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For lunch, we decided to go Tap and Barrel.

They had outside seating, and it was a gorgeous day. Tap and Barrel also serves a lot of local beers, so that was a also a big draw. We had a beer, and ordered a few appetizers - fried pickles, poutine and a pizza.

Everything was good, and we had an enjoyable lunch outside!

After Granville Island, we headed back to the waterfront near where the cruise ship docked to take some photos and then have lunch.

The Olympic cauldron was cool to see!

There are also some other statues around.

And of course, some great views of the water!

After we walked through the Public Market, we wandered around Granville Island as the stores were starting to open up.

Then we went to Granville Island Brewing. We got there right as they were opening, and they got busy pretty quickly. They do serve food, but we just got beers.

Monday, August 14th: Disembarkation & Vancouver

We were a little sad that our Alaska adventure was over, but at least we had a day in Vancouver before we had to fly home!

We decided to do self disembarkation and take our own luggage. Right at 8:00am, they announced that we could leave the ship. We hopped in an elevator, scanned our cards to leave, and were in Canada Place in a matter of 10 minutes. They barely glanced at our customs forms or passports. I have never gotten off a cruise ship that fast!

Our flight wasn't until 11:00pm that evening, so we had decided to rent a car for the day. We went to the Alamo counter in Canada place, picked up our car and off we went.

We went to Granville Island first.

It took a little bit of driving around, but we eventually found free 3 hour parking.

We went to the Granville Public Market, which was really interesting with all of the different stalls.

We got some donuts from Lee's Donuts, which were amazing!

We also had dessert - I don't remember the names of them but they were pretty good.

All in all, this was our least favorite specialty dining restaurant. The service wasn't great, especially compared to what we had seen all week. We may have had higher expectations since we had a such a good experience on the Dawn prior.

After dinner, we went to a few shows. We started with Broadway Cabaret in Dazzles. It always amazes me how well the performer sing. Then, we saw the magician in the Stardust, who was a lot of fun. The final show of the night was a late night show with the comedian. It was definitely "late night" and not kid friendly, but we enjoyed it!

After the massages, we had dinner reservations at Moderno. We had eaten at Modern on the Dawn a couple of years ago, and loved it, so we had wanted to eat there again.

Menu:

Unfortunately, this restaurant had the worst service of our cruise. They seemed a bit short staffed but there were only a couple of groups in the restaurant. When we were seated, our server came by a few times and said he would be right back but didn't bring water or offer to take drink orders. We sat there for a bit until he was able to come back.

I ordered a Strawberry Caprihana, which was really strong.

They brought over some rolls, and then we went up the salad bar.

Then they brought over the sides and started bringing around the meats.

We had a little bit of everything, and it was all pretty good.

After breakfast, we went to Battle of the Cake Masters. It was funny, with cruise director Dan, the head pastry chef and an audience member all making a cake!

Afterwards, we went to play Deal or No Deal in the Stardust. It was $25.00 for one card, so we just got one. It was fun to play along, and one of the contestants won $300!

After that, we went to the photo gallery to but a few pictures. They were selling a scrapbook kit, so I picked up one of those as well.

That afternoon was the crew talent show. There was singing, dancing, and some comedy. It was so fun to see the crew on stage performing!

We headed back to the Observation lounge to have a drink and enjoy the scenery of the inside passage.

I believe this was a Bahama Mama.

Then, it was time for our massages. We had booked a 50 minute couples massage as a treat for ourselves. The massages were good, but what ruined the experience was the hard sales pitch at the end to buy some lotion. We had to say no thank you a few times before they would let us leave the room, which was a little annoying.

For our last day, we wanted to relax since we were pretty tired from all of our excursions! We slept in a bit, and the went to breakfast in the main dining room.

Breakfast menus:

I ordered the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict, and I believe Justine ordered french toast with a side of potatoes and sausage.

It was a nice leisurely breakfast, since we didn't really have to be anywhere :D

Disembarkation Info - It's always depressing to get this in your room!

Sunday, August 13th: Day at Sea

Dailies for the day:

I found that planning for Alaska was really overwhelming in the beginning, and I LOVE planning trips :D

I found that it was easier for me to start by listing out our must-do's. What is that you want to experience on your trip that you can't do at home? For us it was Denali (we did a southbound cruise), glacier hiking and sled dogs. From there, it was a bit easier to find excursions that fit what we wanted and fit in on the trip.

Also, since you're ending in Seward, you can add on experiences before you fly home if you can spend some time in Alaska after the cruise. We did a Denali fightseeing tour and a glacier hike before we got on our cruise.

In Icy Strait, we did a self-guided ATV tour through Hoonah Travel Adventures that we loved, and even saw bears!

Juneau was our port that we didn't have any excursions, but we only had about 5 hours there. Still, we went to the museum, shopped and had lunch at Tracy's King Crab Shack. You could rent a car and drive out to the glacier - that might be more economical for 5 people than paying for a tour.

Skagway we did a tour with Frontier Excursions that went into the Yukon, and we saw sled dogs there. This was a mini-bus tour that was cheaper than the train, but I know a lot of people love the train experience. You could also rent a car and make the drive yourself.

In Ketchikan, our kayak tour was cancelled due to the rain, but it's a nice area to walk around, but that wouldn't take all day.

My trip report is linked in my signature if you wanted to take a look at any of the excursions (I still have to do the last two days, but all the ports are there). Please let me know if I can answer any questions.

Happy planning :)

We were just in Icy Strait in August and loved it! A lot of people go whale watching, but we decided to do a Self Guided Arctic Cat tour through Hoonah Travel Adventures. We took at the ATV through the logging roads, where we saw bears! After that, we had lunch at the Fisherman's Daughter, went to Icy Strait Brewing and then headed back to the area where the cruise ship docks to shop and see the museums.

I'm working on a trip report, and have covered Icy Strait, which starts here - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2538372&page=5

Happy planning :)

subscribing. loving your review!

Thanks!! It's been fun writing it :)

After dinner, we went to see the World Beat show in the Stardust.

This show was my favorite of all of them. It had songs and dances from a variety of cultures and it was well done!

After the show, they did a special tribute to the cruise ship staff. The staff do work really hard to make sure everyone has a good time on board!

After the show, we headed back to our room and came back to the best towel animal ever!

For entrees, I had the chicken parmigiana and Justine had the beef teriyaki.

Here is the dessrt menu.

I had the lava cakes (again :D) and Justine had apple pie.

As it has been the whole week, the food and service were good. However, dinner that evening took nearly two hours! That was the longest all week, and the server was very apologetic but it did drag a bit.

That evening, we did not have dinner reservations for the main dining room. The orginal plan was to go kayaking, and I wasn't sure if we'd want to have dinner or just hit the buffet. Since we were back on the ship early, we got ready and decided to see if we could walk up to the dining room. We went to Seven Seas around 7:30pm, and were seated right away.

Here are the menus.

For starters, I had the potato leek soup, and Justine had the lime and dill shrimp.

After Creek Street, we headed toward the salmon ladder. It was really interesting to see so many fish swimming against the current!

We did a bit more shopping, and then decided to have a late lunch at the Fish House. It was a small place with a walk up counter and tables in the back. We ordered smoked salmon chowder and halibut tacos.

This was our view during lunch - the rain never let up!

The food was a great, and it was a perfect place for a quick lunch. After we finished lunch, we decided to head back to the ship to relax for a while.

We walked around Creek Street, which was a lot of fun. The stores were interesting, and a lot of the buildings had plaques that described their history.

We got off the ship and walked around a bit. We went to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center for a bit. It is small, so we were only there for about a half hour. They also have a theater but we didn't go in.

After leaving the center, we headed towards Creek Street.

Since we weren't arriving in Ketchikan until 1:00pm, we were able to sleep in a bit!

We had a quick breakfast and then went to the sushi demonstration, which was in the one of the dining rooms. It wasn't the best setup, but it was neat to see.

After that, we went to get ready for the day. We had booked a kayaking trip with Southeast Kayaks, but were worried because, for the first time that week, it was raining!

Right at 1:00pm, as we were docking, we got a call from Southeast Kayaks that they had to cancel our kayaking trip - it was just too rainy and windy, and it wasn't safe. Of course we were disappointed, but there wasn't anything we could do. Since we were already bundled up, we decided to just walk around and explore Ketchikan despite the rain.

Saturday, August 12th: Ketchikan [1:00pm-8:00pm]

Dailies for the day!

Love your review and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to write and post. I've been to Skagway 4 times and I always find something interesting to do. I love seeing the salmon trying to head upriver.

Thanks for reading! Skagway was really interesting. I do wish we had a little more time there since our tour took up most of the day. But that just leaves us with another reason to go back :)

After dinner, we went to Dazzles to see Battle of the Sexes. This was a lot of fun!

After Battle of Sexes, we went to see the Remembering Whitney show in the Stardust. It was incredible. The singer had an amazing voice.

After the shows, we went back to Dazzles since we didn't have to be up too early the next day! We danced for a while and then went to the Sports Bar for a late night snack.

After a burger and chicken tenders, we called it a night!

For our entrees, I had the Basil Chicken and Justine had the Cajun Shrimp and Short Ribs.

Dessert menu

I ordered the Chocolate Mouse and Justine ordered the Boston Cream pie.

Both meals were great, and the service was as well!

We had dinner reservations in the Four Seasons dining room. They have a model of the Sun in the entryway!

Here are the menus for that evening.

For starters, I had the Italian meatball soup and Justine had the Smoked Salmon Tartare.