Voice of Travel

The first stop on the cruise was in Ketchikan. So this was our first real look at Alaska, even though we had seen the shore most of the day before while on the day at sea.

When I woke up early that morning, we had already docked, and the picture to the left shows what I saw from the window in my room. You might not be able to tell, but it was still slightly foggy at that time of day, but by the time we got off the ship it was fine.

One of the things I was looking forward to most about Alaska was the wildlife. I had a goal of seeing eagles, sea otters, bears, moose, and more. Since it was so early in the season, I was told that I might not see bears, but that one of the places I might see them was on a cruise in Ketchikan.

This is one of the main reasons I chose to go on the Coastal Wildlife Cruise shore excursion.

Here is the description, from the Princess website:

Your excursion begins with a short walk to board a custom-built, high-speed boat specially designed for wildlife viewing.

You’ll cruise 25 miles to a remote inlet to witness eagles and seals fishing for salmon and look for bears as they emerge from the forest to forage on beach grass and dig for clams.

Although bear watching is your main objective, you’ll spend about 30 minutes viewing wildlife that may be sighted during the journey to and from the bear viewing area. You’ll keep a keen eye out for wildlife on the move. Whales, porpoise and sea lions follow schools of herring and salmon as they migrate to and from their spawning grounds.

First of all, as you can see…it is a very small boat. While I don’t remember exactly how many of us there were, I know there were less than 15 of us on board. This was great, because we could all easily go to any part of the boat to see whatever wildlife was there. Also, since the boat was so small, it was easy for them to zip around anywhere they thought there was wildlife. So when we saw whales that were pretty far away, it was no problem to get a little closer to them.

Even though I didn’t end up getting to see bears on this cruise (although I wasn’t surprised, even though I hoped I would see some), I did get to see some amazing wildlife. Here’s one cool scene I was able to witness. The eagle that is just to the left of this text was on that branch for a while, and then another eagle flew over and sat next to it. It almost looked like they were communicating in some way. Then, after a few seconds one of the eagles flew over to the nest, and then a few seconds later the other eagle flew into the nest. It was a really cool thing to see, and I was lucky enough to get a lot of it on camera.

That wasn’t all I was able to see. There were a lot of sea lions relaxing on rocks. One thing I have to mention – they were very noisy! They sure wanted us to know that they were there.

There were also a few whales that we saw swimming around, but since I saw a ton more the next day, I won’t bother sharing any of those photos over here. It was a lot of fun watching them though.

We saw a few deer as well…but considering the fact I can see deer just by looking outside often enough, it didn’t excite me as much as it did seeing the other wildlife.

Like I said, I didn’t see any bears, but the other wildlife more than made up for it. It was a great boat ride, and I’m glad I went on it.

After the cruise was over, we walked over to Creek Street. Creek Street is well known as the old red-light district from back in the 1920’s, but now it’s all really nice shops and restaurants. It was really nice to walk around and look into all of the shops, and of course take a lot of pictures since the street and area were so nice.

Afterwards, we took a short walk through some of the shops that were near our ship. They were mostly the kinds of stores you’d expect to see near any cruise port. Lots and lots of jewelry stores, etc. The biggest difference here was that you also had stores selling salmon, and you definitely don’t see that everywhere!

Ketchikan was a really nice day, but since it was only the first stop on the trip, we were still looking forward to seeing all of the other sights we had yet to see!

I hope you enjoy the review,

P.S. If you’re ready to book your cruise to Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter), I strongly suggest using Cruise Compete. You’ll be sure to get the best price as different agencies will give you their best quote, and you can choose the lowest price!