Juneau
- Amaris Scipione
- Aug 10
- 4 min read
We aren’t scheduled to dock until noon so it gives us time for a relaxing morning. I start my day at the Solarium Spa Cafe where I order a smoothie similar to the one I make at home. It has peanut butter, banana, flaxseed, cocoa, and milk. It tastes really good, but I’m not sure any ice was added so the lukewarm temperature is a little off putting.
Today we’re hosting our Distinctive Voyages Juneau excursion! We meet our small group at The Meeting Place and then walk off the ship together. Our ship is docked at the AJ dock which is about 1 mile from town. We take our group on the complimentary shuttle to town so we can meet our tour guide. We walk to the green canopy behind the tram and easily find our tour company. We walk to the parking lot to meet our bus and then we are off!
The bus drives about fifteen minutes and our tour guide talks nearly the whole time with interesting facts about Juneau. We then make a stop to see Mendenhall Glacier. The bus pulls off at the Brotherhood Bridge trailhead, and we’re greeted with a beautiful view of the glacier. There is a field of Fireweed which is a beautiful pink flower which makes for a beautiful landscape picture of Alaska.
We go back on the bus and head to the Salmon Hatchery. This place was started as a science experiment by a local school teacher and has grown to quite the operation! There is a salmon ladder where fish come and then their eggs are harvested. The babies are born in the facility and then released when they are older. The reason they do this is because the success rate of breeding is much higher in a hatchery than in wildlife. The facility can alter how the fish develop by the temperature of the water. This produces the equivalent of rings on a tree with fish. This essentially creates a unique barcode so they can track where the fish go based on this “barcode.” The place was very interesting. We saw hundreds of thousands of salmon, but also saw a seal looking for lunch!
We crossed the bridge to visit Douglas Island. We stopped at Homestead Park for a very short hike which included a beautiful view. We could see the ships docked. We’ve been so lucky with the weather. No rain and lots of sun! I was way overdressed with layers.
We finished the tour with a stop at Mayor Bill Overstreet Park. Here we found Tahku which is a giant whale statue. The park and statue were both very beautiful and a lovely end to the tour.
Our guide told us about New Juneau and Old Juneau. New Juneau is basically owned by the cruise line and only open during the tourist season. Old Juneau supports locals more and is what is open in the off-season. Red Dog Saloon marks the division between Old and New. We stop at Jellyfish Donuts, and I order the Moosetrack Donut. It was absolutely heavenly. They are made fresh to order and the snack I needed. We eventually ventured further and found an area with food trucks. It was such a great area for a beautiful day. I got a hot dog and a Spruce daiquiri. We meander back to the ship.
We relax in the room and I use my brand-new fish shaped corkscrew to open our wine. This souvenir is less expensive than having Celebrity uncork our bottles. Both wines we chose are very good. We carry full glasses to the comedy show. I find comedians on cruise ships are my favorite kind of comedians. The jokes often involve traveling and are pretty good. During the show he mentioned United Airlines and a few people booed and I felt like I was in good company. Later, people cheered for Southwest and the comedian said we were an odd bunch.
We moved from the show to dinner but got distracted by the bartenders at the martini bar. They were putting on a show. They made a whole bunch of drinks and poured them at once. It’s impressive how many he poured. The best part about these little shows is that they often give those drinks away. You better believe I grabbed myself a free martini. I have no idea what it was, but it was quite tasty.
We meet a very nice couple at dinner and enjoy talking to them about their back-to-back-to-back cruise experience. They also told us a little about their helicopter ride to the glacier which sounded amazing. Later, we go to karaoke and meet a family. They also did the helicopter tour and absolutely loved it. The people onboard Celebrity have been so wonderful. Both staff and guests. Would you want to take a helicopter onto a glacier and walk around on it?
