Day 3 (July 27, 2023) Crown
Princess docked at Juneau from 1 pm to 9:15 pm. I visited Juneau again after 2
months and this time the weather was much better. It was sunny🌞all day with warm
temperature.
I didn’t provide much information
about Juneau when I wrote my blog in April, let me do that here.
Juneau is the capital city of
Alaska since 1906. According to Wikipedia, the population in Juneau in 2020
census was 32,255. In May to September, more than 6000 people from cruise ships
visit Juneau daily.
If you think the name Juneau is
an indigenous name or the Tlingit name, that's not correct. It is actually
named after a gold prospector from Quebec, Joe Juneau so this is a French name.
Still it has a Tlingit name called Dzántik'i Héeni.
As you can see, quite a few passengers were outside enjoying
the scenery and nice weather while our ship was heading to Juneau. Some
passengers were even using the outdoor pool and outdoor hot tubs in the
morning. That explains the temperature was not cold at all 😊
I ordered Mexican Albondigas Soup & Skillet-Fried Sole
with Lemon and Parsley. Who served us? No idea. Unlike Koningsdam, the name of
waiter or assistant waiter was not displayed. Only a simple table number sign was
provided for both lunch and dinner.
While we were eating, Crown Princess already arrived in Juneau.
By looking at the rear window 🪟, I could see two cruise ships were already there.
The one behind ours was Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam.
Here’s the view from our stateroom which was facing a street in Downtown Juneau 😊
At the pier, I could see the other ship behind Nieuw Amsterdam, it was Celebrity Eclipse.
In May I saw the booths selling excursions but didn’t have time to check them out. This time I looked around and I believe the most popular ones were bus to Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching🐋 Sometimes local excursions found at pier are less expensive than the excursions offered by cruise lines. One thing that everyone has to be careful is time control. Don’t worry if you join an excursion with your cruise company, even if you come back late the ship will wait for you. But if you join an excursion from somewhere else, the cruise ship will not wait for you if you return late😐
First, we lined up for Goldbelt Tram (Goldbelt Tram - The only tram in Southeast Alaska) at 1:50 pm. In May 26, 2023 I was at the entrance of Mount Robets Tramway Centre in pouring rain ☔ to meet my Juneau City & Mendenhall Glacier tour group. This time I decided to take the tram🚡as I was told the scenery should be great on a sunny day! Also the price of Goldbelt Tram ride increases annually. In 2023 it was $50 USD per adult and $35 USD per child. In 2024 it is $55 USD per adult and $40 per child😮
There were tons of people lining up for the ride. Each tram
has a maximum capacity of 60 passengers We waited in line for 25 minutes,
luckily we were the first few to get onto a tram for the best spot! Now
starting our 6 minute ride up to Mount Roberts which is 1,800 feet above.
Finally we reached the top. I deeply appreciated the perfect weather and the perfect spot I got on the tram to make this ride worth the money (each of us paid $50 USD)😌
Also we could see the Doulgas
Island on the other side, it is connected to Downtown Juneau by Juneau-Douglas
Bridge.
Norwegian Jewel – could only see 1 pool and 3 hot tubs. Crown Princess – 4 pools and 5 hot tubs? Anyway the bigger the ship the more pools or hot tubs it has in a logical sense🤔
What
else could we do on Mount Roberts?
Some enjoyed a meal in Timberline Bar & Grill. Fish & Chips (4 pieces) for $26 USD, Classic Burger 🍔for $15 USD, Juice for $4 USD …
How about free
activity … Hiking🥾🥾
How wide are your arms? Do you think anyone can be as wide as eagle’s wings 🪽
Time to go back as we joined the
Mendenhall Glacier bus tour at 4 pm. We purchased this excursion directly from
Princess ($64.95 USD each).
This time I was more satisfied with
the bus ride🚌 Remember back in May, I couldn’t see anything outside from the
foggy window when I was on the bus to Mendenhall Glacier due to the rainy
weather.
Once again, I was at
Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Site!
What a lovely day! No
rain this time. Let’s take a couple of enlarged photos.
We were allowed to stay here for
almost 2 hours, longer than the time I had in May. My goal was to visit Nugget Falls. We were
passing by several photo points📸during our 35 minute walk to the Falls.
As I mentioned
before, this 377 feet Nuggets Falls is equivalent to the height of 26 storey
building, very magnificent!
On the way back, we visited Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center around 6:20 pm. There were only a couple of visitors left. The view from the visitor center was beautiful!
.jpg)
When we returned to the dock, my partner wanted to purchase a local sim card for internet data in Alaska. Great idea! But all the stores were closed. In May when my friend and I looked for free wifi in the public library, it was closed due to statutory holiday. Sounds to me not easy to have wifi or internet in Juneau😂
Never mind! Let’s return to our ship and have dinner … getting hungry already😋
Besides the standard menu, ramen could be served too🍜 Everything looked good since I was too hungry (it was 8:20 pm already, a late dinner). The bread with butter was delicious. The minestrone soup was nice and warm. Two dishes were not enough for us, so we ordered three to share: seared wild Alaska sockeye salmon with red wind reduction, sauteed shrimp and sea scallops, grilled rockfish. Same as dessert, we could eat at least three so we shared tiramisu, lychee, raspberry & rose mousse plus Princess Love Boat dream. No extra charge, all complimentary👍
Our ship was leaving at 9:25 pm. Bye Bye Juneau! I don’t
know when I will visit this city again.
No comments:
Post a Comment