Alaska

My favorite vacation ever was the Alaskan cruise my husband and I went on. It was a big spurge for us, but it was such an amazing trip.

Day 1

We flew into Seattle because it was half the cost to fly there then to Vancouver, where our cruise was leaving from. We spend half a day walking around Seattle, visiting Pike’s Place Market, going down the water, and seeing the Space Needle.

Hotels in Seattle were crazy expensive. I finally managed to snag a room in the Sheraton Towers downtown for only $130 including taxes/fees on Hotwire.com.

Day 2

We woke up early and took a cab to the Amtrak station for our morning departure to Vancouver. I highly recommend this trip. We booked business class so we received slightly more leg room, a coupon for breakfast, and priority seating and departure. We made sure to ask for a water side view when getting our seat assignments. (When we went, you didn’t get an actual seat number until just before boarding.)

The train followed right along the coastline for most of the trip. The views were very beautiful. We visited the dining car for breakfast. While expensive, the stuffed french toast was awesome. After about 4 hours, we arrived in Vancouver, went through customs, and found a taxi to head to the pier.

We went through customs again to get on the ship(we went through customs six times on this entire trip!), got our Seapass cards, and headed onboard to the buffet for some lunch. After lunch, we headed explored the rest of the ship, headed to our cabin, and even played some miniture golf.

welcome buffet

outside pool

Solarium and indoor pool

We had originally booked the cheapest inside, but we were upgraded to an oceanview.

Cabin Sweet Cabin

After departing from the pier, we passed under the Lion’s Gate Bridge before heading out to sea.

Lion's Gate Bridge

Then it was time for dinner so we headed down to the dining room and our cozy table for two. (I had our travel agent fax a special request for a table for only two.)

Day 3 & 4

The first full days of cruising were mostly “at sea” days. The temperature was windy and chilly. We mostly sat in the Solarium reading and playing card games while watching the scneary go by.

On our third day of cruising we approached mighty Hubbard Glacier. The wind was bitterly cold, but we stood out on deck for hours as we slowly cruised up to the magnificant glacier. Seals or sea otters floated by on chunks of ice. They would jump off right before their floating ice island hit the side of the ship. As we got closer, you could see huge chunks of the glacier break off and hit the water with a mightly crash. The ice had a dazzling blue tint. The overall size of the glacier is hard to capture in a photo.