Steady As She Goes!

She -- the MV Malaspina -- wasn't going anywhere while I was up on the bridge early this afternoon. As part of the Cruise Terminal holiday celebrations, the ship was open to the public for self-guided tours.

The Malaspina is one of eleven vessels in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet -- more than half of Alaska's coastal cities are not accessible by road. I blipped a sister ship a few months ago.

Cynthia and I have been toying with the idea of riding the ferry to Petersburg, a city we enjoyed visiting on our Alaska boating vacation a few years ago, so we were glad to have the opportunity to check out the ship's amenities.

To quote the Welcome Aboard brochure, ...the Alaska Marine Highway System is a public transportation system, not a cruise line, so therefore many cruise ship amenities are not available and port times are usually limited. That's putting it mildly. The two-berth cabins are not much bigger than the little sleeping compartment we had on our cross-country Amtrak train trip.

We haven't yet decided if the scenery and wildlife are enough to offset the spartan accommodation.