Go North to ALASKA!

Published on by Tracy @ It's a T-Sweets Day!

I have been lucky enough to spend the last week with mine and my husband’s parents and brothers in law and sisters on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska. It was so beautiful. Have you ever wanted to go?

Until then, I will be happy to take you along on a virtual cruise sharing our best and not so best things to do at each stop.

Seattle–

I highly recommend arriving a day early to enjoy Seattle. We went to the Space Needle first thing.

While it was really interesting to look at, we opted not to go to the top because it was a whopping 40.00 a person for an elevator ride! Nope. We just walked around and got our pictures taken. There is a big rock and roll museum there, but we had my 83 year old dad with us and he didn’t want to go.

We then went to Pike’s Market downtown. This was my favorite stop in Seattle. There are huge bouquets of exotic flowers for $5.00-20.00. My cute husband bought me a bouquet for our room on the ship ❤ ❤

You also can’t believe the size of the fruit. These blackberries were larger than my finger!

Right on the corner, is a cheese factory called Beechers where they make cheese curds on display in the window. Try the Mac and Cheese. Yum!

There is also a section where they throw fish. Really, they literally throw the fish to each other and kind of make a show of it!

It was quite crowded on the day we were there, so we opted to go down the road a bit and eat fish tacos at Anthony’s right on the pier. It was so relaxing to eat and visit right next to the water. The tacos were DELICIOUS!

Ovation of the Seas–

This ship is the sister ship to the Anthem of the Seas that I wrote about last year. It is a HUGE ship with plenty to do. For all of the fun adventures on board, check out my post here.

Juneau–

This is the place to buy trinkets and souvenirs. I needed a jacket and found a beautiful one for only 25.00! Hats and gloves were only $4.00. It was a shopper’s heaven:).

We don’t usually book our excursions in advance, but because we were with our parents, we opted for a tour with knowledgeable people to help us with wheelchairs.

Our first stop was Mendenhall Glacier. We only had an hour to spend here and could have used another hour. It was spectacular!

We left our parents to enjoy the visitors center while a few of us literally ran about a mile hike to the falls. We made it there in just 13 minutes.

I was amazed at how close we were to the falls. And just next to the falls is the Glacier

When you go, make sure you get at least 2 hours here. This is why I like to book a private tour. I could have stayed down by the falls much longer and really enjoyed the hike in both directions, but we ran back in about 20 minutes going up hill.

Either way the National park is beyond beautiful and a DEFINITE stop in Juneau:)

We also booked a whale watching excursion here. We were so lucky we had a late booking because the weather had been stormy all day until we got there and then it calmed down for a perfect whale watching day.

We were able to see about eight whales with several of them coming right next to the boat.

We also enjoyed meeting this resting seal just taking a nap on the bouy. What a life:)

On the way back to the ship, I simply HAD to stop and get an Alaskan King Crab Leg At Tracy’s Crab Shack. I mean after all it is named after me!

This was by far the best meal of the cruise. The legs were HUGE! They precut the leg so it was easy to get the big, sweet, juicy meat. My mouth is watering just remembering it.

Skagway—

I simply loved what we did here. We rented jeeps and took a day trip to the Yukon in Canada. I had no idea how beautiful it is there.

Our jeeps were very comfortable and had a nice recording telling us about the things we were seeing along the drive

How do I even describe the scenery we saw? There were mountains with waterfalls and lakes at every turn

We stopped at Yukon park. There was a cool bridge to walk across.

Do you see how the water is kind of milky? They say that is because it is Glacier water. The further we went down, the clearer it got.

I think my favorite part of the drive was the tundra where winds can get up to 120 miles per hour in the winter. It felt like a different planet.

Near the end of the drive was a “desert” called Carcross. It looked eerie next to all of the water and trees. They say it is a dried up lake

Our final stop on the trail was Emerald Lake. Wow! It was outstanding!

The water here was crystal clear.

We even saw some mushrooms that I’m sure were worth a pretty penny if I could have taken them home.

Great day! Great day!

Sea Day cruising to Daws Glacier In Endicott Arm and Fjord-

Cruising on the Ovation made it so pleasant to cruise right up to the glacier. While the weather outside was a bit rainy and cold, the ship had plenty of indoor seating with glass windows all the way to the ceiling.

We woke up early to get chairs right next to the windows. I enjoyed doing a bit of stitching while looking out the window.

The further we went up the arm, the more waterfalls and little iceburgs we saw

At the end of the fjord was the Glacier. The ship did a 360 degree turn so we all could see it

In the evening, we all went up in the North Star. It went so high and swayed with the wind. It was a bit frightening, but we all survived.

Victoria Island–

This was my least favorite place. While everything we saw was very pretty, there were too many people to really enjoy it.

We hired a van to give us a tour of the island and take us to Butchart Gardens. Once again, we didn’t have enough time. With so many people it was very hard to move around at the gardens. I felt very claustrophobic. The gardens were very pretty though.

Every little corner was filled with a different variety of flower. Here are just a few

They had a dancing water fountain and Japanese garden as well

The rose garden was filled with all different kinds of roses and trellises. It was a sight to behold.

I really liked the tea room area. It felt so inviting, just like a picture from a movie or a book.

I hope you have enjoyed this virtual trip to Alaska with me. I hope I have given you a few fun ideas of things to do if you ever decide to take your own trip to the North Countries.

Thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to leave me a comment. I always love to hear what you have to say! Maybe you have been to Alaska? Do you agree with my reviews?

Until next time, happy travels!!

30 thoughts on “Go North to ALASKA!”

  1. so beautiful. this is one of those places I’d like to go, and eventually will. so much to see and do. you are right about needing to do things on your own time, but I can totally understand why you’d book things since you had a large group and had people who needed extra help

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  2. Hi Tracy ~ Outstanding post, I was totally there on your virtual tour but I have to add you were in my backyard so to speak 🙂 Living up in Bellingham on the Puget Sound (north of Seattle) You hit all the hot spots for sure! So happy you made this trip ❤ Hugs

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      1. The blackberries are truly wild and totally wild like weeds and I haven’t bought them once during the season…just pick and eat, can, jam, wine your pleasure. I was blown away by them when I moved here 21 years ago 🙂

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  6. One of the places I’d love to visit, but I’m not able to fly far enough to get on the cruise, so it’ll have to stay in the “When I win the Lottery” basket. It looks fabulous, and I’m deeply envious.

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      1. I think if we did ever win the lottery, we’d go round the world and visit all these places and friends and family, but on cruise ships. So much more fun than spending a flight lying down in a first class plane bed!

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  8. Enjoyed reading your post! I visited some of the places you mentioned -it makes for a great trip! I grew up in Victoria (on Vancouver Island) and believe that the best way to see Buchards gardens is to spend the day until it’s dark. Then tour the gardens with all the night lights. Well worth visiting Victoria again! Thank you for sharing! great photos! 😀

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    1. Hi Gail! I didn’t even know a night adventure was available there. I bet that is amazing! Did we just hit a crowded time because of the cruise ship, or is it always that crowded? Maybe there are some times that are better to go than others. —Even crowded, it was a sight to behold. You must have really enjoyed growing up amongst so much beauty!!❤️❤️

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  10. Great post Tracy, I really felt like I was with you! Hubby and I are thinking about doing an Alaskan cruise — I’ve been hesitant but now I can tell him it’s a great idea! I really appreciate your suggestions. I visited Seattle several years ago — it’s a great city to visit!
    Thanks again for sharing your trip with us — your family is beautiful!

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  11. Hi Tracy! What a fun=filled post. Your pictures brought me right back there – I’ve been five times and am trying to talk someone into going again. The ships really make those days at sea fun with plenty of things to do. I would LOVE to rent a Jeep and drive into the Yukon territory. I’ll have to remember that for next time. You sure made a few memories to last you for a bit. {{Hugs}} How fun! ~smile~ Roseanne

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    1. Hi Roseanne!! I should have talked with you before we went. I’m sure you have done and seen some amazing things there. Note to self— write a pre-vacation post to get great ideas of things to do before I go!! Thank you for dropping by. I always love hearing from you!!❤️❤️

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  14. Tracy, awesome trip. We were just there too. Someone told us only Princess cruises goes to glacier bay, but that must not be true because you were on a carnival cruise. Were you in glacier bay also or a different place when you saw the glaciers and turned around.

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      1. We also love cruising. We find it’s one of the best ways to see a lot of places in a short. Of time and get the best of each place and then if we love it we know we can go back. Plus with Alaska lures afraid to camp at she’s really not much of an outdoor girl but it turns out she loved it incredibly and has agreed to go back.

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