Saturday 20th September – Embarkation
Following a short Uber ride, we arrived at the cruise terminal in Canada Place and joined the long queue to go through US customs and immigration, which proceeded relatively smoothly. We soon boarded Holland America Line’s MS Koningsdam and were shown to our stateroom on the Main Deck, and introduced to our cabin stewards Riben and Ganang, 2 extremely nice guys, who promised they would look after us during the voyage.
We went for a wander around, this huge ship, to try and familiarise ourselves with the its layout, then we went on deck to watch us departing Vancouver, we found a spot on the Lido deck beside the pool and spent most of the morning watching and learning the ways of the ship, how to order and pay for purchases using our ships ID Card, ensuring we could stay within our daily limit. We were well catered for, with the ship having a wide variety of restaurants and bars and a good number of entertainment venues. During the voyage, we dined mainly in the main dining room, where the quality of the food and service was exemplary, and used the casual Lido Market restaurant for breakfasts and lunches. We did take advantage of our included speciality restaurant booking and made another booking for our last night on board. As I stated earlier, the quality and quantity of the food available to us were superb.
There were a good number of entertainment venues on board, where we spent most of our evenings. The ship had a large main theatre which hosted dance shows, a magic show, singer songwriter performances and movies, a BB King R&B club with an OK band, held our attention for one night, Billboard 2, was a couple of excellent singer pianists, playing music from all eras and who held a nightly request show, we alternated our time between them and the Rolling Stone lounge, where the resident band put on some great shows.
Sunday 21st September – At sea
At sea today, cruising up the inside passage, we had a relaxing morning before going to book our speciality dinner reservation for Wednesday evening, then going up to deck 12’s excursion desk to book a trip for our day in Skagway. Whilst on deck 12, we settled into the lounge in the forward section of the ship. This lounge, The Crows Nest, was also a games room, so we quickly found a table and whiled away some time playing cribbage. It was fun exploring the different areas of the ship, discovering hidden spots, one we both enjoyed finding was a little room next to the spa, that they used as a waiting room, it was a wonderful chill out room with comfortable loungers, gentle background music, all with great views of the ocean gliding by, we visited it regularly during the voyage. I later discovered that this day was unique in my travels as it was a day when I didn’t take a single photograph. I have included some I captured from a video by The Port Lowdown of various images from around the ship.
Monday 22nd September – Juneau
We arrived at our first port in Alaska, the state capital of Juneau, on a wet and windy day. Juneau is unique among U.S. state capitals in that there are no roads connecting the city to the rest of the state or to the rest of the United States. We had decided not to take up any of the shore excursions while here, so after going ashore, we had a walk around town, visiting some of the many souvenir and jewellery stores that lined the streets. From what we could see, this seemed to be the main source of income for the town.
After wandering around in the rain, we paid a visit to the Imperial Saloon, Alaska’s oldest bar (established in 1891), which was an interesting place, but with very little in the way of atmosphere. After a walk around the town trying to find a Starbucks, to no avail, we settled in a local coffee shop for lunch. I even managed to find some street art while wandering around town.
Later in the evening, in an effort to get out of the rain, we visited the famous Red Dog Saloon. This was a great fun place, a true dive bar with sawdust on the floor, good beer, and a gnarly old guy singing country songs, and a black bear chasing a guy through the ceiling. They also claim to have a pistol that belonged to Wyatt Earp, one of history’s most notorious gunslingers. How true the story is debatable, as there is also a notice in the Imperial Saloon saying that they took his gun from him.
When we returned to the ship, we discovered that we were correct in not choosing any of the available shore excursions as they had all been cancelled due to the poor weather. We really felt sorry for a couple we met who had booked this cruise with the intention of going whale watching in Juneau, only to have their trip cancelled at the last minute. Perhaps because it was late in the season, our impression was one of a town that relied on its past history and the millions of cruise ship passengers who visit each year.
Tuesday 23rd September – Skagway
Skagway, our second port in Alaska, was our destination today. At the northernmost point of the Inside Passage, Skagway is the main port of call for cruise ships, and was the trading post serving the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. Within three months, a tent and shack town of 20,000 people had sprung up, and throngs of hopeful gold-seekers stampeded the town, the jumping-off point for the 500-mile (805km) trek to the goldfields in the Yukon, and it still maintains its historical feel, with old original wooden buildings and boardwalks instead of pavements.
On coming ashore, we were picked up by our excursion guide and driver, a quirky little lady with a great sense of humour. Our trip started with a visit to Liarsville, a replica tented town so named for the journalists dispatched to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush who fabricated tall tales from a safe location away from the hardships of the Yukon. We were greeted by a troupe of 4 young sourdoughs and dance hall girls, who acted out the role of residents of the town. This camp, situated at the foot of the White Pass, nestled beside a waterfall, on arrival, we made our way to the Hippodrome, where our hosts put on a fun and irreverent show, performing with great humour, a hilarious melodrama and a poem by the “Bard of the North,” Robert Service.
We were then taught the art of gold panning, before being set free in the Liarsville gold fields, where we were guaranteed to find that precious metal that started the gold fever! We did indeed find gold in our pans, but not enough to start another gold rush, it’s sad to say.
Pockets weighed down with our gold, we then made our way to the Liarsville BBQ area for an all-you-can-eat alfresco campfire feast in the forest. The wild Alaskan-caught salmon was freshly grilled over an open wood fire, Prospector Pete’s Reindeer Beans really gave the meal that authentic touch, and the blueberry cake finished off a great meal. It was then fun to wander through the camp and visit the Fancy Goods store, bordello and laundry tents to view the antiques and vintage clothing left behind by the miners and ladies of the evening.
Back on the bus after lunch, we returned to Skagway to board the 1898 White Pass Railway, which took us up the treacherous pass the original prospectors had to undertake on foot while heavily loaded with supplies, eventually, after passing back through customs and passport control, back into Canada, to reach Fraser, British Columbia. The trip took us through mountains, tunnels and glaciers, often above the clouds, in restored old railcars complete with a log-burning stove in the corner. The commentary given during the trip was very entertaining and informative. Once in Fraser, we were happy to get away from the cold weather by re-boarding our bus for the return journey, back into the USA and Alaska, on our way back down to Skagway.
The final visit of our trip was in the town where we were given a tour of the upstairs rooms of the infamous Red Onion Saloon. This was an interesting place to visit, full of history, with the bar staff and girls all dressed in period costumes. Of course, we stayed a while to sample some of the beers on offer.
We truly enjoyed our time in Skagway and the excursion we had chosen, one we would recommend to anyone making the same journey as us. It really provided a taste of how things really were in the gold rush days of the 1890s. We were only too glad we missed a snowy season, especially when we saw the size of the railway’s giant snow blower engine.
Wednesday 24th September – At sea
We were at sea all day, cruising down the Endicott Arm, a deep fjord which led to the stunning Dawes Glacier, the captain had opened up the bow section of the ship so I took the opportunity to get up close to the glacier, fortunately not too close that I was required to wear my thermals, although the decks were very wet and slippery. The views of the glacier and the bergy bits (large lumps of ice that had calved from the glacier) were a little of what we had come to Alaska to see. After reaching the glacier at the end of the fjord, the ship was turned around, and we continued our voyage South. We then spent the rest of the day having a relaxing time playing cribbage in the games room, then attending an origami presentation where we learned how to make a crab; it was great fun. Jim was highly delighted when we returned to our cabin to find that our steward, Riben or Ganan, had created a towel elephant sculpture for him. When it came time for a shower, he didn’t want to use his towels.
Our evening meal tonight was in the Pinnacle Grill, our speciality dining option. The food and service in this restaurant were of an extremely high standard, making it really special indeed. The day was finished off listening to some good music in the Rolling Stones Lounge.
Thursday 25th September – Ketchikan
Today we visited Ketchikan, the salmon capital of Alaska. Again, this town seemed to us a wee bit tired and worn out, relying on the tourist trade, although there did seem to be more fishing boats around, and we did see some industrial parts of town.
Due to a strong tail wind, we made good time on our voyage South, bringing our arrival time forward a couple of hours, this meant that they were able to add in an additional performance of the towns Lumberjack Show, which we decided to take up, since this wasn’t due to start until the afternoon, we went exploring to find the elusive, to date, Alaskan Starbucks. Tucked away in a Safeway supermarket on the outskirts of town, we managed to find it. We were delighted, of course, but just a little saddened that we couldn’t complete the challenge by finding a Lego store.
Back in town after our adventures, we joined the audience of the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon watching 2 teams of 2 guys representing the US vs Canada, competing against each other in a tournament of wood-cutting activities. The skills they demonstrated with chainsaws, axes and the like were amazing and all performed with great humour as they egged on the audience to cheer them on. It was a great fun visit and another highly recommended one. You can get a taste of what we saw in this YouTube video.
Whilst in town we paid a visit to its oldest pub, the Arctic Bar, which by coincidence had 2 of the musicians from the Rolling Stones Lounge band playing, they have a regular gig there each Thursday when the ship is in port, this was a typical dive bar and right up our street with good beer and real friendly people, we even sampled their signature shot, a Ducks Fart, a once in a lifetime experience. All too soon, sadly, it was time to leave this great port to continue our voyage South.
Friday 26th September – At sea
Our final full day on board was like all the other spent at sea, starting with breakfast, a game of cribbage in the games room and another visit to the origami class, this time to make a rose, we were all delighted to spot an Orca playfully swimming alongside us while we were in the class, it was good to see, but I didn’t take any photographs of it as I have found in the past that they just don’t turn out right.
One of the highlights of the day was the City on the Sea presentation in the main theatre, given by the cruise director and the captain and many of the crew members, which explained a great deal about the day to day operations of the ship and crew from the engine room to the bridge with everything else in between, we were amazed to discover that the ship had its own tailoring department which manufactures all the uniforms worn by the officers and crew, what also astounded us was the amount of provisions taken on board at the start of each cruise.
Another highlight for us was our evening meal. We decided to make a reservation for the pan-Asian Tamarind restaurant, and the meal we had was something really memorable, and the service from our waitress was marvellous; she couldn’t do enough to make the meal a special one. All in all, for a supposed quiet day, it turned out to be another one to remember, despite having to pack our cases during it.
Saturday 27th September- disembarkation day
Having packed our cases the day before, we were able to take our time over breakfast and enjoy the last few hours of the trip before going ashore in Vancouver. Despite us both saying that we are not cruise people, we both thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time on board. We experienced great sights in some stunning locations, met some really nice people from a variety of nationalities, listened to great musicians every night, ate some wonderful food, all served up by people who bent over backwards to provide a great experience, so thanks to Holland America Line and the crew of the magnificent MS Koningsdam for adding to our memories.
Jim's travels 