Seward, Alaska

July 3, 2023

July 1 was Canada Day and there was a celebration in Horizons. They made this cake and many Canadian passengers wore their colors and flag regalia.

We also got the word from the Captain that we were going to miss the stop in Kodiak, Alaska due to bad weather. The waves were 15 feet and the ship was the rockiest it has been the whole cruise. So the ship has to go slower and we wouldn’t get to the port in time. We have never been to Kodiak so it will have to wait until next time. The rocking was not bad for us but many passengers felt the effects. We had an Oceania Club cocktail party which was attended by fewer than usual, followed by dinner in Polo. Two of our singers, Laura and Robbie, performed at the cocktail party but our main show by Sonia Selbie, was postponed until July 2 and there was a movie instead. In Polo, Norm had this amazing veal oscar.

We had a sea day on July 2 and the Insignia Country Fair was held inside since the weather was cool and drizzly. It was really good inside. It consists of crew from each of the main departments doing some type of competitive activity (guess the spices from culinary, competition to identify flags from different countries from destinations, guess high or low in casino, etc). My favorite was the entertainment team doing a human slot machine! Laura lifted and then put her arm down and the other 3 moved their heads and bodies and each pulled out an object. If the objects matched you got 2 tickets, if not, you got one. Very fun.

You got a ticket just for participating at the different stands, and if you won, you got two. There was a drawing for prizes at the end. We had lots of tickets but didn’t win anything.

On July 3, we finally touched the first land since Dutch Harbor, in Seward, Alaska. Our sail in was just stunning, even with the clouds. Very green with snow covered mountains.

Seward is located on Resurrection Bay on Alaska’s southern coast about 120 miles from Anchorage. The town has only 2717 people according to the 2020 census. It is named for former United States Secretary of State William Seward who orchestrated the US purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867. The cost to the US was less than 2 cents/acre. At the time, the purchase was seen as foolish – Seward’s Folly.

Our tour was the Resurrection Bay cruise. We took a short bus ride around the very small town before getting to the pier (which would have normally taken only about 5 minutes). They were getting ready for the Mount Marathon on July 4 which isn’t like a normal running of marathon of 26.2 miles, but a grueling 3.1 mile steep run up the mountain to 2974 feet above sea level and back down. The leading racers typically reach the highest point in 33-40 minutes and reach the finish line from the turn in 10 – 15 minutes. It is apparently not for the faint of heart! There are so many RVs here, many more than even the homes and businesses in the town. Some are tourists and others are people who relocate to work during the short tourist season. I mentioned before that it stays light here until about midnight and at about 3:30 AM it starts to get light again.

Once out on the boat, we had a cloudy, overcast day so it was sometimes hard to get pictures. We did see sea otters, Dall’s porpoises, many bald eagles and puffins. These pictures are really the best I could get. The scehery in this Kenai Fjords area was just stunning, though. We actually got back after the ship was scheduled to leave port but because it was a ship tour, they waited for us.