Holland America Cruisetour - Cruise Day 4

August 18, 2012

     Docking in Skagway meant the end of our cruise portion of our vacation. Each cruisetour group met in the Frans Hal Theatre to meet our tour concierge, Marc Oxborrow. By the way, I learned the difference between a tour director and a tour concierge…a tour concierge takes care of your luggage so it magically appears in your hotel room each day while a tour director does not. Pay attention to what your travel agent is saying or what you are reading in a brochure. Marc has worked for Holland America for 7 years. We disembarked the Holland America Volendam by 8am and stowed our luggage at our hotel, the Westmark Inn. Roy and I spent the morning wandering the 3 streets of Skagway…the towns keep getting smaller the further into Alaska we get! There were lots of souvenir shops, jewelry stores, restaurants, and saloons. The town of Skagway has approximately 2600 people living there during the summer months, May through September. After the last cruise ship leaves, Skagway becomes a ghost town and dwindles to 800 year round residents. I thought getting off the ship would be so great because I would have Wi-Fi but then I learned that Skagway doesn’t have Wi-Fi. Nowhere. In the whole town. I’m serious.

 

 

     To get over this let down of no Wi-Fi or cell service, I went rock climbing. Little Miss Nature Lover (I hope you sense the sarcasm) climbed in a van with a bunch of adrenaline junkies and put on a harness and climbed a rock face. I can’t believe I did it either. The other excursions looked really boring to me and I figure if I’m ever going to try rock climbing it sure wouldn’t be in Wilmington so I might as well try it in Alaska. I survived and I actually made it to the top of the rock wall not once but twice! It was fun until about ¾ of the way up you realize you are scared of heights! I can’t say that I will jump at the chance to go rock climbing again but I can say that I have done it and survived. Roy chose a less intense excursion in Skagway and he went on a drive North to a suspension bridge and short hike that ended with a salmon bake…what was I thinking deciding on rock climbing, right?! He saw black bears and beautiful mountains and lakes and ate his fill of salmon. While Roy feasted on salmon, I ventured to the Red Onion Saloon and ate one of their famous personal pizzas.