The Traveling Steve's

Welcome to the Capital of Alaska: Juneau!

We were in the Capital city of Juneau on a busy day cruise-wise, with a total of 5 ships docking there. Although our ship was docked at the furtherest pier, a complimentary shuttle bus took passengers the short distance into town which was very convenient, and saved about a 45 minute walk. The other ships in Juneau today included 2 Carnival ships, 2 Princess ships (including ours, the Crown Princess), and the Seven Seas Explorer. Fortunately, we did not have to tender into Juneau like one of the Carnival ships did.

We’ve been to Juneau several times over the years, and being that it was a busy port day, and semi-gloomy with the weather in the late morning hours, we didn’t do any shore excursions or tours, preferring just having a walk around town, and later lunch there.

The shuttle bus dropped us off right in town by the Goldbelt Cable Tram station.

I have fond memories of taking that cable car a couple times previously; once with my Dad nearly 18 years ago when my parents took the family to Alaska for their 50th wedding anniversary, and once with DOS a few years back. On both of these memorable trips, we went in late May which is our favorite time to visit Alaska; it’s early in the season so everything feels fresh and the locals energetic, while there is usually still snow still on the mountains; some years more than others.

DOS and I also took this tram a few years back, and enjoyed food and drinks at the top overlooking the city. Today in mid-September, we just viewed the many others enjoying the tram ride up and down the mountain and others going on various excursions, most of which looked pretty full.

We’ve also enjoyed helicoptering from Juneau on previous trips, as well an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier, which is a short bus shuttle away. Today would have been a gloomy day for a helicopter ride, with the fog and rain, but there were lots of other shore excursions being sold from the downtown area as well, for those who didn’t book a shipboard excursion.

We went in a few of the shops to browse, but as we’ve collected so many souvenirs over the years and are running out of space at home to put them, and I already had a Red Dog saloon hat (actually 2) we passed on the shopping as well.

We did walk by the historic Red Dog Saloon, which at noon, already had a line out the door to get in, so we took a couple exterior photos, and continued our walk. The Red Dog Saloon is a fun and popular place to go for eating and drinking, but is usually very busy as was today was with 5 ships in town.

No, we didn’t take these stairs up to a few of the houses there!

Later we went to the Alaskan Brewing Company for lunch, and we each had our own beer sampler as well.

Even DOS liked the beer sampler, and he rarely ever has a brewski!

We had a nice chat with our cheery server, asking her if she was there for the season or year round. She responded with an uncharacteristic and quick “Hell no!”, but she had a good summer working there. She was the epitome of a free spirit, young, care-free, energetic and moved around to different resort areas based on the season, getting to see different parts of the country in the process.

We enjoyed our lunch; I had a brisket sandwich, while DOS had a halibut sandwich; both of which went great with our brewskis! DOS even beat me drinking his brewski sampler, which amazed both of us! LOL!😀

After lunch we went to the Alaskan Brewing Company gift shop located next door. We browsed around a bit, before buying a couple hats and a tile beer coaster. I would have bought the sampler glasses too, but they weren’t for sale, and I didn’t want to bring home the larger pint glasses as we have plenty of them.

The lady who helped us told us the restaurant we went to next door leases the name “The Alaskan Brewing Company”, but this was an official store and the actual brewery is 10 minutes away via a complimentary shuttle van. We saw the sign out front when we first went into the restaurant, but didn’t venture off to the brewery as we wanted to eat lunch in town. There’s always next time to try that next year though!

Outside the store, I took off my Red Dog Saloon Hat, and replaced it with newly purchased Alaskan Brewing Company hat, and posed with a local.

We then slowly headed our way back thru town to the cruise ship shuttle, taking a couple more pics along the way.

There was a bit of a line for the shuttle bus back to the cruise port, but the line moved quickly, and we caught the second shuttle bus in less than 10 minutes.

Back at the ship around 2pm in Juneau.

We spent the better part of the afternoon relaxing on our balcony, taking in the spectacular views of Juneau, literally coming and going. Whether it be the birds peacefully flying around, the clouds moving slowly thru the sky, or a seaplane taking off or landing, and even a small boat of tourists canoeing by, it was such a serene and surreal moment of relaxation and quiet, only moments away from downtown Juneau.

One of the two Carnival ships in port on our day in Juneau, with the Regent Seven Seas Explorer in front of it. Note the classic red T-shaped funnel on the Carnival ship in this photo, vs the Carnival ship in the next photo.

This was the other Carnival ship that was in dock the day in Juneau. This was formerly a Costa Cruise Line ship, which is now the Carnival Luminosa, distinctive in many ways, but especially the red (more classic) funnel vs the more current T-shaped funnels on Carnival ships.

Tourists paddle by us in their canoe towards downtown Juneau.

Watching a seaplane land on the water, from our aft balcony.

We sailed away from Juneau at 8pm, and I took this photo of the daily signage boards, which was displayed in the hallway by the elevators, on the way to dinner.
We had dinner each night (except for two in the Specialty Restaurants) in Da Vinci Dining Room’s Reserve Dinning section reserved for Suites and Club Class guests.

Dinner aboard the Crown Princess as we sailed away from Juneau.

After dinner production show in the Main Theater aboard, featuring the
Princess singers and dancers.

I didn’t take photos of this show due to copyright restrictions, but here’s a pic of us
right before show started.

The beautiful and ever changing colors of the Piazza Atrium. We would sometimes stop by the International Cafe here for a midnight snack!

The 3 level atrium as seen from the 5th floor, looking up, from our seating area in the International Cafe; very quiet at the midnight hour.

View of the wake of the ship a little after midnight from our aft balcony.

So long Juneau, until we meet again!

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