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.