Feel free to either ignore this or send me condolences. The upside of traveling large ship NCL is that they have great staff, extensive services, lounge space, more than average food with a wide variety of options. Plus the solo studios which can’t be beat. The downsides are that this is a big ship with way too many passengers, especially short screamers, for my taste.
And then there is the docking in Ketchikan. NCL has put a lot of money into Ward Cove. Originally a fishing processing location and then lumber/paper mill if my memory serves me. All that that was shut down by the end of the 1990s. Over salmon fishing lead to the shuttering of 20/22 canneries. The hatchery here now releases millions of salmon a year. Besides being popular with tourists, it apparently (along with the cannery) can be quite popular with the bears. Enough said on that. Anyway- rather than be at one of the four piers in town, NCL docks at Ward Cove. The facilities are good, there is a huge shopping area with more than competitive prices, and there are free shuttle buses into town. 7 miles into town. That is seven miles of the total of 30 miles of road….
The day – arrival at 0600. First shuttle at about 0615. 30 minutes into town. Nothing is open. In fact, a lot of things don’t open till 1000 which seems a bit strange with 6 ships in port today. Specifically, the quilt shop wasn’t opening early. The book store would have been open shortly after 0900 but do I really need more books? The Totem Pole museum apparently opens at 0800 so I stand corrected.
My favorite local coffee shop wasn’t open but one of the large (locally owned) tourist shops was. I was able to check off almost all of my list and then headed along the main drag back toward Pier 4 (furthest from downtown). Thought about going back to the ship and instead walked out to Safeway for coffee and candy bars completely forgetting the hair conditioner… but caught the free local shuttle back to Pier 4. It runs every 20 minutes. I couldn’t figure out the guy who was angry at the driver because he wasn’t willing to delay 5-10 minutes for the wife who was still checking out of the Safeway. Hello? Take the next shuttle…
From there it was the ship’s shuttle back to Ward’s Cove around 0900. There were people just starting to think about going into town. Of note – 30 minutes in, last shuttle back at 1030. You do the arithmetic. There are a couple of taxis and a free roving transport or two which I am sure make a bundle off people who can’t tell time.
I am back at the ship –
with art on the bow and hull sides which some people adore. I am really a fan of the older, simpler paint jobs…
Off to find whatever, do a bit more stitching and listen to an audio book. Probably won’t be back on line much after we pull out till we hit Victoria. Oh – and that is the rest of the whine. We leave here at 1300. We arrive at Victoria BC at 2000 TOMORROW… this doesn’t really compute.
Given that I am surrounded by a mess of packing boxes PLUS I rather envy you – apart from the short screamers. (Why do people bother to take them?)
They bring them for various reasons – one of which is to drop them off at the included child care options. Also there is the “widening of experience” (which is completely bs for the under ~8 crowd). And then there are those who just bring them because it costs less than leaving them home and asking family or paying child care. And the well behaved children are so rare…