A small sampling of our photos from our Alaska cruise on the Royal Princess in June 2023. We've had this on our bucket list for a long time and finally did it! Thanks to Meredith for arranging it through Southwest Airlines.

Thumbnail images only. Contact me if you want a higher resolution image.

Underway. Peggy trying to make herself seasick. (She succeeded!)

Mountains to the west of Seattle.

More mountains near Seattle

Nice view. Still in US waters just out of Seattle

Close-up of the mountains.

Coming in to Juneau. Some signs of civilization, but not as much as Seattle.

Up on our top deck (16th deck). The big spheres are satelllite communications. I think they provided our Wi-Fi internet.

Juneau

Juneau

Juneau

The Eurodam was our constant companion. Similar ship but a little smaller.

Sea plane landing. That's the way you get around in Alaske!

Juneau port

Cable car going up the mountain.

Cable car terminal on top of the mountain at Juneau.

A substation. Hey, that's what I do! Looks like a S&C Circuit switcher on the incoming line. Probably 69 kV. About the same size as a neighborhood sub in Knoxville.

A view of the Royal Princess. Note the curved part of the top deck (16th). That had a glass floor. Tested your nerve to walk on that while we were underway at sea.

Another view of the Royal Princess

Trying to herd the cats to get everyone together for the Whale Watching and the Mendenhall Glacier excursion.

Hiking to Mendenhall Glacier. Our Guide, Caden, Meredith, Tom.

Greg looking studious.

Beach from where we observed the Mendnehall Glaciers. The glacier used to complete fill this lake, but has been retreating since the end of the Little Ice Age. The lake was formed in the 1920's.

A small iceberg off the Mendenhall Glacier. Notice the blue ice.

Mendenhall Glacier. It is supposedly 13 miles long.

Mendenhall Glacier

Waterfall of melt water off the Mendenhall Glacier. Those specks at the bottome of the fall are people! Not sure how they got there, but it was not on our excursion. We had to get to whale watching.

Heading out to watch whales! Triple Merc power on the back. We had some get up and go!

A Whale surfacing.

Tail of a whale - 1

This is generally what you saw of a whale surfacing.

Good shot of the tail of a whale. They would dive down for a few minutes. Then come back up and blow. Repeat.

Whale fin

Whale Tail3

Seals found a good place to take a nap.

Docked at Skagway

Taking one of the boats to catch the train for the Skagway excursion

The Eurodam right behind us in Skagway

Helicopter excursions

Some graffiti on the rocks

Taking a stroll killing time -- waiting for our time to board the train

Skagway

Going to downtown Skagway with many tourist traps

This is as close as we came to bear!

Looking at the Royal Princess head-on

Happy campers in the railroad car heading up the mountain.

Skagway river The Springtime snow melt gives it that color. It was moving right on.

This is a narrow guage railroad (3') so we are close to the rocks. They didn't want to move any more rocks than they absolutely had to in 1898.

A view of the train going up the mountain.

Another view of the train going up

Folks leaning out to get a better photo. (I did that, too)

Another view of the rushing river as we passed over a bridge

Encounter with snow

At the top

Marsha and Tom capturing some snaps, too

Canadian Mountie station

Starting back down

This is the trail the prospectors used before the railroad was build. Thousands of horses died on this trail.

More of the Trail of 98

Going over the new bridge over the gulch

Here's what's left of the old one.

Wouldn't want to try to cross that now

View down to the port of Skagway

Caden has probably seen enough scenery ...

Beautiful mountain view

Back on the boat and a beautiful sunset

Coming into Glacier Bay the next day

Our wake

A gull flies below us

The big glacier in Glacier Bay. Lots of dirty stuff in the ice. We did not get to experience a "calving" this time ... where a big chunk of ice breaks off. It apparently makes a big boom.

Closer view of the glacier

The folks on the bridge are keeping us safe.

Another view of the glacier.

Gull riding a piece of ice .. has his own iceberg!

Lots of crud comes out of the glacier

Looking back up the glacier as it makes the bend around the rocks

Peggy looking at the glaciers

Looks like they are having a party on that one chunk of ice.

Path of rocks left by a glacier that has melted.

As the boat turned around, we got a view of another large glacier.

close-up of that glacier as it meets the bay.

Parting view of the 2nd glacier.

Heading out of Glacier Bay

Arrival in Ketchikan

Ketchikan

Ketchikan

Bald eagle flying by our window in Ketchikan. There were a few others, but couldn't get the camera in position.

Several passengers disembarked in Ketchikan and got in that red van. Not sure where they went, but there is an airport here.

Our ship in port in Ketchikan. Our room is almost at the top a little bit behind the bridge.

Monument recognizing those who contributed to Ketchikan, the first city in Alaska according to the plaque

Heading back to Seattle. This shilp kept us company most of the way.

Our cabin steward. He took very good care of us.

Some of the shops. The casino is visible on the next lower deck.

Art Gallery

The piazza where a lot of activities took place. Here they are having dance lessons. May have been the Cha-Cha.

Another view from the piazza level.

Standing in line for soft serve ice cream. 2 flavors every day. All you can eat.

This is where you can walk out over the ocean, if you can take it.

The view looking down. When the ship is moving, the water can create some vertigo in some people.

Warmer weather and lots of folks swimming in the heated pools.

Musicians performing in the piazza.

We paid all that money to go on the whale excursion and the ship goes right through a pod of whales on our way back to Seattle. You can see a couple of them "blowing" as they come back to the surface.

The piano guy.

Greg and the Clingan clan

Tom, Marsha, and Caden

Greg and Meredith

Roger and Peggy

This was our typical dinner table in the restaurant each evening.

Peggy's baked Alaska made with Gelato.