Alaska Cruise V

Skagway is a very quaint interesting town.

Our ship, the Celebrity Millennium docked with ten minutes walk from the center of the town. We walked there. The weather was cool, but not cold. The sky was clear, although the clouds came over in the afternoon.

The first thing we did was stop at the National Historic Visitor Center adjacent to the White Pass Railroad offices. We looked around the Klondike Gold Rush museum for a while before attending a talk on the gold rush given by one of the game rangers. The one hour talk was extremely interesting, describing in amazing detail the experiences of one of the men who tragically decided to join the gold rush in 1898. The reason there was so much information is that this poor man had written detailed letters to the wife of his friend in Detroit, effectively acting as a diary.

After the talk, we were given a forty minute walking tour of historic Skagway with an emphasis on how people had been deceived in the gold rush days. Both these talks were free!

We then boarded the White Pass Railroad for a three hour ride up to the coastal mountain summit on the border with Canada. It was a relaxing yet spectacular train ride. We saw what in 1901 was the world's highest cantilever bridge, which is a national monument. I think the price of $115 was expensive, but we still enjoyed it immensely.

The train dropped us right in front of our ship, where we had missed the "Elegant Tea" for Elite Captain's Club members, but we still managed to get a cocktail in the "secret room."

After a short rest and wash, we dressed up in our formal gear to gave dinner at the captain's table. The evening was hosted by both the hotel director and the HR director. It was a fun evening where we ate and drank too much.

We made it to the singing and dancing show which featured Broadway shows. It was excellent; by far the best we've ever seen on a cruise ship.

So now it's early to bed, as we have to get up very early to view the Hubbard Glacier.