We left our fifth wheel in an RV park near the US border and drove to Vancouver Airport where we left the pickup and got a bus to Vancouver Port where we boarded the Sapphire Princess. A large ship, we had a lovely cabin with two views to the stern and to the side as we were the last cabin on the starboard side. Our friends Sharon and David had the cabin next to us.
We set sail and cruised up the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the mainland, heading for the Seymour Narrows where we had spend a couple of nights a week ago. The weather was perfect - Vancouver having had no rain for a month. We settled into cruising life and on the first night we had our first formal dining night dining. The other picture is from our second formal night with with Sharon and David.
The ship is very comfortable with lots of facilities but in the main we were too busy at ports to take much advantage of them. The Sapphire Princess is the biggest ship on the Alaska run. There are many many ships and many many passengers cruising to and from Alaska. It is big business and Princess alone has 7 ships in the season and has by far the best linked in cruise tours at the start or end of your trip owing their own buses, hotels, and even train. It makes for a seamless experience though not very personal. This is our ship viewed from the air at our first port of call - Ketchikan, the Salmon Capital of the World. (and there are lots of salmon!)
At Ketchikan we took a float plane to the Misty Fjord and landed on a serene mountain lake. The views as you can imagine were fantastic. Most people went on Salmon Fishing and Whale watching trips but we were lucky to get the float planes as we had booked some months before.
Ketchikan has a nice feeling to the town (only accessible by water). The main street Creek Street has a salmon swimming up it to spawn!
We left Ketchikan and cruised overnight to Juneau the capital of Alaska. Again Juneau is only accessible by water or air. Our trip ashore was to paddle a native American canoe right up to the base of the tidewater Mendenhall Glacier which was amazing. Only two canoes are allowed at a time and only four per day and that is the ONLY way of getting up to the glacier other than helicopter. It was amazing to see the glacier from the sea and watching small bits of ice fall off into the sea.
After we left Juneau along narrow passages between islands we saw lots of whales, orcas and even sea otters and Stella's sealions. Whales everywhere snorting and showing off their lovely tails.
Our next port of call was Skagway which is one of the ports that miners flocked to in the 1890s to get to the Yukon Territory to dig for gold. A railway was built to take them part of the way over the difficult White Pass and we rode the train from Alaska to British Columbia and then into the Yukon Territory itself. Spectacular scenery.
From Skagway we cruised overnight to Glacier Bay, without a doubt the highlight of our cruise. Words can't do it justice. It was a perfect day and something we will both remember for all our lives. Huge glaciers tumble down from 15000 ft mountains into the sea, calving huge chunks of ice in the process.
The ship manoevres gently around the sounds turning to give everyone a great view. The glaciers are huge. They look small but they are 300 ft high and over a mile wide when they enter the sea. This picture was taken 150 ft up on the top deck of the ship and the glacier still towers over the ship. Whales cavort at the entrance to the bay and sealions show off. We were lucky with the weather as it is not always perfect as we experienced.
Then als itv was time to leave and two days cruising North West bought us to College Fjord late in the evening where we saw even more impressive glaciers churning their way down to the sea. The weather had turned a bit for the worse but it was still a majestic sight sitting in the comfort of the bar drinking a martini and slowly, very slowly making our way up the fjord past the huge glaciers.
We arrived in Whittier, the port for Anchorage the next morning and left the ship and boarded a train just outside. It had started to rain, though that didn't last long.
The train took us north for 9 hours to the Princess Denali Lodge, by the Denali National Park, a huge 10,000 square mile wilderness jammed full of wildlife. On our excursion the next day we saw caribou.
We saw moose, and they are big, and we saw lots of grizzly bears.
We drove into the deepest parts of the park, on dirt roads on an old school bus which was a bit uncomfortable but we had a very knowledgeable driver who had been doing the run for 31 years and knew every place to spot animals.
I am writing this blog in Anchorage awaiting the shuttle to take us to the airport for our flight to Vancouver. Alaska is certainly a frontier state and an amazing place and definitely a MUST SEE for everyone. One of the great places of the world!
Tomorrow we are back in the USA in Washington State continuing our trip south to San Diego.
