On this trip, I went on a cruise with Kylie and her family to Alaska on the Norwegian Bliss! Leaving port from Seattle and visiting the southeast portion of Alaska, such as Sitka, Juneau, Icy Strait Point, and Ketchikan including a short stop in Canada. It was an 8 day cruise including the send off day and final day. We spent a couple days in Seattle enjoying the area before leaving. I tried to capture the area the best I could through photos and words. Enjoy! If you would like to see more photos, you can go to samuel_irelands_camera for more.
Day 1: Seattle
had an early start being dropped off at hobby airport at 4 am. samuel slept the whole way to phoenix while kylie attempted to. boarded our connecting flight soon after landing (and getting a bagel of course) and off to Seattle we go!
three hours later…
hello seattle! immediately feeling the cooler, dry air we hopped on the light rail and took an uber to get to our hotel, the Hyatt House, right next to the Space Needle.
we dropped off our bags and couldn’t wait to look around the city so we took our three minute walk to the space needle and headed up to see an aerial view of Seattle. had some beautiful views of downtown seattle, olympic national park, and lake washington. kylie even managed to step on the revolving glass door (although it took a little convincing).
next stop was the chihuly garden and glass, where an artist took pride in his work of manipulating glass to make beautiful art. they had an indoor part which included chandeliers, balls, and sea life. in the outdoor portion, the glass was intertwined with a garden. the live chinese-style music was a nice touch to the gardens also.
with our day quickly getting behind us, we walked to the pike place market, a bustling market with the scent of fish flowing through the entire street. it had a large assortment of items, such as fish, flowers, fruits and veggies, and random homemade crafts. we treated ourselves to some famous mac & cheese, a potato and cheese piroshky, and a apple and cinnamon piroshky. all was delicious!
the our tiredness catching up to us we went back to the hotel and waited for the rest of the family to show up. once they showed up we had a nice hotel dinner of wings, grilled cheese, and tomato soup. we were all exhausted and ready for some sleep to prepare for tomorrow. gooodnight!
Day 2: Seattle
We started off our morning with a nice hotel breakfast of breakfast tacos. With no time to waste we headed back to pikes market to explore the rest of it, as there were six floors and we had only walked the top one!
I decided to bring my camera since I had some inspiration from the previous day. On the walk over, we found a cute coffee shop called Anchorhead coffee with some excellent specialty coffees. Then, as we browsed all of the shops we stopped at a shop with world famous doughnuts and even saw the first Starbucks ever (the line was wayyy too long for that bad of coffee).
While we were walking the shops we were offered samples of a nectarine. It looked too good so we had to try some and it was the best fruit ever so we got a pound of those and a pound of mount rainier cherries.
We kept walking around, found a collectibles store with some Star Wars collectibles and movie posters. I was slightly tempted but decided against it. Celeste and Kylie’s parents got caricature pictures of themselves while I took some photos of the business of pikes market with Kylie.
Kylie also found a popular grilled cheese place and got some along with peach yogurt.
We had an early dinner reservation at 3:30 for Kylie’s birthday dinner, so we had to head back to the room and get ready. It was a quick turnaround almost right after getting to the hotel to go right back to where we came since the restaurant was in the pikes market.
The food was delicious at The Pink Door and it was a beautiful view of Elliot Bay while we had our assortment of seafood and French food. Afterwards we walked along the shore to a pier with a Ferris wheel. The Seattle Great Wheel had amazing views of the city of Seattle and surrounding areas. We had great views of the space needle, the city, Olympic national park and mount rainier. I could only imagine what it would look like during the sunset… guess we’ll have to come back sometime.
Next, we took a ferry that went to Bainbridge Island and back. We got even better views of the city skyline and the sky was perfectly clear for views of mount rainier. We looked for orcas but had no luck.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at cafe campagne for some yummy desserts, such as crème brûlée and brown sugar/pecan icecream. After a long day of walking around and exploring, we were all exhausted and ready to relax for a little… perfect that we’re going on a cruise tomorrow! We went back to the hotel and called it a night, excited for tomorrow.
Seattle seems like it could be a trip in itself with the city and surrounding area. We may have gotten lucky with the weather but either way it was very nice.
Day 3: Cruise Day
After enjoying breakfast at the hotel while celeste and Kylie’s parents went to see the space needle, we packed up the room and left for the Norwegian Bliss. We got lucky and was let on a couple hours before our load in time.
Once we were on the boat we enjoyed our dining sit down lunch which was rather good. After hearing everything was included, I decided I needed to make my moneys worth and have a few entrees…(at least I’m cutting sodas right) Afterwards, we found our room. It’s a tight squeeze, but it works since the only reason to be in there is to sleep!
We explored the rest of the ship waiting for our departure at 5. We got to the top, changed, and went down the tube slide. The water on the slide www warmish, but the air was still veryyy cold so we ran to the hot tub afterwards to escape the cold. There was another slide where the ground dropped beneath you and went over the edge of the ship… but it isn’t open which makes me think what could’ve happened??
It hit 5 and music started playing and everyone was dancing with the crew on the top of the ship, including all the old people. Everyone was cheering and excited for the cruise to start.
Next was more food! We discovered the other food option, the buffet. With a whole variety of foods from American to Indian, we had plenty of options for food. Along with the entrees there were endless options of desserts, too fancy to name except for the great selection of ice creams.
We tried to go to a comedy show at 9 but we quickly learned that if you want a seat you have to get there at least 30 minutes before. Kylie’s parents stayed and said it wasn’t the best anyway so we didn’t miss out. While they were they we walked around the boat going duck hunting! Celeste found one in a piece of art and I found one in a bathroom! Kylie hasn’t yet but we won’t stop looking.
Our final event was a silent disco. Four different kinds of music: 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, and today. The worst of all of them was today… but they weren’t playing the best ones. We didn’t stay the whole time as we were tired and went to the room and went to bed.
Day 4: Sea Day
Today was a day of finding things to do on the boat since we wouldn’t be seeing land at all. We started the morning by going to the observation lounge and whale watching for a little bit while we ate. We saw spurts of whales but they never actually came too far over the water.
It was very chill as we watched for hours, and then lunch came up, so we went to a sit down lunch restaurant and ate lunch. It was yummy but the wait time was very long so we were done in about two hours.
Everyone wanted to take a nap so me and Kylie searched for a hot tub that wasn’t insanely busy and chilled for a bit enjoying the view of… the ocean.
We wasted enough time and a comedy show was about to start so we headed there. It was the same guy as yesterday but we got there early to get a seat. We also got some Starbucks from the boat to wake us up a little bit. The show was pretty good and had a few laughs. The Grand Ol Opry comedian was still funnier though.
We had a quick dinner at the buffet and then went straight to the icons show. It was a display of music through the ages. They said it was “from Dolly Parton to Gaga”. It was a fun show of singalong and clapping through their music and singing.
It was a very chill day but we’re all still tired. Me and Kylie watched a little bit of a movie and called it a night. We’re excited for Sitka tomorrow!
Day 5: Sitka
We woke up pretty early and went to the observation deck for breakfast and talked to a nice lady for about an hour while we watched the islands of southeast alaska come into view.
Then I went up to the deck to take pictures and enjoy the scenery and Kylie went back to the room for a little. I spotted some cool islands and even a sea otter swimming by our boat. I found service that hopefully didn’t cost a fortune and spoke to mommy and daddy.
We ported! We were on the first bus to town, where we found a nice old (partially) retired lady that drove us to the Fortress of the Bears and Raptor Center since the hike up to it would’ve taken our entire port time.
At the fortress of the bears, they had 3 enclosures. One was for 3 black bears that were very friendly, mainly because they were being fed while we were there. Another enclosure was for 3 brown bears that were young. Their mothers had had bad encounters with humans that ultimately got them killed and the cubs wouldn’t have survived in the wild. Lastly, the final enclosure was for two older brown bears that have lived there since they were kids, since 2007 and 2009! We also got lucky to see a bald eagle watching over us from above.
Then, we were driven to the raptor center, which talked about the protection and bringing bald eagles back up to health to live in the wild afterwards. We got to see multiple bald eagles, other native birds to alaska, and an owl with a missing eye.
Next, we walked down a trail that was a shortcut to downtown which had nice views of a river and the woods. We even saw a bald eagle soar straight through the middle. The trail spurted us out by the Tangass national forest center, but this one was specifically for the natives here and their craftsmanship. We learnt a lot about their history and their kind of interactions with both the Russians and Americans, specifically the missionaries from each. They didn’t like Abraham Lincoln very much as that stopped slavery so they put images of him on top of totem poles, the place on the pole where you make fun of people.
After walking through the woods, looking at the totem poles and the old fortress location we walked back to town and grabbed some snacks including a delicious clam chowder before going back to the boat.
Since we got on the boat in the mid afternoon we were pretty hungry so we got a lunch/dinner at a nice sit down restaurant. After that, we had walked around a little to pass the time but we were all pretty tired.
We heard that there was a high chance of seeing the northern lights tonight so we wanted to take a nap and wake up around 10 to start looking. Our alarm ended up not going off but I woke up at 12 randomly and Kylie was also awake so we woke up celeste and walked up. After a little over an hour of searching, I felt too bad keeping them outside when they were freezing so I gave up and we went to bed. Maybe tomorrow night!
Day 6: Juneau
Hello capital of Alaska! The only capital in the US that you can’t access by car. We woke up super early to be one of the first off the boat again and left the boat to a beautiful view of the mountainside with a waterfall and eagles flying over welcoming us.
We met up with our mendenhall glacier canoe excursion leader and he drove us to their warehouse to be given heavy duty rain gear as we’d have to wade through the glacier water to get in the canoe… brrrr!
They drove us to the lake and we did a short quarter mile hike to the canoe and departing zone with an immediate view of Nugget Falls and the top half of the glacier.
We got in the boat (only our boots got in the water so it wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it would be) and started paddling towards the glacier. It was tough work! With a total of over 6 miles of paddling we can definitely say we were all tired by the end.
We got to a bend which would reveal the glacier and it was huge. It was more like the top quarter that we saw at the beginning. Also, to our right was the mendenhall glacier visitor center, which used to be a much better view of the glacier as it was right next to it… now it’s a couple miles away! There were lots of seagulls around and the guides said it was because the eagles kicked them off the coast, but if they wanted to, they could fight the eagle 10 to 1 for a chance to win.
Right back to paddling and the wind was very minimal, so we got to go as close as possible to the glacier, which isn’t too common as it’s more dangerous with wind. Actually, there was no normal wind, but there was wind from the glacier which blew us back as we got close.
Next, we ran aground on the shore by the glacier and walked around to have a nice view of the glacier while we drank some coffee and hot chocolate. Also, I had to walk down to the water and grab a piece of glacier ice floating and eat some.
We walked around to get some different views of the glacier and lake. We were also lucky enough to have the sun come out for the walk and whole way back, which is very rare. Then we got back in the canoe to paddle to Nugget Falls. It was a beautiful waterfall and a lot larger than I thought from farther away.
We had the long paddle back to the shore and we drove back to the warehouse to give all the clothes back and we were headed back to the boat. On the way, we saw a couple boats of native people, the Tlingit people, on a break from their return from Seattle, a trip their people used to do to hunt and attack other tribes on a canoe that would fit 50-100 people. Obviously now it was for less violent reasons and to commemorate old traditions.
We got back on the boat and had some lunch and showered. We were told we were going down Endicott Arm, a strait that ended with Dawes glacier, and we would have nice views of other glaciers and the surrounding area during the 4 hour ride.
During it, we saw a pod of whales right next to the ship and a floating glacier. We also saw lots of chunks of ice floating through the water. One even split into pieces and made a bang as our waves crashed into it. There were also too many waterfalls to count throughout it. Once we got to Dawes glacier, we couldn’t get too close unless we wanted to recreate the titanic, so we saw it from afar and it looked about double the size of Mendenhall glacier.
We went to the buffet and had some dinner before another early night to wake up for the northern lights again. We woke up at 12, looked out the window, and saw it was very cloudy, so it was doubtful but we went anyway. Definitely not staying as long since it was raining and cloudy, we gave up and went back to the sleep.
Day 7: Icy Strait Point
Another early morning (you may see a trend) and we had some sit down breakfast as breakfast yesterday wasn’t the best… it was still quick though as we got off the boat quick and wanted to explore the remote island fully owned and maintained by the natives (Tlingit is one of the 4 main tribes from this area but I don’t remember the other ones).
This wasn’t a town like the other places and much more of an outdoorsy place with campfires around the area. We took a gondola to another portion of the area and then walked back on the trail beside it before going on the bear watch portion of our bear watch and whale watch excursion.
We met with our bear excursion group excited to see some bears! Our guide said it’s a 95% chance of seeing a bear and it was great conditions since it was drizzling and that would make food for the bears come to the surface. They even said that it was a 4 to 1 ratio of bears to humans (4000 to 1000). It was a 45 minute drive to the trail where our enthusiastic guide told us all about the tribe that lived here came from an area called Glacier Bay but were pushed out because “the glacier came as fast as a dog could run” so they came to where we were. We saw some black-tailed deer on the way up and we learned a lot about the wildlife and plants from our guide.
We got to the trail and watch site and met with our bear safety watchers to keep us safe. On the walk out our guide showed us some food we could eat in the wild, such as a piece off the pine that had a sweet lemony taste and a heart shaped plant, which tasted like a snap pea! We were on a boardwalk and thank goodness we were because muskegs were scattered around the area, where it may look like a couple feet deep, but could actually be anywhere from 25-50 feet deep.
Now you may wonder why I’ve been talking about the bear watch excursion but not talked about bears at all. That’s because we didn’t see any. We watched from three different platforms for over an hour and saw nothing except a bird that flew down a river. There was a large pile of evidence on the trail, but no bears 😦 .
On the way back, she told us more history of the natives and how they reclaimed glacier bay and some of their land from the US but only after about 75 years of fighting. The US wouldn’t believe that they had originally lived in Glacier Bay since the glacier that receded tore every apart, but they ended up finding a preserved body in the ground, which the natives recognize as a great sacrifice for the survival of their people, land, and traditions.
Anyways, after our history lesson we then got on the boat to go whale watching. With a captain that had lived and worked there his whole life and was born before alaska even became a state and a mother and son crew, we headed to the area of water called the Chicken Flatts. They call it this because the Halibut is much smaller than other places, but they’re sweeter so the whales like them more.
This whale watch was far from a disappointment. Whale after whale popped up and flapping their tails, meaning they had a deep dive to get some food. And yes it was a whale watch but we saw plenty of other wildlife, such as eagles, sea lions, sea otters, porpoises, and even deer on shore. We were lucky enough to see some of the humpback whales even break the surface with their mouth. A very successful whale watch overall.
We got back to the island with a little bit of extra time so me and Kylie tried some Halibut tacos which were delicious. We wanted caribou tacos as well but they were out.
We got back in the boat and had a nice buffet lunch then went to the hot tub to pass some time since our room was being cleaned so we couldn’t nap. The wind was pretty extreme while we were up there. All of our stuff was blowing away so we had to have it all right by the hot tub and hide everything in a bag so it wouldn’t get wet. It was freezing when we got out so we had to run inside.
Final thing of today was dinner. We showered and got dressed up and had a nice dinner at the restaurant in the ship called The Manhattan. All very yummy. I may have gotten 3 appetizers, 2 entrees, and a dessert…
We didn’t want to go to sleep yet so we went duck hunting again and me and Kylie each found one! After walking each floor hunting, we got tired enough to we finished our movie and went to sleep.
Day 8: Ketchikan
Final day in alaska! We had some breakfast and got off the boat to some pouring rain. A little scary if that would be the rest of the day. But as per usual Alaskan weather, it cleared up and was sunny by the time we got to downtown by bus.
We parted ways with the rest of Kylie’s family as they had a different excursion and we went shopping for a little. Found a shirt for each of us and a snow globe for me to continue the collection. We had wasted enough time before our excursion meet up so it was time to find our group leader.
On the way up to our excursion, our driver was talking about how they were expecting 6 boats today, 17,000 people… when the population of Ketchikan is only 8,000! They typically get 2 million tourists by cruise ship each year. The drive up was extremely bumpy in the back of the van. Had to make sure we’d get the front row on the way back!
We got to the ATV home base station where they gave us some gear and told us some instructions about the 4 wheeler. And we were off! Kylie didn’t want to drive so it was my job to hit every pothole and puddle I could find. She did say that this was the one time I couldn’t be judged for my bad driving so I took advantage of it.
We took a stop at a lookout point of an inlet and took some pictures and then continued up to a waterfall. It was a fun ride up and got lots of beautiful views of the waterfall as we were driving. Once we got to our stopping point, we had a good view from afar but still couldn’t even see some of it that we could see during the drive.
Our ATV guide also spotted some mountain goats from afar which was a nice surprise. We walked along a boardwalk next to a river to explore a little of the area and the river fed into a pretty lake. Before we knew it we had to head back to home base station where we enjoyed a yummy reindeer hot dog. Our all aboard time was coming up so we got back in the bus and headed back to the boat. This one wasn’t scheduled with our boat, so they would leave us if we weren’t there in time, so definitely wanted to make sure we’d get there.
We had a sit down lunch on the deck and then took a nap for a few hours to try and catch up on some sleep. Then, since we were on a cruise, it was time to eat again! We got dressed up and went to one of our final dinners on the cruise. The abundance of food is nice, but I’m not sure if anyone’s metabolism could keep up with this much food for long…
We enjoyed the outdoors and cool breeze after dinner and decided to watch the sunset as it was one of the most clear skies it’s been all trip. A beautiful way to “end” the cruise as we headed back to Seattle.
Day 9: Day at sea / Victoria
Finally a day to sleep in! Instead of waking up at 4:30-5:00 we woke up at 8:00 and had a slow morning until we went to buffet breakfast. Afterwards, we sat up at the observation deck so I could do some homework and Kylie could read a little while also looking out at the ocean for any movement.
One thing we hadn’t seen yet but was also talk it would be pretty rare was an orca, or killer whale. In the Seattle area at least, there are less than 80 orcas left, defining them as an endangered species.
While we were sitting up there we heard someone else say they saw a large pod of them. We were upset that we missed it… until we saw a pod of four ourselves!! Having not much hope of seeing them this trip since we were on the way back, it was a pleasant surprise to see them. Along with them, we saw more humpback whales, including one that showed off his tail, a sea otter, and some porpoises. A very lucky morning/early afternoon!
However, it was getting later in the day and packing still needed to be done so we went down to pack. Then, we had planned on attending the Jersey Boys musical on this ship that’s been on Broadway a couple days ago and then a few of the cast members got sick. But, they felt better enough to put on one show tonight so we went to it and it was so good. Some of the singing was so impressive.
Once that was over, it was time to get off the boat because we had arrived in Victoria, BC. This was only a 4 hour stop, so there were many people that were eager to get off and get to downtown. It was much busier but we still made it down there pretty quickly by a double decker bus and started walking around. Kylie’s family had an excursion planned but me and Kylie just decided to walk around. We weren’t sure where to go so we just walked down a pedestrian street, listening to street musicians, watching different attractions, until we decided we had to go get Tim Hortons as we were in Canada.
Celebrating their 60 years, we had an iced coffee and a free Timbit! Then we saw a restaurant on the way over and thought it was be a good snack so we went that way and was stopped by a man in a top hat asking if we wanted to do an interactive art museum free of charge. We love the words free of charge so we said yes. The man explained how it had opened up 6 days ago and they were just trying to get some traction. It was homemade and it was just clicking different buttons or stepping/covering things that would make different sounds or change the lights. It was… interesting. An experience we can at least say not many people have done!
We got to the restaurant and enjoyed some appetizers before heading back to the busses, but the line to get on them wrapped around a block! So, we decided to walk the mile instead. As we were walking up to the boat, we ran into the rest of her family so perfect timing! We went to bed getting ready to say our final goodbyes to the Norwegian Bliss tomorrow.
Day 10: The End
The trip was coming to a close! Me and Kylie decided to wake up early for sunrise as it was the last day and it was definitely worth it, getting beautiful pictures of the Seattle skyline as we slowly approached.
After sunrise we went back to our room and gathered our things before getting off the boat. After getting off, we walked back to Anchorhead coffee to get some as we were low on sleep. We then found a cute garden with lots of flowers that Kylie enjoyed going around looking at.
There was a little bit of time before needing to head to the airport so we walked by the spheres in Seattle, then got on the light rail heading towards the airport.
Once we got to the airport, we walked from the light rail to the entrance and saw the line for security… going all the way out the building, on the overpass out to the garage. Good thing we got there early! I guess that’s what happens when three cruises port on the same day.
After around an hour and a half of waiting we finally got through security and had some food while we waited for our plane. There was a slight delay which caused a little bit of an issue as we had a connecting flight with little time in between. Once on the plane, I watched a movie and Kylie read but I looked up at the right time to see a nice view of Mount Rainier from the plane.
Near the end of the ride, me and Kylie planned how we would get to the next gate, we were going to have about 15 minutes from the moment we land, to walking onto the next plane before it closes and leaves. The plan was: I would grab the backpacks and Kylie would grab the bag. I would try and push through to the front of the group walking out and sprint to the other goat and ask them to wait a few minutes since she was coming.
Well, we were in a traffic line for a while so it cut our time to about 5 minutes to get to the other gate. As soon as the doors opened I “excuse me”’d my way through everyone and started running, hearing someone say “run, boy, fun” behind me. I made it was one minute to spare as it wasn’t too far and they said it was okay.
We got on the plane and found seats and waited… until an announcement came up saying they delayed it for some reason. Thanks for the heads up!
I watched another movie and Kylie read a little more and we were home! After an Uber to Kylie’s house and drive to my house it was 2 am the trip was over. Looking forward to work in the morning!
The Adventures of the Cajunlimeys 