Day 4-Juneau

Sally, Mom & Aunt Elsie at Taku Lodge

We arrived in Juneau about 6:30 am. After an 8:30 breakfast in the Interational Dining Room, we left the ship around 9:30 to walk to downtown Juneau. Since our only excursion departed at 1:00 pm, we had some time to shop and look around.

We arrived at Wings Airways about 12:30 for our flight to Taku Lodge. At 1:00 pm We boarded the float plane for the 30 minute trip to the lodge. Along the flight we listened to an excellent narration of the visuals we were seeing out the window. We passed over a number of glaciers and were impressed with their beauty.

Day 3-Ketchikan

Sal Getting Harnessed for Zip Line Action

Finally we have arrived in Alaska, to the southernmost location at the little city of Ketchikan. There were three other cruise ships in port today. There are no roads out of here, so there are lots of puddle jumpers, float planes, in constant operation in the area.

After a quick breakfast, at about 8 am, Sal and I went exploring the 'downtown' area of the city. It was cool (57 degrees) and raining as it usually is, we were told. We followed a recommended walking tour and saw some shops, totem poles and lots of salmon (dead and alive) in the local river. It is the end of the spawning season.

At about 9:45 we returned to the dock area to meet our tour bus for the day. Today we are doing the Alaska Canopy Adventure Tour. We are bused up to a camp where we will be suited in gear to be attached to what are called 'zip lines'.

The guides gave us training in the techniques, equiped us in the necessry gear, and provided a short test run before we moved to the main event. From high up in the rain forest we traversed large spaces between platforms attached to trees. There were 7 zip lines and 3 bridges high above the forest floor.

The longest run was over 700 feet long and the height of the various sections ran from 50 to almost 150 feet. It was quite an experience, not for anyone afraid of heights. At one point, we did see two black bear cubs feeding on salmon below us in the forest. Cool!

Both Sal and I did very well during our 90-minute adventure high in the Alaska tree canopy.
We returned to the ship barely before it left Ketchikan for its next port, Juneau.

Tonight we will relax and perhaps take in another show.

Day 2-At Sea

On Sunday we spent the day on board the Saphire Princess. It was quiet day, but somewhat crowded on board since everyone was looking for something to do. There are about 2600 passengers aboard. A fully booked ship.

During the day we acquainted ourselves with the ship and all tha it offers. It is an amazing operation, a floating hotel and muh more.

Dinner was an early one and informal since we chose to skip the formal dress dinner plans for the evening. Everyone was pretty tired from the travel and Day 1 activities.
In the evening we went to the show in the Princess Theatre, called 'Piano Man'. A collection of song and dance numbers from the hits of Liberace, Barry Manlow, Billy Joel, Neil Sedaka and Elton John. Four strong singers and a very capable dance troup provided a non-stop 60 minute performance. It was a fantastic show. We all enjoyed it very much.

On top of everything else, we had to turn our clocks back one hour to get on Alaska time. We are now 4 hours behind Florida time. Easy to get up, but a little hard to party at night.

Day 1-Travel

Saturday August 26,2006

The cab came at about 5:25 am. We left O'Hare on time at 8:00 am.

Our flight was 4 hours and although we had seats way back in row 23, all went smoothly. The movie was Inside Man with Denzel Washington. A good one!

Vancouver was beautiful from the air, a nice sunny day. We went through customs quickly and eventually boarded a bus for downtown Vancouver. Our bags went separately. More about that later.

It is about 45 minutes to downtown Vancouver from the airport. There was construction along the way. They are building a mass transit system with above and below ground sections. It is targeted to support the winter Olympics here in 2010. (I think.)

We boarded the ship at the port in Vancouver quite early. Our Princess ship was there along with one from Holland America and one other. They are getting very large. Quite a sight.
Once on board we got to our cabins at about 11:30 am, well before our luggage arrived. Sally's Mom, Maggie and Aunt, Elsie have the cabin next to us. Then we proceeded to look around and find a restaurant to have some lunch. We decided to purchase the unlimited coke ticket for $3.95 a day each(times seven days, what a racket!)

At 4:00 we had an emergency drill and had to go to Muster Station D to hear a review of the procedures in the event of an iceberg or something. We learned how to put on our life jackets and where to go to get on a life boat. This was serious stuff.

We are back in our cabins now and toasting our planned 6:00 or so bon voyage. We plan dinner at one of the informal restuarants. After our delayed departure around 6:45, we went down to get early seats for the preview show in the Princess Theatre. The show started about 8:00 and lasted about an hour, including a short dance number, a comic/magician and the introductions of many of the ship's different areas. The program was hosted by the ship's Cruise Director. What a hoot he was!

Dinner followed at one of the restaurants, but nobody was very hungry and we were all very tired. After getting up a 4:45 am Chicago time, we finally hit the sack at about 11:00, or 2:00 am Chicago time.

Stay tuned for day 2.

Day 0-Cruise Prep

The day before departure, preparation is moving into the final stages. Last minute purchases and packing is the order of the day.

More later....