NCL only allotted a half-day in Ketchikan for today’s port stop, 7AM-1:15PM. And it’s made even shorter by the fact that they dock quite a ways out of town requiring a (complimentary) old yellow school bus shuttle service. You can pay for an excursion that includes transportation, or hire a taxi for a chunk of money. I have vague memories of a $50 one-way price gouge on those taxis but who can blame a town for cashing in on dumb tourists especially when their tourist season is so short.
The great thing about the shuttles is that they are driven by locals who gave us commentary in both directions. On the way in our driver gave us general info about the town, and on the way back to the ship a different driver educated us about local tribe culture based on his own lived experience.
The town was quite a bit bigger than I had imagined, since so much tourist info on YouTube is focused on Creek Street.
We didn’t eat breakfast on the ship, so our natural first stop very near to the shuttle drop-off was Jellyfish Donuts. Perfect solution.
We then headed directly to Creek Street with its historic buildings and gift shops. I knew a creek ran through it (DUH) but was not prepared for the front row seats at the Olympics event of salmon running going on here. Those fish are badass.
We used our remaining time to wander and browse on our path back to the shuttle pick up area.
We stopped into a local book store so I could buy a sticker (always stickers) and Scott had this fortuitous find of his new favorite book:
I did that thing again where I walk into a local yarn shop “just to browse”. Yeah, you know where this is headed. Fabulous Fiber Arts was just too good, and I grabbed two more goodies from Raven Frog Fibers.
You can tell this was too short of a day because the only brewery experience was Scott ducking into Bawden Street Brewing for the fastest pint ever while I was yarn shopping. We definitely need to go back to Ketchikan with a longer port day scheduled or ideally another transportation method.
Back onboard we had our last specialty dinner meal at Q Texas Smokehouse with some live music. We enjoyed the food but again, way too much was served and I ended up feeling bad about the waste. Next time I’ll know to not order every course included in the price.
We finished up our evening with our reserved 10 PM showing of Choir of Man which was really well done!
Kjar-ied Away 