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.

Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Sea Day

Cruise Day 2

Monday, June 10, 2024

We slept well last night and were up by eight.  After getting dressed and cleaned up, we went down to the Neptune Lounge for a continental breakfast.  After breakfast we relaxed in the room a bit and then decided to head down to the casino since we had missed out last night.  We didn’t win anything, but we did get to play a while.

After the casino we went to a talk on Alaska by Kurt, one of the guest lecturers.  He was a very good lecturer, both informative and entertaining.  The talk was kind of an overview, and he will be with us the rest of the cruise giving talks on various aspects of Alaska.

After the lecture, we returned to our room where I worked on the blog until it was time for lunch.  One thing I haven’t mentioned is that we are sailing the Inside Passage north.  That means we have the Canadian mainland on one side and the east coast of Vancouver Island on the other with lots of islands in between.  It is a beautiful passage and although it was cold, we spent time out on the balcony taking pictures and enjoying the scenery.

This is a map of the Inside Passage.  Today we are sailing from Seattle to Ketcikan, the first port of the cruise.

This is a beautiful wilderness area, but you can see the clearcutting going on in the middle of the picture.

We met a Princess ship heading south probably ending their cruise.

This afternoon at three our Cruise Critic Roll Cal Meet and Greet was held.  There were over three hundred people attending so it had to be held in the World Stage, the ship’s main theater.  It went okay, but there were really just too many people to really get to know everyone plus having it in the theater meant everyone was sitting in theater seating, and that isn’t conducive to mingling.  We did see a few familiar faces from other cruises, but other than that, we just listened to the announcements and left.  It was amazing to have a roll call this big; our roll call amounted to about 20% of the total number of passengers on board.

Late in the afternoon we received good news from home.  As I mentioned, Val is the administrator of her sister Vicki’s estate, and our last big hurdle is selling Vicki’s house.  Even though it has only been on the market for three weeks we were still getting a little anxious since we hadn’t received any offers, but tonight that changed.  Val received a text from our realtor Joanna saying an offer was on the way.  Soon after that we received the offer via e-mail and decided to call Joanna to discuss it.  It was a pretty good offer, but we decided to present a counteroffer that Joanna will prepare and present in the morning.  Very good news for us!

After that, it was nearing time for dinner and since tonight was a dressy night, we started getting ready a little early.  We both had excellent dinners tonight and afterwards we went to the casino.  I was a bit worried as we had dropped by the casino a several times during the day and I had lost almost my entire allotment for the day, but right off I had a nice win that made up for my losses and let me play for quite a while.  We finally made it back to our room a little after ten and then read for a while before calling it a night.  Tonight, we set the clocks back an hour and go on Alaska time, so we should get plenty of sleep tonight.  Tomorrow we will be in Ketchikan.

Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Emabarkation Day

Cruise Day 1

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Our cruise finally begins as we are boarding the Holland America Westerdam for our 28-day Summer Solstice Alaskan Cruise.

We were up at eight and after getting dressed, we got our things together and did our final packing.  We had not been given a boarding time, so we decided to leave the hotel around ten.  We ate the pastries we had bought at the bakery last night and then settled back until it was time to leave.  At ten I called the front desk and said we were checking out and ask them to call a taxi and send up a bellman for our luggage.  They were very prompt and within ten minutes we were out front getting into the taxi.

The Inn at the Market was more expensive than we normally pay for a hotel, but I have to say, it was well worth it.  The location was great, the room was very nice and the view from the room was even better than advertised.  The service was excellent and I would certainly return here again.

It was a bit of a distance to get to pier 91 where the Westerdam was docked, and it took us about twenty minutes to get there.  There was another ship also docked there that was much larger than ours, so when we arrived there was a big traffic jam as taxis, buses and cars all worked their way into the drop off area.

We finally were dropped off, but we did have a bit of a walk to the terminal, but not too bad.  Once in the terminal we dropped off several of our bags for delivery to our cabin later and then went through security and then on to the check-in.  That all went relatively quickly, but then we were led to a waiting area as they were not boarding the ship yet.  It didn’t take long before they started boarding and we had priority boarding, so it didn’t take long until our group was called, and we got in the line heading for the ship.

We finally made it aboard and headed to the Neptune Lounge since our room was not ready yet.  As usual, we had booked our favorite cabin, a Neptune Suite.  Despite the extra cost we just like the perks and amenities too much not to do it.  One of the things most important to us is the Neptune Lounge where we had some snacks and drinks while we waited for our room to be ready.  We met the concierge, Lorraine, and her backup, Red (not sure of the spelling, but that’s how she pronounced it), and they both seemed very nice.

Our room was ready around 11:30 and it felt good to finally be onboard and in our room.  Our luggage wasn’t there yet, so we put away things that were in our carry-on bags.  We relaxed a bit until our checked luggage arrived and then we put all of that away.  We were still waiting for the luggage we had shipped from home that had most of our clothes in them, and I was (as usual) getting a little nervous as the trackers we had put in our bags said they weren’t at the port yet.  Since the ship was sailing around three, I called Luggage Forward, and they assured me they would be there.  They said I wasn’t the first to call, but because there were two ships and all the traffic, it was taking a long time to get there.

We had to check into our muster (lifeboat) station, so we did that and then strolled around the ship a bit.  We returned to our room and shortly after that Val’s shipped bag arrived and she finished putting all of her things away.  My bag didn’t arrive for another half hour, but it finally did, and I also got everything unpacked and put away.

It was getting near three and there was a sail-away party scheduled for the rear Lido Deck and our Cruise Critic Roll Call Group had decided to meet out there.  When we arrived, it was already pretty crowded, but we went to where our roll call was meeting and found a few people there.  We talked for a while and got to know some of the people, and Val and I had our first unleaded margaritas of the trip.  The actual sail-away was delayed until around four as the other ship left before we did, but we finally left and headed through the Straits of Juan de Fuca and north to Alaska.

Soon after that Val and I returned to our room and did some organizing until it was time for dinner.  Val and I always opt for the late fixed dining as we enjoy getting to know our waiters and they get to know our preferences.  Dinner isn't until 7:30, so it doesn't rush us when we get back from a late tour during the cruise.

I had rockfish for dinner tonight and it was very good, but Val had pork medallions that were overcooked and dry – you win some and you lose some, hopefully this doesn't foreshadow the food quality on the trip.  We had a nice conversation with the people across from our table, but they won’t be here again as they were only sitting there tonight.

After dinner we headed off for our usual after dinner visit to the casino but found it wouldn’t be open until tomorrow, so we headed back to our room to finish the night.