rubytue

Didn’t finish my thoughts. The chocolate extravaganza thing was the most crowded event we have done. It is on deck 2, the staff walks around. We got stuck in shoulder to shoulder mobs. Way too peoply for me even in before times. As we were leaving, we overheard someone complaining about “all the people walking around and grabbing chocolate before the people waiting patiently”. Ok, whatever. We weren’t trying to get chocolate before you. We were trying to leave. 🙄 Life is much better when you don’t assume the worst about everyone else. We are all in this world together and have our own crap to deal with. this comment also going out to the lady who thought we stole the chairs her teenage daughters vacated and glared at us. We saw empty chairs and took them. 🤷‍♀️

Internet seems to be a bit better. So I will try to get a pic of chocolate extravaganza uploaded. For those not aware, it’s no longer the massive exhibition on the lido, but was passed small plates. And they were tasty. I am 100% ok with this change. The lido thing seemed so excessive and wasteful. And honestly, it was all looks, but I felt lacking favor other than sweet.

Yes. My husband perused it last night and was not terrible impressed with the prices. But that’s compared to US (Maryland) prices. Also, they do not have drambuie. This is our usual duty free purchase in the carribean.

Yes.

@Cruise Suzy I noticed we have a $19/pp refund for port fees and taxes. We made all the ports. Do you have any idea what this might be? speaking of ports. They changed the time in Ketchikan again. It was originally 1pm. Then about 3 weeks ago, they backed it up to noon, for all all board of 11:30. And then, the day of, all aboard was noon. The only announcement was cruise director saying we were cleared and to be back “mid day.” He didn’t say noon, he didn’t say “you have an extra half hour.” The folks on our excursion told us, but being a verify before trust, a couldn’t find anything confirming until right after they scanned the cards to get back on (at 11:25) and I saw a sign the said passenger all aboard was noon. 11:25 was stressing me enough.

Nope! We were just a table for 2. And pretty early, too. I’m glad the horseradish was good for you 😁 FWIW, I grow my own horseradish. I do like it. I slept in this morning. 8am! Woo! Internet is pretty terrible what with it a sea day and everyone is up. It’s been great all those times at 5am. So, I’m not even going to try including a picture this morning. I have a glorious sea day of nothingness planned. I don’t this we are going to be bothered getting off the boat in Victoria tonight. We will be packing up this mess of a cabin. We kept it pretty tidy for 5 days, but today it looks like a teenager lives here.

@TotallyCruzin I revise my opinion. Port. We docked port each time, and today the scenery off port is better. Probably tomorrow, too. But, this was probably the starboard view on Monday.

Oh oh oh! I have a complaint now. We had dinner in pinnacle and: 1) our appetizer wines came out 5 minutes apart (this was actually a bit annoying, we thought they forgot one) 2) the horseradish is super weak! The beef tenderloin is supposed to have a horseradish sauce. It seemed to lack zip, so I asked for additional horseradish. They brought out a dish. And, to show my H how weak it was, I scoped up a forkful and ate it. No chaser. This is literally it so far for the week. Well, that and we have to pack tomorrow. also, I mentioned I’d comment on Covid things, but honestly, other than crowded gangways, I dont have much to say. H and I have been testing daily and are still negative. Not that we’ve talked to many people, but I haven’t heard of quarrentine. Also, there are cold medicines in the shop (NyQuil, etc). I read they’d been removed from some ships. And they caught my eye tonight while passing through.

Ditto! The complaints we have are super minor and would seem nit picky if I listed them. And, less complaints, but more things we noticed. On the order of the rail of our balcony could use a light sand and a coat of varnish. And things that can’t be helped (the times for food and good coffee). Oh, and a “me” thing - but really, I do not need to be greeted every time I pass crew. Especially pre coffee 😂 And, please laugh with me that my initial boredom post claiming a “semi-live” accounting turned into a fairly real time live trip. This unlimited internet is the chefs kiss!

Fair question. I just can’t keep the classes of ships straight. We’ve done the Maasdam and Vaandam (small ships, in the 2000s). The Eurodam and this one. Honestly, I don’t feel I notice a big difference in ship size on any HAL ship. Plus, we are at 70% occupancy. We are loving Dive In. On the Eurodam, we did enjoy the made to order pizza place (not on this ship). We aren’t really doing BB King club or anything this trip. Mostly for Covid reasons, and also east coast bodies and it’s not really our thing anyway. The Christmas, we are sailing one of the newest ships (Its in my sig block, I forgot which one). I booked it for the Rolling Stone club, and the itinerary. Or really, vise versa. But I am looking forward to that. I feel HAL is trying to appeal to us Gen-Xers now. 😁 My two most previous cruises have bee. the Rock Boat sixthman charters. Those are one NCL Jewel class. I keep mentally comparing, this ship seems far less crowded. But, the charter is so different. You will have 2/3 of the ship in one place and one time. And everyone is at the buffet between sets. So, it’s apples and oranges. The only time I’ve felt crowded here was disembarking in Juneau.

The Noordam was docked beside us. Made for a great “goodbye Alaska” sail away. Also note, there is a large ball of fire in the sky and the sky is this color we haven’t seen all week. I think it’s called blue. Lido pool canopy is open!

We did eagle island kayaking today. Most of our group was scheduled for the Yay posh Island kayak trip, but we were told the boat broke down. The guide, however, said the boat was fine but the trip was overbooked with 32 people on it. So maybe the second boat was broken down? Or it was oversold. Anyway, we ended up in a group of 8 and everyone seems to either know how to kayak or picked it up quickly. I’ve been on some group tours where half the boats are just splashing around. H and I own kayaks and go out a lot. So doing a group kayak trip is usually not the way we roll. But this is was good. Not great, but still good to get out for a paddle. And, we had a sea lion pop up feet from the boat!

For the creamed questions. I took a picture of the coffee station at the lido this morning. No flavored creamers. 2% and cream are in the canisters to the left.

Yes, we are aft. It’s out second aft, and confirmed we prefer sides. To each their own. I this Id pick starboard. But, most of the cruise is off shore. We did take the scenic route into Ketchikan, but that was 3-6am. We saw whales on the way into Juneau, and those were off starboard. I know that is just the coin flip of the day. But it’s about all I have. Docking has been on the port side each time. 🤷‍♀️

Just to defend my pre-coffee brain. We boat the Chesapeake Bay. Almost every town is upstream from the bay 😂 thank you @BetsyS.! the most exciting thing of the trip just happened. They raised the shades on the lido 4 minutes early!!

No coffee yet - my brain just connected that I’m wasn’t crazy, we weren’t going to fit to the right of the bouy, and it’s clearly off port. Oh! We must not be retuning. 😂 so the port is downstream of wherever returning is.

@oakridger - thank you! That, and every picture so far is just an iPhone picture. I took the same composition on my good camera - I hope it comes out even better (hard to tell til I get it on a big screen). We are making our way into Ketchikan, following NCL (the Bliss?). This is a tight channel for this size ship. I was looking at the bouying and had “red right returning” in my head, while thinking “there ain’t no room there” 😂 our adventure for the day is Eagle Island kayaking. We had the other one booked, which was a bit more remote. But it required a bus and a boat to get to the spot. And apparently the boat broke down yesterday. So they moved us to this other trip and it’s cheaper. So small win. for these early ports, the Lido is opening at 6:30am. Yay! But, I’m still trying to stay east coast-adjacent. Because I do have to work next week. So, once again I’m hanging in the crows nest (as it will always be) waiting on coffee before 6am. I’m pretty much alone today, which hasn’t been the case most of the week.

This morning, we were off the boat early for “dry suit snorkeling.” In quotes because it is a bit of a misnomer. It was certainly different and something I can now check a box that I’ve done. Can’t say I will want to do it again, and snorkeling is one of our favorite things. Both of our suits leaked. Mine along an arm and one boot. My H’s - both boots to the point a large puddle of water came out when he took off the suit. We did, however, stay temperate. We did not bring a change of clothes, so we got back to the boat about 11, and came in for dry clothes, a quick shower, and lunch. after lunch, we took the bus downtown and walked down to the park. We were here in 2009 and I remembered that park as super peaceful. I turned on my watch to track it, and it was 1.07 miles from the back of the park to the shuttle bus stop/visitor center. We got there at 12:55 and there was a ranger led walked at 1. So we took that. The ranger talk was Sitka history involving the battle between the Russian and the Tlingit. And she took us to forage berries.

I have not seen that. I’ve been getting coffee from the explorers club coffee bar. I will check the lido in the morning.

I wish I’d seen this before I got off the ship and I would have paid more attention. I saw a sign for a taxi tour to the bears and raptor center. We didn’t get to town until noon, so there was no one manning the sandwhich board. And I didn’t notice a price on it.

Good morning (or, afternoon on the east coast) from Sitka. Another overcast day, but it doesn’t appear to be spitting stuff from the sky. And the mist is super cool on the spruce. I’ve been chatting with my friend in Juneau about the weather. Another friend was asking about this trip because she wants to plan it for next year. I told her June > July, based on my n=2 sample size. So Juneau friend weighed in that the past few years have been even harder to predict. His advice constantly is “you should have been here a few weeks ago.” Which was the story of my day with him. We were between salmon runs. So no bears and no salmon in the creeks (just at the hatchery). The warms in June had the berries all full of sugar, but the rain plumped them up and washed out the sweetness. Oh man, so on the way back downtown, friend made an offhand mention that he is sorry the float plane didn’t work out. We were all “what?!” He didn’t tell us but his buddy was going to take us on a float plane trip, but the weather the day before canceled trips, so he was making up for it today. Sounds like he was more of a local pilot than a cruise excursion thing. I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t know about it til afterward, as that would have been disappointing. Friend said they didn’t really have a “good things to do with visitors” list bc, they haven’t really had visitors in their 15 years here.

Good to know. I forgot to ask when the first one was delivered. And Ajiz came but just afterward. He did mention only if he was on duty. So we just do it for the dinner tray bc we eat during his evening hours.

If you like nayitr documentary shows, the BBC Alaska live is not to be missed. Excellent photography and there are 4 live performers (piano, 2 violins, and a cello. Maybe a violin and viola). I can also recommend a couple of the EXC talks. Pacific Giants (whales), Ancestral Memories (native culture/language) were both excellent.

I wish I knew what I did for the trick. I’m sure the cabin steward can show you. There is a ring underneath the table top and, I did something to it and pulled up.

1. I got nothing here. I’m a lowly balcony 😂 2. Two. First see day. And, Ketchikan. 3. yes. It’s tonight (Wednesday, Hubbard) 4. They are fine to me. Tonight is rocking a bit. I am not a good judge. Famously, I took a ferry from Port Townsend to Victoria in December and was one of the 10% on the whole ferry not ill. But, I did just do a hallway ping pong.