Lewis Family Explorations: September 2010

Every five years, the Lewis family decides its time to go all out on our annual family vacation. For this splurge vacation, we opted on a cruise to Alaska. None of us had ever been on a cruise, and none of us had ever been to the state of Alaska, and since we are so close now, living in the extreme Pacific Northwest, we were excited about the adventure.

After much research about ports of call, trip itineraries, and cruise lines, we decided on an inside passage cruise with Holland America Lines on the ms Zuiderdam. The round trip cruise out of Vancouver presents cruisers with a quintessential look at Southeast AK, including Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan as ports of call. We also cruised the very scenic Tracy Arm fjord, and spent a full day in Glacier Bay National Park. During our stay in Skagway, we rented a car and drove into British Columbia and on to the Yukon. Amelia points out that along with our visit to Alberta, Canada on our trip to Glacier National Park, we now have visited 1/3 of all of the Canadian provinces, (even though we've still covered way less than 1% of the Canadian land!

Itinerary

Alaska Inside Passage - HAL Zuiderdam route

Day	Date	Port	Arrive	Depart
0	3 Jul 2010	Vancouver, B.C., CA		05:00 PM
1	4 Jul 2010	At Sea
2	5 Jul 2010	Tracy Arm, Alaska, US	08:00 AM	Noon
2	6 Jul 2010	Juneau, Alaska, US	02:30 PM	10:30 PM
3	7 Jul 2010	Skagway, Alaska, US	07:00 AM	09:00 PM
4	8 Jul 2010	Glacier Bay	07:00 AM	04:00 PM
5	9 Jul 2010	Ketchikan, Alaska, US	10:00 AM	06:00 PM
6	10 Jul 2010	At Sea
7	11 Jul 2010	Vancouver, B.C., CA	07:00 AM

Takeaways

Here are a few final thoughts from our vacation:

Wildlife. It doesn't take much to see wildlife in Alaska. We saw killer whales, humpback whales, seals, a brown bear, dozens of bald eagles, and hundreds of sea gulls. We were all amazed to spot a blow spout far off in the distance and then watch whales emerge and in some cases slap the water with their tails. At one point, we are pretty sure we saw a pod of humpbacks feeding as the water seemed to churn with flailing fish. The whales would then slap the water with their tails to stun the fish and make easy prey out of them. It was also a blast to watch eagles dive into the ocean to catch fish. Every single time that we saw them dive, they came up empty-handed--apparently it is no easy task. One one occasion, however, the eagle had the fish in his talons, raised it several inches out of the water before losing its grip and letting dinner slip right back into the ocean.

Panorama-Rama. On a cruise ship, everything is panoramic, especially in Alaska! One of the panoramic shots is a nine-frame pan that was taken from the back of the ship. Amelia encouraged Dad to take as big of a pan as possible while cruising in Glacier Bay. He snapped nine pictures, not sure that it would work out, but it actually turned out pretty well. Hugin to the rescue, (as always) when it comes to stitching panoramic images.

Weather. When going to AK, prepare for any type of weather imaginable. We had icy cold mists, drizzling rain, and clouds for the first 5 days straight of the cruise. Finally, as we were leaving Glacier Bay, the sun came out, and we even "enjoyed" 80+ degree heat in Ketchikan, known as one of the rainiest cities in all of the USA. Go figure!
Cruising: So, the jury is still out on whether the Lewis family actually enjoy the cruise ship vacation. While, we admit that it is an outstanding way of seeing the SE Alaska scenery as it floats by, we also weren't impressed with the crowds. It could be very difficult finding a table in the buffet room, and all of the desirable public area seating was constantly packed at seemingly all hours of the day. We also found it annoying that there were dress codes in the evening. "Smart casual" and "formal nights" meant that we had to pack a lot more clothes than were needed, and we found that by the end of a very busy day of sight-seeing, the last thing we wanted to do was dress up. Fortunately, we booked a verandah stateroom, so we had our own balcony that we could relax upon and enjoy the scenery. Not only was the verandah worth every penny, this vacation would not have been nearly as enjoyable without it.