Alaska 2023 - Wrap Up

5/21/2023 (Sunday)

We were docked in Juneau when we woke up, and after a quick breakfast we left the ship at 8:30.  Most of the crew turned out to say goodbye. 

We relaxed in the UnCruise hospitality suite until our 10:45 shuttle to the Juneau airport. The Juneau airport is really tiny, with only three gates. I wonder how they handle the thousands of passengers on the bigger cruise ships? Do they all leave from Seattle?

We saw about 80% of our shipmates and a couple of crew members waiting for the same flight to Seattle that we were on. It departed at 12:50 and landed in Seattle at around 4:00. We caught the airport shuttle to our hotel and got checked in with no issues. We were tired so ordered Uber Eats for supper and just relaxed for the evening.

5/22/2023 (Monday)

Our flight back to San Antonio departed a little after noon and arrived at 6:30 p.m.  We picked up our vehicle from the off-airport parking lot and drove on home. 

Overall thoughts:

This was a great trip. May is definitely a better time for us to visit than July.  Far fewer people, and cooler weather. We really lucked out with sunny days and saw very little of the expected SE Alaska clouds and drizzle. 

We got to see much of the area north of Juneau that we hadn't seen on our last trip, with Glacier Bay National Park as a special treat. There was a laminated map in a passageway where our route and each day's destination were marked. It is laminated and so a little glary, but the red line shows our voyage over the seven days. Glacier Bay NP is at the top, with Juneau circled near the center and Dawson Glacier near the bottom.

We didn't have any real opportunity for souvenir shopping, but did pick up a couple of neck gaiters (which we wore on the ride to Dawson Glacier, great for keeping your head and ears warm!) and glasses straps on the ship. Teri had also scored a couple of magnets from Glacier Bay National Park.

We are sold on UnCruise. Bigger cruise ships don't interest us (especially Mark) at all, but the small size, activities, and accessibility of the Uncruise ships makes them perfect for us.