Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Anchorage Day 1

Cruise Day 18

Anchorage Day 1

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Today we are in Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska with a population of 287,000.  It is located at the end of the Cook Inlet in the south-central part of the state.  We weren’t scheduled to arrive until eleven, so Val and I slept late and caught up on our sleep.  We arrived early at ten, but Val and I had already gotten up and had our breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, so we were able to watch our arrival and docking from our balcony.

Anchorage (red marker) is at the end of the Cook inlet.  On the left side is the Prince William Sound with our previous port of Valdez and Seward (blue markers.).

It took quite a while for us to get tied up and the gangway put in place.  The tides here are extreme and there will be a difference of 37 feet between the high and low tides while we’re here so special precautions have to be taken for the lines to the pier and the gangway.  Because of the tide changes and the problem it causes in docking and the arriving and leaving, not many cruise ships dock in Anchorage.  They usually dock either in Whittier or Seward and bus or use trains to get people to and from Anchorage.

Docking in Anchorage.  This is an industrial port and the only way in or out is by a shuttle.

The city center of Anchorage beyond the port.

Around eleven everything was set up and the ship was cleared, and people started pouring off the ship.  Being docked in an industrial port, no one is allowed to walk around in the port area and vehicles are restricted so there is a shuttle service provided to get passengers to downtown Anchorage.  As more and more people left the ship, we could see the line for the shuttle growing and growing.

We had no specific plan so we decided to wait until the initial surge was over before we went into town.  Around noon we grabbed a light lunch in the Neptune Lounge and decided it was time to go ashore.  The shuttle line wasn’t as long as it had been, but it was still pretty long, but the shuttles kept coming and within a half hour we were on our way into Anchorage.  The early morning fog that was around as we sailed into Anchorage had burned away and it was a beautiful sunny day, downright warm compared to what we have been used to.

The shuttle drop off is the Egan Convention Center downtown that is right near the visitor center.  Val and I had decided to visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center and heard there was a free shuttle to get there so we walked over to visitor center to find out about that.  A very helpful person showed us where we could catch the shuttle and it was sitting there waiting for us.  Well not quite waiting for us, the driver was just going on his lunch break and the next shuttle wouldn’t be leaving until 2:45.  Considering it was barely one, we didn’t want to wait so we talked about getting a cab.  Just as we were discussing it, Val saw a cab coming down the street, so we hailed it down and the very nice lady taxi driver took us to the Heritage Center.  When she dropped us off, she gave us her personal phone number to contact her if we needed a ride back to downtown.

A detailed look at Anchorage.  The red marker is where we are docked, the yellow marker is the Egan Convention Center where the shuttle dropped us off, and the blue marker to the left is the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is very nice, and the grounds are beautiful.  After paying our admission fee, we went and heard an elderly Inuit man named Willie talk about growing up in the area and what is like in his village as a child.  He talked at length about his various experiences, and we really enjoyed it.

The entrance to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

This is the area where they have talks and demonstrations looking out at the small lake and forest.

Val and Willie

The main hall and exhibit area.

After that, we went through the exhibits and then walked around the small lake that was outside with various displays and demonstrations going on.  We didn’t actually make it all the way around as we wanted to be back at the main building for a demonstration of native sports.

There was a small cafe where you could buy drinks and snacks and relax outside.

As we walked around the lake there were various exhibits and demonstrations.

This was a demonstration / class on the traditional native dances.

The native sports demonstration was very interesting and the young men showing us the traditional native sports were very athletic.  These sports had real historic meaning and served a purpose, but they are still practiced today as strictly a competition.  As I said, it was very interesting, and we had no idea that these competitions were still going on.

As we toured the Center we learned that there are different areas of Alaska that have distinct and different Inuit cultures.  They are so different that they each have their own languages.  

After the native sports demonstrations, some dancers came out demonstrating some native dances and singing.  It was getting late in the afternoon, and we wanted to make sure we had a ride back to town, so we left before it ended and headed to the gift shop where Val found a treasure she had always wanted, an ulu.  An ulu is an Inuit cutting / chopping tool, and she didn’t want just an ordinary one and they had some there that were made by native craftsmen. It had the name of person who made it on it and where they lived, which made it very special, so she bought one for herself; it is very nice and has a handle made of reindeer antler.

After the gift shop, we discussed how to get back.  I was getting ready to call the cab that had taken us here when Val noticed that the next shuttle going back into town was due to leave in five minutes, so we went outside and there it was.  There were already two people waiting and it would only seat six, so we quickly got in line with them and were soon on our way back to the convention center in Anchorage.

Once back at the convention center, we had a short wait for the shuttle to the ship and were back in our room just before five.  We had a wonderful day and really enjoyed the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the weather was spectacular.

The tides in Alaska can be very large and Anchorage was no exception.  Here they are setting up the gangway when we arrived this morning.  Notice the steep angle of the gangway as it leaves the ship.

This is the gangway when we returned from our day in Anchorage.  Now there is a slight downward angle as you walk back onto the ship, quite a change from this morning.

We were hungry so we went to the Neptune Lounge for some snacks and then relaxed until dinner.  The casino isn’t open tonight since we’ll be in Anchorage overnight so after dinner it was straight back to our room where Val read for a while, and I wrote up the blog for the day.

We may be docked in a industrial area, but at least the view beyond was nice.

Tomorrow, we have a ship excursion scheduled so we’ll have to get up a little early, but not too bad.  I hope the weather holds as today was so nice.

Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Kodiak, Alaska

Cruise Day 17

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Today we are in Kodiak, the largest town on the island of Kodiak located at the north end of the Aleutian Islands.  The population of Kodiak is around 5600, but it looks bigger.

Kodiak Island is at the top of the Aleutian Islands. 

Our port today is Kodiak (red marker) on Kodiak Island.

The alarm went off at six this morning as we have an early tour scheduled and have to meet our group at seven.  It was foggy and cold outside, which didn’t look too promising for our tour, but it’ll be what it’ll be, we have no control.  We got cleaned up and the Neptune Lounge was open early so we got something to eat and then headed off to the Rolling Stone Lounge to meet up with our tour group.

Today we are on a private tour organized by a member of our Cruise Critic Roll Call Group.  It is a small boat wildlife tour and there are only six of us so it should be a good tour.  This is a tender port, but our group all have priority tendering privileges so we ended up on the first tender out.  We met Lee, the captain and guide, at the tender pier in Kodiak, and he drove us in his van to where his boat was docked.

When we reached the boat dock, we made our way down a couple of very steep and slippery ramps and boarded the boat.  We were met by his assistant Amanda, a very young, but very capable young woman.  The cabin was small, but comfortable and the six of us fit in nicely, but it didn’t matter much as we spent most of our time out on the rear deck.

That's our boat for the day on the left, the Powder River.

Lots of fishing boats in the harbor.

After an introduction and safety instructions from Lee, we headed out into the harbor.  It was still cool and foggy, but we were dressed warmly so it wasn’t too bad out on deck.  We immediately spotted an eagle on the mast of a nearby fishing boat and a couple more eagles near their nest in a tree near the shore.  We also saw some otters as we cruised out of the harbor area.

A couple of eagles perched on a mast in the fog.

We spotted an eagle on one of the mast of one of the nearby boats as we started our trip.

This is an eagle's nest on the hillside as we sailed out of the harbor, it is huge.

And one of the eagles.

Leaving the harbor behind, we head out into the bay..

As we left, a curious seal popped it's head out of the water to check us out.

Just outside the harbor there was a floating dock that the sea lions had claimed for their own.

These two were getting into it.

At the end of the dock there was a stack of crab traps where a young eagle sat.  You can tell it's young by the brown and white mottled feathers.

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We spent the next three hours seeing many more birds, otters, and sea lions.  Near the end we also saw a couple of whales, but they kept their distance, so we were never able to get very close.  As always, Val was anxious to see some more puffins and although there were quite a few around, they also kept their distance and moved on as we got close.

More remains of World War II.

Besides the wildlife sightings, the scenery was also very beautiful, the fog gave the area an ethereal look.  All too soon our three-hour tour was over, and we headed back into the harbor.  We were surprised at how large Kodiak was and particularly the harbor.  It looked like it had a very large fishing fleet as well as tour and pleasure boats.  Kodiak has a population of around 5600, but it seemed much bigger.

You can barely see it, but there is a whale between us and the harbor entrance and our ship, the Westerdam.

Back in the Kodiak Harbor.

It was a little after eleven when we got off the boat and after saying goodbye to Lee and Amanda, who had another group waiting, we were driven back to the tender pier.  We talked about wandering around Kodiak for a while, but we were cold and tired from getting up so early and decided just to return to the ship.  When I complained to Amanda that we had to get up at six she just laughed as she had gotten up at three-thirty to do preparations for today’s tours.

It did feel good to get back to the ship and the warmth of our cabin.  After cleaning up a bit, we went immediately to the Lido for lunch.  It had been a long time since our meager breakfast this morning.  Despite the fact that it was around noon, the Lido wasn’t very busy as most people were ashore.

After lunch, Val and I had some estate business to take care of as there were a couple of complications on the sale of the house.  We called, Joanna, our realtor, and discussed our options and decided what to do with her and then Val and I decided to rest for a while.  Neither of us slept well last night so we were both feeling pretty drowsy.

Later in the afternoon, both the escrow company and Joanna had sent Val documents to sign so she spent quite a while doing that.  I caught up on the blog, downloaded our pictures from today and then relaxed until dinner.  It has been a long day, and we are looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep tonight – after dinner and the casino of course.