Celebrity Millennium Alaska Cruise – Part 3

I’m going to abbreviate the last 3 stops of my May 2016 Celebrity Millennium Alaska trip since the pictures were more arty than explanatory. As I stated in previous posts, there are better pictures from my last Alaska adventure that I’ll post soon. Day 3 of the 7 day journey docked at Skagway, which is a great tourist town in that they really have done a fine job in putting together so many tourist attractions that you can have 4 ships docked there (like on this day) yet you don’t hear any complaining about boredom.

This time I opted to take one of the White Pass and Yukon train excursions, which was pretty cool to do at least once. This was the shortest and cheapest of the offerings, coming in at $122 for about a 31/2 train ride just into Canada then back again. You don’t get off the train so you don’t need your passport. There are some pretty cool things to see along the way, such as the breathtaking scenery and some pretty unbelievably engineered railroad bridges. In fact, one of them is rated as one of the world’s best engineer feats, ranking right up there with the Eiffel Tower.

Day 4 was Icy  Strait Point at the village of Hoonah, which added a dock this year so no need to tender any longer. They also built a few more tourist eateries (I had a salmon ruben for lunch – yummm). Of course, there’s the standard whale watching and bear sighting tours, but I opted to just stay onshore. It was a great day for watching the sea life however. A very large fin whale lazily lounged along the shoreline, a school of orca arrived, as did a large school of dolphin. This usually happens pretty fast – faster than I could get to a camera – so I didn’t get pictures unfortunately.

One of the coolest things here is the rainforest, which is pretty amazing. It’s hard to believe that something like this exists in Alaska, but there we were with about a 100 foot canopy on top as we walked along the forest by the shoreline. Icy Strait Point is also known for what it calls the longest and highest zip line in North America. Pretty expensive at $134, but everyone I spoke with that did it felt it was worth it.

The final port stop was in Ketchikan, which is truly the best winter clothing shopping almost everywhere. Why? The best prices for the quality clothing is amazing. It’s almost worth it to take the cruise just to go there and stock up. It’s also pretty scenic with a great salmon run (no, they weren’t running yet), fish ladder and hatchery. There’s also this great little park (below) that I found near the hatchery that’s just a joy. There’s not as much to do that isn’t shopping or touristy stuff, but it’s an enjoyable stop nonetheless.

Day 6 was through the Inside Passage where the weather finally turned sunny. Once again, just lovely scenery everywhere. Then it was debarking in Vancouver, which was absolutely the fastest I ever had. Off the ship and through customs and immigration in 5 minutes! So, so easy – why can’t they all be that way? This is in contrast to the miserable embarking last year in Vancouver, which took about 2 hours. It was the reason why I chose the southbound trip out of Seward this time.

Anyway, I’ll be back to Alaska again, although next time I think I’ll go when the salmon are running.

Celebrity Millennium Alaska Cruise – Part 2

Part 2 of my Celebrity Millennium Alaska southbound cruise brings us to Juneau. It’s the capitol of the state and like most Alaskan cities, isn’t really that large. It does feature a couple of very cool tourist attractions though, with the Mendenhall Glacier just a short bus ride (less than 10 minutes) from town. The other attraction, which I didn’t do this time, is the Mount Roberts Tramway, which takes you to the top of the mountain for an awesome look of the city and the port (I’ll post some photos from here that I took on my last cruise in 2015 soon).

There’s lots of shopping available in Juneau, although the prices here aren’t nearly as good as in Ketchikan, which is a shopping mecca. That’s probably because Juneau is a landlocked city. That’s right, there are no roads leading in or out. You get there either by boat or by airplane. That said, everyone living there seems happy enough with no complaints, just like everywhere else in Alaska.

First, let’s look at some pictures from Juneau.

Next was the Mendenhall Glacier, which like Hubbard, looks a lot more fragile than last year. It’s receded quite a bit, in fact. Still, seeing it and the giant waterfall beside it is very cool.

That’s it for Juneau and Mendenhall. I have lots more pictures from my 2015 trip that I’ll post soon. Next up, Honnah and Icy Point Strait.

Celebrity Millennium Alaska Cruise – Part 1

Just back from my second trip to Alaska, both on Celebrity Millennium. This trip was almost 1 year to the day of my first trip to the great state, but this time I took the southward itinerary from Seward (starting in Anchorage first) down to Vancouver. I didn’t take as many pictures this time, mostly because I covered that my previous time there (I’ll post those in the near future).

Let’s start with a few pictures taken along the way on the trip from Anchorage to Seward on the bus (took the train last year from Seward to Anchorage, which was most excellent).

Day 1 of the voyage visited the Hubbard Glacier, which is nothing short of tremendous. The glacier seemed a little more fragile than last year even though it was still an incredible 7 miles long and towered over the ship by about 500 feet! It was overcast that day, which actually made everything easy on the eyes and much easier to see. The Captain was able to bring the ship as close to the glacier as legally possible, then made a couple of sweeping 360 degree turns so everyone could get a look.

There’s a lot more to see, and I’ll be showing it too you in Alaska Cruise Part 2.

Some Interesting Cruise Facts

We all love cruising and inherently know some things to be true when it comes to the big picture of cruise itineraries, destinations and motivations. That said, here are the real cruise facts direct from the Cruise Line International Association.

Top Cruise Itineraries
Caribbean – 37.3%
Mediterranean – 19%
Other Markets -14.5%
Europe – 11.1%
Australia – 5.9%
Alaska – 4.5%
Asia – 3.4%
South America – 3.3%

Where do the passengers come from?
USA – 51.7%
UK/Ireland – 8.1%
Germany – 7.7%
Italy – 4.0%
Australia/New Zealand – 3.6%
Brazil – 3.4%
Canada – 3.4%
Spain – 2.8%
France – 2.4%
Scandinavia – 1.6%

What are the next hot cruise destinations?
Trans Pacific
US Rivers
South America
Antartic
World Cruises
Africa
Middle East
Canada/New England

What are the major motivators to take a cruise?
Value/Price – 86.6%
Destinations/Itineraries – 77.7%
Cruise Brand Reputation – 76%
Home Port – 61.3%
Lifestyle Amenities – 39.3%

There are some surprises here. First of all, the next hot cruise destination is Trans-Pacific (which basically means a repositioning cruise across the Pacific). This survey was obviously done before Cuba opened up, as that seems to be the hottest choice by far, even though there’s only one cruise line (Carnival’s Fanthom) going there at the moment, although that destination is expected to be widespread throughout the industry soon.

One thing that’s not so surprising is that most people see price as a major factor in their decision to cruise in the first place. These cruise facts do change every year though, so we might be looking at some completely new data when we check it out again next year.