June 5th-June 8th
Sitka
Our second port of call in Alaska was Sitka, a small town on Baranof Island, which was Russian until 1867. The town is five miles away from the cruise ship terminal, but we were able to hop on a shuttle bus immediately.
Our first priority was finding a coffee shop with good wifi. Our first pit stop was at the back of a bookshop. It made an excellent cup of coffee, but offered no wifi.
Totem Pole in Sitka Pioneers…
Fortunately we came cross our wine waiter from Queen Elizabeth, who recommended a coffee shop away from the main drag, where we spent a fair bit of time. We had discovered that Lynne’s debit card was missing and once on-line, noticed a couple of suspicious transactions in South African Rand.
Trying to stop the card over a phone-line, from a tiny place in Alaska was a trial, resulting in Lynne being barred from telephone banking and Peter being put through to a line which got cut off.
We had a walk around the town, which was full of tourists, from another ship, much bigger than ours! We were happy to find a rustic saloon (bar) with a liquor store (off license) where we could buy some wine for our cabin. The weather was still fresh.
Howdy Pardner… Any champagne here?
Victoria
On re-embarking the ship, we discovered that the planned ship itinerary had changed. No longer were we to sail to Ketchikan the following day, but instead needed to sail directly to the town of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, for an additional Canadian Border inspection. The ship set off at quite a pace 21 to 22 knots, almost top speed. We would need a full day and two nights to get there.
This change might have been an irritation to us passengers, but the administration crew swung into action, as immigration procedures needed changing, all the on-shore excursions in Ketchikan cancelling and a whole new programme of entertainment established for the guests who now had a full day at sea to fill.
It was a pity to miss the scenery of sailing through the Inside Passage. We moored off Vancouver Island some 40 hours later for Border Control to board the ship at 10am, completing their inspection by 2.30pm. This meant that we finally got ashore at Victoria at 4.30pm.
To make up for the lost Alaskan shore day, we were allowed to spend the evening on-shore, which played havoc with the last night’s evening entertainment on-board the ship. Nobody in the audience. Neither were we!
We had thought of going to the famous gardens north of Victoria but we had missed the last express bus by some three hours. We decided not to chance taking a cab.
So we had a walk around the pleasant city of Victoria before heading back on board. With its timber old houses, parks and harbour, we were reminded of running along the river in Edmonton last year.
Arriving back, a similarly huge ship, the Carnival Luminosa, was berthing on the other side of our pier. The Luminosa is slightly smaller than Queen Elizabeth, but holds 40% more passengers. It was most impressive standing between these two enormous towers of floating steel.
Leaving the ship
The next morning saw our final disembarkation, with our rucksacks on our backs, straight through the port terminal. No form-filling nor immigration control. We took the metro (SkyTrain) and walked from there to our hotel in downtown Vancouver. We arrived by 10am, with a free day at our disposal.
It was a good time to leave the Queen Elizabeth. We had spent 16 days on board, and sailed over 9,800km. We were eager to enjoy the freedom of independent travel again, without the upselling pressure we felt onboard.
The ship was magnificent. Our cabin on deck seven allowed us a relatively tranquil passage, even when we travelled through gales and strong winds, cold and damp. Fortunately we identified the mildly clattering sound that disturbed us on our first night aboard – empty hangers in the wardrobe knocking against each other. Easily remedied.
No sun-bathing or swimming on-deck for us. Indeed it wasn’t until we reached the warmer, summer weather in Canada that we were allowed on the top 2 decks, which we explored for the first time.
We enjoyed the theatre and were impressed by the Royal Court Theatre Company – singers, dancers, orchestra and sound and lighting technicians. Four shows with tight, complex choreography, inventive song production and gutsy music. Brilliant young artists which we will probably see more of in the future.
Performers on other nights were variable in quality, from ‘impressive’ to ‘oh dear me….’. We attended some excellent lectures by astronaut Robert Thirsk, and Dr. Sue Bowler from the Royal Astronomical Society.
The ballroom dance classes were not a success. We didn’t really participate in the quizzes, games etc and pretty much kept to ourselves. Peter was fortunate to get a close view of a pod of orcas, porpoising along the side of the ship, but otherwise we only saw whales in the water.
Leaving Alaska
We spent less time in Alaska than we had expected. With the size of our ship and the number of passengers onboard, you get to see only the Alaska that borders the sea. Alaska is huge – twice the size of Texas. Clearly it has much nature to see, but not necessarily best accessed from a ship of our size.
Of course the places we visited relied on tourists visiting from cruise ships for their living. If we were tempted to visit Alaska again, then we would want to go much further inland. But we’ve been to pretty remote places including the Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland and Arctic Canada, which lessens the impact of Alaska’s great scenery. So, if we had to choose, we would probably choose to visit the other wild destinations.
