Today was an early start for our first excursion of the cruise: Skagway, Alaska. We were up, filled with breakfast, and walking off the boat to meet our tour guide for the day, Max Glacier. Max was dressed as a late 1890s citizen and led us to an old fashioned train for our ride through the mountains to the Yukon where gold was originally discovered. I enjoyed Max's character a lot during the train ride. He told fascinating stories about how gold rush in Alaska, the challenges miners faced (especially those who came unprepared), and the origins of Skagway. My personal favorite stories he told were of Jefferson "Soapy" Smith, a con man who caused endless trouble for the small miners town.
Soapy Smith got his nickname from selling the "best" soap around even though it was four dollars a bar. This was because his soap had dollar bills in them. Some had ones, others had fives or tens. And if you were really lucky, some may have had a twenty dollar bill in. To prove it, he had "normal" citizens purchase a bar and show the five, tens, and twenty dollar bills. This persuaded many to buy his soap, but when they opened them, they only found $1 bills. The higher bill amounts were only in the bars of soap that Soapy's "normal" customers opened. Then suddenly Soapy and his partners would make a clean get away.
Overall the train ride was scenic and quite educational in my opinion. I did feel a little bad for Max Glacier during the start of the train ride though. I guess there was a general monologue being played over the speakers in the train that were supposed to be turned off for our train car. This was not the case. As Max would be getting into a story, the intercom would come on to interrupt him. Eventually, a train worker came and turned it off. Max's animated performance was far more entertaining than the monotone voice from the speaker. The train returned us to the station in Skagway and we Max led us to our next stop: panning for gold.
After getting a quick history on gold and panning it from Bedrock Bill. We were sent to stations to actually pan for it. Let me tell you, it's a lot hard than it looks. There were prospectors there to demonstrate the four easy steps of panning for gold. Those steps were also written on the sides of the walls. I still had trouble following them correctly. I scooped up the dirt with water, shook the mixture back and forth for a minute, dipped the pan and made a swirl motion to separate the sediment from the gold flakes, but there was never any gold flakes for me to pick up with my dry finger (step four). A worker came over and asked if I wanted some help which I gladly accepted after three failed attempts. She found the gold flakes in less time than it took me to complete the first two steps. Next, we walked to the Assayer's Office to get our gold weighed and valued. I think mine came in at $13-$14 which is enough to buy almost 2 gallons of milk in Alaska. While waiting for the next part of our tour, Joe and I each bought a homemade soda from the gift shop.
The third part of our tour was the Mushers Camp, where sled dogs are raised and trained to pull sleds in the famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. There were two mushers who told us about the race, how they trained for it, the challenges faced, and how they train the sled dogs to complete it. I felt like this part was a little long, but I did find it shocking that during the actual race, the mushers generally only sleep about two hours a day, if they want to earn a good time. I've done an all nighter or two, but that just sounds tortuous. After the lecture, we met some of the sled dogs and saw them in action, briefly, as they pulled the sled around the practice course once. Lastly, we got to meet two week old puppies who I'll admit were adorable.
The last part of our tour with Max was of the mining equipment used during the gold rush. While interesting to see how the equipment got more advanced and efficient, we were all fairly tired by this point and ready to return to the ship. After looking through the town of Skagway for a twenty minutes, I headed back to the Disney Wonder while Mom and Joe kept looking through some more shops.
Once back aboard the ship, I ate some food from one of the grab and go stations and rested after a six hour excursion. Later, I met up with Joe and Mom to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I thought the movie was okay, but not phenomenal. Afterwards, I stood in line to meet Daisy. Being the fashionista she is, Daisy noted my Disney sweater was fabulous and that I was in style. Thanks for the compliment Daisy. After I took my photo, it was time to eat Dinner at Tiana's Place. Themed after the film The Princess and the Frog, this restaurant looked like they plucked it straight from 1920s New Orleans. There was a Jazz band that played music for most of the meal. Even Tiana herself came around to tables dressed up her 1920s best. Later, Louis the Alligator came out and did a performance with the band. While Animator's Palate is still my favorite restaurant, Tiana's Place is a close second.
After dinner, Joe came with me to meet Stitch. It was a blast to meet Stitch since he is one of the hardest characters to meet at DisneyLand. So I was pretty excited to give him a hug and take a photo with him. Stitch even convinced Joe to take a picture with him. As I got back into line to meet Pluto who replace Stitch's meet and greet in a few minutes, Stitch noticed a family taking a photo two decks below us. With impressive speed, Stitch rushed down two flights of stairs to photo bomb the family photo. I guess he truly takes his motto to heart: "Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten" (Especially in family photos). Once I met Pluto, rubbed his nose, and took a photo. I went up to the top deck to get some ice cream and watch part of Captain Marvel on the jumbo screen. Then I headed off to bed. Tomorrow is our second excursion to Juneau.
If you'd like to read the day's events from my mom's perspective, you can read her blog here.
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