On August 26th, we boarded Holland America’s Koningsdam and embarked on a 7-day roundtrip cruise to Alaska!

We got up super early at 6 AM. Given we usually wake up at around 8 AM, this felt rough. We had to drop off our dog at our dogsitter’s in Maple Ridge, which takes us about an hour to drive there. Then we drove an hour back, and took an Uber to head down to Canada Place. Boarding took a bit as they put us in holding areas after customs, but soon enough we were on a 7-day ride aboard the Koningsdam!

Day 1 – Departure

It took a bit for us to get our orientation, but soon enough we were hitting up the buffet to our heart’s content. We made it early enough onto the cruise for their lunch buffet, but soon had to head to the sit down dinner at our 5 PM designated time.

This day was mainly exploration, gorging ourself on the unlimited food, and trying to understand the various programs and itinerary for the coming days.

Day 2 – Day at Sea

This day was entirely at sea and the fiancé and I woke up early to make the morning tai chi lessons. Other activities that day included doing trivia contests with our family against other families, an art auction, dressy dinner, a dance performance at night, and rounding off the day by hitting up the late night buffet. We did 2 trivia contests—one was general trivia (in which we did so bad we vowed to do another one to redeem ourselves), and one was focused on food (we got fairly high points for this one!). This day was also when I discovered the library on board. I was expecting outdated books, but they had a vast selection of the latest releases! I was so impressed and it was always a nice spot to visit since it was quiet.

It was good to know that Dramamine works for me after putting it to test through a full day at sea. I’m thankful I wasn’t seasick because that’d also affect my appetite. The meds did make me fairly sleepy though, so I tried to sneak in naps whenever possible.

Day 3 – Juneau

We started day 3 with tai chi again, and then visiting the sit down restaurant for breakfast instead of fighting people at the buffet. This was very nice and they sat us right by the window! This day was also the first day we got to dock in an Alaskan town: Juneau. After we went on shore, we quickly headed to the bus station so we could hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. It was a hot and frantic hike out, but we still had a teensy bit of time to explore the town of Juneau when we got back. We ended up getting some fudge and went back on board our cruise ship. We had missed the assigned time for our sit down dinner so we did a buffet dinner instead. Afterwards, the fiancé and my dad played some table tennis while I sat down near them to read.

Day 4 – Skagway

Our fourth day was also a day where we got to disembark—this time at Skagway! We had a quick breakfast buffet and then met everyone outside at around 8:45 AM. We had an excursion for this stop which was the White Pass Summit train ride. It was a 3 hour train ride that took you all along White Pass. Our train took off at 9:30AM. In one section of the narrated train ride we even crossed back into British Columbia for a bit! I ended up falling asleep for a bit on the route back.

At Skagway, we walked around the main street where there were many shops. We bought some snacks and eventually settled at a restaurant for some Alaskan King Crab! It was pricey (I think it was $65 for a pound?), but it was cheaper than some of the other places we had seen. It seemed right to have some Alaskan crab in Alaska so we had to do it.

At night, we made it back for the sit down dinner and then headed off to listen to the singing performance. I also dropped by the cruise library to take out another book as I finished my prior one.

Day 5 – Glaciers day at sea

While this day was a sea day, it was exciting to cruise by glaciers! We spent a bit of time on the outside decks so that we could catch the giant blue-veined mountains of ice. They served hot pea soup, which was welcomed as the temperatures got very cold.

We ended up doing the afternoon tea on board, and then we had a dressy dinner again at night. After dinner, we met up with my fiancé’s sister and her boyfriend to play some board games! We brought our own board games aboard, but the games room provided some good ones too. We rounded off the night once again by hitting up the night time buffet!

Day 6 – Ketchikan

Day six brought us to the city of Ketchikan. Waking up, we went to the buffet and then I had a facial appointment booked. Since my birthday was in September, I got a voucher for $50 off spa services so I put it to good use.

After the spa, we took the little boats off our cruise ship to get ashore. The port was full so our actual cruise ship wouldn’t be able to dock until later. Ketchikan is probably my favorite port. There are so many cute shops and it’s picturesque. We had a grand adventure walking 30 minutes away to a mall for a Starbucks cup, only to realize they were sold out. It turns out the local shops buy up the Starbucks souvenir cups and upsells them at the souvenir shops near the docks. =.= We managed to get one in the end, but we did not have to take that trip out in the first place. We also ran into members of my mom’s family who were on another cruise at one of the souvenir shops!

After shopping, we went back to the cruise ship for a late lunch. We had dinner with the family in the sit down dining room (I love the fruit crumbles they serve for dessert), and then played more board games with the fiancé’s sister and boyfriend. We ended up migrating mid-way during our play session to all go down and eat at the late night buffet. We played some additional games there to end our night!

Day 7 – Day at sea

For our last day, it was a full day at sea. We enjoyed as much food as we could and at night we watched people compete in friendly TV-show inspired competitions. We once again played some board games with the same group at night—this time one of the ones from the cruise. It turned out to be quite fun! It was an “escape the room” type of game and satisfying to play. Of course we also had to get some late night food to make the most out of the last night.

And that was it! 7 days at sea on our Alaskan journey! The last time I went was over 10 years ago! I still vaguely remembered bits and pieces of the Alaskan towns, but it was a lot of fun to explore the cruise and the stops with a big family! We had like 24? 25? people in our party. While it was a little hectic trying to plan meet ups and activities, it was a lovely experience. I wonder when/if we’ll do the Alaskan cruise again in the future!