Alaska Trip: Miscellaneous

Well, by now perhaps you've heard (more than) enough about Alaska. If you already know more than you ever wanted to know about this trip, I promise to move on to another topic next time. For anyone else, here are a few miscellaneous thoughts about things I haven't written about yet.

First, I haven't said much about the cruise ship itself. We sailed on the Grand Princess. It's clearly not a new ship, but it is extremely well maintained. Everyday, we saw a variety of crew members around the ship working, cleaning, painting, etc. to keep everything in good shape. We also had a very attentive room steward (though ours didn't make any towel animals--we heard the other rooms got some!). I've already mentioned the dining venues on board, but there are also different lounge areas, as well as two theater spaces, plus outdoor areas on deck, including the promenade deck which could be used basically as a track to walk laps around the ship. There were also a few shops: one selling princess merchandise, and several upscale boutiques (perfume, jewelry, etc.). Here are some pictures from around the ship.

our stateroom

Mark in front of the bridge

a map of our cruise

the indoor pool area, called the Conservatory

outdoor pool and movie screen

one of the bathrooms--they always had fresh flowers

in port somewhere

There were activities going on all the time, ranging from lectures and port talks to dance lessons to demonstrations to evening shows and so on. The evening entertainment included shows from the ship's singers/dancers, a magician, and a comedian. There was also a movie screen on the top deck by the pool where they showed "Movies Under the Stars." Mark and I stayed up late one night to watch The Imitation Game, which I enjoyed more than he did. The outdoor movie is a great concept, but we did get pretty cold with the wind blowing. The complimentary blankets made it bearable.

cooking demonstration

food displayed during the galley tour

chefs at work!

Mark, Julie, and I went to an origami lesson

Julie and Mom learned napkin folding
(this is a joke; it's meant to look like a rubber chicken)

a passenger chorus performing--how cute is that little girl?!

When we were in the ports, we spent most of our time on excursions, but in Skagway and Ketchikan, we also had some time to explore the downtown areas. (In Juneau, our excursions used up our entire time at port, but we did drive through downtown on the bus.) As you can imagine, all the ports had lots of shopping, including an abundance of typical souvenir stuff (t-shirts, hats, mugs, key chains), made in Alaska products (local jewelry, artwork, food, etc), and lots and lots of high-end jewelry stores. Of the two ports we explored a bit on foot, Skagway was definitely my favorite. It seemed a bit more old-fashioned and had the shops I enjoyed the most.

Skagway:

Ketchikan:

Well, there you have it! We had such a great time, and it's been really fun going through photos and writing these posts to share our memories with you. Thanks again to Mom and Dad for making this amazing vacation happen!