Little Did Juneau

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So it's now close to the end of Day 2 of Deb's Crazy Cruise Experiment. I'm in Juneau now at an Internet cafe which I found as quickly as possible after practically running away from my tour group that I spent the last 5 hours with. Not that there was anything wrong with the tour group, or with the cruise itself, but this whole experience is just REALLY not me and I feel pretty confident saying that this will probably be my one-and-only commercial cruise.

Please don't think that I got on the boat with this attitude entirely. If you read my previous blog entitled Why Cruise Ships Scare Me, you might think that I did. The fact is that, skeptical though I was, I still found myself excited by the prospect of getting on such a large ship and seeing a part of one of my "home" states that I've always longed to.

I've spent the last day or so - since we left the Port of Seattle on Saturday - trying to figure out a way to describe exactly what I think about the cruise. I still don't know. The closest thing to a description I've been able to come up with is "surreal" - and even that doesn't quite do it justice.

Let me at least give you something of a taste, if I may...

The ship is huge. Freakishly. I mean, there just are no words. It holds ~2,000 people (passengers & crew). 2,000. There are towns in Alaska that don't even have that many residents. My cabinmate, Lisa, is really cool so for that I am exceedingly thankful as having a cabinmate that I didn't like or had a difficult time relating to would have had a major impact on my ability to at least enjoy the cruise for what it is. Our room is also really cool. There is certainly something to be said for splurging and getting the nicer room with the balcony on an Alaskan voyage where you're not going to spend your days sitting out on the Aft Pool Deck because it's just too dang cold and/or rainy. Having a room you aren't trying to come up with creative ways to avoid is nice...

Another thing I've enjoyed is the free-food thing. I love not having to pay for room service. I love being able to order breakfast in the morning which I can then enjoy sitting wrapped in a blanket on the balcony...and it's all free - in a manner of speaking. On top of which, the food is actually good. I'm trying to also be healthy and, despite all of the various and tempting options, I'm choosing a lot of salads, seafood, and fruit - the last thing I need is to return from this cruise with all of the food I ate permanently attached to my thighs.

Something that I've found to be a bit of a bummer is the lack of intimacy. I realize that this is really unavoidable due to the size of the ship, but I still am sorry to find it missing. On my usual trips, the groups are so small that you end up meeting and really getting to know everyone else. On the cruise ship, I've gotten to know Lisa...and that's about it. I've seen some of the other members of our group at the intermittent meetings we've had, but then they get swallowed by the ship and do not reemerge until the next meeting!

So, Saturday Jel dropped me off at the dock and I went through the somewhat arduous process of checking-in for the cruise line. After dropping everything off in the room, I found the hospitality desk that the group I was with had set up on Deck 3. Afterwards, I went on a tour of the spa (I'm scheduled for a massage tomorrow and pedicure on Friday). We had a lifeboat drill, and then left port around 4:30pm.

Sunday was an "At Sea" day which translated into a mild amount of boredom for me, but I made do. I walked around the boat some, but discovered that most people were feeling ill (the water was pretty choppy as we were circumventing a storm) and as a result, I kept finding little, shall we say, "reminders" of this that some left around the ship. Not pleasant. I have never had trouble with seasickness and so while I did feel sorry for people who were suffering, I love the motion of being on the water so it was all I could do not to stand out on the balcony and beg for more!

Last night was probably the most surreal so far. I didn't go to the formal dinner night, but ate instead in the casual dining area on the Lido Deck (don't ask me what it means) and then Lisa and I went over to watch one of the shows on board. This is where it starts getting a little bizarre for me. Remembering that the biggest boat I've ever been on (aside from a ferry) before Saturday is a 50-foot catamaran, it is just beyond wild to me that you could be on the water in what amounts to a floating building that houses not only a couple thousand people, but also two pools, a spa, basketball courts, a couple of restaurants, a night club, cafe, full gym, as well as a stage and movie theater. Nuts.

Anyway, so I'm watching these people dance around on stage singing in Broadway-caliber voices and all the while thinking to myself, "I'm on a ship. I'm floating on the water right now. These people are dressed up in sequin-ridden clothing and doing dance routines in a stage on the water." For those out there who have previously done cruising, I understand that this may be a little, "Well, duh" for you, but my boating background is very different and my mind is just having a hard time reconciling this experience with my previous ones.

Okay, so that was yesterday. Today we arrived in Juneau. I think the ship got into port around 10:00am and everyone started to disembark for their various excursions by about 10:30. Mine didn't leave until 11:45 so I took my time and stayed onboard as long as I could since it has been both raining and cold here today.

As I said in the beginning of this entry, I ran away from my tour as quickly as soon as I could. I enjoyed the tour - it was a Photo Safari of Land & Sea. I was extremely pleased that the guide was actually from Alaska - or at least had lived here in Juneau for the last 31 years. You wouldn't believe how many people do tours in other parts of the state that are simply here for a summer job and are actually from Colorado or something. This was one of my pet peeves in Anchorage - I couldn't stand going for a rafting trip and having the guide not be able to answer some of the specific-to-Alaska questions I had because he didn't actually know anything about the state, he'd only come to raft.

We saw some great stuff on the tour. Mendenhall Glacier is beautiful - and out on the boat we got to see a baby humpback whale breech which was really cool, but I can't say that I felt the whole trip was worth what I paid. In fact, I'm going to see about canceling my other two shore excursions when I get back to the ship. I think I'd rather just come into town and do my own thing... I'm glad I got to see the whale - really. But I think I would have done just fine on my own. Especially here in Juneau where there's plenty to do. It's a small city, but it's not that small.

And so here's the rest of the week's agenda:

Tuesday - Hubbard Glacier
Wednesday - Sitka
Thursday - Ketchikan
Friday - Victoria, BC
Saturday - Seattle
Tomorrow we don't leave the ship again. Wednesday we do, but not for a full-day like today. Same with Thursday. From Thursday night until 6pm Friday, we'll be on the ship also. Friday night we only have a few hours in Victoria and then we have to steam ahead to be back in Seattle by 7am or so Saturday morning.

I have to admit that it's good to be back in AK. I miss it a lot... I still don't think I'd want to live in the Southeast part of the state - too much rain. But there's something about the state itself that I have just always been in love with. The mountains, the ocean, the eagles, the whales...take your pick. Not to mention that this was the first place I chose to call "home" when I moved out on my own lo those many moons ago. I'm sure for that reason it will always have a special place in my heart. For now, what I can say is that I think I'll be coming back to Southeast AK at some point in the future. I'm thinking a 2-week kayak trip in July/August or the like...

In the meantime, I will value this trip for what it is and what it offers and hopefully will be able to send another update from Sitka. Apologies if this entry was a little disjointed...maybe by Sitka I'll have my thoughts a little more in order.

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Photos

The Money Shot
This "little" guy came up about 20 yards from our boat...

Lazin' Around
These guys look like I feel right now.

Our Room
Not bad, eh? This is standing in the balcony door looking into the room.

Comments

[Jo]

Not your thing
I'm glad you did this even though it clearly isn't your type of thing. If you hadn't, wouldn't you have always wondered what it would be like? If I were you part of me would be wondering as I sweated profusely hiking up some mountain dreaming of massages and pedicures...

[Esclaw]

Remember!
Remember you are on VACATION - it sounds incredible and looks so fun - so don't worry so much about the weirdness of being on a cruise or of taking official tours. So it's not really your style . . . it sure beats sitting in an office and commuting every day eh? The cabin looks fantastic and your balcony sounds like the perfect place to read for 8 hours straight - so so so fun and relaxing. So jealous :) Keep the entries coming it's fun to read about it all - get some pics of the cruise ship itself the interior and all. Just embrace the cruisy-ness of it all and keep us all posted on the tackiest and wackiest of vacationing on board a floating town.