Alaska - Inside Passage


Thirty years ago I took a cruise through the inside passage to Alaska with my mother and sister. It was time to return, and time for Deborah to see the only one of the fifty states she had yet to visit. I had considered making the trip via the Alaska Marine Highway System but the ferries are surprisingly expensive and the scheduling can be problematic (do we really want to arrive at a ferry terminal five miles from town at 2am?). The best cruise experience in this area is undoubtedly the small cruise boats that get you up close and personal with glaciers and whales and seals. But those are much more expensive than the typical behemoth type vessel that we eventually chose, especially when you book at the last minute for a reduced price as we did. So we ended up on the Holland America Westerdam and were very happy with our choice.

Our cruise started in Vancouver and wound its way through the islands and channels that dot the Pacific coast of British Columbia and southeast Alaska, ending up in Seward. This glacier carved coastal route has the advantage of protected waters, which makes for a smooth ride, and the nearness of land, which makes for interesting scenery all along the way. This stands in stark contrast to the relocation cruise from Australia to Hawaii that we took ten years ago where we had to fight boredom from too many “at sea” days where there was nothing but endless ocean to see in every direction. With the inside passage route, “at sea” days are a pleasure.

At the Canada Place cruise terminal in Vancouver. This isn't our cruise ship (ours was on the other side of the dock), but it's similarly large.


View of downtown Vancouver as we pull away from the dock.













Our cabin was an "obstructed ocean view," so we got a nice big window and light in the room, but the view was of a lifeboat. An unobstructed view costs considerably more. Not worth it in our opinion given that you can just go out to the deck to see the view.
(photo by Deborah)


(photo by Deborah)



(photo by Deborah)



Creative towel folding is apparently required of the room stewards.



































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Next Stop: Everywhere

Image
It’s been nearly nine years since we started travelling for long periods – up to six months at a time – not just to escape the gloomy winters of Western Washington, but to see what it felt like to really live in, not just visit, another place. Australia was the first, then Fiji, Europe, Mexico, Japan and Hawaii. We did a lot of house sitting and work exchange to moderate the cost and expand the experience.  These trips only deepened our love of travel and whetted our appetites for experiencing new places. But the trip to Hawaii ended with us a purchasing a lot on the Big Island and then returning the following winter to build a house. Designing it ourselves, acting as our own contractor and doing much of the work ourselves, that project stretched to nearly two years. We loved our house and our small community in North Kohala, and made many good friends there. But we always knew our Hawaii stay would not be long term – partly because it is expensive, partly because of the inevita...
Read more

Caribbean Cruise

Image
Even before embarking on our Panama Canal cruise, Deborah and I looked ahead to its conclusion and expressed our reluctance to hurry back to the dreary winter weather of Olympia.  To remedy this we rather decadently booked another cruise that was to leave from Fort Lauderdale just two days after our Panama Canal cruise was to end. We spent the two days in Fort Lauderdale between cruises doing laundry, visiting friends, and catching up on computer tasks thanks to our Airbnb’s Wi-Fi.  Our second voyage was a 7 night Caribbean cruise with stops in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Amber Cove, Dominican Republic; and Key West, Florida; before returning to Fort Lauderdale. Both of our cruises were on Holland America Line (also same as for our Alaska cruise last year), which has a reputation for a somewhat older clientele. The Caribbean cruisers were a bit younger than the Panama Canal ones, but actually seemed in worse shape. Not sure I’ve ever seen that ma...
Read more

Thailand - Chiang Mai - Elephant Nature Park

Image
We had an incredible day at Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for rescued elephants near Chiang Mai. These elephants may have been injured in the logging industry, stepped on landmines, blinded by working under circus lights, or suffered some other abuse by humans, including servitude in the tourist trade. You might think that riding an elephant is no big deal, but if you add the weight of the iron chair, the mahout (handler) and a couple of tourists, you can have half a ton of weight on the animal’s back. But to even get to the point where the elephant will allow you to ride him involves “breaking its spirit,” which means taking a young elephant away from its mother (often by killing or injuring the mother) then subjecting the captive young animal to a barbaric process known as “Phajaan.” The young elephants are constrained with ropes and chains, beaten, stabbed, screamed at and starved until they finally just give up and become submissive to their human trainers. This cruel practice...
Read more