Juneau

July 20^th/2011

We can’t believe that this trip is almost over. Juneau today, Ketchikan tomorrow then a sea day and then we have to get off.:-(

We woke very early this morning. It was five o’clock and we were both wide awake and the ship was being maneuvered into position at the dock.

We have a tour today so we got dressed and went to deck 14 for breakfast. A lot of people must have early tours because there were a lot of people in Horizon Court.

We returned to our room and gathered our things. It is overcast but there is more and more blue sky appe3aring and it is not cold. The temperature is around 55 so we decided not to bother with our jackets but we wore our hoodies and Ken took his backpack with rain ponchos and an umbrella. We also took hats and gloves just in case it got cool. Today’s cruise is aboard a steam driven river boat so it might be cold out on the water.

We went down and disembarked around eight and we met the tour person and discovered much to our surprise that there will only be 4 of us on the tour. Finally the other couple arrived and away we went. The bus took us into town to a dock where the water taxi was moored. This is a really cute little watercraft. The captain is Joe and our guide is Heather. The boat is powered by a steam engine and the fire box has to be filled periodically and there are totes of wood cut and ready for that purpose. Heather is an elementary school teacher and she is most informative. Our tour lasts about an hour and a half and it is great. We learned so much.

We returned to the dock and Ken and I decided to walk back to the ship even though we could have taken a Princess Shuttle. We were in and out of the stores but we resisted buying anything this time.

Back here for a light lunch. Then Ken went to get some sun and I showered and did my hair to get ready for tonight.

Well I got my hair done and we dressed for dinner. We left the room a bit early and we just strolled around the ship and stopped outside the Explores Longue. Jim and Pat and Jack and Jennifer happened by and the 6 of us went together. This is lobster night so we all enjoyed that. Ken and I left early before dessert because we wanted to go to the Captain’s Circle party. The couple with the most sea days had over 1200 days, second place went to a Chinese couple who had 52 cruises and the third place couple had 42 cruises. We were surprised to learn that there are only 34 Elite cruisers aboard.

We enjoyed 2 cocktails and we had our pictures taken with the captain.

We left the party, located our Juneau photo, and then went upstairs to change clothes.

We walked the decks and took pictures of an amazing sunset and enjoyed it from deck 18 at Skywalkers. It was truly beautiful. But the wind was blowing and it was quite cool.

We went to Horizon Court and had the dessert that we skipped at dinner and we brought a glass of water back to our room.

We then called it a night.

Tomorrow we are back in Ketchikan… our last port.