This was our first port visit in Alaska and an interesting day as you’ll see if you read below.
Mendenhall Glacier National Park
We started off the day watching the ship pull into Juneau, AK. We sat on the balcony of our stateroom for a time drinking tea and coffee while we watched the views pass. We pulled out the binoculars we bought for our trip and we looked at some of the cabins and villages as we made our way up the channel. I was able to see several bald eagles sitting in their nests along the treeline.
The ship docked in Juneau, and we decided to grab some lunch before venturing off for our excursion. We ate in the Windjammer cafe and explored some of the areas that were closed to us the day before while we were at sea. After lunch, we grabbed our gear for the day and made our way down onto the pier to walk around a bit before our bus picked us up.
It was shocking to see how many ships were in port at one time. There were five cruise ships in port at the same time as us. That’s means there are about 21,000 people that descend upon Juneau each day that cruise ships are there. We saw an article posted by Good Morning America after we pulled in with a picture of our ship in the foreground stating that Juneau and the cruise lines were going to limit the number of ship and visitors that are allowed in port at one time.
We walked up and down the pier a bit taking in all the sites and the amount of people in port, then we found our tour spot and got on the bus that would take us to the Mendenhall Glacier.
The glacier was beautiful and was such an amazing sight to see. We only had about an hour and a half at the glacier and it was a mile to the bottom of the trail where Nugget Falls deposits into Auke Bay. It took us about 20 minutes to hike there. We spent about 20 minutes taking in the view, then 20 minutes back to the visitor’s center. We walked around there a bit and took some more pictures from that vantage before getting back on the bus and heading to the salmon bake.
You can get better pictures of the glacier at the visitor’s center than you can at the bottom of the trail to Nugget Falls.
Salmon Creek Salmon Bake
The Salmon Creek salmon bake was nice. We got off the bus and got a cup of clam chowder. Then, we found a place to put our things and we got a little bit of everything that was available. There was cornbread, scalloped potatoes, iced tea, lemonade, salad, and salmon cooked over a wood fire.
We were tired after our trip down to the glacier and back again so we decided to head back to the ship early. The nice part was that we could go whenever we wanted. As it turned out, it was a good thing we left when we did.
The Incident
On the way back to the ship, Adrianne started looking sweaty. She mentioned to me that her hands were itchy and she needed a restroom. By the time we got on the pier, it was a mad dash to the nearest restroom. After we got on the ship and through security, she left me in the dust and ran for the restroom in the casino, which was the closest one.
When she came back out, she was all red and sweaty. She wasn’t having any trouble breathing, but it was clear that she was having a reaction to something that she ate, or a bug bite and needed to be seen at the clinic. We went one level down to the medical clinic on the ship and they took her into the ICU immediately upon seeing her.
The clinic staff interviewed her and the doctor came right in. He diagnosed the situation and recommended an IV drip with Benadryl and Hydrocortisone. They hooked her into the IV and after an hour, she was ready for bed and doing much better. Her skin wsan’t red anymore, she wasn’t itchy any longer, and her vital signs had returned to near normal.
She was ready for bed at that point, so I got a wheelchair and took her to the stateroom. I put her to bed and spent the rest of the night watching her to make sure she was okay.
Back Underway
We had dinner reservations for that night, but we changed them because Adrianne needed to rest. The ship got back underway and we were headed for Skagway, the furthest point north on our trip.
Reflections
The clinic on the ship doesn’t take insurance. Any medical services they provide is a la carte. For example, when we got the papers from the clinic about Adrianne’s trip to the clinic, they charged us for each latex glove that they’d used during her visit. I didn’t are at that point because she was okay and that’s all I cared about. I was afraid the clinic on the ship wouldn’t be able to treat her and would ask us to leave the ship and seek medical attention at the ER in Juneau, but they were able to take care of her and we were able to continue our adventure.
We did have travel insurance so we were able to file a claim and get reimbursed for the $430 visit to the clinic.
I will always have travel insurance for a trip like this from now on and I highly encourage others to do it.
We paid about $390 for the insurance, so it paid for itself.
Eric’s Blog 
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