This Memorial Day holiday, we took our family of 4 on a 7 night Alaska cruise on the NCL Jewel. NCL Jewel is a smaller ship from the Jewel Class. I like smaller ships for the ease of navigating around the ship, but typically smaller ships don’t have as many activities available so it’s a trade-off. Alaska cruises are usually Northbound or Southbound. This was a Northbound cruise going from Vancouver to Seward. This is our second visit to Alaska. You can read about our first experience here, and here.
Day 1: May 27, 2023
Our journey started on Saturday, May 27. We booked with Alaska Airlines for our flight to Seattle, the first stop of our vacation. Since Atlanta is our home airport, we typically fly Delta for everything, but Alaska Airlines was a lot cheaper than Delta, especially for first class, so we decided to fly Alaska this time. I also like how Alaska makes it SO easy to book adults in the first class and kids in the main cabin. The food and service was very good on Alaska Airlines but I guess there are some things I have taken for granted on Delta – the entertainment system in every seat, even main cabin, and the free Wi-Fi for all Skymiles accounts. We survived, but it’s something to keep in mind next time.
We got situated at our hotel. Our hotel for the next two nights is the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. I’ve always wanted to stay at Fairmont – I hear they are very nice. We booked a Deluxe Suite with 1 king bed and a sleeper sofa. The hotel shows its age and even though the lobby was very fancy, the room felt a little outdated.
For dinner, we went to the nearby The Lodge Sports Grille. The food was mediocre but I love the vibe in the restaurant.
After dinner, we walked around the city streets.
Then kids stayed in the hotel while Teddy and I walked to Pike Place Market. I’ve heard a lot about Pike Place Market, and it was a little overwhelming. We were also pretty tired from traveling all day, and the walk from the hotel to the market was pretty steep, so we couldn’t really do a whole lot.
The most well known attraction at the Pike Place Market is perhaps the fish throwing at the fish market. When someone buys a fish, the fishmonger would yell and throw the fish to the employee to pack it up, so it happens pretty often.
I wonder if they ever drop a fish? The Pike Place Market is located close to the water front with lots of attractions along the water. Along the waterfront, there’s a free city shuttle (which we did not take). There were lots of food trucks along the waterfront (at Pier 62) with quite a variety of cuisines here. I saw Vietnamese food, Chinese food, even Himalayan food trucks here! I wish we didn’t just eat!
You can see the Seattle Great Wheel from here, and there’s usually a cruise ship or two docked here as well. The original Starbucks is located at Pike Place Market and you can book a tour here. We walked by it and I was shocked how crowded it was. There was a long line wrapping around the inside of the store, and the store was big.
Back at the hotel. The kids took a dip in the hotel pool, then we got a little hungry, so we got a quick bar bite at the hotel restaurant.
Day 2: May 28, 2023
Today, we took a tour with Viator.com, called Viator Exclusive Tour – Mt. Rainier Day Trip from Seattle. This is a big bus tour but it makes a visit to this popular national park so easy. The bus picked us up from our hotel promptly at 8am, after our amazing breakfast at the hotel.
Teddy sat with Alice while I sat with Ava on the bus. It took a couple of hours before we finally got to the entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park.
Our first bus stop was at the trailhead of the Kautz Creek Trail. There’s a public restroom here and there’s a nice view of Mount Rainier here.
Next stop was at the Christine Falls. Christine Falls is beautiful, with a bridge in front of it.
Next stop was the Reflection Lakes. At this time of year, Reflection Lake is frozen, and very slippery. I didn’t make it very far on this jaunt. Teddy walked the lake with some other brave souls together with the tour guide.
It’s called Reflection Lake because when it’s not frozen, you can see a reflection of Mount Rainier in the lake. Now, you get this:
The few parts of the lake that isn’t frozen shows the water being crystal clear, which can be seen here:
Back on the bus, we were taken to our next stop, Paradise. Paradise is a scenic spot with beautiful views. One of the visitor centers is located here too.
Here, we were told to take the Skyline Trail up to Myrtle Falls, then turn back around. The problem was the trail was so slippery with snow, that we really couldn’t safely make it. We made as far as we could and had to turn around.
Since we couldn’t safely make it to our destination, we decided to take advantage of the slippery snow and Teddy and the kids went on their own snow slides. It actually worked pretty well!
For lunch, we grabbed some quick bites and Rainier beer from Paradise Inn. I’ve always wanted to try Rainier Beer after watching Longmire so I was happy.
Back on the bus, it’s time for the next stop, Narada Falls.
Next stop was the Longmire Suspension Bridge, also called the Nisqually Historic Suspension Bridge. You can drive across this wooden bridge or walk across.
Ava on the suspension bridge:
Back on the bus, we are onto the final stop of Mount Rainier for the day, the Twin Firs Loop Trail. I was so tired by this point I didn’t even make it off the bus. Teddy took the two kids down and hiked the whole loop. This is a loop trail that is about half a mile long. Several people on the bus seem to have missed the fact it was a loop trail and you are supposed to make the whole loop. The name of the trail came from two big tall fir trees.
Next, we were dropped off at our hotel just like how we started. We are all pretty tired at this point. Tired and hungry. So we went to the restaurant in our hotel The George.
Some cocktails to start. The George has a very nice cocktail menu.
Entree: Alaska Halibut
Sides: Salad and Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Dessert with chocolate and ice cream.
Everything was very good but very expensive. Good thing most of the meal is covered by our $100 hotel experience credit we get from American Express Platinum.
Day 3: May 29, 2023
Today, we had an early morning flight to catch at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. We are flying from Seattle to Vancouver, and we’ll board the cruise from the airport right there. We didn’t have time to eat breakfast at our hotel this morning but security was pretty fast so we were able to get in the Centurion Lounge real quick to grab a bite. Centurion Lounge is free to enter for us as American Express Platinum credit card holders.
The lounge was rather empty because of how early it was. Our Delta flight was quick and uneventful. Interestingly, this Delta flight didn’t have any in-flight entertainment system, just like the Alaska Airlines yesterday.
After landing, we took a taxi and went straight to the cruise port. It was only 10:30am when we got there but NCL staff was already there ready to help. Since we have a Haven room, we had priority check-in and we were quickly ushered to the Haven Lounge and our Concierge greeted us here. Our Concierge was the amazing Teo Barrette.
It wasn’t even noon by the time we got our first course at the lovely Cagney’s restaurant.
Entree: Grilled Salmon
The Grilled Salmon was so amazing, with roasted napa cabbage, tomato, avocado, and cilantro-ginger vinaigrette.
Entree: Crab Cakes
I absolutely love the crab cakes. The mustard sauce it comes with is icing on the cake.
After lunch, we went to check out our room. For this cruise, we booked the Deluxe Owner Suite with Large Balcony, Category H2 (H stands for Haven). Our room number is 15500. This is one of the largest rooms on the ship. There are only 2 Deluxe Owner Suite with Large Balcony rooms, the other one is numbered 15000. The two rooms take up the entire 15th floor. To access our room, you must go through the restricted Haven area with a Haven key card. The elevator will only take you up to the 14th floor and you will have to climb the final flight of stairs yourself. I was surprised this wasn’t disclosed when I booked this room.
Our room has 1 bedroom, and 2 bathrooms. The living room has a couch with a pull out bed and a spacious dining area. The master bathroom is very spacious and the balcony wraps around to give a panoramic view. There is a private hot tub on our balcony as well. The master bedroom has floor to ceiling windows. This is a perfect room to enjoy the beauty of Alaska.
Our bedroom was very very spacious. The only downside of this room is that, since there’s so many windows, the afternoon sun can be pretty brutal and the AC can’t keep up with it. We traveled at the end of May when it’s not as hot so it wasn’t a big issue, and most of the day is actually quite chilly outside, I can’t imagine what it’s like during the hot summer days.
Here’s another picture of our bedroom, which shows the hot tub outside.
The master bathroom is so big it’s hard to take a picture of it all.
The living room space is big too, with a dining area and wet bar area. The living room also has floor to ceiling windows. The second bathroom is near the front door and similar to a standard balcony room bathroom so I didn’t take any photos.
After settling in, we toured around the Haven area. Haven is an exclusive area of the ship that is only for guests that stay in a Haven stateroom to access. For most NCL ships that have Haven, there’s a section of the ship that is dedicated to Haven, with its own courtyard, pool, hot tubs and restaurant. However, not all ships have Haven, and not all Haven have a Haven restaurant, or even a Haven courtyard. It’s important to research before booking so you know what you are getting. For NCL Jewel, Haven area consists of a courtyard, sundeck, and pool/hot tub, but no restaurant. All Haven rooms have butlers and concierge.
The Haven pool and hot tub area on the Jewel is very quiet. The pool is rather small. There’s a waiter who services this area if you ever need anything – he will even bring you food or drinks from anywhere on the ship. We walked around the ship. It’s about 3pm now but the ship was still pretty empty.
If you look close at the picture above, the top floor you see is floor 15. The left half of that floor is room 15000 and the right half is room 15500. You can see the two hot tubs, one on each side. This gives you an idea how big these rooms are.
Above the Haven pool area is the Haven sundeck, which is also very empty. Next, we met with our butler, Jesali D’ Silva. He took down our mini bar preferences, and our request for daily chocolate dipped strawberries.
We grabbed some Starbucks drinks in the lobby – our Premium Plus drink package includes unlimited Starbucks which is awesome but definitely not good for my waistline. Kids stayed in the room for some movie on TV.
Dinner: Le Bistro
Le Bistro is the French specialty restaurant on NCL. It’s on all NCL ships and it’s one of my favorite restaurants on board, because I love their escargot.
Compare to the escargot I had on NCL Prima the month before, this wasn’t as good, but it still satisfied my escargot cravings.
Since we have the Free at Sea Plus, we get 4 specialty dining restaurants added to our trip. We get to choose any 4 nights to use at any of the specialty restaurants, and the cost is included for 1 item per course, per person. Some additional charges may arise if you order a special entree that has an extra charge. It’s always plenty of food and it really makes dinner options much more interesting. For Le Bistro, you can get a second appetizer in place of the soup course if you want. I got the Steak Tartare (in addition to the escargot) instead of any soup, for example. Teddy got the Pan Seared Bay Scallops as his appetizer, and the Cream of Mushroom Soup as his soup option. For desserts, Teddy got Poached Pear, and I got the Lemon Sorbet. Delicious dinner.
Kids had their dinner at the buffet, then went to the kids camp.
Even though the school was out for us, there wasn’t many kids on this ship. Since NCL Jewel is a smaller ship, without the water slides and climbing walls, families don’t seem to be booking it a lot. My kids have attended many kids camps on different ships. What I like about NCL’s kids camp is that there’s a nice window that lets them see outside. My kids loved the kids camp here.
Tonight’s show is a comedy show with Andrew Kennedy. I’m proud to say that we made it to the show. Typically, we have trouble making it to the show on the first night of the cruise, but this time we made it! Andrew Kennedy was pretty funny. Not super funny, but pretty good. Most of his jokes revolved around the fact he’s a white man who is Latino and speaks both Spanish and English fluently. OK. I’m not super enthused about racial or linguistic jokes. I mean, I do find a lot of cultural jokes funny, but it just seemed he didn’t have a lot of material beyond that.
So when you stay in a Haven room, you actually have a reserved section of the theater just for you. (In fact, if you stay in the Deluxe Owner Suite or the Garden Villa, there’s a section in the reserved section that’s JUST for you.) However, it’s located on the left side of the mezzanine area. I don’t know if anyone prefers the mezzanine area, but I’d rather sit down below, around the middle section of the theater. I mean, it doesn’t really matter for a comedy show, but if it was for a live stage show, then I wouldn’t want my “exclusive” privilege for sure.
NCL Jewel is one of the last NCL ships that still has a real library and a real card room. We stopped by the library after the show and I was impressed with their selection of books. Ava was very happy to find a book from there that she’s been wanting to read.
The arcade section is pretty small, especially comparing to the new NCL Prima we were just on a month ago. Arcade games are always overpriced on ships so we didn’t spend any time here.
When we went back to the room, we saw the Sisters Islets Lighthouse passing by our balcony.
Sisters Islets Lighthouse is a lighthouse built in 1898 on a grouping of rocks in the Strait of Georgia. The purpose of the lighthouse was to assist with boat traffic. The lighthouse was manned from 1898 to 1996. It wasn’t easy to find the right person for the job due to how lonely it is – there were five keepers in the first six years of operation. Since 1996, it’s been boarded up and basically abandoned.
Day 4: May 30, 2023
Today, we are traveling through the Seymour Narrows to dock at Ketchikan tomorrow. We woke up to the most beautiful view from our room, but outside, we saw an interesting object moving through the ocean. At first, I thought it was like a Loch Ness Monster, but through the zoom on my iPhone, I realized it’s actually a house being moved! I’ve never seen anything like that before.
Since there isn’t a Haven restaurant, our breakfasts are at Moderno everyday and our lunches are at Cagney’s. The menu is the same as if we had a Haven restaurant.
My favorite item on the breakfast menu is the Shrimp Toast. After breakfast, we took a dip in our hot tub.
We also participated in the Cruise Critic Roll Call Meet & Greet this morning, where the ship’s officers were all present.
For lunch, we decided to order room service since the room service menu is pretty good for Haven rooms (you can also order from Cagney’s lunch menu).
The view in our own dining room isn’t too shabby.
Cagney’s Steakhouse
Tonight’s dinner was at Cagney’s steakhouse. We go to Cagney’s for lunch as a guest of Haven/Suites but for dinner, Cagney’s Steakhouse is a specialty restaurant. Tonight, we enjoyed the Ahi Tuna Tartare and Oyster Rockefellers as our appetizers, Lobster Bisque and Wedge Salad as our next course, and Grilled Fisherman’s Platter and 8oz Filet Mignon as our entree courses. For sides, we had the Truffled Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Zucchini, Potatoes Au Gratin, and Sauteed Garlic Mushrooms. For desserts, we had the Classic Apple Pie and Warm Blueberry Oatmeal Crisp.
Teddy always likes a good Wedge Salad and he’s been quite happy with the ones he gets from Cagney’s.
The Grilled Fisherman’s Platter has a great variety of seafood: shrimp, scallops, calamari, branzino, crab cake, and the mustard remoulade and sweet chili dip.
I really didn’t need a dessert after all that food, but apple pie goes so well with everything we just had so I couldn’t turn it down. Cagney’s Steakhouse is one of the few specialty restaurants that you can find on every NCL ship, and that’s because it is so popular. We’ve tried it on the Pearl, Jewel, Prima, Bliss, Escape and Epic, and we’ve never been disappointed.
Tonight’s theater show was called “Rock You Tonight”, a high energy tribute to iconic rock bands like The Queen, Journey, and The Who. We love these type of shows because we are always so impressed by the talents they have on the ship.
Day 5: May 31, 2023
Today we woke up to a rainy and wet day with the ship docked at Ward Cove. Ward Cove is located near Ketchikan, which is how NCL tries to sell this port. We’ve docked at Ketchikan before, but this is the first time we docked at Ward Cove. Ward Cove is currently a port exclusively used by NCL, so you will not dock here if you sail with a different company. NCL has a complimentary shuttle that takes you into downtown Ketchikan. This shuttle runs continuously throughout the day, and the journey is 7 miles. The downside of this is that the line for the shuttle bus can be quite long at certain times of the day.
Today, our excursion is called Wilderness Exploration and Crab Feast. After breakfast at Moderno, we said goodbyes to the kids and got off the ship.
The Ward Cove Cruise Ship Pier (which is presumably built for NCL only since it’s an NCL exclusive port) was actually pretty nice. There were some shops and excursion desks and everything was rather organized. For our particular excursion, you can buy it through the cruise line, or Viator, or many other websites. You’ll find that the prices are a little bit cheaper by booking direct or through viator, but since we have the $50 off per person through NCL Freestyle Plus (and percentage off with Platinum Latitude accounts), it was definitely cheaper for us to book through the cruise line.
We were taken by bus to the George Inlet Lodge. This is where the famous crab feast happens, but we aren’t doing that just yet.
Next, we were lead onto a boat for the Wilderness Exploration.
Even though the day is dreary, the scenery here is still very pretty.
There were two tour guides who explained to us about the process of catching crabs and seafood and the way of life in Alaska.
Next, one of the tour guide demonstrated how eagles fed by waving a frozen fish in the air and throwing it in the water.
Next, the boat took us to the spot where the crab traps are set. The tour guide explained to us that the traps are usually set 120 feet deep, but today, the “dummy” trap they set for us to examine is only at 95 feet deep. She asked a volunteer to bring in the trap by pulling in the rope.
There were lots of crabs in the trap.
Looking at the crabs was making me so very hungry. The tour guide explained how the trap worked, and what they used for bait (local salmon or herring, but salmon worked better). She also explained what size the crab had to be (16.5″) in order to be kept, and that it also had to be male. The trap has holes on the sides so smaller crabs can naturally get out. The cotton hook at the top of the trap is also designed to dissolve in case of lost traps, so the trap would open itself after a few days, giving the crabs inside a chance at survival.
Next, the tour guide taught us how to safely hold a crab, and allowed everyone that wanted to hold a crab to do so.
This was the final part of our boat tour – Thank God. I couldn’t last any longer without my crab fix. We were next taken to the dining room of George Inlet Lodge.
We were sat in communal tables, and each given a salad and a choice of drinks, including local beer, which was obviously the best choice. The few people who didn’t want to eat crab were given their food first (this has to be arranged ahead of time, but honestly, if you don’t like crabs, why are you here…). Next, each table was given a big plate of crabs to start, and refills were constant and plenty. They never slowed down. The crabs here are Dungeness Crabs, and I admit, my experience with the Dungeness crab is minimal. Honestly, I only encountered them one time, and they were from Canada. What I remembered from that experience was that the shell was quite hard and thick. I expected the same thing this time. Boy was I wrong. The crabs at George Inlet Lodge were EXTREMELY easy to crack open. The shell was PAPER thin. I didn’t have to use any tools – I could pop them with my thumb and index finger. This was GREAT because I could eat them lightning fast. The meat of the crabs were JUICY, SWEET, and DELICIOUS. I had high expectations for this place because this was not a cheap excursion, and my expectations were blown away.
My pile of shells.
After the crab feast was over, we were given a slice of cheesecake, which I didn’t finish because I was so full from the crabs! This might be the only time in my life I could say I was genuinely full from eating CRABS. If I ever come back to Ketchikan, I’m doing this again.
After returning to the ship, we met up with the kids and walked around the shops.
Dinner: Tsar’s Palace (Main Dining Room)
Tsar’s Palace is one of the complimentary main dining rooms on the ship. It is large and fancy, with an Asian feel to it. I think the Jewel ship was original built to sail Asia, so there are many Asian elements to the ship’s decor. By the way, the Garden Cafe (the ship’s buffet) has different themes every night, and tonight’s theme is Baked Alaskan Salmon Coulibiac, which I thought was interesting.
Appetizer: Chicken Lettuce Wraps
This was actually pretty good. It’s like the Thai dish, Larb Gai and it tasted juicy and good.
Waldorf Salad
Bang Bang Chicken & Shrimp
The Bang Bang Chicken & Shrimp was very good, with coconut, peanuts, curry, vegetables and jasmine rice. I know a lot of people aren’t happy with NCL’s main dining restaurants, but we’ve been pretty happy with it every time (even though we eat in specialty dining most nights). I also like the fact the menu changes every night.
Next we went to the Not So Newlywed Game, which is a common game show on cruise ships. The kids went to the kids club – the Not So Newlywed Game is definitely not a child-friendly show.
Tonight’s theater production is Synergy by Duo Sweet Serendipity. Synergy is an acrobatic show about the story of two aerialists who met on NCL cruise line and fell in love. Like most shows on NCL, photography isn’t allowed so I don’t have any footage of the actual show. I love acrobatic shows and this did not disappoint.
Day 6: June 1, 2023
This is the 4th day of our cruise. Man time flies! Today we are docked in Juneau, Alaska. Today, our excursion is to ride the Goldbelt Tram. We bought our tram tickets through NCL excursions, which made it very cheap after applying the excursion discounts (from NCL Freestyle Plus) and Latitude discounts. There’s a free shuttle to take you from the dock to the town of Juneau, but the line was SO LONG so we chose to walk (25 minute walk). Since we already pre-purchased our tickets, we didn’t have to wait in the long line to buy tram tickets on site. There’s also a restaurant/bar here called Timberline at the top of the tram stop. We grabbed some lunch here and a beer.
The restaurant has an amazing view.
Viewing Platform at Timberline
You can also hike a portion of Mount Roberts Trail here, and see lots of totem poles.
From the tram and from the top, you can see some beautiful waterfalls. These are ephemeral falls, meaning they can only be seen when the snow melts.
After we got off the tram, we got on the shuttle and went back to the ship.
These shuttles are ran by the cruise dock, called AJ Dock. They are free and takes you to the town of Juneau and back. The return trip hardly had any wait at all. It’s another dreary day but the scenery was still absolutely awe-inspiring.
Another angle from our hot tub
Dinner: Moderno Brazilian Steakhouse
We get 4 specialty dining included with Freestyle Plus. We also get a free meal at Le Bistro from using American Express Platinum. After this cruise, we’ll also get 2 specialty dining for achieving Platinum latitude membership tier. This is why I actually kind of prefer ships that don’t include a Haven restaurant (although we love main dining restaurants anyway) so we can use up all of our specialty packages. Anyway, tonight we chose Moderno Brazilian Steakhouse, which is a churrascaria where meat is served tableside and it keeps coming until you have had enough. There’s a nice buffet in the middle of the restaurant that’s self serve and a good list of sides that comes with all tables.
Dessert: Banana Caramel Meringue Tart
This is a great restaurant if you like meat, but for a churrascaria, Moderno doesn’t have the most expensive cuts. Neither Teddy or I could handle a whole lot of meat, so this just wasn’t a good option for us. We would rather eat a big variety of vegetables and fruits than meat any day of the week. We never went to another Moderno after this night.
The theater show tonight was a musical performance by D’ Revelation, a group of 5 from Philippines that plays a variety of music. We had seen them perform around the ship and they were very good but we didn’t make it to this show. Instead, we went to the Broadway Cabaret show at the Spinnaker Lounge.
We enjoyed the Cabaret show very much – most of the music performed sounded pretty familiar and the performers were very talented.
We had left the dock by now, so it was time to get back in the hot tub and watch the mountains move past us.
Day 7: June 2, 2023
Today we are docked in Skagway. We started our day by having breakfast at the suite only restaurant – Moderno. This was our view from our breakfast table this morning:
Our breakfast menu doesn’t change from day to day. There’s a buffet in the middle of the restaurant with fruits, cold cuts, and pastries. I tend to forget we are in the middle of Alaska because the selection of fruits is amazing here.
Our excursion doesn’t start until this afternoon, so we decided to get off the ship and walk around the port. You may be surprised, but the port of Skagway is actually very walkable. There are several attractions you can walk to. You can hike to Yakutania Point, you can ride the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway, you can walk to the Skagway Fish Company for some local food, you can ride the ferry for some ferry tours, you could also just walk to downtown and there’s lots to do there. We chose the Yakutania Point hike, which took about 1.5 hours without rushing.
As soon as you get off the ship, walk towards the Skagway Foot Bridge. It should be pretty easy to spot.
There’s a map at the entrance of the foot bridge, and it’s easy to follow. You basically turn left at the end of the foot bridge, and follow the trail until you get to Yakutania Point, then you can turn around, or keep going to Smuggler’s Cove and turn around then. That’s it!
After the hike, we still had some time to kill before the excursion. Why not have some local brew? So we walked to the Skagway Brewing Company. This place is pretty big but still very crowded. Our excursion today is the salmon bake, so we need to stay hungry. We ordered the Flagship Flight, which was $12.
Near the Skagway Brewing Company, there was a theater called Eagles Theater, home of the Days of 98 Show, a show about the history of Skagway through sing and dance. This is a good option for people who want something to do without paying the high cost of excursions.
Part of the Historical Gold Rush Museum was the Stampeder Statue. It tells the story of the people that came looking for gold.
The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park is a good stop to make for some educational history lesson.
The excursion we chose for today is called Liarsville Salmon Bake. This excursion is so popular that it literally has its own school bus to transport the tourists for this tour.
The bus took us to the Liarsville Camp & Salmon Bake, a little restaurant that served some really good salmon bake, and a whole spread of food from Chilkoot chicken to pasta, to blueberry cake. The food was DELICIOUS and the camp tries to show what it’s like in 1898. There was a visitor center and a trail on site as well. It was rather informative and quite a lovely experience. There was also a gold panning thing on site, and even though our excursion didn’t include that part of the trip, the tour guide gave us pans to do it anyway since he didn’t want us to have to wait.
Unfortunately, the food was so good that we gobbled it all down instead of taking pictures of it.
We got back on the boat by 3pm and of course, by 5pm, we were back in the hot tub with our satisfied bellies.
Tonight’s theme at the buffet is “Oriental Night”, where a whole pig roast was available.
Back to our room, there was waterfalls all over us.
Here’s another waterfall that can be seen from our balcony.
I should have mentioned by now that our cruise director is Tahani Vejnovic. Online, her last name is usually listed as Bautista, so I’m not sure if Vejnovic is a new last name or what. Tahani was a bubbly Pilipino lady who was very present throughout the cruise and always seemed to be enjoying her job. She wasn’t very loud but she was easy to understand. I enjoyed her as a cruise director.
Day 8: June 3, 2023
Today, we are cruising the Tarr Inlet to visit Glacier Bay National Park. We don’t get to get off the ship – we will be seeing everything from the ship. We were invited to the Haven sundeck to enjoy fantastic views and of course, they had hot chocolate and blankets for us too.
Even though we do not dock, the national park does send a ranger from a boat to come on the cruise to answer questions and give information about the park, which is pretty cool. There’s also an excursion available to aboard a zodiac boat to get closer to the glacier (but it’s very pricy so we didn’t do it).
Time to get back in the hot tub to warm up.
Dinner: Teppanyaki
Tonight we went to another specialty restaurant on board – the Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant. This restaurant has a small menu and they won’t deviate from what’s pre-selected on the menu. For example, you can get steak, or you can get a seafood combination (shrimp, scallops, calamari), but you can’t get a combination of steak and scallops, which is what I would really want. No matter what you order as your entree, you get a salad and soup and edamame and a choice of dessert (your entree always comes with some vegetables and rice as well). The show is usually pretty good. We usually do Teppanyaki one time on each cruise to change things up.
Dessert:
Tonight’s show was called An Enchanted Evening with Lexi Rhoades. It was a one lady show of musical theater. Lexi Rhoades was very talented, and there was something unique about her. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to carry a whole show on her own, but she did it well. At the end of the show, there was a special tribute from the officers of the ship, because we have only one more full day left before we need to get off the ship. Sad.
Day 9: June 4, 2023
Today, we are sailing through Disenchantment Bay and we get to view the Hubbard Glacier! Hubbard Glacier is North America’s largest tidewater glacier. It is named after Gardiner Hubbard, the president of the Bell Telephone Company. Hubbard Glacier is one of the most active glaciers in Alaska, so it’s very likely to see calving if you stare at it long enough.
Like last time, we were invited to the Haven sun deck to view the beautiful glacier. After the glacier viewing, we had our breakfast at the Haven courtyard. The Haven courtyard has a waiter who can serve you food from anywhere on the ship.
We walked around the ship some more. Today is the last day and tomorrow we’ll have to say goodbye to this beautiful destination.
For lunch today, we went to O’Sheehan’s. When we cruise, we try not to repeat restaurants if we can help it, so O’Sheehan’s was the obvious choice today.
O’Sheehan’s is the Irish sports bar that’s open 24 hours on almost every NCL ship. It’s included in the cruise fare and if you like bar food, it’s a nice place to go. They also have a decent selection of draft beer.
This afternoon, we went to Spinnaker lounge and participated in the Music Mania Game Show, a family friendly show where you win points by singing, answering music trivia and guessing song titles. Our name was selected so we were one of the 4 groups on stage to win prizes. Unfortunately, the winner was the only team that was all adults. Despite the fact the entertainment director tried to remind them this show was designed for family with children, the adult only team tried their hardest to win every round. We came in second place.
Dinner was at Azure Main Dining tonight. We wanted to have our last night at a main dining restaurant because typically the menu is good on the last night of the cruise. No lobsters in main dining restaurants but there was Rainbow Trout and Roast Beef Sirloin on the menu.
Day 10: June 5, 2023
Today, we had to depart the ship and make our way to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. There are a few different ways to make your way from the Seward Cruise Ship Terminal to the Anchorage Airport. One is the private van option which comes with the 3 hour option, or the 6 hour sightseeing option. This is pricy. Another option is the Motorcoach by Park Connection, which only does one transfer a day and gets you there in about 3 hours. Another option is the train option, which is definitely the most scenic option. It also takes about 3 hours. The final option is the ACT bus, which has 3 route options per day. When we did the Alaska cruise last time, we started in Seward, so we flew in to Anchorage and took the train which worked out GREAT. This time, I didn’t think we’d have any issues doing the route “backwards”, but what I didn’t expect was that the only flight for us departs late at night, so we had a whole day to kill. Most of the transfer options only takes 3 hours, which would mean we’d be stuck in the airport for 8 hours. Not good. So our best option was to take the All Day Tour with ACT bus, an 8 hour tour that drops us off at 5pm.
One last look at our beautiful balcony…
On the ACT bus now. The route was quite scenic and the tour guide was very good. The bus is modern and clean and the windows are big.
Next, we came to our first stop today, Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.
We hiked the Glacier Overlook Trail.
There’s an abundance of wildlife around here. We actually saw a baby black bear at the very beginning of the trailhead. We attempted to take a picture of it but it’s hard to see. The Visitor Center at the trailhead actually has a chalkboard for people to fill in animal sightings.
This is the end of the Glacier Overlook Trail. This is as close as you can get to Exit Glacier, at least with this trail.
Next stop was at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. There are quite a lot of exhibits here, from Bison to Elk to Moose, and many more. This is a refuge for sick, wounded and orphaned animals. This place is absolutely worthy of a visit but I’m not sure visiting it the way we did gave it fair credit. You would need to dedicate a day here and come with lots of energy. The center was very big and to see all the animals would require a lot of walking, and we were just running out of gas after the hike we just did.
Next stop was the Alyeska Resort, and we were given tram tickets to ride to the top.
At the top, there’s a restaurant and gift shop and panoramic views.
Next we rode the tram back down and the bus took us to the airport. Everything went smoothly and worked out great. The only downside was that since we’ve been sitting on a bus all day and flew all night, we were SO tired and my feet swelled so much. I would not do this ever again.
Conclusion
We had an amazing trip that dreams are made of. We got one of the very best rooms on the whole cruise ship, a Deluxe Owner Suite with Large Balcony, something we might never repeat again in our lives. I’m so glad we were able to do this when we did, with the whole family, and creating the memories together. I was impressed with the shows and service on this ship, although the food tasted slightly worse than Prima, it was still VERY good.