7 October 2022
We had started out this trip on a cruise around the Norwegian fjords and what we particularly appreciated about it - besides the views - was going back to the same cabin every night and not having to look for new accommodation, or how to get there, on a daily basis. After having travelled the breadth of this huge continent, we felt it was time to indulge ourselves again and so we set off on the majestic Norwegian Jewel for a week’s cruise from Vancouver up to Alaska and back.
The ship fact sheet gives an idea of its size and what it takes to operate a cruise ship: built in 2005 in Germany as a cost of USD $420 million (and renovated recently), it is almost 300 metres long, weighs 92'000 tonnes and is manned by a crew of 1200 from 60 different nationalities. It consumes 48 gallons of fuel per minute and 250'000 gallons of fresh water day (from evaporated sea water). As for the chef weekly shopping list for its 2500 passengers – 12’000lbs of beef, 5'000 lbs of rice, 30'000 lbs of fresh fruits, 3'800 dozen eggs, 1'200 gallons of ice cream....and the list goes on.
The ship was still somewhat smaller, and less crowded, than the MSC vessel on the Norway cruise: the service and food were better but the shows (apart from the fantastic Filipino guitarist) were average (at least in my view). However, we would definitely use NCL again.
There were 3 stops on the cruise – Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. In each stop, as was already the case in Norway, we made our own travel arrangements ashore rather than take the more expensive excursions arranged by NCL.
Juneau is a quaint frontier town with saloons which reminded us of the Far West. We booked a ticket to go whale watching and a bus - driven by a would-be tourist guide who was in such a rush to impart his priceless, local knowledge that he nearly choked himself (is silence really forbidden in this country?) - took us to the boat about 45 minutes away. It was the end of the season, it was explained to us, the whales were already leaving on their long trip south down to Hawaii for the winter. But we were in luck, we saw maybe half a dozen or so feeding there (or at least we saw their tails as they dived back after taking air through their blowholes at the water’s surface). It was still a wonderful experience to witness these magnificent creatures so close up.
Skagway is a small compact town and home of gold-rush-era buildings, now preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. We did a hysterical walking tour conducted by a local belle dressed up as a madame from those times (around 1896), when the town was booming due to the gold rush. It was a time of lawlessness, drunkenness and immorality as gold-diggers poured into the town off the boats for a last, good time before embarking on foot over the infamous Chilkoot Trail to cross the mountains and get to the promised land. Many did not make it, even fewer actually struck gold. By 1899, the gold rush was over and with it, the golden era of Skagway too. We took a local bus tour into the mountains that the miners would have trekked across on foot and were treated to some splendid Yukon Territory scenery, complete with lakes and waterfalls but unfortunately, no bears.
Ketchikan was a disappointment. Billed as the salmon capital of the world, it is a post-industrial town struggling to survive. Apart from the salmon, it appears to be heavily dependent on the cruise lines which dock there: everything is set up to occupy the cruise passengers for a few hours with trinket stores, bars, fish restaurants and tours to the historic old town (basically the red-light district from the gold rush era) and beyond into nature. There is also a First Nation museum which, while interesting, pales in comparison to the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. Those who stayed aboard the ship in the port did not really miss very much..
The last day of the outward trip however was a real highlight - Glacier Bay, a National Park covering over 5000 square miles (roughly the size of Connecticut) in south-east Alaska and containing over 1000 glaciers. The bay is spectacular, flanked by high peaks, fjords and forests and home to humpback whales (no sightings) and sea otters (many sightings) as well as to the Huna Tlingit First Nation for many generations. Rangers from the National Park boarded the ship to give us a running commentary as we slowly sailed around the bay and it was sad fact to learn that even though the glaciers still look impressive today, an estimated 95% of them are slowly retreating due to global warming. The polar regions warm up twice as fast as the rest of the earth and this has also significant consequences not only for the glaciers but also for the flora and fauna which call it home.
The ship then sailed around and headed for home and we were left to reflect on what we had just experienced over the past week. Of course, it’s impossible to see everything this wild and beautiful place can offer in such a short time (it is by far the largest state in the USA after all). We had seen enough however to understand that this is truly the last frontier, where the term “the great outdoors” has its true meaning. One can only hope that we can conserve all the treasures and natural wonders it contains for our future generations.
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