Norwegian Encore Alaska Cruise Review: Day 7 – Juneaufeatured

It was dark and wet when we woke up, already docked in Juneau. Fat raindrops were sheeting down over the city and the weather forecast didn’t offer any respite. So we lingered a bit and then got on with our day.

As we planned our trip, we went back and forth over how we’d spend our day in Alaska’s capital. We decided that if the weather was decent, we’d take the Glacier Express bus to the Mendenhall Glacier, but the weather was clearly not in our favor. Instead, we went back to the drawing board to make a Plan B.

We grabbed breakfast at the Garden Cafe and mulled over what we could do with nearly an inch of rain forecasted to fall. I chatted up the omelette man, who mentioned that last week the weather was just perfect. So clear, in fact, that many people saw the Northern Lights — twice. Under most circumstances, I’d linger in what could be and wallow in what was. I’ve never been on a cruise with so much (read: daily) inclement weather. But I was just so happy to be cruising that I had very low expectations for this trip anyways. We figured we’d come back with Mom at some point, anyways. So we didn’t wallow — we drank our coffee, ate our omelettes and came up with a plan for our day.

The Encore would be docked in downtown Juneau until 3:30 PM so we had just about a half a day to fill. The downtown area wasn’t all that big (comparatively, anyways), but it had plenty of coffee shops, breweries and boutiques — just about everything we’d need to make a fun day of it (even in the rain). So we strapped on our boots and our raincoats and headed out to explore Juneau.

A few fun facts about Alaska’s capital city:
– Juneau is very large city! Even though it looks quaint from the ship, it’s actually over 3200 square miles (which makes this single city larger than Rhode Island!)
– Even though it’s located on the Alaska mainland, there are no highways or roads connecting it to the rest of the state. Everything is imported by plane or boat.
– In the winter, Juneau can get as few as six and a half hours of sunlight. In the summer, as many as 18 hours!
– Juneau is a hiker’s paradise, with nearly 150 miles of trails to explore
– Pre-pandemic, Juneau would see nearly a million travelers a year visit via cruise ship. For a city with a population of around 32,000, that’s a lot of visitors!

We started our day walking through downtown to Front Street in search of some coffee. On the way, we got distracted by the motion inside a store called Midnight Sun. One of the benefits of cruising this late in the season is that many shops began putting their merchandise on clearance, and this shop was selling rain jackets (like, nice ones!) for $25. People were going crazy and stocking up. We had plenty of rain gear, but we did grab some long-sleeved tees and souvenirs before heading back out.

Next stop was a caffeine break at Heritage Coffee, a coffee shop that’s a favorite with cruisers and locals alike. We Google’d other places to visit over oat milk lattes and watched the rain pour over the city. It wasn’t ideal for touring, but it sure highlighted the beauty of the city!

We made a quick stop at Juneau Drug and then hopped over to Devil’s Club Brewing, a nearby brewery. Steph ordered two flights and some delish pretzels and beer cheese and had me taste all of them. See, I don’t like beer. There are like three beers that don’t make me click my tongue and scrunch my face. Stephanie, on the other hand, LOVES beer. I’d consider her a beer connoisseur. And because she loves good beer so much, she’s been on a quest since we were in college to find a beer that I’ll drink more than a sip of. Of the six tastings, we found one that I liked enough to drink the full pour of, which is pretty indicative of my standard acceptance rate. Stephanie loved Devil’s Club’s beers, though, and I loved the vibe and the snacks. It was definitely a fun way to pass the time!

The intention was to visit more breweries, but the others within immediate walking distance were closed (or were merch stores that served beer and not, like, places to sit and have a beer) so we went shopping at the fun boutiques. We found so many fun stores — paper stores, native art and craft stores, I even found a wellness store with an incredible assortment of crystals. We bought fudge to bring home for Mom and fun new sweatshirts with designs from local artists.

On our way back to the ship, we stopped at the Red Dog Saloon. It’s right off the ship so it’s almost assuredly considered a tourist trap, but even tourist trap’s can be a great time! We definitely enjoyed the low-key, rowdy vibe. The Red Dog’s famous shot is called a Duck Fart, which is an unfortunate name for a delicious layered shot.

We bought some merch on the way out because at this point, we were just freely blowing cash to make ourselves feel better about the weather, we snapped some pics of the ship and headed inside where it was warm and dry.

After some brief contemplation on where to grab lunch, we kept it simple and headed up to the Garden Cafe for some noodle soup and comfort foods before heading down to the Observation Lounge for hot tea and scones (there were chocolate chip ones today that were delicious!). The sloping windows provided some gorgeous viewpoints of the city of Juneau and we reflected on our low-key fun day exploring some local faves.

We watched sailaway from our balcony, protected from the rain by the overhang of the cabin above us. The views coming out of Juneau were stunning — the mountains and the hills and the colorful houses nestled between. Juneau felt small for a capital but it was so beautiful and cozy. Hopefully one day, we’ll be back to explore in more favorable conditions!

The late afternoon hours called for some down time. It seems the less we did, the more tired we’d get in the middle of the day! We put on a movie, Facetime’d Mom and took naps. That’s what vacation is about anyways, right? Rest, recharge, explore, repeat.

We woke up just in time for dinner. While we planned on visiting the Savor dining room, they didn’t open until later and there was already a crowd forming. We didn’t have time to wait because we had show reservations, so we headed up to The Manhattan Room. Our dinners were solid (though the mushroom caps were teeeeeeny tiny!) but we had to skip dessert because we needed to head across the ship to get seats for the show!

Many Norwegian ships offer full on production shows of Broadway shows, and the Encore has Kinky Boots, a Broadway show that has won multiple Tony awards (the music was written by Cyndi Lauper!). I love Kinky Boots. Stephanie…not so much but she was willing to go along with it because I love it so much! It was the first time the show ran onboard in awhile, so we were super jazzed! It did not disappoint — everything from the cast to the sets were phenomenal. How cool to see a full on Broadway show on a cruise ship!?

We hit up The Local afterwards for a snack — the show was long and the seats in the Encore Theater are so dang uncomfortable that we just wanted to sit somewhere else for a bit and realign. The food at The Local always surprises me. It’s the 24 hour eatery and it’s probably the best free dining option on the ship. Some of the seats overlook the atrium, which gave us a great view of the entertainment in the atrium.

Afterwards, we headed back to the room to unwind and watch some of the movies rotating on the television. The ship really started rocking, perfect timing to put us to sleep and get us ready for our final port day!