Our plan for the day was to explore Kodiak on foot and see the sites. Those sites are the Russian Orthodox Church, the Baranof Museum, Kodiak Brewery, and the small boat harbors. We hiked the mile from the ship to the visitor center (free shuttle will also take you there from the ship). Once there we met a skipper of a private charter fishing boat offer a 3 hour wildlife tour on his boat. Maximum of 6 people and $160 each.
This beat the ship’s excursion of a similar size and duration for $290 each, so off we went to an ATM to get the cash to do it. There were 2 other couples with us and it was fantastic. We saw puffins, seals, sea otters, sea lions, eagles, and various other birds. The water was so clear and calm that you could see the giant kelp, which is also pretty amazing. The three hours went by quickly and the skipper offered to drop us off anywhere in town.
We opted to go to the post office, to pick up some priority mail boxes. I have been buying too many shirts and hoodies at the various breweries. After that it was on to Kodiak Brewing Company to taste more local craft brews and buy yet another hoodie. I had two beers with one of them being a Porter aged in a bourbon barrel. That added some really interesting notes to the porter and I am becoming a huge fan of porters and stouts that are aged in wine and liquor barrels.
After that it was back to the shuttle stop at the visitor center to catch a ride back to the ship. Early morning shuttles are an issue for this port. We ended up walking to town because the bus driver would not leave until the bus was full or 7:30am which ever came first. Our cruise director told us that shuttles would start running at 7am. With all aboard being 1:30pm, we did not want to waste 30+ minutes waiting on a stubborn driver.
Overall Kodiak is a stunning island and if you get the chance to visit, you should absolutely do it. There are very few cruise itineraries that go there, so it is a true Alaskan town and there are no jewelry store row like the more developed cruise ports.