Ryu リュー

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Alaska Cruise: Day 4, Skagway

Weather: Sunny, temperature 16 degree Celsius. Sunrise 3:58, Sunset 21:59
Today shore excursion is Skagway with it's famous White Pass Railway. For the same reason as in Juneau, we didn't book the excursion with cruise ship but with Chilkoot Charters & Tours.
There were total 25 persons in our tour, one Canadian couple, 4 Singaporeans and a big family from Taiwan.

Norwegian Pearl docking at Skagway. The tour started from here.

We left Skagway by bus all the way to Carcross (Yukon Territory, Canada), after that backed again to Fraser Station and returned to Skagway by bus. Below are some beautiful pictures during the tour.

Welcome to Alaska Signboard. The tour guide was so cooperative, he made so many stops so we were able to take many pictures. This was the reason why we preferred small tour bus as it was more flexible.

The White Pass Train.

Our luch at Carcross (previously called Caribou Crossing)

Fraser Station, British Columbia, Canada. From here, we took the famous White Pass Railway to return back to Skagway. The pictures below were taken around Fraser St. before we boarded the train.

From here, the pictures are taken from inside the train. We talked with the Taiwanese during the train ride. They and the others were from Diamond Princess. Their itinerary is different, the cruise started from Vancouver and will disembark at Anchorage. They had rainy 3 rainy days till yesterday, so they are very happy that today is such a beautiful day. We took it for granted these all beautiful days from the beginning of the cruise, we thank God for his another blessing.

After 90 minutes ride, we arrived back at Skagway.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Alaska Cruise: Day 3, Juneau

Weather: Sunny, 22 degree Celsius. Sunrise 4:19, Sunset 21:45.

The weather is so good that fortunately or unfortunately we didn't feel like we are in Alaska's Cruise. Today is our first shore excursion in Juneau, the capital city of Alaska.

The day started with a beautiful sunrise.

And also a very gentle sea.

When we were approaching Juneau, the US Coast Guard patrol boat came along.

There were already 4 more cruise ships when we arrived at Juneau. We can see here Diamond Princess, Norwegian Star, Regatta and Ms. Amsterdam.

The main attraction in Juneau is Mendenhall Glacier. We decided not to booked shore excursion with the cruise because we don't want to go with so many people all together. Once get out from the ship, we used taxi that took about 30 minutes to Mendenhall Glacier. When we arrived there, many people from Diamond Princess were ready to go back to their ship, so the timing was just right for us.

Floating iceberg near Mendenhall Glacier. When we saw this, we realized that we are finally in Alaska :)

The Mendenhall Glacier.

The Visitor Center

Waterfall nearby Mendenhall Glacier. When we came back from the waterfall to the visitor center, the group from our cruise just arrived. We spent few times in the visitor center then go back to the city by shuttle bus.

Theses pictures were taken from the Visitor Center.

Finally, we took our cruise ship picture. This one was taken from Mt. Robert tramway.

The sunset at Juneau as taken from our balcony.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Alaska Cruise, Day 2: At Sea

Weather: Sunny, 14 degree Celsius. Sunrise 5:30, Sunset 21:58.
Today is second day of the cruise. We are moving north to our first port destination, Juneau. The scenery has already changed and the air became cooler. The weather was so beautiful. We were worry about the weather as we read many review about so many rainy days during Alaska's cruise.
It's said that every sunny day in Alaska is a blessing, so today is one of the blessing day.
Below are some pictures during the sea day from Seattle to Juneau.

As the ship moved to the north, we could start see wonderful scenery with snow capped mountains.

When we came back to our room later after dinner, we found lovely Usagi (Rabbit) Towel on our bed. My daughter put her Blossom Doll that she got during our flight with Singapore Airlines. One picture here to keep our memory.

Below are sunset pictures taken from our balcony.

That's all for today, then we adjust the clock from Pacific Standard Time to Alaska Standard Time.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Alaska Cruise, Day 1: Seattle

Weather: Sunny, 16 degree Celsius. Sunset: 21:58

We planned this cruise from the end of last year and finally, here is our balcony room for the next 7 days at Diamond Pearl from Norwegian Cruise Line.

From our balcony, we could see Seattle City with Edgewater Hotel (famous as The Beatles stayed there in 1964) in front and Space Needle the city icon in the background.

Sunday is busy day for cruise port in Seattle. Here we could see Ms. Oosterdam from Holland-American Line when it's just moving out from Seattle Port.

And here also we could see Sapphire Princess from Princess Cruise was leaving the port. Unfortunately we rushed to board our ship and forgot to take her picture. We will make sure to get some pictures later.

This is swimming pool area at Deck 12 of the ship. We were wondering whether later any people will use this facilities as for us from Singapore, the temperature is a bit too cold.

After exploring the ship, we came back to our room and what is that? Yes, additional bed popped up from the ceiling :). Our kids started arguing that both of them want to sleep there ha... ha... ha...