Tuesday 17th September 2019
Woke up this morning as we were pulling into Skagway. In the dock was two ships already so it was so strange to already be in port before 7am. It didnt even feel like we had moved overnight it was that smooth. It had been a calm journey up one of the biggest fjords in Alaska and the sad thing is they do it at night. When we woke up the mountains were out and the stunning blue sky made it seem like we had wasted so much time doing this at night. Skagway was our longest port as well. People were disembarking before for tours well before they called to allow everyone out.
We had breakfast on the Lido deck today as we had an earlyish tour. The place was jam packed so we ended up taking a seat out on the back Sea View Pool deck in the open (Heidi was cold though). I got stuck into my first bit of vegemite for this trip. It was amazing that they had some onboard (then again it is filled with Aussies).
After gettig ourselves ready for the morning we headed off the ship and onto the pier where we boarded our train for the White Pass & Yukon Route Summit Excursion. Up to the summit of the White Pass and back again. This was the tour I was most excited to go on. We would spend the morning in Vintage railway cars travelling up and down a very scenic mountain range being pulled behind some Vintage locomotives (yes I like trains). Sadly the steam train had ended just a week before or I would have chosen that without a doubt, no matter the price.
It was such a stunning day with bright blue sky and the pictures all came out amazingly. We both enjoyed the train ride and the commentary talking about the Yukon Gold Rush and how the train became to start. Once back in town, we went back to the ship for lunch (since getting some time in town would have been a miracle). It was such a good idea (though apparently everyone on tour had the same one). After lunch we ventured out into “town” to check it out. This meant walking the streets trying to find interesting things to see, but also avoiding all the chain jewellery stores…. Ugh.
Town was not that big, but I did end up buying myself a hat and a few shotglasses in town. We sat down at the train depot in town and watched the WP&YR trains come and go and that was fun for a bit. We even made it back onboard for Afternoon Tea in the Neptune Lounge. We spent most of the afternoon just relaxing in the room and attending any onboard stuff we wanted to.
We spent the night eating dinner at the Dining Room for the first time and that was a great experience. The staff were great and tried to go out of their way to help me with my allergy. They even suggested I pre order my dinner ahead of time and they can make it without garlic. We didnt end up doing that as the next night was going to be out in the ocean and it was very likely I was going to be a mess.
We finished up buy watching the BBC Earth show on the mainstage and a movie in bed before falling asleep as we pushed back away from Skagway. A pretty nice day!