There is nothing like a cruise. I honestly believe it is the perfect vacation. Everything is taken care of. You don’t have to worry about what you are going to eat for dinner, when you are going to clean your room, rental cars, and hotels, or anything at all really. All you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy yourself and the people you are with.

Sunset in the Inside Passage, Alaska

Last week we had the pleasure of forgetting our everyday world and enjoying an honest to goodness vacation. Sure we travel quite often, more so than the average couple with a baby, but I wouldn’t really classify them as vacations. They are still work dealing with all the rental cars, hotels, food, and sightseeing. It’s exhausting. But this time we just enjoyed each other’s company and the beautiful world around us.

It’s true that this wasn’t our first time to Alaska. And it most definitely won’t be our last.  As much as I love Hawaii, I think Alaska may have it beat as our favorite place to visit (I guess it’s only fair I give Hawaii another shot).  Anyways, we boarded our Celebrity Cruise and we were treated…well like celebrities! The staff was the most friendly, the service excellent and have I mentioned the food yet? Pretty much amazing! All my foodie friends are going to die when we post our Eating Around series from this cruise.

Anyways, here are of the highlights from this vacation:

This was our ship, the Celebrity Mercury.

We boarded our ship in Vancouver, BC on Sunday and we were just so excited. The first day of your cruise is the best because the promise of the week ahead of you is the best feeling.

Hubbard Glacier

We had a stateroom with a balcony which is a MUST for an Alaskan cruise. Plus it made a world of a difference having a baby, we could be outside enjoying the scenery while she was napping. If we hadn’t had a balcony we would have missed this beautiful glacier. The hubbard glacier is huge- six miles wide! It was the highlight of the trip for me. Absolutely breathtaking.

Delicious treats onboard Celebrity Mercury.

Suffice it to say we stuffed our faces silly on this cruise. As you should on any cruise. However we came back and had each only gained 3 or 4 pounds. My last cruise was a 3 day cruise and I gained 5 pounds. I guess I held back a little this time! We enjoyed world class dining aboard our cruise. A post about that will come later.

Mount Roberts Tram, Juneau, AK

One of our port cities was Juneau. We opted to take the tram up to Mount Roberts to see the view of the city and watch a movie about the Tlingit people. The movie was amazing but unfortunately the view not as great, since it was extremely cloudy. It was still very much beautiful.

Creek Street, Ketchikan, AK

We didn’t do any shore excursions because we had BabyTravels with us and played things by ear. We were very laid back which made all the difference. When we got off the ship in Ketchikan (which turned out to be my favorite port) we walked a couple of blocks to Creek Street. An area that is connected entirely by boardwalks.

Hilarye and BabyTravels

This is BabyTravels and me on formal night. Everyone onboard was in love with her, especially the crew. We had to allow at least 20 minutes extra for anywhere we went because people would stop us to talk and play.

Can you tell we had an amazing time? It was hard to leave. Alaska is a place I will visit over and over again. There is something so pure about it’s beauty and so refreshing. It’s awe inspiring. In fact, words cannot even describe it. You’ll just have to expirience it for yourself and I really hope that you do. Have you booked your cruise yet?

* Celebrity Cruises hosted us on their cruise. However all reviews of the ship remain unbiased towards that.

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Tags: Alaska, Cruise

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 9:38 pm and is filed under My Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.