Being onboard an Alaskan cruise for a week with Un-Cruise from Ketchikan (view post) up to Juneau (view post) was one of the best travel experiences of our life. Something that I would highly recommend! Un-cruise are totally different to big cruising ships – hence the name. They have small ships and so have kayaks and small skiffs to go ashore etc.
Overall we were really lucky with the weather – sunny and fine except for the first day. Our first day out was wet and wild and a few of us (including myself) lost their breakfast. But the rest of the trip was quite perfect weather!
Kayaking
Kayaking was special on this trip. We did a basic kayaking 101 class then on a couple of other occasions we did kayaking by ourselves on a flat and glassy bay and also a 3 hour guided tour. The scenery and the experience itself were just wonderful. In fact, the scenery over the whole trip was magical and memorable and of course even the photos don’t do it justice.
Other cruise activities
There are many activities you can do on this Alaskan cruise apart from kayaking. Stand up paddling is one – I had a go but I think I was nervous about falling in the icy cold water. I was much more successful doing this on the warm waters of the Whitsundays off the Queensland coast. You can even go snorkelling! They have special extra thick wetsuits and masks for doing this. John had a go at this but I’m not a fan of the cold so I passed.
Also you can go out on the skiffs – small rubber dinghy – for an hour or so to discover the beauty of the area. Another option is you can just sit back and relax on the sunny deck. Since we were so lucky with the weather this was quite popular! The 5 o’clock happy hour was, needless to say, also quite popular.
Whale watching and other wildlife
Whale watching was a definite highlight of this trip. Saw lots of humpbacks, sometimes breaching and saw some orcas from a distance. A few of the guests on the cruise had a very special intimate experience with a whale when they were out on one of the skiffs about to come back to the ship and a whale went under them. Probably both scary and exciting in equal measure, I think. But the looks of joy on their faces when they got back I won’t easily forget!
Other wildlife we saw during the cruise included seals, eagles and also saw deer whilst on our nature walk. Some people did see a bear and cubs on a different walk, sadly we missed out.
Petersburg
Stopping at the town of Petersburg for a few hours was a great chance to get out and explore by foot. A small and pretty fishing town with a cannery, it was founded more than a century ago by Norwegian fishermen, hence you’ll notice a few Scandinavian influences. The town was lovely but it was the most magnificent scenery around it that was the most memorable.
Dawes Glacier
Dawes Glacier was sadly our last full day. Woke up with ice floating by our porthole! Went out on the skiffs fairly close to the glacier and passed by small icebergs with seals lolling around on them. Saw some ice calving off – the whole experience was another memorable unforgettable one! Some of the guests (maybe 30% and not just the young ones) did the traditional polar plunge into the icy waters and straight into the hot tub afterwards. A lot of the staff got stuck into this one too! It was actually heaps of fun just watching them. A few brave souls had more than one go too.
Another thing I almost forgot to mention was we saw a little bit of an aurora borealis. It was not very clear and not very green, mostly whitish but another experience to add to the list on this cruise!
Summary
So in summary, this Alaskan cruise was something we will never forget for many reasons, met lots of interesting people, the staff were good, rooms though are very small, food was good and weather gods were kind. They are not cheap cruises – I think generally with cruising, the smaller the ship the more expensive it is, but it really was well worth it.
Just a word of warning for those Australians reading this – don’t forget you need to tip. Tipping is done at the end of the cruise when you settle your bar bill – a sobering exercise. Not used to tipping, we got advice on what was the average and tipped that.
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