Millennium Alaska June 16, 2017 LONG Trip Report photos - menus - schedules

[MareT]

Enjoying your review LuckyBecky . . we were on this same cruise and enjoyed every minute of it. We did Celebrity's four day Tundra Wilderness tour. Alaska is an amazing state . . so beautiful! Will definitely visit again some day.

[Payd]

I'm enjoying your review! The pre-cruise review was excellent, with many worthwhile tips. I like that you did this as an independent tour, something we would very likely do also (the upgrade to pre-tour is very high for us especially with the CAD to USD exchange).

 

Now enjoying the photos and cruise review.

 

Thanks so much!!

[luckybecky]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you are enjoying the review and finding some useful info.

 

 

Sunday June 18 Juneau

We had 12 hours in port today! Plenty of time to see and do much. We had reserved a whale watching tour with Juneau Tours and Whale Watching. It was an amazing day! We awoke to sunny skies! Yay!

First off, here's the schedule for today. The schedule was always four pages. I'll scan in all four pages today so you can see what the full brochure looks like. But for the rest of the cruise I've only scanned the front page and the main schedule page. Much of the information on the other two pages was redundant, such as operating hours. But anyway, for today here are the full four pages.

[luckybecky]

On all of our cruises, we have had a strong bias toward doing tours on our own, outside of the cruise ship. We have found that we can get much better tours, in smaller groups, and at lower prices when we book on our own. However, there is a small risk here. If something goes wrong and you miss the ship, you are on your own. If you are on a ship tour, they will take care of you no matter what happens.

In spite of this, we have a strong preference for the smaller group, less expensive tours that we can book privately. I research tour operators very carefully, checking their reputation on a popular trip planning website, and looking for recommendations here on CC. For our whale watching tour today, we ended up going with a #1 rated tour provider from that trip advising website.

So for purpose of comparison: we paid $135 per person for the Whale watch/ Mendenhall glacier tour that I'll describe below. A tour that sounds identical booked through the ship was $189. That adds up to $216 difference for our family of four. And, I had a coupon which gave me a $67 refund on the day of the tour. So the total savings for us was $283 today. And that's just today! Imagine how much it would add up to if we did a ship excursion every day.

So on with our tour. We were picked up very near the ship, and boarded a bus which drove us to our tour boat, about a 15 minute drive with a fun and friendly driver. We saw lots of bald eagles on the drive and throughout the day.

The tour boat was brand new. I think there were about 40 of us on board. We headed out with beautiful scenery all around. It didn't take long until we found some humpback whales. But they were just the pre-show.

We had been watching the humpbacks from a distance for a little while, when suddenly our captain fired up the motors and took off. I wondered why we were leaving the whales, but soon had my answer. I don't know how he knew, but there was a whole pod of orca whales not far away. He took us right up nearby. We were alongside them for well over 30 minutes.

We were very close to them and saw quite a few, including babies swimming with their moms. Our captain did a fantastic job keeping us near them.

We also had very smooth waters. Our crew said this was the best tour of the season so far, and I believed them. Hunchbacks, orcas, eagles, smooth seas, gorgeous sunny weather (which apparently is a true rarity in Juneau) -- all added up to one of our best days in Alaska!

First off: a rare sighting of blue sky!

 

 

Look how close we (and another nearby boat) are to the whales!

 

 

 

 

This is a juvenile bald eagle who was perched right above our heads, posing for us as we walked along the pier when we got off our whale watching boat.

 

 

[sarclar]

What whale watching company did you choose? The price is great!

[luckybecky]

But we weren't finished yet.

Getting off the whale watching boat, we proceeded to a waiting bus and were driven the 15 minutes or so to the Mendenhall Glacier. We walked the 2 mile round trip to Nugget Falls on an easy, level trail. There were a lot of people. I think there were four ships in ports so the trail was pretty crowded. But it was an easy walk with beautiful views of the glacier and a stunning waterfall.

We had the option to spend as much time as we wanted at the glacier, as long as we made the last bus back. Busses ran every 30 minutes and the last one was at 6pm. We arrived at the glacier around 2 or 3 pm so we had plenty of time to go to the visitor center and walk to Nugget Falls. The weather continued to cooperate and we had a sunny warm day. Perfect!

The waterfall was impressive!

 

[luckybecky]

We caught the bus back to the pier around maybe 4pm? Back on board time wasn't until 8:30 so we still had a lot of time. Our son just wanted to go back to his cabin to chill and play his video games. Our daughter wanted to shop in port. The ship was right in town, so it was easy for all of us to go our separate ways. We agreed on a time to meet up for supper.

My husband and I decided to ride the Mt. Roberts Tramway. It is a short 5 minute ride to the top. Pretty views. But I thought it was very overpriced at $33. We had a buy one - get one free coupon. If not for the coupon, I don't recommend this. I just don't think it is worth $66 for two people.

But it was a nice, if short, scenic ride up. At the top, there is a restaurant (why pay for food when your ship is right there and you can get food for free?!), and a large gift shop. There is a trail you can take which offered some nice scenic views.

They have a bald eagle that was injured 11 years ago and can never be released into the wild. It is in a cage that is maybe 8 x 10 feet. You can get a very up close view of it, and that is cool, I guess. But I had to feel sorry for this beautiful bird having spent the last 11 years in a cage. And I wondered if it might not have been better to euthanize it when it was clear it could not be rehabilitated.

Here's Paul hiking the trail at the top.

[Tweedy]

 

It looks so different from when I was there in 2009 - it's retreated a lot!

[luckybecky]

It looks so different from when I was there in 2009 - it's retreated a lot!

 

You know, this was very alarming to us. We saw many glaciers during this trip, and ALL of them had retreated very significantly. The Exit Glacier I mentioned earlier did a particularly good job of showing how dramatically it has retreated. It's scary to me. :(

[luckybecky]

Here are a few more photos from our day in Juneau:

 

 

 

Getting off the boat:

 

 

 

We enjoyed sitting on our balcony for a little while watching the float planes taking off and landing.

 

 

 

Paul compares his wingspan to that of an eagle

 

 

 

Some Alaska wildflowers

 

[luckybecky]

We had packed a lot into this day! Back on board we went to dinner. Here's the menu:

This is the Barolo braised beef ragout:

Roasted beef flank steak with salsa verde:

Mediterranean Seafood Orzo:

Roasted veal loin:

[luckybecky]

Here is the dessert menu for tonight:

 

 

Cherries Jubilee

 

 

 

Chocolate lava cake

 

 

 

 

The desserts were delicious! So don't get me wrong, but the cherries jubilee, which is described as flambéed, was not flambéed. I'm sure lighting fires on a ship is a safety issue, but not sure why they put this in the description. It was still very tasty!

 

And, I'm sorry, but this chocolate lava cake was a poor runner-up to Carnival's famous chocolate lava cake. For one thing it was quite small. The waiter even mentioned this to us when we ordered (so we could order two if we wished). Of course you can have as much as you want. But there was no lava in my lava cake! It was just a piece of chocolate cake, very good, about the size of a ping pong ball. Sorry, but Carnival wins this one, hands down. :D

[luckybecky]

Later, my family bailed out as they were all tired. And I couldn't blame them; it had been a busy day. I was tired too, but I really didn't want to miss the shows that night. So I went to the Simply Ballroom show in the Celebrity theater at 9pm. It was a high energy show. If you like the TV show Dancing With the Stars, you'll probably enjoy this show.

 

 

 

Then, I couldn't miss the Newly and Not-So-Newlywed show at 10:30pm in the Cosmos Lounge. The Cosmos was a beautiful space! We loved it up there. I've seen a similar show on other ships and it has always been a ton of laughs. Although I was tired, I really didn't want to miss it. It did not disappoint. It was so much fun, and the host Manuel was great.

Then my husband joined me for a spin in the casino. We had a late night-- not a great idea, given our plans for tomorrow!

 

Have a look at the gorgeous sunset we had:

 

[luckybecky]

Monday June 19 Skagway

Today was hands down the most amazing day of our trip, and one of the most unique experiences of my life!

About 8 months ago, as we were planning our trip, my husband and I had stumbled across a TV show about Alaska on (I think) the Travel Channel. It included a short segment with a guy named Steve Kroschel who runs a wildlife refuge near Haines, AK. The TV segment was really intriguing and after watching it, we both thought we would like to visit.

The cruise ship offers a tour there. But it was a large group tour and we were interested to see if we could do a tour on our own. I googled the Kroschel center and found their website easily, but it didn't have any info about booking a tour. So I used their contact link to inquire. Steve himself soon responded, and said that he could give us a private tour for our family of 4 on the day we would be in the area.

It was a little more complicated than that, however. Our ship docked in Skagway. We would have to take a 45 minute ferry from Skagway to Haines, AK. Then we would have to rent a car and make our way about 30 miles from Haines to the wildlife center.

So, in order to do this tour, I had to research and reserve all of the following: the tour itself at the wildlife center, a ferry from Skagway to the town of Haines (and back), and a rental car for the day in Haines. And I had to make sure the timing worked, so that we could get off the ship and back on in time. It was a lot of work to make sure all this happened, but it was SOOOOO worth it! Really an incredible day!

[luckybecky]

So here is how it went: first, we had a very early start. We put out the door tag to request room service breakfast, asking for delivery between 6:30 and 7:00am. I set our alarm for 6:20 so that we would have a few minutes to be up and put on some clothes before breakfast arrived.

I was aroused from a deep slumber by a knock on the door. I rolled over and looked at the clock: 6:08 am. It was our breakfast. Much earlier than we had requested. This early delivery happened to us twice.

I am going to nit-pick about this. Don't let me choose a delivery time, if you are just going to ignore that time. The menu gives choices of 30 minute windows. (6-6:30 , 6:30 - 7, etc. ). They should stick to this delivery time. It's a half hour window, not a specific moment. Surely you can come close to that window.

It was embarrassing to me to have a male waiter enter my bedroom with me in my pajamas, sitting in bed, still half asleep.

Our kids, just down the hall, had done the same as we in ordering breakfast, and also had the same early delivery. This happened again later in our cruise. They came quite a bit earlier than requested.

OK, so rant over. On with our day.

[emp244]

Where did you get the BOGO certificates for Mt Roberts Tramway? Thanks.

[luckybecky]

Our ship was scheduled to arrive in Skagway at 7am. Our ferry to Haines was to leave at 8am. We got off the ship around 7:20 or so. We didn't know for sure how far away the ferry was so we hustled. It turned out to be not too far, perhaps a 10 minute walk. We were first to arrive. A few minutes later, many more people boarded the ferry. I think these were people on ship-sponsored tours, including some going to the Kroschel center.

The ferry ride took 45 minutes through beautiful scenery, with a person narrating the entire ride. It was a nice trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haines is very small, pretty town. Here is the view from the dock.

 

 

[luckybecky]

Where did you get the BOGO certificates for Mt Roberts Tramway? Thanks.

 

We had purchased a coupon book called Northern Lights. You can google it and purchase online. I think it cost $55, so you need to be sure you will use enough coupons to make it worth the price. The website lists all the coupons so you can see if you think you will be able to use enough of them to make it worth it. It worked out for us. We used some of the dining coupons (49th State restaurant, I think there was one for The Bake also), and this is also where we got the coupon that gave us a discount on the Juneau whale watching tour. We used one at the Wildlife Conservation Center and a few others as well.

[luckybecky]

I had booked a rental car in advance through the Captain's Choice hotel, on the recommendation of Steve from the wildlife center. They had instructed me to just call them when we got off the ferry and they would come pick us up. So that is what we did.

We were picked up by a very friendly guy who gave us a brief tour around town (it's a small town. Didn't take long to get the lay of the land). He took us back to the hotel to sign paperwork regarding the car, and we were all set.

It was too early for us to head up to the wildlife center. The people on the cruise ship tour were before us. Steve had told us to arrive at 11am and it turns out this is exactly when the ship excursion was leaving his center.

So we drove around the town and stopped at the American Bald Eagle Foundation. This is a unique museum. They have dozens of taxidermy examples of Alaska wildlife. I find taxidermy kind of gross, but this museum was also fascinating in its way. You could see examples of many animals up close.

Then we went to see their live birds. We saw a couple of smaller birds before going into a large room to view two bald eagles. These are birds who cannot survive in the wild due to injury. They have a much larger enclosure than the poor bird we saw in Juneau, and can even fly for a few yards. But still, it is an enclosure, and as they sat looking out a window, they seemed very melancholy to my mind as they peered intently out the window to a wilderness they cannot access.

[luckybecky]

Sorry. On with our tale.

We found a grocery where we bought some snacks, and then we headed out of town toward the Kroschel center. It was not hard to find with the instructions we had been given by the locals. However there are no signs marking the turn-off to this place so make sure you have good directions.

We stopped along the way to take a few photos at this scenic pullout.

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the center a few minutes early. A school bus pulled up and I spoke to the driver. He was there to pick up people on the cruise ship excursion. He gave me a recommendation for lunch. Soon, a lot of people, at least 40, began trickling down the hill and getting on the bus. After they all loaded up and drove away, one of Steve Kroschel's associates greeted us. Rihanna accompanied us throughout our tour.

You are not allowed to tour the center unaccompanied. Here are the signs that greet you at the entrance:

As Rihanna was introducing us to the center, a man named Mario came down the hill with a red tail hawk on his arm. He spent quite a bit of time telling us about falconry in general and this breed of hawk in particular. Later, he would introduce us to another bird, accompanied by his daughter who seemed to share his interest and knowledge of hawks.

[cruisecatmama]

Enjoying your narrative and photos! Thanks for sharing...

[kpark895]

Thank you for all your work on this review! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Although I will probably never cruise to Alaska, I am going on my very first cruise ever, to Bermuda, on the Summit next April. Just reading about experiences get me excited - I can't wait!

[luckybecky]

Next, Steve Kroschel himself came running down the hill and our wild adventure really began! I don't even know how to express how unusual this experience was. First, Steve walked us up the hill to meet our first animal, a wolf. Steve actually got into the enclosure with the wolf, petting and playing with it. He encouraged us to howl at the top of our lungs, to incite the wolf to also howl. It was crazy.

The enclosures are quite large as far as we could tell. Rihanna said they have 52 acres, if I remember correctly. So the animals are not severely confined.

Next, a fox:

And then, a lynx

 

 

 

 

Steve just has an incredible rapport with these animals.

[luckybecky]

Steve got into the enclosures with each of these animals and brought them up close for us to see. While we were still marveling at the lynx, Steve went to get the next animal.

 

To our amazement, he brought out a wolverine on a leash! Are you kidding me?! A wolverine! Steve led the animal on the leash for us to take pictures, and then he picked it up and let us pet it.

 

He warned us to only pet its backside, and not put our hands near the mouth. But then he actually kissed the creature and put his hand in its mouth. This is an animal with a reputation for ferocious behavior, but it was perfectly docile with Steve.

 

 

 

 

Here's a mink. It was a cute little creature that ran around all over the place.

 

[luckybecky]

Next, we met a porcupine. Who can say they have hand fed and taken a selfie with a porcupine? Well, we can!