Author Archives: JerryLukins

August 22, ,2026
We got up just after 4:00am and finished our packing of toiletries and getting the pets ready to be looked after. We left the house around 5:00 for our 7:00 flight to Seattle. We made it through security with TSA pre check quickly and made it to the gate around 6:30 as they were starting to board. The flight was about 4 and a half hours. We had just enough time to disembark and for Nikki to grab a coffee before we boarded our next flight. We then taxied to the runway and were pulled out of line and sat for 30 minutes. When we landed in Vancouver we waited for our luggage and only 2 of the 3 bags arrived. Had to spend about 45 minutes reporting our lost baggage before we could take a Lyft from the airport to Hotel Belmont. There was an adorable baby boy with natural pompadour hair, absolutely adorable. The room was small but very nice and very expensive. We were so tired from leaving early and the flights, we needed a nap to recharge a bit for the coming hikes, along with the 3 hour time change. Got up and took a Lyft to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We left Vancouver and crossed the bridge into North Vancouver. Drove through absolutely gorgeous Stanley Park. So many amazing and absolutely massive Douglass Fir trees, many covered in moss. If we had more time, Stanley Park would definitely be a destination. Would have been wonderful to bike through its trails. On this drive, we went from Skyscrapers to 200 foot tall Douglas fir trees almost immediately. We would like to wander through there if we ever make it back. The scenic views were amazing at Capilano. The large suspension bridge does sway a lot and anyone afraid of heights or gets motion sickness may not like this adventure. There were people of all nationalities, but the family hiking in front of us were Italian. Listening to their kids exclaiming in wonder in Italiano was fun. After the park we ran to Walmart to get me a pair of long pants as my luggage updates said they still couldn’t find my bag and all my pants were in that suitcase.

August 23, 2026 – Embarkation
We were still on east coast time as we were both awake at 3:00 local time. They still can’t seem to find our lost luggage. We’ve started setting up our cruise itinerary for when we are on the ship. We took showers and inventory of what we had and what we were going to have to do without. Luckily the bags with essentials made it and the one that didn’t make it was mostly camera, binoculars, rain gear and jeans. We had the buffet breakfast next door at Shamrocks that was included with our room. The breakfast was good and the lady attending, who was Irish, sang to the music playing in the background. Reminded us of last years trip to Ireland and people singing on the streets after the bar. Except she was actually good and not drunk. We went to the cruise terminal around 10:30 and were on the ship by 11:00. We went to the customer relations desk to see if we could get a cheap upgrade, but the ship was fully booked. We then went to our room to drop off our luggage in the room and met our cabin steward, Bhutra, then headed to our mister station for the mandatory emergency training. We then explored the Celebrity Solstice for a bit and had lunch at the buffet. About 1:30 we got a text that our missing luggage was found and just arrived in Vancouver. The plank dropped at 3:00 so we weren’t sure if our luggage was going to make it on board. We checked just before 3:00 at customer relations but they didn’t know if our luggage made it on board. They called several people and never got an answer if it made it on the ship. We went to the upper decks and got an alcoholic drink and wanted to watch the embarkation when we sailed under the bridge. It was fun watching the sea planes take off from the sea base terminal next door. We sailed away about 30 minutes late and were surprised how close the ship got to the underside of the bridge. We went back to our cabin and were surprised to find our large luggage ourside our door. So, it had made it on the ship afterall and we did have all our camera gear with us. We explored the ship a bit and ended up taking a nap before having dinner and watching our evening entertainment in the celebrity theater with comedian Sam Fedele before heading to bed.

Monday August 24 – Day at Sea
We were up before 4:00 and slowly got around and headed to find Nikki some coffee around 5:00 in the Oceanside Cafe. We headed back to the room and Nikki drank her coffee and then we headed for breakfast at 6:30 when they opened. We watched an informative. Presentation on our ports of call and then headed back to the room before heading out to lunch. The fog had rolled in and we couldn’t see much for a better part of the afternoon and evening. We took a nap and it clear up when we woke up in time to get ready for dinner. We ate in the main dining room and dinner was excellent. We the. Headed straight to the show Smoke and Ivories which was probably the best show we have seen on any cruise ship. We stopped up picked up diet cokes for me in the morning for my caffeine and then headed back to the room to go to bed in preparation for our fjord cruise tomorrow morning and day at Icy Straight Point.

Tuesday, August 25, 2026 – Icy Straight point
We woke up early again around 4:15 and the ship was just heading into the fjord to take us to Icy Straight Point. As it got more light and between the intermittent fog the views were spectacular. We got breakfast at 6:30 and walked around watching the fjords. We saw some whales from a far distance through binoculars and setup our day backpack. We watched an excursion enrichment talk by Natalie Tan on the Hubbard Glacier that we are going to see tomorrow. We had lunch as they were docking the ship and we got Goff the ship and took the red gondola up to the top of the mountain. The views were spectacular. At that point I figured out I left my phone on the bed on the ship on the charger. We then took a hike to the hidden lake at the top of the mountain and then hiked back to the gondola to ride it down and head back to the ship before our next excursion. We only stayed on the ship for about 15 minutes and then headed back out to catch our 3:45 bear watching excirsion. We drove about an hour to the spankes river and then walked about an hour and saw lots of spawning salmon, but no grizzly bears. We got back to the ship around 7:30 and ate and then went and saw Alexa Jayne who sang a number of famous pop songs. She had a great voice and was high energy. We then caught the adult Sam Fedele show before heading to bed.

Wednesday August 26, 2026 – Cruising Hubbard glacier.
We were up early again and got breakfast and then watched from our veranda as we cruised up Yukatat bay(?) and then disenchantment bay towards Hubbard Glacier. We went up to the helipad they opened for guests as we sailed up towards the glacier. It was very cold and windy up there and we didn’t stay up there long. The glacier was very inpressive and the great weather allowed us to get much closer than expected. We saw and heard the glacier calving into the bay and the weather was perfect and allowed our ship to get right up close to the glacier. We then went to another enrichment talk with Natalie Tan about humpback whales then went to lunch. We watched us sail back out of the bay into the North Pacific and then took a nap before watching a show called A Night of Broadway. Another great show by Celebrity. We went to get dinner and then some downtime before our late night game show Love and Marriage starting at 10:15 (2:30am our time!). We ended up falling asleep just before 10 because we are old and tired!

Thursday – August 27, 2026 – Juneau
We woke up at 4:45 and took our time enjoying the scenery as we were back in the fjords and getting ready for the 6:30 breakfast. We went and had breakfast and then had to finish getting our daypacks ready for our excursion today of whale watching at 7:30. We took a bus for about a 30 minute drive and to the harbor where our boat, Seeker, and captain Scott were waiting for us. Our guide was Corbin who was studying biology at the local university. We saw lots of humpback whales and were able to identify a couple of them including Flame, Barnacle and Kelp. Corbin was doing a research project for the university and we ended up checking one of crap pots looking for an invasive species of crab, the European Green Crab. Instead we found a pacific staghorn sculpin, a sea urchin, an oyster and a sunflower star. After the tour we were bussed back to Juneau and did some window shopping before heading back to the Celebrity Solestice for lunch and a nap. We took showers and headed to our nightly show, Jeremy Tan, who was able to read minds and didn’t miss a single thing. The most amazing part was when he had the audience mix a rubix cube and studied it for 1 minute and was able to solve it in 30 seconds with one hand and blindfolded. We then went to dinner and then walked around a bit and then headed to bed.

Friday – April 28,2026 Ketchikan
We got up late about 5:30am and went out on the veranda and saw some more whales from a distance. We setup the go pro and headed to breakfast but stopped on deck to view more whales from deck 14. We then had breakfast and got ready to head out and catch the talk Know Before You Go on Ketchikan. It was helpful and gave us a game plan in Ketchikan since we did not book an excursion. We then attended the Naturalist Nat’s talk on How I survived a bear Encounter. We got lunch and then headed to the room to pack a backpack to take with us on shore. We docked and headed off the ship to begin exploring. We hiked the streets and paths around Ketchikan and saw Creek Street and the salmon running the creek. The number of salmon and the difficulty of some of the rapids surprised us the further we got up how many fish were able to make it that far. We did a little shopping and got Nikki a native carved whale tail pendent out of wooly mammoth ivory. We also picked up native painted postcards. Our goal was to help the Alaska economy and indigenous people, but both things we purchased were gorgeous. We then headed back to the ship after our two hour walk and had lobster dinner in the main dining room. We set our alarms to check out the northern lights. We could barely see them on the horizon and that was all the better they got.

Saturday – August 29, 2026 – Day at Sea
Today is our day at sea heading back to Vancouver. We started by wishing Shane a happy birthday! We had breakfast and then showered and watched a Nat Talk on photographing wildlife. We then watched the matinee show of Jeremy Tan and he showed a number of tricks and even explained what he was doing and had a camera on him projected to the big screen and we could never make out what he was doing real time. His card stacking skills are absolutely amazing. We then had a late lunch and then a nap. We watched the scenery for our balcony during the inside passage. We saw more whales again and ended up seeing whales 5 of the 7 days. We then went to diner in the dining room and had steak and shrimp. Then we made it to the 7:00 show called Rockumentory and it was amazing as all the shows have been. We got back to our room and packed the large suitcase and prepped it for the crew to have waiting off ship for us. We filled out the required custom forms and went to bed.

Sunday – August 30, 2026 – Disembarkation
We got up and started packing and went to breakfast. After breakfast we finished packing and had to leave the room. We waited about 20 minutes before our number was called to disembark. We picked yp our luggage and then made it through customs. We took a Lyft to the airport and found out we vould not check our luggage for another 6 hours. So we paid to have our luggage stored securely at the airport and took a Lyft back to downtown Vancouver and rented electric bikes. We rode around Stanley Park and then rode to Granville Island before returning the bikes after our 20 mile two hour trip. We took a Lyft back to the airport and got Wendys to eat as that was the best option at the airport. We then picked up our luggage and had to wait 90 minutes before we could even check in. Our flight was 45 minutes late and we only had a 50 minute layover in Seattle. The pilots put the throttle to the firewall and made up some time, but we had to leave the C concourse, take a train to the N concourse and race to our plane that was almost fully boarded by the time we reached the gate. We did make our connection and surprisingly our checked luggage made it as well. We landed in Columbus Monday morning at 4:50am. And made it home just before 7:00am. Nikki tried to get an hour of sleep before heading to work for the day, but the attention deprived animals had other plans.

Things we learned

1. Take a whale watching excursion from Vancouver. You are more likely to see Orcas down in Vancouver, at least in August. Check out their migration status.
2. Check the salmon run status Late August was a great time to be in Ketchikan
3. Prior to cruising see if you can find out who the naturalist is going to be on t he cruise. Follow them on Social Media to get hints and tips. Schedule Enrichment series talks as soon as you board.
4. Check for upgrades as soon as you get on the ship at Guest Relations. You can potentially get a cheaper upgrade. Be sure to board early.
5. We need wifi on at least one phone for checking things and researching. Try Gig Sky e-sim next time.
6. Go pro with tri-pod was great
7. Leave the spotting scope at home. Ship movement made it impossible to use.
8. Take the following day off. Time zone changes coming home are rough.
   
9. Investigate land package with train to Denali.

July 31, 2026

We went to Iowa for a long weekend trip for our niece Skyler’s wedding. It was a longer drive than anticipated at 11 hours of driving from Granville.

We were pleasantly surprised with the rolling hills once we crossed the Mississippi River. Everything was lush and green and unexpectedly beautiful. We arrived in time to meet everyone after rehearsal and joined them for catered BBQ pork and smoked turkey before turning in for the night

We ate breakfast at the hotel and went downtown to visit the farmers market and Botanical Gardens. Downtown was clean and looked fairly new and there was lots of construction going on. What that meant was there was no parking within a mile of the farmers market. So we decided to just hit the Botanical garden. It was very well done and although it was only about 15 acres there was lots to see.

The wedding was nice and just long enough as the hot sun was almost unbearable. The reception moved inside to the air conditioning and much more pleasant environment. The dinner was excellent with roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, salad and bread. The DJ was good and we had a great time visiting with many family we haven’t seen in a long time.

We left around 10 and the next morning we were on the road heading home just before six o’clock in the morning. The drive home was uneventful and good. We made it home shortly after6 with the time zone change.

We got up just before 5:00 and got around for the day and finished packing. We went for breakfast at the buffet and then headed back to the room to complete the last minute items to pack and disembarked the ship. We took an Lyft to the airport where we had almost a 5 hour wait before boarding. We met Gail Salmen sitting at our gate but she had an earlier flight to Dallas and then back to Little Rock. We chatted with her for a few hours and shared more stories about travel experiences. We also got her email address to write to her in the near future. We boarded close to on time but then got on the taxi ramp about 5-6 in line to take off and they closed the airport for about an hour and 40 minutes due to weather. We originally had a 4 hour layover in Washington DC but it turned into an hour and 40 minutes. We boarded our final leg on time and departed just a few minutes late. We got through the airport quickly after we landed and were one of the last ones on the shuttle to head to the green lot to pick up our car, so we didn’t have to wait for another shuttle. We got home right at 10:00pm. We had greetings with Zoey, Loki and Bella and then went back to bed after a very long day. This trip was amazing and checked off several boxes on our bucket list as far as places to see and activities. Nikki and I can’t wait for our adventure!

We woke up at 5:00 and moving the clocks forward an hour overnight. Nikki went and got her coffee and then we both went and got breakfast. We then went back to the room and relaxed after three days of wonderful long physically draining excursions. We left the room to allow our steward to clean up and watched a cha cha dance class and then headed to lunch and wandered around the ship for about an hour before heading back to the room. We are not used to the 80+ degree heat. We ended up taking a nap and started to pack for tomorrow’s disembarkation. We then got ready for dinner which was prime rib for me and scicillian shrimp for Nikki. After dinner we headed to the theater for our high energy entertainment We got back to the room and finished packing what we could and got ready for bed

We woke up around 6:00 which included a 1 hour time change forward. Nikki got coffee and had some quiet time reading her book. I got ready and when I came out into the room Nikki was enjoying the sunrise from the balcony as we approached Isle of Cozumel. We then went and got breakfast and headed back to the room to pack our day bags for another long day. We got lots of messages about the violence on the west side of Mexico, but there was none reported on the Gulf side of Mexico. But, there was none reported on the Gulf side of Mexico. We felt safe since our excursion was out in the water. We met as a large group for excursions in the main dining room and then walked off the ship and had our bags checked for fruit and food before heading to the water taxi. We took the 35 minute water taxi to Playa Del Carmen and split up again into even smaller groups for our specific excursion. Santi was our tour guide and was wonderfully informative on the entire trip and was able to answer all the questions every guest had. We stopped and swam at Akumal beach which means place of sea turtles in Mayan. We saw several colorful fish and two sea turtles. It was amazing to watch them eat and the cone up for air. After we rinsed off the salt water we got back in the cramped van and drove to the Suelo Cenote and were blessed by Mayans in their native language with water and incense. We then swam in the Cenote which is basically a water filled cave. We were not allowed to take our cameras in though which was disappointing. Also the water was very cold, but after a few minutes of hugging each other we warmed up. There were bats on the cave and guppy’s in the water. After we got out we drove to where lunch was served on the beach. I had the beef burrito and Nikki had something with chilled shrimp and fruits. We then took the van for the last time back to Playa Del Carmen and then a water taxi back to Cozumel and directly boarded the ship. Nikki took the day bags back to the room and I got strawberry daiquiris to enjoy in the room. We both took showers and then went out to eat at the main dinning room. After we ate we were totally exhausted and went to bed.

We woke up at 5:30 and Nikki got coffee from her favorite coffee stand. We then waited to get tender tickets as there was no dock in Belize. We got breakfast and went to the room to pack our day bag. We got on the tender to Belize City and then had a short wait where we bought a beach tote before catching our bus to the two minute ride to the dock. We got checked in and had a short wait u til our excursion boat left shore. It was about a 50 minute boat ride to Caye Caulker, Belize where we ordered for lunch after our excursion. We then took the 2 minute boat ride to the reef and went snorkeling for almost an hour. We saw Morey Eels, plenty of colorful fish, and a sea turtle. We then went to a second place and there were rays and nurse sharks that swam all around us and touched us. It was absolutely wonderful and an incredible experience. We then stopped back at Caye Caulker and got the lunches we ordered earlier. We spent exactly 1 hour for lunch and then boarded the boat for the 55 minute return ride to the dock. We walked to the tender for Majestic Princess at terminal 1 and then took the 25 minute boat ride back to the ship. Nikki got drinks from the bar and I took the day packs upstairs and rinsed off the salt water in the shower. Nikki did the same after I was done. We decided to have dinner in the main dinning room as tonight’s menu was surf and turf. We ate dinner and both of us were exhausted and went back to the room and were in bed by 8:00.

We had to switch our clocks back an hour and even with the late night we were up at 5:00. Nikki went to get coffee and I got ready she came back to the room about 5:40 and we went to breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the room and grabbed binoculars and watched our approach to Roatan. We then went down to the shore excursion desk and booked a shore excursion for Gumbalimba Park. We sat on the balcony while the ship docked and just watched the beautiful scenery. We then got ready and disembarked the ship around 10:00 and took the chair lift over to Mahogany Bay beach where we lounged for about an hour sipping on strawberry daiquiris. We took the chair lift back to the main shopping are at port and got in line for our main shore excursion. We got on our bus and the seats on the bus are not made for someone over 5’10”. Let alone an overweight man who is 6’3”. I was sitting in my seat and one of a group of three older ladies from Boston was hanging off her seat over the 6” isle gap and sitting partially on my lap while complaining loudly to her blind friend that I was the one taking all the room. I look over and there is about 8 inches between her and her friend. We couldn’t get to our destination fast enough and it was about a 45-50 minute bus ride with this lady that looked her make up artist was Tami Faye Baker. As soon as the bus stopped I stood up which threw her off my lap and we got off the bus. Our tour guide was Javier and he was great. He would say things like this is the only place in the world where you can find this bug, tree or animal and then before he could take a breath one of the three Boston ladies would ask where else in the world those were located. Or he would say we have to wait our turn for the group in front of us to clear so that they can come out the way they came and all three Boston ladies would cut off the previous groups exit and complain loudly about how the previous group was for not getting out of their way. This went on for several hours. The tour was informative thanks to Javier if you would listen to him, and we got to see lots of native trees including cinnamon, almond and many other species. We got to see an insect collection that was huge and fascinating. And we got to see iguanas, macaws and monkeys in the wild. We even got to convince the capuchin monkeys to come out of the trees for pictures with the guests by bribing them with treats. We finished the 4 hour tour and Javier had to load the bus with his group but the 3 ladies from Boston were too busy heading in 3 opposite directions and being unable to follow directions took Javier about 30 minutes to get the group together to load on a bus. Then one of the ladies walked right in front of bus trying to leave when it wasn’t our turn to be loaded. Javier said it the first day he was working as a tour guide and the worst experience of his life. Everyone from our group felt bad for him. We did meet a nice couple from Wisconsin who were on the other Princess Cruise in port at the same time and went on the excursion with us. We hung out with Tom and Shelly for most of the 4 hour tour. After the tour we were hungry because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and walked for several hours. We went to the room to drop off our packed day bag and I went down to reserve a seat at O’Malley’s while Nikki did something with her hair after wearing a hat all day. We watched the Whiskey Martyrs and ate dinner and called it an early night as neither of us had the energy to stay up late. We went to bed early and woke up the next morning late for us.

We woke up around 5:00 am the ship was still rocking pretty good. Nikki went to get coffee and read and I got ready in the room and met up with her and then we got breakfast at the buffet. We then got back to the room and Nikki got ready for her message we scheduled the previous day for 8:00 am. While Nikki had her massage I showered and shaved, which was difficult with rough seas. We attended a shore information seminar with several raffles, we didn’t win anything. We headed up for lunch and met a couple, Richard and Sharon from Montreal and talked about different travel taken and future plans. We talked for about Two hours with them. We then headed back to the room and ended up taking a nap.
After a good, rolling, snooze, we headed back to O’Maley’s pub for dinner and more music by the Whiskey Martyrs. We meet Gail and Zai. Two wonderful women who love traveling together. Gail from Alabama and Zai from Perth, Australia. Both recently lost their husbands. Zai’s husband was from Ireland. They traveled often, all over the world, by motorcycle. Now, she and Gail travel together, all over the world, mostly by cruising. Entertainment for the evening was the theatrical performance of Encore in the Main Princess Theater. This show was singing and dancing accompanied by a live band including brass members and a violinist. The show was entertaining and well done. We then attended a stand up comedy show in the Vista laugh lounge at the aft of the ship on deck 7 with AJ Jamal

We both were up a couple of times during the night, but then slept in until shortly after 6. We showered and then went down for breakfast we started watching the men’s Olympic hockey gold medal game. We only got to watch the first two periods before we had to checkout from the hotel and take a Lyft to the cruise port and terminal. I think the entire process of security and check and get our medallions took about 20 minutes. We then boarded the ship and took our luggage to our room. The room wasn’t prepared yet so we went to explore the ship get some drinks, since.we have a drink package, and get lunch at the buffet. We watched some live music and then went back to the room which was prepared by then. I thought sail away was 5:00 but it turned out it was 3:00 and we spent some time out on the balcony enjoying the sights and intense sun. We explored the ship some more and then decided to havedDinner at O’Maley’s pub with Entertainment by the Whiskey Martyrs. They were a guitar and violinist performing Irish music and it was awesome. We had fish and chips for dinner. Afterwards we attended our evening entertainment in the Main Theater which was the comedy from The Mighty Quinn. Afterwards we went to bed and the weather took a turn and the ship rocked us to sleep all night into the morning with some rough seas.

We left the house around 9:45 and headed to the airport. We parked in the green lot across the street from the airport and took the shuttle in. We parked way in the back and were able to park next to a bus terminal so that worked out great. We used our TSA pre check and skipped the line, although the line really wasn’t long. We got to the gate about 40 minutes before boarding. The flight was uneventful and we flew to DCA in Washington DC and had about an hour layover. We had to change terminals but it really didn’t take that long. We grabbed a Ceasar chicken wrap and split it. We boarded for the next flight but were delayed by maintenance for about 40 minutes. Once we got in the air the flight was quicker than expected and landed only a few minutes late. We grabbed a Lyft and were taken to Four Points by Sheraton in Dania Beach fairly close to the airport. We ate dinner there which was just bar food but surprising very well done. It was about 7:30 and we decided to read and write today’s blog entry before going to bed.