Our first cruise on the NCL Sun, 5-29-2005 Booked thru Gary Smith, Independant Cruise Specialist with CruiseOne. Gary made our first cruise a wonderful experience from planning to completion. He was there with answers to any question we had, and with the experience of his personal cruises, he can offer tips to make your trip memorable. Please consider visiting Gary at his website for any plans you make: CruiseOne.com Sunday: Arrived at Canada Place about 11AM after spending Saturday night at the Holiday Inn Express on East Hastings. They will store your car for 7 days and shuttle you to the pier for only $169 Canadian. Marirose Angeles, of Holiday Inn Express took care of our reservations via email and was very helpful. We had no trouble with security or check in and while waiting less than an hour to board at Noon, a NCL person came by with water and juice. We dropped our carry on stuff in the cabin and by 12:30 we were sitting down at the Outdoor Café enjoying a buffet lunch. We were prepared for a line up, but by being early we had a very speedy embarkation onto the ship. There was a small delay leaving Vancouver, but we were too busy exploring the ship to be bothered by it. Dinner was at the sail away barbeque buffet. Internet service was not available due to a satellite issue. Monday: Day at sea cruising the Inside Passage. We really appreciated the balcony cabin we booked. Each time you stepped out onto your private balcony there was something interesting to see slipping by. We were in cabin BA 0205. This is forward on the starboard side. The TV offers a channel with the bridge cam with a view forward and a channel with current ship information including location, weather, distances sailed, and sea conditions. Internet service was finally available about 5PM. 20 extra minutes offered if you purchased a block of time, 250 minutes for $100 with a $3.95 connect fee worked for us. Tuesday: Ketchikan (6AM to 3PM), this port is completely devoted to the cruise ship industry. The shops opened as we were docking and I understand they close when the last ship leaves for the day. We had an excursion booked for 8AM, so choose to have room service deliver at 6:30AM. The early morning hours were no problem for us since we woke up with the sunrise each morning at about 4AM. We had juice, milk, muffins, and fresh fruit along with the coffee made in our room. Then armed with coupons from the free “Destination Alaska” magazine picked up at Canada Place we hit the gift stores. We had read that Ketchikan was the best location for souvenirs and it did seem to have a very good selection and price on most things. After dropping our goodies in the cabin, we met our tour at the dock and rode about 15 minutes on a bus to the dock for the “lighthouse and eagles” tour on the Totem Princess. This tour was very well done and we spotted both humpback whales and harbor seals, along with the many bald eagles in their nests. Visit their website at: http://www.lighthouseexcursion.com/index.html Wednesday: Juneau (7AM to 1:30PM), doesn’t seem as totally dependant on the cruise industry as was noticeable with their shops not opening until 9 or 10AM. It is the state capital and the legislature is in session from January thru April, then the cruise ships are there from May thru September. Since we had another early morning excursion we used room service for breakfast again. They call you to let you know they are ready to deliver and include fresh flowers on your tray. Mike met his bus to the helicopter base at 7:30 and I headed for the Mt Roberts Tram. Since it didn’t open until 8AM, I walked into downtown for photos and shopping. (Mike addition here)The pilot from Temsco, Chip, made the “Pilot’s choice glacier flight” something I will never forget. While I realize this is not an inexpensive excursion to take, you will be missing out on one of the best parts of your visit to Alaska if you don’t take it. Go pick up pop cans along the road or have a car wash in your front yard to raise the money if need be but you have to do this one. The “Pilot’s choice glacier flight” allows your pilot to take you where the conditions are the best for viewing. You will land on at least one glacier and then at his option another glacier or the top of a mountain somewhere. We landed on Herbert first and then flew over to Mendenhall and landed there. About 20 minutes was spent out walking around on the glacier listening to the sounds and taking in the sights. The pilot was very knowledgeable and could answer any questions that any of us came up with. If you love getting out and away I can’t stress enough… you need to take this flight. Visit them at: http://www.temscoair.com/ . (End Mike comments here) ;-)We met back at the ship for a quick sandwich in Las Ramblas before hurrying off to board the “Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer” excursion boat which was tied up at the bottom of our gang plank. Then it was off to Sawyer Glacier ahead of the Sun. Along the way we slowed to view humpback whales, harbor seals with pups, and bald eagles feeding at sea. We were able to navigate to the face of Sawyer Glacier and spent between 30 and 45 minutes there before starting back to meet the Sun. We got great photos of the Sun as she sailed towards us. Be sure to book this one thru the ship so you can reboard the Sun when she arrives in the fjord. You can read about this at their website: http://www.juneaubb.com/trTracyArm.htm Thursday: Skagway (7AM to 8PM), we used room service again and were off the ship and walking up to board the White Pass and Yukon train for our trip to the Canadian border by 7:30. Their website has details at http://www.whitepassrailroad.com/, but you have to go to fully appreciate what the gold miners faced back in 1898.After lunch on the ship it was onto our final excursion, the Skagway Streetcar tour. The famous yellow bus was at the dock to pick us up and took us on a wonderful two hour tour with lots of history and sights to see. The costumed guide was refreshing and animated. She was able to recite facts and stories for the entire trip without use of a script. A must do if you have time. More details are available on their website: http://www.skagwaystreetcar.com/index.html Friday: Wrangell (Noon to 6PM), our final port of call and the most undeveloped. We took a walk down thru town to visit the boat docks. There were excursions available, but we were more interesting in seeing some of the real people in Alaska. We spend a lot of time on the fishing boat docks in Newport Oregon and one of Mike’s photos from there was recently published in the Good Sam “Highways” magazine. One thing I would be sure to do is purchase a garnet from the local kids. Not only is it a nice souvenir, but it is not a commercial venture. The mining is done by children and their families. For more info go to: http://www.wrangell.com/visitors/attractions/sightseeing/garnet/ Saturday: Day at sea heading back to Vancouver. This was the roughest the seas got for us. The waves were 7.5 to 12 feet high, with wind speeds over 45 MPH. After lunch I found it was too much work to try and sit or stand and took a 4 hour nap. By then we were back into the protected water of The Passage and the waves had calmed down. It was still an enjoyable day and the nap was sure needed. I am sorry I missed both the Chocolate Buffet and the behind the scenes presentation of the working of the ship that afternoon. Sunday: Arrived in Vancouver about 6AM and had a relaxing breakfast and disembarked when our color was called about 9:30 or so. We were asked to choose our time based on plans after leaving the ship and since we didn’t have a plane to catch it was a very relaxed morning with no need to rush.
Q. If you took another cruise would you choose NCL? A. Yes! Freestyle is my style. The crew was great as was the NCL Sun! Q. Will you be taking another cruise? A. Probably not. Q. Why not?? A. This is nothing against NCL or cruising in general but it is not my life style. I’m not a “group people” person. I drink very little and if I want to gamble or see shows I can drive to Reno in eight hours. I took the Alaska cruise as transportation to get to Alaska. The cruise wasn’t my destination, Alaska was. I would love to go to Alaska again but it would be to the towns and villages that the cruise lines don’t go to. I want to see Alaska for what it is and not as a tourist destination. Q. What if anything upset you about others on the cruise? A. Table hogs in the Garden Café!!! There are plenty of places to sit and look out the windows on the ship. There were a number of people at mealtime everyday sitting at tables reading books or just having a cup of coffee while others were trying to find a place to sit to eat. Eating outside may be nice on a warm weather cruise but your food can get real cold, real fast eating outdoors in Alaska. Q. Why do the females of some species eat their young? |
The Alaska Cruise 2005 Review