Cruise Friends New or Old Make Best Friends When You Live at Sea

Days 10-11, 2026 Alaska Explorer

Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 1-2, 2026; Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska.

As I have spent the past four years living on ships, it is no surprise than many of my friends are those who sail with me. Most of the people I visited this summer are friends from past cruises. My new neighborhood of friends.

Today in Juneau we had lunch with a new cruise friend. Vicki has lived in Juneau for 52 years, and we hadn’t met before in person, but through an online group of people sailing on an Amazon River cruise this fall. When she saw that my sister and I would be in Juneau, she offered to show us her hometown. As a volunteer information specialist for cruise ship passengers, she is beyond well qualified. We ended up meeting for lunch, enjoying a window seat at The Hanger, a popular restaurant overlooking the seaplane docks.

My one regret is that we forgot to take a group photo, but thankfully my sister Eloise took one of Vicki during lunch.

I loved hearing about her life in Juneau, which ends up having milder winter weather than her previous home in Idaho, and how the state capital has changed with the popularity of cruising. While the number of visiting ships hasn’t changed greatly (up to six in a day), the size of many has grown to 4,000 passengers or more. I’m eager to sail with her this fall.

Earlier this morning I met up with another fellow cruiser I hadn’t met before. This summer I started following Jelly Untethered on Facebook, a woman who decided at a life junction in her 40s to sell everything and try her hand at living on a cruise ship as long as she can.

My initial interest was learning more about someone else who is living on cruise ships; we all do it differently. But what hooked me was her delightful writing – a bit descriptive, a bit sassy, a lot humorous but never judgy or mean-spirited.

Jelly (okay, Genel, but she goes by her childhood nickname) was posting from Alaska, and as we sailed into Juneau, I saw that her ship was right behind us. She quickly responded to my online message, and we met on the dock for an introduction that ended up in a long conversation over coffee before her shore excursion. We did remember the photo.

I love her Facebook post about the serendipity of our meeting. If you love witty writing, do follow her there.

In between the visits, I strolled the boardwalk and its tour booths, stopping to sketch the mountains surrounding the city. Before 11 a.m. the line was long for King Crab claws at the always-popular Tracy’s. It was another unusual day – sunny and warm.

Our weather luck continued on Wednesday in Ketchikan, arriving after the morning fog lifted. I hurried off the ship across the harbor to walk up Creek Street, lined with boardwalks and shops. Unlike when I visited in April, the salmon are running, fighting the current to spawn upstream.

As I climbed the path, I could see salmon trying to jump up the rapids. Others chose the manmade fish ladder off to the side. In the calmer creek above, I had to look closely to see schools of salmon in the current.

Had we arrived earlier in the morning, I might have seen a bear enjoying a salmon breakfast in the upper reaches of the creek. At noon I saw none.

Returning to the boardwalk, I saw a few seals almost playfully catching and eating salmon, then lazily floating on their backs. The seals put on a show while I sketched the classic Creek Street scene.

Finally, we stopped in a tavern to split an elk burger and fries. It was my last chance to indulge in a Duck Fart, a drink that originated in the state. The shot consists of layered Kahlua, Baileys and Crown Royal. One was enough. 

Earlier in the week, we had our one day of bad weather. We were disenchanted that rain, high winds and sea ice prevented our sail into Disenchantment Bay to view Hubbard Glacier. We could barely make it out in the distance as we turned around. It was our only chance at glacier viewing of the cruise, so I know many passengers were disappointed to miss it.

That day ended with a special Pinnacle Grill dinner with fellow Presidents Club members and their guests, hosted by Captain Vincent Engle and Hotel General Manager Bart Groeneveld. We each have at least 1,400 days sailing on Holland America.