular and common stop for Alaskan cruises.  There is no road in or out of Ketchikan so the only way to get here is by boat or plane.

The red marker is Ketchikan, our port today.  On future maps, the red markers will always be where we currently are and the blue markers where we already been.

Ketchikan - We are docked to the left of the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show.

We weren't on the dock side of the ship, but the view wasn't bad looking out over the water.

These were two of the five cruise ships in port today.  The ship directly behind us is another Holland America ship called the Nordam that is the same size as our ship, the Westerdam.

We were up at eight and after breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, Val fired up her computer and signed the documents for our counteroffer for Vicki’s house.  Thank goodness for e-signatures as that means we can go ahead with the sale of the house from the ship.

We had no tours planned for the day, but Val had heard people talking about the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, a well-known attraction in Ketchikan so we bought tickets for the show today.  It runs all day, and the show we are attending didn't start until 11:30, but we got off the ship at 10:00 as we wanted to walk around town a bit.  Val needed a hat, so we browsed through some of the numerous shops to look for one.

A view of Ketchikan from the pier when we got off the ship.

A look back as we walk to the Lumberjack show.

She just wanted a baseball cap to keep her head covered and there were lots of them around.  Unfortunately, she didn’t want it to say Alaska on it and there wasn’t one of those to be found; what a surprise. 😊  She finally relented and bought one that said Alaska, so now she had a hat to keep the light rain off her head.

It was a light rain and even though the temperature was in the low fifties, it didn’t feel very cold.  If was finally time to check in for the Lumberjack Show so we made our way in and found some seats.  We thought it might be just one of those hokey tourist things and it kind of was with the commentary, but the show itself was quite good.  It is set up as a competition between two teams (US versus Canada) using their skills in axe throwing, wood chopping, log rolling and several others contests.  The lumberjacks were very skilled, and it was a good show.  There were lots of kids in the audience and they particularly loved it.  Canada won today with a victory in the log rolling at the end.

The "arena" is prepared as the show is about to begin.  There are two main seating areas and each one is assigned a team.  We were in the Canadian team's area and were encourage to cheer everything our team did and boo the other team.  The American team's area was encouraged to do the same for them and the audience really got into this, particularly the kids.

The contestants are ready to go.

The Canadians, the team on the right, won.  I don't know whether they take turns winning our if it's a real competition, but it was very entertaining.

After the show we headed next door to a fish and chips place that had been highly recommended, but we found that others must have heard about it too as there was a very long line waiting to get in, so we decided to head back to the ship and eat there.

This is the beginning of the busy season for cruise ships in Alaska and today there were five here in Ketchikan.  I believe that will be the case whenever we visit the most popular Alaskan cruise ports, but luckily on this cruise, we will be going off the beaten path to quite a few less visited ports.

Ketchikan is a small town, so it didn’t take too long to walk back to the ship.  After getting back and settling in, we headed off to the Lido for lunch.  We were happy to see that the Westerdam had a taco bar, so we decided to make ourselves nachos instead of tacos and had a good lunch.  A taco bar used to be on all the ships, but it was missing from our last two cruises for some reason, maybe because of COVID restrictions.  Anyway, it worked out well for us as we didn’t want to have a heavy lunch because we had reservations tonight at the Pinnacle Grill, a specialty steakhouse on board and we wanted to have our full appetites.

A view of Ketchikan from the Lido Deck.

After lunch it was back to our room for a little relaxation, but we were interrupted by another message from the Joanna who is the realtor handling the sell of Vicki's house saying that the prospective buyer had counteroffered our counteroffer.  Val called Joanna to discuss it and decided they had met most of what we wanted and accepted the offer.  Joanna prepared the paperwork and emailed it to Val who signed it.  Now we just have to wait and hope everything goes as planned.  As it stands right now, escrow should close just after we get home.

After that, we did get to relax for a while.  We sailed away from Ketchikan at five on our way to Sitka, our next port.  It was too cold to stay outside for long, but we popped in and out from our balcony as we sailed though some beautiful scenery.  The route we are taking to Sitka is along the Alaskan Marine Highway that passes through various channels between islands.  It should be a much more scenic route than going back out into the ocean.

The Nordam left and then it was our turn.

This is Ketchikan International Airport.  The only way to get there is a long road out of town and then a ferry across the bay.  The large floating dock is where sea planes can tie up at.  The long line across the upper part of the picture is the runway.  The taxiway is a rather long switchback the runs from the runway down to the parking area.  You can see a partial view of taxiway just below the runway.

Looking back at the airport you can see the ferry waiting to take cars and people across the bay so they can get to Ketchikan.

As part of the booking package we got when signing up for this cruise, we get three paid for dinners in the Pinnacle Grill.  The Pinnacle Grill is a specialty restaurant on board that specializes in steak and seafood and unlike other dining venues on the ship, there is a charge to eat there.  Tonight we had reservations and went to dinner with mixed feeling; on our last two cruises we have been less than happy with our meals and were hoping for something better tonight.

Our reservation was for 7:30 and when we arrived we were seated next a window so we had a nice view of the Alaskan coastline as we ate.  Dinner was quite good tonight and Val and I both had steaks, Val had a filet mignon and I opted for a New York strip, and they were both very good.  We were both very happy with our dinners, much better than on our last cruises.

After dinner, it was off to the casino where Val had an excellent night and won over $500.  I had already used up all of my gambling money for the day, so I watched her as she got bonus after bonus and slowly built her winnings up.  The machine finally cooled down and she cashed out $500 and went back to our room very happy.

It was after ten when we returned so we called it a night.  Tomorrow we are in Sitka.