Cruise - Home - Going & Coming

Leaving home

We had been in the space on the left

Goodbye Seattle

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In Victoria the last night

Our ship in Victoria

A week later - we left Victoria, British Columbia about 11:30 at night. 

I sat on the balcony and watched the lights of the city fade into the night. 

We were due in Seattle about 7am the next morning. I wanted to be up to see the city come into view. About 5 or so the next morning I heard or felt the engines of the ship. I looked outside and

There was Seattle - we were already home!

Mount Rainier was even out to greet us!

It was interesting to watch the smaller boats arrive with supplies for the next cruise. Our ship left later that day to do the same trip - all over again. 

Thanks to our son and his family for inviting us along on this fantastic trip!

Cruise - Skagway, Alaska

Native Americans settled in the Skagway area long before people started using Indian trails to get to gold in the Yukon territory. Click here for history of the area. We were docked in Skagway about 8 hours. 

At the height of the gold rush in 1898 Skagway swelled to a population of about 20,000. As the gold supply dwindled, people left Skagway for new gold fields. About 1,000 people live in Skagway today. 

Approaching Skagway - lots of other ships had the same idea!

Below - our ship, Ruby Princess is on the left

 Ruby Princess

 Most of the downtown is an historic district

top - Railroad building 

 Camp Skagway No. 1 Building, established in 1899. 

This was an association of gold speculators & miners. 

The facade has more than 8,800 pieces of driftwood.

Our son and his family had an adventure on a glacier

Glacial ice is blue because ... click here

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Click here for interesting information about Skagway. It popped up when I searched on "what do people in Skagway do in the winter?"

Cruise - Food, Food, Food

Food, Food, Food

I've always wondered how people cope with the total abundance and availability of food on a cruise. It was a major luxury to have food preparation and cleanup taken care of for a whole week. This ship had so many food options that a person could have eaten all day, every day - and it was all "free" (included in the price of the cruise) Soft drinks and alcohol cost additional as did milkshakes and a few others items. But with all that was available "free" there wasn't much need, or desire, to spend the extra money.

Dining with a view - beautiful view to go with the great food

We usually had breakfast and lunch in one of the two buffet areas.

The selections reflected the global nature of the crew and passengers -

scrambled eggs with salmon - must be an acquired taste

Other options included a grill near one of the pools. Hot dogs, veggie burgers, hamburgers, and French fries were available all day and late into the evening. The International Cafe was open 24 hours a day. There you could get a selection of light meal choices such as sandwiches, salads, croissants, pastries, quiches - and great chocolate chip cookies. Pizza and ice cream - available all day and late into the night

There were several dining rooms available for  breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you wanted to order off a menu, be served, and eat with silver and off china. The servers were wonderful. Over the week we became acquainted with some of them and enjoyed learning more about them and their countries. See more about the staff in the post about the ship. 

from cruiseastute.com - "All three main dining rooms tend to offer the same four course dinner menu with set choices on one side of the menu and nightly changing themed selections on the other side. The option of an 'always available menu' is also provided including steaks, chicken breast and salmon. Examples of evening meals include poached seafood and avocado, vegetarian spring rolls or blue crab cake quiche for starters, grilled vegetables on lettuce salad or tortellini and spinach soup, New York strip with peppercorn sauce, lobster or spaghetti carbonara for mains and pistachio ice cream, chocolate cake or fresh fruits for dessert. Vegetarian options such as aubergine lasagne and fettuccine alfredo are also available along with Lotus Spa healthy options." We did have lobster one evening and King crab legs another. 

Our group had some adventurous souls who often tried unusual foods. We freely shared our multi-course meals. Fortunately the portions were reasonable and the dessert sizes were small. 

I've left the best for last - the desserts. A different sorbet was available each evening. Sometimes we had it to "cleanse our palates" between courses. Sometimes for a dessert. Sometimes both times. 

This was a two dessert night for Joe - creme brûlée and sorbet.

Love Boat Dream dessert - yummy

Did you know the TV show "Love Boat" had a connection with Princess ships? 

The show was played all day and evening on the ship's TV.

The End - dessert plates

clean plate award earned by all 8 of us

More about the food on the Ruby Princess here and here

Cruise - Juneau, Alaska

Juneau is the capital city of Alaska. No roads connect it with the rest of Alaska or North America. Population is about 32,000. It was named after Joe Juneau, a gold prospector. Read more here and here. 

We docked in Juneau for about 8 hours. Click on any of the photos to see a larger image.

 Approaching Juneau about noon

 Juneau is nestled between mountains and the Gastineau Channel in the Alaskan panhandle. Glaciers are above the town. (Our ship was high but not high enough for this view. Our son and his family took these pictures from a floatplane*.)

4 story totem pole in front of Juneau's City Museum. 4 story refers to the four clan stories told, not the height. This museum had many interesting exhibits - and it was a nice walk uphill on the way so my legs and body got a good workout. Joe stayed on the ship in this port. 

A salmon processing plant was close to the cruise ship dock. Fish were conveyed from boats, under the street, and up into the plant. The bins below were labeled with different kind of salmon. 

tram up to Mount Roberts 

waterfalls galore visible from downtown & the ship

This photo gives you an idea of the size of the cruise ship. See the white structure in the middle? That's the ship. It's as tall as some of the downtown buildings. I remember seeing this in Nassau where the cruise ships dwarfed the downtown buildings. 

That's our ship on the right, in the back

This is the only bear I encountered on my walk through Juneau. 

Now our family - they went on an excursion to see real bears!

Wait - I think I've seen those black creatures in Worthington and Kirkland!

Bald eagle - bears - ravens? starlings? BIG black birds

rainbows

Our ship, Ruby Princess, docked at Juneau

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*Seaplane vs floatplane - We'd never heard the term floatplane until we moved out here All floatplanes are seaplanes. Not all seaplanes are floatplanes. A floatplane has pontoons which come in contact with the water. The term seaplane includes floatplanes as well as flying boats. However, the terms seem to be somewhat interchangeable. Notice that the company for the Kings' plane is Alaska Seaplanes. More here