Finally in Alaska: A Day in Juneau

I had waited a long time to go to Alaska. As I arrived in my 50th state, I couldn’t have asked for a better welcome.

Brittany and I were sitting on the balcony and sipping our coffee when we saw the first spout. More followed and as we got closer to Juneau, we saw quite a few humpback whales greeting us!

Juneau is one of the best places to see the humpbacks, who are here in the spring and summer before making their way to Hawaii for the winter months. I would be going on a whale cruise later in the morning, while Brittany was heading on a kayaking trip.

Before our excursions, we had a private tour of the Lotus Spa and its Enclave section. The spa is huge, and treatments range from massages, facials, and scrubs to derm fillers and acupuncture. They also have a fitness center on the Royal Princess, filled plenty of equipment.

I had a treatment scheduled for another time and we had access to use The Enclave whenever we wanted. This is a thermal suite area with a hydrotherapy pool, heated stone beds, water beds, a steam room, saunas, aromatherapy, sensory showers, and more.

As much as staying in The Enclave all day sounded wonderful, it would have to wait as nothing was keeping me from Juneau. We had just enough time for breakfast in the dining room before getting our things together for our tours.

Brittany had her first Alaska Salmon, gravlax (cured salmon) served with caviar. I went more traditional with scrambled eggs and pancakes.

It was still early when we left the ship to board our buses for excursions in Juneau. We would be going separately on a lot of tours this trip since I was traveling in a mobility scooter and wanted Brittany to be able to do more physical activities than I could. We would be meeting up later in the afternoon and seeing additional highlights of Juneau together.

I boarded an accessible bus for the half hour ride to our boat. The driver was friendly and showed us the local downtown area, mountains, and a small view of glaciers along the way.

When we arrived at the pier, I was a bit surprised to find out that I could not bring my scooter onboard even though it was advertised as wheelchair accessible. It worked out alright for me as they were able to wheel me right to the boat and help me to a seat, but there was someone who was unable to leave their wheelchair.*

The boat ride was a bit slow at first. We couldn’t see much of anything. Then it all changed. There were humpback whales everywhere! I remember doing a similar trip in Maui and seeing some whales, but it wasn’t even close to the amount I saw in Juneau.

I couldn’t keep up with taking photos and videos. I finally decided to just stop and enjoy it. When we got past the area with all the whales, we were able to see some of Mendenhall Glacier. It was quite a sight.

At the same time, Brittany was getting closer to the glacier than I did. She was on the Glacier View Sea Kayaking Princess excursion. She learned about the history of the area as she explored the Mendenhall Wetlands and its Glacier.

I took the bus back to the pier and met with Kristi Switzer, Destination Marketing Manager for Travel Juneau Travel Juneau. We had arranged to get together in the evening. Brittany was still on her tour, and I wanted to do some shopping while we were waiting.

As soon as I had made plans to go to Alaska salmon was on my mind. I love salmon, but because of my seafood allergy, I can’t have it if there was a chance it was on a slab with shellfish. The only way around that (other than watching someone catch and cook it) is to get kosher salmon, which is not allowed to be with shellfish which is non-kosher. I had found out there was a kosher salmon fishery in Juneau.

Taku is all about salmon in many forms and they had shelf Alaskan salmon I could take home with me. I was a little disappointed they were out of samples, but I trusted the reviews were good and took some home for myself and for gifts. (It was delicious.)

Brittany met us there and we headed to the Goldbelt Tram. I was happily surprised how accessible it was. I just rode my scooter right on it. We headed 1,800 feet up Mount Roberts and the view was just beautiful.

There is a lot to do on top, including hiking trails, a gallery of indigenous artwork, a gift shop filled with Alaskan treasures, and the Chilkat Theater, which plays the award-winning film, “Seeing Daylight” about the Tlingit people.

Unfortunately, my scooter was not cooperating and kept stopping. We went around to see some of the sights—especially the spots with views—and then went to Timberline Bar and Grill to have dinner and let it charge.

The scooter did not charge, and Brittany had to push me back to the ship, but the meal was delicious, as was the local Alaska Brewing Co. beer she had with her fresh halibut tacos.

After dinner, we took in more of the scenery. The beauty of nature was all around us. It may sound corny, but it’s true. We were definitely in Alaska.

We thanked Kristi for her hospitality and vowed to be back to Juneau to see more. Then it was back to the ship.

We went straight to the service area and asked if someone could check my scooter. They agreed and gave me a loaner to take to the room while I waited for mine to be looked at.

Before we went upstairs, we decided to stop at the Gelato Shop. We hadn’t had a premium dessert in two days and couldn’t resist. I had the La Dolce Vita with cheesecake, vanilla gelato, strawberry sauce (I’m allergic so I had them leave that out), chocolate sauce, and marshmallow. Brittany had The Godfather I had tried on the first day.

We took turns showering and it wasn’t long before we were both rocked to sleep as the ship was leaving Juneau. It had been a fantastic first day in Alaska. We were exhausted and had to get up early again for our day in Skagway.

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I was hosted on this trip, but opinions are my own. 

 

 

*Princess suggests everyone with special needs discuss their excursions beforehand. I did and did not run into anything I couldn’t do. A few people did not take the time and it didn’t work out as well. 

A Day on the Pacific Ocean on the Royal Princess

Brittany and I slept well as the Royal Princess very calmly rocked us through the night. Unfortunately, we were also dealing with a time difference, so we were up a lot earlier than we planned.

It was too early for breakfast in the main dining room, so we got dressed and went to the International Café. This 24-hour coffee shop was one of the most popular places on the ship, with complimentary pastries, sandwiches, quiches, and other goodies. They also had specialty coffees, which were included in our Princess Plus Package.

Brittany chose a breakfast burrito and an iced coffee while I had a peanut butter banana sandwich and a latte. Both really hit the spot and the International Café would become a place we visited frequently during the cruise.

I was very curious about The Sanctuary on the ship and had arranged for us to have a tour of it before it officially opened for the day. The Sanctuary is an adults-only area with a relaxing vibe, a unique light menu, and other opportunities such as massages and chilled towels.

The Sanctuary has an extra charge for a full or half day. We were quite impressed with the facilities, and I found it fairly easy to navigate in my mobility scooter. We made arrangements to give it a try for an afternoon later in the week.

We left there and headed to the Princess Theater for the introductory Naturalist Seminar. I was actually working on a story on naturalist Robert Raincock, and we were generally interested in knowing more about his role on the cruise.

The talk was extremely informative, and the large crowd was equally interested in learning about the cities and wildlife we were going to see over the next week. He also told us, though the chance was slim, we might see the Northern Lights and we could get on a list to be called if they were a possibility any night.

Although these phone calls would be in the middle of the night, he had a lot of people interested, including Brittany. This was the first of daily seminars he would do throughout the cruise.

The three of us went to the Horizon Bistro Buffet to talk more about Rob’s career and the many Princess cruises he’s been a naturalist for throughout the world. (This article, for a major cruise publication, is still in the works.)

We were quite hungry at this point and had lunch at the buffet. There were so many choices it was hard to follow what was where. We each took from a few different options. I have to say we were disappointed, but fortunately it would turn out to be the only meal we felt this way about aboard the Royal Princess.

Rob Raincock went back to work, and I went back to the room to do some social media and rest. Brittany did some exploring on her own, stopping for some tasty tacos at the Trident Grill before coming back to the room later in the afternoon.

It was formal night in the main dining rooms. We had originally agreed to do only one formal night later in the week, but the menu looked very good, and we decided to dress up a little bit and go there anyway. With the freestyle dining and Medallion App, it was just a matter of getting online and booking a table in the Concerto Dining Room for an hour later.

It was a good choice. Dinner was excellent, with appetizers of scallops for Brittany and arancini for me. I chose eggplant meatballs for dinner, and she had the prime rib. Dessert was a chocolate filled cake and cheesecake.

Since we had an early dinner, we had time to check out the Champagne in the Piazza, a tower of champagne glasses for passengers to enjoy on the first formal night.

We then went to the Wheelhouse Bar for  some classic cocktails. I had an old favorite, Dark & Stormy, and Brittany decided to try something new, a Melon Sour, with Matusalem Rum, Malibu Coconut Rum, melon liqueur, lemon, and pineapple.

The drinks were very good, but as much as we tried, we were still exhausted. We had been going since early in the morning and were not yet adjusted to the time difference.

We were up in the room a short time later, getting ready for sleep as we were starting the next day with 6:00 am arrival in Alaska and a busy full day in Juneau.

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I was hosted on this trip, but opinions are my own. 

All Aboard the Royal Princess to Alaska

It had been lots of fun exploring Seattle all morning and into the early afternoon with the City Pass. It was time for us to do what Brittany and I came to the Emerald City for—to get on our Princess cruise to Alaska.

 

Brittany hopped on one of the e-bikes and kept up with my mobility scooter on the way back to the Homewood Downtown. We picked up our luggage and waited for the van to take us to Smith Cove Cruise Terminal at Pier 91. Since there are so many (mostly Alaska) cruises going out of Seattle there are two different piers in the city.

The van wasn’t set up for wheelchairs, but the driver was able to lift my lightweight scooter. into the back and then help me into the van. There were two other women in there who were as excited as we were about the upcoming cruise.

It was the first time I went on a cruise when you were allowed to embark whenever you wanted during a five-hour window. We were about in the middle and it wasn’t at all crowded. We checked in and made it on the ship in about 20 minutes.

It would have been even sooner if I hadn’t accidentally checked the bag I put our Princess Medallion bracelets in at the last minute. The bracelets are used for everything from check-in to opening your room and ordering food. We had to wait until we got our IDs checked and room keys before we were allowed on the Royal Princess. It still wasn’t very long.

I’m not usually a such a specific planner when I’m getting on a ship. This trip was so special to me as my bucket list journey and Brittany’s first cruise. I decided before we got to the pier that we would have lunch on the ship at Alfredo’s. I had heard nothing but good things about it.

The one thing I didn’t calculate was that we would be starving after an early breakfast and a later than expected boarding. We decided to forego dropping off our carry-ons and checking out our room and went straight to the restaurant.

I still wasn’t going to skip was a glass of bubbly to toast our trip. I ordered a prosecco and Brittany got a beer, and we devoured some bread as we ordered our lunch.

We chose the Antipasto and the Caprese for appetizers. Along with the fresh, warm bread, we quickly warded off hunger.

For a main course, I had the eggplant, rolled and stuffed with ricotta, then topped with sauce and more cheese. It was very good. Brittany decided to just go for the pizza. It was listed as something for one person, but it was quite big. It looked fantastic and I needed to taste it. As a New Yorker—with an Italian background—I am picky. I was quite impressed with this one.

We decided not to go for anything on the Alfredo’s dessert menu. Ever since we booked the cruise with Princess and found out we had the Princess Plus Package, we were curious about the Premier Desserts. These concoctions looked delicious. We were entitled to two free ones poor day. That seemed impossible, but we were each ready to try one.

 

We were not the only ones who were anxious to check out these massive desserts. There was quite a line at the Gelato Shop. We weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere so we ordered and found a table to relax at. We could see the Piazza from there and the music was playing as people were settling into the ship.

It was tough to make a choice on the Premium Dessert Menu, but we figured we had a week to try them all. I went with The Godfather, vanilla gelato topped with chocolate sauce and a fudge brownie. Brittany did The Michelangelo, a chocolate chip muffin with vanilla gelato and a topping of raspberry and chocolate sauces. It was finished with a big twister lollipop. Yes, they were both as good as they sound.

After we finished our sundaes, we went to our cabin. Our luggage hadn’t quite come yet. The room was bigger than I expected. There was plenty of room for my scooter to get around and for us to spread out. I had been prepared with lots of ideas to make use of the space.

Since we had an accessible bathroom with a shower seat, it was bigger than most. Our luggage arrived and I started unpacking in there.  I had brought an inexpensive door shoe organizer and unpacked cosmetics, hair products, sunblocks, makeup, and more so we didn’t have to fill up our tiny sink top.

I continued to unpack, and Brittany did some exploring around the ship. I was resting with my feet up when she returned. We decided to go to dinner a little early. I had made arrangements originally for 7:00 pm in the Concerto Main Dining Room. All the restaurants on the ship went by reservations, which could be made for whatever time you wanted.

Dinner was great starting with the first night. The Asparagus Risotto sounded great, but I was feeling a need for meat. I asked if I could have the risotto as an appetizer and was told it was no problem. Brittany got in the ocean mood with a prawn appetizer and fish main course.

For dessert, it was Vanilla Mascarpone Blueberry Cremieux for Brittany and Hazelnut Souffle for me. Brittany also tried out a hot chocolate cocktail. We were definitely going to enjoy the sweets on this trip.

We were both exhausted from the previous 24 hours and didn’t feel like doing much after dinner. I decided to take the elevator up to the pool deck. I had seen videos online of the light show over the pool each night. It was even more beautiful in person and the music matched perfectly.

 

I went up to the cabin soon after that. We would have the entire next day to see, do, relax, and eat around the Royal Princess.

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I was hosted on this trip, but opinions are my own.