Juneau

The sun came out as we got to Juneau.  It's a lovely day here!

Downtown Juneau

The famous Red Dog Saloon

National Geographic expedition boat

Good day to go up the Mount Roberts Tram!

Tracy Arm and Juneau

These are some of the steaks you can choose.

We had a wonderful waiter!  He is from Brazil.

Cec and I had the Seafood Platter for two!  It was served cold with your choice of appies and sides.

Paula and Gordon had the Chicken.  You can see some of the sides ordered.

I love the theatre.  It's raised seating so everyone gets a great view and tall people aren't blocking people behind them!

One of the five shows by the theatre group.  The voices are strong, the dancing is superb and the show was excellent.

RCCL's Ovation of the Seas just passed us.

Last night we went to The Verandah, Cunard’s specialty restaurant.  The menu was amazing.  There is a surcharge of $39 per person but the experience and cuisine is well worth the charge.

  

This morning we are cruising Tracy Arm searching for wildlife and whales.  At 6 AM, the whales put on quite a show.  Of course we were sound sleep and missed it.  When we were at breakfast some whales put on a nice show right beside our ship.  We did see that.  We came back to our cabin and watched another one from our balcony.  I never get tired of watching whales.  The Naturalist is speaking over the PA system and there is a great camera searching for both brown and black bears on the island as we sail by. 

We are off for a lecture “Aurora: The Wonders of the Northern Lights” given by Geraint Jones.  Rachael Cartwright will be giving a lecture on Humpback Whales right after.  We always enjoy these lectures.

This afternoon at 2 PM we dock in Juneau.  We are very much enjoying this cruise. 

Day 3 - Ketchikan 7AM - 5PM

Ketchikan Main Street

Lots of fishing boats

Creek Street

The wood carvings were beautiful!

As we returned to the ship the Disney Wonder arrived!

Today we arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska at 7 AM.  It rained all night and was misty when we arrived, however, by 10 AM, it is clearing.  Rain is predicted for this afternoon so we left the ship early.  Cunard supplies guests with free rain ponchos!  Other cruise lines sell them to you.

We had a wonderful walk along the waterfront to Creek Street.  A lot of the stores were open so we looked at the shops.  We were the only ship in town so very few people on the street.  A great morning for a nice walk.

We went to the Museum and a free shuttle bus came!  We took the free shuttle bus that took us all the way to the Safeway Plaza.  We stayed on the shuttle back to the ship. 

Day 2 - Glorious Day at Sea

Sail away!

Our Cabin on the six floor, aft

Fencing instruction!

Cec practising darts in the pub!

The Captain of our ship is a woman!  We left Canada Place at 5:10 PM.  It was a beautiful sail away.  We are sailing with our Canada Post Heritage Club and there are 45 members on board.  They chose early dining and we all met at the Britannia Dining Room.  Our tables are aft with a nice view of the wake.  Dinner was delicious!

After dinner we went to the show lounge and saw “Be Our Guest”.  It was an excellent performance by the singers and dancers.  The voices were strong and the dancing was excellent.  After the performance we met Paula and Gordon at the Queen’s Room where they have ballroom dancing!  There are many people who are polished ballroom dancers and they are wonderful to watch.  The band has a female singer and a male singer.  The music never stopped!  When they wanted a break, the band and female singer had their break and the male guitar player continued to entertain!  A nice touch.  Most cruises they all walk off for half and hour and everyone moves on. 

This morning when we woke up we had marine cloud.  Around noon, the sun broke up the cloud and the sun is shining.  It's not overly warm, but we are sailing north of Vancouver Island to the Queen Charlotte Island.

Tonight is Formal Night and this is a ship where people are dressing properly in the dining room.  There are a lot of Brits and Aussies on board.  They are so nice and it’s great to hear about their travels. 

The ship is wonderful and I will post more pictures.  I’ll post some of the activities we saw this morning!  After morning trivia, Cec entered the Dart Competition and he won!   There were about 12 in the tournament.  They were all Brits and Aussies, no Americans.  He was the only Canadian.

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth

MS Queen Elizabeth is a cruise ship of the Vista class operated by the Cunard Line. The design is modified from that of previous ships of that class, and slightly larger than Queen Victoria, at 92,000 GT, largely due to a more vertical stern.

Length: 294 m
Capacity: 2,092 passengers lower beds, 2,547 maximum passengers
Cost: UK £350 million (approx.) (US$560 million)
Speed: 23.7 knots (43.9 km/h; 27.3 mph)

Today we board Cunard's Queen Elizabeth for a 10 day cruise to Alaska.  We booked this cruise 18 months ago!  This is the first year Cunard has sailed to Alaska.  The Queen Elizabeth is on a World Cruise and after our cruise returns to her home port of Southampton.  The cruise from Vancouver to Southampton is 49 days!  It would be a great cruise, through the Panama Canal, Florida, New York and across the Atlantic.

Our Itinerary:
June 20  Embark Vancouver
June 21  Scenic Cruising Inside Passage
June 22  Ketchikan
June 23  Juneau and cruise Tracey Arm
June 24  Skagway
June 25  Icy Strait Point
June 26  Hubbard Glacier
June 27  Sitka
June 28  Day at Sea
June 29  Victoria
June 30  Return to Vancouver

I really liked this itinerary.  We've sailed to Alaska previously, but this cruise is longer and visits more Alaska than any other cruise we've sailed.

My friend was on the May 31st Alaska sailing.  She called me twice from the ship to tell me how wonderful her cruise was!  She booked a balcony cabin for next year and received a US$1,000 on board credit.  When I checked the itineraries for 2020, the Queen Elizabeth is doing Alaska from June to September.  Many different itineraries 10 days from Vancouver round trip and some cruises are sailing from San Francisco.  Next year they are skipping Icy Strait and going to Prince Rupert!  After Alaska, she will return to Japan, and eventually reposition to Australia for their summer/our winter.

I will blog when I can get decent bandwidth and able to upload my pictures.

Funnies

Time to face non-virtual “reality”.

Happy Father's Day!

Cheryl made a wonderful breakfast/brunch.  After brunch we went to Surrey Lake Park.  It's located on 152 Street at 76 Avenue.  

Surrey Lake Park is a scenic natural area featuring a large, man-made lake. The nature trail walk is 1.5 KM long and takes about 45 minutes to complete. The lake is a sensitive habitat and for that reason dogs and water sports (including fishing, boating and swimming) are not permitted in the water.

The park is very natural and an easy walk

It wasn't too hot yesterday, but on a hot day it's quite shaded.

Lots of blackberry bushes and they are in full bloom

The park opened in 2002. The lake and wetland area are haven for many animals. You can see frogs, salmon, ducks, eagles and deer. We didn't see any deer but we heard a lot of birds. There were a few people jogging through the park and two others that had their dogs on a good leash.

 The Surrey Park website says it takes 45 minutes to walk the trail, however, we did a fast walk and finished in 38 minutes.  We are trying to walk every day and looking for different places to walk.  We will definitely return here.