Local guide maps. The Skagway and Walking Tour Maps are at the top.
The ship was set to arrive in Skagway at 7 AM and my tour was set to meet at 8:15 AM, so I didn’t have an opportunity to explore before my tour. I set my camera up and walked outside. It was windy with a sprinkle, so I decided to ditch the new expensive camera and go with my older still camera. There was a small rainbow next to the ship which I managed to get a picture of. Luckily we were at the Ore dock today as if we were at the Broadway dock like last week I may not have been able to see the rainbow through the ship docked at the Ore dock.
Today’s tour – Scenic Summit Drive, yes again. Why – because it was free with the $50 shore excursion discount and I didn’t think the train was worth the money.
The tour guide this week was different, so I did get a little different commentary.
The first stop on the tour was the fancy new city bathrooms. Well I suppose better safe than sorry. You would think at the age most people are that they would know enough to go before they got off the ship.
A very brief tour through town (don’t blink, you might miss it) and we were on our way to Canada.
So the first scenic stop was the waterfall next to the pipeline that goes to the hydroelectric power station.
And then we passed by the old earthquake proof single-sided suspension bridge.
The jagged mountain peaks were out this morning.
Next stop – ‘ Welcome to Alaska’ sign. I had the guide get the glacier in the background too.
Next stop – Canada! And there are some nice glaciers visible from the stop.
This waterfall is supposedly called international falls and apparently half of the water goes to the ocean and the other half goes to Canada. But not sure if I can really trust the tour guide on this one.
I took some photos as we passed by the international border.
After passing through US customs without a real problem (CBP computer was down because someone cut the internet in town) we were on our way back to town.
We made one final stop by the bridge to get a photo of these mountains.
I had some time now to explore the city. I found this interesting statue.
I took another picture of the old locomotive and the old snowblower.
I bought a hat – it was $5 because it says 2021 on it, but you can’t see it in the picture, can you?
I got a few more photos of the train and the historic buildings. The locomotive is obviously not historic, but a modern diesel electric – but I guess no one wants to be stranded on the rail lines.
I walked back to the ship and took another picture of the modified 1927 dodge truck giving tours as a streetcar.
I decided it was time for a hamburger (despite the fact that it isn’t Guy Fieri’s). It was a good bacon and blue cheese hamburger from O’Sheehans.
Time for my next tour – you guessed it, the Scenic Summit Drive (again).
The first stop was the bathroom, again. Skagway is mighty proud of their public bathrooms.
A quick tour of town (is there any other kind in Skagway) and we were once again on the way to Canada.
The mountaintop glacier was pretty spectacular now.
The waterfall next to the hydroelectric pipe again. It’s still nice.
And then we found a bear! This is one reason why I did the tour again, you don’t ever really see the same thing twice. The bear was on the other side of the bus, but I still got a couple of pictures that look like a bear.
The jagged mountain peaks.
And then another surprise, the most awesome rainbow over a valley with a small lake. The guide was high fiving me now for going a second time on the tour.
It’s awesome to see a rainbow, but to get one in an area like this is quite spectacular.
Next stop was the ‘Welcome to Alaska’ sign. I took a picture of this stone creature instead.
This time when we got to Canada we could see the train in the valley. Perfect timing.
One last waterfall picture from the tour.
After we got back to the ship we went for a short nature walk the tour guide recommended. It was very easy and had great views of the ships.
Near the beginning of the trail, just after the bridge by the airport I found these flowers.
I took some pictures as the ship was leaving, you could see the massive scar from the landslide that actually blocked the use of one of the piers.
I got some more photos while the ship was sailing, the water had different colors from where there was fresh water running in from rivers.
On the first night they have instructions in the FreeStyle Daily to register for a chance to win dinner with an officer. No one ever reads this, and if they actually do very few ever register at guest services. I did and I won the raffle. Not sure how many people won, but I can guess there was less than 10 who signed up.
So tonight dinner was in the main dining room. If I didn’t have the alcohol package it would be free flowing. I had an idea about ordering a steak from Cagney’s as they had that on the normal main dining room menu, but as you can see from the menu it has been purposely omitted on the menu with the officers. We didn’t have to fight over seats as they were assigned with name cards.
I did cheat a little on the menu – I ordered the potato gnocchi for my starter.
For my main I went with the Chinese style barbeque pork.
We were actually seated with the HR director. He started with Costa, moved to Viking and then got recruited by NCL. He was very interesting to talk to – and I learned that the staff were allowed to have alcohol, so I decided to gift the “free bottles of wine” we get at the specialty restaurants to some of the staff.
And of course I didn’t forget about dessert.
The banana split sounds soo good, but I went with the fig and apple cobbler.
I enjoyed the rest of the evening with some Colortinis in bar city listening to Melvin, who was an awesome singer.
Google didn’t actually track me at all today, so no timeline to post today.