Alaska Cruise Recap

Two summers ago I taught on a Caribbean Cruise & Crop and it was so much fun that I decided to teach on another one - this time to Alaska! I suggested to my parents that we turn this into a whole Taylor family vacation and they said yes! So my mom, my dad, my brother Eric, his wife Tanya, their 3 kids Zoe, Wes, and Isabel, my sister Allie, her husband Tate, and their 3 kids Daisy, Jude, and Zula, plus me, Chris, Fox, and Jane, all went on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas to Alaska + Canada!

The night before our flight we got a text from United that our seats were changed. When we got to our seats I didn't have a window. I pay extra for a window because I HATE FLYING and seeing out the window is the only way to calm my nerves. I was really mad and the dude next to us barfed and it smelled. Not my favorite flight.

But we and our 8 suitcases all made it and our flight was on time so that's a big WIN! To be fair, 5 of the 8 suitcases contained scrapbook stuff for my teaching portion of the cruise.

We Ubered to the port and saw our boat for the first time.

After checking in, we only had to wait a half hour for them to open the boat for passengers! We were literally the 3rd family on board, my sister and her family got on first, then some randos, then us. It's amazing how fast the turnover is for cruises. Passengers unload, they clean (hopefully?), and then passengers fill it up again.

They let us roll on all 5 of the suitcases I needed to get the conference room ready for my event! HOORAY!! We checked our 3 bags with clothes and headed straight to the conference room which had my name on the door :)

64 scrappy friends joined me on the cruise and we had 3 classes together - two on the first sea day and one on the second sea day. You can purchase the CLASS PDF HERE which has photos and instructions for creating all the projects we made on the cruise.

I did a whole separate blog post recap about my Alaska Cruise & Crop HERE.

After setting up the scrap room, our stateroom was ready so we went to check it out and freshen up.

Love the full panoramic view of Seattle from our balcony.

Majestic Mt Rainier.

We went with my brother and sister's families to get a quick snack at the pizza place.

Our embarkation was delayed a couple hours because someone had a medical emergency then eventually we headed out. Bye bye Seattle! See you in a week!

The Windjammer opened at 4pm and we were some of the first people in. "Washy washy or no yummy yummy!"

Morning view.

Chris and I woke up early to check out the boat and hit up the gym before my full day of teaching.

Kind of eerie with no one out and about.

We did participate in the first Fab Abs class but I tweaked my neck and didn't participate any other day.

This cold and dreary weather was very typical of the entire cruise - polar opposite to the Caribbean cruise we just went on.

We met my family for breakfast and then I was off to teach for the day!

For dinner we ate in the formal dining room.

This is what happens when Fox & Jane ask to borrow my phone and I love it.

The next morning we ate breakfast together in the formal dining room.

Our first destination was Juneau, Alaska! We've never been to Alaska before! Our kids have now been to both Hawaii and Alaska, which took me and Chris 26 and 41 years to get to, respectively.

We got off the boat and saw my family waving to us.

We saw a seal, eeps! So cute!

We walked straight to the Visitor Center to get a map. The guide told us about places we could walk.

We walked through the main part of town.

Our first point of interest was the State Capitol building and a bear statue in front of it.

Our family in Juneau, Alaska on July 26th 2026.

We walked further up the hill and came upon a playground. 12 years ago Fox & Jane would have made us let them play here. Not so much anymore now that they're both teenagers. Makes me a little sad and nostalgic for the "good ol' days".

LOVING these colorful buildings.

Wildflowers | Alaska license plate in Alaska.

We made it to the top of the street and then kept going.

We came upon a river and waterfalls and it was all so breathtaking.

We had excursion booked with my family at lunch so we started to make our way back down to the boat.

Speaking of the boat, we could see it!

We stopped at a food truck for delightful crepes.

We found my family and boarded the bus to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.

Even from the parking lot we could see the Mendenhall Glacier.

These baby birdies on a ledge in a hut by the restrooms waited patiently for their parents to come feed them. It was adorable to watch.

We started the 20 minute walk down to Nugget Falls.

I've never seen a mushroom in the wild like this before! SO COOL AND CUTE!

The falls were massive and LOUD.

Those two tiny people in front of the falls are Chris & Fox.

Our family at Nugget Falls on July 26th 2026.

More fascinating mushrooms.

Eventually we turned around to head back to the bus.

Not without stopping for tons of pics of course.

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.

Chris ran up the stairs into the gift shop to get us a magnet. We get a magnet every place we visit ever since living in Germany.

Then we drove to a marina to go whale watching.

We saw a couple of Mark Zuckerberg's super yachts. "Mark Zuckerberg owns a $300 million, 387-foot mega-yacht named Launchpad that travels with a fleet of luxury support ships."

We headed deep into the open waters.

We found whales! See those water spouts? That's the whales!

We learned all about these whales. They spout water about 5 or 6 times before diving down into the water and that's when you see their backs and tails. They're down in the water for about 10 minutes gathering food before heading back up for air and repeating the process for 23 out of 24 hours a day. They travel to Hawaii to have their babies and while there they literally don't eat so by the time they come back to Alaska they've lost thousands of pounds and eat all day and gain a few hundred pounds a day.

We saw a rare "bubble feeding".

"Bubble feeding, also known as bubble-net feeding, is a cooperative hunting technique used by humpback whales to corral and capture schooling prey like herring, krill, or small fish. How It Works: Diving and Circling: A group of whales dives deep below a school of fish and swims in an ever-shrinking circle. Releasing Bubbles: The whales blow air from their blowholes to create a rising cylindrical "net" or wall of bubbles. Trapping the Prey: The visible barrier and underwater vocalizations disorient the fish, forcing them to crowd tightly together in the center. The Lunge: In synchronized coordination, the whales surge straight upward through the center with their mouths wide open to swallow thousands of fish at once." Our boat conductor was totally geeked out by seeing this which made us feel special that we saw something so rare!

After whale watching for 45 minutes we made our way back to land with a pit stop at this buoy to see a whole bunch of sea lions chillaxing.

Two sea lions were swimming around to try and get up on the buoy but nobody made room for them, sad.

A fellow scrapper was on a similar excursion but on a different boat and took photos of our family!

We made it back to the boat and back onto our tour bus. I spy an Alaska airplane in Alaska!

We saw tons of eagles on the drive which was thrilling!

Our driver offered to take us to where we could see hundreds of bald eagles. Yes please! We parked in a random parking lot and walked down a little trail down to a river where we could hear thousands of birds squawking loudly. We did in fact see tons of eagles (those brown birds) and seagulls.

But we also came upon salmon at the end of their lives. "Driven by instinct, adult salmon return to their exact home stream using their strong sense of smell. They stop eating, change colors, and transform physically to lay and fertilize new eggs. After spawning, the adult salmon die, leaving nutrients behind to feed the next generation."

But HOW do they die? Like, what physically causes it? I wanted to save them all! I was so sad!

"Pacific salmon die after spawning because their long upstream migration exhausts their energy, they stop eating, and a massive surge of stress hormones shuts down their immune systems. This rapid internal collapse leaves their bodies completely depleted and starts the process of decay. Reasons for Post-Spawning Death: Extreme Energy Loss: Salmon use all their stored fat and calories to swim up rivers and make eggs or nests, leaving no power for a return trip. No Food Intake: They stop eating entirely once they leave the ocean and enter freshwater. Hormone Surge: Spawning triggers a massive flood of stress hormones (corticosteroids) that rapidly destroys their organs and immune system. Ecological Benefit: The decaying bodies feed the surrounding forest, insects, and wildlife (such as all these seagulls, eagles, and we even saw a bear across the river!), which helps the next generation of young salmon survive.

I guess it's literally the circle of life but I didn't exactly enjoy seeing (or smelling) the process.

Back on the boat.

For dinner my family and my dad went to Chops Grille and got a delicious assortment of food.

We saw many waterfalls out our window at various points on the cruise through Alaska.

Our second stop was Skagway, Alaska.

Everyone except Allie's family took the White Pass Scenic Railway train ride.

See that bridge contraption in the middle of the photo? Yeah, we were going to cross it! Yikes!

A scrapper was in our train car and snapped a photo of me taking photos.

Hi Dald! I don't think I've ever seen him smile so big, haha. Trains are his happy place.

So pretty.

Eerie ghost bridge to nowhere.

We reached such a high elevation that no trees grew there.

Our family in Skagway, Alaska on July 27th 2026.

Back in town we meandered through the streets to see all that we could see.

Interesting building facade.

Bench + flowers = photo opp.

We were told about an ice-cream shop so we went inside and got the kids ice-cream.

It was a very small town so we conquered it in under an hour before heading back to the boat.

We went to a magic show which was entertaining.

The next morning we sailed through Endicott Arm & saw Dawes Glacier. I took a lot of pictures, I am who I am.

Our boat pulled into this "cul-de-sac", did a 360 spin, and then went back out.

Hello sea lion!

The ice blue color of glaciers is so unique!

We were able to see amazing views from our balconies.

Once we started sailing back out we headed up to the Windjammer for a late breakfast and caught more beautiful views out the windows.

On July 28th Jane turned 14!!

My sister is so sweet and got her all kinds of Baja Blast/Taco Bell stuff.

Happy birthday Jane!! I think this is her 3rd birthday we've celebrated on a cruise, lucky girl.

Dinner in the formal dining room.

Our last stop was Victoria, Canada.

We took an excursion out to Butchart Gardens.

Many flower photos ahead.

The prettiest garbage bins I ever did see.

Japanese Gardens.

Italian Gardens.

We only had an hour to walk around and then we stopped for snacks at the cafe.

Always trying to replicate my favorite memory of eating scones after walking around Powerscourt Estate & Gardens in Ireland way back in October 2015.

We took the bus back into Victoria to walk around.

We ate lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

After lunch we met up with my sister and her family in Chinatown. My niece Zula is such a ham.

We walked through the famous Fan Tan Alley, known as Canada's narrowest commercial street which measures only 3 to 4 feet wide at its narrowest point.

Our family in Victoria, Canada on July 30th 2026.

We walked all the way back to the boat and that was the end of our amazing Alaska/Canada cruise!

We woke up the next morning back in Seattle where it was warm again. Our families all went separate ways. My family unit took an Uber to the airport to rent a car and we drove to my brother's house to drop off our suitcases. It was only like 9am so with the whole day ahead of us we decided to drive back into Seattle to go to the top of the Space Needle and visit Chihuly Garden & Glass.

We lived in the Seattle area for one year when we moved back to the United States after living in Germany from 2013-2017 and we never visited the Space Needle.

No time like the present! Up we went!

Our family at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle on July 31st 2026.

The views were immaculate on such a crystal clear day. Looking to downtown Seattle.

Looking out to Belleview,

Hey that's our boat!

Fox LOL.

We went down the stairs to the rotating level.

It gave me the heebie jeebies to do this - the floor is made of glass and was spinning slowly! Ahhh!

That funky building is the Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP), formerly known as the Experience Music Project (EMP), designed by Frank Gehry himself.

Then we went to Chihuly Garden & Glass which was founded in May 2012.

I love art in all forms and this is definitely ART.

On steroids LOL.

Looks similar to the famous "Fiori di Como" ceiling installation in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

All the colors make my color-loving heart happy.

After eyeballing the inside installations we walked around outside to enjoy more glass.

Reminds me of Dr. Seuss books.

Real flowers and a hummingbird mixed in with the glass flowers.

Does it not hail in Seattle? Wouldn't all this get damaged?

Dale Chihuly is 84 years old and still creating glass art. Chris is an Art History major, I am an Art Education major, so, we love art. We decided to invest in one of his beautiful glass works.

This is the glass bowl that came home with us. Or rather, was shipped to us. Viola Plum Macchia, 2021

We had an extra fun day on such a beautiful day in Seattle, our/my old stomping grounds!

With still so many hours left in the day, we drove all the way to Bellevue Square to window shop and get lunch. Jane loves macarons and get herself a sleeve of pretty pastel ones.