2021 Alaska UnCruise – Fjords & Glaciers [Day 5 – Ketchikan, AK | Day 1 of Cruise]

Today is my last day in Ketchikan. Usually the trinket shops are closed on Sundays, but since they heard a ship was coming in they opened up the shops… I am guessing they didn’t know it was so small (74 passengers).

I started the morning by repacking my luggage before stopping at a souvenir store for some inexpensive items.

I returned back at the Gilmore Hotel at around 10:30 AM to check out and take a taxi up to the hospitality room at the Cape Fox Lodge. The hotel gave me a voucher for the taxi which was convenient because the Cape Fox Lodge tram doesn’t work – otherwise it would have been a 6 minute walk from my hotel.

When I got to the Cape Fox Lodge they didn’t ask to see the vaccination cards, or ID. They said they would check it at the ship… so I left my luggage there and they will send the big suitcases to my room and I left the laptop bag behind in case I needed the laptop before I got on the ship.

I walked down the hill to the Alaska Fish House for lunch.

The Alaska Fish House offers Ketchikan’s highest-quality seafood dining experience. Visit us for hours of operation, our menu offerings, or to reserve your cook your catch experience

The Alaska Fish House takes pride in serving the freshest seafood Ketchikan has to offer. Featured in simple dishes such as Fish & Chips, Fish Tacos, and Salmon Chowder. All at reasonable prices.

I ordered king crab legs and the salmon chowder. I was really impressed by the salmon chowder.

After lunch I took some more pictures of Ketchikan Creek and Creek Street. I also watched some people fishing off the bridge, one person had caught a salmon.

I hiked back up the hill to Cape Fox Lodge and took a picture of the bright green spruce tips which I later learned were the new needles and full of vitamin C…. so much so that sailors made beer from them to eliminate scurvy.

There was supposed to be a discussion on Ketchikan before we left, but the person who was supposed to talk had a family emergency and had to fly to Seattle.

The lead guide Kelly met us at the hospitality center and told us to rip up and throw away our itineraries…. literally. She explained that the itinerary is flexible due to weather and other practical reasons. I wasn’t too concerned since I already had information that the itinerary was very flexible.

Two shuttle buses came and picked us up from Cape Fox Lodge to berth #4 which was only a few minutes away.

When we arrived at the ship they took our pictures (so they could help remember our names – however they also made a book for us so we could remember each other’s names).

They also had one of the guides escort us to our room and explain how everything worked.

A short time after boarding we had a safety briefing and abandon ship drill as required by SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea). After this they also verified our vaccination cards and COVID test results.

The sailaway from berth #4 was pleasant, we cruised north past Totem Bight state park and the useless docked state ferries.

No fancy menus to take pictures of here, the choices were salmon or beef tenderloin. I picked the tenderloin, although the salmon also looked very nice. The tenderloin was very tender and I thought it was very good. I’m quite picky with steaks, so I was very pleasantly surprised.

They also held a meeting discussing some of the information about the region of Alaska we were visiting and on the next days activities – we would have a scenic cruise in the Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness at Rudyerd Bay and then have activities in the afternoon at Walker Cove.

At some point we turned around and headed back south to pass by Ketchikan at night. I heard they needed to stay within range of the cell phone towers to send in some paperwork, but I am not sure if that was true.