Port Rating:

The town itself is not remarkable. The buildings are reminding me a little of Russia. There are tours of the State Capitol, but you are just as well off walking on your own, some members of the tour asked the most inane questions and turned the tour into torture. There was a major gold mine here, took out about 300 million ounces, if I remember correctly.

We had lunch at the Twisted Fish near the pier and had a very tasty salmon fish sandwich. By the way, take plenty of money, food in Alaska is about double what it is in the lower 48. There is a tram up the mountain that one of our party took and enjoyed the view.

Odd thing to realize is that you cannot drive to Juneau, come by birth, boat, or plane. The cars and trucks came in on the ferry boats, but there is no highway out of Juneau.

Port Rating:

We took a mini bus tour (Discover Skagway) up to White Pass and it was excellent. I had neglected to bring my passport and since we would cross into Canada it was required. No problem, the operator got me a ride in a van with a driver who took me back to the ship, waited for me and brought me back. Nice people. Turns out, the border official didn't ask for passports, but sometimes they do. The tour itself went up the other side of the valley from the White Pass Railroad line. The tour bus stopped at excellent viewing points and the driver knew the history and geology of the area. We were supposed to turn around at the Canadian Border, but the driver had heard a bear was wandering around up at Tormented Valley so away we went. What a good looking bear and we watched him for about five minutes just ambling along in the snow about 50 feet off the road, great!

We had lunch at Bombay Curry. Real good food at reasonable for Alaska prices. Authentic vindaloo cooking. Small portions, but actually all that you should eat for lunch. The nan bread was good. There was a real good ice cream shop on the main street that had really good flavors and huge waffle cones. I walked pass two dancers from the ship dressed to kill in fashionable tight jeans and they sure eyeballed the ice cream cone I was enjoying!

Electricity in the summer is generated by a small water turbine up in the valley and power is 12 cents per kilowatt hour. In the winter diesel generators are used and the electricity is 58 cents per kwh. No more will we complain about the cost of electricity at home.