Alaska Trip 2022 Day 4 -- Boarding the Safari Endeavor

Saturday, July 30, was the official beginning of our cruise, the day we boarded the UnCruise ship (and home for the next week!) the Safari Endeavor.

First up after breakfast was doing laundry using the hotel's guest accessible washers and dryers.  I had called the hotel before we left home, so I already had detergent and a collection of quarters ready.  That went smoothly.  Then we repacked and headed out for the several block walk to the UnCruise offices.

The UnCruise info had said we could drop off our stuff between 9 am and 3 pm.  When we arrived mid-morning we were among what seemed to be a dozen people or so dropping off luggage.  As with everything associated with UnCruise, it was a professional but casual process.  We left our stuff outside and went inside to do the actual sign-in and pick up of the luggage tags with our cabin number.  There was no waiting (well, maybe one person that was finishing up in front of us).  They checked off our names and had us sign a statement that we did not have any COVID symptoms.  The total sign-in process was maybe a minute since they did not actually ask for any documentation.  We had already sent images of our COVID vaccination cards as part of the online registration process.

With luggage tags in hand, we went back outside and put the tags on our bags.  The UnCruise folks assured us they would be in our cabin when we boarded.  We were to return later that afternoon (5 I think).

Next up was a walk downtown to do some souvenir shopping.  We found some shirts, a Christmas tree ornament, and a knit cap.  

 

I guess it was good we chose this ornament.  These were the only moose we saw on this trip.

With those items in hand we slowly made our way back to the waterfront where we hung out in UnCruise's hospitality room and had lunch at the adjacent Alaska Fish and Chips Co.  (Salmon chowder in a sourdough bowl -- yum!!)

When the meet-up time arrived, we wandered back to the UnCruise office where none other than the president of the company, Dan Blanchard, gave us an upbeat pep talk from the steps of the front porch,  It was then that we discovered there would be 51 passengers on this cruise.  That surprised me since full capacity is 84 guests, but one of the other passengers next to us said some of the ships had been sailing only half full.  

 

Safari Endeavor at dock in Juneau as seen from the back of the UnCruise hospitality room

Full or not, our lead expedition guide, Erin, gave us an enthusiastic intro and initial instructions.  We walked down the gangway, got our pictures taken, and were then escorted to our cabin.

 

Cabin 210, our little home away from home

Our cabin was 210.  It was on the second deck, port side, with a door to an interior hallway.  We had a desk, shelves between the beds (perfect for the cameras and the provided binoculars), drawers and closet space and our own bathroom.  Best of all was the huge window for checking out the passing scenery.  We could have it configured with twin beds or as a queen.  We chose the twin configuration for easier stowing of suitcases, boots, etc.  We were not in the room that much, but we had plenty of space, although the Frog wished the bed had been longer.

 

Safari Endeavor deck plan.  She is 230' long, 40' beam, and has a cruising speed of 12 knots (14 mph

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When we chose this room we thought it would be convenient to the lounge and to the bow viewing areas when we wanted to quickly see what was happening outside or to take pictures.  That turned out to be the case. The little spot on the port side just outside the door aft of our cabin also turned out to be a great spot for pictures.  

Unfortunately I did not take many pictures inside the ship, but here is the lounge early on the final morning.

 

Forward part of the lounge setup for early breakfast.  The Frog is watching the docking process in Sitka on the final day

 

Sharon and Ann (our table mates in the dining room) in the lounge on the final morning as Steven works behind the bar to set up early breakfast

Here is a picture I found online of the dining room. Even though it is several years old, it is pretty much what I remember.

The second table in, starboard side, was our table.  I did not get a picture of him, but Trez was our server.

The normal ship routine was early breakfast (i.e. continental) at 6:30 in the lounge, although coffee was available 24 hours a day.  Breakfast was at 7:30, lunch at 12:30, and dinner at 6:30, all seated in the dining room.  At breakfast the chef  outlined that day's lunch options (usually two) and dinner options (three: vegetarian, meat, or fish), after which we gave our preferences to our server.  As part of their COVID protocols, we sat at the same table with the same people the entire trip.  In our case that was Ann from Tennessee and her niece Sharon from Atlanta.

While we were still seated for lunch, the expedition leader outlined the activity options for the following day.  There were usually 3-4 activities to choose from each morning and each afternoon, with some exceptions if the ship needed to be moving or something else special was happening.   The activities each time typically included a skiff ride, kayaking, bushwhacking, sometimes bushwhacking lite, and occasionally something special for the particular location. The expedition leaders then took our requests for the following day and later that afternoon posted each person's activity assignment. Anyone could also opt out of the activities and hang out on the ship, but there were few if any organized activities most times, with even fewer than in years past presumably due to COVID protocols.

Social hour started at 5:30 in the lounge, although the open bar was available all day and well into the night (at least past our bedtime). "Six o'clock news" was at 6:00 in the lounge, which included any relevant information about where we were going the following day and what to expect, including sometimes a short slide presentation.

After dinner was nominally for talks in the lounge.  We did have two talks during the week plus a  slide show on the final night of pictures taken on this cruise.  However, on multiple nights humpback whales upstaged any planned talk.  Evenings never seemed all that late since sundown was not until  9:15 or so.

I am not sure what a "normal" cruise on a large cruise ship with thousands of guests is like, but I am sure it is not like this.  This was an adventure cruise with the emphasis on adventures off ship. The whole week was like an upscale summer camp for adults, with world class food and the most energetic and upbeat staff you could possibly imagine.