On August 14, sixty adventurous sailors boarded the Celebrity Solstice in Seattle and headed north to explore Alaska’s Inside Passage. We knew we were in for a critter-filled journey when pods of Orca whales swam past the ship on the first evening as we sipped cocktails at the Lawn Bar on the 14th floor.
We chose the Alaska Tracy Arm Fjord itinerary for a variety of reasons. The ports of call—Ketichkan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, B.C.—fit our needs. We’d brought chefs Matt McCallister and John Tesar aboard and scheduled cooking demos involving seafood. Jon Alexis joined us to act as a walking and talking seafood textbook.
In Ketchikan we headed out on the Aleutian Ballard, the commercial crab fishing boat featured on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch. The three-hour adventure included hauling up hundreds of pounds of red crab, King crab, octopus, rockfish, and a starfish. A bald eagle buzzed our boat for a free sample. John Tesar taught us how to cook crab.
Just outside Juneau, chef Matt McCallister escorted 20 exploratory eaters through a rainforest where he harvested chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms and other edible plants, many of which he used in his cooking demo.
Our at-sea days and nights were filled with visits to one of the many specialty restaurants, bistros, and bars. When we weren’t eating or drinking, we hit the casino, movie theater, or one of the many nature talks.
An early morning cruise through the stunning Tracy Arm Fjord was just one of the many highlights of the cruise which ended with a pub crawl through the charming town of Victoria, B.C.
I invite you to live vicariously through Elizabeth Lavin’s gorgeous photos. Hopefully they will inspire you to travel on the next D Magazine and Celebrity X Cruises adventure.
