8/8/16 Alaska is a WONDERful first cruise! (Completed!)

Saturday 8/6/16: Vancouver:

...

Anyway…we ended up at White Spot, 10 minute wait. It was food. I did enjoy my Crunchy Asian Noodle Salad, and DD12 enjoyed her teriyaki chicken rice bowl. I think DD16 got a chicken Caesar salad, and DH maybe Fish and Chips? After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, checked out the shop…bought more Kinder eggs there, and some other chocolates, then headed up to bed.

We loved White Spot! There was on in our hotel where we stayed before and after and we ate there several times. DW doesn't normally like fried chicken, but she absolutely loved their fried chicken.
 
8/10/16: Endicott Arm Day: Part 1

Today is laundry day…halfway into our trip…we have 5 days of laundry. DH walks down to laundry room in the AM, it’s full. We go off to find breakfast with the kids. Let’s go to Parrot Cay…there is a line, so you’d have to wait a bit. Fine…let’s just go up to Beach Blanket Buffet. We see Felipe (our character breakfast server from yesterday) working at Beach Blanket Buffet today--he recognizes us and asks if DD16 is feeling better. DH and I are amazed...there are a LOT of people on board, and to recognize a family you've met once...it just really made us feel special. Seating is difficult inside the buffet, but there are 2 tables of 2, so the kids go to 1 and we go to another. DH enjoyed the breakfast buffet here more than the lunch buffet. At some point we do Anna’s Chocolate chase for today.

At 9:30AM, DD16 and I went to the naturalist talk, ‘Growlers and Sliders—Ice on the Inside Passage’ with Cynthia Gibson. I was a geology major in college—and this was a great refresher for me on glacial geology…as college was a really long time ago…

After the talk, DH took the kids to the 10:45AM showing of “Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass,” and I did laundry—there were 2 washers available, so I started with my dark laundry. I ended up with 3 loads of wash, and 4 rounds of dryer. The Wonder washers/dryers only cost $1/load…I’m sure that will be changing after the drydock… For detergent, I use ½ of a Purex 3 in 1 sheet (they stopped making them, but as we only use these for vacations, we have plenty left—and they travel well!) The laundry room is HOT. I go up to deck 4 in between loads of laundry and take pics as we near Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm…and yes, as they have ALL year, the Wonder goes to Endicott Arm due to too much ice in Tracy Arm. I have an encounter with an ‘Alaskan Bear’ on the deck 4 Promenade.
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After the movie ends, DH helps me with the last of the laundry, we go up to Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch…but no BBQ today due to the rain.
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At some point in the day I discover there are pretzels at the Pizza place—so I get a plain one and a cream cheese filled cinnamon sugar one. They’re a bit ‘doughy.’

We take tons of pictures of Endicott Arm. We loved seeing the seals on the ice. The sound outside is amazing…you can hear the ice cracking in the water, and the sound of the rushing waterfall nearby. We are still 1 mile away from the glacier, but it feels closer than that. We were pretty comfortable in the layers we had on, but I did go get our gloves as my hands were getting cold taking pics outside. We spent most of the time on deck 4 taking pics.

Cascades:
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One of the 'larger' ice bergs:
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Seals!
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As a Geology Major--I am amazed by the size of this U-shaped valley. U shaped valleys are carved by glaciers, V shaped valleys by rivers. Living in New England, I've seen glacial topography--but it's from the last ice age and our valleys are not this wide.
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Dawes glacier--the only glaciers I had seen prior to this were the 'little' ones up in the mountains at Glacier National Park in Montana...18 years ago. This is an amazing sight--and one I am so glad to have seen. The dark lines are 'moraines'--areas the glacier has scraped up the sides of mountains--so multiple glaciers have come together here. Normally the dark line is only by the edge of mountains.
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8/10/16: Endicott Arm Day: Part 2

The view from our Porthole on deck 2:
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In the padded window seats outside of Animator's Palate, the kids are warming up and 'chatting' via the app--yes they are maybe 6 feet apart from each other...
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We get pics with characters. Daisy on Deck 4 Promenade.
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We all touch 200 year old ice--an ice berg they brought onto the ship:
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We watch as Hook, who was leaving, stops in Vista Gallery and angrily motions at the painting of Peter Pan. It was hilarious. We managed to get him to stop at one point for a picture.
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We see Chip and Dale at 3:30PM.
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Views as we sail out of Endicott Arm:
The gorgeous water that reminds me of the Caribbean/Florida, gets it's color from glacial silt suspended in it.
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And the obligatory shot of my feet while I'm in a lounger...
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8/10/16: Endicott Arm Day: Part 3


Goofy at 5:15PM.
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Tinker Bell at 5:30PM.
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Dinner in Animator's Palate:
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My Blueberrilicious
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DD12's Bora Shake:
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My Black Truffle Pasta Pursettes
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DH: Sliced Serrano Ham
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DD12: Split Green Pea Soup
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DD16: Spinach and Arugula Leaves
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In Animator's Palate everything starts off Black and White, pictures start to get colored in:
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8/10/16: Endicott Arm Day: Part 4

After we get our appetizers...the power goes out, emergency lighting goes on. The waitstaff just keep going, passing out the orders. From our seats, we can't hear any announcements.
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The entrees come out:

Me: Ginger Teriyaki dusted angus beef tenderloin
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DH: Grilled tuna steak
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DD12: Pennette Bolognese
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DD16: lemon-thyme marinated chicken breast
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Luckily, power is restored before dessert and we get the final show with Sorcerer Mickey and the room changes colors!
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Dessert:
Me and DH: Fairbanks Blueberry Crumble Tart
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DD12--sweet temptations, again!
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DD16: White chocolate fudge cheesecake:
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8/10/16: Endicott Arm Day: Part 5

After dinner we took pics with Pluto:
8-10DSCN5637.JPGAriel...who just seemed to be wandering around the ship all the time...
8-10DSCN5639.JPG Then went to the 8:30PM Michael Harrison Show—ventriloquist. We enjoyed it! After the show, the kids went to their clubs. DD16 went to T-Shirt Making, DD12 went to Pizza Perfection—and had a great time as they went up to the Pinocchio’s Pizzeria on deck 9 to cook them! DH and I actually had time to ourselves… We went to the Route 66 Adult area, took a bunch of pics
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Then we went to Cadillac Lounge to go somewhere quiet. Tim Moss was playing the piano and singing Broadway, TV, and Movie Tunes. I ordered a Pomegranate Passion (champagne based drink), and DH had a club soda. They gave us salted peanuts to eat.
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When we got back to the room…both kids were still out. They came in about 15 minutes later.

Towel animal for the night: Bear!
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8/11/16 Skagway: part 1

We have to meet off the ship at 8:15AM for our excursion today, so we had filled out the room service sheet last night and left it on the door to be delivered between 6:30-7AM (it came around 6:30AM). (Room service is free, you just need to tip!) Breakfast—2 bowls of fruit, 2 croissant, 1 donut, 1 danish, 1 cinnamon bun, 2 boxes frosted flakes, coffee, chocolate milk, milk, orange juice, apple juice. This was a great plan, as the 4 of us could get ready and have breakfast at the same time.
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I look out the porthole…another foggy morning.
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As we were heading off the ship, we noticed that the Atrium is decorated for Frozen Night:
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I had booked the excursion through Chilkoot Charters. It was a bus (holds 24 passengers) ride up to the Yukon, with various stops, a bbq chicken lunch, dogcart ride, and then a train ride back. The cost was $816 for 3 adults and 1 child. Mike, our tour guide was very entertaining and knowledgeable about the area as he was born here.

Bridal Veil Falls?
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The moment we entered Canada, it cleared up, and the farther north we went, the more sun we got...and yes, the sunglasses are back in our room...because...well...fog.
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Mike was great about taking pics of the families/couples:
8-11DSCN0770.JPGWe stop in Carcross, Yukon for 15 minutes to walk around and shop. DD12 picks out a piece of jewelry and I go to pay…when I discover I have become way too accustomed to just paying with my key card…because I forgot my wallet! I spy DD16 outside the shop and tell her to get Dad…I need cash! Doh! (As we needed passports for this excursion, I have a form of ID…just no wallet…I can’t believe I did that! 2 ½ days on the ship and I’ve already forgotten about the real world.) Then back on the bus for a couple of more picture stops.

Emerald Lake:
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8/11/16 Skagway: part 2

Our big stop was at Caribou Crossing Trading Post where we had a BBQ chicken lunch with all you can eat homemade cake donuts. Mike gave us a tip about the fact that there are covered wagons with tables/condiments that you can eat at if you want to be more private and have a quieter dining experience.
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We had added on the dogcart ride option—this was SO much fun. The dogs run the Iditarod in the winter, and this is basically their summer training. They love to run and will bark to try and be chosen to pull the carts. They have misters going non-stop for the dogs to keep them cool in the summer. They hooked up 12 dogs to pull our cart of 6 people. It’s a 15 minute ride, including a water stop for the dogs halfway through.
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After that we went to the puppy area and both girls held 5 week old puppies.

Here is DD16, with the 'I want to take him home' look--before the trip she kept saying she was going to smuggle a puppy home.
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While DD16's puppy is a very sleepy puppy, DD12's is lively and just wants down!
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We also pet the goats and walked around looking at the other animals. We didn’t have time to go into the wildlife museum as we wanted a few minutes to shop. We got back in the bus, made a few more stops that we had skipped on the way up (to avoid the other tour buses.)

Carcross Desert:
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Yukon Sign:
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White Pass and Yukon Railroad:
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8/11/16 Skagway: part 3

Mike dropped us off at the White Pass and Yukon Railroad for our train ride back into Skagway. Our bus had a train car to itself—plenty of room. After the previous passengers got off the train, they flipped all the seats over so we'd be facing forward on the ride down and put booklets about the train ride on each seat. They had bottles of water, so we took a bottle each.
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Tormented Valley:
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As we left Canada, the fog crept back in. It wasn’t as foggy as the morning…but still fog.
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I call this picture...ghost bridge:
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Luckily that's not the one we're going over...here's the end of it:
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View of more of our train still going through a tunnel in the distance:
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During the train ride, they came by selling souvenirs, we bought the $20 hat/dvd/book combo.
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8-11DSCN0907.JPG When we got off the train, Mike was there with his bus and offered to drive people to town. We’re the only ones to take him up on his offer. We had him drop us off by the Klondike Gold Rush NHP to turn in our junior and deputy ranger books we’d filled out at home and get badges and pins! We also made sure to stamp our National Park passport books.
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Then we started walking back to the Wonder, and getting pelted by rain. Unfortunately this dock area wasn’t covered at all—between the rain, the wind, and the long line of people getting back on the ship, it was pretty miserable. DD16 and my ears hurt from standing outside with the wind and rain hitting us...it almost felt like sleet...which is when I blamed Elsa...because...Frozen Night.
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8/11/16 Skagway: part 4

Tonight is Frozen Night: we arrive to our room to find glowing snowflake necklaces to wear! We change DD12 into her Elsa dress, DD16 puts on her Elsa shirt and we go to dinner in Parrot Cay—Freezing the night away menu

ME: Pearfection to drink, Jarlsberg Tart,
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Oaken’s Red and Yellow Beetroot Salad,
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Hans Juniper wild boar filet,
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DH: Duke of Weselton’s favorites,
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Bulda’s Vegetable Lattice,
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Hernan cut up DD12's salad and fed it to her:
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DD16: Sven’s carrot soup,
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Anna’s Honey Mustard Marinated salmon,
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8/11/16 Skagway: part 5

Dessert:
DD12 and I: Sweet Temptations
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DD16: Olaf's Floro Dome
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DH: Oaken Warm Apple Pudding Cake
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Hernan played with the kids for a bit and turned them into Minnie Mouse:
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Earlier, we picked up our DVC freebies for the day—rubber bracelets with a switch to make the DVC logo glow different colors. The Frozen Sail Away Party is at 7:30PM. We went up to deck 10 to watch it, and luckily it has stopped raining. I'm not in the best place to get pics of Anna, Kristoff, and Elsa, but we could see enough from here and had some space to move. The kids danced with Daisy and Donald.
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When we set sail, the horn sounded, making my kids jump, and then Daisy covered their ears. It was so cute!
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The kids enjoyed the party, especially when it started to snow! And yes, my girls were singing along to ALL the songs!
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Tonight’s show was the movie “Finding Dory” in 3D. We don’t tend to go to 3D movies, but this one was very mild for the 3D part. Our only issue was the neon Exit light in the back of the theater was SO bright that we couldn’t see the darker parts of the movie. I also admit to being really tired…and I might have slept through part of the movie…

DD12 (who didn't sleep through the movie) was tired after the movie, so DH took her to the room…passing Goofy in his PJ’s by the shop,
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DD16 and I quickly go around the ship finding the last clues of Anna’s Chocolate chase…and go get ice cream. Well…I discover that today, in addition to the vanilla/chocolate machine…they had the ‘fruit’ machine…they ‘had’ blueberry…but that is now empty, the banana part is still active…so I get it ‘just because I can!’

Towel Animal for the night: Rabbit!
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It's so funny that we have pretty much the same exact photos. I'm with you, Mike was great. I keep meaning to write a note to Chilkoot and give some praise to Mike. We were extremely happy with that excursion.
 
Love your trip report!

Thank you for the explanation of the dark lines on the glacier. Amazing!
You're welcome! I did pick up the info from the Naturalist--as I said it's been a LONG time since college--so while I did learn all this stuff before it has been 25+ years since I took any classes dealing with glacial geology!
 
It's so funny that we have pretty much the same exact photos. I'm with you, Mike was great. I keep meaning to write a note to Chilkoot and give some praise to Mike. We were extremely happy with that excursion.
You have some clearer pictures on the train from going outside, I just took mine from my seat. That excursion really was a highlight of the trip!
 
JenMarie82: It seemed like it was Port side for quite a while--we did a couple turns. Shortly before the ship left the glacier, I think we were even closer and managed to take pics of each of us in the porthole with the glacier in the background. Glad you had a good view when you had to be in your room!
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8/12/16 Juneau--part 1

We leave our completed Anna’s chocolate chase sheets on the bed, pack up our excursion bags and go to visit Mickey and Minnie together in their Alaskan outfits at 8:30AM. (DD16 had used the app while waiting for one of the shows and determined this was the only time ‘we’ could see them together. We’re mostly on our own schedule today and as we’re the only ship in port until 1PM, we don’t need to hurry off the ship.)
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Next we go to Triton’s for breakfast.

Me: Mango Mountain Hike, croissant, Vegetarian Omelet
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DH—Mango Mountain Hike, Eggs Benedict, pastry;
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DD12 Peanut Butter and Jelly Typhoon, croissant;
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DD16: Mickey’s Special Combo Platter, croissant
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8/12/16 Juneau--part 2

We took the free shuttle from the dock to downtown. Then found the Juneau Tours person to find out where to wait for the shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier. (I had pre-purchased the vouchers --$30/person roundtrip, $25 for DD12) The shuttle runs every ½ hr. Our driver to the glacier is Ben Jackson, a native of the Tlingit tribe. He’s one of the last few people fluent in the Tlingit language. He teaches the language at the schools. He told us many interesting facts on our way to the glacier. Before we got off the bus he said they don’t allow food there due to the bears…so we leave our bag of snacks and if we manage to catch the ‘right’ bus back, we’ll get them back later.

At Mendenhall Glacier, we walk around the ‘open’ parts of the Steep Creek trail to see the sockeye salmon (they turn red in fresh water), and hoping to see some bears—none there when we were there.
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Raven?
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We get the kids Tongass National Forest Junior Ranger packets and they fill out the workbooks during our visit. On the trail to Nugget Falls I hear ‘big’ noises in the woods and see fur…and more fur, about 15 feet off the trail—it is dense woods, so I don’t get any pictures, but yeah, we ‘saw’ 3 black bear cubs (found out later Mama bear had sent them on their own a week before and they’ve been sticking together since then.) We finish the hike to Nugget Falls.
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Mendenhall Glacier
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Behind the family, an iceberg on Mendenhall Lake:
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On the way back, DD12 is complaining about the walk again…and yeah, she’s getting hungry. (DH and I would have loved to do the 3.5 mile East Glacier Loop trail, but the kids didn't...this trail was enough for them.) I leave her on a bench to wait for DD16 and DH while I hurry down Photo Point trail, to well…take some photos! DH joins me, and a local woman offers to take a picture of us. She mentions that we’re lucky it’s a cloudy day—the blues in the glacier really show on cloudy days.
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We meet back up with the kids, go to the visitor center, watch the movie, kids finish their workbooks, get their badges, we stamp our National Park passport books, and manage to get down to our shuttle stop in time to catch the bus with our food on it. (Of course we find out there are black bears down by Steep Creek NOW, but we don’t want to miss the bus with our food…) We get on the bus, get our food, kids have a snack. We have a different driver now (she is originally from Florida), so we get her viewpoint of the area on the way back. By the time we get back to downtown Juneau it is raining—the weather was good while we were at the glacier. It’s now around 1:30PM and the town is becoming crowded with the passengers of 2 more cruise ships. DH and the kids go jewelry shopping—looking for Alaskan Alex and Ani bracelets. I go to the Alaska Shirt Company to do my souvenir shopping (shirts and postcards), kids join me later and pick out shirts for themselves. Then we wait for a shuttle back to the dock area, and take pictures of an Eagle nearby.
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We get on the ship on deck 1 today, and immediately notice the cocoa and cookies! We must have missed them on Skagway day. We stop at the DVC desk to redeem our token from the nice card in our room and get 4 new DVC hats.

We come back to room to find that Anna left us 4 chocolates!
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We notice that we’ve had another call from DVC, thanking members for talking to other people on the ship. We can stop at the desk and get a copy of the print of Walt and Lillian that hangs in all the staterooms. (I pick it up the next day.) DH and I go and bring snacks back for the kids, and more cocoa. Today’s ‘fruit’ ice cream flavors are banana and strawberry. We get ready for semi-formal night—DD12 gets her shower done before we leave port, but DD16 just took too long to get going—I told her now is your chance to shower while we’re not moving, but no…she’s either reading something on her phone or watching a movie on the TV. I have NO pictures of us dressed up. I’d say we had ‘casual’ dresses on--but they are dresses vs. the jeans/t-shirts we've been wearing other nights.
 
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