May & Bill's Alaskan Odyssey
30 May - 6 June 2003 -  aboard the cruise-ship "Infinity" - operated by "Celebrity Cruises"
Updated: Tuesday, 17 June 2003: - now some scanned film pictures ...
Bill_Infinity_Juneau   Summit in Ketchican  
Bill with "our boat" ("Infinity"(Juneau)), and here's a picture of a 'sister-ship' - "Summit" in Ketchican.
Introduction:

O.K. - so Ms. May and Mr. Bill had never been to Alaska, and never been on a cruise-ship, so they figured they'd "kill two birds with one stone" and head for the north-western-most state in the continental US and do it on a cruise-ship from Vancouver, and make-up for lost time in their efforts to become truly world travellers.

Begining the trip - a bit slow to start:
May's Mom and Dad (Amy & Albert) took us to the 'pier' at about 2 pm on Friday, 30th May, and we were finally aboard the ship about 4:45 pm the same day - about 2 hours & 45 mins to get aboard.  We found, though, talking to many many people that this (extended waiting) is either the 'norm' or it's 'unusual', - depends a lot on who you talk to???

Details:
Anyway - aside from that little 'hiccup' and the ensuing inability to figure out where and when we were supposed to eat (finally figured out on the third night) the trip was interesting, different, refreshing, enjoyable, etc. etc. etc.  - Here's a 'brief look' at our itinerary:

Just a 'few' of our ship's many 'features' (we might consider some of these 'bugs', though, rather than 'features'...)
By-and-large it is about the same as staying in a 5-star hotel - except this one floats and it arrives in a new destination almost every morning and you can go ashore...(assuming you like to shop for (mostly) jewelry and 'made-in-China' trinkets), seemed to us like most of the shops selling things to cruise-ship passengers were almost all selling the same things, almost all made in the far-east(except for the jewelry, which is all probably made in some factory, and imported).

Some 'specifications' for the engineers and data-hounds amongst you:
Naval-Architecture:  built: by: Chantier De L'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France, launched: 2001; LOA: 964.6 ft; beam: 105.6 ft; draft: 26.3 ft; speed 24 knots max; displacement: 91,000 tons; bow-thrusters: 3 x 2340kw; power: gas turbines; registry: Nassau; 11 'levels'; radio-call-sign: C6FT9;
Crew: 1,000 from over 50 nations; officers are mostly Greek
Accomodation: 1,950 guests in 1,000 staterooms of various configurations from ours (about 10ft x 20ft) up-to the 'penthouse' which is about 2,400 square feet
Stores and stock (for 10-day cruise): 24,000 pounds of beef; 14,000 pounds of fish; 3,200 gallons of milk; 9,200 dozen eggs; 10,000 bottles/cans of beer; 26,000 pounds of fresh vegetables; 20,000 pounds of fresh fruit; 2,500 pounds of coffee; 2,400 tea bags; 1,900 pounds of cookies; 3,400 bottles of assorted wines; 1,800 bottles of various liquor; champagne(in addition to the beer and wine previously quoted), etc.

Going-ashore - we had 3 go-ashore destinations and one non-go-ashore destination:
some Ketchican Pictures:
Ketchican View 1  Ketchican View 2   
Yukatat Bay & Hubbard Glacier Pictures:

May at Hubbard Glacier    Bill at Hubbard Glacier   Hubbard Ice  Seals on Iceseals-on-the-ice at Hubbard_Glacier
some Hubbard-Glacier Ice in the Yukatat Bay - as seen close-up;
Bill found this an excellent computer "desktop" image, and it is available
upon request in a higher-resolution file, if you're interested, just mailto: bill@vikingasia.org

Life aboard a cruise-ship:

- It's interesting to say the least - there's ALWAYS something 'going on' and depending on your personality, your likes, dislikes, bents, habits, propensities and mood you can do / get / wander / enjoy / sleep / compute / do Internet / dance / eat / exercise (the gym is at the front of the ship), watch movies, take classes (in bow-tieing?)  etc. etc. etc.  - and there's that bottom-line perception that most people (including us) had about going on a cruise:

- and that is - that they FEED YOU a lot.

- We have to say that's not necessarily so - but what IS certain is that the foood is mostly quite good - everything they have is really tasty, and though I didn't 'partake' of nearly as much as I thought I would, it was still really good food - at most of the dinners I had some form of fish - and had sherbet for a couple of desserts and some key-lime pie (2 pieces, no extra charge!), and so-forth.

Here's a picture of the 'crowd' that we ate dinner with on most evenings, all of the others here are from Canada, two couples from Vancouver Island / Victoria...click for image (supplied by Mr. Robert Browning (in the middle of the picture - he had the exact same Sony digital camera that we did (DSC-75)))...

Here is, also, a link to Bill's "directory" of additional Robert Browning pictures...  click here

- It's also mostly quiet, and there's many things to do - but there's also a day or so in 'getting your bearings' - finding your way around this 'floating city', knowing
what is where, on what level, port or starboard, and whether forward, amidships or aft, etc..  I found this to not be too much of a problem, but there were sure some people that even after several days were still having trouble.

-You can, for the most part get up when you want, go to sleep when you want and do other things when you want - unless going ashore is a particularly attractive alternative, there's really no need to meet anyone's schedule except your own.

- I found the fact that everything's within a 2-3 minute walk aboard, (and/or an elevator ride or two) very wonderful.

Weather:
This cruise is one of the first of the season, and, as such, the weather tends to be quite chilly most of the time - we got a couple of quite warm & sunny days, but in general  this time of year it's cool, overcast, and rainy.   Remember, too, that if you do this trip during the height of the summer (July-August) there won't be much, if any, snow on the mountains (and we found a LOT of 'snow on the mountains'...  This cruise is on what some call the 'shoulder' of the season. The last few cruises in late August - September would be on that 'shoulder' too, and might be cheaper, also - as was this cruise -

Things we liked:

Things we didn't like:

Will we do it again?

What's it cost?
Whoa - that's a loaded question... Like with many things, the advertised price is rarely what you really pay, but here's a very very brief run-down (per-person-costs, all in US dollars):
Summary:

I think we were both fairly pleasantly surprised, other than the getting-on 2 hour 45 minute fiasco - which we still have no clear answer if that is "normal".  I think we liked the food, figured out the 'shore excursions' are not, 'for the most part' a great value for the dollar, but the 'key' (in my humble, personal, biased opinion) is in doing what you want, when you want, how you want and where you want, and if that's nothing more that sitting and staring out the window, watching the ocean and scenery go by, it's not a bad way to spend a week.  Besides - you get to see a lot of places that you haven't seen before.

I came with a goal of really getting into a couple of pieces of software - long periods of un-interrupted time learning software tools and it was good for that - could have been even better if I'd brought my 220-volt / European standard AC plug-adapter, but hey I still had FUN & enjoyed it and would do it again - especially with the software thing - the time you can make / enjoy was excellent - also excellent for reading, and I finished 2 1/2 books, which was really good.

IF YOU WANT the shows, the casino, the night-club, the drinking, etc. you can do those things too...

last updated: Tuesday, 16th June, 2003, by: Bill; revID: 2g