After falling into the Ocean in San Diego, our next day was much less adventurous. Our ship (the Celebrity Solstice) took us down to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula to the town of Ensenada. It may come as a surprise, but one of the things that this region is known for is its wine. The Ville de Guadalupe (The Guadalupe Valley) is known as Mexico’s Napa Valley.
When talking to some people on the ship about this tour, they turned their noses up at it because Mexico isn’t known for its wine. The reason we don’t see Mexican wine in stores in the United States has nothing to do with the quality but more with the quantity that they produce. With such small growing regions, Mexico does not produce that much wine and most of what they do produce, the Mexican people consume.
Our tour took us to two different wineries, L.A. Cetto, and Casa de Doña Lupe. L.A. Cetto has been making wine in Mexico since 1928 and is probably one of the biggest wine production facilities we have ever toured. We tasted some of their mass-market wines and also some of their more high-end wines and everything we tried was on-par with the big American wineries for a fraction of the cost. Casa de Doña Lupe has a more home-spun feel to it and reminded me of a lot of the wineries we visit in Northern Michigan. Our tasting was outside among the vines while a local guitar player strummed a tune. After tasting at Doña Lupe we were able to browse their shop for wines as well as homemade jams and olive oils to take home.
One thing that is tough about a tour like this is that everything we tried was excellent and very inexpensive (a bottle from the reserve line from L.A. Cetto worked out to about $16), but traveling with two adults, you can only bring two bottles of wine across the border without paying duty so we were very limited in what we brought home.
We booked our wine-tasting tour through Shore Excursions Group. We have used them many times and have always had good results. They guarantee to get you back to the ship on time and they are much cheaper than booking through the cruise line.
We really fell in love with the Valle de Guadalupe and hope to return sometime and actually stay in the area. I guess I will have to add it to the list! Thanks for stopping by! To read more about this trip, check out the Cruising the Pacific Coast Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
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Shortly after booking our recent California Coastal Cruise, Celebrity changed the itinerary and added a port stop in San Diego. We thought about doing the San Diego Zoo or Balboa Park, but our love of paddlesports won out and we decided to book a sea cave kayaking tour in La Jolla.
When our ship docked in San Diego, we caught a Lyft to La Jolla to meet our tour and walk to the beach. Now, we have kayaked in the ocean before (as recently as December in Puerto Rico), but nothing prepared us for kayaking in La Jolla. The description of the tour says “You will get wet” so we were anticipating the typical level of wetness that we get kayaking. We got in the kayak and the tour guide helped us launch through the surf where the person in the front (me) got hit with a full-body wave. I was dripping wet.
Once we were out in the ocean it was like any other kayaking trip. We got up close to the rocks but were unable to go into the caves because the tide was low and the waves were big. Our guide said that we could go into the caves but we wouldn’t be able to get back out, so you will have to settle for the picture of the caves in shadow (above). Since we couldn’t go into the caves, we paddled a little farther and got to see the sea lions sunbathing on the rocks (top).
Heading back to shore was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Our guide referred to it as “kayak surfing”. Essentially, you have to paddle hard, straight through the waves, until you hit the sand. If you turn your kayak the waves will flip you. Our guide told us 80% of people flip. I think our guide had kayaks going a little too close together because I think we would have made it if it wasn’t for the person who went before us. He capsized and was moving slowly and our boat was heading right for him so we had to veer out of the way and we capsized too. Chris says we need to go back to La Jolla and try it again because he thinks we would have made it otherwise.
Other people on our tour were wearing wetsuits. After the tour, I wished we had rented wetsuits (remember, I didn’t know we were going to fall into the ocean on this tour). It took a long time to warm up after that and we just went back to the ship to change into dry clothes and warm up. If we had prepared better we may have explored more of La Jolla or San Diego before heading in for the day.
We were in San Diego on the day San Diego State was playing in the Elite Eight for the first time in program history and the vibe in town was electric. Our Lyft driver was listening to the game and whooping with excitement. There were people watching the game outside in La Jolla and cheering. It was a really cool moment to get to experience.
If you will be in the area and you want to kayak La Jolla and try your hand at Kayak Surfing, I recommend Hike Bike Kayak Adventures on Viator. Their prices are very reasonable and the tour was great. Just be prepared to get VERY wet and if it’s chilly, rent a wetsuit!
Thanks for stopping by! To read more about this trip, check out the Cruising the Pacific Coast Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
A few months after returning from Puerto Rico, we set off again, this time for Southern California. Somehow, I managed to find my cheapest cruise to date during spring break and on a luxury cruise line. While all cruise lines are cutting costs right now, this was one of the best trips we have had in a while, and if you’ve been following this blog for a bit, we’ve had some good ones lately (I’m looking at you Alaska Cruise, Southern Caribbean Cruise, Western National Parks Road Trip).
Here is a breakdown of the trip report to come:
Day 1: Board Celebrity Solstice in Los Angeles
Day 2: San Diego – La Jolla, Sea Cave Kayaking
Day 3: Ensenada, Mexico – Valle de Guadaloupe Wine Tour
Day 4: San Fransico – Sonoma Wine Tasting
Day 5: San Fransico – Chinatown Food Tour
Day 6: Santa Barbara – Walking Tour, Wine Tasting
Day 7: Return to LA – Griffith Observatory and Santa Monica
Day 8: Disneyland
Day 9: Fly Home
This was my first time in California and this cruise let me see a lot of it. This cruise originally had a stop in Monterey but about two months before sailing, the city of Monterey banned cruise ships so Celebrity changed all the ports. This was my first time on a luxury cruise, my first cruise with an overnight in port, and my first time with U.S. ports after a foreign port. I will be sure to detail how Celebrity handled a customs check in the middle of the sailing because despite what the people of the internet said, we did have to show our passports before disembarking in San Fransisco.
Be sure to check back next week as I begin recapping this trip with our day in San Diego/La Jolla!
Thanks for stopping by! To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
Our Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas was unlike anything else I have ever done before. The scenery was unmatched and the service was spectacular. This trip was full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences!
View from our balcony
Our trip started off on a rough note because embarkation in Vancouver was a nightmare. I should start off by saying there were three ships in port that day and the other two ships were much larger than the Serenade so there were a lot of people leaving Vancouver that day. It took us a full two hours from curb to ship. It took one whole hour just to get to the porters to drop our bags off because there was only one large elevator that went to that level. We saw a lot of people just carry their bags on, but they still had to drag them around the port for an hour. I heard people around me mumbling “never again” to sailing out of Vancouver. One thing that makes it more complicated than most other embarkation ports is that you are in a foreign country sailing into the United States, so you have to go through customs. We met people at dinner one night who have Global Entry and they said that helped shorten the wait some. If you are planning on sailing out of Vancouver, pick the earliest check-in time you can and get there early.
While we had beautiful weather on our port days, every sea day was cold and rainy. We had hoped to play Pickleball as we did on our Caribbean Cruise, but because of the weather, it was never open. We tried to enjoy our balcony, if you wanted to be out there for an extended period of time, you needed to seriously bundle up. On our way back from Alaska, we had the roughest seas I have ever encountered on a cruise. Seriously, they had barf bags placed around the ship for those prone to seasickness. I have to say, I had never seen that before.
The Serenade of the Seas is the smallest ship I’ve ever sailed on. Having sailed on the Explorer of the Seas almost exactly three months prior, I was doing a lot of comparing in my head while onboard. Small ships like the Serenade have their pros and cons, the pros being that they can get into ports where the larger ships don’t fit. The Serenade is actually the ship Royal is using for their World Cruise in 2023. The biggest con, of course, is that there is less to do on board. I don’t know if it was because we were usually the smallest ship in port, but we always ended up at the dock farthest away from town (left).
Since our cruise on the Explorer was when Royal Caribbean was getting back into sailing at almost full capacity, a lot of my complaints from our spring cruise had been resolved. Crew members were no longer serving everything in the buffet and service in the dining room was much smoother. With my time dining, they didn’t try to seat you in the same table every day like they did on the Explorer so we didn’t have to wait as long to eat.
Cruising Tracy Arm Fjord
From the sail-away show, I knew the entertainment on this ship was not going to be for me. John, the cruise director came on stage singing Sweet Caroline and had everyone play Simon Says. I felt like I was in the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when she goes to her camp in the Catskills (for those of you who aren’t familiar with this show, it takes place in the 1950s. That’s really all you need to know for this reference). Shortly after that, the assistant cruise director came out to sell you Bingo cards. I felt like the youngest person on board by at least 40 years. Royal Caribbean is known for being a family cruise line so I was not expecting this at all.
Mini Golf on the Serenade of the Seas
In my review of the Explorer of the Seas, I was blown away by how many activities were going on around the ship when we were in port each day. That was not the case on the Serenade. We had three sea days on this cruise and I felt like there was nothing to do. Because of the weather, everyone was indoors. There was trivia twice a day that was standing-room only. There was a small movie theater where you wouldn’t get a seat if you didn’t show up half an hour early. There was an enrichment lecture by Canadian Mountie that we went to because…what else was there to do? We did enjoy the production shows and the comedian made us laugh. We kept running into him in port, which was funny.
Sailing under the Lion’s Gate Bridge in Vancouver
While this review may seem like it’s full of complaints, I really did enjoy this cruise. I think if I were to sail to Alaska again, I would choose a ship that was purpose-built for Alaska, like the Norwegian Bliss. It has many more indoor areas to get out of the cold, rainy Alaska weather at sea. After this cruise, we are taking a break from Royal Caribbean. We have another cruise booked, this time on Celebrity, which will be interesting.
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check back next week as we begin our journey from Vancouver to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula! To read more about this trip check out my Planes, Buses, and Boats Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
When planning our Alaska cruise, one of the excursions I knew I wanted to do was dogsledding. The cruise lines offer amazing dogsledding excursions at most of the ports, some of them even involving flying a helicopter to a glacier to have a more “authentic” experience on a dog sled. I really wanted to do one of those helicopter/dogsled excursions but it was really hard to justify a single excursion that cost more than the whole cruise fare. So, I went for the compromise called dogsled and musher’s camp in Skagway.
When we docked in Skagway (at the pier that has been closed since it had a landslide just a few weeks after we docked at it) and took a bus to the Musher’s Camp. Like a lot of Skagway, this felt very cheesy and like it was built for cruise ship tourists. From the base camp, we loaded onto this giant all-terrain vehicle to get to the dogs. We were the first group of the day and the dogs were excited to get going! They were yipping, howling, and pulling at their leads. We divided up into several groups, six people to a cart, and finally got to be pulled around by a group of canines.
On the drive up, our tour guide Laryn, explained the dogs we were about to meet are professional athletes. And once we got loaded onto our cart, our musher explained that the dogs that were pulling us are her team and they actually race the Iditarod together. She explained the commands she uses (“gee” and “haw”) to tell the dogs which way to go. She also explained how important camps like this one are for the dogs. Not only do they work on strength training during the summer, but being around the all the tourists prepares them for all the people the dogs will encounter at the checkpoints along the Iditarod. So, while we were in a cart, not a sled and going over a dirt path, not snow, this time is important for these dogs. So, yes dog sledding in Alaska is a tourist activity, it has its benefits for the dogs and the musher as well.
Puppy cuddles!
After we got done with our ride, we went back down to “basecamp” where we met another musher who told us the history of the Iditarod and showed us some of the gear they carry on the race. She explained that the “Alaska Husky” is actually a mix of breeds that they breed for their racing ability.
From there, we got to go to my favorite part where we cuddled the puppies (above)! Mine fell asleep in my arms. My husband didn’t get to hold one because I wouldn’t let him go. I really wish we had more time with the puppies before we were pushed to look at “teenage” dogs sleeping.
If you are planning an Alaska cruise and want to do a dogsledding excursion, I highly recommend it! We had a great time in Skagway with Alaska X excursions! While I’m sure the helicopter/dog sled excursions are amazing, once-in-a-lifetime kinds of experiences, the dog-cart experiences are in no way “fake” and are a great way to get to experience sled dogs without paying as much as your cruise fare for a single excursion!
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check back next week when I review our time on the Serenade of the Seas! To read more about this trip check out my Planes, Buses, and Boats Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
After our long day in Juneau, the next day we visited two ports: Skagway in the morning and Haines in the evening. This was our first time visiting two ports in one day. We had planned to take a dogsledding excursion through the cruise line for Skagway, but we just planned to explore the town of Haines on our own.
Skagway is a town with a lot of history. After the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, the border between Alaska and Canada was only vaguely defined. When the Canadian government requested a survey in 1871 after being united with British Columbia, the United States thought an examination of the land would be too expensive. In 1896, gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada’s Yukon Territory prospectors began heading to the Last Frontier to make the 500-mile trek in search of their fortunes.
Their journeys began by crossing the mountains over the White Pass or the Chilkoot Trail near Skagway. It is estimated that in the spring of 1898, 1,000 prospectors came through Skagway each week. Of all the people who flooded north in search of gold, no more than 4,000 prospectors found any, and only a few hundred became rich.
The White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad opened in 1900 over one of the routes the prospectors took in search of their fortunes. The railroad still exists today and is a popular shore excursion for travelers visiting Skagway. This summer, because of Canadian border restrictions, the train was turning around before crossing the U.S./Canada border. I think this would be my first choice the next time we find ourselves in Skagway.
Downtown Skagway features about 100 buildings remaining from the Gold Rush days and is the home of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park, so of course, we had to stop in and get our National Park Passport stamped and watch the video about the area’s history. Of course, we also stopped at Klondike Doughboy for their famous Alaska Fry Bread.
All-in-all, Skagway was my least favorite port. I know the town is rooted in history, but it felt the most inauthentic of all of our stops. Everything there exists for tourists in a way that was different from Sitka and Juneau (Haines is the other extreme and you can read about that below). When I travel I really look for authentic experiences and that felt hard to find in Skagway.
Haines is just south of Skagway and refers to itself as the adventure gateway to Alaska. Haines is known for its bald eagle preserve and Historic Fort Steward (its not there anymore but you can read a plaque about it). If you haven’t made plans for Haines, there really isn’t much to do there. It felt like they stuck a cruise port in small-town America. We walked around for about an hour and just got back on the ship. One of my biggest regrets about this trip is that we didn’t book the evening canoe safari or another excursion in Haines because this ended up being a wasted stop for us.
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to stop back next week when I recap our dogsled excursion in Skagway! To read more about this trip check out my Planes, Buses, and Boats Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
After returning from our whale-watching excursion, we joined the masses at lunch at Tracy’s King Crab Shack. Tracy’s is located right at the cruise ship terminal, right next to where our bus dropped us off. Being right in the middle of the action, of course, the crab comes with a steep price tag but it was absolutely worth it! Tracy’s serves Red King Crab (AKA The Deadliest Catch), but I decided to go with a less expensive snow crab. When I placed our order for one crab shack combo featuring 8 oz of bisque, 4 mini crab cakes, and 14 oz of crab the guy behind the register told me that’s not really enough food for two people so I added the shrimp ceviche. It was 3:00 by now and we were hungry but we could’ve split that and it would have been enough food. With the ceviche, we were stuffed and didn’t end up having dinner until right before the buffet closed that night. If you’re looking for good crab in Juneau and don’t mind paying the tourist prices, look no further than Tracy’s King Crab!
Since our ship didn’t depart for the day until 8, we still had time to explore Juneau after our lunch! We decided to take in the city from above at Mt. Roberts Tramway AKA the Goldbelt Tram. The base of the tram is right at the cruise terminal, on the other side of the parking lot from Tracy’s. I had never ridden in a Tram like that so it was a fun experience! The only downside was that being early June, most of the hiking trails were still snow-covered, so the view was nice, but there wasn’t really much else to do once we got to the top. Once the snow melts, Mt. Roberts is a jumping-off point for several trails varying in length from two to seven miles. Tickets for the tram are $45 for adults so admission could add up quickly for families.
Tram and Cruise Ships from Mt. Roberts
After our journey back down the tramway, we through town to Cope Park where we flew the drone for a little bit before heading back to the ship. We really enjoyed our long day in Juneau! It was nice getting to see so much of the city without a time crunch!
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to stop by next week as I recap our day in Skagway and Haines, Alaska! To read more about this trip check out my Planes, Buses, and Boats Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.
