My Alaskan Cruise Vacation

I'm back from a 7 day cruise to beautiful Alaska. It was truly a wonderous vacation with all-you-can-eat buffet breakfasts and lunches, fine dining and shows every night, sunny weather, amazing glaciers, nature and art lectures, fabulous paintings, and just wonderful, wonderful people. I feel so blessed to have been able to go on this trip and I will never forget it.

The Cruise Ship

The Royal Caribbean ship was called Serenade of the Seas (which is a really beautiful name). The architecture inside, as you'll see from the photos below, is eye candy with huge paintings everywhere. The bedrooms and bathrooms are TINY, but you'll never want to stay in your room as there is so much to do each day! They give you a "compass" each night that outlines a non-stop itinerary of fun things to do the next day, and we would circle all our choices the night before and just go to them one after the other.

Where we went

We stopped at 3 locations - Icy Straight Point, Skagway, and Juneau. We also sailed up to the Hubbard Glacier.

Icy Straight Point used to be the location of a major fishing plant for all the fishing that would go on in that area. The cannery is now a museum with some touristy shops. The waters there are very clear with many varieties of colourful seaweed. It is very peaceful as the area is not very populated at all. You won't see houses on mountains - just trees.

Skagway was part of the Gold Rush route. All of the shops are in the style of the Gold Rush era and thus look very quaint. You can also visit the Gold Rush cemetery where you can learn a lot about the historical inhabitants and their fascinating (or tragic) lives.

Juneau was the most populated of the cities we visited. However, it's tallest building is still only about 10 stories high and its population is only in the thousands. The cost of land there is very high. It costs $500 per month to rent space for a trailer, and $300 per month to rent a spot to put up a tent. This is not including water, electricity, or showers (which you have to pay for). In Juneau, you can drive up to Mendenhall glacier, and hike up to see waterfalls and the glacier up-close. It's quite breath-taking.

Here are some photos from my trip!