Ketchikan Welcomes Us to Alaska with Beauty, Rain, Crowds

Day 3, 2024 Ultimate Alaska

Tuesday, June 11, 2024; Ketchikan, Alaska

What a difference a cruise makes when it comes to ports!

In most places on our just-completed world cruise, we were the only cruise ship in port – and usually in a city where the influx of cruise passengers isn’t even a blip on the screen.

Today, the Westerdam is one of four ships in Ketchikan, Alaska, a city of 8,000 people. I estimate we brought another 8,000. Despite the mist and light rain throughout the day, the streets and sidewalks in town were packed.

I’ve cruised to Ketchikan three times before, but the last visit was 14 years ago. Not much seems to have changed in the town center. There still are lots of restaurants, jewelry stores and souvenir shops – although the names may have changed.

My sisters and I got off the ship shortly after our 8 a.m. arrival and headed for Creek Street, which in actuality is a boardwalk that at times hangs over a bubbling stream. At one time this was the town’s red-light district, which as the saying goes, was “where both men and salmon came upstream to spawn.” In a few weeks the creek will be full of salmon fighting their way upstream. Today many of the men I saw were pushing strollers.

The damp day doomed my plan to paint the Creek Street scene. I packed my sketchbook in a plastic bag, hoping I would find a place to sit under an awning. The best I could find was a small overhang close to a decent view down the stream. I knew any stray water drops or even the mist in the air would make the ink run, so I quickly switched to pencil and outlined the shapes of the buildings and piers supporting them over the creek.

For more than a century Ketchikan has been known as the rainiest town in Alaska, with an average of 162 days of rain a year. It’s funny that I don’t remember rain from my previous visits. But as they also say, there is no such thing as bad weather – just bad clothing. I prepared well for today’s precipitation, with the temperature in the high 50s – jeans with a long-sleeved shirt, under an unlined all-weather coat.

Eloise left us to join a tour of the Saxman Native Village nearby, while Elaine and I sampled the local beer at Bawden Street Brewing, followed by a delicious lunch at the Alaska Fish House. At $29 for two halibut fillets, it wasn’t cheap, but the fish was well worth the occasional splurge.

We had planned to meet in the afternoon with Diane Slagle, a Ketchikan resident who entertained us nightly in the piano bar of the Amsterdam during the 2020 world cruise. Unfortunately, she got tied up and couldn’t make it. During the early days of the pandemic, after our Amsterdam cruise ended abruptly, we joined her Zoom concerts from Ketchikan. Fingers crossed we will have another chance to enjoy her music before too long.

Yesterday was our first sea day, starting with a beautiful sail up the inland waterway between Vancouver Island and Canada’s mainland. Alaska cruises out of Seattle typically go outside of Vancouver Island through the open ocean, so this was a treat. The daily program was full of activities. Two guest presenters and a wildlife guide gave talks on British Columbia, seafood sustainability and the wildlife we can expect to see. I was pleasantly surprised at a wine tasting that cellar master Fernando recognized me. I got to know him well on the Zaandam last fall.

The most popular place on the ship seems to be the Explorations Café in the Crow’s Nest. It’s not unusual for the order line to stretch to eight or more people. This is the only place to order specialty coffees, unlike on the Zuiderdam and Zaandam, which each had an espresso machine in a second bar. I found two more familiar faces behind the counter, barista Camille and server Lee, both from last summer’s Zuiderdam cruises in Northern Europe.

I’ve adjusted my morning routine to start in the Crow’s Nest to get my latte order in before going to the Lido, where breakfast on sea days isn’t available until 7 a.m. I’m more of a 6 a.m. breakfast person myself.

Last night was our first dressy dinner, with filet mignon and grilled shrimp as one of the entrees. I went with the grilled sole, which was excellent. In the world stage Capt. Bart Vaartjes introduced the senior officers. I last sailed with him in 2019 on the Voyage of the Vikings.