2022 Alaska Cruise Part 2

Come listen to part 2 of George and Lisa's cruise to Alaska.  

Transcript

intro  
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listen as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. George and Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A Tiffin motorcoach and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Hi, friends welcome back to RView. I'm Lisa RichartHernandez.

George  
And I'm George Hernandez.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
And today we're going to tell you all about our excursions that we took on our Alaskan cruise. And all the activities that we enjoyed while we were there. Last time we had so much cruise information to tell you about, we didn't even get a chance to tell you about all the cool things we actually did in Alaska. So I guess the best way to do this is to just kind of start by telling you like from day one to day seven, you know what activities we did. We'll try to get through this all in in one in one podcast today. But if not, you know, we'll make it into two. So I think we told you all about we arrived in Seattle, we use the carnival carnival to book our airlines we got there at the last minute. We did it. This was a vaccinated crews. So we had to upload our vaccination cars and proof of COVID and negative COVID test to a verify app that they have. So this is how they keep track of everybody having their things they verified ahead of time. So if you're planning a cruise, definitely download these apps. Upload your information. You know, unfortunately right now you still have to be vaccinated to go on a lot of these cruises. Good thing was there was no mask mandate for us. So if you it was optional, if you wanted to wear a mask you could the staff did wear masks, but the cruisers were not required to wear masks in the public areas inside the ship.

George  
No. And that was very nice. I'm glad we were fortunate enough to not have to wear masks. I can't imagine doing a cruise with wearing the mask the whole time. 

Lisa RichartHernandez  
yeah, that would have taken away and especially like photos and stuff like that would just been kind of a bummer to have. Chin diver on everywhere. When we get on our cruise ships. The first thing we always love to do is there's a place called Guy's Burger Joint and it's guy theory from the Food Network. If you watch him, he does diners, drive ins and dives he actually has the best I mean, I swear they're the best burgers. I look forward to getting these burgers. I plan my calories ahead of time because I'm like getting that burger from guys when we get on board. And so I think that's the first place we hit we were hungry

George  
Come our tradition like free cruise we've been on for a while now. We always go straight to guys grab a burger and find a place to sit and watch the as we leave whatever port we're leaving from

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, yeah. So George loves to love to be on the top deck and see everything as we pull out. So we after we had our guys burgers, which just by the way, like if you get on the cruise ship early, there's there's plenty of food options, I believe that the buffet is open and then the Guy's Burger Joint. But you'll see everybody is just eating Guys Burgers pretty much all day. And the bars and everything are open, the only time the bars are closed is during the safety check, which we talked about in our last podcast. But they've really slowed down that muster station. I mean made it so much simpler. You just have to go and check in. So it used to be everybody had to get their together and nobody could have a cocktail for like almost 45 minutes. Well they shut

George  
everything down. stores, they short, they close all the bars, they just want to make sure that you're at the muster station.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, so now you just have to go check in at the muster station, and then they close the actual bar, but you can still have your drink. So that's cool.

George  
Or like we'd like to call the mustard state.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
That's right. That's right. So we got our bike guys burger and then we headed up to the serenity deck which is the adult only section of the pool of the cruise ship. You have to be 21 or over to get in there. Now on this Alaska cruisers, not a lot of kids might have been because it was May in school was still in most places. But generally speaking, there wasn't a lot of children. So it's still nice to have that adult serenity jack in the back there was a bar back there, a really great panoramic view because you've got the whole back of the ship. So pulling out of Portland, Seattle was very beautiful. could see the whole bay of

George  
the whole bay, you could see the sky needle you could see both sides of I guess one side of Seattle and then the other side is whatever the name of that town is, but it's just a beautiful scene as you're pulling out pulling out it's and we lucked out that the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was a sunny day. There was no fog. It was just it was just perfect to be back there and enjoy being back on a cruise ship.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yes, for sure. That first night and the second whole day was a fun day at sea. So a fun day at sea was definitely different on this Alaska cruise than it would be on say for example, Caribbean cruise where we're going somewhere try topical and warm. And normally when we're on a Caribbean cruise, we're like, Yay, we're gonna do fun day at sea. We're gonna hang out by the pool and drink frozen cocktails and listen to the music. And it's just kind of chilling out. Well, there was a cover, we were on Carnival Splendor. And so the main pool area did have a retractable cover, which they close was warm enough, I guess, if you want to say to swim in the pool, but

George  
it was warm enough for the kid. People. But yeah, mostly kids. Yeah, mostly kids. And every time I saw a kid get out of the pool, they were shivering and it just didn't look pleasant at all. Yeah. So,

Lisa RichartHernandez  
you know, we we kind of, we kind of overdid it. The first night, we went to our Alchemy Bar, which is one of our favorite bars. I think we've talked about before with the craft cocktails and had some great bartenders there that we got to know. And I think we did a comedy show that night.

George  
No, that night, we went to the nightclub. Okay. So they, they they have carpet nightclub.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah. So they they had, oh, and then we must have done the piano bar that night, too. Because we did the piano bar, then we went to the nightclub. So the piano bar was really fun. That's like one of those, we pay the guy, you know, give him what you don't pay him. You give him like, you can he'll take song suggestions. And this guy. I mean, he could he could play. He could play anything.

George  
Pretty much. I mean, the songs was just massive.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
One of my favorite things that he did was the piano man. You know, that's the most requested song for you know, Piano Guys, piano bars, just saying. And so it was kind of funny because he made everybody via character. So like a man. There's an old man sitting next to me. So there's like the old man, and there's a waitress who's practicing politics and the businessman slowly get stoned. And so like when it got to that point on the song, like, whoever the person was, had to act out their thing. So you made it really fun and interactive. And we had a great time there. I met some more like good friends at that. And then, and then it was like, rolled on over to the, to the nightclub, I think was open to like, literally like four in the morning.

George  
I don't know. But I think we close that too. And that was the first night. So needless to say, a second day we were or at least I was pretty hungover. But you know, we had traveled the whole day, we left our house at four A. And first day is always rough. And we just we can't lose, we were just happy to be able to start relaxing. And we did and we relaxed and we enjoyed the ship. And we got day one knocked out. And then it was nice that day two was a sea day. So we didn't we so we didn't have to worry about oh, man, now we're hungover and we're gonna go on an excursion.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
So day two was our fun day at sea. And day three was, we still were on the ship, but it was Tracy Arm fjord. And this is where the balcony room really comes into play. Because you're just going through this very scenic, like we're all the glaciers are in these beautiful mountains. And the water is beautiful. We actually enjoyed our balcony for quite some time that day. And then we decided we kind of wanted to get more of a 360 view of what was going on. So we went up to the upper deck to take photos. And it was just gorgeous.

George  
Yeah, and the scenery was incredible. And I'm glad we went up to the upper deck because we were literally running from one side of the ship to take pictures. And then we would run to the other side to take pictures because there were waterfalls everywhere. Somebody would go, Oh my God, look at the size of this iceberg. So you'd run over there and take pictures. And if we were in our balcony, you only get one side of the ship. So

Lisa RichartHernandez  
which is okay, I guess if you didn't, I didn't realize because the ship turns around and comes back out. So one way you get one view and one way you get the other view, right? We didn't know that at the time. So we were like, well, we don't want to miss anything. We better run upstairs, but it was

George  
still fun being up there with people and you know, hearing the oohs and ahhs and it was so beautiful. It's so hard to describe that it's just amazing.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, and I will say for like the day before on our fun day at sea. It was like rainy, cold ocean Nothing to see here people all day like so we were indoors all day and the water was rough. Yeah, it was it was it was pretty rough. So you know people do get seasick on on cruise ships. So if you have any inclination inclination that you may you may want to bring motion sickness medicine or Dramamine or whatever it is that you use, so you don't get seasick. So Tracy Arm fjord. We were supposed to the ship was supposed to go take you down to see this iceberg. Well, we got there and I was like, Man, that's a lot of ice in the water. Like, how are we gonna get through that? I wondered if we had one of those ships that had like the To the iceberg Crusher on the front but then when the cruise ship stopped and said we can't go any farther because it'd be too dangerous. I was like, Oh, apparently we don't have one of those ice crusher things. So cruise director, his name was Andy he they would they come on, you know the speaker and kind of tell you where we're going and what's happening that day. And he said, once we get into Tracey's arm because of sound pollution, they can't use the outside speakers anymore. So when we stopped, you know, the sent the message out, I guess, must have only been on the inside. But it said, Hey, we can't go any further. But there is two smaller boats that are excursions that are still have room on them if you want to do it to go see the iceberg up up close. Not iceberg. Sawyer glacier. Oh, sorry. Glacier glacier. Yes, the glaciers. And so we're like, only gonna, you know, we're here, we got to see the glacier. So we ran downstairs, and we did get on and they were about $200 A person or like 189, or something. But I'm really glad we chose to do that at the last minute. Yeah,

George  
I'm super glad we did it, I would have been disappointed to go all that way and not have seen it. It was one of the coolest parts, I think, yeah, they got us really close as close as they could get. I think she said we were within a quarter mile of the glacier, it was either

Lisa RichartHernandez  
a quarter mile or half mile. There's some sort of conservation things where you can't get a certain. But we could see there, we got to see seals, there was like some sea lions, or a lot of icebergs. I mean, I'm not okay, so I gotta tell you this. So the ship, the boat that we are on, there was two of them. And it was sort of like a catamaran where it had, like, you know, to pontoons at the bottom. But it was enclosed that you'd be inside and there's a Windows and then you could also go outside and see and then like an upper deck to view. But while we were cruising along, they would ask you to like, kind of sit down. And so you can see there's so the captain of our of our boat was like this young girl. I mean, like, I don't know, maybe her like, she seemed like she was in like her 20s or something. And I'm looking out there at the water and it is covered and icebergs, like, you could practically probably walk from iceberg iceberg.

George  
no clear path.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
And it was like, How in the world is she gonna get through this? And I mean, she was badass. I was like, I was just more impressed by watching her drive that the boat was like, you're like, getting through it. I mean, I don't even know how she did it. It was so cool. And then we were standing on the bag and there was these like, gigantic icebergs coming up from like, the middle of the boat. I'm like, how did we get over it?

George  
It was actually pretty impressive. Because some of them she just lit being a catamaran. She literally just ran right over them in the middle. But in the middle, you could hear banging up against the side, which is, you know, a little little scary because we've all seen Titanic. Exactly. I mean, she just forged through and it was it was awesome. That part of it was really cool.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
I think that was a three hour excursion.

George  
Yes, it was. It was all of three hours. And again, we got really close to Sawyer glacier.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, so they so what at what happened is the ship stopped where where we got on to that boat. And then we went and saw the glacier. And then the ship turned around and kind of like headed started heading back out of the fjord. And then our little boats came in met back up with the ship and we got onto the ship, you know, right in the, in the water. So wasn't like we were on land and got on another boat. Like those boats have like, pulled up and we jumped out onto the boat. It was pretty cool.

George  
Yeah, it was very cool. One of the things they did that I you know, I'm, I guess I'm nerd, but they actually scooped out a piece of ice from the water. And it was the clearest ice I've ever seen in my life. Not one air bubble in it. It was super clear. We got to hold it everybody took pictures with it. I thought it was really cool. It looked

Lisa RichartHernandez  
like a piece of glass. I mean, I was so shocked by how blue it's this like almost like a turquoise blue. That these ice iceberg icebergs are there I guess because the more pure the water is the better the light reflects or some

George  
that the guy said the water so pure. That's one thing. The second thing is the iceberg. The ice soaks in all the colors of the rainbow but only reflects the blue. That's why it's so so blue. Yeah, which was interesting. And and on board they were selling selling margaritas that were supposed to be made with the ice the glacier ice.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Oh, yeah, that's right. There are ice margaritas. Yeah. So you get drinks on there. So like we loved that excursion and we're so glad we did it but I cannot like speak to okay, if there weren't gleesh? If we, if the ship was able to get down there, would it have been that much better? would have been worth $400? I don't know. But in our situation, I was really glad we did it. Because you got to get a lot closer. And, you know, just the experience of of even seeing. You don't realize how big the ship is and how big the icebergs are until you actually get down to the water level. You know?

George  
Yes, the icebergs really got big when we got on the smaller boat.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, yeah. So just the perspective of it. And the photos were really, really good. Yeah. And

George  
the excursion. The girl said that we got way closer than the cruise ship would have been allowed to get to. So I'm glad we did it again. I'm sure it would have been beautiful from the cruise ship. But to get that much closer was well worth well worth the 189 99 that they charged us per person.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that night, I believe is was our first night at the steakhouse.

George  
Yes, that was our first night at what was it called? Fahrenheit? 555?

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yes. So carnival, I think they've done a great job at this. There's all kinds of restaurants and everything to eat that's free and included with your all inclusive package. But if you really want more of an upscale experience, a better culinary experience, they have opportunities for you to buy things and pay a little bit extra to do it. So I believe the steak house was $40 a person I

George  
think it was, it was between 40 and $50 per person. And it was really, really nice steak house. I enjoyed the food tremendously.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah. So you had to make a reservation for that. And like I said, they charge you extra for it. But it and I think we made the reservation for this one before we left, which is you can you can do that on your cruise planner ahead of time. And because it does get booked up, because there's limited seating, but it was, it was good food. I had the servant serve a filet and lobster tail, and mushroom risotto and just shrimp cocktail. And I think you had the same everything was very tasty. And you could have like, whatever you wanted off the menu like you could, I mean, I think I had like a soup or salad or an appetizer or the steak. And then we had this really cool dessert that they did. What was it called?

George  
It was called Art at your table, which was really cool. And if you go if you do the cruise, I highly recommend that it was it was really nice.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
It was the art of the table was probably more of the presentation was really cool than the actual flavor of it. I mean, the dessert part of it was don't get me wrong, it was good. But it was just more like of an experience for him. They bring this whole board out. And they've got like these different chocolates and moves. And he sort of decorates this whole board with all these things and places it on there. I pick it. I think it's a tick tock of

George  
video. And it's one of the chefs, obviously the dessert chef, but they he comes out and he explains what everything is raspberry puree and and then all sudden he'll start drawing with that and then a mango puree. And he does. By the end of his presentation, you got this edible piece of art on your table. And it was just it was a cool experience. And I thought everything on there was really tasty and yummy. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  
yeah, as a matter of fact, we liked Fahrenheit 555 so much that we went two times over the course of seven days while we were there. So

George  
well, the second one we didn't plan and we got comp from the casinos. And it was the very next day. So we were like, Okay, well, we're not gonna pass up a free meal

Lisa RichartHernandez  
and loves her two days in a row. 

George  
Yeah, we just swapped out our appetizers.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, yep, so definitely recommend that. One thing I'm a little bit disappointed in ourselves for doing is we never really made it to our table for dining in the dining room. But we did talk to a lot of the other guests, and they said, You really aren't missing anything. It wasn't really that great. So we're from Charleston, South Carolina. And we're admittedly foodies, and we are spoiled by fabulous restaurants where we live. And it's hard to compare cruise ship food, and I feel like it's all relative. So some people might have thought that that was amazing food where other people were like, No, this isn't that good. So just just keep that in mind. And managing your expectations, I think are the most important thing. If you go to the dining room, you're not happy with it. Try one of the things that you pay extra for, you know, like the steak house and see if if that satisfies you

George  
or try one of the many other free options. Yeah, I mean, if you walk off of a cruise ship and you told me that you were went hungry. Yeah, we got we got a problem. You're not gonna go hungry.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
There's definitely people that were not going hungry. I could tell you that

George  
one thing that Somebody brought up to me and I thought was maybe right on. He said that, you know, we got to keep in mind that these cruise ships have been down for two years. And this particular cruise that we went on was just the second cruise since they were down for COVID. So they're just kind of, like, I guess stretching their legs again, and they're all a little rusty. They haven't done anything for two years. So he was like, you know, just give them a little credit. I knows the service was

Lisa RichartHernandez  
excellent. I don't have a service as always fantastic. Excellent. Everywhere we went, we'd never waited for anything. I felt like they were all really working hard for us and everyone was super thankful. That's one thing also, I'd like to make note of is like, they were so thankful to be back and cruising and making money again and working. Even when we were in Alaska. They were like, We're just so glad to have you guys back.

George  
Oh, they said they struggled for two years when there were no cruise ships. I mean, there's really no other industry. They've got fishing, obviously, during the winter months, but their summer depends on tourism and cruise ships and they had nothing.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, it was really hard on the Alaskan people. Yeah.

George  
So we're glad to be back and we're glad that they're glad that we're back.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
So that right yeah. So that was pretty much it for Tracy Arm fjord. We had a great day. And our next day, we did icy strait point, which was I feel like that place was pretty much just built for cruise ships. They they had a nice thing and it was a big part of their their town. And there we did, the excursion we did there was a whale watching and wildlife bearer watching excursion, it was pretty much an all day thing. We had an early morning,

George  
but they broke it down into two parts, which was nice.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, so right off the ship. They have like a walkway over to it you'll kind of notice that you go on like cruises where the cruise ships come there's always like a little kind of touristy area right off the ship that you can watch and get you know, souvenirs and a few little restaurants and stuff like that where where you can go so what but our boat to go whale watching was right literally on the dock right there. And they had the little signs like usual so we got down there. I think it was like 730 or eight o'clock in the morning pretty early early. But don't forget with the time change for East Coast people It wasn't wasn't too too bad. Getting up that early. But we did have to wake up early. And then we did whale watching for like, I think two hours.

George  
Yeah, we were out there for quite a while and we saw a ton of whales. It was so cool. We got to see them breaching, they were feeding. So they created this air bubble net. And then they come up through the middle and we saw them coming up and eating the fish or whatever they were eating. It was really cool. Yeah, they

Lisa RichartHernandez  
said they chased the halibut. And the you could kind of see like a whole bunch of birds like because the birds would sort of get the whatever's left in the waters. And yeah, that was the warning. So that was kind of like how they found it. And it was pretty cool because all the all the whale watching boat captains kind of keep in touch, I think via radio and sort of tell help each other out to where they are so that they can, because they do guarantee that you'll see a whale on those. So they've got a vital.

George  
I mean, it's pretty simple when you get to even see whales from the cruise ship, so they're not gonna lose their money. Yeah, I

Lisa RichartHernandez  
suppose that's true. But that was we really enjoyed that excursion that

George  
we got. We got really close to the whales closer than any whale watching thing that we've ever done.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah. And of course, that's all based on luck. You know, you could be like, wow, it comes up right next to this ship. But you just your bow, it's really hard to tell one thing about these boats that they take you out on that I did like in as far as when you're preparing for what you want to wear. They do have insides. You know, there's heat on the inside. They have big, big windows, you can look out and take pictures. And then they would slow down and then you could go outside. So there was definitely place to keep warm. So if you're concerned about being on the boat all day and freezing to dive there is inside. Yeah, I

George  
mean, you really didn't even have to go outside if you didn't want to write the big giant windows and they had that upper deck.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yes. And I think that's the first time you really got to use your binoculars with a photo camera thing that really realized that that was a good a good purchase.

George  
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I got really up close and personal with the with the seal with the sea lions. Yeah, that that was really close.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, you could really you took some great pictures with them. We did see

George  
was that no, we saw our first bear. It was a

Lisa RichartHernandez  
no that was it. We saw it. It was on the shoreline. No, it was yes. No. When we saw the whales on the boat, there was a bear on the shoreline and we all stopped to see it and we went to go get it and we took pictures of that. And then we went back and did bear watching after

George  
it. Nobody listened to me. You're badass. Captain girl had the girl sitting next to her who spotted the first bear and turned around and took us there. Oh, that

Lisa RichartHernandez  
was that Tracy Arm feel like you're like proving that I'm right. Well, it was a different day.

George  
But it wasn't the first day. Okay, let's move on.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Okay, so the first bear Tracy Arm fjord, when we stopped to look at a waterfall, and that was cool, it was beautiful. There's different kinds of bears. We learned on different places have black brown bears and black bears. I guess they don't inhabit the same places together. I believe the brown bears are the ones that are they get a grizzly bear is a form of brown bear. So most of the bears we saw were maybe smaller, but I guess it's sort of early in the season because they just came out of hibernation.

George  
Yeah, they had all just all the males come out of hibernation first and feed and then the females come out with the Cubs. And that's when it gets dangerous.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yes. And so the second half of the day we got we went back to to the docks. And then we walked over the bridge to where they pick you up for the other excursions. And we got into a van, where Paige was our tour guide.

George  
Peggy Peggy Hanky Panky was

Lisa RichartHernandez  
our tour guide. I loved hearing all the stories of the different tour for on all the different excursions that we went like where people were from and how they got to Alaska. And she just loved to travel. She was a theater teacher for like 25 years or something like that. And she also had her CDL license. And so she was just there for the summer being a tour guide. And she just really loved it.

George  
And it really opened up our eyes because it was so cool. Because she's like, Yeah, I just I'm a seasonal worker, I work for Carnival. And I just give tours. And next year I'm going to like next year she was going to Chile or something different destination and she just moves around and she's she's seeing the world and just just such a cool person. Yeah, they were all laid back and cool.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah. So then so so we got to where we were going to do our basically, wilderness walk, bear hunted not Hunter watch or air watching type of a tour part in so I guess I just didn't really, because I've never been to Alaska, I didn't realize how much like the Indian culture was there since the clink it clan of American Indian, I guess or and I don't know what they call them. Indigenous people are American Indians, or was the proper term for

George  
I think indigenous, I think indigenous, they were the klinca tribe,

Lisa RichartHernandez  
the klinken tribe, and they had been around longer than the pyramids. So that's I can't remember what year or whatever that was, but for a very, very, very long time. They've lived off of that land there. And so they had George I remember his name was George because that's your name George. And he she's when she was preparing us to meet with George she's like, he's kind of like Willie Nelson or whatever of Alaska's version of Willie Nelson. And we get there and he's got like long hair and a bandana and he's, you know, weather looking, man, he carries a walking stick in a gun. Like a like a like a shotgun. Yeah, he was our bear security because that was bear security. And his family had grown generations in that area. And when they made it into a national park, I guess where they were, they made their family move.

George  
So I got displaced. That kind of sucks. Yeah, so it's just

Lisa RichartHernandez  
very interesting. The culture there. And he addressed us and the clink language and said Hello, my name is George and told us a little bit about that. And then he translated that for us. Which I thought was really cool. And then you walk through the forest on kind of a path like it was like a it was like a boardwalk almost. Yeah. So it was it was pretty easy terrain. It wasn't anything that

George  
you know they did it for two reasons one to make it easy for the tourists they don't get hurt and to because they don't want anybody walking on this this marshy, swampy looking forest, which was really weird because it looks solid. But at one point in the in the walk, our tour guide, Peggy stopped and she said look this this is why we don't want you walking on the on this terrain. And she had a stick in this little puddle of water. It looked

Lisa RichartHernandez  
like probably like maybe two feet of a circle of water like it looked like a little tiny little tiny

George  
puddle that you know kids usually jump in and splash while she pulled out this thick and it was at least six foot tall the stick and it was buried almost the whole six six feet. So that's how deep that one puddle was and she said there's some that they can't even touch the bottom. So

Lisa RichartHernandez  
she said, that's why you won't find like mammals. They're like they they weren't, like big mammals would would fall into the

George  
yeah, there's no bears or elk or anything in that area. So then,

Lisa RichartHernandez  
I guess the bear quote, viewing areas were on like a river. Right, right. And

George  
the bears were on the other side, which was more solid land. It was it was an island.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah. And that it was really beautiful. Very difficult to find the bears, which we did see a couple bears, which is cool. And you know, they they don't guarantee that you're gonna see a bear because or it is what it is that its nature. It's a real wildlife. So you can't guarantee that

George  
right? These guys are not trained. Yeah, they're doing tricks. Yeah, there's

Lisa RichartHernandez  
not like the zoo, where you're like, there's the bears. So it was cool that we got to see a couple bears pretty good. And apparently, when the salmon run, the bears are just all along the edge of this river. And she said, you can just almost see the salmon in the water. There's so many salmon, they swim upstream. And she said the bears are literally like, on the side of the river, just plucking out the salmon. Bear buffet. Yeah. So I really think that it will depend when you visit Alaska, on how great that excursion is, I would say everyone may have a different experience based on the sand.

George  
And if that's what you want to see, there's definitely enough information out there to plan your trip accordingly to the time that the salmon run. Yeah. So if that's something you want to see the research, we just wanted to go see Alaska.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting, because she said that when we got there, were there may 10, through the 17th. And she said, she'd only been there for about three weeks. And, and the same with the with the person that we did the whalewatching with. And they said, in the mountains were when we were there were basically I would say, you know, if the mountain was like half snow covered, right, like snow caps almost. And they said when they came there three weeks ago, it was you couldn't see any green at all, it was all white mountains of snow. So it does melt really fast. So I'm wondering, you know, if you go in July and August, if you just get tiny little ice caps on the top, or it will be more green? I don't know that. Yes, I'm we're describing is from May 10. Through the 17th.

George  
I did ask one of the tour guides, and he said that it's very rare for the mountain to be completely barren of ice. Okay, so most of the time, you will have some kind of Ice Peak.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Okay, so, but just interesting, you know, so we might tell you all the things you look like there was no snow or it wasn't like that. I think the I think the landscape was the way it appears changes, you know, and I think maybe I would like to try different times of the year if I was going to do another Alaskan cruise, just just to kind of see the difference, you know, maybe later in the summer or something like that. Absolutely. I'd also like to go when they actually have like the sled dogs. That was not an option for us because well, there was one but then you went on like dry land, not snow.

George  
Yeah. I'm glad we didn't do that. Because we were we talked to somebody who said they did it one time and they thought we were going to be on

Lisa RichartHernandez  
the snow and the snow wheels on the on the

George  
dog sled so that kind of sucks. Yeah, yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
So that's just a side note. But so we did the we did we enjoyed that excursion. And then when we got back we had a bow. Oh, wait. We had quite a bit of time. We had a couple of hours. So we went to the got some crab legs. Yeah,

George  
they had a nice little restaurant there. They had some crab legs. Overpriced crab legs. Yeah. And these were

Lisa RichartHernandez  
they were just regular snow crab. 

George  
Yeah, I call them the Costco crab legs.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
I mean, we're 100% in the tourist trap. So

George  
yeah, so Lisa kind of alluded to it the icy strait you can tell that it was completely built for the cruise ships. The cruise ship terminal is brand new. All the buildings are brand new. They've got a gondola ride that takes you up to the very top of the mountain that was beautiful. And I mean, you can still see all the fresh cut trees to put the gondola in. And then they also have a zipline, which was really cool. We didn't do it but we talked to some people that did it loved it. And they said it was incredible. It was a really high zipline Yeah, it was it was like a mile it was over a mile long. And I mean it was really really high. Our friends said it was pretty impressive and really cool and she's glad she did it. But it's all it's it's all just catered to tour for, for people to get off the cruise ships and spend more money, but at least that goes towards the community and the neighboring town in the sense that a lot of people work there and make money from from that during the offseason.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
So that there was we went to the one that was just crab legs. And literally, they had such a limited menu. It was literally just crab legs. And I think they had like a reindeer chili or something was the only other thing. So we did get that. I had a couple drinks. And I think our bill was like 80 bucks or something like Yeah, so like, I don't know, like, we can probably get all you can eat crab legs for 40 bucks a person it is just to be able to say, when in Rome, kind of a thing. And then we at the last minute hopped on that gondola. It said free rides today. Well, it'll hit tickets halfway up there, and we got to the next place. We're like, Oh, can we go on this one too? And they're like, no, no, it's $50 a person. And it was about like five o'clock. And our ship was leaving at like six or something like that. And we went in to pay for it. And the lady was like, I like our computers down. So just take these and we ended up fortunately getting a free ride on the gondola, which was pretty cool. So it was a great view from up there.

George  
Yeah, it was it was one of the steepest gondolas I've ever been on it. These mountains in Alaska are super sheer. steep, steep, steep, I don't even know how trees grow on him. It's amazing. But this gondola just kind of went like 100 yards straight. And then it seemed like it all straight up. Yeah, it was it was beautiful scenery. And I would

Lisa RichartHernandez  
have to say, if you were going to do that gondola and icy strait point, I would wait to buy the tickets to the day I got there. Because the the what you can see can change. I mean, we were lucky that we were there on a day that it wasn't raining, and it was pretty clear. But if it was a cloudy, overcast, rainy day, you're gonna see you're not gonna see that much. And you'd be spending, you know, $50 Or was it 50? Or was it more that was

George  
$50 a person? That was a lot of money? And if if you're going to do that, it's only 17 minute ride. Right? So here, here's a pro tip. If you're gonna go to icy Strait and you're going to do this, anything, do the zipline because then the gondola ride is included. Oh, is that Holy Ghost? Yes. Yeah. So that that gondola takes you up to the zipline. So if you're just going to do the round the route roundabout trip, then it's $50 if you pay for the

Lisa RichartHernandez  
zipline was like $169 I don't wasn't that? Yes, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. But it was so cool. I mean, so I mean, everybody that everybody that did it, like they wanted to just go again, they want to go again. So you know that that was pretty cool. There was another place that you could get oysters. And it looks like you get crab legs there too. And they look a little fireplaces. I might try that if I was there next time.

George  
And they had a couple bars. There was one at the restaurant where we ate and then there was one right at the main terminal area. They had a little bar area that was really cool. And that was the first place that I actually tasted Alaskan beer, which was very good. Yeah, we

Lisa RichartHernandez  
met some people that like their prime thing was just to go to like all the breweries I think where they were doing like brewery tours the whole time. Yeah. of Alaska. Yeah. Alaskan breweries are really into like, microbials. Yeah. But you know, it is it is it's a tourist place. So it's made for tourist traps. And that's what it was. But you know, as long as you're aware of that, and you can always get food for free on the cruise ship and go back up to the shipping. Come back out.

George  
And you could also from icy Strait, you could walk into the town, which a lot of people did. I think it was called Hona. Yeah. Cute little town, little fishing village. Nothing major to see. But just you know, if you want to wander around and go, I thought

Lisa RichartHernandez  
I thought one of the most interesting things about that town was was cool. Yeah. Cool. So so like, it's it goes from kindergarten to 12th grade. And I think there was like a total

George  
of maybe the graduating class was five 

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Five kids like so the senior year was three girls and two boys. Like she said prom is gonna be awkward. Yeah, but I guess she said that they like all the different islands around there. Get together and they fly their kids or come by boat or whatever. And they all get together for one big prom. But these little tiny communities it's just you know, it's I think, I can't even remember how many people live in icy strait point like, I think it's only like 8000 people or something. It's very, very small. Yes, because

George  
we were comparing it our kids High School is 4000 students. We were like wow, our kids High School is half the population of this village. Basically. Yes. With that being said she also told us that everything there is super expensive even for the locals because everything has to be either shipped in or flown in. And she she said for her. It was cheaper to fly in her groceries than it was to go to the to the local grocery store because

Lisa RichartHernandez  
no was $9 a gallon. Yeah, at their little grocery store that they had there. And they had their groceries flown in from Juneau, which I believe is like has a Costco and it's like one of the largest cities in the area. People get supplies from was it

George  
a Costco or Walmart? Maybe both know they definitely

Lisa RichartHernandez  
what do you know was the big place.

George  
So after doing our excursions and eating a little crab, we went back on the ship. And the previous night, the casino host came up to me and introduced herself and one to make sure that I was having a great time. And I told her I was and she told us that she was going to compost dinner at Fahrenheit 555 And if we were interested that she had a an eight o'clock opening on day four of our trip the same day, the same day, and you know, I'm not going to pass up a free meal. So of course, we took it and I said to Lisa, many was the menu was so vast that it doesn't matter. We could just try a different food, which we did. And

Lisa RichartHernandez  
yeah, you got the like cowboy steak and I got the surf interpret gonna like I mean, you got to have the filet and lobster. I mean, we can't I guess you can't really get tired of that. Although I did eat it two nights in a row. I guess I didn't want it again. But I had some different appetizers. We had a different dessert was like a chocolate ball. That was really good.

George  
Yeah, I had the French onion soup for an appetizer that was delicious. And we had free drinks on the casino guy. And I think I had some wine that that night and all the food was just so we

Lisa RichartHernandez  
were you know, it was so interesting because I was really tired after our excursions like all that fresh air and being outside all day. And it was I don't know, it just kind of makes you that like good, tired. And we got our bellies full and I think we went to the casino I think for a little while after. No, no, no, the oh, did we go to the comedy show?

George  
We went to the comedy show and I don't want to bash anybody. So I'm not gonna say any names, but this guy was off that night. And he'd started out a little funny and then just kind of, it's almost like he lost his routine. Yeah, got a lot of hecklers. Yeah. And then the crowd started turning on him. And I felt bad for him. And it was just not a and we love going to the comedy club.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Yeah, we, I would say nine out of 10 times we ended up just going to the comedy show and we don't go to the the regular the house of odd like some musical different things. There's a lot of different entertainment options that you can do every night. And as a matter of fact, it's not even like they had they have a friend Bill W meanings on days and they had

George  
 Everything!

Lisa RichartHernandez  
every Yeah, I mean, you could all different groups of people singles thing.

George  
You had a military appreciation night that night for teens that like Lisa said, they really need to.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
I mean, you should be able to plug into some sort of activity almost every night. If it's karaoke, a lot of trivia nights, a lot of bingo trivia. They did a lot of things.

George  
Again, it's not called the fun ship for no reason. Yeah, yeah. You know, and that was kind of the end of our night we went to the comedy club. And you know, had a couple more cocktails and then lunch. I

Lisa RichartHernandez  
believe we had another early morning excursion the next day. Which day are we on?

George  
So we're gonna move on today? Number five, Juneau, Alaska.

Lisa RichartHernandez  
Oh, wait, that's our best day.

George  
And with that teaser, we conclude part two of our Alaska cruise. Please join us next week for the final part of our adventures.

intro  
Thanks for listening to another episode of RView. Don't forget to drop us a line at RViewpodcast.com That's the letter "R" view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don't miss out on our next adventure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai