Alaska Cruises in the Summer - Part 11

 

Day 6 (July 30, 2023) Crown Princess docked at Icy Strait Point from 8 am to 4:30 pm. It was a Sunday and the fourth port we visited in a row. According to Wikipedia, Icy Strait Point is a privately owned tourist destination just outside the small village of Hoonah, Alaska. It is located on Chichagof Island and is named after the nearby Icy Strait. Owned by Huna Totem Corporation, it is the only privately owned cruise destination in Alaska. Huna Totem Corporation is owned by approximately 1,350 Alaskan Natives with aboriginal ties to Hoonah and the Glacier Bay area. Many of them are of the Tlingit people.

The corporation purchased the site in 1996, and Icy Strait Point was first opened for cruise ships in 2004. All profits earned directly support the community of Hoonah, Alaska’s largest Native Tlingit village.

By looking out from my stateroom, there were some red gondolas moving! 

Good morning! Breakfast time at 9:33 am (see the clock). The view in Horizon Court on Deck 15 was nice at each port.

After 11 am, we decided to get off. When I passed by Crown Grill, the specialty restaurant below my stateroom, I took a look and found Asian passengers playing Mahjong there. Yes, it was an activity listed on the schedule: Bridge and Mahjong Play in Crown Gill on Deck 7.

Unlike other ports, there were no other cruise ships except Crown Princess. Everyone needed to cross the bridge (2 minutes walk) first.

What! $49.95 for the ride! Should I go for it? 

There were two rides: Mountain Top Gondola (Red) and Transporter Gondola (Green). No charge for Transporter Gondola 😅

I followed the majority to take the free ride 😉 Now going up and we were in the same cable car with other tourists, should be from the same cruise ship. 

It was about 6 minutes ride, then we arrived on the other side of Icy Strait Point. 

Wonderful weather again 😊 It was very comfortable to walk to Keet Plaza.

Oops! 俾人偷拍添! I was attracted by the huge killer whale statue🐬

Some might just walk around leisurely and watch for any whales in the ocean.

We spotted the Zipline … hold the cell up, press recording 🔴 A very nice lady let us know we could see it much closer. Thank you! At that moment, I felt we were 兩個傻瓜 😯😯

Continue walking, we passed by private residence and Cookhouse restaurant to Hoonah Cannery where local arts, gift shops and museum can be found.

This salmon cannery was built in 1912 and stopped canning operations after 1953. Until 1999, the cannery served as a maintenance and support facility for the seine boat fishing fleet. In 2001, it was converted into a tourist destination for cruise ship passengers.

I only know Juneau is the capital and the state flower is forget me not in Alaska. Now I am gaining knowledge 😇

Let’s browse around some of the gift shops🎁

My beloved gifts – Denali Dreams handcrafted soaps. Not many left for Fireweed Wildflower flavour🎕

Just like our community, they also have the Salvation Army which is good.

There is a ticket booth, let’s check it out!

A bus to Hoonah, round trip for $5 USD. 

It was very comfortable to walk along the coastline in Icy Strait Point. In less than 10 minutes, our shuttle bus came 🚌 Only 5 passengers including us. 

The view of the whole cannery that we could see on the bus. We also saw the kayak group.

Colourful houses in Hoonah. It should be fun to visit Hoonah, a small tranquil town 🏡

But it was a Sunday! Everything was closed. No fun and nobody would like to get off. The other three passengers asked to go back, ok we followed them😐

On the way back, we saw people walking along on the same route. Icy Strait Point to Hoonah is 1.5 miles or 30 minutes walk. Round trip takes an hour – good exercise👍

We didn’t forget about seeing zipline right above us.  The Icy Strait Point Ziprider was opened in 2007. It was the world’s largest and longest uninterrupted zipline at that time with 5330 feet long, 1300 feet vertical drop, 60 mph maximum speed and 300 feet above the rainforest below 🌳🌳🌳

Although the ride is less than 2 minutes, many steps needs to be completed. We were waiting and looking at the two screens on the side for the preparation of the zipriders. They needed to take a bus from Icy Strait Point to the top of the mountain which was about 45 minutes or Mountain Top Gondola (red cable car) could take them to the peak too. Then they had to take a walk to the Ziprider launch zone from there.

If you think now they should be ready to go … not yet. All participants were required to fill out and sign an agreement ✎🗅 (好似簽生死狀) to acknowledge the risk of zipline activities, to waive any claims against the zipline company, to not sue the company for any injuries or death and to receive no compensation for any injuries or death, etc.

Since the staff had to explain to the participants all the important details and to check the equipment for safety purposes, we were waiting for 30 minutes before we could see the participants zipriding above us!

Icy Strait Point has a very caring system. I saw quite a few care carts around ♿ no wonder handicaps would be able to come up here. If you pay attention to some of the photos above, you will notice some handicap passengers🦽

Time to go back to the dock. 

On our way back, We saw Bambi! 好似梅花鹿 🦌

Now it is clear that there are two gondola stations. The green one which we took is free and the red one 🚠 going to the top of the mountain Sky Peak has a fee＄

I saw another care cart ♿ in front of a souvenir shop 🏪

We made our way back to the ship before 3:30 pm.

Super hungry already … but not yet dinner time so had a light meal in Horizon Court 🍰

This looks familiar …. Inch of Gold? That was in Koningsdam too! 又有一寸金?

They also had the star shaped silver bracelet for $2.10/inch. I paid $3.00/inch in Koningsdam. How come the price is different?

Passing by Explorers Lounge on Deck 7 midship, seeing questions from Trivia Challenge: Yakutat Bay. How many do you know the answers to?

My dinner was more refreshing this time. Started with chilled cantaloupe melon cocktail🍉and frosted strawberry smoothie🍓as appetizers  followed by main course seafood risotto with dessert cherries jubilee.

Having a meal in the dining room or watching a show in the theater is not an issue for handicaps on a cruise. There are always some spaces available for them 😊

70’s Party in the Piazza at night attracted lots of audiences🥳

That’s the next day schedule – Yakutat Bay for the Hubbard Glacier! I appreciated to receive the daily schedules but they were always put on the floor at the entrance so I always stepped on them when I entered into my cabin 👣 Why didn’t the room attendant put the schedules on the table?