jrgray.net

Alaska

Walking Around Ketchikan

J. R. got up early for a morning walk and breakfast and then met up with Janie for some coffee and oatmeal while she ate while Rebecca had breakfast with her friend group. We were in Ketchikan already and our excursion didn't leave until later in the day so we got off the ship to wander around the town. Rebecca wanted to get some free trinkets from the jewelry dealers so we wandered a few of their shops so she could pick up charms and cheap bracelets.

"Wildlife" Safari

Our Wildlife Safari and Beach Bonfire excursion was scheduled to leave from the pier so we gathered at the appointed time only to find the catamaran was running late. The woman from the tour company kept saying it would be another five minutes so we ended up leaving 25 minutes late. It would have been better for DCL to have us wait on the ship and come down when the catamaran came in rather than standing in the drizzle. But soon we were underway and it wasn't long before we saw bald eagles off the starboard side of the boat. The excursion had promised a "memorable wildlife safari" but the eagles were about all of the wildlife we saw for awhile. There were some harbor seals off in the distance but we didn't get very close to them.

Beach "Bonfire"

The next part of our excursion was a "beach bonfire" on Annette Island, one of Alaska's A-B-C islands. The bonfire turned out to be a couple of metal cooking areas in a clearing behind the beach so we were really disappointed with the description of the excursion versus the reality. The reindeer sausage hot dogs were good though and Rebecca enjoyed making smores while J. R. had an Alaska-brewed beer, which was just okay. We reboarded the boat but didn't see much wildlife on the way back either. It started to rain hard as we got back into Ketchikan and there was an extremely long line to re-board the Wonder so we were pretty soaked when we got back to our room.

Shows and Dinner

After changing into dry clothes, we went down for the evening variety show, which was the "Amazing Illusions of David Gatti". We aren't usually into magic acts, but Mr. Gatti added a good bit of humor and made it clear that most of his magic was sleight of hand so it was fun to watch and see if you could figure out his tricks. After the show, Janie wanted to go to "Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer?", so we did. We didn't get selected to go on stage but we helped a few other people win by shouting out answers. Rebecca went to 70's Music Trivia and was surprised she knew a few of the songs.

Dinner was in Tiana's Place tonight, which is a new restaurant on the Disney Wonder. The renovation of the old Parrot Cay was really well done, much better than the Carioca's overlay on the Magic. But the band played far too loud during the first part of dinner, which required us to shout just to talk to each other across the table. Janie and J. R. both had the Louisiana Hot Crab Dip for an appetizer and he chose a lobster salad as well. Rebecca went straight for the Lime-Marinated Jumbo Shrimp with jambalaya rice while J. R. had a sirloin steak and Janie sampled the Bering Sea Halibut, just because. Janie ordered the banoffee cream pie while Rebecca had the chocolate cake. Sofia had heard Rebecca talking about the baked alaska earlier in the night so she brought out a slice of that as well. Baked alaska is an inside joke for our family since several cruises ago it was on the menu and Thomas asked the waiter what it was, then ordered something else, so the waiter brought him baked alaska as well. So it is a tradition to order it on cruises now.