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Cruise West Alaska Cruise Reviews: Spirit of '98

Alaska's Inside Passage - August 8, 2003

Hi Linda, wanted to tell you about the whole, perfect trip. All three flights out and both return flights went off without a hitch....same thing for Catherine and Bill. Had not flown Northwest in quite a while and was pleasantly surprised.

Arrived in Juneau at 3 p.m. on Friday, it was a bright, sunny day and 84 degrees. Catherine and Bill got there an hour later. We hung out for a while and had dinner at The Red Dog Cafe where they no longer serve ANY type of hamburger but it was a fun place. No air-conditioning to speak of in Alaska so I opened our hotel room window all the way and we had a lovely breeze, which after the sun went down made it more than comfortable for sleeping—never saw one bug in Alaska where the State bird is supposed to be the mosquito. That evening Catherine and Bill took the tram up the whatever there and said the view was spectacular. The next day everyone else walked around Juneau and Bill found a Russian Orthodox church which he was fascinated by (I have no early idea why) and he took Catherine to see it. Their float plane trip to the glacier was canceled because of high winds—which, given the temperature in the 80's was great. Catherine and Bill walked all over town and we had a late lunch at The Hanger restaurant across and down a little from the Goldbelt Hotel.

Met with crew representatives in the building next door, got name tags and found out that there were a total of 44 passengers for this particular trip! We were like one big happy family and you were right—no one locks ANY doors. Since there were so few people I suggested looking into upgrading out stateroom. I had deliberately booked the least expensive ones but thought it was worth considering. When we walked into our original stateroom, Tom said, "Definitely let's find out what it would entail to upgrade." I had already mentioned our interest to the hotel manager on board. She said she only had one larger and Catherine and Bill said, "Go for it" because they're big campers and accustomed to sleeping in little tents with no facilities, so their stateroom looked great to them. They were very nice about the upgrade, I said that would be great and with our $200 onboard credit that you got for us from AARP it definitely helped with the price difference. We had a $700 tab at the conclusion of the trip for other stuff so they didn't lose a lot of money on us but it was wonderful that they were willing to be so accommodating.  At dinner, our server presented Catherine with her birthday cake (which I did double check on) and a bottle of her favorite wine which the ground crew had told me we were welcome to buy in Juneau and bring aboard for her. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and the four of us went to bed happy campers.

OK—I won't bore you with a day by day account and I was angry with myself that I wound up carrying the post card I had made out for you all the way home before remembering to mail it.

The two naturalists we had with us were excellent and the captain was a marvel at spotting things, cutting the engines and drifting up close. We saw whales on the first day and Catherine and Bill thought they had died and gone to heaven! We all loved the train trip in Skagway, Catherine and Bill did the float plane trip in Haines and Tom and I did a bus tour there. Catherine and Bill are probably going to return to Haines someday to stay longer—they absolutely fell in love with the place. Oh—I think that's where they went kayaking actually—the float plane trip was out of Ketchikan. We saw loads of puffins, seals, sea otters/lions, mountain goats, three bear sightings and even though we didn't see any Orcas, we saw almost two dozen Humpback whales who did everything from that spectacular breaching jump to bubble net feeding...it was a wow and we couldn't complain about the lack of Orcas! Loads of bald eagles—including the bald eagle habitat Catherine and Bill visited. Catherine bought a new camera for the trip and is an excellent photographer and I feel confident she'll have some wonderful shots which she'll send us copies of soon.

The other passengers were as diverse a group as you can imagine. One couple—both 85 years old—got married on October 14, 1940—that's six days before I was born! Another young married couple were traveling with HIS parents, two sisters, a brother and sister, a mother and daughter, a single woman professor, married couples and not so married couples—one couple from London. The food was phenomenal—did not remotely expect such a vast selection or meals so beautifully prepared and presented. Every single member of the crew was a delight. They were all pretty flabbergasted about the consistently bright, sunny days and mild, pleasant temperatures and we made a big joke about the fact that there was no way anyone could convince the 44 of us that Alaska has a lot of rain. Ketchikan which is the rain capital of the WORLD—bright and sunny and high 70's...go figure. While we were docked at Ketchikan I had to have the hotel manager on board contact my dentist who faxed two prescriptions to the pharmacy there—one pain killer, one antibiotic. Then two days before the end of the trip Tom caught a horrible cold and passed it right along to me. BUT—nothing could have detracted from the splendor of our journey. The four of us were in complete agreement—it was without a doubt the trip of a lifetime. Strange thing that did happen—I have a rare blood disorder and routinely have three or four HEAVY nosebleeds every day—in spite of the fact that I take something to control them—did not have ONE on the entire trip. That was as unheard of as all that good weather...and we have nice weather here so that wasn't the reason...just can't figure out what happened but NOT complaining.

Linda, as I said in my last message, the four of us will be eternally grateful to you for all your work—and the crew was stunned when I told them what short notice we did this is in! I'm ready to do the Columbia and Snake River trip next fall but so far have not convinced Tom. Thanks again and I'll send you the stuff for your site as soon as Catherine sends me photos. Caryl   

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