Very Crowded Icy Strait Point

Carnival Panorama 18-Day Transpacific Cruise Long Beach to Yokohama

Icy Strait Point, Alaska -- Thursday, August 29, 2024

It has been a week on this cruise now. It feels a little long but we are still in good spirit even though we find that at our age we are not enjoying Carnival as much as we used to. We have come to know more people on the ship and even making friends with some. At breakfast, Hui Mei and Hank asked if we can have a Chinese Bible Study group so more people who don’t know English well enough can join us for a time of devotion. We have decided that starting tomorrow we will get together at 8:30 in Havana Bar and see how it goes on the next week of sea days.

We arrived at Icy Strait Point at around 7:00 before we even had breakfast so it was early and the ship stays until 4:00 before leaving for Japan. It’s cloudy but at least it did not rain when we got off at around 8:30. Panorama docked at the Wilderness Landing, our first time docking there. Which means we will have to take the gondolas to Adventure Landing on the other side so we could walk to the town of  Hoonah. We have always docked at Adventure Landing on our previous visits here. Well, at least we are docked instead of anchored like the Crystal ship that had to tender in.

 It was not crowded at that time and we got right on the gondolas. At Adventure Landing, a Royal Caribbean ship was docked there (I forgot the name of the ship, an older and smaller one.) 

Taking the complimentary gondola to Adventure Landing.

Reaching Adventure Landing side of the port.

Familiar sight.

The iconic whale sculpture.

Love walking along this trail. So picturesque and peaceful!

Started our walk on the Sea Walk to Hoonah.

We saw plenty of whales in the bay the first time we were here in 2017.

    We then walked the trail to Hoonah with the intension of just doing part of the walk only as son decided to walk all the way. While we were walking, we bumped into Mr. and Mrs. Ying, our subscribers on YouTube, and we stopped and talked for quite a while. Mrs. Ying just retired from her nursing career this month and this was their first cruise after retirement. Nice couple! After talking for a while we urged them to just go on walking to town before it starts raining. Then we saw Mr. and Mrs. Miao who came up to take pictures. We introduced ourselves and he recognized who I was. They have cruised 9 times last year, making them real experienced cruisers. After they went on their way, son came back from Hoonah, so we walked back to ISP pier. There were so many people with the three ships docked today. I have never seen so many people in ISP before!

Bumped into new friends Mr. and Mrs. Miao, as we were resting at this beautiful bluff. 

Walking back to port.

Looking back at the bluff.

Too bad we did not see any whales on this day.

    We just walked around a little inside the museum and the stores and then made our way back to the gondolas. The Salvation Army donut stand had a long line of customers waiting to buy their delicious treats.

Inside one of the stores.

    When we saw the line that wrapped around the gondola station, we decided that we should just take the trail back to Wilderness Landing and back on the ship. It was just people everywhere!

Long line at the gondola station at Adventure Landing.

Taking the trail back to Wilderness Landing.

A nice walk in the forest.

Wow! The crowds at Wilderness Landing.

    When we got near the ship we could see an ambulance and a police car parked right next to the ship. Somebody needed medical attention again. The policeman was hauling their luggage onto the police car. Certainly hope that these people are OK. There has been one medical emergency after another each of these days. For the next week, we hope that there’s no more medical situation that will be needed. We will be in the middle of the ocean with nothing around.

Ambulance and police car waiting.

    The ship left a little before 4:00 heading to Japan. We were the last ship leaving ISP out of the three and we were in no hurry. Tonight, we will set our clock an hour back. I think we will adjust the time every day in the next few days.

    Tonight’s dinner we also aimed at 7:00, and we all had the rib-eye steak as main. A good dinner to end the day. After dinner, we took our walk on deck 3, 4, and 5 before coming back for the night.

For video on this day, please click here.

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  -- Hebrews 13:5