Day 3 Diamond Princess Alaska Cruise - Exploring Downtown Ketchikan

Alaska Cruise (Ketchikan) . 2012 . Sep 17

After our early morning excursion to see the bears in Neets Bay at Ketchikan, we were picked up at Knudson Cove by our small group bus back to explore Downtown Ketchikan.

Bald eagles are the symbol of Ketchikan.  On the way from Knudson Cove to downtown Ketchikan, the tour guide cum driver would often cut into the middle of her own sentence and exclaim “look to your left at the ten o'clock position' or  “to the right at the three o’clock position”.  She was of course, referring to the bald eagles perched on the branches of the tall trees along the road (we do hope that she was focussing on her driving at the same time).   So keep the cameras and binoculars ready at all times, even on the bus.

 Princess Cruises requests that all passengers be on board by 1:30pm for sail-off, meaning that we only had less than 2 hrs to explore Ketchikan downtown after the early morning Neets Bay bear watching trip.  The tour bus dropped us off at Berth 4 where the Diamond Princess was docked.

Fortunately for us, it means that we were at exactly the best place to board the free downtown Shuttle Bus that starts from Berth 4.   The free downtown Shuttle Bus runs only during the cruising season (from May through September), making a few stops along the 20 minute circuit.    Unfortunately for us, Berth 4 is also the furthest dock away from the downtown, meaning that passengers making their way back to the ship on foot will have a long way to walk.

There’s a map near the pier to help first time visitors find their way. Although the downtown area isn’t that big and you are unlikely to get lost, it’s good to have a brief orientation of the town layout in case you are in the midst of frantic shopping and miss the “Return to Cruise Ship” timing.

Welcome to Alaska’s 1st City! That’s the famous and classic arch that we came across in many travellers' photos while doing the research. ..and here we are, right at this very spot, looking at the arch set against the backdrop of the misty mountains...it feels so surreal at that point in time

As what our shopping host had highlighted in the Alaska Shopping Spotlight Show that we attended the day before, there were plenty of diamond and jewellery shops in Ketchikan.  So if you are interested in buying some jewellery or diamonds, do attend the show and you will get some discount coupons that you can use in the shops and some tips on how to select a good diamond.

If you are not really into diamonds or jewellery (like us), you can shop at the many other souvenir shops in Downtown Ketchikan. We had the benefit of being one of the last cruises of the season to go to Alaska (in fact, we are the last Princess cruise to Alaska for 2012), so we were really in for a major shopping spree. This is because all the shops were eager to clear their shelves in preparation for the closing of the season, and everything in the shops were discounted to the extend that they were even cheaper than the discounts in the coupon book. Some of the items were in fact more than 70% off from their original prices. 

There were sales everywhere in town, and because we had limited time, it became more of a challenge to do justice to the sales going on around us. We finally concentrated our efforts on one of the bigger stores, Tongass Inside Passage, where we began our shopping frenzy. Prices there were probably the cheapest we could find in town. They do sell a lot of other souvenirs other than Alaska-themed T-shirts. On top of the sale price, if you have attended the Alaska Shopping Spotlight Show the previous day on board the cruise, you would have a stack of coupon books which you can use in the ports of Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway where you are entitled to further discounts in the shops. This reminds us of our shopping trip to the Woodbury Premium Outlets with our VIP coupon books.

However, if you are into authentic Alaskan made products, you might want to take some time to explore the authentic Alaskan shops.  Most of the items sold at an authenic Alaskan shop would be handcrafted with natural materials, and the prices would certainly be a lot steeper than the mass produced ones at the souvenir shops.

Our souvenirs, bought at ridiculously low prices!

16" Black Bear Plushie @ USD $9.99

Black Bears on Log @ USD $2.99 (Usual Price USD $6.99)
Bald Eagle Coin Bank @ USD$2.99 (Usual Price USD $14.99)
Alaskan Dark Chocolate Bar @ USD$0.99 (Usual Price USD $1.99)

Alaska Knit Hats @ USD $10 for 3 (USD $2 each after further discounts from Coupon Book)

We also got ourselves a pair of Alaska Inside Passage T-shirts priced @ USD $3.99 each (USD $2.50 each after further discounts from Coupon Book)

We were also given a Free Alaska 'Inside Passage' Mug upon presenting our coupon book.

In total, we paid USD $30.66 (inclusive of taxes) for our purchases, saving us $61.97 from the usual prices!

The pictursque Ketchikan downtown.  It was a misty day with slight drizzles. We were told that Ketchikan rains for more than 200 days in a calendar year and we were indeed lucky to encounter only a slight drizzle when we visited Ketchikan as it was pouring for the entire week before.

One of the furthest stops along the shuttle bus circuit - the Salmon Hatchery and Eagle Centre.

There are guided tours provided at the Hatchery at a price. We did not enter the hatchery due to time constraints.

Instead, we had a quick look at the owl in its glass cage outside the entrance

We then looked at the stream outside the hatchery for salmons.  Salmons are not in abundance in this stream, and you do have to observe the waters carefully for them as they tend to be camouflaged among the rocks in the stream.

We saw the “World’s largest Gold Nugget” too..or so it claims.

There were a few other ships at the docks including Holland America’s Cruise ship.  Sigh,  the other ships are all docked closer to town, where all the action were. 

Some tourist information boards on our way back to the beautiful Diamond Princess cruise ship...

Totem poles are a trademark image of the Tlingits – one of the earliest inhabitants of the beautiful Alaskan region.  In Ketchikan, you'll see plenty of them around even at the town. We mean the right picture..the  left one is a directonal pole...hee hee...

If you have more time on your hands, you may want to visit Creek Street (the free shuttle bus makes a stop there). 

Taking a walk along the boardwalk on the way back to the Diamond Princess.

 Final glimpse of the lovely small town before we return our ship..

Finally, it is back to our home away from home - the beautiful Diamond Princess.... :)

Ketchikan is such a beautiful and vibrant town, we wished that we had more time to explore to do ourselves justice.  Totem Bight Park, Creek Street, Deer Mountain, Salmon Hatcheries – these are all the places at Ketchikan that we had no time to pay a visit to.  We shall leave all these to our next trip to Alaska then...

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