R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 65

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Skagway Architecture, Trains, and Stuff

As you’ll recall from Monday’s article, we’re doing a photo tour of Skagway, Alaska over this week and next. Most of this series will concentrate on the sights in and around this charming town, which Ursula and I just adore visiting. But Wednesday of next week I have a special treat, as I’ll be reviewing our favorite jeweler, who replaced our previous favorite here in El Paso when that jeweler decided to shut down the family business after 103 years. Meanwhile, let us begin where we left off...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Strolling into Skagway

Fall foliage hits Skagway

Skagway, Alaska is a beautiful destination even in the off-season. Over the next two weeks I’ll be showing you the town over two visits. The first, aboard Voyage 1 aboard Ovation of the Seas, had us arriving here on Monday, 27 September 2021. Our next visit on Voyage 2 was eight days later, Tuesday, 5 October. That extra day was the result of a weather-related change our our itinerary, in which the captain substituted Ketchikan for Sitka.

Ovation of the Seas in Sk...

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Sitka Favorites

Crescent Bay, Sitka

Time for one last Fun Photo Friday look at lovely Sitka before we head off to our next destination aboard Ovation of the Seas during the off-season in Alaska. All the photos in this week’s series were taken on one visit during our back-to-back cruises, as Sitka was dropped for Voyage 2 because of weather concerns. Over the next two weeks I’ll be covering our two stops in Skagway, as there is much to see and a lot of shopping to do at that stop. Meanwhile:

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Sitka; St. Michael’s Cathedral

Time to head over to probably the main attraction for this wonderfully photogenic and historically significant town. As you’ll recall from Monday’s article, Ovation of the Seas deposited us in Sitka on Monday, 28 September of this year. After departing the ship, we took a 12-minute shuttlebus ride into town, getting off in the parking lot of the Sitka Historical Society Museum along Crescent Bay. Less than five minutes’ walk from the drop-off point get you to the Cathedral of St. Michael the...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Walking Sitka

It’s the day after Juneau. Royal Caribbean‘s gigantic Ovation of the Seas made port in Sitka, Alaska on Monday, 27 September. Sitka sits primarily on Baronof Island, with a portion just across the bridge on neighboring Chichagoff Island. This city may be small in size and population, but it is large in the history of Alaska, as it was designated the Russian America capital.

Sitka Lighthouse (now a 2-bedroom luxury vacation rental)

To be sure, Sitka is a very small municipality. The tot...

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Juneau Favorites

Tacos? In Alaska? Well, at least they’re fish

Time for this week’s Fun Photo Friday of Juneau favorites:

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Juneau; Out and About

Ovation of the Seas

We’re still in Juneau for today’s article. And, once again, photos for this week’s Juneau experience were taken either during Voyage 1 (26 September 2021) or Voyage 2 (4 October 2021). The easy way to tell which day is which is to look at the sky. Voyage 1 we encountered clouds and intermittent drizzle, while Voyage 2 gave us bright, sunny skies. The image above was taken shortly after 2:00 p.m. on the 26th, shortly after our late arrival into Juneau. Here’s Ovation later ...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Entering Juneau

Last week I ran a three-part series on Cruising in the Age of Covid-19. That review detailed onboard experiences on recent back-to-back voyages aboard Royal Caribbean‘s huge ship Ovation of the Seas. Beginning today I will present to you the sights we encountered on these voyages beginning with Juneau, the capital of Alaska.

Ovation of the Seas in Juneau — 26 September 2021

On Voyage 1 we arrived in port on 26 September in the afternoon. It was our first port of call on this voyage. As...

Cruising in the Age of Covid-19 — Part 3

Ready for the Robots — Booze at the Bionic Bar

On Wednesday we looked at the various Covid-19 health protocol contradictions on the dining venues (and the elevators) aboard Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas. Today we’ll take a look at how those protocols affected the overall cruise experience in other venues, and I’ll start today with the Royal Theater, in which the nightly entertainment performed. Now, one might think with a ship running below 50% capacity (in the case of Voyage 1, well ...

Cruising in the Age of Covid-19 — Part 2

So, now, following Monday’s setup article you have the lay of the land, so to speak, on this week’s topic. But to quickly recap, this week’s series is on the impact on Covid-19 health protocols upon the cruise ship experience. And as previous noted, this is based upon two recent back-to-back Alaska cruises aboard Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas. For Voyage 1 Ovation contained approximately 1,600 passengers out of 4,180 at double occupancy capacity (total maximum capacity is listed as 4...