Family Reunion on the High Seas

colesjoholm
2 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

A Ten-Night Alaskan Adventure aboard the Carnival Legend

After more than eight years of dreaming, delays, and life’s unexpected curveballs, the Sjoholm family finally made it to Alaska—together.

In 2018, we started planning a family cruise, eventually booking a sailing for June 2020. Then came COVID. More delays followed—health concerns, schedules, life—but this May, we finally reunited on a ten-night roundtrip sailing from San Francisco aboard the Carnival Legend.

This cruise was different from what we originally imagined. Life has changed a lot in eight years. But with more time onboard and in port, this longer itinerary gave us the chance to truly enjoy the ship, Alaska, and, most importantly, each other.

Ryan and Amy hadn’t cruised in over two decades—their only prior sailing was their honeymoon on Carnival. Mom and Dad had cruised before, always with Royal Caribbean. As for me, this marked cruise number twenty-four with Carnival since 2022, and somewhere over forty cruises total. I’ve got another 23 booked between now and March 2026!

We set sail under a sun-filled and windy sky, cruising beneath the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Two sea days later, we arrived in Juneau—delayed slightly due to rough seas.

In Juneau, we visited Mendenhall Glacier before heading out on a whale-watching excursion. What we witnessed was nothing short of magical: multiple humpbacks, including a mother and her playful calf, breaching more than 15 times. For nearly 45 minutes, it was like watching a child leap into a pool over and over—splash, jump, splash again. Not even Antarctica compared to this whale encounter.

Our dinner reservation at 7:30 PM had to be missed due to the extended excursion, but there wasn’t a single complaint. That moment filled our buckets—and then some.

In Skagway, we rode the famous White Pass & Yukon Route Railway into Canada, complete with a border agent boarding the train for a quick visual passport check. On the way back, our tour stopped at Liarsville for a gold panning demo and a quirky stage show. The setting, complete with a nearby campfire, brought back memories of childhood camping trips in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Evenings onboard became a comforting routine: dinner with our incredible waitstaff—I Gusti, I Wayan, and Dessa—followed by live shows in the theater. On Skagway night, guest performer Melissa McLaughlin gave the best cruise ship performance I’ve seen to date. (Seriously, follow her on Instagram!)

Saturday brought our scenic cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord. Early-season ice meant we couldn’t see the glacier from the ship, but Ryan and Amy took an excursion to it and shared their photos. Meanwhile, Mom, Dad, and I marveled at waterfalls cascading down 1,200-foot cliffs and icebergs floating by like sculptures in motion.

Back onboard, we played countless rounds of 5 Crowns—a family card game reminiscent of our beloved May-I. Despite being played in the ship’s piano bar instead of near the campfire back home, it felt like the most “home” I’ve felt in eight months.

In Ketchikan, I took Mom and Dad on a spirited walking tour—including a wheelchair-assisted descent that gave my calves their best workout in months! We visited Creek Street, the Totem Heritage Center, and the Salmon Ladder (dry this time of year), before capping it off with the Great American Lumberjack Show.

Ryan and Amy opted for an all-you-can-eat crab feast and judging by their photos—and their skipped dinner—they definitely made the most of it!

Our final port was Prince Rupert, British Columbia—a lesser-known but delightful stop. Locals say they see just 60,000 cruise passengers all season (a drop in the bucket compared to Alaska’s 1.67 million).

It was refreshingly simple: no Diamonds International, no tourist traps. Just a charming town with places like Sunken Garden Park, the Museum of Northern BC, Saltwater Bakery, and Cowpuccino—a coffee shop in Cow Bay named for the dairy cows that once swam ashore before a dock was built.

Back onboard for two final sea days, we settled into our rhythm: card games, Lido snacks, evening shows, and lots of coffee breaks. Slowly, we packed up and prepared to scatter back across the country—and the world.