Today was our visit to Skagway and one of our favorite Alaska activities (next to whale watching), the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad! We got up and headed to 270 Cafe to get some breakfast.
We had already reserved our tickets for the train (through a Royal Caribbean excursion), but our excursion wasn’t until noon. We decided to get off the ship and spend some time in Skagway, which we didn’t get a chance to do last time we were here.
Once the ship was docked, we headed off the ship. There were two other ships in Skagway that day as well. One was Radiance of the Seas, another Royal Caribbean ship. I’m not quite sure what line the other ship was from, but it was a much smaller ship.
Once we left the ship, we had about a half a mile to walk to get to the main portion of town. The route is pretty easy to determine and follow (with sidewalks the entire way). We got to town and decided to walk down the main street, looking into the shops on both sides. We stopped to see some of the old engines and train cars from the railroad, including the snow plow that was used to keep the tracks clear.
All of the buildings on the main street have been restored somewhat to their 1890’s look. Some of them offer tours and other events related to what their original uses were during the gold rush times.
This building has the front made completely out of driftwood. The large A & B on the front stands for the Arctic Brotherhood.
With three ships in town (two of them being fairly large), there were a lot of people in town walking around. While it didn’t feel overly crowded, you definitely had to step out of the way a lot to let people pass. Nancy and the girls went into several shops to find stuff for themselves and friends.
Once we got to the far end of main street, we decided to get some snacks. There was a shop that sold fudge and popcorn, so we grabbed a bag of popcorn to share and one for the train for later. After some popcorn and soda, we were refreshed enough to continue our souvenir hunting. After another hour or so of looking, we headed over to The Skagway Brewing Company for another snack and a beverage.
After our second snack, we headed back to the ship so we could find our excursion. The tickets said we should meeting in a certain area of the pier. Unfortunately, nothing was marked. I finally went up to a bus driver that was there to ask him where our bus was. Fortunately, he was actually our bus driver so we hopped on board the bus.
Having a bus from the pier to the train was kind of a waste, because once we started moving, we only stayed on the bus about one minute. We were then directed to a train car and told to take whatever seats we wanted. They also told us additional people would be getting on the train. The bus driver said to look for him at the other end of the train ride and he would drive us back down to the ship.
Most people from our group immediately sat on the left side of the car, since that would be the side with the most scenery to look at. A tour guide walked through in a few minutes to offer us water as well as to explain the route (and give out route maps). They said we could go outside on the end platforms but we couldn’t move between the cars.
The train got moving and we were soon surrounded with awesome views. There were creeks, waterfalls, bridges, and tunnels.
We also eventually crossed over the border into Canada.
One interesting thing about the route was the number of different climates we passed through. There is definitely a Boreal Forest and lots of other ones I’ve never experienced anywhere else. The trip climbs a total of 3,000 feet in elevation from the beginning to the end.
You can event see the original trail the miners took when they walked up the route. They said there were so many miners, that if you stepped out of your place in line to tie a shoelace, it would take you an hour to find another spot in the line.
There are spots along the route where you can see they altered it. Here is a trestle bridge that isn’t used anymore.
We eventually reached the top of the route and got off the train to go find our bus. Sure enough, we found our bus driver waiting for us.
There was a beautiful lake at the spot we stopped at. I don’t think we completely finished the route, but we had gone far enough for us. We took some pictures, and then got on the bus to come back. The bus trip back was much quicker, about 30 minutes compared to the 90 minutes it took to reach this point.
Once we got back to town, the bus driver offered to drop people off in the town instead of back at the ship, if they preferred. We got off in town and did some more shopping. We also headed over to the Alaska Fry Bread store. They serve huge pieces of fry bread, which is really just fried dough.
This piece was about eight inches square and was covered with sugar. It was delicious.
After stuffing our faces with fry bread, we finally started back towards the ship.
Once we re-boarded the ship, we dropped off our stuff in the room and went back to the Royal Esplanade. The girls had been asking us to order drinks from the Bionic Bar since we got on board the ship, so we decided to do it now.
We sat down at the Kiosk and put our orders in. I don’t remember what we ordered, but after a brief wait, the robots began our orders.
Here is the robot making both of our drinks. First is Nancy’s, then it made mine.
And here is a picture of the final product. It was good, but probably not something I would repeat. I’m not a big drinker and Nancy prefers beer.
After picking up our drinks, we grabbed a slice of pizza from Sorrento’s, then went up to the rock climbing wall. My younger daughter wanted to give it another try. She climbed for about ten minutes, and then she called it a day. We headed back to the room to get ready for dinner (and to spend some time looking from the balcony.
We were going back to the main dining room tonight. This would be our last night in the dining room as we had specialty dining for the rest of the nights on the ship. Once 8:15 rolled around, we went down to the dining room to be seated.
I don’t think I had any food in the dining room that I didn’t really enjoy. I thought the food in the main dining room and the buffet was good. We originally though we might need to rely on the specialty dining if the main dining room wasn’t acceptable, but that definitely was not the case.
After dinner, we went onto the Royal Esplande to look through the shops. There were so many shops, especially compared to the Disney ships. There are specific brand shops (Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Cartier) as well as generic Royal Caribbean shops.
After we looked in the shops, we headed back to the room for some sleep. It had been another long day of walking, but it was a lot of fun.
We also wanted to get to bed early because tomorrow was Glacier Day! The ship would start the entry into Endicott Arm to see Dawes Glacier!
Planning | Travel | Seattle | Boarding | Exploring | Sea | Juneau | Skagway | Glacier | Sea | Victoria | Disembarkation | Travel
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page or our Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!
