Final day of the cruise was a beautiful scenic cruising through the British Columbia Inside Passage. We went all the way to Alaska and had the best whale sighting here in British Columbia 😄 Sorry, no pictures, but it was a pod of whales in close range.

We had a full day, starting with Ask the Captain (the best question asked: Did we leave some people in Ketchikan? Yes, we did) followed by the Mariners Lunch. No, it’s not lunch for Seattle Mariner fans. It’s a lunch for returning Holland America passengers.

In the afternoon, I went to Meet the Performers of Lincoln Center Stage, followed by their performance.

In the evening, we had dinner at Pinnacle Grill. After the dinner, I saw one last performance of Lincoln Center Stage, then the variety show of comedian and magician, then it was time to pack 😦

Not a good day today. I woke up with fever, stuffy nose, sore throat, and headache. I ended up sleeping most of the day, never leaving the ship. We had to cancel our shore excursion to Mysty Fjords.

I did feel better later afternoon and managed to snap a few pictures from the ship.

Today is the main event of the cruise, Glacier Bay scenic cruising. It started out foggy, but soon cleared up and turned out to be a beautiful day.

This is our second time here, and I must say the Margerie Glacier isn’t as magnificent as we remember. There were less calving, and I thought Sawyer Glacier was prettier with its blue color. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our visit.

Tonight was the second Gala Night. It was the surf and turf night, but I had duck.

Today, we took the White Pass Railroad tour. Last time we went only as far as Fraser, but this time, we went all the way to Lake Bennett and Carcross, Yukon.

Lake Bennett was the starting point of Chilkoot Trail during the Gold Rush. It’s an abandoned town now, and only accessible via the White Pass Railroad.

After exploring the town of Lake Bennett, we went to Carcross, where we got on a tour bus back to Skagway.

Back in Skagway, we walked along the Broadway. Not much else to see in this small town.

Back on the ship, we had dinner in Tamarind, the Asian specialty restaurant only available in Holland America’s Signature and Pinnacle class ships. The food was great. Wish they had this in all of their ships.

This morning, I saw a lot of whales as we sailed toward Juneau. But before getting to Juneau, we got on a boat from the ship for a excursion to Tracy Arm.

It was cloudy, but thankfully no rain. And South Sawyer Glacier was beautiful.

Today was a good day for wildlife viewing. There were seals near the glacier. I couldn’t take any pictures, but we saw some mountain goats too. Then there were mother and child brown bears. (My husband got better pictures. I’ll try to get them later.)

When we finally arrived in Juneau, it was pouring rain, so we didn’t spend much time there.

 

Today was at sea day. We were in and out of fog all day, but when we were not in fog, it was a beautiful scenic cruising through the Inside Passage. I spent most of my morning looking at the ocean from our verandah.

In the afternoon, I went to a presentation on local whales and a briefing on the Glacier Bay day.

Then we walked through the ship again, exploring the places we didn’t go yesterday. I think we covered the entire ship now.

In the evening, we had our first Gala dinner. After the dinner, we went to a very entertaining magic show (supposedly famous magician, Leon Etienne), then after that, I went to listen to the live classical performance at my favorite entertainment venue on the Holland America cruises, Lincoln Center Stage.

Tommorow is our first port of call, Juneau. But before we get to Juneau, we’ll be boarding a boat from the ship to visit Tracy Arm Fjord. It looks like it’s going to rain tomorrow though. I hope we can see something…