2026 Trips - Ice and Fire Cruise

Sept 9th, 2026 – Day in Ketchikan and Mystic Fjord Excursion

September 9, 2026September 18, 2026Lmnei

Today we get to get off the ship! Yahoo! We have lots of days at sea with some port days thrown in for fun! Today is a port day in Ketchikan where we are taking an “accessible” boat excursion to Mystic Fjord. Let’s go!

Mystic Fjord

Andrew and I have been to Ketchikan previously and I thoroughly enjoyed this port previously. This time, as there is an accessible boat tour, we are going to do that first. Not many tour boats are accessible so I was a bit apprehensive about this one, however pleasantly surprised to find that there was a huge ramp up to the boat, and while there was not any wheelchair parking per se, there was a very narrow accessible washroom too that my walker, in semi collapsed position, fit into. Additionally, the seats were comfortable, and cloths were provided to de-fog the windows for our voyage up the fjord.

MS St. Helaina, Sitka, AK an accessible boat!

We finished the excursion and found the ramp back to the top dock much easier, as the tide had receded while we were away. Then, Andrew headed to the Noordam to rest, leaving Lynda to wander and see what she could discover.

Let’s Explore Ketchikan

Knowing a bit about Ketchikan history, including its underground liquor trade during Prohibition, I headed to the boardwalk. As I moved along, I passed the Fire Hall with its ready equipment and a historic fire engine on display. I was taking some pictures of the boardwalk area when I started getting pelted by rain – HUGE rain drops! Then, I sheltered under a store awning and called my mother to report we had arrived in Ketchikan.

I had a nice stroll along Creek Street and saw the various stores winding down for the Cruise Ship season. We are one of the last boats visiting the port this month. One thing that is great when it rains is the smell of rain makes things seem “fresh” until I got to the bridge you can see above in the “More of Creek Street” photo on bottom right. When I crossed that bridge there was a very specific smell that I have encountered a couple of times in my life – dead salmon in the creek after they have spawned! Lovely! That said, the smell-a-thon memory was VERY QUICKLY in the past when I saw a certain sign on the building across the bridge to the left…

Does that actually say “Alaskan Fabrics”???

Needless to say, I ended up in a WONDERFUL yarn and fabric store named Fabulous Fiber Arts! Oh my goodness I was in heaven and so giddy the lady in the store I think was concerned about my sanity as I was so excited to see REAL wool! I am going to try and keep my gushing to a minimum however I did find some FABULOUS blue/purple/green sock weight wool (unfortunately not from Alaska but Turkey) and I am now set for my cruise! I even had a bag to carry my stash of 7 skeins of wool back to the ship in which was awesome!

Typical Andrew – he was not too impressed with my shopping adventure – it just does not register! The good thing for Andrew is that as we are in the USA or close to shore is they are playing American Football games on TV so he has been able to watch some good games including the Seattle one to start the season and then the one played in Melbourne, Australia!

Now back in our stateroom, it is time to wind some wool! The Knitting Group is at 10am each morning and I got to be ready to stitch and bitch! Tomorrow we relocate from the bar area outside Pinnacle Grill to a conference room due to ceiling leaks! Oh wait, no Knitting Group tomorrow – we are in Sitka! See you tomorrow!

Sept 8th – Relaxing cruise up BC Coast to Ketchikan, Alaska

September 8, 2026September 18, 2026Lmnei

We got up to a beautiful morning cruising between Vancouver Island and the BC Coast up past Haida Gwaii. We had breakfast in the room, which I had ordered the night before. I generally have the same breakfast everyday to make it easy on the staff to keep my gluten free dining safe. SOMETHING happened in the translation though and again I was served muffins that were not gluten free. Been there and done this before and I can “feel” when the muffins are not gluten free. Also they do not have paper cups on them which is indicative of the brand that Holland America now carries (Bio). Unfortunately they no longer stock Kinnikinnick brand products since the company was sold.

I proceeded to phone Room Service to see if I could get some gluten free muffins and Patricia answered the phone! I know Patricia from our cruise from Seattle to Sydney – she was the lady who took Room Service orders on that cruise too and helped me with my gluten free dining when I needed something I had not already pre-ordered. What a lovely surprise! She was very tentative on the phone – “are you the Miss Lynda who went to Sydney last year?” she said to me? I remember this order and the gluten free muffins! I will send some to you right away! And so they arrived with apologies from Tama, who is her manager. Problem solved!

Next on the list – relax and get my nails done! I now have fire engine red toenails and french manicure finger nails – however I ditched the usual baby pink for baby purple/mauve instead! Very cool!

Now, as my mother will attest, I often volunteer to run the Cruise Critic group’s Meet and Greet on the ship on the first day. Again, that is what I am doing at 2pm today! I have a secret though – this group has been VERY talkative during the year leading up to the cruise and one of the points of discussion have been Nanaimo Bars! One lady, lets call her Tutu was really intrigued by them so I posted a video of Todd Maffin, who is an ex-CBC personality and now decent Canadian (along with his wife Jocelyn who I know through the Spinal Cord Injury of BC Association) talking about Nanaimo Bars which is kind of funny… Here it is for your amusement!

Having Celiac Disease I am NOT someone to bring gluten snacks to a group when I cannot enjoy them too! So I acquired some Wendels GF Nanaimo Bars (2 boxes) from Save on Foods and brought them to the ship for the meeting! Everything was going great – I delivered them to the dining room in their sealed box so they could be cut up (following the Health and Safety laws which I did not bring in home made products) and served half way through the meeting. Only fly in the ointment – Andrew was still not feeling well so he was not at the meeting to “assist” me!

The meeting went really well – about 45 people showed up which was a fair crowd in the Rolling Stone Lounge and we all introduced ourselves and we played some fun games. At the end I gave out some Canadian themed prizes and announced we all had Nanaimo Bars to share at the back – however they were not there! Oh no! They never arrived! I had to apologize and tell people I had brought everyone Nanaimo bars but they had not been delivered…

Needless to say, an hour later the Noordam staff found the Nanaimo Bars in the kitchen, untouched and there was a HUGE miss-communication issue where they were not delivered to the meeting. They then offered to cut them up and deliver the Nanaimo Bars to the rooms of the guests that had attended the meeting – if I could put one together! That I did and they were supposed to deliver the GF Nanaimo Bars to the staterooms that night with a card apologizing for missing the meeting.

Here are some photos I took during the day cruising up the coast of BC!

Sept 7, 2026 – Beginning an Unforgettable “Ice and Volcanoes” Cruise Aboard Noordam

September 7, 2026September 18, 2026Lmnei

Oh where do I begin! This has been a challenging year since I left you in Singapore last December!

We (I!) had booked a couple of cruises after we returned from Australia. ADA cabins on ships were getting hard to find. The first cruise we booked was a 28-day round trip from Seattle on the Noordam. We sailed on the Noordam last year to Sydney. This cruise is called the Ice and Volcanoes Grand Voyage which takes us to Alaska and then to the Hawaiian Islands. Luckily, they allowed us to board in Vancouver! We must disembark in Seattle when the cruise ends though and take the train home – no staying on until Sydney this year! This plan is perfect because we can visit my aunt and uncle who live near Seattle.

After booking this cruise, I had surgery planned for January, where the water tap in my right eye was going to be turned off! It has gone from an excessive waterfall back to a normal drainage system, so now it does not look like I am permanently crying! It was to occur in the first week of January but moved to late January due to an issue with my medications. At the first office visit after the surgery, the eye surgeon was a BIT TOO excited to see me – he wanted to show me the picture of the 7mm dager looking, calcium stone from the drainage duct in my eye! It was the largest he has ever seen and removed. Andrew was NOT impressed and left the exam room at that point.

I had just recovered from the ‘panda eye’ look when my father fell and broke the neck of his left hip (between the ball and the femur) at the end of February. He had an excellent surgeon at Richmond General Hospital who put him back together. The regular ‘dad’ and ‘husband’ returned pretty fast. He started making lists of things for us to do, such as buying a watch for my mum. Soon he stood up and gave the physio and OT staff heck during their visits several times a day as he wanted to progress faster! After about a month at the hospital, my dad became congested with fluid on his lungs and passed away fairly fast and peacefully on April 3rd, Good Friday, with my mum, sister and I at his side.

Choosing whether to pay the final deposit on the cruise was very hard for Andrew and me to do – while it was late April at this time, and the cruise was not until September, there was a lot on our plates. In talking with my mum and sister, we decided to proceed and pay for our cruise as it has one very special port – Dutch Harbour, where I was lucky enough to work in 1995. Not many cruise ships stop at the Island of Unalaska where Dutch Harbour is located. It is primarily a fishing community closer to Russia than continental USA! Holland America does not even offer any excursions at this stop due to a lack of infastructure. More on this exciting port later!

Between my volunteering on the Media Team at FIFA, we also planned and held a wonderful Celebration of Memories for our father in June where a lot of my dad’s old workmates from BCIT were able to join us. Also, we moved our mum to a new living environment that is more supportive in July. Then, just as things were looking up, in August my laptop overheated!

I rely on my laptop quite heavily, thank goodness it got me through tax season this year where I was able to submit more than 400 tax returns for the non profits that I volunteer for! Out Dell came to repair it yet again. This time, it only took five hours for the keyboard to get to over 50 degrees Celsius again! There is nothing like an infrared thermometer to tell you that it is HOT!

I was concerned about needing a laptop when on vacation for the various volunteering that I do. Also, there was a bit of déjà vu involved, as last time I traveled to Dutch Harbour, the internal power supply in the Dell laptop that my work provided, ceased to work in the Anchorage Airport on the way to Dutch Harbour! As my current Dell laptop support contract ends in a couple of months, I ordered a new laptop as backup for my trip, in case Dell could not fix my current one on time. The new laptop was supposed to arrive on August 27, but it arrived on September 4! Needless to say, getting my new laptop going has been a bit of a challenge when at sea due to SLOW internet! That said, I have now been successful after a week, so here we go!

To start, I would like to dedicate this “Ice and Fire” cruise to my parents. My dad taught me so much about the sea, tides, ships (vs. boats) and how to appreciate the community where you live. Both my parents taught us to travel and enjoy other cultures – my sister and I have traveled to different parts of the world for both work and vacation. I am constantly learning, absorbing and respecting the different things that make up the great fabric of the world in which we live.

Instead of wearing my Canada hat this trip, I am wearing my dad’s Steveston Maritime Modelers hat. The SMM are a group that my dad belonged to in Steveston. They love to create and display model boats. Some of their creations even float! We are off to discover parts of Alaska that Andrew has not visited previously and I am going to see again after a couple of decades! I hope you enjoy the adventure with us!