2. The Alaska cruise I went on last week with my mom, almost 40 years later, was also great, but in an entirely different way. It was a "freestyle" cruise, meaning there was no dress code beyond the obvious no-shoes-no-shirt-no-service type thing, and you could eat whenever you wanted and sit wherever you wanted. I was expecting that the other cruisers would be elderly retired types, and there were quite a few of those. But there was also a huge population of internationals--lots of Europeans, lots of Asians. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that US citizens were in the minority. And there were also plenty of younger people. Not very many families since school is in session, but lots of people younger than me, and a handful of preschoolers.
3. Alaska is beautiful. Gorgeous. No surprise there. The air and the water are clear and cold in a way that they just aren't elsewhere. We had a couple of sunny days at the beginning of the trip, but even when it was gray and cool, there was endless beautiful scenery to watch-- forests and waterfalls, and mountains in the distance. On our excursions, we saw whales and sea lions and bald eagles.
Maybe my favorite moment of the trip (well, besides the opportunity to spend so much time with my mom) was seeing Sawyer Glacier. We cruised into the Tracy Arm Fjord until we reached Sawyer, which spills into the fjord at the end. We live about half an hour from Glacier National Park, so I was not expecting to be awed by a glacier. I've seen them before. But I was. Awed, I mean. The glaciers in GNP are nothing like this-- even though it was overcast, it looked like it was lit from within. It was practically glowing with blue light. Very cool.
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| these don't nearly do it justice. you'll just have to go see it someday. |
4. However, I didn't get to see the Northern lights. I guess I'll just have to go back. Every night was cloudy verging on foggy, even when the day had been sunny. I don't think I even saw any stars all week.
5. I read at least three books of the "What to know before you go on your first cruise" variety before we left, but I didn't learn much from them that turned out to be useful. Here are a few other things I didn't know, though. For one thing, if you like soft drinks--which are very expensive on board ship--before you buy one of the unlimited drink plans, check and see what drinks they're talking about. Our ship only had Pepsi products, which I don't drink. I was very glad I hadn't bought a drink plan--I don't drink enough to make it worth it--because if I had, I would have been pissed. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't have Coke products. Fortunately, although you can't bring alcohol on board, you can bring soft drinks, so I picked up a couple of Diet Dr Peppers along the way. I can live without them (really! I can stop any time!), but one or two afternoons a week, I just want one.
6. I had way more stuff than I needed. I tend to do that anyway, but it's good to be reminded. Pack all the things you think you'll need and then take about 20% of it out. I tend to pack for every contingency, but the truth is you can make do pretty well without a full complement of clothing choices. You can always buy a t-shirt along the way if you need to. Also, much to my surprise, it ended up being hard to do much in-depth reading, especially since I was often sitting and chatting with my mom. I ended up wishing I'd packed a stack of magazines to flip through.
7. So I've knocked another state off my list of STATES I'VE VISITED. All I have left now are Maine and West Virginia. That's depending on what you count-- I've only driven briefly through a corner of each of Nebraska and Kentucky, without stopping, so those should probably still be on the list, too.
Hope you had a great week. Being on a cruise is like entering an alternate dimension. It took several days when I got back to switch gears back to "real" life. Which isn't so bad--we're having a gorgeous fall.
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