NCL Sun Northbound June 3rd review

I already did a brief run of the ship for the NCL board, and wanted to do the major review here on the Alaskan board to give back a bit for all I received in planning.

The Sun itinerary was NB out of Vancouver, Monday to Monday, ending in Whittier. We hit Ketchican, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier. We arrived in Vancouver Saturday for pre-cruise, and did 3 days post cruise in AK, focusing out of Seward. I will try to include some of the costs as I go, to help others with budgeting, as well as including picts. Unfortunately, I've given up trying to get them full size, and am settling for the easy copy from flickr. Hopefully ya'll can still enjoy them.

We arrived in Vancouver on Saturday, May 31st before noon. We took the train to our hotel, Day's Inn on Pender, a few blocks from the Canada Place. We had trouble getting the machines at the airport to take our credit card, and finally ended up using our bank card. I heard from my sis that she too had problems with the machines. From what I gathered, keep trying different machines or cards until something takes.

The hotel was fine. The location was perfect. The cost was $331 total, two nights, including the 3rd person charge and taxes. They allowed us early checkin as our room was ready when we arrived shortly after noon. It was a king suite, separate bedroom with door, living room area with pull out couch for my dil, but the bathroom was off the bedroom so one needs to go through there if a night visit is required. Located downtown, there are plenty of buildings to be seen, but I still enjoyed our view. We just needed to look out, not down.

My sis was still out and about, but we met up with my son and headed out for some lunch. The hotel, when asked about a cheap and quick alternative, suggested their own affiliated restaurant. Not exactly either quick or cheap. Ds suggested we walk down to Canada Place where they had a full selection of fast food places. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to pick up sis.

Now, when I planned this trip, I foolishly thought I'd get a nearly a full day of touring in with our early arrival. Let's see, up at 4AM Central after a poor night's sleep the night before, flights across the country, transfer to hotel, lunch and it is now maybe 2pm Pacific, but 4pm central and we are BEAT!!!

Original plan was Capilano Bridge. We tossed that idea out in favor of the Hoho bus. We had prepurchased two day passes so why not do one of the routes with what was left of the day? Dil wasn't due in until late, so we decided to save the better route through Stanley Park for Sunday and used the other route instead.

I don't know if it was because we were so exhausted or what, but it was DULL. Granted, we could sit and not move, but DULL. We probably should have gotten off and looked around, but we simply didn't have the energy, so we did the full route and got off back at Canada Place.

That done, it is time to eat! And so the search began....

Warning for others, it is VERY difficult to find a nice pub to eat at in Downtown Vancouver on a Saturday night! :eek:

We first tried for the Moose Down Under. I had read about it here. Closed for a private function. We looked up and down searching for another midpriced place, landed back at the hotel and asked them. Their restaurant was closed for a private function. They directed us to a place with elephant and castle in the name, a couple of blocks away. Closed for private function.

Ok, we are tired and HUNGRY! Enough of this! We had now been walking around for over an hour attempting to find a pub style restaurant that was open for business. We decide to head down to Canada Place for fast food instead of a restaurant. Just before we arrive, there on the corner is a place called the Lion's Pub.

THIS was what we had been looking for!!!!!! :)

The prices were slightly higher than I would have liked, but man was that good food and service!!!! I had guiness pie at $16, plus a beer. That was the BEST pie! They soak the beef in beer, though you can't taste the beer. It tenderizes the meat. It was soooooo good! Slurp! We skipped desert. We were too full to eat more. We ever get back to Vancouver, the Lion's Pub is on our list!

Once our dil arrived, we all crashed for the evening. Isn't jetlag fun?

Thanks! Looking forward to the rest of your review. I am the one who took your advice and got an upgrade to a balcony for $0!! We leave July 14 on the Sun and this same itinerary and are also spending time post-cruise on a DIY tour.

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Day 2, Sunday, Vancouver

I mentioned that our dil was staying in our room. The reason for this was that her husband, our other ds, was on NG duty so we had invited her to join us. In place of our ds, she had brought along doodlebunny! We had a LOT of fun with doodlebunny, and I just HAVE to include a least a little bit of the fun we had with him here. And for those who don't enjoy doodlebunny, unfortunately we left him on board the ship during our excursions, so he won't be in the entire review.

We started our day bright and early with plans to join the Vancouver Guys tours mentioned here on CC. Doodlebunny checked out his first view of Vancouver in the daylight.

We headed over to Tim Horton's for breakfast, a few blocks from the hotel.

We dropped dh hubby at the hotel afterwards as he was nursing a torn meniscus and there was concern about keeping up on the tour. GOOD decision!!!

On our way to the tour we stopped and checked out the local church.

From their we headed to the meeting place, although arriving quite early. Doodlebunny posed in front of the fountain as we caught the reflection in the building behind him.

He was also quite interested in the various sewer caps and had to have a closer look.

With time left to spare, we went around the building to the gardens across the way and took lots of family picts. There were actually blooms this time of year to enjoy.

After an enjoyable time in the gardens, we headed back to meet our guide, Ali. He posed at the end of the tour with doodlbunny for us.

This tour was GREAT!!! We did the one of Chinatown, but if we were to return to Vancouver, I would love to take some of their other offerings. For this tour, the fee is free, but pay the guide what you think a tour is worth at the end. Hopefully he felt we paid fairly. He seemed pleased anyway.

The one caviat I have on this tour, is be in reasonably good condition. He MOVED on this one. Sis could barely keep up. It would have been hopeless for dh. If you can move though, it was GREAT!

He gave history and background on the city and buildings on our way to Chinatown. The library we looked at as he described the oops on the design. I'll leave that for those who wish to take the tour in the future.

We also go past a huge mural by which he talks of the history of Vancouver.

We eventually arrive at Chinatown.

He walked us through the various parts of Chinatown, talking of the history of riots, Japanese during WWII vs the time of the origins of Chinatown, foods, markets and so forth on. We also stopped at the free portion of the Chinese gardens. We had intended to return for the fee portion with dh, but oh well....

Doodlebunny wanted a chance to pose. What a ham! :D

After the tour we headed back to collect dh up from the hotel. You can take the train or walk. For us, it was about a 20minute walk back. Had dh been with us, we would have eaten at one of the recommended places Ali gave and then done the tour of the gardens. Of course, had we done that, we would have missed Stanley Park, so things happen for a reason.

We caught a quick lunch at Canada Place and then caught the red hoho to Stanley Park. The biggest minus to using the hoho is that they ended the routes waaaay too early when we were there. There was plenty of daylight long after the hohos stopped for the day.

Doodlebunny sat down on a chair as we waited for the bus. He was worn out.

We boarded the hoho and first got off to see the totem poles.

We waited by the bikepath for the next hoho following.

From there we went to prospect point. Doodlebunny enjoyed the view!

And a guy played music in the background.

We ended up on the hoho from 3-5:30pm. I would have liked longer, but as I said, they ended the routes awfully early.

We decided we'd like another evening like the previous one and figured we'd give the Moose Down Under another try.....THpppptttt!!!!! How they keep in business when they are always closed?!?!

This time we were tired and sore and not willing to spend over an hour looking for another pub, nor were we willing to go quite so high again as the Lion's Pub. So after a brief and fruitless search we headed back to Canada Place for cheap and easy subs.

We had a pre-cruise meetup scheduled at the hotel's pub afterwards where we met up with Delady and her husband. Noone else came. The pub was nothing remarkable and service was DISMAL. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

We stopped by the desk on the way back to our rooms to schedule the free shuttle to the port. I felt silly myself, as it was a really short walk, but dh's knee was of some importance.

The next morning we were ready an hour before the shuttle time. Aww, what the hay, let's walk it, so we stopped by the desk and cancelled. I'd rather walk slowly and have something to do than stand around waiting for the shuttle after already checking out. So we walked. It really wasn't bad at all, even for dh.

We breezed through checkin and boarded the ship. Doodlebunny enjoyed the nice sitdown lunch and charmed our server.

After lunch it was up to our forward facing balcony. Sigh..... :D

Now THAT is the way to travel Alaska!!!

We pulled out of port later that day.

And doodlebunny prepared for the great adventure.

We watched what I'm guessing was the pilot boat ahead.

And prepared to go under the lion's gate bridge.

We watched the sailboats in the harbor as we went.

And of course I caught the lighthouse on our way past.

With a full schedule ahead, doodlebunny wanted to catch at least one show on this trip, so we headed to the theatre.

Afterwards it was time for some sleep! This trip was tiring. Yawwwn. And the best of the fun was yet to come. :D

The first day was a sea day. There were some wonderful views, but apparently I didn't take any picts of them. :confused:

It was a busy day with a cc meet, latitudes meetup, workout in the gym and other misc things. The day flew by.

We woke up the next morning to a cloudy sort of day for Ketchican.

We put on our rain gear and headed out when the ship was cleared, into the pouring rain. It was ok. We were dry underneath!

We caught the bus out to Totem Bight without hindrance.

By the time we arrived at the park, the rain had stopped and only clouds remained.

And we headed down the path.

We enjoyed the walk down to the water and clan house.

By the time we reached the water's edge we had much better weather!

We saw the clanhouse and totems.

And headed past the water again on our way back.

Afterwards we headed over to potlatch park. Definitely worth a visit. I mention here though, one of my biggest regrets to the trip is doing this whole section without a guide. I'd wished I'd spent a bit more and purchased one of the taxiguides at the cruiseport. *shrug*

Did I mention the weather had cleared?

After enjoying what the parks had to offer, we headed back to the ship via public bus again. I had intended to go into Ketchican proper and do the married man's trail, but I was a bit tired and dh was in pain. He and I headed back to the ship while sis, ds and dil headed into town without us. They too seemed to lose the wind out of their sails and did not stay in town long enough to really see it. I guess we need to go back!!! :D

Back onboard I took a pict of the other ships now docked in port. (We were first in port that day).

With time to kill, I made the most of our balcony.I got my first photos of eagles playing off in the distance.

And I watched all the seaplanes coming and going.

Doodlebunny made a new friend while we were out and about.

And we headed back out as the clouds had reformed over Ketchican.

Break time. Hope ya'll are gathering something useful from this and enjoying the ride. :)

Thursday, Juneau

We awoke to another cloudy day. So surprising in Alaska! ;)

As we sailed past our dock I thought how lucky we might be to be moved to a closer dock. Yeah, right. :rolleyes: It was simply to reposition to the other side of the dock.

We were one of the first off the ship and caught a shuttle to town, quick and easy. After the drop we walked over to the line of vendors and purchased our roundtrip tickets to Mendenhall at $16pp. I know some folks advise purchasing one way, but it was easier this way as it went on our charge card.

We waited for maybe 5 minutes for the bus, our anticipation building. Today would be our very first sight of a glacier. We were not disappointed.

Our first view of Mendenhall Glacier as we entered the park.

And the visitor's center behind us.

We took the Nugget Falls trail and enjoyed the mild hike taking our time as we went, (Dh paid for that hike later with the knee...)

We saw babbling brooks.

Wildflowers beginning to bloom.

And if one looked carefully into the hills, wildlife. :D

We took our time, enjoying the glacier view as we approached.

It is hard to get perspective in a pict, but here are the canoeists by a hunk of loose ice.

And the falls as we came in a bit closer.

All in all, spent about 2 1/2 hours at the park, taking our time, enjoying and taking tons of picts.

Afterwards we went back to wait for the bus, maybe 10 minutes or so until it arrived. We boarded and headed back to town, getting off at the Red Dog Saloon.

We got some chicken fingers to share, (we were HUNGRY), and drinks. It was a LOT of fun. We enjoyed the music and atmosphere.

Afterwards we did a bit of shopping as we meandered our way back to the shuttle that ran us back to the ship.

Friday, Skagway

And the trip gets better and better...

Another cloudy morning. Fine by me. They so seldom seemed to stay that way!

Approaching Skagway

We had lined up Dyea Dave at $79pp for a full day bus ride up to Emerald Lake and back. We had a small bus load from our ship all booked the same except for ONE couple that had booked the train for the way back.

Well, that one couple never did show. Dyea Dave had us wait as long as was sensible, but eventually it was decided they were a noshow so off we went without them. It would be nice if they could've managed to send word and save the rest of us the long wait....

Our guide for the day was Barry. He was quite pleasant and very informative. Unfortunately, because of time lost at the beginning, he spent a good part of the morning trying to get us back on schedule. Oh well. We had a great time and got TONS of picts. :D

I love the way you have organized your review, and the smaller photos are just fine. It actually makes the review easier to read and follow. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Barry made many stops along the way.

Bugs in the water at one stop. Yuck.

From the window of the van. I just liked the colors on the mountainside.

Of course the smallest desert in the world....

And our arrival at Emerald Lake.

We stopped for lunch in Carcross.

They also had a nice selection of pastries. The macaroons were scrumpdilyicious! ***smacking lips***

We stopped many more times on our way back, and even managed some glimpses of the sun along the way. :)

We also stopped for the suspension bridge that was built specifically for the fault line.

And, just to make our day complete, Barry slammed on the brakes as he spotted....

And we all rushed to the windows...

Now, I tell ya', could he have planned a better end to that day?

We stopped for one last overlook on our way back into town.

What a day! And still our Alaskan adventure continued to get better, and better, and better....

Did I mention I REALLY liked the northbound experience?

Poor doodlebunny missed it all. But he enjoyed the balcony while he waited. ;)

Enough for today. I'll try to get back at it on Thursday. :)

Really enjoying this! I have printed out a guide to the totems at Totem Bight; do you think that will help? I know you regretted not having a guide.

Also, jumping ahead here..what time were you able to get off the ship in Whittier? (We leave on this same ship, same itinerary July 15.) Our taxi driver is coming at 9:30.

Thanks.

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Enjoying the review so far.