We were up just before 08:00 and got ready for the day. We had already docked. We went down to Cafe Promenade for a light breakfast. We both had coffee. Graham had fruit and a cinnamon roll. I had some watermelon and a chocolate donut. Then we went in search of the photographers. They were nowhere to be found. We stayed up on the pool deck for a bit to admire the scenery. I wanted to get a specific photo and Graham suggested that I go and get this as the light was perfect. I headed up to deck 15. I tried to find the perfect spot to take the photo. While I went around the deck to find this, I finally said “hi” to the Seaplex pandas. Shortly afterwards, I found my perfect spot near the Flow Rider. The Flow Rider seemed intend to give me a shower that day. I only just avoided the water. While I was taking evasive action, I nearly collided with a photographer. I got my port photos and then took the photos I had been after. When I went downstairs near the Seaplex, I noticed that there was another photographer with a moose character just outside the Windjammer. It would have been rude not to stop for a photo. When I rejoined Graham, we enjoyed the scenery a little longer. Once we noticed that the number of people coming down the gangway had thinned out a little, we headed back to the cabin to pick up what we needed for the day. Then we headed out.
We were docked at the Ore Dock this time. This particular dock caused some issues back in 2024. Historically, the Ore Dock was a fixed dock that could only accommodate smaller ships. They decided to replace this with a larger floating dock, which was supposed to be ready in time for the 2024 Alaska season. It had come all the way from Seattle on a barge. When it got close to Ketchikan, it snapped in half. They had to start over with another floating dock, and this was finally ready for the 2025 Alaska season. We were docked there on Koningsdam in 2025 and rather liked the location. I knew it was designed for larger ships, but I was still surprised when I found out that Ovation would use this dock on our Southbound cruise. I was rather pleased about this though as this is the most convenient of all the docks in Skagway.
In 2025, we saw all kinds of interesting wildlife near the Ore Dock. This was not the case when we were heading into town that morning. Our first stop was the public bathroom. They are the nicest public bathrooms that I have seen anywhere in the world. Then we headed for Pullen Creek. There is a little park there. Normally this is a peaceful oasis with plenty of birds around. This time round we found a barbecue in progress and loud music. It appears that this has become a crew hang out. This was a real shame. We moved on very swiftly and headed for town. We were stuck near Pullen Creek for a while as they were manoeuvring trains and all traffic including pedestrians was stopped. Eventually all the trains were where they were supposed to be, and we were free to continue.
We then carried on. This time round, I got as far as opening the app for the treasure hunt and work out where the starting point was. On the way, I spotted a tourist information office that was run by the National Park Service. In 2022, we headed to the Gold Rush Cemetery, and we discovered the Lower Reid Falls. Sadly, it was absolutely freezing that day. With this being another glorious days and the temperature being quite pleasant, we thought it would be nice to revisit this. We knew that there is a seasonal shuttle out there, but we could not find out online if this was already operational. I decided to check at the tourist information. The shuttle indeed was already operating and the park ranger told me where to get the shuttle from. We headed in that direction.
There were two slots for shuttles where the Gold Rush Cemetery shuttle went from. This stop was also used by the various port shuttles. Each ship had its own shuttle which meant that this stop was very congested. The Gold Rush Cemetery shuttle had to do a couple of loops before it could pull up. There were a lot of people waiting and there was not enough room for everybody. We decided to see if the next shuttle would be better. Thankfully when this came about 30 minutes later, there was room for everybody.
When we got to the Gold Rush Cemetery. We took a different trail that went straight to the Lower Reid Falls. We got a bit closer. They are really pretty. While we were enjoying our surroundings somebody commented about how pretty the falls were. I agreed. When the person picked up on my accent, I was then treated to a tirade that the USA needs to get a handle on all the foreigners invading the country or it would risk losing its identity. I was absolutely gobsmacked. That is not what I had bargained for. However, this reinforced that we had made the right decision when we decided before this trip that this would be our last time of setting foot into the USA. Fortunately, the guy soon moved on, and we were left in peace to admire our surroundings once more.
Once we well and truly enjoyed the views, we took a different trail that took us through the Gold Rush Cemetery. This is a fascinating place to visit. This was the first cemetery for the City of Skagway and many of their famous Gold Rush characters are interred there including local kingpin Jefferson “Soapy” Smith and early tourism promoter Martin Itjen and his “world’s largest gold nugget. I was quite surprised to find a very new headstone that had not been there in 2022 as the Gold Rush Cemetery has been inactive since 1908 with only one burial and one related scattering of ashes since and both of those were in 1943. I never did find out what the significance of the new gravestone was.
Once we had taken a loop around the cemetery, we headed back to where the shuttle picked up from. We did not have long to wait until a shuttle arrived. There were quite a few people milling around, but there were also various tours that included the Gold Rush Cemetery and there were not actually that many people that were waiting for the shuttle. We had no issue getting on. When we arrived back in town, we walked back towards the port.
We were nearly back at the ship, when Graham abruptly stopped. There are a lot of boulders near the dock. At first, I could not figure out what he was looking at. Then I spotted it, too. There was a dipper hopping around the boulders near the edge of the water. That was the bird we had hoped to see at Pullen Creek. I am glad that we got to see this after all. Once the dipper disappeared, we went back to the ship.
We attempted lunch at the Amber & Oak pub again and this time, we were in luck. We both had a bowl of smoked cheddar ale soup with chicharron and croutons. This was delicious. We also ordered some dishes to share. We had Memphis BBQ pulled pork nachos with signature BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese , diced tomatoes, jalapeños, red peppers, onions, and sour cream and the poutine with white cheddar curds and gravy. I was not entirely sure about the poutine, but before we went on this trip, I had followed a live trip report from the repositioning cruise from somebody who is from Quebec. Quebec is where poutine originated. She had this one day and commented that it was not the best poutine she ever had, but she had worse poutine in Quebec. We decided to brave it. What we got looked very different from the photo she had posted. On the photo, it actually looked like poutine. What we got was essentially cheesy chips with gravy and there was not a cheese curd in sight. It was still tasty though. We had also ordered the fried pub pickles with ranch dressing. However, what we got initially did not look like fried pickles at all. Instead, we got the German soft pretzel sticks. We pointed this out and our server brought us portion of the fried pub pickles as well. Everything was tasty. The portions did not look particularly big, but everything was really filling and we did not manage to finish everything.
After lunch, we headed back to the cabin to drop off our stuff and then we headed up to the solarium. We had our pick of round loungers and settled down. Our whale friend came by a couple of times, but he kept a lower profile. We also saw some seals, but mainly it was seabirds and bald eagles. We had a lovely relaxing afternoon. There was no afternoon trivia that day. Instead they had something called American superhero trivia, which did not appeal to either of us. Instead, we continued relaxing in the solarium. When dinner started to creep up, we headed down to the cabin to have a shower and to get changed. Then we headed downstairs to get some photos.
Dinner that evening was at Izumi again. Graham had a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. After the disappointment with the She’s A Geisha cocktail, I decided to try the Japanese Strawberry cocktail. This was more to my liking. We both started with the crispy chicken kara-age, which consisted of the soy-ginger-mirin marinated thigh meat, with a sweet Thai chili sauce. We both had the Champagne lobster roll blanched lobster, avocado, daikon sprouts, soy wrap, Champagne sauce, and chili thread. Graham was not too sure about this when he saw this on the menu, but he was looking for something lighter. In the end, he liked it. I also had the spicy crispy shrimp roll with shrimp tempura, avocado, tempura flakes, unagi sauce, and togarashi. For dessert, we both had the green tea ice cream.
All aboard was at 20:30 that day. We decided to give the Pesky Parrot a pass and instead head back up to the solarium. The sail out from Skagway is very pretty, This did not disappoint. We got as far as Haines before the light faded. At that point, we headed downstairs to our cabin and got ready for bed. I tried to read for a bit, but I did not even make it to the end of the first page before my eyes fell shut.
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