Above: Big waterfall by Mendenhall Glacier, along with floating ice. You don’t realise the size until you see the people in the photo.
Juneau
We pulled in bright and early into Juneau but as it was a long stop (until the evening) we didn’t wake up early for the arrival. Juneau (despite its population of over 30,000) is the largest state capital in the USA by area (but I suppose not by population). It’s not hard bearing in mind that the capitals of California and New York are lesser known cities like Sacramento and Albany respectively, right?
Juneau is also very isolated in that it is not linked by road to any other place. Roads out of town come to a dead end. Locals like it that way as it keeps crime rate low. You simply can’t run out of town once you’ve robbed the bank, I suppose.
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- Our ship with others at Juneau.
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- Our ship the Celebrity Mercury.
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- Floatplane by cruise ship at Juneau.
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- The largest “building” in Juneau may in fact be a ship.
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- Downtown Juneau.
Mendenhall Glacier
While at Juneau, we took the bus to Mendenhall Glacier which was impressive, even for us who visited the Fox and Franz Josef in New Zealand recently. It’s face is 1.5 miles wide and seems very tall as well.
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- Mendenhall Glacier.
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- Mendenhall Glacier.
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- Big waterfall by Mendenhall Glacier, along with floating ice. You don’t realise the size until you see the people in the photo.
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- At Mendenhall Glacier.
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- At Mendenhall Glacier.
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- Paddling in the water down from Mendenhall Glacier.
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- Ice from the glacier.
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- At Mendenhall Glacier.
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- Ice from the glacier.
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- At Mendenhall Glacier.
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- Ice from the glacier.
Sign language for musicals
There is a hearing-impaired group on the ship. During showtimes, they sit in front and have a sign-language interpreter to translate the lyrics of songs and musicals. I can understand songs being translated. However it seems a bit odd to translate the lyrics for musicals. Can they enjoy the visuals of the show while looking at the sign language?
Also, for songs in non-English language (eg. Spanish or Italian), they’re definitely at an advantage as we don’t have these translated into English for us!