ACorgan

4 hours ago, Mermen said:

We are not familiar with Club orange in the main dining room, and we’re wondering if you had any thoughts on this? We were previously on Rotterdam and had a separate club orange dining room. Did you find the service or menu different? Was there a particular side or portion of the dining room that was carved out for suite or club orange guests?

If you have a fixed dining time (floor three), like we did, there is no separate section for club orange. There is a separate menu, but it’s identical to the normal one except for the addition of one more main option. The very first night, we had to remind our server that we were club orange, but they remembered after that. Neither of the two gala nights had a club orange menu printed, but the waiters verbally told us the bonus club orange entree.

If you are doing As You Wish dining (floor 2), there is a separate check in podium for club orange. We never did this option, so not sure if people are seated in a distinct section or not. It did sound like they had a much shorter line and wait to get a table than the non-club orange people, though 

Today is going home day. When I woke up at 6 am, we were already docked. A little after 7, we headed down to floor 2 to join the queue. It’s surprising so many of us are in such a hurry to end our vacation, but we want to beat the traffic home and several were trying to catch earlier morning flights. They started letting us off the ship at 7:20. We scanned our key card one last time while leaving, took a ramp off the ship, went down an escalator and then just quickly showed our passports. Very efficient and easy. From there, walked right out to a waiting shuttle to the parking lot and were in our car on the road by a little after 7:30. 

Overall, it was a great trip 😎

Last stop was Victoria. It’s a little over a mile walk to the Empress hotel, so if you have any mobility concerns, well worth taking a shuttle or a taxi. We have three big ships in port all next to each other and all with people spilling out of them, so it was a slow walk to town as there were many groups with strollers and small children that made sudden stops and blocked the sidewalks. We just walked far enough to take some pictures of the Empress and headed back. From leaving the ship to returning from our walk took us an hour and 15 min. The neighborhood we walked through was very picturesque with cute old buildings and gardens. They also had crossing guards at busy intersections, so felt very safe walking. I’m sure it would have been lovely to explore town a little more, but I just ran out of steam. Already thinking about the early morning wake up tomorrow 

No idea why some of the pics posted twice. Ship wifi strength seems to plummet whenever we’re in port and my AT&T only has one bar at the pier, so might be due to connectivity issues 

Just finished our last dinner on the ship 🥲 We were back at the Pinnacle grill and started with a wedge salad and more of the crab cakes (my table mate really enjoyed them at lunch, so went for round two)

Mains were the chicken and a NY strip with sides of creamed spinach, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes 

Dessert was chocolate soufflé and baked Alaska

Our ship made better time than expected, so they hope to have the gangways ready by 8:30, rather than the 9:15 they anticipated this morning. That just puts us 30 min behind our original scheduled arrival time of 8pm, so makes it that much more of a bummer they canceled most of the excursions. Still plenty of daylight here and temp is 60 degrees F, so not a bad evening for an outdoor stroll 

We went to the Pinnacle for lunch today. Right after we took our seats, I saw an orca swimming off the side of the ship. It wasn’t there long, since it was going the opposite direction from us (and they are FAST), but great to see it, although briefly. For starters we got the tomato broth and the crab cakes. The tomato broth was excellent, but quite spicy, so be prepared for that 🌶️

Mains were the burger and the tenderloin with Oregon blue cheese

I tried the table side gin and tonic. It’s an interesting concept and tastes ok, but it’s a bit challenging to drink between the ice cubes and free floating whole spices

Dessert was the strawberry pavlova and the fresh berries with sabayon. I had the berries and they were phenomenal! Easily the best dessert I’ve had on board. Granted, I’ve mostly had fruit plates and some off bites of cheesecake and chocolates, so not a huge range of things to compare it to 😂 The wafers were delightfully crunchy with a hint of vanilla, the berries were sweet, the whip cream was a good consistency, and the sabayon was delectable. I could have just eaten a pot of the sabayon and been a happy camper

When we returned to our room, we had the dreaded notice of our tour being cancelled 

We’ll just have to go back to our original plan of wandering along the waterfront towards town.

Next, I’m off to participate in the On Deck for a Cause event. I definitely need to walk that 5k since all we’ve been doing today is eating 

42 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

For instance we were last on the Rotterdam in July last year and the Jumbo shrimp cocktail was 3 much smaller shrimp, yours looked much larger and there are 4. The salad looked good and not skimped on the apples and cranberries. On the Brunch pictures I take it the bread bowl is the Salmon Potato Chowder. That looks good as well. I need to watch my breads, sugars and carbs of course all the things that attract me are the breads, sugars and carbs 😂  

I was reading your post to my traveling companion and he let me know there were actually 5 shrimp; one was just hidden in the picture 😉 You are correct that the brunch salmon chowder came in the bread bowl. When I had ordered it at a dinner in the MDR, it was just a normal bowl, so guessing the bread was unique to the Alaska brunch. I feel your pain trying to avoid carbs. At the start of the cruise, I had the lofty goal of never eating from the breadbasket at the start of dinner. That only lasted the first two nights and by the third night, I’d broken down and sampled some of the rolls. They’re just so good 😋 We rarely have any bread products at home other than some occasional whole wheat English muffins or whole wheat bagel thins, so all the fresh baked goodness on board is hard to resist

The captain just came on the loud speaker to announce that we’re having an issue with one of the pieces of equipment (already forgot what it was). Supposedly it doesn’t impact the safety of the ship at all, but does limit us from going top speeds. As a result, we’re going to be late into Victoria and some shore excursions may be cancelled. Those impacted will be receiving a note at their doors. We should still be on time for Seattle tomorrow though.

I’m fairly confident that my Butchart gardens tour will be impacted, since timing was already tight for it, but we’ll see what the official word ends up

being 😞

11 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

You wouldn’t be able to post the Daily (or whatever HAL calls it) associated with your final sea day. Just curious what HAL now offers for things to do on sea days, as we haven’t cruise with them since 2019.

Technically not a sea day, since we go to Victoria tonight, but functionally, we’re spending most of the day at sea:

19 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Is Alaskan Brunch served on the last day on every AK cruise regardless of ship? We haven't seen it before and my DH would love the biscuits w/reindeer gravy.

I think it’s a fairly new offering (ie, just in the last few weeks). I don’t know about all the Alaska ships, but thought I remembered seeing someone on a different ship post about it, so it’s likely 

Today was our last full day on the ship and we lost an hour last night getting back to PST. We decided to take advantage of our vacation day and sleep in, so no Pinnacle for breakfast. Instead, we hit up “The Alaska Brunch” in the MDR. I went with the smoothie and with the biscuits and gravy with reindeer sausage. The smoothie was a very beet-forward flavor. I don’t actively hate beets, but they just taste a little like dirt to me, so I don’t go out of my way to eat them. If you enjoy beets, though, this smoothie is for you. The reindeer sausage served with the biscuits and gravy was very good; texture reminded me of an Oktoberfest sausage. It wasn’t at all dry and had good flavor

My dinning partner got the salmon chowder and the monte cristo sandwich and said booth were tasty

One thing I’ve been pleasantly surprised by here on the ship is the wide availability of decaf tea. I try to avoid caffeine, but am not a huge fan of camomile, so always appreciate when there is a decaf black available and they’ve been plentiful on the ship

1 minute ago, sp2 said:

Did you catch anything?

Nothing I could keep, sadly 😞 I did catch a king, but he was just a small guy. It sounds like it just wasn’t a great day for fishing. Of the almost 40 of us on the bus back, only two people had caught keepers. It was beautiful weather though, and we saw plenty of whales, so I didn’t feel like it was a wasted trip. Great day to be out in the water 

2 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

You’d think that people never ate before.  I wish I had the metabolism to do that even though I get plenty of exercise.  I love green beans so I’d take yours.  They must have other vegetables if you asked for a substitute.

I’m sure they had over veggies and would happily have given me something else. My traveling companion isn’t a huge fan of the MDR and hates lingering there, so I try to avoid any special orders since it might make things take longer. Our servers are very efficient and most dinners only take us 45 min from us sitting down at the table to leaving 

Tonight was the “chocolate surprise” event. I had forgotten about it until I was walking back to my room through deck 2. In the music walk hallways there were people lining both walls waiting to mob any waiter who came by with a tray of sweets. By the time I weaved my way through to the mid-ship elevators, there were way less people and tons of waiters (that’s where they were coming out from the kitchen with the trays). I didn’t stick around, but on the trays I passed, it looked like they had chocolate cupcakes, white chocolate covered raisins, chocolate macaroons, and something that might have been either chocolate covered almonds or just some kind of small truffle.

Since it was the second gala night, there was a cute towel animal and more chocolate waiting for us in the room

We made it downstairs a little early for dinner, so took advantage of the nice weather and strolled on the promenade deck. We spotted some animals swimming next to the ship. I think they might have been dolphins, but not sure.

For dinner, we had the apple and cucumber salad and the jumbo shrimp cocktail as appetizers. My salad was quite good and the apples were very crisp and sweet, as apples should be 

The club orange special was pork belly. I decided to roll the dice on that one since most of the other mains came with green beans, which I don’t care for. Joke was on me though, because the pork belly also came with green beans (hidden under the meat in the pic). They must have had a surplus they were trying to dispose of. Other than the vegetables, the dish was good. The pineapple had some kind of crust/coating, so it was more like a dessert, but the sweetness worked well with the pork. Mashed potatoes and gravy are a weakness of mine, so hard to go wrong with those. My table mate got the steak

Dessert was my normal fruit plate and a chocolate lava cake, which were both good ends to our respective meals

At the start of the comedy show last night, the cruise director kept emphasizing that although all aboard was 12:30 for today, she strongly, strongly encouraged people to be back in line by noon since it takes awhile to get everyone on the ship. Also mentioned that they had left several people behind in Ketchikan a few weeks ago. Since the bus from our excursion didn’t even get us back to the ship until a little after noon, I headed straight for the gangway, leaving shopping for some other trip. There was another HAL ship, the Noordam, berthed right next to us

At this point, I was ready for lunch, but felt a little grubby from fishing, so didn’t want to go the the MDR. I headed up to the lido, but this was a very popular option. There were people everywhere and I heard several people complaining that there were no open tables on either side. I jumped in the shortest food line I saw, which was the international station, and took the food back to my room to enjoy on our veranda during sail away

Although the food wasn’t quite as warm (Indian food) or cold (sushi) as I would have liked it due to the trudge through the lido and trek back to my room, everything was flavorful, and it hit the spot 

Today was my salmon fishing excursion in Ketchikan. We had an early meet up time (7:15 am), so just grabbed a quick breakfast from the lido buffet. I didn’t take any pics, but was pleasantly surprised by how few people were at the lido at 6:30am. There was no line at all for the eggs Benedict station

Once we all boarded the bus to the fishing pier, they walked up the aisle handing out slips of paper with boat names, so pay attention to what seat you select since the people around you may be on your boat for the next few hours 😉 It was about a half hour drive to the docks and there was narration about the sights on both the ride there and back

My fishing boat had 6 passengers, 2 of which were children. I’m not going to lie, I was a little concerned about ending up on the one boat with kids, but they both were extremely well behaved and were a delight to have on our fishing boat. The weather was sunny, but a tad bit chilly first thing in the morning, so was glad I brought a warm coat. Other people had on stocking caps and one person donned gloves, but I was fine without those. We saw several whales spouting in the distance throughout the morning, had several interested sea lions come check out boat out, and saw many bald eagles.

Now for the fishing report - this was the only negative for today 😞 Our boat caught three kings, but they were all too small to keep. Here’s the one I reeled in:

It sounds like the fishing just wasn’t great today overall. On the whole bus of almost 40 people, sounds like only 2 people got keepers. Not sure if it was just bad timing/luck for today or if it’s just too early in the season to have many salmon around yet? We saw all kinds of “bait pools” (schools of herring) around, so seemed like likely locations to fish. Although bummed about not having any fish to ship home, it was a pleasant day and I was impressed with the captain of our boat. This is a tour I’d consider doing again

I don’t usually attend the evening entertainment on the main stage, but tonight I went to the commedy show. The comedian, Jose Sarduy, was very funny and I would recommend catching his act if he’s on one of your future sailings

Tonight’s club orange dinner special was roasted leg of lamb. For appetizer I went with the salmon chowder and for mains we both got the chicken cordon bleu. I had my fruit plate for dessert and my dinning partner had the apple crisp

On 6/21/2023 at 11:00 AM, electro said:

My DH and friend’s DH did a salmon fishing excursion in Ketchikan.

My DH caught a 20 lb king salmon.

I’m going salmon fishing in Ketchikan tomorrow, so very encouraging to hear that people are catching some. I hope the fish will be biting tomorrow 🤞

2 minutes ago, jackinelgin said:

How warm was it in Sitka? I see a lot of short sleeves.

Currently 60 degrees (at 3pm), but no wind and there is direct sunlight, which make it feel warmer. Beautiful day; we’ve really lucked out on the weather this trip 

Post-tour, rounded out the Sitka day with a stroll through town. Stopped by several of the shops and got some popcorn ($2) from the Lutheran church (the man selling it kindly informed us it was no salt added and directed us towards the salt shakers on the table). 

For lunch, tried out the black cod tips from Ashmo’s food truck. The cod was marinated in a very heavy sauce, so didn’t have much fish flavor, but I happen to enjoy teriyaki, so I was fine with it. The rice was quite good without being overly sweet, which is sometimes an issue with coconut rice

The line for shuttles back to the pier looked distressingly long, but moved at a good clip. It took me a little over 15 min to reach the front and board a bus

Last stop on our tour was the raptor rescue center

In addition to the show and outdoor exhibits, there’s a lovely short forest trail leading away from the center

we also discovered some scrumptious mini chocolate bars in their gift shop. There was a s’mores one that was delicious (especially since it’s been almost 7 hrs since breakfast). The only downside to this tour is that there are a fair number of children on it and while on the bus with them, you can tell it’s been a long day (a decent amount of whining and crying 🙉)

I had loved Fortress of the Bear last time I was in Sitka and still really enjoyed it this time. It’s neat that they are able to rescue cubs that otherwise would have been put down. I’ve heard some criticisms that it’s basically a “zoo setting” but I’m completely fine with that since I have no desire to be anywhere near a wild bear in its native habitat

I didn’t fight the crowds to take a pic (since already have some humpback pics from Juneau), but at the end of our boat portion on the tour, we had a humpback very close to the side of the boat. It was fun to watch because it would blow a bunch of bubbles before it surfaced, so you could tell exactly where it would emerge. Overall, a dream tour so far 🥰