Live - 13 Day Alaskan Land Tour & Southbound Millennium Starting July 22, 2023

[garyl62]

Welcome to another beautiful sunny day in Alaska!  We are currently sailing around Douglas island and then we'll head up into Juneau.

 

We had a nice lunch at Sushi on 5 yesterday and then had a fantastic day for viewing at Hubbard's glacier. It actually was quite warm in the sun and out of the breeze, however for those that were on the Helipad or an upper deck a light coat was more the norm. The temperature in the sun on our balcony was shorts and T-Shirt weather and those outside by the Sunset Bar and Oceanview Cafe were really comfortable. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had dinner at the Chef's Table last night and it was very enjoyable. We had a table of 5 couples and everyone seemed to interact quite well. The entire evening lasted just over 3 hours and started with a glass of sparkling wine in Cellar Masters with a short introduction by the Chef. From there we had a galley tour before taking our seats in Tuscan. I didn't take any pictures of the food as no one else at the table was and my DW gave me that "look" when I started to take my camera out. Let's just say the presentation of everything was great. At the end of dinner they presented each couple with a signed copy of Daniel Boulud's cookbook, a group photo and copy of the menu. I'm glad we signed up for this. 

 

 

 

 Today we are taking a small group tour (14 people total) which includes hiking Mendenhall Glacier with a naturalist photographer to focus on photographic opportunities and from there we continue to a small whale watching boat. Total tour is about 5 hours. After that we plan to explore Juneau a little as we don't depart until 10:00PM. Hopefully I'll have some good things to share later tonight or tomorrow morning. 

[Stem to Stern]

Chef's Table menu looks incredible!

[daddyslittle girl]

Looking to book our first Alaska cruise,want a land and sea,but so many options,most are for on summit (2024)..did you book your land tour from celebrity? Loving your pictures and reviews...

[garyl62]

5 hours ago, daddyslittle girl said:

Looking to book our first Alaska cruise,want a land and sea,but so many options,most are for on summit (2024)..did you book your land tour from celebrity? Loving your pictures and reviews...

Summit is replacing the Millennium next year. We booked through Celebrity and went on tour 10B if that helps 

[ladylemondrop]

I really love your photos, such a great combination of vistas, and food! 🥰

Am drip feeding my husband your report daily in the hope he will book this for us soon… 

[garyl62]

We've docked in Skagway and have a good view of town from our balcony. It's our first cloudy day and temperatures are expected to be in the high 60s and a chance of rain by 4:00 this afternoon.  Today we have booked a biking excursion on our own that uses electric bikes There is a 20 mile loop that takes us out of town to a lunch spot and then returns. It covers many of the historical sites from the gold rush area and is self guided at your own pace.  We plan to head out around 10 and should have plenty of time for exploring the town after we return as we don't depart until 8:00PM

 

 

Yesterday was another fabulous day, we were fortunate to see many whales during the whale watching portion of our excursion.  While we were not able to see any breaches, but we did see several examples of bubble feeding and many whales diving and showing off their tails.  Most of my photos are on my DSLR, however I did capture a couple with my phone that I can share now.

 

 

 

The second half of our excursion was doing a hike through the forest surrounding Mendenhall Glacier. 

 

 

 

 

After that we spent some time walking around town and later in the evening enjoy a beautiful sail away around 10:15 PM

 

 

 

[Murt22]

If you have good fluke shots on your DSLR, crop them and send them to happywhale.com with a description of where you were (if gps is on your phone photos, should be good for the location). They will send you notifications if someone else sees that whale and if it has already been identified. We have done this in Hawaii and am anxious to try to get some shots in a few weeks when we are there. Last year someone who was on our watch in Maui, went to Alaska and saw the same whale. Pretty remarkable. You are also VERY luck to see the bubble feeding. 

[Scottishclover]

Fantastic photos bringing back lots of lovely memories of our Alaska cruise in 2019. I am really enjoying your report. Thank you for taking the time to share. 
 

We also did whale watching and Mendenhall. I would have loved to see some bubble feeding! We did see some breaching  though and a pod of orcas swam right up to the boat. It was a great trip.

[ladylemondrop]

Happy Wife Happy Life! Yes indeed! Reminding hubby of this when persuading him I need to do this trip! 🤣🤣🤣

[Provence55always]

Fabulous review and photos. We did this cruise May 2022 North and South bound, the weather was spectacular. We love the Millennium the crew were all amazing. Would love to go back and do the land portion. Thank you for taking the time and bringing back loads of happy memories.

[garyl62]

We ended up having a beautiful sunny day yesterday in Skagway even though the day began with overcast skies.  We started out the day going to the Gold Rush Cemetery and Reid's falls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main activity of our day was renting bikes from the Klondike Bicycle Company and going on a 22 mile round trip self guided bike tour.  The total ride took us about 3 1/2 hours. It was out and back on the same route and we made several stops along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end of the ride took us to the town of Dyea which was once the jumping off point for the Chilkoot Trail however with the introduction of the railroad from Skagway town fell out of favor and is now a ghost town which consists of a forest and some gravel paths marking the former streets.  It's a picturesque spot that is a National Park today.

 

 

 

 

 

After exploring Dyea we started back to town but stopped at the Chilkoot Trail Outpost for an excellent homemade lunch that would have been worth the bike ride by itself! 

 

 

 From the outpost we headed back to town and still had a little bit of time to walk the streets and explore the shops before our departure time.  We stopped at the infamous Red Onion for a drink and a quick bite to eat. I had to take this photo that showed a lot of men lining up outside of the old brothel. Seems there's a few other places in town trying to capitalize on the historical red light reputation the town has.

 

 

 

 

The rain ended up coming after we boarded the ship and we sailed out of town around 8:30 PM. Off to Icy Straight Point next. I'll try to post again later today after we spend some time onshore. Nothing planned there so we'll just explore the port area and have a relaxing day. 

[ladylemondrop]

Stunning photos, especially with the sun coming through the trees. Looks like a great bike ride! 

You have been so lucky with weather too.  

[garyl62]

Good morning from Ketchikan!  It's a busy morning already as we sail into the dock, we've seen several boats and float planes taking off or landing and at times they come right down the channel directly at the back of the ship. It's made for some exciting times as we enjoy our coffee on our balcony.  Weather looks to be beautiful again today with a high of about 70 and only a 4% chance of rain.

 

 

 

We had our 1st rainy day of the trip yesterday in icy straight point.  We had no excursions planned so it was nice just to wander around the port area, learn the history of the area and the cannery before coming back to the ship to take an afternoon nap and just relax for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hard to believe it was August 1st and the raspberries were just starting to ripen.

 

 Later today we have an excursion based off the TV show The Deadliest Catch. We will be going on a crab boat that has been modified to include bleacher style seating and we will venture out to see some demonstrations about crabbing and the other types of fishing in this area.

 

After that we'll wander around town and find a local spot or two to stop at. This is our last port so time to make sure we have all our souvenirs! 

[imlulu]

What a fantastic trip so far! I’ve never seen a review in Alaska where someone rented bikes and did a DIY. That would be right up our alley or bike path. 🙃 enjoy the rest of the trip and thanks for taking us along. 

[capsplace]

We will be on board Millie is a couple weeks!  Who are the captain, cruise director, and expert speakers?

[garyl62]

6 hours ago, capsplace said:

We will be on board Millie is a couple weeks!  Who are the captain, cruise director, and expert speakers?

I'm sorry I didn't respond to this question earlier, but Captain Theocharis is in charge, Hotel Director is Andrea Muegge, she is all over the ship and very visible. Patrick is the cruise director and Celia Garland is naturalist currently on board. 

[capsplace]

Thank you!  Not familiar with the captain or hotel director (see edit) but we love Patrick and Celia!  Hope they’ll continue for a few more weeks.  Hold on, we do know Andrea!  She’s great!

Edited August 3, 2023 by capsplace

[garyl62]

Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day in Alaska while we visited Ketchikan. It was 70° and sunny all day while we were in port. We walked around town for a couple hours before taking our excursion. Looking back at my pictures I realized I didn't get many from town so I apologize. We did walk the Harbor and were able to see a crew filleting salmon that they brought in that morning. We continued past the donut shop and several gift shops before stopping for lunch at Annabelle's Keg & Chowder House. 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we headed out on the Bearing Sea Crab Tour. It was really interesting and we are so happy we went on this excursion.  They had set some long lines and crab pots earlier in the day so we were able to travel around and recover both of those as well as an example of a king crab pot that they have set In a bay. They caught a couple different types of crab and a few fish so we were able to see some live fishing.

 

 

 

 

We also made a stop along a area with several eagles nests. We saw several eagles flying around and feeding extremely close to the boat. There were also a couple juvenile eagles they estimated to be about 2 or 3 years old. 

 

 

 

 

 

On our return to the ship we were able to get a good view of the Millennium against the pristine sky we have experienced all week.

 

 

We later enjoyed dinner in Blu and I needed to share at least one food picture which was having Baked Alaska in Alaska. Sorry the quality of that photo is poor, the lighting was difficult to manage.  After dinner we went off to enjoy the show and the other activities on board for the evening and we were treated to a beautiful sunset as well.

 

 

 

Our final day on board will be Thursday when we will be at sea and sailing through the inside passage. It will be hard to come back to reality after such a great 13 days with Celebrity. 

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by garyl62

[garyl62]

Last day on the cruise today. It's been a wonderful 2 weeks and as I've repeatedly said the weather could not have been any better. Every crew member has said this has been the best weather they've seen all season and we should be thankful which we are. 

 

This morning started out with breakfast and Blu and then a behind the scenes tour in the theater.  After that we just enjoyed being on board and looking at the scenery as we sailed down through the inside passage.

 

 

 

We chatted with many friends and crewmembers to say goodbyes throughout the day. I will say the production show On Broadway tonight was very good. It is a new show for Celebrity and it's just being rolled out on the Millennium now.

 

 

Bags are due out in 90 minutes so we've started to pack which is always bittersweet but with this view out our balcony door it's a little more enjoyable. 

 

 

Hope you've all enjoyed following along. I'll try to get some of the wildlife photos from Denali and the whale watching excursion off my DSLR in the next few days so keep your eyes out for some future posts on the thread.

[SoloAlaska]

How where the shows? I hope the quality has improved since last year.

[garyl62]

6 minutes ago, SoloAlaska said:

How where the shows? 

We only went to a few, magician and comedy were fine, not always our favorite shows so I'm a bad judge. The aerialists were very good and we liked the new Broadway production show. 

[ladylemondrop]

Lovely photos of your last day, I especially love birds of prey, so to see the Eagles is an incredible treat! I think this will be a trip that stays in your memories in a very special place. I hope we get to do it some day too. Thank you for all your posts, safe journey home. 

[ladylemondrop]

P.s. Baked Alaska in Alaska is literally my idea of heaven! You are living the dream! 🥰🥰🥰

[Barwick Cruiser]

Thank you for this wonderful report and your beautiful pictures. We’ve done Alaska twice but haven’t done a land portion in Alaska which we’d like to do next time. We’re torn between adding a cruise line land tour or just flying in and doing it on our own before embarking the ship. Would you do it the same if you were to repeat or do you think you’d see more and have more flexibility doing the land portion on your own? Thank again and safe travels home!

[garyl62]

53 minutes ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

We’re torn between adding a cruise line land tour or just flying in and doing it on our own before embarking the ship. Would you do it the same if you were to repeat or do you think you’d see more and have more flexibility doing the land portion on your own?

 I have been wondering about that same question if we were to ever come back and do it again. For the first time I am glad we did it with a cruise line and may even do it that way again if we ever come back. We saw so many small out of the way places that really gave us a local feel for the area that I'm not sure we'd get if we did it ourselves. We also learned a lot from the narrative our tour guide provided as we drove through different areas.