20240913 Friday, September 13, 2024- Ketchikan, Alaska
When we awoke, the ship was still sailing close to shore on its approach into Ketchikan. There was no fog, but a heavy layer of clouds appeared to uphold the promise of rain in Ketchikan. The forecast was for periods of rain, but there were a few patches of open sky as well.
The Viking Orion approached what appeared to be an empty prime docking spot along Ketchikan’s tourist waterfront.
It turned out we were the first ship of three to arrive. Shortly after our arrival, the Holland America Zaandam tied up behind us to the south, and the Celebrity Solice tied up to our north. It was very nice to have a prime view of Ketchikan’s tourist waterfront right out our stateroom with the trademark “Ketchikan, Alaska’s First City” gateway directly in front of us.
When we approached the dock, there were a lot of yellow school buses parked on the waterfront holding area. We had been forewarned that because these Alaskan cities are reachable only by plane or water, that some infrastructure like buses may not be up to Viking travellers’ standards. We tend to be spoiled and expect luxury coaches that are nice and new, and well maintained.
After we were secured to the dock, several more classic tourist coach buses appeared. While these coaches appeared to be over 20 years old from their styles, they would certainly be more comfortable than school buses.
After grabbing breakfast in the buffet, we relaxed in our stateroom and watched the ship’s arrival into Ketchikan.
Then we had a quick lunch before heading off on our tour at 12:15pm. There was just an intermittent drizzle going on outside so we didn’t need Gortex rain pants. Our Viking Polaris parkas without liners were perfect for this job, and we fit right in. There are quite a few fellow passengers who have also done the Antarctica expedition cruise, and some have also brought the same parkas.
The tour buses were perhaps a bit tired but serviceable and certainly better than school buses. We had used the same coach line on Princess Ketchikan excursions in the past.
Viking includes a tour at each port of call. The inclusive tour for Ketchikan was a trip to the Potlatch Totem Village, which is a reconstruction of structures representative of those used by Salish tribes.
There were several smaller houses with elaborate carvings on the fronts and support poles, as well as lots of totem poles. The long house was nicely done with carvings, although it was perhaps a little smaller than the long house we remember from the Pacific Science Center’s long house. Our guide provided several stories of the folk lore told by the totems and carvings on some of the buildings. The Raven and Eagle played an important role in this village’s origin story.
There was also a workshop where native word carvers continue to practice and teach their craft to keep it alive. And of course there was a large gift shop with lots of very nice Salish artwork, carvings and totems to purchase. Inside the gift shop was also a small museum with animal mounts and for some inexplicable reason, a gattling gun.
We saw one of the landslides that recently impacted Ketchikan. It was a fair way north of the tourist district but was up the hill from the Ketchikan McDonalds and a large hotel, so that could have been worse.
As we headed from Ketchikan to the Potlatch Totem Village, we passed the Ketchikan Airport ferry and Marine Highway Ferry terminal. When we had previously visited Ketchikan in the early 2000’s, we had taken the Marine Highway Ferry from Ketchikan to Wrangle, the next city up the SE Alaska Coast. We also drove around another bay and saw the Norwegian Encore at a pier of its own next to a dry dock with an Alaska Marine Highway system ferry in it. Those passenger would have to be shuttled the several miles from there to downtown Ketchikan. Our ship had certainly managed to get the best berthing spot.
Our tour ended back at the dock in the center of downtown Ketchikan. We walked from there up Creek Street. There were several harbor seals feeding on some really beat up looking salmon near the creek entrance, and lots of played out and decomposing salmon at the bottom of the creek and along the shores. We could see salmon jumping both up the falls and the fish ladder at the head of Creek street. Our guide said these were pink salmon.
Upon return to the ship, we headed for tea service. The Wintergarden was full, but the staff allowed us to be seated in the Explorer’s lounge, which was much more quiet, intimate and pleasant. We met a pleasant couple from Perth who were enjoying a sip of wine. When we told them they could also indulge in afternoon high tea, they replied that’s for Poms (Aussie slang and slight derogative for English). It’s interesting that the Aussies and Kiwis refer to the English as Poms. There are a few etymological theories for why this is, but nobody seems entire sure what the truth is. One theory is that recent immigrant arrivals from England to Australia were mostly prisoners of His/Her Majesty and had their jail uniforms stamped POHM. Another is it is a rhyming slang for immigrant/pomegranate like cockney slang. Yet another is that recently arrived English would turn as red as pomegranates in the hot Australian sun.
Our kids all called or Facetimed Janet to wish her a happy birthday. Since we were still tied up in Ketchikan, we could use cellular to stream. The ship's wifi is free but bandwidth isn't adequate for reliable video streaming.
After tea we had time to hit the fitness center because we had late dinner reservations at Manfredi’s Italian Restaurant for Janet’s birthday. Ben enjoyed cooling down in the thermal spa’s snow grotto after his run on the treadmill. It was interesting to watch the ship push back from the dock and sail away from close to the waterline because the fitness center on this ship is in the bow near the waterline.
The ship’s entertainment staff supposedly featured a comedic magician in the theater, and a Name that Tune music Trivia in the Explorer’s Lounge tonight but we missed both due to our late dinner reservation. Neither of could recall any comedians or magicians on our first Viking Ocean cruise to Cuba on the Viking Star. It seems all we had were the 4 singer/dancers, a cellist and pianist duo, and a 4 piece club band for the Torshavn stage. Perhaps Viking has had more than us complaining about the relative lack of entertainment compared with Princess and other cruise lines. You can only see so many lectures before you begin to wish for some much less intellectually stimulating entertainment.
Manfredi’s was packed when we arrived at 8pm for our dinner reservation. It was quite loud, so it was difficult to carry out any conversation or even hear the waiter explaining the menu. The menu is quite extensive and they don’t restrict what you can order. We each had fried shrimp and calamari for a starter, which was very good. Then we had a cup of soup, minestrone for Janet and fagioli for Ben. Then the mains were chicken parmesan for Janet and Viking steak (boneless ribeye marinated for 2 days) for Ben. The marination process for the steak turns the meat brown so a medium rare looks like it’s medium well by color but the texture and flavor are still medium rare despite the color. The ribeye was very heavily marbled. There were also small side orders of grilled vegetables and pasta. Boy, were we full. Neither of us could finish or main entrees.
The staff knew it was Janet’s birthday- apparently they keep track of these things because Janet also got an email Happy Birthday greeting from Viking, and they brought out an extremely rich looking and substantial birthday cake for Janet.
By the time we finished our dinners, it was 10pm and the restaurant was much quieter and pleasant. Most of the people in the restaurant when we arrived must have been from the 6:30pm dinner seating. We were so stuffed that we had the cake sent up to our stateroom. Maybe we’ll have it for breakfast.
Tomorrow we arrive in Sitka where we have an included excursion departing the ship at 8:15am. We’ll have to set an alarm clock.
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