Cruise West
Spirit of Endeavour Cruise Review
Linda Androlia
sunstonetours@aol.com
Itinerary: Alaska Whales
and Wilderness
Sailing Date: August, 2007
Age: 50
Occupation: travel agent
Number of Cruises: zillions
Cruise West - Alaska's Whales
& Wilderness - August 2007
Here I sit in the lounge on our last evening on this
fabulous venture into the wildernesses of Alaska. We are in
Glacier Bay with clear blue water as far as ye can see. We
have had a full day of wildlife and glaciers and I thought I
would write this in a few minutes of down time to reflect my
thoughts before anything fades from memory.
We departed Juneau on Tuesday after an included night at the
Goldbelt Hotel in Juneau. Juneau has two hotels; one
historic and one more modern, both are well located and
three star accommodations. We had a lovely large double
bedded room. We explored Juneau and took some shore
excursions in the glaciers and a hike up Mt. Roberts.
We gathered at the Goldbelt Hotel at 3pm. Our ship was
parked right next to the Princess ship. The Spirit of
Endeavour looked like the size of a dingy compared to the
big mega Princess Ship. This promised to be a unique small
ship experience.
Cabin
We settled into our cabin, a
category AA which has two small windows and a door that
opens right onto the promenade. The good news is that one
can open the door and be right out with nature; the down
side is that people can walk right by your cabin and look
in. Our first day the captain positioned the ship for our
early morning (6:45) wakeup call in front of the granite
cliffs of Tracy Arm. We woke up, opened the door and there
we were outside in nature. We had twin beds as do most of
the cabins in the ship. Our bathroom was adequate with nice
quality fluffy white towels.
Food
Too much and too good. The ship makes it own bread pastry,
sauces and desserts. Food is picked up along the route. In
Sitka we picked up fresh Dungeneous Crab and had an "all you
could eat" crab fest. Breakfast and lunch are served in the
dinning room or in the lounge with light fare. Dinner is in
the dinning room with usually three entrees, meat, fish and
vegetarian. For those picky eaters, there is always a
chicken breast or sirloin steak if you don’t like anything
on the menu.
Ports
This itinerary was not big on port stops but more on nature.
We spent the first night in Juneau and did some fun shore
excursions. I wish we had arrived one night earlier in
Juneau as it was a fun city with many things to do as well
as fun stores to shop in.
Our first port was Sitka. We had options of going sport
fishing, kayaking, hiking or going to the Raptor Center.
Our next “port” was Elfin Cove. This was a very small
community with about 200 residents in summer and down to 18
in winter. There are no streets and only boardwalks. We were
treated to a lecture by Mary Jo, a lifetime resident of
Elfin Cove who came on the ship and gave us a short
commentary of what life was like in Elfin Cove before we
visited the village. It was fascinating and definitely not a
place many people ever get the chance to visit.
We also got off the ship in Barlett Cove in the middle of
Glacier Bay and spent time at the Glacier Bay Ranger
Station and Glacier Bay Lodge. We had the opportunity to
attend a number of their presentations during the afternoon
and evening.
Activities
Every day was different and exciting. We went out on zodiacs
exploring the inter coastal tidal zone and little hikes into
the forest. Our time in Glacier Bay afforded us the time to
hike. Some went with a ranger, who led a hike into the
forest, while some went for an 11 mile hike to the lake.
Things were available for all levels of activity...
Linda Androlia |
