We rented a car (which worked out very well believe it or not from a place called "Rent a Wreck") and went to the two big attractions: the Mendenhall Glacier and the Glacier Gardens. The Mendenhall Glacier is in the Tongass National Forest, just down the road from the car rental office and 13 miles from downtown Juneau. Whether you drive yourself or go on a tour, go. There are few places in North America you can get this close to a glacier, and it certainly is a very interesting site. There is a visitor center (admission $3) that is set in a cliff that offers a great view of the glacier. A ramp, stairs or elevator will bring you to the center's entrance. If you are a little more adventurous and wearing sneakers or hiking boots, follow the trail all the way to the glacial waterfall. It is as close as you will get to a glacier in this part of Alaska by land. It is an easy walk/hike with many great vistas along the way. Walk along the glacial lake's edge, see ice bergs floating in the lake, and take a lot of pictures. 
The Glacier Gardens Rainforest is fifty acres of lush temperate rainforest (admission: $21.50/person) The tour begins at the base greenhouse where a guide tells you the history of the Gardens and you can meet one of the owners. The greenhouse is jam packed with huge hanging baskets of impatiens, fuchsias, petunias, begonias and ivies. A bald eagle has decided to nest in one of the tall spruce trees by the greenhouse, and if you are lucky you will see it soaring overhead. Once the orientation talk is completed, you climb aboard a covered vehicle (something like a big golf cart) and are driven up the almost 600 ft to the top of Thunder Mountain. The well-trained college-age guides will explain the foliage and fauna of the area. Your trip will meander up the mountain past small waterfalls, ponds, and landscaped areas. At the top you will disembark and walk out a board walk to an overlook with great views of the Mendenhall Valley. There another guide will describe what you are seeing in the valley below, and answer any questions you may have regarding the area. Once back on the tour vehicle, you retreat down the mountain, with additional commentary on the local plants and animals. One of the most interesting sights are the unique and beautiful up-side-down tree trunks that have been turned into natural planters (really really big planters!). An interesting and pleasant place to spend a hour or more. 
Back in town we decided to try out the King Crab at Tracy's Crab Shack. Recommended by the car rental shuttle driver, it is located by the downtown parking garage. It is literally a shack, with several picnic tables under a dining canopy. We opted for the special that included 4 ounces of crab bisque, 3 small crab cakes and a "shoulder" of crab legs. The crab legs are cooked after you order them so there is a short wait, but it is worth it. The bisque is smooth and creamy with chunks of crab, the crab cakes are lump crab with a little egg to keep them together fried crispy brown, and the crab legs are cooked to perfection. 
one tip: look for the signs in the shop windows that say something like "owned and operated by an Alaskan Family." That way if you buy something you are helping the local economy. Shops without those signs are generally owned by large "tourist stores" that give kick backs to the cruise lines for directing folks to them, or by the cruise lines themselves. 
Juneau like most cruise ship ports has lots of jewelry stores mostly selling very expensive pieces made of diamonds, tanzanite and ammolite. If you are independently wealthy you can get what I am told are great buys this time of year (September) as the stores are trying to reduce their inventory before the end of the season (roughly the third week in September) However, even with their "deep discounts" most of the pieces were far out of my price range. A tip from a tour guide: "your genuine Alaskan gem this week will become your genuine Caribbean gem in two weeks!" If you purchase a shopping book on board the ship you will get a number of "free" gifts. Most are necklaces and ear rings made with microscopic size chips of gem stones. Nice trinkets for small children. The unset chips can be brought home to have a friendly jeweler design something to set them in. 
There are many souvenir shops in each port. Most carry the same merchandise, so you want to seek out the unusual shops if you want something different. If you don't care, there are a lot of pieces of inexpensive jewelry to bring to the folks back home, totem poles (made in China, and the usual assortment of sweatshirts, tee shirts and jackets. 
 

Juneau

SKAGWAY There are a lot of tours going out of Skagway, most of them in to the Yukon region. Take whichever one sits your fancy. The Yukon is beautiful and wild. As our guide told us, ï¿½if you ever wondered where the middle of nowhere is, you just found it.ï¿½ In this area it is not unusual for people to travel 120 miles to go to the movies and the grocery store. We took the bus tour up the White Pass into the Yukon. Our bus driver/tour guide was very well versed and kept up a running commentary on the area and its history. We stopped at various scenic outlooks allowing lots of opportunities for taking pictures of the beautiful countryside. The tour included a stop at the Yukon Suspension Bridge, a steel mesh structure spanning a deep gorge. The views from the bridge are beautiful, and it was fun visiting with the resident pooch Jax on the far side. Jax loves people, and it is hard to determine which is more photographed: Jax or the gorge. On our way to lunch we traveled through one of the more unusual sites for this area: a desert! The geography, winds, and jet stream patterns are such that this small area receives very little rain fall each year, resulting in arid conditions. After the desert the tour continued into a small town where we had a delicious lunch of BBQ chicken, coleslaw, rolls, hot tea and home made donuts. There is a small museum on the grounds with many specimens of local wild life as well as a wooly Mastodon that was discovered in the ice not far from the site. There are several activities one can pay for, such as a dog sled ride or an ATV ride into the desert. One we enjoyed for free was visiting with the sled dog puppies. Several were only a few weeks old and loved being held and cuddled. Several others were too big to hold, but enjoyed a good belly rub and the biscuits that one could buy to feed them. Back in Skagway the shops were all still open, so there is plenty more shopping to be had. September is the very end of the season, so many of the souvenir shops had fleece jackets, and fleece lined rain jackets for very good prices. Of course there are the plethora of jewelry shops but other shops, like the one in the old train station are much more interesting. The shops stay open late when the cruise ship is in port, so there was plenty of time to browse before all-aboard. 
one tip: look for the signs in the shop windows that say something like ï¿½owned and operated by an Alaskan Family.ï¿½ That way if you buy something you are helping the local economy. Shops without those signs are generally owned by large ï¿½tourist storesï¿½ that give kick backs to the cruise lines for directing folks to them, or by the cruise lines themselves. 
Skagway like most cruise ship port cities has lots of jewelry stores mostly selling very expensive pieces made of diamonds, tanzanite and ammolite. If you are independently wealthy you can get what I am told are great buys this time of year (September) as the stores are trying to reduce their inventory before the end of the season (roughly the third week in September) However, even with their ï¿½deep discountsï¿½ most of the pieces were far out of my price range. A tip from a tour guide: ï¿½your genuine Alaskan gem this week will become your genuine Caribbean gem in two weeks!ï¿½ If you purchase a shopping book on board the ship you will get a number of ï¿½freeï¿½ gifts. Most are necklaces and ear rings made with microscopic size chips of gem stones. Nice trinkets for small children. The unset chips can be brought home to have a friendly jeweler design something to set them in. 
There are many souvenir shops in each port. Most carry the same merchandise, so you want to seek out the unusual shops if you want something different. If you don't care, there are a lot of pieces of inexpensive jewelry to bring to the folks back home, totem poles (made in China, and the usual assortment of sweatshirts, tee shirts and jackets. 
 

Skagway

We got off the ship to a dulge with gale force winds driving the rain perfectly horizontal. It was AWFUL! However, by the time we arrived at the First Nation village it had stopped and we were able to enjoy our tour. there is a "orientation" film that could have been better done, a performance by some native dancers which was interesting, a short talk by our tour guide about the totem poles and a visit to the totem pole carving center. I had waited until we went to the First Nation Village to buy a totem pole from them and guess what? Anything less than $100 was made in China! So unless you want to drop $100 or more on a totem pole, feel free to buy one anywhere. we returned to Keitchan just in time for the rain and wind to return. this is a VERY short port call (about 4 hours) so there was not much time to explore before the all aboard. 
one tip: look for the signs in the shop windows that say something like ï¿½owned and operated by an Alaskan Family.ï¿½ That way if you buy something you are helping the local economy. Shops without those signs are generally owned by large ï¿½tourist storesï¿½ that give kick backs to the cruise lines for directing folks to them, or by the cruise lines themselves. 
Ketchikan like most cruise ship port cities has lots of jewelry stores mostly selling very expensive pieces made of diamonds, tanzanite and ammolite. If you are independently wealthy you can get what I am told are great buys this time of year (September) as the stores are trying to reduce their inventory before the end of the season (roughly the third week in September) However, even with their ï¿½deep discountsï¿½ most of the pieces were far out of my price range. A tip from a tour guide: ï¿½your genuine Alaskan gem this week will become your genuine Caribbean gem in two weeks!ï¿½ If you purchase a shopping book on board the ship you will get a number of ï¿½freeï¿½ gifts. Most are necklaces and ear rings made with microscopic size chips of gem stones. Nice trinkets for small children. The unset chips can be brought home to have a friendly jeweler design something to set them in. 
There are many souvenir shops in each port. Most carry the same merchandise, so you want to seek out the unusual shops if you want something different. If you don't care, there are a lot of pieces of inexpensive jewelry to bring to the folks back home, totem poles (made in China, and the usual assortment of sweatshirts, tee shirts and jackets. 
 

Ketchikan

Because the ship is not American flagged it is necessary forit to dock in at least one "foreign" port every 7 days. To meet this requirement, we docked in Victoria, BC. This is a very short port call (4.5 hours) in the evening (does not arrive until 7 PM. If you do not book a shore excursion in other places, I would highly recommend it here (take it from someone who did not). The dock is a fair distance from the inner harbor, so you have to take a shuttle (not a good option) or a taxi ($8.50 each way per car (not per person). The taxi is a much better option. There is not much to do in the inner harbor that time of night, other than shop some more. All of the shops do stay open late. However, a shore excursion is a better option. 
There was a very entertaining street performer whom we watched. the parliment building is lined with lights and lit up at night so that is a nice site. Victoria was very clean and we did feel very safe walking around downtown. However, it would have probably been more enjoyable if we had something specific to do. 
 

Victoria

We were in Cabin C-521 and our daughter was in cabin C-525.There was a good size closet with lots of hangers (a plus!) there was a small safe in the cupboard that was easy to use.The shower was quite tiny. No large person would have fit in it.The hair dryer has a 2" by 4" rectangular opening for the air. If you are used to actually styling your hair with a dryer it will prove a challenge.

) So be forewarned: if you don't want to lug formal togs or dressy clothes it appears no one cares.As "desirable" as the seating theoretically was, we prevailed and he gave us a little white card to carry to dinner with us each night to prove we were no longer required to eat only at the first seating.

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