Alaska Cruise: Back to Seattle (Day 8)

Here came our last day at Sea.  With a mixed feeling, we were about to debark the ship.  My 5yrs old went to the camp house to say goodbye to the camp house coach and we took some picture with the friendly Carnival team - the dining room staff that were with us for the 7 days comfort dining experience, our stateroom steward - Jonathan and the camp house staff.

We arrived Seattle in early morning at 7pm and the debark process was a smooth one.  We left the ship at about 9am when our number were called, during then, we were at our breakfast table enjoyed our last meal on ship. 

It was a shower rain day when we debark the ship.  We waited at the terminal while daddy went to pick up the car at the parking lot. 

We then brought the girls to KidsQuest Children Museum at Bellevue Washington.  The girls had a fun time at KidsQuest and we had our sushi lunch prior to heading home. 

My 2yrs old spent almost the whole visit on this scarf shooter

Art time!  Girls had fun making their hat and drawing with the special stationery

My 5yrs old's drawing of what she saw on her 1st ever cruise trip -
rainbow, mountain, glacier, ice berg..  

Our sushi lunch

It was indeed a relax & memorable vacation to us.  I think i was hook.  As soon as we were back to home, daddy & I were talking about our next cruise trip destination already.  :P 

Alaska Cruise: Victoria, Canada (Day 7)

The capital of British Columbia, also known as the Garden City - Victoria is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

We have a relax time at sea for the whole day while we headed to Victoria port of call, arrived only at 7pm. 

My 5yrs old went to the camp house and came back with
face painted and her 1st place colouring contest page

Yummy Yogurt Ice-cream

Golf time again...

A surprise visitor came to our stateroom balcony

This is the port with the shortest time ashore.  As we have visited Victoria few years ago, we did not purchase any shore excursion, but just have a free and easy visit to Victoria downtown after taken our dinner at Empire restaurant which started only at 6:45pm.  Pardon me that we didn't manage to take any photo of the food for this day since we were rushing to go down the ship.  :P

Getting ready to visit Victoria downtown

We took a taxi to Victoria downtown which cost almost the same as the shuttle since there were 4 of us.  We spent a beautiful evening at Victoria downtown with the girls visited the famous ivy-covered Empress Hotel, charming Inner Harbor and the majestic Parliament Buildings.      



 

 

We have a cosy night indulged in the beauty of Victoria.  


Passed by beautiful fisherman wharf on our way back to pier



Time to get back to the ship...

For this last night on ship, we were greeted good night with a beautiful 'heart' and a lively 'sea-lion'.   

Alaska Cruise: Ketchikan (Day 6)

Known as "Alaska's First City", Ketchikan is the first major community travelers come to as they travel north.  Founded as a fishing camp, Ketchikan is a bustling community backed by forested hills and surrounded by a waterway busy with float planes, fishing boats, ferries and cruise ships.  It has the largest collection of totem poles in the world and thus also known as the Totem Pole capital of the world!

It was another beautiful sunny day when we woke up in Ketchikan.  It was a gifted day as Ketchikan's yearly rain downfall is often as much as 13 feet!!!  We were so blessed with the good weather through-out the time we ashore.
 

View from our room balcany when we woke up in Ketchikan

Originally, we were thinking to take a taxi or hop on public bus to get around in Ketchikan, mainly to visit the Potlatch Park and Creek Street.  However, we ended up purchased the "Ketchikan Highlights Express" shore excursion through the shore excursion desk on ship at last minutes.  Ketchikan is the port in Alaska that has the shortest time ashore (not counting Victoria port in Canada) and we wish not to have the same experience as Juneau where we were rushing through the city visit and shopping.

As the "Ketchikan Highlights Express" departs only at 9am, we went down from ship to do some shopping first at 8am to capitalize the time we had in Ketchikan.  I found that Ketchikan offered the cheapest shopping among the 3 ports of call in Alaska (Skayway, Juneau & Ketchikan).  BTW, remember to pick up the shopping guide from the Seattle terminal during the embarkation day, there were amazing discount coupon inside that you can get some souvenirs at very cheap price and some freebies.

"Ketchikan Highlights Express" brought us to Potlatch park - a fully recreated 19th century native Alaska Village, where the traditions and culture of the Native peoples were showcased. 

Beautifully carved totems, tribal houses, carving center, vintage vehicle and antique cars were among the things that we saw and visited.
 

One of the tribal home

Inside the main tribal house

 

Inside the Carving Center 

Vintage Vehicles & Antique Cars

We passed by some of the city's colorful landmarks on our return to town, including the creek street.  However, this tour does not make any stop in the city.  According to the driver, he can't make a stop and drop us at Creek Street.  We were driven back to the pick-up point at the city.  We then took a 15min walk to the Creek Street, explored the Ketchikan on foot along the way, before we returned to ship.

We went to Empire Restaurant for a course lunch instead of usual buffet lunch at La Playa.  And for dinner, it was a dress up dinner night this day.  We have pretty good food as usual. 

The girls had a pretty good time that night prior to return to the stateroom for the surprise towel creation.  :)

Party time during dinner

Girls danced on the dance floor

Creative towel surprise of the day