Onboard the Star Princess to Alaska

We are enroute to Alaska on the Star Princess, the same ship we took to Mexico over Easter.  This cruise was booked only last Monday, so we did not have much time to prepare.  It is only five days long, leaving Vancouver BC on Tuesday May 15^th and ending in Seattle on Sunday May 20^th.  We drove to Vancouver a day early on Monday and one of Co’s coworkers at Princess brought the car back when she got off of another ship on Wednesday.  We had worries because the internet was down when we got on the ship and had no way to let the coworker know where the car was parked.  Luckily, the internet came up late the first evening!

The drive up from Seattle was nice, great weather that stayed through our one day in Vancouver.  Wednesday, our first day onboard, was bright and clear.  Bright and clear and cold.  The seas were a bit high, whitecaps as far as the eye can see.  There are mountains on both sides and we are on whale watch alert.  The naturalist speaker on board expects that there will be sightings, especially when we get into the narrower passages of the Inside Passage.

Thursday morning at 6:30, the skies were overcast, but no rain.  The sea is calm, almost flat.  Jagged mountains from sea to sky are off the starboard side, looking east toward the mainland.  The waterway will get much narrower as the morning goes on. 

We expect to get off the ship in Juneau around noon.  We have been here several times and did not book any excursions.  We will just walk around town a bit.  We will send another message either tonight or tomorrow, Friday, after Ketchikan.

John & Colleen