In case you missed it, click here to start with Day 1 of the Trip Report.
Day 6 – Ketchikan, Alaska
I originally started out thinking that Ketchikan would be my least favorite port based on all the research I’d done, but it ended up being our favorite!
We slept in this morning, all those late night adult activities were catching up to us and all ashore wasn’t until 11:15am, so we were all happy to get a little extra rest.
Eddie and I woke up around 9:00am and went to Cabana’s to grab breakfast. We found ourselves going to the same thing each day to eat. For me, one slice of French toast, custom ordered omelet, 2 slices of bacon, and diced potatoes (no wonder I gained weight on this cruise!). For Eddie – bowl of oatmeal with fruit, granola, etc., eggs, bacon or sausage, and a hash brown patty. (Sorry, never took pictures of our breakfast!). After Cabana’s, I went straight to work out (3 miles on the treadmill). Eddie went back to the room first, and by the time he was ready to go work out, I had already finished and was back in the room. Hunter was just waking up. I took a shower and then caught up on my trip notes. Our shore excursion tickets listed our meeting place in the Azure Club at 12:00 noon. Knowing we wouldn’t be eating soon, we went upstairs and grabbed a quick bite – even though it hadn’t been that long since we’d ate. I grabbed a roast beef sandwich from Daisy’s Delights and Eddie and Hunter had a couple slices of pepperoni pizza from Pinocchio’s.
Our excursion today in Ketchikan was booked through Disney (booking direct is less expensive, but it was sold out – we booked in April, so kind of last minute for an Alaskan cruise – so I had to purchase through Disney to get it). The excursion was the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour, and it was on the Aleutian Ballad crab boat, which had been featured on Deadliest Catch in Season 2. The boat sustained major damage when capsized by a 60 foot rogue wave, and was given a complete overhaul and made into a tour boat. Pretty cool, huh?
We headed for Azure around 11:45 and there was a table set up inside signing people in for the different excursions booked through Disney. We were given an Elsa sticker to wear and were told to listen for our group to be called. We were called right at noon and followed our guide outside. We met up with a representative of the tour, and followed her over to the Aleutian Ballad. We got to the boat and noticed there were already people onboard (I assume those that booked direct), but most of them were upstairs. I don’t know if they were made to go to the top and the bottom was saved for Disney? Even though all seats are great, I was glad to be on the lower level. The temperature wasn’t bad (mid-50’s) and it was nice and partly sunny, but on the water it does tend to get cool and I thought being lower might help with that.
Following our guide over to the Aleutian Ballad
Once onboard, Captain Paul introduced himself and his crew, including fishermen Dave & Terry. These guys were awesome! They kept us captivated with their personal stories on the sea and were great story tellers and very funny. I started to get cold and one of the ladies (working there for summer / college) brought me an extra coat and started passing them out to other guests. They had hot tea, hot chocolate and coffee for guests onboard as well. The boat is outfitted with several bathrooms, a gift shop that shows a rotating loop on the tv of the wave that took down the Aleutian Ballad. My husband will be doing a full review of the excursion that you can find on our blog soon under “Reviews“. Here’s just a few pics of the highlights – but be sure to go and read his review – this was the best excursion ever – and when we go back to Alaska (yes – we are already talking about our next trip), we plan to do this excursion again!
Passing out heavy coats for those that needed them
There were bald eagles EVERYWHERE!
The crew took this pic with everyone onboard who wanted one at the end
The tour lasted about 3 hours, so we arrived back to town around 3:15pm. We went over to one of the gift shops and they had these reversible coats outside listed for $19.99. There were several colors, and some had “Alaska” embroidered on the front, but the one that we liked had a “Ketchikan Alaska” patch on it. Eddie and I both got one and Hunter went inside and found an “Alaska” camouflage hat that he liked. We love gift shops and spent quite a bit of time in here. We bought the other kids some candy to take back and Hunter also bought an “Ulu Knife” and Eddie bought a t-shirt and hat combo that was only $14.99. We left there and it was starting to drizzle a little bit, so we put our new coats on. We walked over to another gift shop and Hunter found an Alaska hoodie there. After leaving there we went to find the “Welcome to Ketchikan” sign and stopped for some pictures. At this point it was around 4:30 so we started to walk back to the ship and get freshened up for dinner.
Lots of rain in Ketchikan
Wearing our new Alaska Jackets!
I looked at the navigator once back onboard and saw that Mickey & Minnie were doing meet and greets. Since we had not yet met them in their Alaskan gear, I really wanted to go. They were also meeting later in the night, and we were too late for the afternoon meet with Mickey, but we went to get in line for Minnie. We did get to see Mickey leaving, so I snapped this pic:
We were towards the front of the line for Minnie so that didn’t take long. I had really wanted a pic with Mickey & Minnie outside in their Alaskan gear, but they were never outside for photos like I’ve seen on other sailings. I had one photographer tell me it had something to do with this sailing combining Juneau day / Endicott Arm the same day. So I was a little bummed about that, but I do think our extra stop in Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) was worth it.
Eddie and I stopped for more pictures in the atriumwith the Ketchikan background and then headed to dinner at Animator’s Palate.
Tonight was the animation magic show which is truly amazing! When you are seated, your server gives everyone these to draw their own character (even the adults!).
We all participated and Svetlana took our drawings when we were finished and gave us the menu’s. This was a new menu, so I did take some pics:
Svetlana had told us the night before that there were new additions to the menu (before it was very limited with only one appetizer choice) and I was glad, because what I saw on the app didn’t appeal to me. The meal ended up being our favorite meal served in the dining rooms of the trip! We loved the Malaysian Chicken Satay (skews of chicken with a peanut sauce and cucumber (delicious)!
We all also had the Lobster Bisque (very tasty!):
I got the Garlic Marinated Shrimp & Pasta (very good):
Eddie got the Blackened Chicken salad (My favorite! We switched plates halfway through, lol – although he loved the salad too).
Hunter got the Chicken Schnitzel which he loved:
Before our desserts came, the animation show started and we really enjoyed seeing our characters, and the creativity of others come to life!
For dessert, I had the Amaretto Cheesecake with sour cream (really good):
Eddie had planned to get the Regional Inspiration of some Alaskan bread budding with strawberry. Svetlana advised him against it, and brought him some White Chocolate Bread pudding from Tiana’s instead. I had that on my cruise in March and knew it was a great choice! Hunter got a repeat of his dessert from the night before – chocolate lava cake with ice cream.
After dinner we went to Crown & Fin for some more trivia before heading to see the Family Magic Show with Billie Kidd in Azure. I didn’t take any pictures, but we enjoyed her family show much more than her adult show.
Then it was time for the meet & greet with Mickey in his Alaskan gear:
We stopped by the DVC desk to see if we could make an appointment for the next day. After going to the presentation, we had a few more questions. While waiting for the cast member to check schedules, Daisy was walking up the hall (Belle was also walking down the other end of the hall) and she stopped for a quick pic:
Afterwards we headed back to Azure for more adult games. I was really ready to go to bed, but Hunter really enjoyed going to the activities at night, and they were doing Match Your Mate. Eddie and I tried to get picked again, but they usually take the couple who has been married the least amount of time (there was a honeymoon couple onboard), the couple that has been married the longest, then for the middle couple, they make you do a dance-off contest. Well, Eddie definitely carries me in these contest, because I have ZERO rhythm, not to mention I don’t love being up in front of a crowd anyway, much less showing off my dance skills (that I was not blessed with, lol). But I figured, hey, I’m never going to see these people again, just do it. So I got up there and did the sprinkler, the robot, etc. while Eddie was unbuttoning his shirt (he had a t-shirt on underneath) while dancing to “I’m Sexy and I Know it.” It was hilarious and the crowd loved him. We were up against about six other couples and we were second in line and got a ton of cheers. The last couple in line had a big family group with them and Rod called them the winners. Boo! Oh well, one of these days we’ll get picked. We stayed until the end and then headed off to bed around 11:00pm. Tomorrow was a sea day, so we were happy that we would be able to sleep in again.
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