Grimix

I had to get those extra stories because #1 comes in here! It is at this part of the story where we start packing up our stuff in preparation to put the cases outside tonight. We wanted to get this out of the way so we could hang out one last time with our new friends at the Haven bar. You'll get information about Port Valet at the beginning of the cruise. A free service in Seattle where you can leave your bags out the night before debarkation and don't see them until you land at your destination. It's great if your flight qualifies! Our ride home wasn't leaving until 7:30 or so the next evening and so we had a bit more of Seattle to explore until then. We didn't really want to lug our luggage (must be the root of the word luggage!) around Seattle all day! I had read of this before we boarded so had already signed up months ago! I opened up the envelope the butler or steward had left for us earlier in the day and saw it contained our boarding passes and luggage tags. Only 2 luggage tags... Oops... I remembered I had probably only listed 3 pieces of luggage ahead of time, hopeful I could get her to minimize the checked luggage... Now I'm in trouble as I had been telling about how wonderful port valet is, but only 2 of our 6 checked luggage would get to enjoy it... I told her I'm going to go down to guest services (once again it's past 8 so our concierge is closed... darn it you only really miss them when they aren't there!) and see if I can clear it up. I take the stairs and figure I'm screwed because this is the port and not the ship I bet there's nothing they can do. I stand in a pretty long line at guest services. As I near the desk I hear several of the people are getting their confiscated items back. Oh crap! I had completely forgot that they had my items! When I get to the counter my fears are confirmed there is nothing they can do now. (I believe Wednesday is the last day to sign up for Port Valet, and I assume make any changes...) At least I asked them about my confiscated items. They asked for the letter, and I told them I didn't have it (because I had forgot about the need...) and she still was able to retrieve my items for me. Getting back to the room I now have to tell my wife we're screwed... But I tell her that there is a place by the port that will hold your luggage for you for a small fee, and we'd need to store the kids carryons there anyways so it isn't much of an inconvenience. She buys it a little bit, but still takes the opportunity to remind me I missed up several times while we finish packing. I told her to load up the two largest cases with as much as she wants. One advantage of port valet is there is no over weight fees. (I carry a luggage scale with me in my electronics bag because my wife thinks it's a great game to see how close she can get to 50 pounds, and more often than not goes over...) I managed to just barely close the two cases that will be whisked away, and put the two luggage tags on them and place them outside the door. We proceeded to finish packing the remaining 4 bags, and I put the gold priority tags we were given and finish blocking the hallway with our total of 6 bags. The kids still each have a carryon, I have my electronics bag, and the wife has a carryon as well, but those will stay in the room with us tonight. Today I have been taking pictures of our Vacation Hero's name tags. And while the wife did most of the packing (I'm her beast of burden. She has me move suitcases up/down zipper them, move them outside, but I'm not trustworthy enough to pack) I'm hurriedly filling out the Vacation Hero Cards. Once we're done we head down the bar for one last Hurrah with new friends. I bring the cards with me and see many people are filling them out at the bar. I ask where we drop them off, and Mary Jane one half of the bar tending group says she's collecting them, and will give them to the proper spot. We didn't get the bar staffs picture this time, so attempt to correct that mistake at least with Mary Jane (Paul wasn't there at the moment) but it came out blurry... If you're in the Haven on Encore and have these bartenders you'll be well taken care of! To be honest I find it hard to find fault with almost any of the staff we encountered on this trip (both inside, and outside the haven!) We head back to the cabin after another enjoyable night at our Happy Place with our Happy People. Tomorrow is going to be a long day... Evicted from out home for the last 7 days, and then a LONG travel day...

They sure are! I was reading all the stories in the Oct 8 roll call group (our original sailing which I still hung out in) and seeing all their excitement at what they were experiencing might not have been conducive to me getting over that depression! At least you still have something to look forward to! I need to look for a new cruise so I have the same opportunity! (Nothing booked yet, but wife is considering between a med cruise or a Europe land vacation for next year...

3) About halfway through the cruise my wife realized she had lost her keycard. I told her we can just go to the concierge and get a new one. I head over the concierge and wait for a bit but no one is there. I peek over the corner and ask one of the bartenders how late the concierges are there, and they close at 8. Ooops! 8:30, no I'm going to have to go all the way down to the main guest services area and wait in a line. I get there and wait about 15 minutes in line. When I get to the counter tell them my wife has lost her key card. They ask for my room #. I tell them 18110 and they say Miss Chelsea? I answer in the Affirmative. A minute later they handed me her card key. At no point did she ask me for identification, but my guess it showed my picture on her computer so she figured it was ok to give me the card. Security was a little lacking but I got the job done! A third story that I had tried to add through editing, but missed the deadline!

A couple of forgotten stories! 1) When we first got to our cabin only 2 pieces of our luggage were waiting for us. I kept checking and we'd get 2-3 bags here and through-out the day. Around 3 the Emmanuel (our steward) asked me if we had received all our luggage yet. I told him I was just missing our electronics bag (which holds all the cables and batteries for the electronics.) [my apologies if I told you this story before!] A couple hours later he shows up with my bag, and I thank him. When I open the bag I see a note saying my power strips (which I had specifically bought cruise-safe for this purpose!) had been confiscated and would be returned on the last night of the cruise. I didn't make a fuss of it because with all my usb adapaters with multiple outputs, and the 3-in-one charging stands I got for the kids and wife we were able to manage with the outlets we had. 2) While going through the Haven we see a gaggle of teanagers in the corner opposite the bar entrance. We were walking to the horizon lounge, and see Lyster (our concierge) walking towards the teenagers. After talking to them we see the group leave. No doubt some teenager had brough their friends into the Haven, and Lyster had either noticed or been called to deal with it. A few minutes later I was taking the kids down the stairs to get some soft serve. We noticed a couple of the teenagers from early. They obviously weren't happy. We overheard them saying it's not like they were doing anything wrong.

Editorial mix up again! Looking at my pictures (which is how I tend to remember what we did when) I realized we did the Laser tag & carts this day! My wife and I had originally planned on getting off in Victoria and walking around, but finally decided against it because not much would be open except maybe bars (which are included on the ship) and she's already been to Victoria. I had originally reserved a 5:30 appointment at Q so we would have time to eat before getting off. Since we hadn't done the tag or carts yet (and the wife had no desire to) she said we (the kids and I) should go do that before dinner. So I went to the concierge and asked if they could change our reservation to 7:30. She called and they had no problem changing it for us. While we were waiting in line for the cars we saw (I believe a princess ship) pulling out of Victoria. After we finish with the cars we quickly head back to the room to get ready for dinner. We're not going to be an hour early tonight! We head over to Q, my youngest wants to use the stairs, the wife has some heals on her feet and prefers the elevator today. We go down to the level of Q and it's a madhouse! Everyone is in line to disembark. My wife gets a text from my son saying they won't let him down the stairs because they are blocked off 2 levels above. The wife starts to worry and I go to fetch my son...(It's not like he'll get lost on the ship...) I have to take the elevator up 2 floors (slowly because of everyone leaving) and find my son. We then get back in the elevator and head back down to Q's level. It seems even more packed than before and we have to push our way (saying excuse me) to get around the corner to where Q is located. The ship staff keep trying to tell us we're going the wrong way, but I just tell them we're going to Q. Once in Q the world is different! There are more staff there than people eating! They quickly seat us, and we get very attentive service. Like at Cagney's the plan here is for the kids to eat off the kids menu, the wife and I to order (with the wife eating the sides) and the daughter getting the wife's meat entree. Today that would be the brisket. I think I had it too, but the meat was my least favorite thing on the plate. I really enjoyed all the sides, and the wife adored their desserts. I was really looking forward to the smoky peach margarita (which she had had last year) but because of backwards Canadian laws they are only allowed one bar per deck (and the Q bar was not the selected bar for this deck...) We went back to our cabin and saw all we were going to see of Victoria.

Sad day! It's our last full day on the boat on the way to Victoria... We all know the depression that sets in when you know soon you'll be making your own food and cleaning up after yourself... The wife woke early and went to the gym to put in some treadmill time. (She did that at least half of the days of the cruise. She did say that many at the gym didn't seem to know how treadmills work because she saw someone fall on them almost every day... Maybe it was the rocking of the ship? Either way she didn't want to be on duty!) She returns to the cabin as the kids are slowly (very slowly) waking, and is all excited. She had seen whales while running on the treadmill! Not the best picture through the windows of the gym which haven't been cleaned since we went through some rain the prior day. We were all excited. We would have loved to see some ourselves, but were happy that at least one of us saw a whale! We headed to the Haven breakfast for our last 'leisurely' breakfast (Tomorrow we would probably feel a little rushed because they'd be kicking us off... How mean!) While we were eating breakfast we saw some people get excited, and sure enough there were more whales! The windows were much cleaner here than in the gym, but I didn't take any pictures. The kids loved to see them and were almost so glued to windows that they took forever eating. Finally we were done and headed back to the room to regroup. I told the wife I was going to go to the Casino to get a little cash for tips tomorrow. The wife wanted to shop a little bit for some perfume. She had run out of her normal one, and it had been discontinued. The kids wanted to play electronics (*gasp* I know!). I walked with the wife down to the casino where she continued on down to the shops. I tend to play Pai Gow poker because you lose much slower, and I don't like the rules for the 'affordable' blackjacks on board. (I'm not a slot player! I'm on a machine 8 hours a day, I don't want to spend my time in front of another even if it does (rarely) give you money... ATM's are honest. They tell you how much you're going to lose right before they give you your cash!) I get additional money here as opposed to the ATM as when your room is backed by the NCL card you get 3% back on the withdrawals which offsets the 3% they charge for a room advance (unless you have status with the casino which I don't.) I sit at the Pai Gow table and there is only one other player who is playing two hands. They only have one, and it's $50 a hand. I'm not happy about it (I'm cheap, and prefer $5 tables) but if you lose you lose slow. I was up $50 then down $50, and pretty much stayed steady for about an hour when my wife returned. I colored up my chips and gave one last tip. I was down $15 for an hour of fun, and was actually a little up if you count the tips I gave away. I asked my wife if she'd gotten her perfume, but she said they had only one left, and she wasn't sure. I went back to the store with her and she smelled it again. I looked it up online and they are selling it at MSRP. So with no-taxes, and 10% bronze latitude bonus it was cheaper than the standard places I had looked. She got the bottle, and we returned back to the room. The kids wanted to go to the Haven pool, and hot-tub. My eldest (16) wanted to go to the main pool after, and do the slides. My youngest and daughter didn't really want to. My youngest and daughter were playing a game together a couple nights ago and wanted to sleep in the 2nd bedroom, and put my eldest out in the living room. My eldest doesn't like change, but is extremely sweet and reluctantly allowed the swap. Last night they had tried to do it again, but my eldest really didn't want to switch again. We told them no. He doesn't want to leave him alone. When we woke up this morning my eldest was in the living room bed. They had taken advantage of his niceness again. My wife wasn't happy. She told the youngest and daughter that since they forced my eldest to give up his bed again that if he wanted to go to the main pool they had to go with him. My wife and I had plans to try the District Brewhouse since we hadn't made it there yet, and as I mentioned I'm not a fan of the Goose Island IPA. We leave them in the empty haven pool area, and headed to the District Brewhouse. We had walked down here on the first sea day, but they weren't open because we had showed up around 30 minutes before they opened, but had wanted to get back, and this was our last chance! It was pretty hopping! (Beer pun intended!) We found a table near the bar, but would have preferred one near the windows. There is a server that goes around the room, but the wife doesn't like to wait without a drink so I headed to the bar to order for us. 2 Alaskan Husky IPAs. After I gather the two glasses and head back to the table I see the wife had found a table just off of the windows. We sat and enjoyed our beer. The server came around eventually and I had a second, and I believe the wife tried one of their beer 'cocktails'. As we were enjoying our second beverage of the day (Maybe a third for the wife as she starts the day with Prosecco (no Vueve anymore 😞 that flowed liberally last year in the Haven!) mimosa(s)) we see people pointing and sure enough! More whales! We watched for probably over a half hour there were so many. They looked to be Orcas (We only have videos or I'd show pictures!) Great beer, great wildlife. Doesn't get much better than this! If you like beer your shouldn't miss the brewhouse! Great selection of beer! (I haven't shaved all week as I forgot my razor... Sorry! The wife forgot hers as well, but the concierge had toiletry bags behind the counter I had gotten for her. I can't use those cheap razors though...) We head back to the room and find all the kids there. My wife asks my eldest if he liked the slides. He says the other two didn't want to go with him so they had all just returned to the cabin. Oh boy. This set my wife off! She threatened the kids with the most grievous of all threats no to (teenage) people... The loss of all electronics for the rest of the trip if they did get back into their suits and go to the pool with my eldest (after verifying he still wanted to go of course!) They of course suited up, and I walked with them down to the pool area. They went straight to the tube slide. We went to the exit, and I had them drop off their towels and stuff to walk down the stairs to the slide entrance. I told them I'd watch their stuff. The eldest happily, and the other two still pouting that they had gotten in trouble complied. The wife joined me a couple minutes later as I pointed out the kids up on the slide platform. My boys decided to ride together. When they reach the bottle the youngest has a big smile and says he wants to do it again! The daughter decides to go up again as well. Nothing like a little waterslide to get the grump out of kids! It wasn't warm (probably mid 60s and breezy because we were moving) but the water was heated. They decided they wanted to do a hot tub. There are two almost right there after you get off the slide. This not being the haven the hot tubs were PACKED. The kids decided they'd rather head back to the Haven and use the one that is usually empty. (I think we may have spoiled our kids... I remember my first cruise was on a Carnival in my 20's with four guys in a 4 bunk bed style inside room (it was a 3-day booze cruise down to Ensenada, don't judge! Don't think my kids could manage that... And it's probably not a good thing!) While they soaked a bit the wife and I went back to the cabin. They arrived about 30 minutes later.

I would. It's my favorite cruise so far! (But I'm not all into beaches like others which is the typical Caribbean cruises I've taken in the past. Still loved them though!)

Thanks, it's stream of consciousness so probably many spelling/grammar errors as I think faster than I type. 🙂

Yes, essentially you plug in the router. You connect the router to the ship wifi, and set it up to rebroadcast its own wireless network. Once the router is connected to the ship's wifi you connect to the router's wifi network. Open up your NCL app. Select the Internet 'button'. That should open up a page where you can eventually click a button that says connect to the internet. Even though you're using your phone, since you're going through the travel router the ship sees your phone with the IP of the travel router. So when you login you're actually logging the router in. When outside of your room you can always go to the internet tab in he app and 'take' the wifi from the router, but when you get back to the room you have to log onto the routers wifi and repeat the login to allow the router to 'take' it back.

When I get back to the cabin the wife tells me we need to hurry or we'll be late for our reservations. Looking at my watch I see it's almost 8:30! I take a quick shower, and get dressed and we head down to Onda. We go to the Maitre-D station and scan our cards, and they tell us it will just be a moment. As we wait several cruisers come out telling us we're going to love it. It was their favorite meal on the ship! We're excited as we do like Italian food. Some of our favorite. A couple minutes later we're seated at a little two top, and soon are ordering a couple glasses of wine and perusing the menu. We sampled much of the menu (non-entrees) and the waiter even allowed the wife to order a pizza as an appetizer. It was all delicious! It was the best meal we had on the cruise (including the Haven restaurant.) While we were eating a man in a suit comes talking to the tables asking how everything is. When he asks me I say the food was outstanding, but that we were a little disappointed that they seemed to have gotten rid of the bottle with dinner option on the premium plus package. He immediately says, oh please let me get you a bottle of what you're drinking so you can take it back and enjoy it on your balcony! He asks what we're drinking. I was drinking the Sangiovese, I like my sour wine! The wife was doing the Duckhorn merlot (She normally did the Duckhorn Pinot Noir as she prefers it over the merlot, but I had seen that the merlot was listed as $120/bottle vs the $99 for the Pinot. And since we had the premium plus she should try something different. (This was before the man came and offered us a bottle, and the wine I was drinking was priced at the same price as the merlot, so we weren't gaming the system!)) He comes back and gives us a bottle of the Duckhorn (Total Wine lists it at a $50 bottle, so pretty nice) wrapped in a napkin rose! Now that's service! After sampling the desert menu, and being stuffed we were ready to leave, and head back for a night cap. I looked at my phone and see it's 9:15. There is NO way we were in that restaurant for only a half hour. Looking back at my watch I see it's says it's 10:15. Oops, I didn't set my watch back earlier on the trip, but my phone had changed. That means we showed up an hour early at Onda (and it was very busy, probably because it was 7:30 and not 8:30) and they sat us without even questioning us for being an hour early! Once again, great service for us entitled Haven passengers who just show up when we want (even it was accidental!) We headed back to the Haven bar for our nightcap. We see a couple we had talked with earlier. We say Hi, and the husband says it's bed time for him! The wife tells him why don't you go to bed, I'm going to stay and chat. He leaves, and the three of us proceed to be the last three in the bar. Great night, but time for bed! Tomorrow is essentially a sea day with just a short stop in Victoria to satisfy the law. Still 0 whales (for us) seen this cruise! 😞 And no bears!

We're back aboard fairly early in the day. The wife and I have a date night at Onda planned (no kids!) but we do plan to spend time with them before our 8:30pm reservation. Still more than enough time for the kids to (grumpily) do some homework! Speaking of reservations we had made one for 5:30 at the escape room in the Galaxy Pavilion. We've only done one or two but my kids love them! We showed up at our appointed time ready to get in so we could get out as quickly as we can. The escape room is designed for 6 participants, so when we signed up they said there is a chance there would be someone else with us. When we checked in we found they had made a mistake and there were two others (an older mom, and her adult daughter) joining us. They said they only had 6 VR headsets so someone would not be able to view the intro video, but that it doesn't affect the escape room at all. (You only do the VR in this outside room.) I volunteered to skip it since I've got a VR headset at home, and it actually has better VR than the ships headsets... As the video started the other mom decided she did not want to do the VR as it made her sick so I took the headset and finished the intro. I'll not go Into spoilers but it wasn't a very tough escape room. We managed to escape. My kids tended to want to dominate the puzzles but luckily the mom/daughter didn't seem to mind, and we made sure they were able to participate as well. (Along with letting some of my other kids doing some of the puzzles as my youngest wanted to do everything...) I won't spoil it for the rest of you but we did respectably. We were out in 26 minutes, and the attendant said the average about 35 minutes... My kids were really happy. They like winning! The kids wanted to do laser tag again, and the boys wanted to try the go-karts again (They had been kicked off the Bliss track because the people there didn't seem to want to put up with kids driving. Granted my eldest is one of the worst drivers I've ever seen. Luckily he has no desire together a drivers license because he says there are too many rules...) We first to the race track. There was a long line, and they said it would be at least 45 minutes. There was a Haven line, but they said it was only for certain times (No idea what those times are!) The attendant said the line should be smaller in a little bit as people start heading for dinner. We decided to do Laser Tag first. The wife didn't really feel like doing either so left the kids with me as she returned to the cabin for some alone time. The kids had a great time doing the laser tag last year. They loved that I had (unintentionally) made a kid on the other team cry because I had shot him so much. (I was just doing what I was told. Hitting shield, running in and shooting people...) The line wasn't too bad, and it looked there was only one group ahead of us. Each game is 5 minutes. Our turn comes up, and we go into our waiting 'room' on the said and hear the spiel from our 'coach' who tells you the triggers on the side and main trigger are the same. Hit shield and you can't be hit for 10 seconds, after which you can hide and the shield will recharge. He tells us aim for the gun and not the vests. Looking at the guns they had removed the wire between the gun and vest, so I suspect there was some issue they were having with them as they seem to have disconnected the vest sensors with the cable. We wait a while and nothing is happening. Some of our guns seem to have joined the game, and others haven't. The supervisors work to try and fix the issue, but after 10 minutes it still isn't working so they reboot the system. About 10 minutes later everything is rebooted and most guns are fine, mine still it says it's trying to sync. There was another gun on the counter and the guy says use this one. The trigger is broken, but you can push it forward manually between shots. Fine... I'll take the broken gun so my kids can win this game... About another 10 minutes later (lots of problems!) the game starts. I'm going through with my shield blasting the kids on the other side and I feel I have to shoot them 5 or six times before they die. I'm ducking behind blocks between shields and repeat. I was probably 'killed' 3 times. One time I pop up and see about 5 or 6 of the enemy just groups around one of ours. I must have shot everyone of them several times and they're still just hanging out, none of the guns are changing colors so I finally figure my gun isn't working at all. When I did see people die that I shot before it was because one of my team members shot them. I take the gun back to the desk and tell them it's not working, and ask if I can get my money back. He says no problem, and while he's processing the refund one of the other guys comes over and sees the gun I put on the counter and says that's where my demo gun has gone to! I told him it wasn't working and he said it doesn't work in the game. Well that explains why no one was dying! (I was the high scorer last year in our game, and looking at the board I wasn't even listed!) My kids went on to lose by about 5 kills and were disappointed, but when I told them I wasn't playing they felt better about it saying that if I had been there we would have won. (And yes we would have, I'll make the other kids cry for my kids!) We headed back to the racetrack and he line had definitely died down. There was only one group ahead of us. My daughter didn't feel like doing the cars so went back to the cabin to spoil my wife's alone time. We got on the track and the kids did better this time. They were still slow, and I think I lapped them at least once. I'm pretty aggressive on the track. The brakes are for losers! I had one person who kept getting the blue (let the other person pass you light) in front of me, and eventually managed to pass him, and after that I had a pretty clear track most of the way. (It's like that feeling you get when you've been in stop-and-go traffic for an hour and finally the traffic clears and you can go full speed!) Now it was time to return to the cabin to get ready for my dinner, and let the kids do their electronics.

We wake up to Ketchikan. This is a relatively short port with the last shuttle back leaving before noon I believe. I had made no plans for Ketchikan, and thought we would just head to creek street and see what we could. Luckily our plans didn't unfold that way! Looking out the windows we can see rain. We break out our weather gear and had a quick breakfast in the cabin because of our desire to get out and see as much as we could in such a short time. The concierge escorts us down again and we use as much of the cover we can find getting to the warehouse style gift shop that stands between the docks and the shuttles downtown. The shuttles are two story busses and of course the kids wanted to ride on the top. We got on and took the 15-20 ride into town. We get off the bus and you're dropped off in this parking lot with a couple of small excursion huts. They're hocking their wares as we pass, namely a wilderness excursion to find wildlife. I walk past immune to this stuff, but the wife sees something about bears having been seen by the creek recently, and they tell her $75 per adult and they have 8 spots left leaving in 5 minutes. The wife calls me over, because she wants to see wildlife, and that's probably half the cost on the ship. They offer 1/2 price for the kids, and said they'd only charge my 16 year old as an adult. He saw I was wearing my 49ers cap and said "Go Niners" for you I'll do $70 per adult. My wife was already sold so we loaded up into their small shuttle bus that holds around 16 people. The person helping us onto the bus (who turned out to be the boss) saw my hat and threatened to not let me on. He was of course a Seahawks fan. My wife made a point of telling him we got $5 off because we were niners fans. Hopefully she didn't get the other person in trouble. 🙂 He probably gave us a better deal to spite his boss! (Or just to make a sale. Might have even have claimed to be a cardinals fan if I was wearing their colors...) We talked football a bit. People can root for different teams, have different opinions and still get along! Our driver seems to be an itinerant seasonal worker. She came from New York City, but has been wandering across the country doing odd jobs. Back country stuff in Yellowstone, this was her first (and she says only) year in Ketchikan, and she's moving on to our neck of the woods to teach snowboarding at Squaw in Tahoe (You can call it Pallisades, but it's always been Squaw to me) She was great (once again much better than the ranger in Glacier Bay!) One of the first things she said, "I want to be honest with you. I know most of you want to see a bear. We probably won't see one today because it is very late in the season, but we'll do our best!" She had asked everyone if they wanted to be dropped off downtown or back at the ship. We had wanted to do creek street so asked if we were stopping there. She said we weren't, but could drop us on the way back if we wanted. We told her we'd let her know. My wife was having second thoughts about whether we should have done this excursion at this point... Our first stop was Totem Bite park. We were pretty much the only group there. She was telling us how this is all a rain forest, and we got to experience what the call liquid sun-shine. I think she said it rains on average over 300 days a year. During the winter they have 17 hours of darkness. Probably not where I'd want to live... but I loved visiting! Yes they had totems as well! This is in the communal cabin example. We loaded back on the bus and we headed to just outside the salmon hatchery. They're a little creek that leads into a pond and then the ocean here. There are lots of seagulls around, and we can see seals swimming in the pond. There are also loads and loads of dead salmon all over the rocks! Here you can see one of the dead ones in the river. Don't we all like seeing dead fish? She told us all about the life-cycle of the salmon. She says by the time they get here they are mostly zombies. You could see them swimming up the creek, and they didn't look like they were in great shape! It was here that I saw the third of four bald eagles we saw. (She called them Alaskan Pigeons). This is from far away and zoomed in. (I forgot to mention when driving to the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau we saw two bald eagles sitting on top of a light pole.) Our guide kept talking about her bucket list, and those things she had checked off. Many in Alaska. She said just last week she got another one when she caught a wild salmon with her own hands, cooked, and ate it. She was determined to repeat the feat for us so went out into the river in some waders and her dress (?!) Sure enough she succeeded! Then took the fish to members of our group allowing them to take a picture holding it. (None of my party was particularly interested in holding a smelly fish, but others were!) When we were done with the pictures she threw the salmon back into the creek and it swam away for what are probably its last few days of life... My daughter was pretty entranced with this performance however! When we got back on the bus she asked us for a vote. Who wanted to go to the beach, and who wanted to go to the waterfall? I think everyone chose the waterfall... Raining in Alaska didn't seem like prime beach weather. She took us off to a waterfall by the side of the road and we all got out and took our pictures. She said this was the start of the second hardest hike on the island. It went up quite a long way, and involved rock climbing and I think ropes... This was a quick stop and we loaded back up. I of course had to ask what the hardest one. (I think I helped with her setup...) She said it was the traverse across the length of the island via the highest peaks. She said she had attempted it earlier in the season with her friend and thought they might have to get help because the weather turned. She said she plans on doing it before she leaves for Tahoe because her momma didn't raise a quitter. As we drive back town she says we have time to do the beach as well if we're still interested. Several were, and I was ok with it since when am I getting back to Ketchikan? I'm glad we did because it was a nice pitstop. She said this was the main swimming hole for the residents. She says the trees leave their tannins in the water which makes it darker and therefore warmer. As you walk down towards the ocean there are some tide-pools. We saw several crabs and a washed up jellyfish. As we got down to the ocean she reaches into a tide pool and pulls out a starfish. She handed to us to hold and take pictures with before putting it back. We got back in and she asked us again if she wanted us to drop us off on Creek Street. I looked at the clock and it was 12, and I think all aboard time was 12:45, and I'm pretty sure there were no more shuttles! So naturally I said ship, and so did everyone. We saw creek street as we drove by, and it looked like fun, but neither my wife nor I regretted going on this tour. Our guide made it interesting and fun for all of us! The advantage of taking this tour is we didn't have to stand in line for a shuttle to return! She got us back in plenty of time, and we even had enough time to do a little souvenir shopping at the dock before boarding and getting ready to leave Ketchikan. It was a surprisingly fun stop for us!

I'm going to say now that I screwed up the dinner nights. I believe Skagway we did the Haven again for dinner. It was actually tonight that we did Cagney's... I saw the picture of us 'dressed' up by the 'chandalier' yes it is god-awful. Especially when it isn't lit up with colors... Whatever they wrapped that thing with is horrifying... Now that I got that dinner messed up we can go back before dinner and as we were leaving the bay. On the way out I kept seeing things in the water that looked like logs from our balcony. I pointed them out to my wife and she said they're just logs. I pulled out the cheap binocular I had brought ($40 from Amazon) and pointing them at the 'logs' you could see they were moving. They were sea otters and they were all over. I called the wife over and gave her the binoculars. She looked through them and said I was right. I may not remember what I had for dinner, but darn if I'm not going to remember my wife telling me I'm right! The last time was probably several years ago! The kids all came out and we enjoyed watching the sea otters for an hour. You 'finish' glacier bay fairly early so it's kind of like a sea day. In the afternoon we decided we'd head down to the arcade as my kids enjoyed that for an hour on the Bliss. On the way down we decide to check out the entourage room. We peek in and the guy in charge gets there quick (since no one under 18 is allowed.) He tells us about the program and asks if we want to sign up. Essentially there were about 7 teens in the club. 6 of them were sitting on a couch staring at their phones, and the 7th was glued to a video game. Sometimes I worry about the next generation (my kids included!) The kids weren't interested, and my youngest would have been separated anyways so we continued the few more steps to the arcade. The arcade was mostly empty when we arrived. We told the kids they could have 10 swipes each. The youngest and daughter started with Guitar Hero. While the wife and I played the air hockey. Not a fan of the air hockey table they have there. They are trying to be cute and the table is curved like half a cylinder (not quite as drastic but still) and it doesn't really add to the gameplay. I let me wife tie me because if you remember the story from last time I beat her and she was upset. Now she was upset because she realized I let her get the last goal for a tie. Sometimes you just can't win! My eldest (the dinosaur lover) spent the whole time killing dinosaurs... He finished the first two levels before we left, but probably swiped more than the allotted 10, as he swiped as soon as he died to continue the game... After that we did our dinner at Cagney's you can read about it above in the wrong place! After dinner I went out to see if I could see the Northern Lights this time. I went up to the Sun deck and found some of our new friends from the Haven bar enjoying the hot tub. They said they were looking for the lights too, but didn't see any. The haven sun deck is not the place to be looking for them. That place is lit up like a Christmas tree. I went back to our cabin to see what I could see on our balcony. I captured this which wasn't visible with the naked eye, but I'm suspecting this was light from a city (which I suspect was Juneau after looking at the location the photo was taken and consulting a map...) We chose not to close down the bar this nights and went in early and watched a movie. We were tired from our ship fun, and closing the bar last night. One disadvantage of this trip is that we didn't eat to miss breakfast so we were usually up by 7-8 and didn't sleep in. So 'late' nights at the bar hurt more!

So we wake up on glacier bay day! I look outside and it pretty foggy and hard to see the land that's out there. Oh oh! This is supposed to be the highlight of the cruise! It's why you take the Encore at this time and not the Bliss (unless you've done glacier bay before...) There is also a slight drizzle going on. I check my phone and see several messages in our roll call group. Darn it! While I was closing down the bar people were out on the deck and the northern lights were going on! There were some great photos.They did say you couldn't really see them well with the naked eye, you needed to take a picture to actually make them visible... Screen capped from the thread... View from the balcony entering the bay. Oh well, disappointed at missing the lights, and the gloomy fog outside I figured we might as well head over to the Haven restaurant for a nice breakfast. Always geeted by name we got what tended to be our normal table for 5 one row from the windows at an oval half booth table. My daughter always zooms for the chair with the view. We had to make her move because she did this everywhere and it was starting to annoy the wife and I. We paid for this cruise, and we should get a nice seat every now and then! We watched the mist covered land masses (not sure which are islands) and it did appear the fog was lifting somewhat. After breakfast we head back to the room to relax and see what we could off our balcony. You could hear the ranger talking on the ship's comm outside the room. I tried to get the talk to come on the TV but it wasn't coming on. I ended up propping our door with a shoe so I could hear what she was saying. Let me tell you... She was NO WHERE near as talented as the person narrating our whitepass train ride. He sounded excited about what he was talking about, she sounded like she was reading a script and not very excited about what she was saying. But if you listened to what she was saying it sounded like she should be excited, but no emotion came through her reading... It is what it is! The first glacier is a drive by, the Lamplugh glacier. the star is the John Hopkins way at the end of the bay where you do the pirouette. The dividing line is not land, it's just different colored water. If I could have heard the narration well she probably explained it. I suspect that it's due to the glacier being fresh water, and the rest of the bay being salt water. If I'm wrong you can correct me since it's just my theory. The channel finally did start working as we neared the John Hopkins glacier but here I could only hear a little through the propped open door and out on the balcony... You sail for a while more and finally get to the John Hopkins glacier. Not the beautiful sunny day you'd see on the wikipedia page for this glacier, but still pretty! We went up to the Haven sundeck as we were approaching the glacier to get a forward look. It was raining, but at least we finally got to break out the waterproof windbreakers we had packed for this trip! Not the day for glacier viewing, but we lucked out on weather everywhere else! At the entrance to the Haven sundeck they had their alcoholic coffee and hot chocolate station (also Salmon chowder if you're into that kind of thing.) The wife and I have a couple of Irish Coffees (Bring your keycards because they do swipe them!) Since glacier bay is one of the rare time passengers are allowed onto the bow of the ship (It's usually crew only, and you could see them occasionally lying out there and hanging out from our DOS Balcony on our Mexican Riviera trip last year) we decided we should head down there and experience it. There is quite a line you have to navigate. They had a big loop entering the port side, and you exit on the starboard side. I feel a little bad for people in the cabins lining these cooridors because it must make it a little harder for them to navigate with all the people filling up the hallways. When you get up there you aren't allowed into the very front of the ship as that is roped off. Also they have a much larger alcoholic coffee/hot chocolate/salmon chowder station right there. You definitely don't have to be in the haven to be able to partake of that! They also have a picture station set up to take your picture with the glacier in the background. We walked out and looked, pretty much the same view as from up top, but hey, we were on the bow! The kids are obviously thrilled to be out in the weather and the great outdoors experience something probably many of their friends haven't done! You can see it written all over their faces! The captain announced that we would be staying here an hour, and rotating the ship so all could see it from wherever you were located. We headed back to the cabin so could experience it in a little quieter surroundings on our own balcony. I think the captain turned the ship around twice in the time we were there.

So after we got back to the cabin we got ready for our dinner at Cagney's. My wife, the vegetarian, loves steakhouses. Not for the meat, but for the sides! Our plan at Cagney's is to order our meals, and the kids to order off the kids menu (like I mentioned before the only one that likes real meals is my daughter, and she only likes the meat; not the vegetables.) and then we give wife's steak to our daughter. *Gasp* I know! Against the terms and conditions! Rule breakers! The servers didn't care, and my wife enjoyed the plethora of sides (I think we ordered most of the sides!) and the daughter devoured her Filet. As neither of us are seafood aficionados so we didn't have any starters (I do find it weird that all the starters at Cagney's are seafood based...) I had asked for a wine list to order a bottle of wine for dinner. When the waiter returned I asked which were the the available bottles for the premium + package. He said they're all listed on the left, and I'd get 40% off of them. I said I thought we got bottles at dinner with the package, he said he didn't think so and would check. When he came back he said no only 40% off bottles, and asked if I would like a bottle. Nope! I'll drink it by the glass then! I had the rib-eye which was probably the best steak I had on the cruise. It was done to a perfect medium rare and was a nice cut of meat. (Not impressed with the steaks in the Haven... Probably should ask for the filet there since it's harder to mess up or get a bad filet...) After sampling the deserts and a couple coffees we were stuffed and ready to return to the room. The bottle thing was annoying me as I've been reading here quite a bit and don't recall reading a thread about it (as bottles were no problem on our cruise last year, and I had ordered one at Los Lobos.) When I got back to the cabin I checked my spending account and noticed that I wasn't charged for the prior bottle, but I did notice I was be charged 3 $25 service charges a day. I had pre-paid gratuities from my TA so I assumed I wouldn't have to pay gratuities. Seeing 3 charges I quickly figured out like everything else those only applied to the first two people in the cabin. That $75/day ate up all my OBC ($300 was refundable from my TA, and $100 from stock ownership wasn't), but thems the breaks! After being disappointed by spending an unexpected extra $500 on my cruise I decided to read the terms and conditions for the Premium + drink package, and sure enough the bottle of wine at dinner was no longer here, just the 40% off. I guess my reading skills here must be lacking as I don't recall seeing the threads berating this change. From further reading once I got back it does seem that some waiters will charge you for 4 glasses and give you the bottle, which is probably what happened at Los Lobos had I checked the receipt. You live, you learn! Since you are entitled to 2 drinks per transaction I wonder if you can 'force' the bottle by just ordering 2 glasses apiece when we order drinks. Will try that next cruise! After that we went back to the cabin and the kids did their nightly electronics run, and the wife and I headed back to the Haven bar to talk about our days at Skagway with the new friends. Check another bar closing down for us! Gotta make my money back on the drink package to pay for those gratuities! Tomorrow is what is considered the highlight of the cruise. Cruising Glacier bay!

Glad I could help, because I too love that word, AND Choir of Man!

After the glorious train ride (have I recommended it enough to you?) we got off to explore the town before heading back to the ship where we had Cagney's scheduled for our specialty dinner. You can see my daughter can barely handle her excitement to have her picture taken with the unbare bear at the translation. Unfortunately the one major piece of wild-life we did not see this trip was a real bear. Another Red named saloon we weren't able to enter because of our baggage... I mean kids! They must really like the color red up here in Alaska, or more probably they really liked their prostitutes and red-lights as this one offers brothel tours. (I'm guessing the Red Dog used to also have a brothel affiliation...) I believe we ended up stopping by the pop-corn store here as the kid really wanted some. The store clerk gave us some extra bags with some sealing tape in case they gave the kids problems trying to get back on the ship with open food. Turns out they were more than capable of finishing the pop-corn before then so those weren't needed. We got back to where the shuttle dropped us off, and there was another giant line waiting to board another train headed up the mountain. There was also another giant line for getting the shuttles back to the boat. This is where the landslide really sucked. The boat looked to be about 100 yards or so away (in my picture of the shuttle stop in a prior post you can see the Encore in the background), and we were told we wouldn't be allowed to walk back so had to wait in the line for the shuttles. Eventually we get on but there seems to be some confusion. Someone official is telling the shuttle driver he needs to move because he's blocking the road, and he leaves, but now there are no shuttles for us except backwards. We head that way and get on (I'm pretty oblivious because I'm following the family to make sure no one gets lost, and just board the shuttle after them.) My wife is talking to her seat mates while I board (got behind a couple other people.) I sit with my youngest who I was herding, and when it gets time to get off the lady across the aisle says you can go I don't have an issue with you, but I'm not letting those people off! Turns out she was talking about the people my wife was talking to. I had no idea what was going on. After we got off my wife tells me the lady and partner she was sitting next to were yelled at by this other woman because she thought they were cutting the line. I think it was all confusion about the end shuttles leaving and the line going back on itself because there were no more shuttles where we were, but I mean we all got where we going so what's the problem? I guess I lucked out by getting on later, although I probably looked I was cutting the line too. My wife and the other women laughed about it as we boarded the boat. I guess they hadn't put up with it (I know my wife doesn't put up with any crap...) and let the woman know about it before I even boarded which probably made the other lady even angrier. We're on vacation people! No reason to get angry!

Editors note: Trying to do smaller posts as I lost another one when trying to add pictures. When copy/pasting from google images things usually work fine. When trying to get stuff from Mac-OS Photos they come out as a non-jpeg file and don't show. Then if I drag the photos in to the bottom bar they tend to come in upside down. So my solution is to save them to a folder. Open them in preview (Where they show up rotated correctly) and then rotate them one way. Save. Rotate back the other way and save. Then when I attach them they come up the right way. The image tools could be a little better here. Anyways sometimes when futzing with the images I do something and if the page reloads I lose everything. So I'll be playing it safer with a little smaller posts so I don't lose too much at a time. (I only have so much time waiting for my code to compile that I can't be posting here all day!) I'm a software guy; not IT. Although most people assume if you do software you know how to fix all the computer problems. I write software for unmanned aerial vehicles and if you have a general C++ question I might have an answer. If you say my browser is locking up when I upload a picture you're on your own. I didn't write that crappy software. My software hasn't made any of our planes crash yet! *knocks on wood*

Love me some snow-capped mountains! We passed two trains on the way back while we were on the way up. Everyone waves to each other as we pass. The first of the two tunnels you go through. Yes it gets dark inside them! Be sure to look out the left as you exit the first tunnel. There's the rumor a Yeti likes to play with dynamite there. I actually asked my son if he saw the Yeti. He thought I was joking and didn't believe me. On the way back he saw him, and now he doesn't know when he should believe me. Just the way I like it to keep him on his toes! The second tunnel. Don't worry, the rail line no longer goes over that bridge. They built a new one and let the old one Patsy Kline itself... This is the old gold-rush trail. Apparently this was worse than the line to get on the train except you had people hauling up gear. Some of which you can still see down there rusting away since the 1800s. You do enter Canada, but since we don't get off no passports needed I guess!

Today is Skagway! The only day I actually had a planned ship excursion for us. From reading here it sounds like the Whitepass train is a home-run, and therefore was on my must-do list! I would have liked to do one of the helicopter land on a glacier tours, but the wife is deathly afraid of helicopters. Maybe a fixed wing ride over a glacier? Nope. She doesn't like small planes. Her uncle is a private pilot, and the only small plane she will travel in because she knows he's very careful in everything he does. He used to own a helicopter, and had a license for it, but got rid of it because he felt it was too dangerous (probably why the wife won't fly in one.) I'm happy to report though, after talking with fellow passengers and seeing their pictures from their helicopter adventures she is beginning to thaw and said maybe if we come back to Alaska she might do it. So you're saying there's a chance! I wake up and look out our balcony window and see a beautiful hillside covered in trees and some fog. Being an 'early' train ride (I believe 9:30) the wife had pre-arranged breakfast ensuite which the butler brought at the time requested. While he was setting up I headed to the Horizon Observation lounger to grab some pastries (and an Almond Croissant to make Sthrngary jealous...) and bread for the carboholics in the cabin. While there I saw this out the front windows, Wahoo! This is what I pictured when I thought about Alaska! Wonderful snow-capped mountains! And there was more to see throughout the day! While the wife was getting kids ready I was getting the tickets. They had left the tickets in an envelope on the desk upon embarkation. I opened them up and saw a big notice about being sure to bring your passport or original birth certificates on the excursion because we'd be going into Canada. The wife said really? She has a wallet thing that contains all the passports but didn't really want to take them because they take a fair portion of her purse space. As we're headed down to the concierge to get escorted off I'm looking at the tickets and realize the tickets the note is stapled to is for someone else! There is also all of our tickets, but no note stapled to any of those. I ask the concierge if we need our passports for our excursions, and show him the note that I said had someone else's tickets attached. He tells me no, we don't need them for ours. Let this be a lesson to check your tickets when you board. Luckily our tickets were fine, but the other person may have been missing theirs. If it had been the other way around we'd have been scrambling at the last moment! The wife was happy to be able to leave our passports back in the cabin safe. After debarking you MUST take the short shuttle into town. We're told because it is unsafe to walk the relatively short distance after the recent rock-slide. (The concierge's message he left every morning on our phones said to allow 45 minutes before your excursion start to get to town. That was obviously conservative, because it only took us about 15 minutes.) The shuttle drops you right by where you can board the train if you purchased them from NCL. (Otherwise I believe you have to go to the actual station in town which is about a half mile walk I think. Not bad, but if you have challenges with that it could be an issue.) We walked around a bit because we weren't really sure where to go. Turns out that gigantic line is for our train. This was the largest line of our Alaskan voyage (of course being in the Haven we weren't sure what a line was. Off the ship we were brought back to reality! And no, I didn't announce to the others in line that were were Haven and they should move aside for us as I did see some Haven people do last year when leaving the terminal at the end of the cruise. Luckily the staff told them the Haven doesn't exist here, and they'd have to wait with everyone else.) They had people standing by the line telling us it was indeed a line and answering any questions. Someone asked if they would have room for us (since we were near the end of the line) which they were assured there were more than enough seats for all of us! Once the line started boarding things moved pretty quickly. As we got to the train the guy told us board an car with the step stool in front of it. As we got to the first one with the step stool we were going to just go into that one, but another guy told us a different story that we need to board the first car with a stool at the front of the train. Ok. Whatever we get on the car and it's actually empty except for us. We move towards the front, and decide to avoid the furnace that each car has as it puts out a LOT of heat! We give the heater a seats distance and the temperature is moderate enough for the wife who gets hot easily. The train ride was absolutely fantastic! Just beauty everywhere you look! I'm sure you've all seen pictures from it, but I'll add my own here. The narrator on the car was so good my wife thought it was a recording. He kept making notes like looking back because we normally don't get to see this clearly to the glacier that I suspected it was a real person doing it live. Sure enough he comes through on the way back (I suspect mostly to receive (well deserved) tips) to say hi to all the cars. They tell the whole gold-rush story of Skagway and it keeps you entertained as you sit back and take in all the scenery. If you haven't done it I would definitely suggest this excursion for any Skagway stop!

That was our experience in New York. The teachers really encouraged the kids to go out and explore (obviously not the whole school year, but the teachers were really happy to give them their homework for the week, and excited for them) California they seem to really discourage it. The welcome back video we sat through 3 times (3 different back-to-school days for 3 different schools my kids attend) had the superintendent reminding people to schedule vacations for when school was not in session. That if your child missed too much school you would be referred to CPS. I agree with you that they will remember these experience more than they will remember a week of missed school. My son is taking marine biology and he saw and experienced first hand some of what they were learning about in class in real life.

Out of sequence because I don't remember which night, but one of these days the wife and I had headed down to the Cavern club to catch the Beatles tribute (I think it was the early years?) We showed up about 15 minutes early and found some seats by a table occupied with 2 but had two empty chairs. The nice couple invited us to join them. They were (obviously, via accent) from Boston, and we enjoyed talking with them before the show. We had gone to one of their (different band) shows on the Bliss (I think the Psychedelic years) and enjoyed it so wanted to hit at least one this year. They put on a great show again. Maybe because we know all the songs, but we had a great time. We later encountered the couple again later in the Haven during the week so we had fun catching up for a bit. I would encourage you to see at least one concert in the Cavern club if you like the Beatles at all. If you don't then I would advise you to stay away and go to one of the other musical acts that are playing around the ship!

So Ketchikan was one of the days I specifically did not book a speciality dinner in because the ship didn't leave until 11pm. The wife and I had contemplated getting off and going back to the saloon for a drink, but decided against it as we were tired from the day already. I believe I mentioned it before that my wife is a vegetarian. The Haven menu is lovely, but is a bit lacking on vegetarian options. (She loved all the options she tried there!) I know they can be more accommodating with advanced notice, but we decided to just space out our visits there. Tonight I suggested we try the local. I know they have the pretzel bites that my kids would love. We went there around 6 and had no problem getting a seat. The dinner was great. We ordered some drinks. Maybe it's just placebo, but the drinks again weren't as good as the ones in the Haven. The wife was against disappointed in her margarita, and decided she wouldn't be ordering outside the Haven anymore... I had a Tito-soda my maintaining drink on this cruise. I'm normally a beer drinker, but outside the district brew-house the beer selection is poor. I believe the only IPA they have at the normal bars is Goose-Island, and I'm not a big fan of that one... Anyways, we ate dinner while enjoying Royal Flush (I think) play some classic rock. The wife and I planned on hitting the comedy show later at 9:30, and the kids had some iPad/iPhone time planned so we finished dinner and headed back to the Cabin. The wife (freshened up) and I (already fresh as can be) headed over to the Social to watch the late night comedian. He was a Juneau local and he made some jokes about seeing the sun in Juneau and about how rare that was. He was good. Not great, but the wife and I had a great time! We headed back to the Haven bar and decided to have a night cap while we sailed out of Juneau. Great day in the capital of Alaska! (0 whales seen up to this point even though I guess Juneau is a great place to see them...)

Just wanted to update on this. My daughter has been on the same Soccer (non-comp) team for 7 years now. We've made friends with several of the families and click with one set of parents. The wife of this family is the principal at one of the local schools. My wife was discussing the trip with her at the soccer game this weekend, and she said thank you for doing the Independent study. She confirmed they do get the money for the 'missed' days (at least here in California!)

As you see you can get pretty close to the falls if you wish! Funny story about this last picture. My wife has some anxiety about injury (her time in the emergency department where she saw the results of actions...) and was taking pictures from farther away when she saw my boys walking over to the falls. She shouted yelling at them to STOP! And wait for us. I was closer and got there, and since they were already there decided to take some photos (she also like photos.) After picture time we walked back to join their mother. And my wife asks him why he was ignoring her! The youngest says "I didn't hear you. I kept walking expecting to hear you calling us back, but since I didn't hear you I kept going!" Needless to say the falls are pretty loud! On the way back the trail started getting a little busier. When we got back to the visitor center (which may have been open, but we didn't bother going in) we saw one of the cruise line buses had finally made it here. Score one for Mendenhall on our own! We load back into the car and head back to drop the car off. We had it until 11pm (when the ship leaves) but we had only rented it to get to the glacier, and had no other stops in mind. We wanted to explore the town a little before night fell. I put in 2 gallons of gas (cheaper than California!) which was a little more than we used and headed back to the owners house. Parked the car and we walked the very short distance to town. It's a cute town. There was still a lot open in Juneau, probably because it's the capital city. We probably had time to do the Tram (Would have been 'free' for the first two with the $50 off excursion), but if you remember the wife is a little afraid of heights, Also there was a long line... We decided we'd stop by the Red Dog saloon. We peeked in and they have the sign (that I saw at all the drinking establishments) that minors weren't allowed in. I'm not sure of the laws in Alaska, but apparently minors aren't even allowed in a brewery we passed that served food. The wife and I really wanted to go in and have a drink because it looked cool (and our friends told it was really neat. That they had Wyatt Earp's gun hanging behind the bar, and told us the story about it. Apparently he left it for some reason or other, but we were drinking when the story was relayed so I didn't get the whole thing... 🙂 ) 'Luckily' they had no such restrictions in the gift shop located right next door. They do have an entrance to the saloon there so the wife and I peeked in and it looked fun, but maybe on a sans-kids return! The wife had to buy a couple souvenirs even though we never actually made it into the bar. We all decided to head back to ship as we'd seen enough for the day. We did take the shuttle back to the ship instead of walking this time. We were back on and in our cabin by 5pm. Got back in time to view the sunset before heading out to dinner!