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Think of us as your knowledgeable travel expert who is also a good friend who gets just as excited as you do about your next adventure. That's us!

Travel is part of our DNA, and over recent years this has been our everyday passion. New places, experiences, friendships, it's what life's about, and that has been our life in work and play. For many years our biggest passion was for organising Orlando holidays for clients dialling down into every minute detail and having experienced just about every type of holiday (onsite and offsite) in Orlando we know a trick or two! Having this wanderlust eventually proved too much to resist and we decided to take all this experience and business nouse and create further travel experiences we'd love to go on ourselves. And Portwood Travel was born...

Think of us as your knowledgeable travel expert who is also a good friend who gets just as excited as you do about your next adventure. Whether it's to the land of the mouse or the rest of the world we're going to look after you every step of the way, delighting you with little surprises throughout your Portwood Travel experience. Portwood Travel are proud members of the Not Just Travel Group. Fully ABTA and ATOL protected.

25/10/2026

☕ What’s Brewing?

Well, my mind is DEFINITELY somewhere warmer this morning!☀️

Good morning everyone!

Well, what a weekend we’re having!😳

I don’t know how you’ve all been getting on with this wind and rain, but I think we’ve certainly had our fair share here in North Wales!

The rain seems to have eased off a little this morning, but the wind is still making itself known, and I’m sitting here in the office with my coffee, looking out of the window and feeling rather grateful that Neil spent some time during the week making sure all the garden furniture was safely secured!

I think I’d have been sending him out to retrieve it from the neighbours’ gardens otherwise! 😂

And doesn’t it feel as though we’ve almost skipped autumn this year?

We’ve had such a lovely extended spell of mild weather, with temperatures still up in the high teens through September and into October, and then suddenly we’re being battered by wind and rain!

I do love autumn, especially the changing colours and those lovely crisp mornings, but I think I’d have preferred a slightly gentler introduction to it! 😂

Anyway, here I am, wrapped up warm with my coffee, spending part of my morning looking at winter sunshine holidays for customers.

And I have to say, looking at photographs of beautiful beaches, palm trees and blue skies while the wind is howling outside is certainly making me wish I was somewhere else!

Purely in a professional capacity, of course! 😂🌴

Some of you may have seen my weekly email newsletter this week, which was all about the Caribbean and finding the island that might be your perfect match.

And that got me thinking a little…

When we talk about escaping for a bit of winter sunshine, we don’t all have quite the same thing in mind, do we?

For some, a week in the Canaries is just perfect. A bit of sunshine, lunch outside, a lovely walk along the seafront and the chance to leave the winter coat at home for a few days.

Others are dreaming of somewhere a little more tropical. Palm trees, white sandy beaches, warm seas and perhaps a rum punch or two while watching the world go by!🍹🌴

And then, of course, there are those of us who look at the Caribbean and think…

Well, why choose just one island when you could visit a few on a cruise?! 🚢😂

Neil and I might be slightly biased on that one!

But that’s the lovely thing about holidays. We can all be dreaming of a bit of sunshine, but what that perfect escape looks like can be completely different for each of us.

And while I know some people absolutely love the colder months, cosy evenings and everything that comes with winter, after this weekend I have to admit that somewhere warm, with a lovely view and absolutely no need for a waterproof coat, sounds rather appealing!

So, if you could swap this weekend’s weather for a bit of winter sunshine, where would you fancy being?

A sunny terrace in Tenerife? A beach somewhere in the Caribbean? Sailing between a few beautiful islands? Or perhaps somewhere completely different?

Right, I’d better get back to finding some lovely holidays for my customers.

Although I might just spend another minute or two looking at those Caribbean beaches first!

Research, obviously! 😂

Stay safe everyone!

Karen x

18/10/2026

☕ **What's Brewing?**
Well, the numbers are in... and they made me smile!

We all love a bit of positive news don’t we, even more so when it involves holidays! 😂

ABTA have released their latest “Holiday Habits” report this last week and I've been having a little read through it and a few things caught my eye!

Now, I know not everyone gets excited like me about holiday statistics over their morning coffee, but bear with me because there are a few things in here that I thought were rather lovely!

First of all, the headline numbers says that a whopping 88% of us have been on holiday in the last year which is not only an increase on the previous year, the significance for me is that it’s back up to the levels we were seeing before Covid, and considering everything that's happened over the last few years, I think that's brilliant!

We're all still finding ways to get away, have a break, enjoy ourselves and make some fantastic memories along the way. And I’m all about that!

Amongst all of the usual break down numbers regarding ‘City breaks, Family holidays’ etc another little bit of good news that caught my eye was that more and more of you are booking their holidays with travel agents again! But it didn’t stop with just ‘more’ of you but it wasn’t just referring to us oldies either! 😂

Apparently the younger generation, who seem to be able to organise their entire lives from their phones, are increasingly choosing to have an actual human being help with their holidays! Who'd have thought it?!

Of course, I know I have a slight bias here, but I do think that's great news because for all the technology we have these days, sometimes it really is just nice to talk to somebody, isn't it?

Now, without boring you all with every fact, figure and statistic in the report, I did have a little hunt through to see what it said about cruising and there was another little bit of interesting news that made me happy!

The figures show that not only are more people than ever taking cruises in this last year but the numbers for ‘Intent to cruise’ in the next 12 months is up once again!

Now, anyone who knows us will know that Neil and I don't need much persuading when it comes to getting on a ship, but I do love seeing more people discovering cruising, especially those who've perhaps never considered it before.

Of course, we're all keeping an eye on what we spend, and getting good value from our holidays matters more than ever which is hardly surprising with the cost of everything these days, but I have to say that reading through those figures left me feeling rather encouraged.

Nearly six years into doing something I genuinely love and after reading through these numbers from ABTA, I have to say it’s lovely to see that more people are appreciating the personal side of booking their holidays and that despite everything life keeps throwing at us, we're still making holidays a priority and we are still finding ways to get away and making memories along the way!

And of course if more people are discovering a love of cruising too, well, that's just another reason for me to smile! 😂🚢

Have a great day.

Karen x

11/10/2026

What’s Brewing?

Cheap cruises. Expensive flights. What’s going on?

Neil and I were having one of those dangerous conversations recently about whether we could squeeze in another little cruise before Christmas! 😂

We ended up looking at Norwegian Prima, a ship we sailed on her inaugural cruise back in 2022 and absolutely loved.

Four nights sailing from Port Canaveral in November for £345 each!

£345!! 😳

Naturally, we got a little excited and started looking at flights from Manchester to Orlando.

Well, that soon brought us back down to earth! 😂

Then we found another Prima sailing. Three nights from Rome to Barcelona via Palma for around £250 each.

Again, an incredible price, especially on a ship we already know and love.

But once again, the flights were a rather different story!

And it’s not just Prima.

Every day we see offers coming through from our cruise suppliers and partners. Facebook posts, WhatsApps, emails, and lately some of the prices have been making us look twice.

Cruises in the £200s and £300s, different ships, different itineraries, some last minute and others much further ahead.

There just seem to be more and more of these bargains appearing.

And it’s got me wondering why?

Are there simply more ships now, with more cabins to fill? Is it increased competition between the cruise lines? More itineraries to choose from? Or perhaps the cruise lines are trying to tempt even more people into discovering cruising?

Whatever the reasons, I’m certainly enjoying seeing some of these prices! 😂

What’s frustrating though is that at the same time we’re having almost the opposite experience when it comes to flights.

We’ve been travelling to Orlando for years and remember when finding direct return flights for around £300 wasn’t unusual.

Some of the prices we’re seeing now, both for ourselves and when helping customers, are eye-watering!

It’s quite a contrast really. On one hand we’re seeing some incredible cruise bargains, yet sometimes getting to the ship can cost considerably more than the cruise itself.

It’s certainly made us think a little more about cruises sailing from the UK too.

Not because we’d stop flying to join a ship somewhere warm. We certainly wouldn’t!

But Southampton, Liverpool and other UK departure ports are worth keeping in mind when you consider that you could drive to the ship rather than book another flight.

Even with the cost of filling the car up these days, that can start to look quite appealing! 😂

Perhaps there’s a balance to be found between the cruise you fancy and what it costs to get there.

Of course there are all sorts of things affecting travel prices at the moment, and cruise lines and airlines have very different challenges. But from the offers we’re seeing coming through, it’s certainly feeling like there’s some fantastic value to be found at sea, even if getting there can sometimes take the shine off the bargain!

And I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on those cruise offers.

Although, I have a confession to make…

We collect little model ships from the cruises we’ve been on. They’re all displayed on the shelves in our office and they’re lovely reminders of the holidays we’ve enjoyed.

But we never managed to get one from Norwegian Prima because we sailed on her inaugural cruise and they hadn’t got them available yet!

So I’ve been trying to convince Neil that going back on Prima for £250 each would be an absolute bargain, especially as we could finally get that missing model ship for our collection!

His response?

“Sounds more like a bloody expensive model ship to me!” 😂

Leave it with me 🤔

Karen x

04/10/2026

What’s Brewing? “Grounds” for Clarity

Thailand has changed its visa-exempt stay. Does it affect your holiday?

One thing I have noticed from working on a booking this last week is that Thailand changed its visa-exemption rules on 15 September, reducing the usual visa-exempt stay for British tourists from the previous 60-day scheme to 30 days.

Now for most normal holidays, that probably changes very little. If you’re going for a week, a fortnight or even three weeks, you’re still comfortably inside the new 30-day allowance.

Where I would say it’s worth taking a closer look is if you’re planning a longer stay, or a trip that takes you out of Thailand and back in again. The GOV.UK site says visa-exempt tourism entry is now normally limited to two entries per calendar year, so an itinerary that worked under the old arrangement shouldn’t simply be assumed to work in the same way now.

The useful bit though is really quite simple:

Under 30 days on an ordinary Thailand holiday, this is unlikely to change your plans.

Staying longer or entering Thailand more than once? Then I’d definitely check the current rules for your exact trip before you travel.

Either way though it’s best to check rather than relying on the old 60-day assumption!

Karen x

20/09/2026

☕ What’s Brewing?

It has sure felt like a long week back, but it’s been a really lovely week catching up with so many of you whilst also catching up on the jet lag!

Obviously, those “catch ups” have meant quite a lot of time talking about Alaska and, for some of you, probably a little too much if you’ve been unfortunate enough to ask me about “my” whales! 😂

A lot of those conversations this week got me thinking though about all the things that we didn’t do!

Some of it of course by choice, but some of it because of time (and finances). There were so many places we didn’t get to see, excursions we chose not to book or things we simply couldn’t fit in.

But when I reflect back over the holiday, they’re not really the things I’m thinking about.

I’m thinking about everything we DID do.

The little road trip into Washington before the cruise took us to places like Snoqualmie and Roslyn that we would probably never otherwise have seen.

We had mountains, forests and waterfalls, little towns, wildlife and of course that amazing Ellensburg rodeo!

Then of course we had Alaska!

We saw glaciers from the decks of the beautiful Star Princess, along with some of the most incredible scenery in places neither of us had ever been before, and there were so many moments that we’ll be talking about for a very long time.

And this made me realise something…

I think sometimes, because our time off is so precious and a holiday can cost a lot of money, we put ourselves under so much pressure to get a holiday “right” that we forget we don’t have to do everything!

But it IS perfectly acceptable to come home without ticking every box!

I think for me, our time over the years in Orlando is the perfect example of what I’m trying to say.

Our first trip was supposed to be a one-and-done “holiday of a lifetime” and yet, 27 years and more than 20 visits later, we STILL haven’t done everything!

Somewhere along the way, our holiday of a lifetime became a lifetime of holidays!

And I think that’s probably why I’m not looking back at Alaska thinking about everything we didn’t get around to.

I’m too busy smiling about everything we did do!

Anything else can stay on the list for another time because perhaps leaving a few things on that list isn’t such a bad thing after all.

It gives you something new to discover if you ever go back.

And saying that out loud does make me wonder…

Have we finished with Alaska yet?

I’m not so sure!

After all, the boy did good finding me those “bloody” whales…

But he didn’t find me a bloody bear, did he? 😉

Karen x

14/09/2026

“We’re not getting off at the next port.”

I can still remember somebody saying that to us on our very first cruise back in 2007 and thinking they were completely mad!

“We’ve paid for the ship and the sunshine, not the ports,” they told us.

I genuinely couldn’t understand it.

Nearly 20 years and quite a few cruises later, we’ve had that same conversation ourselves more than once.

Because somewhere along the way we stopped measuring the value of a cruise by how many ports we got off in. ❤️

And yesterday rather proved the point!

It was our final full day aboard Star Princess and, after everything Alaska has thrown at us this week, we were perfectly happy for it to be a slow one.

We’d actually planned to have breakfast in the main dining room for once.

No buffet.

No wandering around looking for a table.

Just sit down and let somebody bring breakfast to us.

Unfortunately we’d struggled with the extra hour we gained travelling north earlier in the week...

It seems they now wanted it back!

By the time we’d adjusted our watches and ourselves, and wiped the sleep from our eyes we’d missed breakfast!

So it was caramel mocha lattes from the International Café followed by breakfast at the American Diner instead!

We’d optimistically packed our swimmers because the previous day had been glorious.

Spoiler alert...

We didn’t need them. 😂

We headed towards the back of the ship instead, found ourselves somewhere to sit and opened the laptops for a little bit of work.

And this was actually one of my favourite little moments of the day.

We’ve been working on a safari booking with a lovely family since before we came away and yesterday they confirmed everything!

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of sitting on a ship somewhere in the middle of an ocean, tapping away on a keyboard and helping somebody else get their own dream holiday booked. ❤️

There are definitely worse offices!

We did attempt to brave the weather afterwards. Briefly. But there was only one thing for it.

The Dome. 😂

Yes, again!

It’s become our little home within our floating home this week.

We found ourselves a spot, opened the laptops again and carried on doing bits and pieces while keeping one eye firmly on the sea.

Which turned out to be worthwhile because more orcas started appearing off the starboard side!

Again nothing like the incredible humpback show we’d witnessed in Juneau, just those wonderful black fins occasionally breaking the surface as they moved around the ship.

So there we were. Somewhere off the coast of Canada, tapping on keyboards, watching orcas and drinking a couple of Dirty Bananas.

I still have absolutely no idea what is in a Dirty Banana. I just know they’re bloody lovely. 😂

A couple of our now almost compulsory tacos followed before we headed to the theatre for the 3pm final of The Voice of the Ocean.

Six passengers had made it through various rounds during the week and now performed live on the main theatre stage, with the audience eventually choosing the winner.

Great singers, loads of fun and another example of just how much entertainment has been going on around us all week.

Then at 5pm reality finally came knocking.

Back to the cabin.

Last case.

23kg limit.

Anything that didn’t fit was now officially the hand luggage’s problem. 😂

And at around 7pm, Star Princess arrived at our final port. Victoria, Canada.

Which brought me right back to that conversation in 2007.

There are some ports where getting off is a huge part of why you’re there.

There was absolutely no way we were missing Juneau this week where we had that pinch me moment and had one of the most incredible wildlife experiences of our lives.

In Skagway we disappeared into the Yukon for six and a half hours.

Ketchikan gave us our first footsteps on Alaskan soil.

Every one was a completely different part of this cruise.

But a port on the itinerary isn’t an instruction.

By the time we arrived in Victoria it was dark, we were tired, our cases were packed and neither of us really felt the need to squeeze another adventure into the final few hours just because the ship had stopped somewhere.

We stayed onboard for dinner and eventually wandered ashore at about 8:30pm.

We walked through the Welcome to Canada sign. Took an obligatory evidence selfie! Bought something small for the office shelves to say we’d been. Walked around in what was basically a fairly impressive circle...

And got back onboard. 😂

Victoria completed!

Although I’m absolutely NOT reviewing Victoria based on that because we didn’t really visit Victoria.

We visited a cruise terminal in the dark! 😂

On another cruise, arriving at a different time, perhaps we’d have headed into the city and done something completely different.

But last night we didn’t want to.

And that’s something I couldn't understand on that very first cruise.

Back then, I thought getting the full value from our cruise meant getting off at every port, seeing everything we possibly could and making sure we didn’t “waste” anything we'd paid for.

These days I think about it very differently.

The ports are part of the cruise but so is the ship and so so are the sea days, the entertainment, the food, the sunshine, the excursions, the people you meet and those afternoons when you do absolutely nothing except lie somewhere comfortable watching the ocean go past.

Sometimes the value is in getting off the ship.

Sometimes it’s in staying on it.

And sometimes you only really see the value when you stop looking at all the individual pieces and look at the holiday they created together. ❤️

So we got back onboard Star Princess, found one of the few bars still open, ordered some w**e and brought the cards out for another game for Neil to beat me at! I might have to secretly work on my card skills for next time!

So with the cases packed. The alarm was set for 6am where a forecasted wet and miserable Seattle would be waiting for us in the morning.

And somewhere between dealing the cards and finishing the w**e, I thought back to that conversation from our very first cruise in 2007.

We’ve skipped ports before and I’m sure we’ll skip them again.

Because somewhere over all those years of cruising, we stopped worrying about whether we’d squeezed the maximum value out of every individual stop.

The value was in the whole thing.

The ship. The ports. The sea days. The people. The experiences. Even the bits where we did absolutely nothing at all.

We hadn’t missed out on Victoria.

We’d had exactly the Alaska cruise we wanted. And that was worth far more than ticking every port off a list. ❤️

And with that, our daily Alaska diaries are sadly coming to an end too!

Tonight it’s Star Princess to Seattle, then the morning Seattle to Amsterdam and finally Manchester and home.

Thank you so much to everyone who’s followed along with us each day, liked, commented and told us you were waiting for the next one. We’ve absolutely loved sharing it with you. ❤️

Right then…

Home time!

Karen and Neil x

13/09/2026

“It’s the people who make a cruise…”

We’ve talked quite a lot this week about Star Princess. The food, the entertainment, our favourite spots onboard and obviously all the incredible places we‘ve been to on her, but yesterday ended up being much more about the people who make all of that happen!

And strangely enough, it really started the previous afternoon in Skagway.

Some of you may have watched Cruising Paradise: Above and Below Deck, the Channel 4 series following the guests and crew aboard Star Princess during her first Caribbean season.

We watched it before coming away, and one of the people featured was Melissa, a young British girl from Southport who works onboard as Events and Guest Services Supervisor.

We’d briefly met her getting off the ship in Juneau, bumped into her again as we disembarked in Skagway and then ended up having a much longer chat while we were waiting for the shuttle back to the ship later that afternoon.

She was absolutely lovely.

By the time we said goodbye she gave me a great big hug as we brought her a little bit of “home” into her day 🥰, we grabbed a photograph together and, just before we disappeared, she asked for our cabin number.

We didn’t really think anything of it.

Until later that evening when the phone rang.

It was Melissa.

The Captain had invited us to visit the bridge the following morning! ❤️

And so at 10am yesterday, Melissa met us outside the lifts on Deck 15 and escorted us through to somewhere passengers don’t normally get to wander around.

The bridge of Star Princess!

Captain Paolo Arrigo was waiting for us and we spent about half an hour up there being shown around, having everything explained to us and trying to take in just how much goes on behind those doors.

And what a morning to do it.

The sun was shining, the sea was beautiful and the view through those enormous bridge windows was absolutely spectacular.

We’ve been lucky enough to sail on quite a few ships over the years and visit the bridge on a few them, but standing on this bridge looking out across Alaska is definitely going to be one of those cruise memories we keep!

From there we went for a slightly more substantial second breakfast before heading to the theatre to see our Cruise Director, Cole.

We’ve obviously seen plenty of him around the ship this week, but this was something a little different.

For about an hour he talked about his own story, his nine years with Princess and “lift the curtain” on what life is actually like working onboard a cruise ship.

He was funny, cheeky enough to occasionally sail quite close to the wind 😂, and clearly somebody who absolutely lives and breathes what he does.

And actually, Melissa and Cole rather summed up something we kept noticing yesterday.

You spend a week on a cruise ship and start recognising people everywhere.

The person organising something in the Piazza. The Cruise Director making everyone laugh. The singers and dancers appearing on stage every night. The bar staff who remember what you’re drinking. The people cleaning cabins, serving dinner, navigating the ship and doing hundreds of jobs most of us probably never even notice.

You see the finished version.

Yesterday we got just a tiny glimpse of the people behind it. ❤️

After all that excitement we reverted to something we’ve become particularly good at this week.

Doing very little. 😂

We headed back to our favourite spot in The Dome.

The weather was glorious, so this time we ventured into the more open section at the front, found ourselves a couple of beds in the sunshine and basically stared at the sea looking for wildlife.

And this time Alaska actually provided!

We spotted several orcas swimming around the ship!

Nothing quite on the scale of our incredible humpback experience in Juneau, but seeing those unmistakable fins appearing in the water around us while we were lying in the sunshine was pretty special all the same.

A few tacos somehow found their way into proceedings before we eventually returned to the cabin for something considerably less enjoyable.

We started packing. 😭

Just one case.

We’re not emotionally ready for both yet. 😂

But we did manage to get the first one packed and sitting bang on 23kg.

Quite how that happened after the recent outbreak of Alaskan “tat” purchasing is probably best not investigated too closely! Balancing the first case at 23 I’m sure will be easier than the second one!

It was then time to shower and change because Star Princess apparently wasn’t finished entertaining us yet.

First stop was the theatre for Illuminate.

It was a colourful, modern production built around the world of circus, with singing, dancing, acrobatics and all sorts of things happening on stage for 45 minutes.

And this is something I really do love about cruising.

Every evening something different appears.

The previous night we’d watched Meridian. Earlier in the week we’d had singers and musicians. Tonight an entire circus-inspired production had appeared in the theatre.

These performers just give everything to it.

Dinner followed and then we wandered back into the Piazza for a game show called Do You Want to Dance?

We nearly didn’t bother but I’m SO glad we did!

Seven passengers were randomly paired with seven crew members and basically left to dance their way through whatever music was thrown at them while being judged and eliminated until one winner!

It was absolutely ridiculous and brilliant at the same time!

I genuinely don’t think I have laughed as much at anything we’ve watched onboard on any ship!

The Piazza was packed across all three levels and everybody was completely invested in it.

I’ve actually been a little unsure about this particular style of atrium on Star Princess.

I normally prefer the longer open promenades you find on some other ships and initially I wasn’t convinced by having so much happening around one central circular space.

But last night I got it.

With people looking down from every level, everyone laughing together and the crew right in the middle of it with the passengers, the whole space suddenly made sense.

And perhaps that was yesterday really.

A cruise ship can sometimes feel like a floating hotel or shopping mall where everything just somehow happens around you and of course it doesn’t.

Yesterday started with Melissa meeting us outside a lift and taking us onto the bridge to meet the Captain and ended with seven crew members making complete fools of themselves alongside seven passengers in a packed Piazza. 😂

Somewhere in between we’d listened to Cole talk about life onboard, watched the production cast give everything on stage and probably interacted with dozens more people who quietly helped make our day what it was.

Ships might take us to some incredible places.

But it’s the people onboard who make them feel alive. ❤️

Karen and Neil x

12/09/2026

“Today we went further north than we’ve ever been!” ❤️

This morning we opened our balcony door in Skagway to one of those views that makes you stop for a second and remember exactly where you are!

Mountains all around us, snow and ice sitting on the tops, glimpses of glaciers in the distance and this tiny little Alaskan town tucked beneath them!

Skagway looked absolutely beautiful and Alaska was delivering again. ❤️

There were two other ships in with us, the Disney Wonder this time and, rather bizarrely, Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas.

I say bizarrely as she was the first Royal Caribbean ship we went on in 2023 in Southampton, so seeing her sitting amongst the mountains of Alaska felt slightly surreal!

We’d arrived at the furthest north point of our cruise, but as it turned out, we weren’t finished heading north yet!

After another very handy room-service breakfast, we headed ashore for our 8:30 excursion.

The famous White Pass railway is probably one of the things Skagway is best known for and most people do, but Neil had found us a slightly different way of doing it.

Instead of the train, we chose a minibus, and with just 17 of us on it it was perfect. We followed much of the same route as the train through the mountains, before carrying on across the Canadian border and much further into the Yukon!

By the time we reached the little town of Carcross, we’d travelled further north than either of us has ever been before! And unless Neil gets any ideas about an Arctic cruise one day, that record might stand for a while. 😂

Our guide for the day was Andrew, who was absolutely brilliant.

He’s only 24 and doesn’t live in Skagway year-round, but spends his summers here while the cruise ships are sailing. He’d known since he was a teenager, following in his brother’s footsteps, that this was what he wanted to do!

And you could certainly tell. He hasn’t just learnt a script to recite into a microphone. He’s completely immersed himself in the history of Skagway, the Klondike Gold Rush and the people who travelled through these mountains more than a century ago!

Which, of course, meant Neil was in his element! 😂

The scenery was ridiculous. Mountains. Lakes. Waterfalls. Glaciers. It doesn’t get much prettier!

The day followed pretty much the same pattern.

Stop.

Photograph.

Drive another 10 to 20 minutes. Stop.

Another mountain. Another lake. Another photograph. 😂

It reached the point where you almost became overloaded by how beautiful everything was.

How many times can you get out of a minibus, stare at another enormous landscape and say “Wow!” before running out of different ways to photograph it?

I’m not saying that to belittle anything but to highlight just how stunning this landscape is!

But for us both, what really brought the journey to life was hearing the story behind the scenery.

In 1897 and 1898, more than 100,000 people set off hoping to find their fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush. A journey which only a third completed! Skagway became one of the gateways to the Yukon and thousands headed through these mountains using routes including the White Pass Trail.

And they didn’t exactly travel light!

Canadian authorities eventually required anyone heading into the Yukon to carry enough food and equipment to survive for a year!!

By the time everything was added together, that could amount to roughly a ton of supplies per person.

And because obviously nobody was throwing a ton of luggage over their shoulder and strolling up a mountain with it, some made 20, 30 or even 40 journeys backwards and forwards, moving their belongings a little further each time!

Suddenly our battle with the 23kg airline baggage allowance didn’t seem quite so bad! 😂

Eventually the railway changed everything.

Construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route began in 1898 and just 2 years later, its 110 miles of track reached all the way to Whitehorse. The Gold Rush itself was already fading, but the railway helped Skagway survive as a transport and supply town long afterwards.

And I think that’s partly why we liked Skagway so much.

So many of the old buildings are still there and, with hardly any road traffic while we were wandering around, there were moments when it really did feel as though we’d stepped into an old Western town.

Exactly Neil’s sort of place!

Our journey continued across the Canadian border and into the Yukon, stopping so many times along the way that somehow a six-and-a-half-hour excursion never really felt like one.

We stopped at Wild Adventure Yukon for a barbecue chicken lunch and, more importantly, it was apparently another opportunity for me to consume alcohol for photographic purposes. 😂

Neil had an Alaskan brewery b**r whilst I had something called a Sweet Beaver, which involved Canadian wh**ky and maple syrup!

I’m not normally a shots person but apparently I am on a cruise!

Taking one for the team! 😂

Then it was onwards to Carcross, a tiny Yukon community on the shores of Bennett Lake where we had time for a wander before encountering something else I really hadn’t expected to see this far north.

A desert!

Well...

Sort of.

The Carcross Desert is actually a huge area of sand dunes left behind from an ancient glacial lake around 10,000 years ago!

Technically it isn’t dry enough to qualify as a true desert, but standing amongst all that sand surrounded by mountains in the Yukon was still a pretty strange sight!

Certainly the coldest “desert” we’ve ever visited. 😂

Eventually we turned south and started making our way back towards Alaska.

More lakes.

More mountains.

More waterfalls.

More photographs!

I have absolutely no idea how we’re ever going to choose which ones to keep!

By the time Andrew dropped us back in Skagway we had less than an hour before we needed to be onboard, so there was just enough time for a quick wander through town before heading back to Star Princess at around 4pm.

And after six and a half hours of being very educational and cultured...

We went straight for a b**r. 😂

Back onboard, tonight was White Night, so after giving our legs a rest for a while we headed back to the cabin, showered, changed and went to the theatre.

Tonight’s production was Meridian, and it was superb.

That’s another thing I love about cruising.

One night you’re watching a soul singer. Another night there’s a full theatre production. Somewhere else onboard there’s a band, a pianist, a quiz, a party or something completely different happening.

The performers give absolutely everything to it and you can see how much they love what they’re doing.

From there it was dinner in the main dining room, Beef Wellington for Neil and Chicken Cordon Bleu for me, accompanied by some w**e that probably wasn’t particularly sensible after two long excursion days!

By the time we’d finished, we were shattered.

I managed a little bit of the ABBA tribute happening in the Piazza while Neil went back to the cabin to catch up on some Utd highlights, but by about 10:30 even ABBA couldn’t save me. I’d been waiting for Neil to come back out but it seems we were both done!

Two very different days in Juneau and Skagway.

Two long excursions.

And an absolutely ridiculous number of photographs and memories to bring home with us. ❤️

Tomorrow, thankfully, nobody is setting an alarm for an excursion.

We’ve got a full day at sea to do nothing!

Although we do have one rather special invitation waiting for us...

And we’re ridiculously excited about it. 👀❤️

Karen and Neil x

Address

Colwyn Bay

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+447572654097

Website

https://portwoodtravel.notjusttravel.com/

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