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Wednesday 24th August
Weather: Low-lying cloud, lots of rain in the morning with but brightening up later on
Sea Conditions: extremely flat
We arrived in Icy Strait Point just before 7am. This is a relatively new cruise stop for many ships (only the second time Grand Princess had stopped here this year) and the only privately owned port in the USA. The township had just spent $30 million dollars on building a dock (and we assume the buildings near by). In the port itself there is the welcome center doubling up as the Excursion Hub, a couple of bars/restaurants and shops, a cannery museum and a zip wire – claiming to be the longest in the world. It takes 45 minutes to get to the top by bus and just 90 seconds to make it down the wire. It drops around 1300 feet and for most of it, you are flying above the spruce canopy. The ship had arranged for a lot of the crew to do the zip wire and it was the talk of the restaurant that evening – the waiters took great pleasure in pointing out the 81 year old lady that did it – her attitude, you only live once.
Another early start today and we were off on a Bear Hunt. We had a 45 minute bus ride into the rainforest. Once there, we were given a safety briefing … and introduced to our bear warden that was keeping us safe. Once again, Callum decided the safest place wasn’t walking with his parents … but with the man with the rifle and bear spray!
For the bear part of the tour, our guide was Kimberley. She was good … but her humour seemed a little forced and pre-rehearsed. Most importantly, our luck was in – we were lucky enough to see a Chichogof Brown Bear (related to the grizzly bear). As we made it onto the platform, there was a bear munching on salmon at the creek. He was a little way off in the distance but we’d seen a real bear. He caught a salmon and and walked into the long grass on the opposite bank to eat it. Our luck was really in as he took to the creek on numerous occasions to catch more salmon to feed himself up ready for the winter … and each time, he got closer and closer to our viewing platform.
Another tour group was coming in, and we had to move to the next platform … and the bear followed us down the creek. When we moved onto the third platform, he had kept pace with us and got closer and closer. So close, you could hear the crunch of the salmon bones breaking in his jaw.
Bear watch over all too quickly and it was time to search for whales. The boat was huge in comparison to yesterdays tour – there must have been over 100 people onboard. We headed out to sea and the fog/cloud rolled in very quickly (think the opening scenes in Jurassic Park 3). The wind was bitterly cold and there was light rain in the air. We were starting to think there wasn’t a chance of seeing whales today as you couldn’t see 5 feet away from the boat.
Eventually it did clear and we did see one humpback whale … just the one, very close to shore. After 30 minutes or so of watching this whale, we headed off “to see some other wildlife” and starting to feel a little disappointed with this trip compared to the previous day. It was also starting to rain pretty heavily and the cameras were getting a little wet.
Eventually we did spot a head bob up out of the water – a sea otter. Then all of a sudden, some more whales appeared and we say a small pod of Orcas. The top deck filled up very quickly with everyone trying to get photos. We couldn’t stay and watch for long as the boat needed to get back for the next trip – but it was very cool to see Orcas in the wild.
We were soaked so headed back towards the ship. The restaurants were busy so opted to go to the bar to sample the local beer. We had driven through Hoonah and there wasn’t an awful lot to it so decided not to walk along the shore to Hoonah. It was cold but at least it wasn’t raining back on shore.
We decided to give Alfredos a whirl lunch – fresh made Pizza. Jon and I had the Tarantina Pizza (mussels, shrimps and clams) and Callum a Pepperoni. It was surprisingly good with a crispy base.
Callum had a swim and a dip in the Jacuzzi before we headed back to get ready for dinner. It was disco time in Kids Club and Callum wanted to show off his moves.
Just Jon and I for dinner in the main dining room.
Jon had a shrimp cocktail – on the menu each night and I had the calamari steak with squid. Jon then tried one of the pasta appetiser dishes whilst I had the pumpkin and prosciutto soup. To follow, I had the steak and Jon the Beef Stroganoff and all finished off with a chocolate pudding. One thing Grand Princess do REALLY well is the chocolate puddings!
After dinner, we collected Callum from Kids Club and headed back to the cabin.
