Trip Report:Southbound Vision of the Seas, July 15, 2005

Warning: This ended up long.

This is a report of our July 15, 2005 southbound cruise on Vision of the Seas from Seward to Vancouver with a couple of independent days at the beginning. The travelers are I and my wife, Ketarah. This vacation also served as our 22nd anniversary celebration. It is our first time to Alaska, and our third cruise, all on RCI.

Day 1, Tuesday, July 12

Orange County, CA- 6:45AM flight to Chicago, 2 hour layover, and then flight to Anchorage. Round about route for sure, but you take what you can get when using “points” for flying. Amazing views during flight of solid white snow and ice as far as you can see. Arrive in Anchorage at 6:30PM. We stayed at the Rodeway Inn on Gambell St. near downtown. They had a courtesy van that picked us up at the airport. The people were very friendly; however their motel is a bit of a dump. We grabbed a quick dinner at the Country Kitchen around the corner (and up several blocks). OK coffee shop food.

Day 2, Wednesday, July 13

Woke up early to catch the 6:45AM Alaska Railroad train to Seward. The very friendly people at the Rodeway Inn drove us to the station in their van. The train ride to Seward was very scenic. It was cloudy and rainy most of the 4 hour+ trip. That didn’t stop me from leaning out the open section between cars to take pictures whenever possible. A local high school graduate provided interesting narration throughout the ride. She was very poised and informative. We arrived in Seward at 11:05AM. The rain had let up by now, so I figured we could walk to our hotel. Well, it only looked like an inch on the map. We dragged our luggage about 4 very long blocks to Murphy’s Motel. (Take a taxi) They luckily had a room ready for us and let us check in early. This was a clean and comfortable room. Nothing fancy. We dropped our stuff and went back toward the marina and had lunch at the Marina Restaurant. The motel manager described it as their “greasy spoon”. It was actually pretty good. The halibut and chips were good, but the fish pieces are smaller than what you would expect. We popped into the Kenai Fjords National Park visitor center (right at the marina) and found out about a van service to Exit Glacier ($8.00rt). They operate out of the Holiday Inn Express building. We grabbed the first van and went to the Glacier. It began raining sort of heavily, but we were equipped and we joined a Ranger led nature walk/talk down to the glacier. We didn’t venture to the upper level because of the weather. We went back to town and had dinner at Chinook’s Waterfront. It was highly recommended by the motel manager. He preferred it over Ray’s. The food and service were excellent and the view from the window side table on their second floor was unbeatable.

Day 3, Thursday, July 14

Leisurely day walking around downtown Seward. Cloudy morning turned into spectacular blue sky afternoon and just kept getting better late into the evening. Walked through the Alaska SeaLife Center. It was small, but interesting. We had lunch at the Harbor Dinner Club across from the Hotel Seward. We sat out on their very nice back patio which they claim is the largest outdoor dining patio in Seward. We both had the very delicious clam chowder and crab salad sandwich. We went through the Seward Historical Society Museum ($3.00, very interesting) and then saw some old films about the 1964 earthquake and tsunami at the library ($3.00, one showing every day at 2:00PM). Later, back to the marina for the Major Marine Tours 6:00-10:00PM cruise of Resurrection Bay. They have a National Park Ranger onboard giving commentary about the wildlife and the area. She was very informative and good at spotting the wildlife. We saw humpbacks, eagles, steller sea lions, puffins, goats, and sea otters. They had a very good all you can eat salmon and prime rib buffet onboard. The tour ended a little after 10:00PM and the sky was as blue and sunny as when we began.

Day 4, Friday, July 15

We sleep in a little. Step out the door at Murphy’s Motel and see the Vision of the Seas waiting for us at the pier across the small harbor. Check out time was 11:00AM, so we grabbed a quick breakfast at a pastry shop down the street and then called a taxi and checked out. We had the taxi take us to the pier, where the ship’s people were ready and waiting to take our bags. There was no other sign of life at the pier. Everyone from the incoming cruise was long gone, and we seemed to be the first to arrive. We figured if they weren’t ready to board yet, we would walk somewhere at the harbor and have a coffee or something (spelled beer). Alas, we poked our heads in the huge check in area; saw fully staffed check in counters, but no passengers yet. One young lady saw us and waved us over. She checked us in (it took almost a minute and a half) and pointed us toward security for boarding. We boarded the ship, the first ones on. The staff were scurrying all about with cleaning and such. They asked us to have a seat in the Centrum terrace area where we boarded. We waited a few minutes and watched the entrance and saw nobody else boarding. After a little while, a staffer told us our cabin was ready and we could go drop off our carry on stuff. We still saw no one else board. We dropped our stuff in the cabin. Our cabin attendant, Cherton from Costa Rica, spotted us and came in and introduced himself. We chatted for a bit. I pre tipped him a little and requested a couple of robes, if possible. He had them there at turn down that evening, and provided us with friendly and professional service all week. We went back out to the upper decks, the pools and jogging deck and took pictures of beautiful blue sky settings on board and still not another passenger in sight. Cherton told us the Windjammer would open about 12:30PM for lunch. We went there just before 1:00PM and they were just opening. Now we finally saw some other guests coming in. After lunch we went to the Schooner Bar and met the dynamic duo of bartenders, Rupe and Vinnie, both of India. These guys became my good buddies through the week. We relaxed, drank, and wandered until dinner. We chose second seating. Our table was upper level of the Aquarius dining room, right against a huge window that provided fantastic views every night of our week. Our tablemates were 3 wonderful and friendly couples. Marilyn and Jack from Northern California, Karen and Jim from Minnesota, and Carrie and Mason from Ohio. The food was very good. Everyone came to dinner each night and provided fun conversation about our varied choices of daily activities. The welcome aboard show after dinner featured comedy from Dan Wilson (I think). He was pretty good.

Day 5, Saturday, July 16

Cruising toward Hubbard Glacier. Breakfast at the Windjammer buffet. I like that stuff. I’m not usually a breakfast person, so eggs and bacon and smoked salmon and bagels and fruit and pancakes and French toast… I love it. Not always the best quality, depending on how long things are in the warmers, but with good timing, yum. We checked out different activities on the ship. At 11:30AM, we went to the Meet & Mingle in the Viking Crown Lounge. They had reserved an enclosed section of the lounge for this private gathering. It may have been too private. A large group of registrants didn’t realize there was this separate room, and didn’t find their way in until about a half hour into it. It was nice, though. The RCI hostess had some little gifts for us. They put out a nice table of appetizers and a waiter served fruit punch. We had lunch in the dining room (the only time). We had the baby back ribs which were good, but I think the Windjammer is a much nicer choice for lunch. You get a great view and huge choice of salads and sides and entrees. We arrived in the Hubbard Glacier area at about 2:00PM. It was rather rainy, so we viewed it from the covered area of the pool deck through an opened window. It was very cold. Fleece gloves we brought came in handy here. The sight of the blue tinted ice calving off into the glassy calm bay was amazing. The captain brought the ship quite close for very good viewing. We stayed on the deck watching and snapping pictures until the ship began to leave the area at about 4:30PM. We relaxed until show time. It was a very good show by the Knutsen Brothers. They are a singing group that makes their own instrumental backup with their voices. Very entertaining show. Dinner was very good. It was the first formal night. We thought the dining room dinners were all very good in general. We realize that this is not a top of the line cruise (at least not for the cabin class we booked). Everyone at our table seemed to enjoy the meals and it was very easy to request a different dish if something was not quite as expected. The service was very good. Our waiter, Johnathan from the Philippines, was friendly, attentive, and pretty accurate with our orders. The assistant waiter, Alexander from Jamaica, was friendly and very on the spot. After dinner time was always spent wandering around listening to music in a lounge, some dancing, watching games, or drinking at the Schooner Bar.

Day 6, Sunday, July 17

Our anniversary. I got up early to watch our arrival at Juneau. I had heard that the couple hours approaching Juneau were quite scenic. I’m sure that it was, but it was hard to tell through the low cloud cover. We docked in Juneau at 10:00AM. It was cloudy and a little bit rainy off and on. We had reservations for the 12:00PM Orca Odyssey whale watch tour with Captain Larry. The Orca office was just across the street from where the ship docked, so we checked in with them and then took a walk down the three blocks or so of what seems to be the main tourist drag of Juneau. We popped into the Red Dog Saloon. It was already quite crowded with drinkers. We made our way back to the Orca office before noon, and boarded their bus for the ride out to Auke Bay where the Orca Odyssey departs. This was an excellent trip. We saw many humpbacks as well as sea lions and eagles. The Orca Odyssey is a brand new boat that they just put into service. It was specially designed for speed and viewing. Captain Larry was very personable and effective at finding the whales. There were two young naturalists aboard who provided nice narration. The passenger load is kept fairly low to make for an uncrowned feeling. The 12 person at a time top side observation deck provided 360 degree unobstructed viewing. Since it was kind of rainy on and off and since some of the passengers were perfectly content to view from the comfortable inside cabin, it was never a problem getting onto the top deck. The main level open air rear deck also allowed for great viewing. We returned to the dock at about 2:00PM. For an extra fee ($10.00pp) we were dropped off at Mendenhall Glacier on the return trip from Auke Bay. This includes a ticket to catch a return ride on one of several bus companies that travel back and forth between the pier and Mendenhall Glacier all day. We walked the short trail in front of the visitor center to view the glacier across the lake. It was fairly cloudy, so the blue tint to the ice was very apparent. When we got back to the pier, we did a little shopping and stopped at the Taku salmon store to have some free samples before re boarding the ship. The show tonight was Boogie Wonderland, a RCI production. Dinner in the dining room and then the usual after dinner things.

Day 7, Monday, July 18

This morning we arrived in Skagway, 7:00AM. We dock fairly near the town at the forward railroad dock. The weather is cloudy and potentially rainy, but we barely had a sprinkle. We had pre booked the Klondike Bicycle Tour (we had pre booked all of our excursions a couple months in advance). This is the tour that takes you in a van up to the White Pass Summit and then guides you in a group of 10 on mountain bikes down the mountain 15 miles. We have read a lot of things about this ride on this board, positive and negative. Our marks go in the positive column. We thought it was a lot of fun and seemed well guided and thought out. You get moving seemingly pretty fast. I think you should feel confident on a bike to do this. It would not be wise to make this your first time back on a bike in five years. We are both casual bike riders, mostly on beach bike paths at home and are far from thrill seekers. The views were beautiful, with several stops along the way for picture taking. The tour guide met us at the pier with a van and a trailer load of bikes. After the half hour ride up in the van, the bike ride down takes about an hour and a half with all the stops. You end up at the bike shop in town. We then spent a couple of hours wandering through the shops in town. We found our one main little vacation display souvenir at William & Anthony Alaska Shoppe. It’s a handcrafted Ulu knife made by an Alaskan artist. The handle and stand are carved from naturally shed caribou antler. We had them ship it home so that we would have no security concerns. On this board, it seems a lot of people express disappointment in Skagway. Ketarah and I both thought it was a cool little town. It seems so remote and old. I’m glad we spent time there. Back on the ship, drinks at the Schooner Bar. Rupe and Vinnie wonder why they didn’t see me yesterday (Anniversary, I decided to stay sober). The show tonight was an Argentine dance troupe, Los Gauchos Pampas, I believe. They are very good. Dinner in the dining room and so on.

Day 8, Tuesday, July 19

9:00AM arrival at Icy Strait Point and the town of Hoonah. The weather is partly cloudy, but soon clears considerably. Temperature is very pleasant. We tender to the small dock from pretty far out in the bay. Since we were on an early, ship booked excursion, we were led from the meeting lounge (Some Enchanted Evening) directly to a tender. Passengers not on excursions were supposed to pick up tender tickets and wait for numbers to be called to avoid lines. We did the Hoonah Bike Tour. This was a fun and easy bike ride led by a very bright young lady who just graduated from the high school, class size 14 I think, and is headed for Dartmouth. The bike ride takes a couple hours including several rest/narration/picture taking stops. It is about 8 miles round trip. It’s a great way to get from the tender dock (where the tour starts) and into the actual town and fishing village of Hoonah. This is the most “untouched”, so to speak, town we saw on the trip. You can see and hear about life in this rather isolated and scenic setting. Back at the tender dock, there is a small indoor “mall” in the refurbished cannery building which contains the typical gift shops. This whole area appears to be new just for the cruise ships that have started coming. There is a very pleasant shore trail that then heads up the hill and becomes a forest nature walk. Very nice walk to take. Plan about a half hour. We also visited the Native Heritage Center which includes a museum displaying local Tlingit artifacts and cultural displays. We had lunch at the Timberhouse Restaurant. This was the least expensive of the two eateries right near the tender dock. But it was very good. We had a nice size sandwich, Ketarah had salmon which she is still raving about, and I had halibut which was great. They each came with chips and baked beans for a total of $10ea. Back on the ship, more beer at Schooner Bar and the Alaska trivia game (Ketarah and I won). The prize was two RCI luggage padlocks. The old type you can’t use on airlines anymore. Oh well, they’ll work for gym bags. The show was Lenny Welch, 60s R&B singer. Very good performance. Dinner in the dining room and then our big venture out into the casino. We each played (one at a time) our $5.00 blackjack match play coupon that comes in the Crown & Anchor coupon book. We both won. That was a quick $20.00 up, so we left the casino and dropped it at the Schooner Bar, much more of a sure thing.

Day 9, Wednesday, July 20

Arrive in Ketchikan at 8:00AM. We did room service for the first time ever on any cruise. We had left our breakfast order card out on our door the night before, and a couple of delicious omelets came knocking on our door right on schedule at a little after 7:00AM. This was great since we had to meet at 7:45AM for our excursion. Weather looks very promising. Turns out to be a fantastic day, no rain, blue skies with partial clouds, no wind, and calm bay. Great, because we have a kayaking trip planned! We tender to the dock. Again, very easy because we had a ship booked excursion. We did the Whiskey Cove Kayak Tour. This was a fun guided tour that paddled across the inlet to the shoreline of Pennock Island. Our guide was an enthusiastic young woman up here for her first summer. She told us the history of the rumrunners sneaking booze over to the red light district in Ketchikan. We saw an array of sea life along the banks, including starfish and zillions of fist size moon jellyfish that you could scoop up out of the water and hold in your hands. Nobody believed this until the guide did it first. They feel like little balls of jello. The moon jellyfish are all white and clear. The guide warned us not to try this with the colored jellyfish (ouch). We then paddled back across to Ketchikan, under the bridge and right up Creek Street. This was a lot of fun. We waved to all the people above along the boardwalk of Creek Street. The water of the creek was teeming in salmon trying to make their way to the ladder at the end of Creek Street. After the paddle (about 2.5 hours in all), we took a walk along the shops of Creek Street and got a different perspective of where we had just been. We then walked up the Married Man’s Trail and found this really long wooden staircase that went down the back of the hill to Park Ave. We followed Park Ave. along the creek heading to the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Totem Heritage Center. There were several spots along the short walk where you could see dozens of salmon hovering in the shallow water. We toured the fish hatchery and the Totem Heritage Center ($14.00pp for the two tours combined). The fish hatchery, in addition to having lots of salmon in different stages of development awaiting their release to the wild, also houses a couple of rescued disabled bald eagles that are on display in their comfortable home. You can see these birds up close and take some nice pictures. The weather stayed sunny and pleasant all day, which we were told is somewhat of an oddity. Back to the ship at 2:00PM, as this was a short port call with departure toward Misty Fjords at 3:00PM. The ship left promptly on schedule and sailed into Misty Fjords around 5:30PM. The area lived up to its name. The weather took a sharp turn to wet and misty as we cruised into the narrow channel. The captain urged us all to watch for bears at certain clearings on the shore, but alas, no such sightings to my knowledge. It was still a very scenic ride. The show that night was the RCI production Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme. Very good. This was our second formal night. All of our tablemates (and us) brought cameras to dinner. We hadn’t even discussed this before hand. We loaded poor Alexander up with four cameras around his neck and we all posed around the table so he could snap off four photos all at once. It was a good thing we did this, because the ship’s photographer never did take a group picture at our table. I think he was supposed to do this back on the first formal night when he took couples pictures at the table, but he must have been displaced by something more important, namely the arrival of our food. After dinner, we paid a visit to Rupe and Vinnie at the Schooner Bar and spent a little while at Romantic Dance hour in the Viking Crown Lounge. There was hardly any room to dance, what with us and the one other couple we saw in there.

Day 10, Thursday, July 21

Final cruise day. Heading toward Vancouver, cruising Inside Passage. This was a full sea day with absolutely nothing scheduled. We spent the day eating, drinking, lounging on the pool deck for awhile, and going to a couple of ship board activities. The farewell show was the juggling comedy of Reid Belstock. He was very good. I must say we enjoyed all of the shows very much. Also excellent were the piano players at the Schooner Bar and the string quartet and combo groups they had playing in the Centrum every evening until quite late. The Centrum area on this ship is very nice because you can enjoy the music from any of the lounges around the Centrum on three decks. Dinner was good as always and we said our goodbyes to our great tablemates of the last week. Off to the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge for the battle of the sexes game followed by the late night comedy show by Dan Wilson. The room was packed. You could tell no one was ready to let the cruise end. The show was pretty funny and then off to bed for us.

Day 11, Friday, July 22

Debarkation. Arrive at Canada Place, Vancouver at promptly 8:00AM. We were among last called to debark, as we had nowhere to be. Still, we were off the ship by 9:30AM, our luggage was waiting, customs and immigration was a breeze (no line at all) and we had no wait at all for a taxi. We went to the Hyatt (good deal on priceline.com) and they had a room ready for us at 10:00AM. It was on the 17th floor with a nice corner balcony. After getting settled for a minute, we began our whirlwind tour of Vancouver. We purchased tickets for the Grayline Double Decker Bus hop on and off circle tour at the concierge desk. The bus stops at the Hyatt as well as other downtown hotels, so it is rather convenient. The driver narrates and you choose where you wish to get on or off among designated stops. Buses come every 30 minutes. We did the full circle with stops at Granville Island, Yaletown, Chinatown, and Gastown. The weather was beautiful, and perfect for walking around. We had a simple dinner at a little café and wine bar not far from the Hyatt. After dinner we walked down Robson Street. This is quite a happening scene on a Friday evening. We turned in early, as we had a 7:30AM flight home.

Day 12, Saturday, July 23

Wake up early to catch a taxi at 5:00AM for ride to the airport. It was a Saturday morning so there was no traffic. We did see many groups of young people walking the sidewalks obviously still out from the night before. We arrive at the airport at 5:25AM. The line for immigration clearance was already quite long. It probably only took about a half hour to get through all the steps including security. I heard the wait became much longer for people arriving just a short time later than we did. Our flight left on time. We had a much more direct trip for going home. Vancouver to San Francisco and then to Orange County. Only problem was that the planned 3 hour layover in San Francisco turned into 5 hours due to a crew delay. This was the only travel glitch of the whole vacation. I can live with that.

Summary

This was a fantastic trip. The weather was varied but cooperated at all the right moments. All the people we came in contact with were friendly and helpful. The cruise met and exceeded all of our expectations and when you get right down to it, what a great value. I hope the information contained here will be of use to anyone considering this trip.

Great post. Thanks for sharing all of that.

You mentioned a few impressions of the Vision, but what was your overall impression? We're on the Vancouver to LA on Sept. 16.

Also, if you were visiting Juneau again, would you still do the whale watching, or would you switch to something else?

thanks for the review...i will be there in just a few more days and i can't wait!!

judy

Great post. Thanks for sharing all of that.

 

You mentioned a few impressions of the Vision, but what was your overall impression? We're on the Vancouver to LA on Sept. 16.

 

Also, if you were visiting Juneau again, would you still do the whale watching, or would you switch to something else?

Can't answer for the poster, but we were on the Vision late June into early July last summer. I personally loved this ship. My favorite viewing area to sit in was the Viking Crown Lounge during the Inside Passage cruising and while leaving ports. We'd spend hours in there with our binoculars. It was a very comfortable, warm area. All of the ship areas where quite cozy for the purpose they served as well.

We did Captain Larry's tour in Juneau. It was a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. One thing I will point out though is that the best whale show we got was in Icy Straight. And that was merely by luck as we weren't on a whale watching excursion. We were on a private fishing tour fishing for Halibut & Salmon. I caught a 45 lb. Halibut by the way. It was an awesome experience and my arm was sore for 2 days. Yes, I'm a female. But I pulled it in without having to use the belt you strap around you. Anyway, a mother and baby whale started rolling and breaching over and over again. At one point, they completely flew out of the water simultaneously together. That was incredible to see. We didn't get a picture of that. But we got a picture of the mother breaching and I feel so fortunate to have that picture. Who knows if it would happen if you went whale watching in Icy Straight or not. But whether they breach or not in Juneau, I'd still go again because you see a lot of them. I think we saw 18 or 20 that day. And you get close at times and can see them very good. We got a couple of real good pictures of them there too. Just no breaching. I don't hear much on these boards about people seeing breaching in Juneau. They are incredible to see and it's so exciting each and every time they surface. You'll love it.

Enjoy your cruise. You'll be leaving on my twin daughters birthday. So you're taking off at what I consider to be a great day. And if you're lucky, you'll get to see the Northern Lights since you're going so late in the season. I'm sure that will be spectacular and wish we would have been able to experience that. Maybe next time.

We thought the Vision was a beautiful ship. We thought it was very well kept up. The crew people we came in contact with were all very friendly. We thought the food was fine and the shows very good. I'm sure you'll have a great time. I would take bonine daily, though, if I were you doing that open ocean Pacific cruise. Regarding Juneau, I don't think I would make doing the whale watch a priority again since I have done it once. I feel as though I have seen the whales, now let others do it. Do make the stop to see Mendenhall Glacier if you can. It apparently won't be around forever.