Alaska Pictures!!

[trueX5er]

Ok, so I'm going to finally get around to uploading these.
Quick(ish) Review: (skip it if you want )
Our ship was Holland America Line's M/s Noordam, which is their newest, and largest, ship. It was built in 2006 and it is very beautiful. I was with a party of 12 We all had verandah suite staterooms, which were very nice. They had a good LG flatscreen tv, big verandah, large bathrooms with tiled floors and a tub and shower, personalized stationery, and comforable beds. We got about $800+ shipboard credit plus a dinner at the ship's nice restaurant, thanks to Amex platinum. Before the ship, got into Seattle (my favorite city, when it's sunny) and drove in our rental Jeep Liberty (they were out of Magnums, which is what I orignally reserved) up to the Boeing museum, near king county international airport. They had a helicopter airshow going on, and we also got to see a military Boeing 707 take off. It was loud! We also saw Air Force One (707) and went in a British Airways Concorde. They had the world's first 747 there, too. To complete our Boeing experience, we drove (slowly, due to traffic) to the boeing plant in Mukilteo, saw the largest building in the world, saw some new planes, saw a cargo 747 in production, etc.. it wasn't busy. That night, went to Pike Market, downtown area, etc, and ate dinner at a good place called steelhead diner. We considered Etta's, but passed.
Next day, touristy stuff continues, with a trip to the Space Needle and Pacific Place. By that time, it was ship boarding time.
First day was day at sea. I swear it was planned, but right as we were getting bored, the captian came on an told us that we are turning around, because a crew member has fallen violently ill, and he was going to be medivaced by the Canadian Coast Guard. After that situation was over, we wasted a good two hours .
Second day, Glacier Bay. Best scenery of the entire cruise. We spent about an hour infront of Marjorie Glacier, and watched it calv, or melt and fall into the water. We had amazing weather, almost no clouds at all! We were told by the guide it was the best weather all summer!
Next day in Juneau, we did a good hike, and a float plane ride over an ice field and glacier. Both were fantastic!
In our next port, Sitka, we had nothing planned, so we checked out the very Russian town center. It felt like just like we were in a little russian village, when in reality we were in the USA.
In Ketchikan, we took a Misty Fjords boat ride. Honestly, it was boring as hell. I never saw any mist!
Next, becuase we had to stop in a foreign port, we stopped in Victoria, BC. It was a really pretty city, very green and lush.
A great time was had by all, if we could do it again, we'd all say yes. If you haven't gone, I suggest it.
The bad stuff:
Food on the ship was just average. It was edible, but I wasn't blown away.
Service was extremely inconsistent.
Our second night eating dinner, it look two hours for the food to come! We kept asking to check on it, nobody did, infact it was sitting in the kitchen getting cold. The next night, we had our food, hot, within 35 mins.
They need to work out a few kinks, I guess. Our stateroom attendant seemed overworked a lot of the time, but he was very kind.
The crew was friendly, a lot of them remembered my name.
The ship, on the exterior, was very very beautiful. On the inside, however, all the public rooms were nice, but they all seemed so small and claustrophobic. The very low ceiling may have to do with that effect. The ship didn't feel cheap or cheesy in any way.
Ok, enough with the words, here are the pics:


boeing



our sister ship, leaving the day before ours.

ferry in the bay


view from SN

our ship

atrium

They offered a galley (kitchen) tour.



That's the sunset-my camera says I took that picture at exactly 1:06 am. wow.

I thought this picture came out well.

Glacier Bay Ntl. Park





Juneau





Sitka


Ketchikan


Almost all of the taxis in Victoria are hybrids. About half Prius, half Camry.

Parliament building lit up at night.

And that's it!

[canamx5]

Looks like a good time. Very nice!

[kirkX5m]

thanks for the pics, i cant wait to go to alaska myself!!!!

[jek889]

Great pictures! I'm taking my family on a similar cruise in August. the scenery looks amazing.

[RastaGurl]

Sweet pics! Thanks for sharing!

[X5 in AK]

Glad you enjoyed the trip!!!

You should make another trip further north sometime and see some of the parts of the state you can't get to from the cruise ship!

I'll be uploading (hopefully tonight or tomorrow) a few pics from my foray into Denali Park with the X5 last weekend.

[ncx]

Awesome stuff. I need to take that trip sometime.

It is easy to forget just how beautiful this big spinning rock is. Thanks for the reminder.

[LeMansX5]

Nice Pics!

[motordavid]

True,
Fine pics and very good write up...I need to get there
before time runs out.
BR,mD

[xnsf]

Awesome!

When is are the next set of world-traveling pics arriving???