2024-08-20: Ziplines & Whales

We woke up at 8:00am this morning. We were already docked in Icy Strait Point when we awoke. We got cleaned up and headed to the Windjammer for a quick breakfast before getting off the ship at 9:30am. It was showery this morning and about 15 degrees Celsius.

We had tickets to do the zipline at 9:45am this morning. Icy Strait Point has a couple of gondolas that take you to different points in the area. We had to take the first gondola to get to the check-in point for the zipline. They had some lockers there for us to store our bags and anything we didn’t want to lose on the zipline. We had to sign waivers for the zipline and they checked our weight before giving us wristbands for the zipline. We had to hop on the second gondola which takes you up the mountain to get to the zipline. The upper gondola went above the cloud level which was a little eerie. After a short 4 minute walk, we arrived at the zipline platform. They claim this is the world’s largest ZipRider. It drops you 1300 feet. They have GoPro like cameras at the top you can take if you want a video of your descent. Darrell grabbed one and then we headed onto the platform. We watched the group in front of us get released and then waited a few minutes for the slings to come back up the line.

They got us strapped into the slings and before we knew it, we were racing down the line at up to 60 miles per hour. It takes about 90 seconds to reach the bottom. The rain drops hurt a little as you ran into them at that speed. Everyone thought it was an awesome experience. We paid for the video that Darrell took on the way down and then went back up the gondola to pick up our bags. We explored the upper area and took a couple of photos. There isn’t a ton at the top unless you are doing one of the excursions. They do have a walking trail through the forest if you choose to do it.

We took the gondola back down to the check-in area. Again, there isn’t much to do at this area unless you are doing one of the excursions. There were a couple of gift shops we checked out there and headed down the first gondola to the welcome center. We walked along the waterfront to the historic cannery. Icy Strait Point was originally a fish canning factory. They have a museum in the original cannery building where you can see some of the equipment they used and displays with history of the area. They also have a few gift shops of course. We wandered through the museum and picked up a few souvenirs.

They have a crab shack beside the museum. Michael was starving, so we stopped and enjoyed a dungeness crab feast. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all. After the crab, we had to make a stop at the mini doughnut stand. Darrell and Amanda had the best mini doughnuts they’ve ever had when they were here a couple of years ago. The huckleberry flavoring they put on the doughnuts is to die for.

At this point, we only had 20 minutes to get back on the ship so we scooted back to the pier. We got on board with a whopping 5 minutes to spare! We went to our cabin to drop off our bags. Darrell and Amanda went on the balcony to watch them get the ship ready to depart. There were a few people who were late getting back so some of the ship’s officers and the dock staff were waiting. We watched a couple of the dock workers throw a football around while they waited. One throw went awry and the ball ended up in the ocean. Luckily, the currents directed the ball towards the dock so one of the workers was able to retrieve it without going for a swim. While we watched them playing, we saw some humpback whales pop up in the bay. We started watching the whales as they made their way closer to the ship. They got within feet of the ship and dock which was awesome. Even the dock workers stopped what they were doing and started taking pictures and watching the whales. The stragglers finally made it back to the ship, but the captain announced we couldn’t leave because the whales were too close. We had to wait about 15 minutes or so until the whales had wandered off to a safe distance. Then the captain pulled us away from the dock and we were on our way towards Ketchikan.

We relaxed for the next couple of hours. We got ourselves ready for dinner at 6:30pm and headed to the main dining room. We were sat with one of the couples from our second night on the ship and one other couple. It was Italian night in the dining room.

After dinner we returned to the cabin. Darrell and Amanda headed to the theater for tonight’s show. It was a singer by the name of Kenny James. He was a member of the Hues Corporation who sang Rock the Boat among others. He put on a good show. He had his son on stage with him playing bass.

After the show we returned to our cabin and called it a night.