OrcaGirl

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Day 4 - evening shenanigans recap Post-naps, we headed down to the casino where my mom continues to have better luck than me, and then did a little souvenir shopping. Tshirts are currently 2 for 25. (I also told mom you have to rub the moose’s butt for good luck…) After that it was more trivia (I continue to suck) and then — since mom was feeling a bit peopled out — to the buffet for dinner which was much quieter than breakfast or lunch (but, unlike Celebrity, still offers a full dinner)… We proceeded to musical bingo, which was fun, but I made the mistake of singing along to Ice Ice Baby and the host saw that I knew all the words and he said I had to sing it at the next karaoke night so I guess I can never go to karaoke again because NOPE. Mom and I headed back to the Enclave, which was empty when we arrived, but we couldn’t get the steam room or sauna working. Eventually some staff came by to do something to it, but we decided to dry off and head to 80s movie trivia. I’ll spare you my whole rant (which my mom and D and husband have already been subjected to) but “No, I am your father” is from The Empire Strikes Back, NOT Star Wars. And Star Wars came out in 1977, NOT 1980. And Jurassic Park came out in 1993, and is therefore NOT an 80s movie. So after that I refused to stick around for 80s music trivia, because it would have likely just made me even madder. 🤬 So off to bed we went.

🤣 We counted 9 walk by just sitting here in Princess Live waiting for musical bingo to start…

Day 4 - afternoon at Hubbard Glacier After a short nap, we headed to the buffet for lunch. Still super packed and chaotic. I wonder if it would be easier for everyone to find seating if everyone on board agreed to not save tables until their entire party is ready to sit down — a sort of Nash equilibrium game theory of cruise ship dining? But the food was good. And the two Vanilla White Russians I accidentally ordered were also quite yummy (the app crashed on me mid-order and didn’t show the first order going through.) After lunch we headed back to our cabin to watch the approach to Hubbard Glacier from the balcony. Of note, I used the app to order two hot chocolates with Baileys at 1pm as we entered Yakutat Bay, thinking we’d drink them on the balcony while looking at Hubbard Glacier… the drinks didn’t arrive until after we’d already visited Hubbard Glacier and were on our way back out, around 2:30pm. The glacier was beautiful, though due to the ice in the water we couldn’t get too close. No wildlife sightings either. We were still tired so afternoon naps for everyone!

It seems like there are plenty of waiters around delivering drinks, but outside of the main dining rooms and buffet, I haven’t had anyone come up and ask if I wanted to order a drink. I’m also more used to NCL and Celebrity with waiters walking around and taking orders. I like ordering from the app in theory but it does seem to take longer to get your drink.

Day 4 - scenic cruising to Hubbard Glacier Left the balcony curtains ajar and woke up with the sunshine around 5:30am. So happy to see some blue sky, even if we might get some rain later. Since I was up early, I popped down to the deck 8 laundromat to throw on a load of clothes, then decamped to the International Cafe for an Americano and croissant while I waited. (As noted on other threads, laundry was free and the detergent and fabric softener were sitting out on a shelf.) Post-laundry, I made it back to the cabin just as the ladies were enjoying their room service. We’ve found our morning routine: first breakfast in the room, spa time in the Enclave, then second breakfast in the buffet. We couldn’t find an empty table in the World Marketplace and ended up eating outside near the Wakeview Bar. Mom declared the biscuits quite good and the gravy almost as good as grandma’s… We then headed to the Piazza for tea and people-watching, specifically more people-learning-to-line-dance -watching. The ship has been rocking and rolling a fair bit this morning, so we busted out the Gravol Ginger and retired back to the cabin to relax for a bit before the ship reaches Yakutat Bay. Random observations Someone opened my dryer and then didn’t shut the door again. It still had 3 minutes on it when I returned, my laundry bag was sitting on top, and there were two other dryers clearly not in use. Lame! The line dance instructors have been very good and engaging. So fun to watch, even if we aren’t brave enough to participate. Mom is not a fan of the SeaWalk. 🤣

Haven’t been there yet. We’ve walked past some good music in the Piazza and the Crown Grill Bar.

Day 3 - dinner and evening shenanigans Since we got back on the ship so late, we were cold and hungry and hightailed it to the room to change for dinner. I sent the ladies ahead to grab a table at Ketchikan dining room while I stayed back to handle a room maintenance issue. Dinner was good if not as amazing as the previous night. But thank you to our server for being patient with my mom’s drink order indecisiveness. Unfortunately mom’s verdict was that her quiche is better than theirs. (Yeah, it definitely is.) After dinner, we decided that since we had already missed the Iditarod presentation and the game show, that we’d skip going to the Enclave and just repeat karaoke. Kudos to the American woman who sang not one but two Anne Murray songs! That made mom so happy to have songs she recognized. I was fading fast and pretty much insisted on heading to bed right after that. Keeping up with two 70-something-year-olds is tiring! Random observations There was a small environmental protest group at the Juneau dock; communities against cruising? If your room safe isn’t working, it’s the batteries. Do not confuse the Salty Dog Gastropub (on the ship) and the Red Dog Saloon (in Juneau). 🤣 We won a Princess Prizes door prize! A little Medallion clip-on accessory. I’d rather have OBC or a free cruise but just happy to be a winner… The Princess karaoke song list: https://discovery.princess.com/princessatsea/sites/default/files/general_info_attachments/karaoke_song_list.pdf (But the typos and naming convention inconsistencies in the list are driving this editor batty!)

Norwegian and Celebrity have managed to deliver drinks to the middle rows in the theatre just fine…

Day 3 - Juneau excursion: Whale Watching & Wildlife Quest We were scheduled to be in Juneau from 2pm to 10pm. Our excursion meeting time was given as 2:20pm on the dock. After several announcements that the ship wasn’t cleared yet and to please wait in the public areas and not crowd the exit, they finally cleared the ship at 2:20pm. By then, the line to disembark looped deck 6 from the casino all the way back to the dining room, up and down the stairs, and up and down another set of stairs, past the piazza and back to the casino. 😬 It was not fun… staff communication was either non-existent or just plain wrong. I left my mom and D at the casino by the exit while I did the long trek in the queue. And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s people who see a long line and immediately assume that they’re more important and can just merge in and cut the line. (I’m just kidding — I hate lots of things.) There also didn’t seem to be any process in place to get people in wheelchairs or with mobility issues through the line. Basically it was a very frustrating experience, enough so that I immediately checked the time for our other excursions because I’m not doing that again. Anyway, we eventually got off the ship and found our tour bus, which ended up leaving a half-hour late at 3pm. We had a great driver for the 30-min drive to the dock to meet our tour boat, operated by Allen Marine. The boat was nice (and had bathrooms which was my mom’s only requirement). Only complaint is that the poor bar server needed more support and was in the weeds for most of the trip. The weather was grey and rainy and overcast… saw lots of eagles (from far away) and a colony of stellar sea lions, but no whales… or rather, there was a single whale that some people saw, but we didn’t. We didn’t feel like going up to the outer deck, or jumping up and down and moving around, so we figured if the whale presented itself on our side of the boat, great, and if not that was okay too. There were some bus delays on our way back, and it was past 7:30 by the time we were dropped off back at the ship. Various photos

Day 3 - Juneau Woke up around 7:15 (8:15 Vancouver time so yay for sleeping in?) and quickly dressed and popped down to the International Cafe for an Americano and some yummy pastries (mom and D having declared the room service pastries to be a little blah.) I made it back to the room just in time for our room service order to arrive. Too cold to sit out on the balcony but it’s still nice to have a leisurely first breakfast without braving the hordes in the buffet. Once again, mom and I ducked back into the thermal spa for a soak. Along with some fun wardrobe malfunctions. 🤣 Back to the buffet for second breakfast. Back to the Piazza for more line dancing. This was musical theatre themed, with warm-up dances to Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray) and Footloose (Footloose) and then The Greatest Show (The Greatest Showman) as the main event. As always, very fun watching people with varying levels of rhythm and coordination. 🤣 After that we headed to the Vista Lounge for music trivia… I started strong then had several songs in a row that I just had no clue. Unfortunately the host was a bit scattered, missed a few songs, and then it was really hard to see the answers on the screen and he didn’t read them out consistently. We weren’t particularly hungry for lunch yet, so we headed back to the room to change into swimsuits and headed out to the main pool deck for some hot tub time. Once the rain picked up and chased us out of the hot tubs, we decided on Salty Dog hot dogs for lunch. Good, but would have been better with fried onions. After that, we hung out in the room watching our approach into Juneau and dug out our layers to get ready for our afternoon excursion.

Still catching up… no time to write when I’m following the ladies around… Day 2 - dinner and evening shenanigans We struggled to make reservations on the app or the interactive screens, so we headed to the Ketchikan dining room and got in the ‘no reservations’ line. We only waited about 8 minutes to be seated. Dinner was delicious, our server was lovely though there were a few gaps between courses. My mom ordered the crab cake but eyed up D’s tapioca fruit salad appetizer enough that at the end of the meal I requested one to take back to the room for her to have later. She also had her first-ever crème brûlée which was something she’d been looking forward to. I dropped it off in the room and headed to the theatre to meet mom and D just in time for Rock Opera. The show was fun, sparkly, good singing and dancing. Based on the logo, though, would it have killed them to have one song from Phantom of the Opera. They had three from The Greatest Showman. I do wish there was some through line… it was a mix of Broadway songs, some Aerosmith, Celine Dion, Cher, Simon & Garfunkel… a very eclectic mix of songs. I am curious about the choreography for two songs that seemed to incorporate sign language into the dance moves. If anyone knows, drop some knowledge. After the show, D went to bed but mom and I headed back to the thermal spa for a bit more relaxing. I figured she’d want to go to sleep after that but when I said I was thinking of catching the karaoke she asked to join me. Alrighty then. Karaoke was a mixed bag of surprisingly good (one of the Santa’s, a lady who killed some Shania), some folks whose enthusiasm made up for their voices), and some drunken shenanigans that were fun to watch… also a great selection of song choices! The usual suspects (lots of Elvis, Janet Jackson, some Frank Sinatra) but also Kesha, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, etc. She was also feeling peckish so we ordered some chips and guac via the app… now that’s a cool feature. After that it was to bed… Random observations MedallionNet wifi is sloooooooow. (Yeah, yeah, Alaska…) Didn’t see hardly any drinks delivered to the theatre; I wonder if relying on the app vs having waiters walking around is leaving money on the table for the ship… There were ample reminders of the impending time change.

Day 2 - at sea Had a decent night sleep on my little sofa bed sliver. Woke up around 7 and headed down to the International Cafe for an iced Americano and a delicious almond croissant. Took it back to the room just in time for our room service order for the ladies to arrive. After first breakfast, we headed down to the Enclave. Unfortunately D took one step inside and decided it was too warm/steamy for her. She was able to get a refund for the week, thank goodness. Lesson learned: don’t book the Enclave pass for someone until they’ve toured it themselves. Mom and I stuck around and enjoyed ourselves for a while. It was very nice, although I do prefer the Norwegian thermal spas — bigger, places to sit and relax that aren’t just the heated stone loungers, windows to the outside world. But this was also half the price, so… 🤷‍♀️ After our spaaaaaah time, it was up to the buffet for second breakfast. I can’t put my finger on what it is that I don’t like about the World Marketplace… the layout doesn’t feel intuitive, perhaps. We headed to the piazza for some people-watching. Mom really enjoyed watching the line dancing class. Bingo time! Wish they had the cards with fold-down tabs instead of charging for dabbers. No luck for us but it was fun. We had a quick lunch in the buffet before I abandoned the ladies to head to the theatre for a presentation by a woman who kayaked solo up the Inside Passage from Washington state to Sitka in 78 days. (I’m a kayaker myself but nowhere near brave enough for a trip like that. Four days is my max.) After we reconvened, it was casino time. I dropped $20 very quickly on the coin drop thingy, and then found an old-school one-armed bandit for my mom to play her first slot machine. And the ***** wins $45… 🤣 Smart girl cashed out right away. We headed back to the room to rest and change for dinner.

Post-dinner Shenanigans Apres Sabatini’s, D was done for the night and headed back to the cabin but mom needed to stay upright for a bit. We toured the Enclave, and to my utter shock, my mom thought it looked pretty cool and decided to book a weeklong pass. Well sign me up too! I love a good thermal spa and usually book a spa cabin when sailing Norwegian. After that we headed to Princess Live for the game show. Tonight was musical trivia, where the host played a song and you had to guess which year it came out of two options. I suuuuuucked. My mom lasted longer than I did just by not participating and staying seated. Mom especially loved the entertainment host, though I didn’t catch his name. Great dance moves. After the game show, we decided to turn in. Our steward had turned the sofa into my bed, and I was skeptical at first, but you know what, it wasn’t bad. Placed our room service order for breakfast on the door and it was lights out. Random Observations I am not a fan of the Medallion app so far. Very slow, very clunky, and as a former web manager, some very bad UX decisions were made that just don’t make any sense. There are also weird errors on the app, like the old menu for Sabatini’s, typos, etc. Very poor elevator etiquette on display. Wait until people get off the elevator before trying to board, and don’t cut in front of the elderly or wheelchair users. Basic social graces. I stopped trying to count individual Santa’s after 20 or so, so if anyone has the actual number please share. Wildlife count for day one: one eagle and one seal. (I see them weekly at home but it was neat seeing them squabbling over feeding grounds in the harbour.) And the one moose.

Sabatini’s photos

Dinner at Sabatini’s Pre-cruise, the only reservation I could get for Sabatini’s that wasn’t 8pm or later was on the first day at 6pm. Of course we get there and it’s empty, and even by the time we finished dinner it was barely half full. I know, I know, it’s more about staff and kitchen capacity…🤣 At least we got a lovely window table and nice views. The food was amazing, but a lot. Six courses of awesomeness is great, but with two ladies who typically eat very lightly, it was probably a bit of a waste. Highlights for me were the burrata and the lobster pasta. And of course the opportunity to order a negroni… sbagliato… with prosecco in it… My mom really enjoyed the soup and the sabayon. Our servers were lovely and quickly adjusted to my mom’s sense of humour and started joking back with her. 🤣 Only weird thing was the sommelier (I think) interrupting our meal, addressing me and my mom but ignoring our friend Daneen, and doing a hard sell to get us to upgrade to Premier Plus. No thanks, dude. We closed off dinner with a shot of limoncello, which I remembered sharing with my mom during our very first cruise twenty some years ago. She hasn’t changed her opinion of it. Couldn’t hand it back to me fast enough. 🤣 Food p*rn photos to come separately, still need to get them off the DSLR.

Sailaway time! Since the weather was looking iffy, we decided to watch sailaway from our balcony. I used the MedallionApp to order pina coladas to the room. The Niuew Amsterdam left before us, and the Radiance of the Seas followed us out. According to the captain we had just 2m clearance under Lion’s Gate Bridge. Since we left late, by the time we sailed under the bridge, it was time to quickly get dressed for our 6pm reservation at Sabatini’s.

Okay, first batch of photos from yesterday. Checkin queuing Boarding and exploring

Whew, that was an exhausting day! After some last-minute packing, we decided to start heading toward Canada Place a good hour and a half before our chosen arrival time. Traffic getting to Canada Place was baaaaaaad. It was the first three-ship day of the year, and it’s like everyone had forgotten how to merge and how to be patient. We headed into the underground at Canada Place to drop off our luggage at 11:53am; we were on board at 2:35pm. In between was one long line after another of semi-organized chaos, and so much walking on hard concrete. (More benches please!) Baggage drop was relatively painless, but the lineup to get our medallions was long and winding, and then there was the line to even get back downstairs into the security line, and then the actual security line, and then the customs line. Just too much for my ladies. My mom is already swearing ‘never again’ and I’m swearing ‘never again on a three-ship day’… Probably the longest/worst boarding experience I’ve had… The one highlight was spotting so many Santas (and eventually a couple of Mrs Clauses) in the various queues. Apparently there’s a big Santa group on board. After boarding the ship we headed straight to our room to drop off our purses and backpacks etc, and to get the **** off our feet for a few minutes. We’re in a mini-suite on the Lido deck; I’ll do a separate post on it later. After a short rest, we headed over to the buffet for a quick snack and beverage, and then to our muster station to check in. And then back to our cabin to watch sailaway from the balcony. Except we were also late leaving, presumably because people were still in line. 🤷‍♀️ But at 5pm the Love Boat theme sounded on the horn and at 5:15 we started pulling away from Canada Place. I’m going to have to write up our sailaway experience, dinner and evening shenanigans in the morning. I’m beat. Same for pictures; I’ll post in the morning.

Hey everyone, Heading over to Canada Place in a few hours to board the Discovery Princess for its 7-day sailing to Alaska, with stops in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan and scenic cruising in Hubbard Glacier (conditions permitting). As the first Alaska sailing of the season for the Discovery Princess, we’re starting from Vancouver but ending in Seattle (the ship’s homeport for the rest of the summer). I’ll try to post 2-3 times each day with what we’re up to, though my particular focus will usually be food, cocktails, entertainment and excursion adventures. (I’ll also be posting lots of photos over on Instagram Stories; look for erin_braincandy if you just want all the photos and none of the commentary.) A little about us… I’m Erin, and I’m a cruise enthusiast. I think I’m getting close to my twentieth cruise? This is my fourth time sailing Princess, but it’s been a while. Recently I’ve been mostly sailing on Celebrity and Norwegian, so I’m curious to see what Princess has got going on these days. I live in Vancouver, with a partial view of Canada Place, so it was neat seeing the Discovery Princess pulling into the port late last night just as I was deciding to put off packing until the morning. 😂 This trip I’m travelling with my mom and her older sister’s ex-husband’s little brother’s ex-wife… They’re both in their mid-70s. Mom has been on just one cruise prior to this (our very first cruise was to Alaska on the original Regal Princess in the early 2000s), and D (as she shall now be called) has cruised a few times before but mostly on Holland America. They’re both from a small farming community in northern British Columbia, so I suspect being on a big new cruise ship is going to be waaaay out of their comfort zone. We’ll see how it goes! Background reading If you’re interested, here are my previous three live threads: Norwegian Bliss | December 2021 | Mexican Riviera Celebrity Solstice | October 2022 | Mexican Riviera Celebrity Edge | February 2023 | Caribbean

It also depends on other traffic in the harbour and (depending on the size of the ship you're on) tides, e.g. the biggest ships to visit Vancouver can only squeak under Lions Gate at low tide. We have a view of Canada Place from our apartment, and in the summer we'll sometimes see ships pull away from the pier and out into the middle of the waterway and then just sit there for 20 minutes to an hour before heading towards the bridge.

This recent thread on Vancouver restaurants has some good suggestions:

Throwing in a few more random Vancouver food suggestions, albeit outside of the original parameters: Tacofino (multiple locations but Gastown is the best) for the fish tacos and margaritas. Mello in Chinatown for amazing donuts. Pourhouse in Gastown for the most amazing burger and speakeasy-style cocktails. Jam Cafe for brunch if you don't mind the lineup and squeezed-close-together tables. Get the pulled pork pancakes or the bennys. Warning: all portions are HUGE. Nuba (locations in Gastown and Yaletown) has the best Lebanese food in town. Order the Najib's Special cauliflower! Steamworks in Gastown is practically port-adjacent and is pub-like? There's beer. Mahoney's isn't perhaps my favourite food, but it's publike, close to the port, and on a sunny day is a great spot to watch other cruise ships depart.

On our recent Edge cruise, I had a paid single-device wifi plan on the ship, my husband did not. He connected to the free wifi, and we were able to easily use the Celebrity app to share updates on where we were on board, etc. It came in very handy for that purpose. I didn't receive message notifications on my iPhone, but he did on his Android phone, so the user experience may vary based on your phone type or settings.

7pm and 9pm, except for on Superb Owl Sunday, when they had a 2pm show in the main theatre and then that performer had his evening show in the club instead of the theatre.