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Alaska 2000
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In August 2000, 14 of us took the Royal Caribbean International
ship Vision of the Seas on an Alaskan cruise up the Inland Passage from
Vancouver to Alaska. The cruise was, in a word, fantastic. I had
always felt cruising was a waste of time, but this one changed my mind. We
really had a great time. The Vision of the Seas is 916 feet of comfort, luxury,
great dining, fantastic entertainment, and incredible fun. The photos on
these pages can only hint at what a wonderful time we all had.
The cruise was a family reunion for us, with relatives from both
the east coast and west coast sides of the country gathering to celebrate my
mom's birthday and to enjoy each other's company. We had amazing weather,
with 8 days of gorgeous sunshine. They tell us that is unusual in Alaska,
as it usually rains quite a bit up there this time of year. We had 14 relatives on this cruise from New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut, and California. What a wonderful way to get together!
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| A marvelous family photograph taken by one of the ship's
photographers. From left to right, going across each row from the
top to the bottom: Eileen, Frances, Sam, Anita, Mike, Sue, me, Al,
Sarah, Erica, Mom, Jack, Gloria, and Beth. I thought we were a big
group until I overheard somebody else talking to the ship photographers
about a similar on-board photograph for a family with 90 members! |
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My cousin Al and his wife Beth, with Alaska behind
them. The background scenery almost looks like the roll-down in a photography
studio, but it was real. |
| The girls, Erica and Sarah, in the Vision of the Seas
swimming pool. Sarah is Eileen's daughter; Erica is mine.
These two cousins are the same age. The ship has two pools (one
indoors, the other outside). The girls spent a lot of time in both. |
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My mom's cousin Anita from New York, with the Alaskan rain
forest in the background. |
| My daughter Erica on the 11th deck, with the Canadian Pacific as a
backdrop. |
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My mom and her cousin Anita, re-entering Alaska from the Canadian side. |
| Frances, Erica, and Sue in front of the Vision of the
Seasons docked in Ketchikan. I grabbed this one with the 17-35
Sigma, which continues to prove itself to be a wonderful lens. |
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A nice photograph of Al on deck. |
| My cousin Sam, originally from Brooklyn, who now lives near
the rest of my family in New Jersey. Sam is a great guy. He's
my age, and we've known each other forever. |
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Erica, Sue, and yours truly with the Hubbard Glacier in the
background. |
| This is an interesting picture. I did not use a red filter,
nor did I use Adobe's color correction features to throw the red hue into
this photograph.
At the beginning of a cruise, everyone has to assemble at their muster
stations and put on life preservers. The red hue in this picture is reflected light
from Erica's life preserver.
I used the 24-120 Nikon lens, which I leave on the camera a lot.
It is a very versatile and sharp lens. |
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| Aunt Gloria, Uncle Jack, and their new best friend in the
main dining hall on the Vision of the Seas. |
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Erica took this photograph of my Uncle Jack and me on a
train ride up the Chilkoot Pass. Erica has a Minolta X-370, and she
used her Quantaray 28-70 lens. |
| My Uncle Jack, one of the world's great guys. |
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Another shot of Erica. |
| Here's Erica and Sue on the train going up the Chilkoot
Pass. |
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My little girl definitely has my sense of humor. |
| Hey, this is who this cruise was all about, my mom. We
had a surprise birthday party for Mom last year, and my sister Eileen had
this idea for a summer family reunion on a cruise.
I shot this photograph on top of the Mendenhall Glacier. |
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Jack's family at dinner. That's Al, Frances, Jack,
Gloria, Mike, and Beth. |
| My cousin Frances, with Mike in the background. |
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My cousin Mike, after we docked in Haines, in front of the Vision
of the Seas. |
| Al playing with his new Nikon N80, with Beth alongside. |
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The crew....Frances, Beth, Al, and Sam. |
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Al and I having a quick draw contest.....
As you have probably guessed, we have a lot of photography enthusiasts in our
family. Al had a new N80, Eileen has an N70, I have my marvelous F5, Sam
and Jack shoot Canons, Erica and Frances have Minoltas, and we all had a great
time burning up film.
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The Vision of the Seas
The Vision of the Seas is one of the Royal Caribbean
International cruise ships, and she is a real beauty. The ship is 916 feet
long, and she has just about everything you can think of on board.
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The Vision of the Seas docked at night in
Haines. My cousin Al and I went on shore just before the ship departed
to grab a few night shots. I used the 24-120 Nikon on my F5,
with a tripod, Fuji 400 film, and the Aperture mode at f8. Al
grabbed a few shots with his N80, too. The owner
of RA Photo (my developer) liked this shot so much that he asked
permission to enlarge it for display in his store. |
| The view from our balcony, looking forward. We had a
great cabin. |
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Here's a wide angle view of the top deck, looking aft, with
the 17-35 Sigma lens. |
| The 11th deck. That's a bar up top, with a commanding
view. |
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The ship's communications tower.
The colors were very vibrant in Alaska, Canada, out in the Pacific, and
in the Inland Passage.
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An interesting sculpture on the 10th deck. If you examine this
photograph closely, you will see yours truly with his F5.
The Vision of the Seas is a floating art gallery, with many
paintings, photographs, and sculptures on display and for sale.
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Another view up top, with Fran and Eileen taking in the sun. |
| The entertainment was great.
Gordon Whatman is the ship's cruise director, and he is responsible for
putting the programs together. Gordon
is fantastic, funny, and simply a great guy. He really added a lot to the cruise.
I
grabbed this shot using Fuji 800 film and the Sigma 70-300 lens.
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| The ship had shows every night and all were
outstanding. We bumped into Tom Parks, the comedian, up on
deck the morning after seeing his show. He was great.
This is Tom with my wife, Sue. |
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Here's another shot I grabbed in the ship's theatre with my 70-300
Sigma lens wide open on the F5. |
| This is Bobby Arvon. You may not recognize the name,
but I have to tell you, this man is one of the best singers I have ever
heard.
Bobby is the man who sang the theme song on the "Happy
Days" television show. He's a great singer, and he put on one
helluva show for us. |
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The view on the rear deck, looking aft. That's Canada
in the background. |
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Glaciers
Glaciers are one of the main
attractions in Alaska. We saw
several, including the Hubbard Glacier and the Mendenhall Glacier. Our
captain took the Vision of the Seas right up to the Hubbard Glacier, and
we watched the ice calving into the sea (a most impressive sight). We also
took a helicopter ride up to land on top of the Mendenhall Glacier.
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This is the view while our captain navigated the Vision of the Seas to the Hubbard
Glacier.
As we approached the Hubbard Glacier, the water became a bright
aquamarine color, even brighter than the water I had seen in the
Caribbean. I learned that the color was due to glacial silt
suspended in the water. |
| Here's a photograph from the ship about a quarter of a mile
from the face of the Hubbard Glacier. The ship was actually pushing ice out
of the way as we steamed forward. |
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Almost everybody was on the top deck to observe the Hubbard
Glacier. A few continued to sunbath. Our weather was fantastic
during the entire trip. |
| One of many small icebergs that fell from the face of the
Hubbard Glacier. |
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Here we are on the way up a mountain to land on the
Mendenhall Glacier.
On the way up...that's my mom in the middle, seated next to
the pilot.
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| One of the Temsco helicopters ferrying passengers up to the
top of the Mendenhall Glacier.
The helicopter ride was nearly as
much fun as being up on the glacier. It reminded me of my Army
days. All we needed was the music from The Flight of the
Valkyries.
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One of the fissures in the Mendenhall Glacier. It's a
looonnnnnngggggg way down...and we were stepping over these cracks!
Fall down there, and you are in deep yogurt! |
| The crew up on top of the Mendenhall Glacier. That's
me, Mom, Eileen, Sarah, Sam, Erica, Anita, and Sue.
The glacier visits, for me, were the most impressive things we did on this
cruise. They are really awesome. It was the first time I had ever
seen a glacier.
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Miscellaneous
Alaskan Shots
Here are some neat shots I wanted to include with this
site. The photography opportunities on this cruise were fantastic.
As you can guess, my F5 was getting a good workout.
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My cousin Sam and my sister Eileen, working their cameras
during the train ride up the Chilkoot pass. |
| A St. Pauli Girl beer advertisement outside a bar in
Haines. I grabbed this evening shot using Erica's X-370 with the
Minolta 50mm 1.7 lens and Fuji 800 film. The original print is very
sharp. I love Fuji film. |
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Eri hamming it up with a polar bear in Juneau. |
| This guy was showing off in Canadian waters on his jet
ski. You have to be a little bit crazy to get this close to an ocean
liner on a jet ski.
I used the Sigma 170-500 lens for this shot. |
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Sea planes were all over in Canada and Alaska.
I also grabbed this shot with the 170-500 Sigma and Fuji 800
film. The detail in the original print is outstanding. |
| Colorful drinks for sale on board the Vision of the Seas.
Nice colors. |
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After we rode to the top of the Chilkoot Pass, we took a bus
ride down. This gorge is where the Pacific and North American
tectonic plates meet, and it experiences frequent movement. The
bridge is suspended from one side only, like a diving board. The
idea is that if an earthquake induces a shift, the bridge will not
collapse.
Wow. |
| The largest mushroom I have ever seen, just outside of
Liarsville, Alaska. This mushroom was about 8 inches in diameter. |
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A totem pole at one of the many tourist stops. |
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Another totem-like carving. |
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A wooden eagle close up in Ketchikan. |
| Everything for the tourists. The colors were
great. The trolley was a little bit much; it was pretty obvious it
was there strictly for the tourists. Juneau is so small you could
walk almost anywhere. |
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Alaskan Towns
The cruise ship company has this cruise ship business pretty
well wired. You dock in one or two towns every day, and you can go
off the ship and opt for any of dozens of on-shore excursions. We took a
train trip up the Chilkoot Pass (the path the of the Gold Rush people), we
stopped to pan gold in Liarsville, we shot the rapids on a river raft, and we
took a helicopter ride up to the top of the Mendenhall Glacier. There were
many other things to do, including wildlife refuge visits, ocean kayaking, and
other neat diversions.
The Alaskan towns were much tinier than what I had expected,
primarily because Alaska is remote and sparsely populated.
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Our first stop, in Skagway. We docked in Skagway, Haines, Ketchikan, and Juneau during
our cruise. The weather is good enough for this sort of thing only a
few weeks each summer, and the cruise ships were up there in force.
This is the port in Skagway. |
| Panning for gold in Liarsville, Alaska. That's Sue,
Erica, Sarah, and Mike. Each found a few specks (not enough to pay
for the cruise, though). |
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| Here's a view of Haines from the ship, overlooking the dock
and the entire town. Towns in Alaska were very small. What you
see is pretty much the entire town. |
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Ketchikan, another small Alaskan town, |
| Here's a view from our cabin when we were docked in
Ketchikan. |
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The wooden eagle on the dock in Ketchikan. That's our
ship in the background. |
| This was one of our excursions while in Juneau. We
shot the rapids in a river raft in the river that provides runoff for the
Mendenhall Glacier. |
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Here's the view from the aft end of the Vision of the
Seas when we docked in Juneau. |
| And finally, eight days later, the Vancouver skyline when we
returned to port.
Vancouver appeared to be a very interesting town, much like Seattle on the
other side of the U.S./Canadian border. I'd like to go back some day just
to spend a few days in Vancouver.
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Cruise Ship Cuisine
Eating is a big deal on a cruise. You can literally eat
almost the entire time you are on the ship. There's a breakfast buffet and
sit-down-and-order-meal dining room. You can do the same for lunch.
You can do the same for dinner. There's afternoon hot dog, hamburger,
pizza, and fries. There's a midnight buffet. It goes on and on and
on.
There's also a gym and a running track on the ship's upper deck,
which we actually used quite a bit. The menu also has healthy choice
options at each sitting.
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Sue and I after dinner in the Vision of the Seas main
dining room. The food was excellent. |
| Erica in the ship's dining room one morning during
breakfast. That's the Alaska coastline in the background. |
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