Sun Cruise to Alaska - Review with Photos (I hope)

[deladypilot]

Sorry about that. Never had that happen before. It posted the entire message twice

[deladypilot]

After hubby woke up we went and grabbed something to eat at the buffet. As I mentioned, we are pretty laid back and for the most part we would rather just eat and go. So it works for us.

 

As for the buffet area. I was not overly impressed with the layout. They do have 2 lines but as you walk in the omelet station/ice cream station is the first thing you see. Everyone stops there and the line backs up. You can go around them and get into the regular line but until you figure it out you just waste your time. That being said....If you enter on the other side of the pool area there is an entirely different buffet going on and hardly anyone is there. So that is my suggestion to everyone.

 

At 11:00 am we had our official Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. We had about 50 sign up but my guess is we had about 30 or 35 show up. All the officers were there and it went real nice. OMC329 set it all up and she did a fantastic job. She had nametags for us all to put our real name and our screen names on. After the officers said their little bit we mingled a while and then we did an impromptu room crawl.

 

 

At 1pm was the Latitudes gathering in the theater. Again all the crew were there and they served wine and bahama mamas. It lasted about 30 minutes and we were

 

The rest of the day was pretty much just mulling about. Not really doing much of nothing except that hubby joined in on the Blackjack Tournament and that ended quickly.

[deladypilot]

That evening was "Dress Up or Not Night" and we had reservations at Il Adiago for 7:30. So we got all spiffed up and went down to have our photos taken. This was the first time we had done this but we were celebrating our 25th Anniversary so we thought we ought to at least have photos taken.

 

We were done with photos early so we headed to the Casino Bar to have a drink and then headed for dinner. Everything was wonderful and we truly enjoyed the service as well as the food.

 

 

[deladypilot]

Since we were celebrating our anniversary, NCL provided us with a cake but when it came we were already so full and had not finished our desert that they offered to send it up to our room for us to have later.

 

Cheesecake that came with dinner

 

Anniversary Cake

[deladypilot]

That pretty much concluded our day. We really aren't show people and we pretty much turn in early, that mixed with the fact I woke up at 4:30 am, I was exhausted.

 

June 5th - Ketchikan, Ak

 

Fishing day. We arrived in Ketchikan around 6:30 am. As we started to pull in to port, I realized how much snow was still on the mountains. Eagles were everywhere you turned.

 

We booked our fishing trip with Experience One Charters. I believe it cost us about 165.00 per person + 30.00 for the fishing license and salmon stamp. When I started doing my research on private charters I realized that all the boats wanted a minimum of 4 people and almost all of them would hold 6. I posted a message on our Roll Call board and shortly there after another couple decided to join us. Stacy and Rich became our new buddies and have turned into great friends.

 

Capt Johnny met us at the dock and walked us a few feet over to his boat. He gave us a quick safety briefing and off we went. As we were headed to the fishing site he had us fill out our licenses and within 20 minutes we had poles in the water. We had a great day fishing and Capt Johnny and his first mate were wonderful. I say we had a great day fishing because that is all we did fish. We did not catch. We had the radio on and from what we could tell, the fish just were not biting. I think all morning we only heard of one Salmon being caught. We had a nice boat ride and saw many eagles and some whales.

 

 

 

[deladypilot]

Whale we saw on our fishing trip

 

My favorite Eagle Photo

 

The guys enjoying the ride

 

I will mention that the Capt provided drinks and snacks for everyone. Even though we did not catch anything. He has been doing this for over 40 years and I would not hesitate to book with him again. I think we just needed to be a little later in the year

[deladypilot]

Here are a few photos from and around Ketchikan

 

Do you see the Pink Star Fish holding onto the piling?

 

They have a huge Christmas store in town and even have a live Santa Clause you can take your photo with. We did that last time, so we skipped it this, but here is a cute Santa that stands in the corner of the store.

 

The town

[deladypilot]

Ok, my computer seems to be having some issues with posting my photo links, so I will call it a night and finish up tomorrow. Meanwhile I will try to figure out what the heck is wrong.

 

Feel free to ask any questions

[dustyroad]

thank you so much for the great review and pictures. I cant wait for more :).

[sue402001]

I'm enjoying your review deladypilot and can't wait to read and see more. What a great shot of the eagle, what kid of camera did you use?

[soaringfalcon]

I'm really, really enjoying this review! Thank you!!

[boaterette]

I am really enjoying your review. I am still torn about which cruise to take so this is helping a lot.

[drsaloni]

Thank you, I cant wait to read more. We are going on back to back cruises on NCL sun in August & am planning my excursions at this stage. We have going with our 4 year old son. Loved the pics, I am waiting with bated breath, please keep typing...loving it !;)

[deladypilot]

I'm enjoying your review deladypilot and can't wait to read and see more. What a great shot of the eagle, what kid of camera did you use?

About 1/2 the photos were taken with a Cannon EOS Rebel STi and the other 1/2 were taken with a simple Kodak Easy Share camera. All the zoomed in wildlife shots were the Cannon.

[deladypilot]

Ok, lets see if I can get this thing to work this morning.

 

Here is another view of Ketchikan

 

And here is 1 of 2 ladies running for the ship. You know, the ones that did not get the picture when they announced, printed and posted that you needed to be on board the ship by 3:30 but were 4:00 showing up. They had been calling for them on the ships intercom and the dock workers were starting to pull up the gangway when I heard screaming of WAIT, WAIT.

 

This is a shot as we were pulling out

[deladypilot]

Our evening was rather calm. Nothing really worth noting. We stayed on our balcony and watched us sail away and then went and grabbed a quick bite to eat.

 

Next up was Juneau.

 

We had a busy day planned for Juneau.

 

We got off the ship as early as possible and took a shuttle to town. They had buses lined up ready to go. From where we docked town was quite a walk. Once we got our bearings we decided to walk around town a bit. I wanted to find the Patsy Ann statue and wanted to walk up to the old Russian Church, so we set off. Where they drop you off is very much a port town. All the shopping you could possibly want. We were not into the shopping thing so we asked where all the real town stuff was. What they explained to us is from the docks to the Red Dog Salon is all owned/operated or supported by the cruise ships. Get past that and you find the real town.

 

So I took my photo of Patsy Ann and we moved on.

 

Patsy Ann was a dog that stayed on the docks during the gold rush era. She greeted all the men that were there trying to strike it rich. She became quite the icon in the days.

 

So here is the famous Red Dog Salon

 

City Hall

[deladypilot]

Next up was the Russian Church. We began our walk but stopped as it was an uphill climb and that was to much for my husband. So I never made it. Some friends of ours did and said it really is worth going to see. If im ever there again, I will catch the city bus and ride up.

 

So we walked around and as I am a Diet Coke drinker, I looked for a place to grab one. We found a small local Russian deli and picked up a couple. They had some of the most interesting little cookies sitting on the counter and I asked the lady what type of cookie they were and were Russian cookie sweet like American cookies ( I asked that because I have a girl friend from Germany and every time she bakes cookies, I have noticed they are not as sweet as what I grew up on). The owner of the store was so sweet and told the young lady to just give me one. They were very good, so I decided to purchase a couple for later. Next thing I knew, she had thrown in about 4 different kinds of cookies and charged me about $2.00.

 

We walked around a bit and talked with a few of the locals and then headed back toward the shopping area. There we picked up the Blue Bus ($8.00 one way per person) and took a ride out to Mendenall Glacier. In town you will see all the tour operators set up right next to each other. It can be overwhelming I think. They are all yelling things about this tour or that tour. Some of the operators can sell 1 way tickets to Mendenhall and others can not.

 

We waited about 10 minutes for our bus to arrive and made the 20 minute drive out to the Glacier.

 

 

 

[deladypilot]

We toured the Visitors Center and walked around a bit. The trails leading out to the falls and other viewing areas were to much for my husband to walk so we stuck around the center area.

 

At 2:45 we went to the bus pick up area where we waited on Harv & Marv Whale Watching to pick us up for our adventure. Our friends Stacy & Rich who went with us fishing were also on this tour with us.

 

It was raining by that time but the ride over was quick and painless. We were assigned to Capt Liz and she is amazing. We had not even pulled away from the doc area and she mentioned that a whale had been hanging around the area so we headed out to see. It did not take long before we saw the blow hole and we began to follow. Whales are interesting to catch photos of and with the rain and fog, not many of them came out the way I would have hoped but the memory is alive and well in my head.

 

This one came straight up out of the water

 

 

[deladypilot]

More from the Whale Watching tour

 

 

 

[deladypilot]

Skagway was up next

 

I woke up around 4:40 again and went out to watch the beautiful views as we floated into town. I spotted a whale along the way and several waterfalls. It was a great way to drink my coffee in the morning even if it was cloudy and foggy.

 

 

[deladypilot]

Our plan for the day was horseback riding. We booked this through the ship.

 

Our ship was docked at the furthest spot possible but we they had large golf carts available to take you to the end of the pier if you needed the assistance. Once we arrived there our tour guide was waiting. She headed us toward the bus area and loaded up. The ride out to Dyea is about 25 minutes and parts of the road are being worked on as they widen the road. For that few minutes of the trip, it is all dirt & rock road. It was not bad as they seemed to stay on top of the situation and keep the area as smooth as possible.

 

The young lady that drove the bus filled us in on the area and showed us some neat points of interest. Dyea is a ghost town now and the original town has turned back into forest.

 

Once we arrived at the ranch we were given helmets and allowed to lock our belongings up in a closet. So you can leave your backpack and extras that you don't need and take only your camera if you wish. The ranch manager Kyle gave us a brief safety talk and asked question like who had ridden before and who had not. There were about 17 people on the bus over and they split us up into 2 groups to make it more manageable. The horses were saddled up and ready to go. As my husband looked around he saw the biggest horse there, a Belgian draft horse. He said to me...That's the horse I will be riding. He was right. So my big burly man ended up on a horse named Peaches. As for me, I ended up on the horse that had the most spunk as I was the most experienced rider having grown up and owning horses. Both were really gentle and sweet horse. These are trail horses and they want to trail behind the one in front so there is really no issue if you know how to pull on reins.

 

The camp had set up a set of stairs with a platform to load everyone. This reduces the stress on the horses and also makes it easy for those that have never ridden get on. Once everyone was loaded up, we set off.

 

 

[deladypilot]

Ok. Back later this evening to finish up

[Keith1010]

Your review is great so far as well as the photos.

 

For future reference you don't have to break it on so many different posts.

 

Keith

[NMLady]

Yes the Star is bigger and I like her layout better than the Sun but the Sun is a beautiful ship and her crew is amazing. I would have a hard time choosing between the 2. If I was able to go on a vacation again tomorrow though, I think I would choose the Sun because of the crew members.

 

The Sun has the wonderful Observation lounge atop the ship with floor to ceiling windows and a small deck area outside the lounge, over the bow. Awesome for picture taking.

The Star put cabins there during the dry dock.

 

The Sun has The Great Outdoors seating area and additional buffet at the aft of the ship.

The Star never had Great Outdoor but had shops there. However, they put the Spinnaker lounge, windowless, in that area during the drydock.

I loved our 33 days on the Sun. I'll miss that lounge and Outdoor area on our upcoming trip on the Star.

 

Thank you for your review and awesome photos. Brings back memories.

Edited June 24, 2013 by NMLady

[drsaloni]

Thank you deladypilot, am still enjoying your cruise report.