Henry and Eleanor had a super fun trip to Alaska! So many fun things, I don’t even know where to begin! We spend the first day in Vancouver awaiting our boat’s arrival and adjusting to the new time zone. We had a relaxing dinner and then enjoyed the hotel pool a bit. The next morning, we could see our ship arriving from our hotel! Once onboard, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and check out the pool.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our character breakfast – a yummy breakfast with visits from Micky, Minnie, and Pluto. The rest of the day was a relaxing day at sea – a visit with Elsa and Anna, Chip and Dale, more pool time and some shuffleboard.
Day three we sailed up the Tracy Arm to visit the Sawyer Glacier. We were a bit worried as it was very foggy in the morning, but it ended up being a beautiful day and we spent most of it up on the top deck. Eleanor and Henry spend lots of time on the sport court with the kids club, while the adults took in the view. We tossed in a few more character visits, Tinkerbell for Henry and a quartet of princesses for Eleanor. The kids got to explore a chunk of ice that the crew retrieved from the fjord (observation: it was cold). We ended the day with a jazz filled dinner and a group photo with Mickey (why was he wearing a fisherman outfit?!?).
Day four landed us in Skagway, a fun little mining town at the northern point of our journey. We got to see a fun old downtown area in the morning, and then in the afternoon took a helicopter ride up onto a nearby glacier. We were able to get out and walk on the glacier, which was amazing. We some cracks and crevasses, and Ben even got down and drank right from a little stream. That night, Anna and Elsa threw a deck party complete with snow – somehow Grandma was right in the path, and received more “snow” than anyone else on board :)
The next day we were in the capital, Juneau. We had a morning whale watching adventure that was wonderful – great weather and calm seas, plus we were treated to a pack of Orcas leaping out of the water while hunting a Dall’s porpoise. Later in the trip, we saw two pods of humpback whales executing “bubble net feeding” – a fascinating co-ordinated group feeding technique. Next, we did a short hike at Mendenhall glacier, and finished off our Juneau visit with a trip up the cable car to a mountain overlook. Eleanor’s favorite evening show was this night as well – “Frozen, a Musical”, which she gave a standing ovation too, as well as several impromptu standing cheers during the show.
Our last port was Ketchikan, where they get 300 days of rain a year! Our great weather luck held out, though, and it only rained as we were pulling out of port. We checked out town, rode a funicular car up to a hilltop restaurant, took in some totem polls, and finished off with a the Great Lumberjack Show.
Our last day on the boat was another relaxing day at sea. We did one more photo with Mickey, this time in his Captain’s outfit, and also had the actual captain sign some souvenirs for us. What an amazing trip – we already miss Grandma and Grandpa and our cousins!
