Cruise: Day 6

June 12, 2008 · Filed Under Vacation 

I usually learn lessons the hard way. This vacation has been no different. For the 3rd time, we’ve had to set an alarm to wake up early thanks to planning an excursion too early in the morning. Having to set an alarm while on vacation is just wrong. On our next vacation, I will not repeat this mistake.

Today we arrived in Juneau around 7:00. We have been amazingly lucky and it’s been basically dry everywhere we’ve been on our trip. It was cold, but not horribly so. There wasn’t much wind, so that certainly helped, too.

We had to use the tenders again to exit the ship. That process is a little bit annoying, we’ve decided. I was glad to have done it once for the experience, but two out of three ports is ridiculous. But, thanks to our early morning excursion, we were basically put at the front of the line for tendering, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

We met on the dock and waited for our entire tour group to show up. They loaded us up on a bus and sent us on a 25 minute drive to an amazing bay that we would use as the launching point for our rafts. The bay is very still and the water is quite cold. Our guide told us that a week or two back this bay had frozen over. Even still, they had to row through it as they had a tour going through that day. Though it wasn’t frozen over today, there were still several icebergs floating in the bay. Absolutely beautiful scenery.

Thank to the waiver we had to sign and the amount of times that we were told we would be getting wet, I went ahead and left my camera in the supply van that they drive down to the finishing point. I am incredibly bummed that I did. On our 6 mile, 2.5 hour trip, there is roughly 100 yards worth of “rapids”. The water is the tiniest bit turbulent, but no more than a cup full of water actually entered the boat. It would have been totally fine and I would have had some amazing photos to share. Bah!

Even though I wasn’t able to take shots while on the this excursion, it was by far my favorite of the 3 we took on this trip. Not only was the scenery amazing, but we also passed by Chuck Norris’ summer home. Apparently our guide has seen him out and about a couple times heading down river. How can you compare to that?

Our ship is only stopped in Juneau for a short time. This left very little time for shopping in town. But, we agreed that we are all pretty well pooped and nobody was really upset about the brevity. We headed back to the ship, grabbed a little snack and Chris went to the room while I found a deck chair in the solarium to lounge in while we left Juneau behind.

After a nice nap in the Solarium it was time to get dressed for the second formal dinner. Tonight was steak and lobster night. I’m not a huge fan of lobster, but given that it was all paid for, you bet your ass I was having some. I started off with a bowl of onion soup then moved on to the lobster and shrimp plate, then the steak and potatoes. A fantastic meal.

After dinner Chris and I hit up the Schooner Bar for some trivia and a drink. Then we did a little gambling in the casino. We then headed back to the room to put on our swimming suites and hit the jacuzzi around 11. Amazingly enough, we were the only ones in there. It was fantastic. We sat in there until we were both pretty well cooked and then headed back to the room. We changed in to some dry clothes and then I drug Chris along with me as I walked around the ship taking some photos. It was a great time since there was virtually nobody up and around so I was able to set up shots without bothering anybody.

By the time that was done, we were both pretty tired so it was back to the room to crash. And, for the first time we slept in all the way to 9 am. Woo Hoo!

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