Home > Cruise Reviews >Spirit of Endeavour

Cruise West Alaska Cruise Reviews: Spirit of Endeavour

Alaska's Whales & Wilderness - August 2007

Here I sit in the lounge on our last evening on this fabulous venture into the wildernesses of Alaska. We are in Glacier Bay with clear blue water as far as ye can see. We have had a full day of wildlife and glaciers and I thought I would write this in a few minutes of down time to reflect my thoughts before anything fades from memory.

We departed Juneau on Tuesday after an included night at the Goldbelt Hotel in Juneau. Juneau has two hotels; one historic and one more modern, both are well located and three star accommodations. We had a lovely large double bedded room. We explored Juneau and took some shore excursions in the glaciers and a hike up Mt. Roberts.

We gathered at the Goldbelt Hotel at 3pm. Our ship was parked right next to the Princess ship. The Spirit of Endeavour looked like the size of a dingy compared to the big mega Princess Ship. This promised to be a unique small ship experience.

Cabin

We settled into our cabin, a category AA which has two small windows and a door that opens right onto the promenade. The good news is that one can open the door and be right out with nature; the down side is that people can walk right by your cabin and look in. Our first day the captain positioned the ship for our early morning (6:45) wakeup call in front of the granite cliffs of Tracy Arm. We woke up, opened the door and there we were outside in nature. We had twin beds as do most of the cabins in the ship. Our bathroom was adequate with nice quality fluffy white towels.

Food

Too much and too good. The ship makes it own bread pastry, sauces and desserts. Food is picked up along the route. In Sitka we picked up fresh Dungeneous Crab and had an "all you could eat" crab fest. Breakfast and lunch are served in the dinning room or in the lounge with light fare. Dinner is in the dinning room with usually three entrees, meat, fish and vegetarian. For those picky eaters, there is always a chicken breast or sirloin steak if you don’t like anything on the menu.

Ports

This itinerary was not big on port stops but more on nature. We spent the first night in Juneau and did some fun shore excursions. I wish we had arrived one night earlier in Juneau as it was a fun city with many things to do as well as fun stores to shop in.

Our first port was Sitka. We had options of going sport fishing, kayaking, hiking or going to the Raptor Center.

Our next “port” was Elfin Cove. This was a very small community with about 200 residents in summer and down to 18 in winter. There are no streets and only boardwalks. We were treated to a lecture by Mary Jo, a lifetime resident of Elfin Cove who came on the ship and gave us a short commentary of what life was like in Elfin Cove before we visited the village. It was fascinating and definitely not a place many people ever get the chance to visit. 

We also got off the ship in Barlett Cove in the middle of Glacier Bay  and spent time at the Glacier Bay Ranger Station and Glacier Bay Lodge. We had the opportunity to attend a number of their presentations during the afternoon and evening.

Activities

Every day was different and exciting. We went out on zodiacs exploring the inter coastal tidal zone and little hikes into the forest. Our time in Glacier Bay afforded us the time to hike. Some went with a ranger, who led a hike into the forest, while some went for an 11 mile hike to the lake. Things were available for all levels of activity...

Linda