Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Our first port stop for the cruise was Juneau, AK and it was today. But we also weren’t docking until 2:30 pm and were able to have a leisurely morning and early afternoon, soaking up the scenery in the quiet environments of our balcony and the thermal suite.

We had no specific plans or excursions booked for our time in Juneau, only a rough expectation of wandering through the city and likely checking out their breweries. As we pulled into port I could see how much smaller it felt than its title of State Capital might suggest. Although perhaps exactly the size you would expect knowing that it is the only US capital city that can only be accessed via air or sea.

NCL’s dock in Juneau is about a mile from the center, but we skipped the free shuttle (and the line) and opted to just walk in. The weather was overcast but pleasant.

We walked fairly quickly through the first shopping area we encountered, just off the closer cruise ship docks, that was hyper-touristy. Why are people traveling so far to just buy tshirts and plastic crap made in China?

We did enjoy taking a picture with this sign tho.

We pushed through to what felt just a bit more local (although still obviously surrounded by shops for tourists), and grabbed a coffee at Heritage. We sat in the window for people watching and overheard the barista telling another tourist which shops in town offered authentic indigenous art pieces. She specifically named Mt. Juneau Trading Post as a place that sold pieces made by her family member. That was our next stop, and it was a nice place to browse and enjoy the art. Luckily they had some portable items in my price range for me to pick up… stickers. <face palm>

Juneau also had some gorgeous public art pieces that I really, really loved. Public art is EVERYTHING.

And then on to the important work of the day… three breweries and a food truck court.

Devil’s Club Brewing was our mid-sized visit of the day. A nice variety of styles, and a good mix of locals and tourists inside. Hot tip: upstairs vibe was better (at least the day we were there).

Barnaby Brewing was our small-sized visit of the day, with that somewhat minimalist, industrial feel that a lot of new brewery spaces have. The beer here was my fave of the day, and not just because they had an adorable, friendly cat wandering around. Fun fact: apparently it’s really easy to break Alaska State Law, especially if you were hypothetically going to be visiting three breweries in one day.

UGH… THEY’RE PERMANENTLY CLOSED NOW! BUMMER!

And of course we hit up the ginormous Alaskan Brewing Public House with a big souvenir shop attached. I was part of the problem and bought stickers. Beers were about as good as these big places typically are. I am quite pleased that they haven’t sold out to Budweiser yet though, and Google tells me that as of 2016 they were the 19th largest craft brewery in the world. And their own website tells me that they’re “the 67th independent brewery in the country and the first brewery in Juneau since Prohibition.” That’s pretty cool!

There was a collection of food trucks in (behind?) a place labeled on Google Maps as Gunakadeit Park that looked great. Several options with covered outdoor seating. Definitely a lot of locals there. I indulged in a salmon crepe, and Scott was a monster and had a hotdog made out of Rudolph.

With full bellies and exacerbated liver damage we managed to avoid arrest and walked the mile back to the boat. And we went ahead and grabbed another photo next to the city sign along the way. Because why not? We are freaking adorable.

Once onboard, we were able to catch some end of the evening time in the super quiet thermal suite before heading to our comfy bed.

Until next time Juneau… I enjoyed our time together very much. And you’re right, gray really is the best color.

Monday, August 19, 2024

A full day at sea is the best way to start a cruise, I think. Time to settle in, decompress, find your vacation vibe. No alarm clock and a lazy pace.

We had two planned engagements for the day: the Latitudes event and another specialty dinner reservation.

Latitudes is the loyalty program for NCL, so if you have a certain tier or higher then you get invited to this event. I had pictured the event as more of a meet & mingle thing to meet other NCL nerds, but instead we were all seated separately at tables in the Q Texas Smokehouse specialty restaurant and served drinks and snacks while ship officers came around for awkward hellos. Maybe I’m the awkward thing, not the hellos.

After that was over we got changed and got our stuff together for our first Thermal Suite experience. This was something Scott splurged on for us to minimize the possibility that I would be a whiny brat on a cruise ship again. I took very minimal photos in the space during the trip, and zero today. But here’s a video that someone else made to give an idea:

What the video doesn’t say is that there are no children allowed and access to the space is limited to only a certain number of people. And generally it’s understood that this is a quiet space. (I say generally because one day there was a hillbilly sitting in the hot tub yelling across the room like it was a pool club, and no amount of passive aggressive stares were giving him a clue.) So if nothing else this is an awesome place to avoid most other humans, which is what my introvert heart adores the most.

Today I alternated between the big, warm, bubbly pool and a lounger with a crochet amigurumi project, my headphones, and an audiobook. I learned/reinforced previous learning that I’m not that into saunas or other types of “treatments”. But buying a thermal suite pass was definitely a huge WIN for this vacation and it was evident from this very first day of enjoyment!

As evening rolled around we dressed for dinner and decided to have a pre-meal drink at the District Brewhouse. Because we like beer. But I got a cocktail. The vibe and seating and natural light in this bar was fantastic – definitely a favorite spot on this ship!

Thanks to Scott’s Platinum status with Latitudes we had two additional specialty dining nights in addition to the two that already came with our cruise fare. So four out of our seven nights we were able to enjoy really nice meals. He’s kind of a big deal.

Tonight we had booked the steakhouse Cagney’s, and used the coupon that included the free bottle of wine. Which is kind of silly because you can have as many glasses of wine as you want with our cruise fare, but hey, why not. We got a pinot grigio because it’s my honey’s favorite.

Then for appetizers Scott got the grilled bacon and I got the shrimp trio, we each had steaks (obvi) for entrees, and we enjoyed some creme brulee for dessert. Decadent! I am a spoiled girl.

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Today we boarded our Alaska cruise. My first and Scott’s fourth! We were booked on the Norwegian Encore on a 7-night itinerary, embarking and disembarking in Seattle.

Readers of my prior cruise blogging might remember me as quite disenfranchised with the vacation method. But with some more careful planning, strategic upgrades, and taking advantage of Scott’s new loyalty tier perks I had high hopes this would be a different experience.

One thing I decided I wanted to duplicate from our last cruise experience was to walk to the port. In Reykjavik that distance was a hair under 2 miles, and granted this would be a bit longer. Maybe it would help me justify just a bit of the calories I would be consuming over the next week.

We set out by 9:00 am, and were rewarded very quickly into our route by the best wildlife viewing at The Ballard Locks I have ever had. Osprey being chased by seagulls, seals AND sea lions, heron, and a very full salmon ladder.

If you’re curious, my t-shirt says, “Sorry. Can’t. Hockey. Bye.”. It’s one of my most favorite Goodwill finds, ever. GOOOOO KRAKEN!!!

We crossed thru Magnolia to join the Elliott Bay Trail down through Myrtle Edwards Park to get to the waterfront.

The weather was perfect and we live in a very pretty place. I had to sit for a few minutes rest in Myrtle Edwards due to a pain down my leg. I think my IT band was being irritated from my pack putting pressure on my left hip? Overall the trip was a flat 5.5 miles and took us about around 2.5 hours, just in time for our scheduled 11:30 am boarding time.

I tried the Relive app… so fun!

Check-in was super smooth and efficient. I think Scott’s priority boarding status only saved us 5-10 minutes.

Once onboard we did our super fast muster station check-in and then headed to The Local for lunch. It’s one of NCL’s included food venues that’s open 24 hours (or maybe just nearly 24 hours?). It’s a great option for people like me that aren’t buffet fans but want something less fussy than a big dining room. I quickly noted that the food quality of our lunch was better than what we had on our Iceland/Greenland cruise last year – I’m thinking it’s probably more difficult for them to source in Reykjavik?

After lunch we wandered the boat (don’t bother correcting me to say “ship”, because that is a ridiculous thing to correct someone about). We got a tour of the thermal suite and made sure we didn’t overpay for our pass by purchasing in advance (I’ll write more about this place later). We also checked out the casino and got the info on how to accrue points for possible rewards (um, you just put your room key in the machine… duh). We ended up on the “Waterfront” for awhile, which is outside along deck 8, drinking at the Cavern Club and chatting with Republicans (which was easier to do back in August).

When they made the announcement that rooms were accessible we went to check ours out. Very happy with our splurge on the balcony room! Super comfy and spacious for us, and our deck was oddly longer due to our cabin location – the last starboard cabin before the cabins switch to aft-facing. Cabin 9916!

When your man has Platinum status you even get to find chocolate covered strawberries in your room!

A little bit before the scheduled sail away time we went up to the top deck for views of our amazing city and to check out the aptly-named sail away party. It was the most well-attended and energetic sail away party that I’ve been to… the people watching was great, especially since I was a few well-poured cocktails and beers in at this point.

Our bags came pretty late, maybe around 4-5pm, but still in plenty of time to change for our 8 pm dinner reservation at Los Lobos, the Mexican-inspired specialty dining restaurant. The reviews we found of this place online and on YouTube leading up to the cruise were right – this was some very enjoyable Mexican-ish food!

I didn’t last much past dinner and enjoyed our comfy bed immensely.