Celebrity Solstice - Day 5 - Skagway
Even though this was my third time in Skagway, it is such a cute little town and once again we took pictures of the buildings/town.

 

On our first Alaska cruise in 2002, it was mid September and although beautiful scenery, there was not the snow on the mountains that I had expected. Therefore since this cruise was earlier in the year, we took the White Pass train trip again. This time there was snow but unfortunately it was an overcast day. Guess I will have to try one more time for the snow and the beautiful day to get better pictures.

Forgot to mention, one of the highlights was seeing a brown bear in the wild....

I was having too much fun while on board the Celebrity Solstice (and I admit the internet was slow), so I did not write a post beyond day 3. Day 4 was cruising through Tracey Arm Fjord and although we did not have the best of weather, it was good enough to get pretty far into it. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words so here are a few thousand....

 

Later that day we stopped in Juneau and although it rain (and rained hard), we still went to the Gold Rush Dogs musher camp. This was one of the most enjoyable shore excursions I have done in Alaska. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the seaplane over glaciers and salmon bake on my first time in Juneau but that was in 2002. Seeing over 100 dogs, each with their own doghouse and seeing how much they actually enjoy running, was a memory I will keep. Ending the day in the kennel with the newest dog (5 weeks old) was my highlight. Here are two pictures....

 

Solstice cruise - day 3

Today we docked in Ketchikan at 7am (while I was still in bed). Since we did not set up any shore excursions for today, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room. The Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas was parked in front of us and the Carnival Magic was behind us. At some point the Oceania’s Regatta parked themselves between our ship and the Magic.

At around 10am we disembarked to explore the town on our own. Ketchikan has not changed since the last time we were here in 2008. Will maybe they made the pier longer to fit more ships. I do not remember a ship being parked as far away as the Radiance was. Did the typical walk along Creek Street. Was a little disappointed not to see any salmon running in the creek like we did last time but that was September. We took the funicular up to Kate Fox Lodge and took pictures of their totum poles. You know you are getting older when you take the funicular back down instead of taking the Married Man Trail (with all those stairs). The new experience this time in Ketchikan was seeing a bald eagle up close. This bird was shot when it was one years old and this gentleman nursed it back to health.

Was back onboard way before the ship set sail at 4pm. The sun did come out around noon and people were sun tanning by the pool. We actually left a little late since we had to wait for the Radiance of the Seas to turn and move out of our way. Nice night at sea. Have really not felt much motion on this ship.

Celebrity Solstice - Day 1 & 2

Ahoy Mates!

    I am somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, heading north to Ketchikan, Alaska. Yesterday when we arrived in Seattle, it was a beautiful day. Everything went as it should. Luggage arrived, only waited 15 to 20 minutes for cruise line’s coach to take us to the ship. Check in was a breeze. Once onboard the Celebrity Solstice, we were handed a glass of champagne and we saw part of our group right away. It was too early to get into our stateroom so we went to the Oceanview Café for lunch. After eating, we went to check out our home for this next week. Bathroom is the nicest I have ever had on a cruise ship. Did the lifeboat drill and then we sailed away.

     Unfortunately today has been foggy all day long with a light mist but not missing anything since we would have only been looking at water. Today I did explore the ship, including a galley tour and the Celebrity Solstice is beautiful and I am enjoying exploring her. Here are a few pictures of the ship.