Sojourn 2018 B2B Alaska and America’s Gold Coast Travelogue

[PeaSea8ch]

Santa Barbara, CA Freeze Frames Continued:

 

Santa Barbara Coastline 2 of 4

Santa Barbara Coastline 3 of 4

Santa Barbara Coastline 4 of 4

 

[PeaSea8ch]

 

Sojourn 2018 B2B Alaska and America’s Gold Coast Vol. 15 #18 – Epilogue

 

Arrival at Los Angles World Cruise Center – Disembarkation always goes quickly and smoothly on Seabourn.  The entire operation lasted between 1 and 1.25 hours because US Customs & Border Protection allowed the luggage to be continuously offloaded from the ship by luggage tag color to expedite getting folks on their way as fast as possible.  Once ashore I found out there was no passport control, so I handed my Customs Declaration Form to an Agent and simply walked out the door and exited the terminal where I contacted my transportation service to drive me home.  I arrived home around 11 AM. thereby officially ending my wonderful Seabourn Sojourn 20-night Ultimate Alaska and Pacific Gold Coast adventure.

 

All good things must come to an end and this sailing was no exception. From arrival at the cruise terminal in Vancouver and all the way through departing the cruise terminal in Los Angeles, it was a typical world-class Seabourn experience.  King Neptune even smiled benevolently upon the Sojourn and gave us the smoothest seas even when we were sailing outside the Inside Passage in the Pacific Ocean heading south.  And no rough water sailing into and out of San Francisco, a rarity.

 

My suite stewardess kept things shipshape the entire voyage as well as my mini fridge stocked with my preferences and made certain my dry-cleaning was returned in a timely manner.

The wait staff in the restaurant, outdoor dining venues, bars and lounges were all top-notch. They were all smiling, accommodating and willing to fulfill any passenger requests.

 

The Entertainment Department, of course, was a mainstay of the cruise.  From the hardworking Cruise Director Robert Brendan (RT Vancouver) & Sophie Tehrani (Vancouver to Los Angles and beyond) and their Assistant Cruise Director Richard Hodson kept things running smoothly. Trivia, Guest Entertainers, the in-house band and Club Trio for pre-dinner and after-dinner music and late-night revelry with Amber fronting The Band, pianist/vocalist Alexandra performing before and after dinner in the Observation Bar and last but not least, the Seabourn Odyssey Singers & Dancers.

 

The Seabourn Ventures Team added greatly to the experience!  Team members gave numerous Conversations in the Grand Salon, were available on deck to answer questions about the flora & fauna, glaciers and even photography tips.  Whether your adventure was in a kayak, Zodiac or Catamaran, passenger safety was priority one.

 

Seabourn signature standards, Team Trivia, Liars Club and Rock The Boat were well attended.  Overall, the entertainment was great!

 

I did shore excursions in each port & the Seabourn Ventures Catamaran up close visit to both Sawyer North and South glaciers and enjoyed them all.  Destinations Manager Chris and his team made certain everything went off like clockwork.  The tour operators provided interesting tours with excellent guides and drivers.

 

As some of you may know, Seabourn has “tweaked” the 2020 Alaska itineraries.  Worthy of note, some RT Vancouver sailings have been extended from 12 to 14 days by adding port calls at Hubbard Glacier and Haines.  The repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Los Angles has increased from 8 to 12 days with port calls at Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara with 4 sea days.

 

If the thought of thousands of passengers at each port and shore excursion sites bothers you, then please consider taking the latest sailing of your preferred itinerary.  And if you are on the last sailings of the season, the shops in the ports will have heavily discounted merchandise to sell.  Both passengers and crew were taking full advantage of the savings!

 

I will now leave you with some of Dale Chihuly’s glass work masterpieces integrated with the landscape beneath Seattle’s iconic Space Needle.

 

Epilogue Freeze Frames:

 

Dale Chihuly Glass Blown Integrated w/ Landscaping 1 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 2 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 3 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 4 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 5 of 13

 

*** Epilogue Freeze Frames Continued in Next Post ***

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by PeaSea8ch

[PeaSea8ch]

Farewell Freeze Frames Continued:

 

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 6 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 7 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 8 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 9 of 13

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 10 of 13

 

 

*** Farewell Freeze Frames Continued in Next Post ***

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by PeaSea8ch

[PeaSea8ch]

Farewell Freeze Frames Continued:

 

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 11 of 13

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 12 of 13

Dale Chihuly Blown Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 13 of 13

 

[Isklaar]

I very much enjoyed your report as usual. Wonderful writing and photos. 

We are hoping to do an Alaska itinerary next year so this has been very interesting.

Thank you for posting.

[PeaSea8ch]

Dear Readers,

In my zeal to finally get my travelogue posed into Cruise Critic, I found out that some of the photo links to my image hosting site were truncated and a few duplicate photos that had to be corrected after the “edit post” window of opportunity expired.  Hence, I have corrected these photos below:

 

Our Neighbors In Ketchikan The HAL Eurodam & ...

... The HAL Nieuw Amsterdam

 

Ketchikan Antique Car Collection:

 

Park Antique Cars Collection 4 of 6

 

Ketchikan Sailaway:

 

Ketchikan Sailaway 1 of 3

 

Ketchikan Sailaway 2 of 3

 

*** Corrections Continue in Next Post ***

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by PeaSea8ch

[PeaSea8ch]

Ketchikan Sailaway 3 of 3

Juneau:

Mendenhall Valley Flora 3 of 4

San Francisco:

Golden Gate Park 1 of 9

Epilogue:

Dale Chihuly Glass Integrated w/ Landscaping 9 of 13