Alaska Cruise

We got back from our week long cruise to Alaska and ready to go again!

We all had a great time but really the best part of our trip was all the family time we spent with my parents, Way and her family and Kin and his family. I think the last time we all vacationed together was back in 2015 when we all went to Kauai. It was so long ago that not all the littles had even been born yet! So yes, a big family vacay was long overdue.

The kiddos loooooved spending time with their cousins, whether it was playing bingo or ping pong, or biking and hiking or just hanging out at meal time or playing mahjong. It helped that since we were all on vacation mode, we didn't push (too hard) on eating healthy or limiting screentime. It also really helped that the service on the ship was so accommodating to the kids and (pretty good) pizza, ice cream and drinks were available at all hours. 

I was happy with the ship we picked too. The Quantum of the Seas is nearly 20 years old (first sailed in 2014) but I don't think she was showing much age at all. Our room was small as expected but nothing that the 4 of us couldn't handle. We took advantage of our balcony a lot and enjoyed looking out at the views (when it wasn't raining!). There was plenty of fun activities on board and there were some interesting features I haven't seen before, like the bionic bar or the Two70 lounge which gets it's name for the 270 degree view it provides. There were more than enough bars and lounges to enjoy and we watched several shows too. In fact, one of the few things I wish we would have done more of is listen to music - the little I heard as we walked by the various lounges featured really amazing talent. 

No mention of a cruise vacation would be complete without talking about the food! For me, so long as I kept in mind that there's one massive kitchen cooking for 5,000 diners at roughly the same time, I was fine with the food. Nothing was outstanding but it wasn't terrible either. If you listened to the waiters, you could find a few gems, and I certainly never left a meal hungry! The standout for our meals was the Wonderland restaurant - so called because it takes a page from Alice in Wonderland and is supposed to be an imaginative, playful meal. It was the only specialty dining we upgraded to ($50 adult/$20 kid) and we had a great meal - lots of yummy dishes that were presented in fun ways. I would 100% recommend it.

For our ports, we explored on our own instead of booking excursions through the cruise ship. This saved us a bunch of money and allowed us more flexibility on what to do, when. It did mean, however, we didn't do anything truly spectacular like dog sledding or a helicopter ride. That's ok though - we still did a waterfall walk, saw the Mendenhall glacier, went biking (well, Scott and Evie did), fishing (well, Scott did), saw a porcupine and lots of salmon, ate two kinds of king grab, tried reindeer meat and did lots of shopping. 

We had a really great time and the kids are already asking when is our next cruise! 

Boarding was super smooth and easy - we got on by 11am!

First of many cousin pics. Bye Seattle!

Enjoying free soft serve and the pool on Day 1.

Bionic bar!

No winning tickets, unfortunately.

Bumper car time!

First stop: Ketchikan and viewing the salmon run along the raging creek.

It was pouring rain so we spent some time in the Tongass Historical Museum.

Lunch stop at Alaska Fish House. Not pictured: My terrific AK Fish & Chips.

Scott took Ian fishing and they saw a bear!

While the rest of us walked around in the rain and perused the shops.

More rain

On board, we did a lot of playing mahjong.

Dinner at Wonderland

Tomato water was surprisingly very flavorful and refreshing. 

Tuna tartar with citrus was beautiful presented.

The kids got a kick out of eating paper.

And cotton candy

Next stop: Sitka! Little boy was hungry so we got a Reindeer hot dog.

Scott and Kevin took the bigger kids biking.

Ian declared this the best part of the entire trip!

While the rest of us walked around town and took in the views.

Sitka was gorgeous, when it stopped raining!

We did a quick lunch trying Pelmeni, which are Russian dumplings.

Cruising Glacier Bay was so pretty!

Views in every direction.

It was a little chilly hanging out on the balcony.

Glacier in the distance.....

... and lots of floating icebergs.

More relaxing on the balcony

No filters! The colors were so vibrant even in cloudy weather.

Next stop: Juneau. We took a cab to the Mendenhall Glacier

We walked the ~1 mile path to Nugget Falls

We spied a porcupine in the tree!

Back in town, we stopped by the world famous Tracy Crab Shack for King Crab!

And then walked off all the food by exploring the shops.

The adult kids did the puzzle room. We solved it!

And we also tried out laser tag.

Finally, a warm day with sunshine and we can enjoy the outdoor areas. 

The waitstaff celebrating Nora's birthday.

Last stop was Victoria, where we walked around the downtown area and took in the sites.

We closed our trip with a few of us joining the "silent disco". Super fun!