Alaska Cruisin'

We had a great time on our cruise overall. We've decided cruising may not be our new favorite way to vacation, but it was fun and Jack enjoyed it a lot. We arrived on board the Norweigian Jewel last Saturday.

 

 Jack did not enjoy the required safety briefing and fell asleep on daddy.

 However, as soon as that was over, he regained his excitement!

 The only day it was warm enough to swim in the pool was the first day while waiting to depart Seattle. Jack really liked the water slide (Mommy and Daddy both went on it too, but it was a bit slow!).

 On Monday, we arrived in Ketchikan, where it was a very rainy day. We had tickets to do a SeaCycle excursion, so off we went in the rain.

 The pictures aren't great, but the whole time I was very nervous I was going to drop my phone in the water! Luckily, they had hats and rain pants for us to help keep dry.

 Jack was a little nervous and scared about this in the beginning, and he didn't like all the gear he had to wear, but he was a brave boy!

 The Seacycle had a seat in the back and was perfect for three!

 We saw lots of animals, including eagles, a seal, jellyfish, star fish, and lots of birds.

 Selfie in the rain!

 Jack thought it was cool but didn't want to touch it!

 After our SeaCycle tour, we walked around town a little bit, saw the salmon coming up the creek,and did a little shopping.

 On board the ship, Jack got to meet Dora and Diego (he was excited!) and give them High Fives and hugs!

 One of Jack's favorite things on board was actually the shows at night. They had two showings, 7:15 and 9:15. It was nice that they had an early show for families. We attended every show except the Magician (there was a parental advisory on that one). Jack especially loved the acrobatics and dancing.

On Tuesday, we stopped in Juneau. It was a short stop and we didn't have an excursion booked, so we walked around town and then rode the Mt. Roberts tram to the top and hiked around a bit. 

That evening, we went to see a glacier. We ended up visiting the Dawes glacier in Endicott arm instead of the one we were originally scheduled to see. We aren't sure why the change was made, but it was cool.

 There were lots of ice chunks floating around:

Including a couple with seals on them:

 Jack liked using the "nonculars."

We weren't able to get super close in our huge cruise ship, but this smaller tour boat gives you a sense of size:

In Skagway, we did a walking tour of the historic parts of town, lead by the park service. 

 And then Jack played at the park before we headed back to the ship early.

Jack liked the towel animals each night.

And, he also got to do some fun crafts and go to a dance party with the Nicktoons:

 This was his favorite towel animal, hanging from the ceiling one night:

 He liked the cheesy mozzarella sticks.

 Mom and Dad liked the cocktails.

 Every time we sat down for dinner, he'd be out of his chair sitting right in the window wells so he could look outside.

We saw lots of dolphins, but didn't get any good pictures of them. Mike saw a Humpback whale, but Jack and I missed it.

Several times, we also dropped Jack off to play at the Kid's Club. One time, they returned not Jack but Batman to us afterwards:

 It was pretty most of the time, even if cool and overcast.

One day, Thursday, it was stormy and the boat was rocking quite a bit. Mike and I were both feeling it. Otherwise, the weather was a little cold, but not too bad.

 On our last night, we stopped in Victoria. We got off the boat just after 5pm and took a taxi downtown, intending to see the sights and get some dinner off the boat. It was a beautiful day in Victoria. However, Jack was struggling and melted down not long after we arrived. He was tired and had missed his nap, so we ended up walking around the harbor, about 40 minutes back to the boat. We got back early and ended up having dinner on the ship and going to bed early. Oh well...luckily we live pretty close to here, so maybe we can do a weekend away some time.

Then, Saturday morning we got off the boat, Lesa picked us up, we went home and did cleanup and errands for a few hours, and then dropped Jack back at Lesa's house and went to a wedding. Whew!