That day we were headed for what had become my favourite Alaskan port in 2022, Icy Strait Point. We had a nice long day there this time with a port arrival time on 08:00 and all aboard at 19:30. We would be back again on the second leg of our adventure, and we had planned to check out the coastal path to the nearby town of Hoonah this time round. I had checked the weather forecast the previous day and it looked great for the morning, but then rain was expected from around lunchtime onwards. Therefore, we were keen to get going as soon as we could.
We headed up to the Windjammer around 07:00. As expected, this was very busy. They had opened a side room with large picture windows. We had no trouble finding some space there. We were not directly by the windows, but we still had a great view. This was about to become important. This was our first taste of “dinner theatre Alaska style“. We had taken turns to get some food and I had just got back with my food when there was suddenly a number of loud gasps followed by people heading for the starboard windows. I am surprised that the ship did not lean. There were a couple of whales that had come to welcome and entertain us. This was pretty cool. Little did we know what was expecting us during the course of the day. In 2022, we had our best whale-sighting at Icy Strait Point and that was pretty amazing, but it was nothing compared to what was waiting for us this time.
We had our standard breakfast. Graham had fruit followed by oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar and I had a bowl of congee with a side of pork link sausages. Graham had an orange juice, and I had an apple juice. We both had a cup of coffee.
Once we had finished breakfast, we quickly headed back to the cabin to pick up what we needed for the day. Then we headed out. There were plenty of people that had the same idea, but it was well organised. The photographer had set up away from the main thoroughfare, which worked much better. This time round, they had a yeti out. I had high hopes for this photo. Unfortunately, it looks all washed out. However, as I wanted the full complement of port frames and I was not going to get a photo package the second week, it made the cut.
Having had some vivid reminders before what can happen if the local community is not in favour of cruise tourism, Icy Strait Point was a breath of fresh air. This is proof that if the cruise lines and the local community work together, amazing things can happen. What is now Icy Strait Point started as a salmon cannery in 1912 and remained a salmon cannery under various ownerships until 1953. It was then used as a maintenance and storage facility for the local shipping fleet until the late 1990s. In the mid 1990s the Huna Totem Corporation bought the cannery. Icy Strait Point is the only privately-owned cruise destination in Alaska. It is located on Chichagof Island and was named after the nearby Icy Strait. Huna Totem Corporation is owned by approximately 1,350 Alaskan Natives with ties to Hoonah and the Glacier Bay area. Many of them are of the Tlingit people, and all profits directly support the community of Hoonah, Alaska’s largest Native Tlingit village. 85% of the staff at Icy Strait Point live in Hoonah. Some of the staff lives right at Icy Strait Point. The first cruise ships were welcomed at Icy Strait Point in 2004 and initially the port was only used by Royal Caribbean and sister brand Celebrity as Royal Caribbean had heavily invested in the facilities to get the port operation off the ground. Icy Strait Point was a tender port until the first dock opened in 2016. A second dock entered the construction phase in 2019, this time with financial assistance of Norwegian Cruise Line. This was supposed to be ready in 2020, but then the pandemic happened, and the new dock finally welcomed its first ship in 2022.
Icy Strait Point is a great example for what sustainable cruise tourism can look like. Huna Totem Corporation’s goal was to preserve the character of the local village and culture as much as possible, despite the influx of visitors, while still providing substantial help to local economic prospects. As far as I can see, they have done a great job with this. Rather than falling into the trap that places like Juneau and Skagway have fallen foul of with endless internationally owned shops, Icy Strait Point concentrates on celebrating the local culture and the abundance of natural treasures in the area. There is a cannery museum, cultural presentations, as well as numerous wildlife-oriented excursions. Yes, there are some shops and restaurants there, but they are all locally owned and operated. Apart from stocking the typical souvenirs like t shirts, hoodies, plush toys and magnets, the shops concentrate on educational offerings and products made by local artisans. Icy Strait Point is definitely thriving and seems to be constantly expanding. Hopefully this will not affect the charm of the place in the long term.
When we got off the ship, there was blue sky with a few clouds. We slowly walked towards the shuttle area, and I took a few photos on the way. I had a quick look around a couple of the gift shops and decided that they warranted a proper look later. For the time being, we wanted to make the best of the weather. We had planned to walk the coastal walk in 2022, but could not find the starting point. This time round we had no trouble. The coastal walk is about 1.5 miles and should take about 35 minutes to walk. We took about 3 hours. Initially we had the coastal walk pretty much to ourselves. The scenery was very pretty, and we had a lot of whale sightings. We noticed that the whales like to play hide and seek with the whale watching boats. As soon as a whale watching boat approached, the whales disappeared and then resurfaced somewhere completely different. One of them resurfaced pretty much right next to us. First, we heard a very loud noise, followed by the spout and then the whale. This was quite a spectacle. I never would have thought that a whale exhaling was quite so noisy. It was however a privilege to witness this.
Speaking of privilege, even though this was really cool, the best was still to come. We had sat down on a bench on a stretch of beach for a while as there were some interesting birds about. We were just about to move on when a bald eagle decided to do some fishing. He or she did not catch anything, but when the bald eagle came back, he or she flew quite low right over our heads. I was so spellbound by this; I did not even think about getting my camera out. Fortunately, the bald eagle did not go very far, and we got some photos of the bald eagle up a tree.
Although those two highlights were hard to beat, there was plenty more that put smiles on our faces and the scenery was truly stunning. Just beyond the halfway mark, there was a small park area by an overlook, which acted as a memorial for two police offers that lost their lives back in 2010. As sad as this is, it was a very nice a peaceful spot. After this, it got pretty industrial with maintenance facilities for the local fishing fleet. Eventually we came across the outskirts of Hoonah and a hardware and general store. We decided to check this out. They sold about everything you could imagine from children’s toys, tools, appliances, souvenir and about every item of clothing known to man, apart from underwear that is. Underwear was precisely what Graham was in the market for.
By the time we came out of the store, it had started to rain. Fortunately, it did not take us much longer to get to where the shuttle back to Icy Strait Point left from. There was a shuttle waiting, but they do not sell tickets on the shuttle. They are sold inside the local craft brewery. We went inside and got our tickets. We figured that it was doubtful that Hoonah had something to offer that was worth getting wet for. Fortunately, another shuttle was along presently. As soon as we had sat down, the heavens really opened. Fortunately, it had let up a little by the time we arrived back at the shuttle stop at Icy Strait Point.
I had a good look around the gift shops and there was some really nice stuff, but I did not buy anything. I figured I always had a second chance the following week. On the way back to the ship, we decided to have a spin on one of the cable cars. There are two cable cars at Icy Strait Point. The green cable car stays quite close to the ground and essentially links the two docks. This is free. It is still pretty, as it goes through a forest. The other cable car is red and goes up the mountain. There is a charge for this, and we had tickets for this for our second visit. After a quick round trip on the green cable car, we headed back to the ship.
We dropped our stuff in the cabin. We had a new towel animal. I took a quick photo and then we headed up to the Windjammer for some food. Graham had some Asian noodle salad, tomato, cheese, cold cuts and breads. I had a cheeseburger, macaroni cheese and some cheesy potatoes. I had a mini trifle, a chocolate pot and some walnut pound cake for dessert. Graham passed.
After lunch, we headed downstairs to the Schooner Bar. We found a table by a window. It did not take very long until there was whale activity right in front of us. We kind of lost count of how many whale sightings we had. It was utterly amazing. We worked out the pattern between the whales surfacing and them going for a deep dive. I managed to get quite a few tale shots in process.
Graham discovered a new favourite drink that day. The drink of the day was Irish coffee and we both decided to have one. I normally quite like Irish Coffee, but this was not to my liking. Graham however loved it. I let him finish mine and got a dessert pear margarita instead.
We were very thin on the ground with trivia that day and two out of the three on offer were very niche concentrating of cartoon superheroes and the sitcom Friends. Neither is really our scene and we sat those out. Something I would have loved to do is the murder mystery came, but that was offered while we were out in port. One thing however piqued my interest and that was a visual trivia with foods around the world. This took place in the Colony Club as they have screens there. This was more difficult than I thought. I was quite pleased that I got some more obscure entries right like that jam donuts were invented in Germany. Apparently the first record of a jam donut is from a German cookbook dating back to 1485. Some answers I should have known like that chocolate was invented in Mexico and with some, multiple countries lay claim to dishes as their national dish, and I picked the wrong country. We still got quite a respectable score of 12 out of 20. The winning score was 15.
After the trivia, we went back to the Schooner Bar. We enjoyed some more whale watching. Graham had another Irish Coffee, and I had another dessert pear margarita. The live music that day was a very talented pianist. We stayed for her first set and most of the second before quickly going back to the cabin to get showered and changed. We stopped for some photos on the way for dinner.
The menu that evening was A Taste of Asia. This was a new menu for us and one I was quite excited about. Graham had the salmon gravlax with thinly sliced cucumber, onion and tomatoes, lemon, capers and a honey-mustard dressing for his starter. I had the pan-seared dumplings with bok choi and a sesame soy sauce. For his main course, Graham had the salmon teriyaki with steamed jasmine rice, sautéed bok choy and snow peas. I had the sweet and sour pork with jasmine rice. This was not anything to write home about. Still, I have been spoiled by the authentic version in Hong Kong and China. For his dessert, Graham had the artisan cheese plate with celery, figs and walnuts. I had the vegan lychee tart with lychees and raspberries and a vanilla-basil drizzle. It was not that the menu was not nice, but it did not quite live up to my expectations. It did pair well with the Chateau St. Michelle Riesling.
After dinner, we headed back to the cabin. Graham took the photos of my outfit for the day in front of our decorated door. Then we got ready for bed. I read for a while, but soon my eyes started feel heavy and I settled down for the night.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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