Our final excursion of the cruise, and another included one - Potlatch Totem Park & Ketchikan Highlights:

Alaska’s Native Legacy – Discover the coastal community of Ketchikan and learn about the ancient native craft of totem pole carving. Potlatch Totem Park is a modern recreation of a 19th-century native village, located on historic Tlingit fishing grounds on the shores of the Tongass Narrows. Here, you can see numerous houses, totem poles and panels, and hear the legends behind the designs. Visit the carving studio to learn about their ancient technique. After enjoying a light snack at the Alaska Totem Trading Company, you will embark on a scenic city drive through the southeasternmost city in Alaska. Travel past the lively waterfront to the historic downtown area of Ketchikan, where your guide will point out highlights such as City Park, Nathan Jackson’s Thundering Wings — a totem statue in the shape of a bald eagle — and the Dolly’s House Museum, located in the famous red-light district, before returning to your ship.

Potlatch Totem Park was a very interesting place to visit, so long as the age of the totem poles was overlooked. Most, if not all, of the poles were modern recreations. Our guide explained that when a pole became too old and collapsed, a replacement was built. Each pole had a story and the story was handed down verbally. Our guide retold a lot of the stories behind each of the poles.

UNFORTUNATELY, the logistics of the excursions got away from the provider … our bus driver never returned to pick us up and, by the time a replacement coach had arrived, the driver said we were too late to do the rest of the excursion and took us straight back to the ship.

It would seem that this was not a great experience for a lot of passengers as the Cruise Director made an apology over the tannoy system just after lunch.

During dinner at the World Cafe, two pilots came aboard for the journey through the Inner Passage and into Vancouver.

After dinner, we went to the Star Theatre for “Top of the Pops” - a show where the ship’s singers went through a wide-ranging list of songs from the 60s onwards that were all top charting songs. The singers were amazing and it was a great night.