Norwegian Encore Alaska Cruise Review: Day 8 – Ketchikanfeatured

When we cruise, the first thing I do when I wake up is roll over and look out the window. I don’t know if I was even surprised or disappointed when I woke up, turned over and saw the gray, overcast skies. After days of constant rain, I didn’t expect anything more than…more rain.

We were hopeful before we left that we’d have a few sunny days (or, at least, so the advanced forecast said — don’t believe weather forecasts 5+ days out), but we were ready for less favorable conditions. We had our North Face rain coats, all-weather boots and fleece leggings — we didn’t love the rain, but we were ready for it.

There were a handful of excursions for Ketchikan, but we decided to just DIY it. I think not doing many excursions really kept our vacation relaxing because we weren’t ruled by timing for everything. Norwegian docks at Ward Cove, a development area they’re building up, whereas all other cruise ships dock in Ketchikan proper. To get there, they offer a harbor cruise excursion transfer, but that didn’t sound particularly pleasant in this weather. If you don’t want to pay $30/person each way, they offer a shuttle from the cruise terminal. Also not particularly pleasant but it was free and would get us there in 15-20 minutes.

We had a quick breakfast up at the Garden Cafe, where we plotted out our day. One thing I loved about Garden Cafe is that they have servers making the rounds with different items to try during breakfast. Today, it was fresh blueberry turnovers. We’d constantly find staff singing and dancing around upstairs and we just loved their energy. They’re just as happy (if not more than we are!) to be back onboard and cruising again.

After breakfast, we gathered our things and headed down to deck 4 to disembark the ship. The terminal area is still being built up so it still feels incredibly industrial. There were some shops inside (priced competitively to those in Ketchikan), a bar and a waiting area for excursions.

The shuttles load and run constantly so we didn’t have to wait for one — we just hopped right on the bus. Norwegian is using motor coaches, which hold a good number of people. Our driver had come down to “help out” because they hadn’t staffed for the season not knowing if cruising would start again. He told us a ton of fun facts about Ketchikan and pointed out nearby points of interest on the 20-minute drive downtown (like their Wal-Mart, which makes Ketchikan a “real American City,” and the local dining fave, Burger Queen).

The bus let us out at the visitors center, right at the heart of downtown, and we started walking. Despite the heavy rain, Ketchikan is quite walkable. Our first stop was the Salmon Ladder, a fishing ladder in the creek that allows the salmon to swim upstream. It was about a 10-minute walk from where the bus let us off, but we were so late in the season that there weren’t many salmon in the ladder (…or much water). At peak, the ladder is black, filled to the brim with salmon. We know we’ll visit again one day, and I’d love to see the Salmon Ladder with all those fish!

We passed a coffee shop on our walk up to the Salmon Ladder, so we circled back to caffeinate. 55 North offered jumbo iced coffees and all kinds of freshly baked treats and we devoured both as we plotted out our next steps through Ketchikan.

Ketchikan is incredibly walkable and I think, in better weather, it would actually be quite pleasant to stroll around. There’s a lot to see and do — many different paths for a choose-your-adventure kind of day. And there are totems! There are more than 80 totem poles scattered around the city, making it the largest collection in Alaska. You could make an entire DIY walking tour to see them (with a stop at the Totem Heritage Center) if you’re into Native American art and culture but even if that’s not at the top of your list, you’ll see them everywhere and it’s impossible not to admire the artisanship in these cultural artifacts.

Our next stop was at Creek Street, perhaps one of the most popular spots in Ketchikan. Creek Street is a grouping of colorful buildings around a pond in an area that was once Ketchikan’s Red Light district. Now, it’s home to a collection of boutiques, cafes and historical spots. We walked around, exploring the different shops and reading through the historical markers (we also watched an animated chase between a seal and a salmon!).

Because this was our last stop in Alaska, we were opening our wallets and buying everything in sight because, well, it rained our entire trip and shopping gives me dopamine hits. We bought locally made jams and sourdough starter, I bought an Ulu, Steph bought some earrings from a local designer. It wasn’t our typical shopping trip, but it was our little way of bringing a bit of Alaska home with us.

The rain was starting to really come down (again) and we didn’t want to leave too late and get stuck in a line for a shuttle back to Ward Cove, so we made our way back towards the shuttle stop. We found Local Grounds, another really great coffee shop, and stopped in for a quick coffee stop (the coffee in Alaska is really good!) .

We also made a stop in the souvenir shops to hit up the end of season sales. Since we were sailing at the very tail end of the season, so everything was on clearance and needless to say, Stephanie and I now own what we dub Alaska wardrobes.

If there was a sweet spot to catch a shuttle, we must have found it because we stepped right onto one for the quick ride back to Ward Cove. At the pier, we did more shopping because if we weren’t getting Vitamin D or sunlight, we were going to shop until our suitcases were stuffed. Stephanie bought more Alaska clothes. I spent a small fortune at KetchiCandies, a confectionary one of my Instagram followers told me about, on fudges and handmade caramels and all kinds of tasty treats.

Back onboard, we dropped our shopping bags off at the room and headed down to The Local for lunch. There’s something about that comfort food and low-key casual vibes that just hit on all the right levels. And the melty, cheesy grilled cheese? That always hits the spot!

We headed back to the room to relax and start packing up so we’d have less to do later. Well, Stephanie started to pack up. I won’t pack until I have to. Later on, we decided to watch the ship sail out from our balcony and we started seeing these vivid colors out on the horizon to the open waters ahead. Yep — after days of rain, the sun was finally coming out — just as we were leaving to sail back to Seattle. Murphy and his law, right? It was beautiful, though, and such a memorable way to cap off a memorable week.

For dinner, we tried a new restaurant — Los Lobos, the onboard Mexican cantina. Los Lobos is not a complimentary dining venue but it was covered by our dining plan. We feasted on some really solid Mexican fare and margaritas. I particularly enjoyed the table side guacamole and the tortilla soup but everything was really very good.

After dinner, we did a quick outfit switch to wrap up our photo package project. Mom wanted a portrait of me and Stephanie and booking through Costco Travel included a mondo photo package. So naturally, we took pictures at every photo station we could find. By the end, we were having way too much fun with it. And Mom got exactly what she wanted. Fifty times over.

We ended the night at District Brewhouse, the closest venue we could find onboard to a piano bar. It was dark and loud and the low-key kind of fun that I enjoy the most on cruises these days. The beer selection was expansive. The cider selection…not so much. But still, we had so much fun closing out our last port day.

One final day left to go on this cruise, which meant another time change and an hour lost. We made mental lists of all the things we wanted to do on our last day and lamented over how we’d bring home everything we bought as we sailed closer to the final chapter of our vacation.