[Trip Report] Alaska Cruise, August 2022
Ryan and I just got home from a 7-day cruise on the Norwegian Sun. We had never cruised before, and this cruise was meant to be our honeymoon - rescheduled from spring 2020, and instead of taking a cruise around the Mediterranean, starting from Italy, we cruised to Alaska. I had never thought to take a cruise to Alaska until Ryan mentioned it was on his bucket list. It seemed like an easier, lower-stakes destination given the ongoing pandemic, and we could save money on flights and hotels by taking a cruise that departed from and returned to Seattle, where we live.
This letter contains a trip report detailing our experiences - I'll save the review for a future letter, after I've filled out any feedback surveys Norwegian sends.
You can see all of our pictures from this trip here.
Embarkation Day
We left the house around 10:30 AM in order to get to the pier an hour before our designated boarding time, which we chose during online check-in 3 weeks earlier. That week, we took an online COVID test and filled out our ArriveCAN forms electronically. I packed light, focusing on comfy clothes and light layers to help with sun protection. Ryan packed his bright cruise capsule wardrobe we bought for him a week before, with some flannel and other Alaska-y touches.
We arrived at the pier, and after waiting for luggage tags, we dropped off our luggage and started the check-in process. At various points, we showed our passports, ArriveCAN receipts, proof of vaccination, and proof of negative test. The process was totally streamlined - we basically walked from one station to the next without waiting. We were supposed to have watched a safety video on YouTube before boarding, and in lieu of a muster drill, we simply checked in at our muster station as the last step of check-in. They scanned our room keys and let us know lunch was available at the buffet on deck 11. Our rooms wouldn't be ready for a little while.
Ryan and I grabbed lunch and admired the views of our city from the aft deck. We hadn't really thought about it before, but we realized most of the people on the cruise weren't from Seattle. When we rebooked our cruise, we got to take advantage of a bunch of free upgrades, including a premium beverage package that we upgraded to premium plus for a small fee. Getting the lay of the ship, we wandered up to one of the outdoor bars and grabbed some drinks from bartender Elustre (you can call him "Ice Cream" or "Ice Cube," and he called me "Jenny from the block" - my legal name was on my room card, so that's what everyone called me). Before too long, we heard an announcement that everyone's rooms were ready to enter. We headed to our stateroom on the 10th floor (aft, port side).
I had put in a bid for room upgrades a couple weeks before our cruise. I bid the minimum amount for a balcony room and a club-level balcony room, and we ended up getting an upgrade to the balcony room for a really reasonable price. Ryan's family had been on Alaska cruises before, and they said a balcony upgrade would go a long way, since a lot of the fun of an Alaska Cruise is looking at the natural beauty of the Inside Passage from the ship. When we arrived in our room, Ryan insisted we unpack sensibly and use the drawers and closet space. I am notorious for just opening my suitcase and letting it explode onto its surrounding area. Ryan did not want to spend the next 7 days fumbling for wrinkled clothes inside of his suitcase.
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day (over 80 degrees), so I wanted to get some sunscreen and my swimsuit on to enjoy the weather. I had checked the weather for the rest of the week and had a suspicion embarkation day would be the best day for swimming. We went up to the pool deck, enjoyed some blended drinks (frosé for me and frozen sangria for Ryan), and I tried to hop in the pool, which was freezing cold. I sat in the hot tub instead until the Sail Away Celebration started. Meanwhile, we also listened to one of the ship's bands in residence, Infinity Band, play popular covers.
The Sail Away party was an absolute hoot. The cruise director, JC, introduced his core staff, who all can dance, apparently. Then, they picked some passengers to have a dance-off, and then everyone danced the Cupid Shuffle and Cha-Cha Slide, and sang along to YMCA. We enjoyed some more tunes from Infinity Band, then set about to explore the ship before dinner.
Everywhere we walked through the ship, people would hand us raffle tickets and tell us to come back later that evening to win. We entered a contest to win a sculpture by guessing its weight. The onboard stores were closed at port, and so was the casino.
I had made us a reservation for Cagney's Steakhouse on the first day. I had heard it was very popular and would book up quickly. When we checked in, they couldn't find our reservation, but they were able to seat us anyway. I showed them my confirmation email for the restaurant reservations I made, which apparently were not present in the ship's system, and the restaurant staff rebooked them for us. I had the tuna tartare and the ribeye with peppercorn sauce, and Ryan had crab cakes and a porterhouse with béchamel. We enjoyed mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, a baked potato, and creamed spinach as our sides. We couldn't finish our food, so they delivered the leftovers to our room. After dinner, Ryan relaxed in the room, while I explored the ship looking for freebies and more raffle tickets. I enjoyed watching a jewelry raffle and a raffle in the duty-free store, but I didn't end up winning anything. I decided to sign up for a skincare seminar happening the next day. We went to bed at a reasonable time after watching the scenery from our balcony.
At Sea
We woke up earlyish after a time change (one hour back in time), and after breakfast, Ryan wanted to finish organizing his clothes. I decided to take in some of the ship's other programming before enjoying my skincare class. I caught the end of an art history lecture (designed to help you understand art, so you can bid on it at the art auction) where the speaker was talking about Albrecht Dürer. Next, I saw a presentation about the onboard jewelry retailer (designed to help you understand why the jewelry is good and you're getting a good deal on it, so you can spend lots of money on it). I entered myself in the raffle to win a free pendant and earring set. I didn't win, but everyone got a free gift (a pendant). I went to my skincare seminar and sat in the back with some other millennials carrying cocktails. The skincare seminar was fun and I got to try some products from the spa! I'm not sure I agree with all of the instructor's information, but I did learn a few things about skincare that I didn't already know, and we all got discounts on a massage/facial package, which I booked for that evening.
I milled about and checked out the art auction, where they were giving out champagne, and lots of fantastically ugly art was for sale. I looked at all the art, and overheard people's conversations with the art dealers, along the lines of, "how much is your budget for art? $5,000? $6,000?" and decided to leave after that (our budget for fine art is $0). I then attempted to get a snack and meet up with Ryan before the wine and chocolate pairing. Not being seasoned cruisers, we weren't sure how much internet and data access we would have at sea, so we didn't have a plan to meet back up. After Ryan finished putting his clothes away, he had gone to explore the ship and enjoy the casino, where he won $100 and lost $81 of it.
We eventually found each other and walked up to the wine and chocolate pairing seminar to see if we could get in. We had to wait a few minutes for some no-shows, but we were the last ones admitted to the tasting. Wine steward Peter educated us on tasting wine and pairing it with chocolate - white chocolate with sherry, milk chocolate with pinot noir, and dark chocolate with tempranillo and cabernet sauvignon. It was an excellent time - so much so that we put ourselves on a list to attend the wine and cheese pairing seminar at the end.
We went back to the room for a nap, and I eventually got my massage and facial. I felt slightly judged when the massage therapist recommended I exfoliate my feet more often. We went to the formal dining room for dinner (which just means you can't wear tank tops, flip flops, or hats there, and your jeans probably shouldn't have holes in them). I had smoked mozzarella ravioli and shrimp pasta with a glass of white wine. Ryan had a New York strip with peppercorn sauce. We went to the whiskey bar to sit around and enjoy some live music. Devin was playing acoustic guitar and taking requests. Ryan asked him to play Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah," which Devin seemed to enjoy playing - he's a fan of Jeff Buckley's interpretation, but not Leonard Cohen's original version.
That night, we went to karaoke. Ryan has spent a lot of time lately learning to sing, and he was excited and nervous to show off his skills in front of an audience. We sat and enjoyed other passengers' selections ("Brown Eyed Girl" came up twice), and Ryan and I were the last two to sing. Ryan sang "King of the Road" so well that other passengers high-fived him and went out of their way to praise him.
Icy Strait Point
The next day, Ryan and I slept in and enjoyed some breakfast in the room while we watched the ship pull up to Icy Strait Point. We saw a whale from our balcony! We didn't eat lunch because we wanted to have room for our excursion, titled "Alaska's Wildest Kitchen" (side note: Ryan thought the excursion name was very funny, and he called everything "Alaska's Wildest ____" for the rest of the trip).
There isn't much to Icy Strait Point - it was created in the 2000s as a cruise port to help ease the load on places like Juneau and Ketchikan. The port butts up to the village of Hoonah, where a lot of Tlingit people still live. Icy Strait Point is also surrounded by wilderness, so a lot of the excursions revolve around ziplining and wildlife. We took a shuttle over to our excursion from the cruise port. I stopped at the restroom before walking into the building, and Ryan waited for me. Unfortunately, that meant that we couldn't sit together in the kitchen. When Ryan said, "I wanted to sit with my partner," the instructor actually reprimanded him, "then you should have walked faster." Yikes!
The instructor taught us some simple recipes with canned and preserved fish and told us stories about her childhood, her Tlingit heritage, and other cool people she knew in Alaska. The most surprising recipe was for halibut breakfast sausage, which was really tasty! We got to drink a wine cocktail while we watched the cooking demonstration, which I think was just Franzia and Sprite with an orange slice in it. After the initial demonstration, we watched the instructor break down a whole halibut, and we seasoned our own halibut and salmon fillets to grill. It ended up not being quite as much food as we expected, so we got some mini donuts from a stand after the excursion. They were fresh made and crispy - we got them with cinnamon and coconut sugar. We wandered through the souvenir shops and eventually took a funicular back to the port. There was a cable car that could take us to an observation deck that we planned to ride later after a snack and a nap. We made a late reservation at the sushi restaurant.
After relaxing on the ship, we went back to Icy Strait Point since we had a few more hours at the port. It was around 6 or 7 PM, and unfortunately everything was shutting down for the day. The cable car to the observation deck was no longer taking passengers up. We were disappointed, but we enjoyed a nice, casual hike through a nature trail and onto the beach, where we saw another cruise ship docked.
We came back to the ship to have sushi, which was the perfect choice for the amount of food we wanted to eat. We enjoyed a few big rolls and some appetizers with unfiltered sake. We went back to karaoke afterwards, but we didn't get there in time to sing before the end. Ryan and I went back to the room and discussed the art of singing karaoke for a while before going to bed.
Glacier Bay
We spent the next day sailing through the glacier bay wilderness preserve. I woke up at 9:30 when the US park ranger commentary started and grabbed us some coffee to enjoy on the balcony. We turned up the volume on our TV, where the commentary was playing in addition to the PA system, and watched the scenery from our balcony. We paused at various points to watch glaciers calve apart, but we didn't see anything too dramatic. Lots of people were taking photos and enjoying the view from their balconies. I tried to take pictures, but I didn't really feel like they did the glaciers justice.
After we saw the most interesting parts of the wilderness preserve and the commentary ended, we had a little lunch in the formal dining room (quesadilla and orange chocolate mousse for me, soup, salad, and sandwich for Ryan). Then, we caught the end of the park service's presentation about the glaciers, which contained some much-needed messaging around climate change. Later in the afternoon, we played trivia in one of the nightclubs (where Ryan discovered they make the best michelada). We did not win but probably finished in the top 5. The hot tubs were empty (it was a foggy, drizzly day) so we decided to hop in for a bit.
That night, we went to the Teppanyaki restaurant, where we had the last reservation of the evening. Ryan had never been to a teppanyaki restaurant before, and I feel like I may have oversold the experience (which did not include an onion volcano trick or flipping food into guests' mouths or onto their plates). Our grill guy seemed a little tired, and the group at the grill next to us was very loud. There was a lot of singing involved in the show, and lots of juggling, too. We sat with Sima and Ragesh, who had been traveling between Canada and Texas to support their kids and grandkids during the pandemic and were enjoying an adventure together, and Ashley and James from New York, who seemed a little younger than us. Ryan and I both got filet mignon and shrimp, which were excellent. I had the matcha cake for dessert, and Ryan had fruit sashimi. We had wanted to go to karaoke, but we were too full, so we watched movies in the room instead.
Juneau
We didn't have any excursions pre-booked for Juneau. The ship docked very early in the day, so as soon as we were ready to go, we headed down to the dock where we had to take a little boat to shore. Other cruise ships were docked much closer to the land. Having done a little research and enjoyed the ship's advertising on their dedicated channel, we decided we wanted to try Tracy's King Crab Shack and ride the tram up to the observation deck (having missed out in Icy Strait Point). We stopped inside a smoked salmon shop and enjoyed their informational plaques on their process. Even though the smoked and canned salmon looked very delicious, we decided not to pay sucker prices and to buy some at home or online. We wandered through some gift shops and bought souvenirs (chocolate and a shot glass) until we worked up an appetite.
Tracy's King Crab Shack was bustling. We had heard that there was virtually no king crab season in Alaska this year, and it seemed like the prices reflected that (over $100 for a pound of king crab). We got crab bisque and crab cakes with a couple of beers and house-made chips. It ended up being too much food for us (but really tasty! Lots of dungeness crab mixed into the bisque also) so we gave the rest of our chips to another family.
We kept looking around the shops. There were so many shops selling jewelry. Ryan loves gold and precious gems so we stopped and looked in a couple. I got uncomfortable when the salespeople started bringing up financing and decided to leave. We eventually turned around and headed back to the tram so we could catch it when it opened. We had to get back to the ship pretty early and wanted to make sure we had time to enjoy the view from the observation deck.
There was a long line for the tram when we showed up at the station, but it moved quickly. They packed us into the tram like sardines, and the ride took about five minutes. At the top, there were several different viewing platforms, as well as some shops and a restaurant. There was a bald eagle living in captivity as well - she had had her beak surgically reconstructed and was virtually blind, so she couldn't live in the wild. We walked around the area and decided to skip the informational movie they were showing in favor of having enough time to get back on the boat. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our room. I popped out for a snack and discovered that the outdoor buffet served afternoon tea until 5 PM every day.
We went back to trivia in the evening and did a little better, but still not great (14/20 right answers, up from 12 the last night). I really enjoyed the calmness and dignity of the formal dining room over the buffet, so we went there again. I got baked ziti, which was flavorful with bits of roasted basil. Feeling tired and full at that point in our trip, and knowing we had an early excursion the next day, we passed the evening re-watching Encanto in our room.
Ketchikan
The ship docked at Ketchikan very early in the morning - I want to say around 6 AM. We pre-booked a pub crawl excursion (which was A Choice), which seemed like it was at a reasonable time at one point, but the itinerary changed a few times before the cruise started, and we had to be at the meeting point at 9:45 AM. There was a group of 13 on the excursion, and we had to wait for some folks to finish their previous excursion first. We took a shuttle from the meeting point to the first stop in downtown Ketchikan, where we met our local tour guide and aspiring bartender Chelsea. She took us first to the Sourdough Bar, which was already quite full of regulars. The walls were adorned with pictures, particularly of wrecks (boat, car, plane, etc) and of local figures and history, including of the first post-prohibition pour of beer that had taken place there. At each stop on the tour, the guide offered us a choice of drinks, and we could buy more drinks if we wanted to, which surprisingly many people did.
The next stop on the pub crawl was Creek Street Cabaret, a bar and music venue inside a former church. They had some cool hand-carved tap handles that looked like colorful sea creatures, and they had a big jar of vodka infused with pickles. I bought a t-shirt as a souvenir. We then passed by Dolly's House, an old brothel-turned-museum, on the way to Potlach Bar, a real dive (already full of regulars), where I was irritated by the obtuse bathroom signs ("inboard" and "outboard" - yuck). Everyone on the tour seemed to be getting a little punchy and/or loopy by this point, as we rode back to the cruise terminal.
We didn't have time to do anything else in Ketchikan, so we got back on the ship and had lunch at Four Seasons, another non-buffet dining room (with no dress code). We ended up striking up a conversation with the people next to us, Cecelia and Tim from New Jersey. Tim is retired and Cecelia is a teacher, and they wanted Ryan's opinions about how they should go about remodeling their house. We also talked about cruising, traveling, and the dream of owning an RV. We ate shrimp cakes, corn chowder, and Cuban-style chicken (after seeing it on Tim's plate). We went back to our room for a much-needed nap.
We popped out of our room for trivia again (and again scored 14/20), and had a drink at the Spinnaker observation lounge (braving the heavy wind outside) before our reservation at Moderno Churrascaria, a Brazilian-style steakhouse where servers bring skewers of meat to your table. It was so delicious but an impossible amount of food to eat. Ryan was able to get a plate to go and we got our desserts (mango rice pudding and banana meringue pie) to go as well. We tried to go to bed on time, but our bodies were getting weary of the bed in our room, which was super firm.
Victoria
The last day felt like a sea day because we wouldn't get to Victoria until almost 9 PM after delays. We lost an hour overnight, but my phone didn't end up changing its time automatically like I expected, so we accidentally slept in a little. We woke up, grabbed coffee and breakfast, and caught the very end of the senior officer Q&A, where we could have asked technical questions to the ship's officers. Disappointed, we meandered over to the Deal or No Deal game that was about to start and bought some cards so we could play. They randomly picked a few audience members to play on stage, and everyone else popped open the briefcases on their cards to see if they matched the briefcases on stage (more matches -> better prizes). We didn't really win anything.
We had our last lunch in the formal dining room - my favorite place to eat. I had a wedge salad and fish and chips, and I got my basque cake to go so we could make the wine and cheese pairing seminar. We showed up early for the seminar and had no trouble getting in. Wine steward Joel ("sometimes they call me Billy Joel") led this session, and had us taste swiss cheese, brie, parmesan, and blue cheese with riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon. Delicious! We sat across from the same family as we had at the wine and chocolate pairing. They were from Boston and asked us for tips on how to spend their day in Seattle.
It was a beautiful day, so we decided to futz around on the top deck where the shuffleboard and golf cages were. Ryan hit a few golf balls and we tried unsuccessfully to play shuffleboard (to our great amusement). After a while, we went over to the bar to have a frozen drink and chat with our old pal Elustre, who recognized us from the first day.
We had afternoon tea from the buffet and went back to our room to watch the ship pull in to Victoria, which was beautiful in the sunset. We seemed to be running behind schedule, and when we finally docked, it took a long time to get clearance to leave the ship. Eventually, they let us all off the ship, in a surprisingly seamless process that didn't even involve showing our passports (we had filled out customs forms a few days before, which housekeeping picked up and turned in on our behalf). We scrambled to our excursion meeting point and hopped on a double-decker bus to see Victoria on what turned out to be a quiet weekday night.
We went on the Bites and Sights tour, where the tour guide (Emily) took us through Chinatown and to two different bars to drink and snack. Our first stop was Swan's Pub, where we enjoyed their version of a Canadian favorite, the shaft, which they serve on a nitro tap at Swan's. We ate smoked salmon dip on rye bread - yum! We couldn't get enough, but the people sitting across from us weren't fans. Then we walked to J.R. Slim's to enjoy a local gose and turkey arancini. We chatted with a couple from Wisconsin who had come to see as many whales as possible, and a couple from Puyallup, WA (where Ryan grew up). This group was a lot nicer than the people we went on the Ketchikan pub crawl with. As we walked back to the bus stop, we took a couple pictures of places we want to come back and see the next time we're in Victoria. Hopefully we can come back soon!
We took the bus back to the cruise terminal and got right back on the ship. We had some late-night wings and chili and returned to our room to pack. We had to be out of our rooms by 8:30 AM the next day, which felt a little unfair given that we didn't get back to the boat until about midnight. I had already packed as much as possible so I could max out my hours of sleep. Ryan stayed up a little later to finish packing.
The end!
We were woken up at 7 AM by announcements every 15 minutes or so reminding us to get out of our staterooms. I had hoped to get another hour of sleep but ended up getting up early. Ryan got his last breakfast from the buffet to eat while he finished packing. We left our rooms and walked of the ship, even more seamlessly than when we got on, and took a Lyft home. Our cats were happy to see us, and we had some ripe tomatoes and blueberries ready to pick from our garden.
We had an incredible time on the Norwegian Sun. The staff went out of their way to make us and everyone feel comfortable and special. We'd like to shout out Remy, who managed our stateroom and others nearby, for going above and beyond to treat us with kindness.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a review of the trip soon - what we liked, what we didn't like, and what we hope to see change in the future, from our perspective of first-time cruisers who don't know what cruising was like before the pandemic. In the future, you can expect to read trip reports and my thoughts about planning for our Disney World trip scheduled for this November, and any travel I end up doing for work.
Where should we cruise next? Now that we know we like cruising, we're excited to see what the experience is like on other cruise lines and other routes. What are your recommendations for us? Send us a reply and let us know!