What's happening in Alaska Now

[lucyjohnz]

We're now in Skagway - we were in Juneau yesterday. The weather, unlike its predictions, is wonderful - a few clouds and 70 degrees. We did the Dog Mushing camp this morning which was fun and there were over 45 dogs to pet and meet.

 

Yesterday we were in Juneau with about 65 degree weather and did the Helicopter Pilot's Choice with Temsco - it was absolutely awe-inspiring. I went through 2 sets of batteries in my digital camera and still didn't take EVERY picture I wanted to. We upgraded from just a Mendenhall Glacier landing to the pilot's choice - well worth the additional $50/pp.

 

We're on the Mercury and didn't get off the ship in Juneau until 1:50 - supposed to arrive there at noon. Now, here in Skagway, we're leaving 2 hours early at 3pm so we can spend more time at Hubbard's Glacier tomorrow.

 

I'll send more news from Ketchikan on Wed.

 

Lucy

[FlorenceItaly]

Lucy - It's great to hear from you. I am so glad you are having lovely weather. Alaska is experiencing usunusally warm temps this year, and I am hoping it will hold since I will be there a bit late in the season.... I am there the week of Aug 22.

 

Are you enjoying the Mercury??? I have her booked for April 2005. It will be my first Celebrity cruise.

 

What do you have planned in Ketchikan?

 

Marie

[sarahjane]

Lucy, was your helicopter tour in Juneau in the morning or afternoon? We are scheduled for an 8:00 a.m. helicopter/glacier trek next week, and have been getting nervous hearing about how often the morning tours are cancelled due to the weather. Any news on that? Glad you're having a great time and the weather is cooperating!

have fun!

sarahjane

[FreesiaE]

I wonder if the Mercury is consistantly late into/early out of ports. We have a salmon bake through Celebrity for 12:30 in Juneau, and a 3:30 Whale Watching Expo with Capt. Larry. I hope it all works out!

[SNOWEY]

Lucy:

 

We are scheduled to leave South bound Inside Passage on Aug 13th. I was reading that Hubbard Glacier was very close to hitting land? That was back in May, however looks like you were scheduled to go on the 20th of July. Let us know about it. This will be our first cruise! HOpe you are having a great time!

[lucyjohnz]

Sorry about the late responses - we bought an internet card in Juneau at a place called Seaport Cyber - cost $5 for 1 hour and they have branches in Skagway and Ketchikan. We used them in all 3 ports but I didn't have time check out my messages in Ketchikan.

 

Mercury is a very nice, elegant ship. Service was wonderful and evening meals were very good. Outside Cat. 4/5 cabins were roomy and comfortable. My negatives were that the activities were not well organized - a backgammon contest where they left backgammon boards and 4 non-working pens (as prizes) on a table but no dice cups or dice was a common example of an activity. I won 1st place in a closest to the pin golf activity out of about 25 golfers and my prize was a luggage tag. On the other hand, I was the only putter at a putting contest and I was given 2 eyeglass holders and 2 more pens. I'm only really complaining about the activies since we had 3 sea days and you could either go to these sometimes organized activies or gamble in the casino. There wasn't much else to do. We also had several lunches in the dining room and the quality was very mixed as was the service - one lunch was absolutely horrid but the next day it was fine. We had breakfast 2 morning and the Eggs Benedict was wonderful.

 

My 2 teens - ages 17 and 19 - were bored a LOT on this cruise. Not necessarily because the cruise clientel were so old - they weren't - I'd say average age was mid-40s - but there were no activities for their age-group and not many "kids" in that age-group. And, the 19-year-old wasn't allowed to drink - not even beer or wine and she wasn't allowed to gamble. They said it was because we were in Alaskan waters the whole time. It was a bit of a bummer for her.

 

Our glacier landing was the highlight of the trip - we flew out of Juneau at 5pm - they picked us up at 4:15 at the dock and we decided on the drive to upgrade - it was totally worth it since we had an almost 2-hour flight and landings. The Mendenhall Glacier tour basically goes straight to a Mendenhall Glacier camp - takes 25 minutes of flying there - drops you off for 25 minutes and then its a 10-minute ride back. You're out on the glacier with several other groups and there's not near the amount to look at compared to what we saw on our two landings. The glacier-blue or artic blue color was phenomenal - we saw underwater streams of it, fissures full of it and 6-foot deep wells. It was unbelievable.

 

It was overcast and cloudy in Ketchikan in the morning but mostly cleared up during the day. We did a small tour to the Totem Pole nature center (not the right name), the Eagle Preserve and the Salmon Hatchery - cost us $19 at the dock but the tickets for all of these only cost $12 there - so we ended up paying an extra $7 for the van ride there and back. We really liked Ketchikan though - it's very picturesque. I didn't find Juneau and Skagway as pretty.

 

Well, I'll write a full review later and try to cover everything.

[lucyjohnz]

It took about an hour to get within 1.5 miles of Hubbard Glacier so I wouldn't say it's anywhere near getting close to land. We started into the bay at about 7am and it was REALLY cold. We got as close as we were going to get around 8am and stayed until 9am. It's very interesting and awsome to look at and thunders all the time. We saw a giant calve during that time - they said the ice piece was the height of a 40-story building - 300 feet. It was awsome. During the last 30 minutes, they turned the ship sideways towards the right/starboard side so everyone along that side could see.