Island to Alaska with Pictures (part 2)

[alwalaska]

Thanks CWorld. We are still reading. The doggie video was great! I loved it. Just one more thing I have to put on my have to do list.

 

Merry Christmas to you too.

[flashdog_1]

My DH, I think you have been hitting the eggnog (with an emphasis on the "nog" part) way too much.

 

Nah, he's an abstainer. It's from all the caffeine in those cokes he drinks.

[cworld]

No DW it's not the nog, as Phyllis points out and you well know I am an abstainer, that is unless you've been spiking the egg nog without my knowledge. Mmmm. That might explain a few things. What? Oh, yeah, I don't drink egg nog either. Maybe it's that I'm drunk with love for you. (All of the women insert sigh here.) No? Maybe I'm just demented. (That reminds me of another of my favorite Dr. Demento songs was "There coming to take me away". It could happen any day.)

[Druke I]

DeMento's "They're Coming to Take Me Away" had me laughing so hard one day I thought they were going to put me in a strait-jacket and into the rubber room.

 

Been several years since I have heard it.

[camperhawk]

Carl! sigh and awww, glad you are back in full force! Merry Xmas! I still believe! Patience is another thing! Great present for all of us avid readers.

[Lizzybell]

Thanks Carl..I've been away for the holiday & what a pleasure to come home to the puppy video. Thanks much, Liz

[Hate 2 W8t]

Hey Carl, can't believe you are still at it! :eek: I haven't been on the boards much since our Alaskan cruise, but it's nice to know I can check in over the course of the next two years to be reminded of my own cruise. ;) I can't even get a simple review of my own written. Geez!

 

Here's to a grand New Year and many more excellent adventures!

[margord]

Hey Carl,

 

I've been away a while with the business of the holidays. Glad to see you are still going strong.

 

Marilee

[ssapiers]

No DW it's not the nog, as Phyllis points out and you well know I am an abstainer, that is unless you've been spiking the egg nog without my knowledge. Mmmm. That might explain a few things. What? Oh, yeah, I don't drink egg nog either. Maybe it's that I'm drunk with love for you. (All of the women insert sigh here.) No? Maybe I'm just demented. (That reminds me of another of my favorite Dr. Demento songs was "There coming to take me away". It could happen any day.)

 

And I would have thougth that DR Demento's playing of "Don't give a dose to the one you love most." was your theme song!!!;)

[cworld]

And I would have thougth that DR Demento's playing of "Don't give a dose to the one you love most." was your theme song!!!;)

 

Good one.

 

Sorry everyone, with the holidays and everything, I've been a little tied up. Hopefully I'll get something up next week.

 

Dosing withheld for now, I must really love you all.

 

Ha, Ha, Ha. There I go, killing myself again.

[luv2travel2beaches]

Gosh Carl. When we started reading about your cruise we were months and months and months away from our cruise. Now you aren't even done with your week and we are leaving in just a few days for our cruise. I guess I will have to catch up with the 15 minutes of your trip that you have written about while I am gone for 11 days!

[JanaJohn]

Carl, are you still celebrating Oklahoma's win in the Holiday Bowl? That was over a week ago!

 

Don't worry, if we've learned anything reading your posts for the last several months - it's PATIENCE!

 

Besides, they're always worth the wait!!!

[flashdog_1]

I must say we are slowing down. Last year I was telling everyone to read this thread! What's up, Carl?

[cworld]

I must say we are slowing down. Last year I was telling everyone to read this thread! What's up, Carl?

 

In the immortal words of Cat Stevens, "The new jobs a hassle and the kids have the flu." Really, the new job is taking up a lot of time. I don't have as much free time as I use to, and it's getting harder and harder to put this thing together. I'm trying, and I'll get something up by the weekend. But for now, I'm doing all I can. Sorry.

 

But thanks for caring.

 

Carl

[ssapiers]

Carl

 

Isn't it a bummer that they actually want you to work on the job. Boy, what's this world coming to!!!!! :p

 

Bill

[cworld]

Really.

 

And by the way, I do know it was Harry Chapin not Cat Stevens, I was just in a hurry.

 

Carl

[marcruiser]

Carl:

 

Don't let them get you down!! We are all crazed (my dh's word) at work, at home, whatever.

 

I just hope that some day you will be able to finish this "novel"...please don't leave us hanging.

 

Best to you and the whole family and to all your loyal readers for a happy and healthy (and not TOO overworked) new year.

 

P.S. We took this trip last summer, also. We were on the Coral Princess and your memories bring back wonderful memories for us. Thanks so much.

[cworld]

Finally. An inspiration. That’s what’s been holding things up. I’ve had writers block, but today I got an inspiration. Whoopeee. (Oh, no… Not again.) Betcha can’t wait.

 

But first, a little housekeeping.

 

YES. OU won the Holiday Bowl, and I celebrated. Yipeee. I even almost rooted for Texas at the Who Cares Bowl. Let’s see, Texas (I hate burnt orange) or USC (I may hate whatever you call USC’s colors even more) is about like Nigeria vs. The Sudan. Who cares? But overall the bowls were pretty good to the Big 12, and I was happy.

 

Christmas came and went. It’s now time for the bills. (We were good, we paid cash.) How many of you got what you wanted for Christmas? Me neither. I think I got a screwdriver and a toolbox. (Any subliminal messages there?) Christmas was a little anticlimactic this year. This is the first year since 2002 that we weren’t at Mouse World during the holidays. It was nice to be home, but we all missed the beauty of Mouse World.

 

And how about that great New Years party? (What? We didn’t party? We were in bed at ten thirty? Are you sure? Hmmm. Party Animals we're not.)

 

So here we go, another year, two thousand and six. Wonder what it’ll bring? Probably great riches, notoriety, fame and fortune. Yeah, right. You forgot good looks. Oh well, I can dream can’t I.

 

How many of you sicko’s are still keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Me I didn’t even make any. I’m tired of breaking them in just a couple of weeks and feeling bad for the rest of the year.

 

But enough of that junk, on with our ever inspiring and everlasting tale, and yes marcruiser, I’m with you, some day I hope to finish this and move on with my life. By the way thanks for the encouragement. I really needed it.

 

After the ride, we hopped back in to the vans and Suburbans we were driven back to the area where they had the dog kennels, and where they had some exhibits. They also had a little store where you could pick up trinkets and buy snacks. They didn’t have any carbonated drinks and I was starting to get the shakes. I was bored, so being the aspiring young internet writer I started wondering around, interviewing the dogs. I wanted to get more information about HIM, and about conditions at the camp. I talked to several of the dogs and a couple were pretty talkative, but none would divulge any real information. One or two even went so far as to deny HIS existence. Imagine that.

 

Here’s some snippets from my interviews.

 

Disclaimer: as with all good reporters, I’ve changed the subject’s names to protect their identities, or as they used to say “The names were changed to protect the innocent.”

 

First there was Lovee. Lovee was a great doggie. Lovee wanted to hug everyone, and wanted everyone to hug and pet her. When I got a couple of minute alone with her I asked a couple of questions…

 

ME: What’s your name?

 

Dog: The people around here call me Tor, but my friends call me Lovee.

 

Me: Lovee?

 

Dog: Yup.

 

ME: Why Lovee?

 

Dog: You’re not very observant, are you?

 

ME: Huh? No matter. I wondered if you answer a couple of questions?

 

Dog: Yup.

 

Me: OK, first how do they treat you here?

 

Dog: Three squares a day, and all the exercise you can stand. About every 2 hours those big tubes over there throw out a couple dozen of you two legs and I get to snuggle up for a while. All in all life’s pretty good. Winters stink, but summers are fun. About once a week they let us go down to the water and play for a while.

 

ME: Two legs?

 

Dog: Like I said before, you’re not very observant.

 

(I’m sure about now you’re all wondering just how I’m talking to the dog. Well, it’s another one of those special gifts I’m blessed with. I can just look at an animal and know what it’s thinking. Kinda like Dr. Doolittle, only without any noise.)

 

ME: I wanted to ask you about one of the musher’s.

 

Dog: What's a musher?

 

ME: You know the guy that stands on the back of the sled and tells you what to do.

 

Dog: Oh, the yeller.

 

ME: Yeller?

 

Dog: Yes, yeller.

 

ME: OK, this yeller is tall and has a beard.

 

Dog: Beard?

 

ME: Fur on his face.

 

Dog: Oh, yeah I know the guy. We call him Junior.

 

ME: Junior?

 

Dog: Yeah, Junior.

 

ME: Why Junior?

 

Dog: Can’t tell you.

 

ME: Why?

 

Dog: Just can’t.

 

About this time we got interrupted by a couple of other people wanting to pet Lovee. There were several people milling about so I decided to move on.

 

The next dog had a plaque over his kennel that said his name was Diesel. But he stayed in his kennel and wouldn’t come out. I called him Bashful. He was very shy and it was hard to get him to talk to me.

 

ME: Hey you, Diesel.

 

Dog:

 

ME: Hey doggie.

 

Dog: (whispered) What?

 

ME: Can I talk to you?

 

Dog: NO!

 

ME: Please.

 

Dog: You’re not very observant, are you.

 

ME: What’s your name?

 

Dog:

 

ME: Interesting name. I just wanted to ask you how do you like it here?

 

Dog:

 

ME: If you won’t answer that, how about telling me about one of the musher’s.

 

Dog:

 

ME: I’m sorry, I mean one of the yellers.

 

Dog:

 

(I’m beginning to think this dog is deaf.)

 

ME: I’m trying to get some information about the yeller that is very tall and has fur on his face.

 

Dog: Nope.

 

ME: What do you mean nope?

 

Dog: Nope.

 

ME: Do you like him?

 

Dog: Yup.

 

ME: Why?

 

Dog: Because.

 

ME: Do you know anything about him?

 

Dog: Yup.

 

ME: Will you tell me anything?

 

Dog: Nope.

 

I tried for a couple more minutes to pry some more information out of Bashful, but it just didn’t work.

 

Finally I came across three dogs in a row of kennels. I named them the Three Amigos. They were pretty feisty. They barked at just about everyone. They were eager to answer my questions.

 

ME: Hi, guys.

 

Dog1: Hola.

 

Dog2: HOW!

 

Dog3: Howdy partner.

 

ME: Cool accents, are you guys from the south?

 

Dog2: Si, We’re all up from Ketchikan.

 

ME: What are your names?

 

Dog1: My name Jose Hemanas.

 

Dog2: Tonto.

 

Dog3: Duke.

 

ME: Where on earth did you come up with those names?

 

Dog 3: We watch a lot of the box that has moving pictures and noise.

 

ME: Cool, Let me ask you, how do you like this place.

 

Dog 1: It’s great in the hot time, but when the cold white stuff is on the ground, it’s cold.

 

Dog2: Yeah, and there are no pinkskins to bark at, when it’s cold.

 

Dog3: Is it time to eat yet?

 

ME: Pinkskins?

 

Dog2: You’re not very observant, are you?

 

ME: Hmmm.

 

Dog 3: It’s also really cool to work with HIM.

 

ME: Who’s him?

 

Dog 2: Hush. You know we’re not supposed to say anything about HIM.

 

ME: What do you mean him?

 

Dog1: Go away.

 

Dog2: NOW!

 

Dog3: Sorry.

 

ME: Are you sure you won’t tell me about Him?

 

Dog1: Go away.

 

So ended my quest for finding more information out about HIM. At least I got one of them to acknowledge his existence.

 

Truthfully, it was fun to walk around and see the different temperaments of the dogs. There really was one that tried to hug everyone that came within 10 feet of it. Another one just barked at anyone that got close. He never tried to bite anyone, and if you got close enough he just quivered. Another on didn’t ever come out of his kennel. Some wanted to be touched and some didn’t. Funny.

 

Here are the pictures of the doggies I took:

 

http://homepage.mac.com/cktrent2/PhotoAlbum18.html

 

There are also some pictures of some of the puppies that were running loose. There was a special pen for the little puppies. Right next to that pen was what I suppose was a Mama dog. She watched what was going on with the babies very closely.

 

While I was doing all of this, there were a couple of people talking about how the musher’s and the dogs live during the race, but I didn’t pay any attention. I just kept taking pictures. It was really an absolutely beautiful day.

 

After about 30 minutes or so were told it was time to go back to the bus. We all headed back across the bridge to civilization and get on the mini-bus and go back to the ship. I stopped and snapped off a couple more pictures of the bridge and the scenery before we got back to the mini-bus and started the long dusty journey back to the ship.

 

On the trip back we stopped under a tree and watched a Bald Eagle (Hey dear, lookee they have Bald Eagles in Alaska.) I took a whole roll (OK maybe not a roll, but a bunch) of pictures of this one, and no, I don’t know why. It was probably because that’s all there was to do at the time. I’m BORED!!!!!

 

We got back to the ship after an indeterminate amount of time. As soon as we got off of the mini-bus we, being the rapidly learning world travelers we are, stopped for a second to tip the driver, but, wait a minute. There’s was a sign on this bus that said “NO TIPS ACCEPTED”. Wow. I wonder why? So, we ran (OK, maybe we just walked sorta fast) back on to the ship for a quick potty stop. We didn’t even have time to grab a dose of the false elixir of life (Coke). I’m really starting to shake. I need some caffine. We came back out to the dock and started looking for our next tour. The rest of the day we were scheduled to do the DEE-LUX Klondike Experience and Rail Adventure. Which we’ll talk about in our next exciting adventure.

 

Stay tuned.

[cworld]

OK, I promise. No more inspirations for a while. Only real stuff. No more of this make believe, drag things out junk. I’m going to finish this everlasting day by the end of January, (Yes I do mean 2006.) and this trip report by the start of baseball season. (I mean it, because there’s no way I’ll have any free time when baseball starts.)

 

Just one last item from the dogsled adventure, on the way back to the ship, I took a couple of pictures that came out pretty well.

 

They’re here:

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/419328125/544265621VRTrzj

http://community.webshots.com/photo/544266485/544266485NhRpcO

http://community.webshots.com/photo/544267030/544267030TRnuSL

 

 

Time to move on to our next expedition. The DEE-LUX Klondike Experience and Rail Adventure. This sounded like something we would both love. Here’s what Princess says about the DEE-LUX Klondike Experience and Rail Adventure.

 

Experience the 1898 rush for gold as the stampeders never could — in first-class comfort as you retrace their route from Skagway to the Klondike gold fields.

 

At the White Pass & Yukon Route Depot, board an old-fashioned parlor car for a ride on the “Scenic Railway of the World.” See the original Klondike Trail of '98 worn into the rocks — evidence of the gold seekers' arduous journey. In Fraser, British Columbia, disembark the train and board a motorcoach for the dramatic journey down the Klondike Highway. Stops are made along the way for pictures at scenic vistas and historical locations.

 

A guide in period dress welcomes you at the Klondike Experience for a virtual journey back to the glorious days of the gold rush. Accompany a stampeder as he sets out on the quest for gold. From a recreation of the 1898 Seattle docks, board the “steamship” — a theater showing footage of the sailing from Seattle to Skagway where you meet notorious con man, Soapy Smith. In a simulator, experience the exhilaration of hiking the Chilkoot Pass, building a boat and riding it down the rapids to Dawson City. Witness “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” before entering a mine shaft to learn how miners toiled. Receive a bag of pay dirt and try your own luck — gold is guaranteed.

 

Finally, enjoy a gourmet lunch at the Historic Skagway Inn, home to many “ladies of the night” during the Klondike Gold Rush. In the intimate Olivia's Restaurant, feast on a variety of delicacies such as a nasturtium dainty, halibut chowder, smoked salmon pasta, chicken pot pie and rhubarb crisp. After lunch, stroll through the inn's colorful garden that thrives in the long days of summer.

 

SPECIAL NOTES

Since this tour enters Canada, U.S. and Canadian citizens must carry a passport or birth certificate with photo ID. Guests of other nationalities must bring their passport. Vegetarian lunch available. Please notify Tour Office onboard at least 24 hours prior to tour. Tour order may vary.

 

What could be better? A GORMET lunch in the Historic Skagway Inn, a ride in an old-fashioned parlor car on the “Scenic Railway of the World” and a visit to the Klondike Experience… Man could there be anything better. We’re gonna have a ball. It’s gonna be great. I can’t wait. When do we leave? What? I already went? When? Last when? Year? Huh? No way. Really? Last year?

 

So we walked down the dock to another one of those motorcoaches for our tour in “first-class comfort”. We got on the motorcoach along with about 20 of our shipmates. Yeah, this is gonna be a great bonding experience. We’re all going to have a great time. This is gonna be the best thing that ever happened to each of us. How can we go wrong? Just read what Princess wrote about our upcoming experience. I can’t (yawn) wait. Wake me up when it’s time to eat.

 

About that time on of the Princess kids jumped up on the bus and started counting. As this kid counted us she asked if we wanted the chicken pot pie, or the smoked salmon pasta. She said if she called ahead they would have the food waiting. I ordered the chicken pot-pie and Mrs. C ordered the pasta. The kiddie jumped off the bus on her way to call ahead while we waited for the driver to get on.

 

In just a couple of minutes the same young Princess kid jumped on again and sat down in the drivers seat. She put on the headset, just like the drivers do. Now wait just a doggone minute. Are you old enough to drive? You don’t look it. On all of the rest of these motorcoach rides our drivers have been grizzled old veterans. Kids have driven the mini buses, but not these big rigs. It takes experience to drive one of these things. Shhhh, Carl she’ll hear you. (Ya think.) It’s OK she’ll probably just drive us to lunch and someone more experienced will pick us up later. OK, I can live with that. The kid gets the motor started and jumps up and starts to talk to us.

 

The following is as accurate as I can make it. IT maybe a product of my imagination, at this point I’m not sure.

 

“Hi, my name is Bambi (might have been Barbara or Sue or Carol or Jane, but what I remember is something like Bambi), and I’m going to be your guide and chauffer for the rest of the day.” (Hey, dear, I think that blows the just to lunch argument out of the water.) “I’m kinda new here,” (duh) she said, “this being my first summer driving one of the big rigs.” “So relax, (yeah right) sit back, and enjoy the ride.” “And by the way, if we have an accident, don’t worry about getting out, we’ll all be dead (ha,ha, at least she had a sense of humor). Really, all of the windows have an emergency release, and there are a couple of holes in the roof that you could open. And there is a med kit right up here. It’s not good for much, but it’s there if we need it.”

 

Now, I’m officially scared. I don’t scare easily (yes you do), but I’m scared. This little girl isn’t old enough to be drinking coffee, much less be driving all of us in this… this… whatever it is. Do you know how many people each year die in accidents in these things? Huh? Yeah, that many. And now I’m sure we’re all about to become statistics too. Hey, Carl, relax, we’re in Alaska, nothing here can bother us. YEAH, we’re having fun!!!! No Worries!! and all of that junk. OK, OK, I’m relaxed. Let’s go eat.

 

But not tonight. We’ll try to get through lunch next time, but until then… You know the drill.

[Mrs. cworld]

My DH, before you mislead your ever faithful readers, I also ordered the chicken pot pie.

[Mrs. cworld]

My DH, I think your memory is starting to go...If I remember correctly, at the dogsled HQ, there wasn't a little store. It was a little shack that stored some dogfood and equipment. There were no trinkets to buy and the lemonade/cider was complimentary. Also, I don't remember there ever being a bus/van that had a sign "NO TIPS ACCEPTED". You might want to check with me before you post anything else--you don't want to mislead your readers--HA!HA!

[cworld]

How about this. One-a-day for three days in a row. Ain’t I sumthin? Aren’t you impressed? I know I am. After 2 weeks of total writers block, and not enough time to spit, I had a couple of hours of inspiration and perspiration this is what you get. (Maybe you shouldn't perspire so much in the future.)

 

And yes, DW, you’re right. I remember now, it was just a shack, and it didn’t have anything for sale, however, I don’t remember you ordering the chicken pot pie, that surprised me. But I'm totally right about the "No Tipping" sign. I remember that on just like it was 7 months ago.

 

Oh well, it is the first thing to go.

 

When we last spoke, we were on a motorcoach, a big blue motorcoach, being driven around, by some 12 year oldish kid. Hopefully, we were on our way to eat lunch. The first thing I want when we get there is a big COKE or something carbonated. I’d even drink Diet Coke if that’s all they had. I’m having a fit. I’m going through withdrawal. Convulsions are only minutes away. Shoot, it’s almost 11:30 Alaska time. That’s tomorrow afternoon Oklahoma time, and I’ve only had 1 Coke. OK, maybe it was 2, but usually I’m almost through my first six-pack by now (that’s a six-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, not anything else). So I need, underline need, not want but NEED something caffeinated, and I need it now. Then, after I drink a gallon of something caffeinated, I’ll be ready for that illusive delicacy, chicken pot pie. (Really it sounded pretty good.)

 

We pulled up to the Historic Skagway Inn, home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant. Bambi said we had exactly one hour. If we weren’t on the bus in exactly one hour we would be left, because if we leave any later than that, we’ll miss the train.

 

A whole hour for lunch. No worries. Bambi led us down the path toward the Historic Skagway Inn, home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant The path was rather pretty, even if I do say so myself. The gardens were something to behold. Lots of pretty dirt. It all looked like it was freshly planted dirt, but it was still just dirt. The landscaping was pretty good. I’ve always enjoyed seeing fresh dirt gardens.

 

Pictures of dirt garden:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/419328125/545042025FhXQYh

http://community.webshots.com/photo/545042544/545042544QYkOFJ

 

After a couple of minutes we were ushered in to the lobby of the Historic Skagway Inn, home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant. And in a few minutes we were seated in the intimate Olivia’s restaurant, I guess. There was nothing that told us we were in the intimate Olivia’s restaurant, in fact until I reread Princess’s blurb about our tour, I didn’t remember that there was an intimate Olivia’s restaurant.

 

Only pic from Historic Skagway Inn.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351554714/351569745MVbznZ

 

For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures during lunch, so the rest of this is from memory (which as my DW, the love of my life, so aptly points out, is pretty spotty these days). The intimate Olivia’s restaurant consisted of several tables where 4 people could sit. There was a bar on one side, and I think there was a piano in the room. All of the tables had frilly white table cloths and had all of the forks and knifes and stuff to eat with already on them. We sat down at a table and were joined in a minute by a single lady.

 

After a couple of minutes, a girl came in with some water, and started taking people’s orders. She was wearing a costume that I guess looked like an old timey dress. It wasn’t revealing or anything like you would think of for one of the fabled "ladies of the night" would wear. After she had taken a couple of orders someone told her that the bus driver had called ahead, and they should already know what everybody wanted. This put a halt to the order taking, and out the door she went. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

A couple of minutes later the girl returned with a man who, I guess, was the owner or something. He mumbled something about not getting the order and that they would need to get our orders (Oh, no Mr. Bill). He helped the girl take orders. They started to pour water for everyone. But got interrupted before they got all the way around the room. They didn’t ask us what we wanted to drink when we ordered. I was expecting that since there was a bar, they would probably open up the bar and let us order something (hopefully they have Dr. Pepper). The owner guy and the girl went out the door again and left us alone. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

A couple of minutes later, they returned with salads, and started passing them out. I was really getting desperate for something with caffeine, so when they handed me my salad, I asked if I could get some tea or a Coke or something. I was told sure, just wait and they’d have some drinks over by the bar. Cool. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

Time out, flag on the play.

 

It’s probably too late to ask, but are any of you related to Captain Hook? If so, I’m sorry (no your not) if my little Tick-tock ditty offends you (not really) but I’m on a roll. Ding-dong the witch is dead. (Hey, stupid, huh? you might be done already if I didn’t just put every random thought that comes into your head in here.) 5 yard illegal procedure penalty on the offense. Replay the down.

 

Resume play.

 

A couple of minutes after the salads were served, the owner man was standing over by the bar. I couldn’t wait any longer. I went up to him and asked if I could buy a Coke. He said sure. He had Pepsi or Diet Pepsi. I said I’d kill for a couple of Pepsi’s. He couldn’t think of anyone he wanted killed but handed me the Pepsi’s anyway. A couple of other people got up quickly and joined me in getting some drinks. I think he mumbled something about them being $1.00 each, and I think he said they’d get the money when we left. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

A few minutes later they picked up the salad plates, and left the room.

 

And we waited… Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

And we waited… Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

And we waited… Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

After about 15 minutes they started to bring in some of the entrees. They seemed to bring one table at a time.

 

So some of us waited… Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

and waited… Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

Finally they got to our table. We had already been at the intimate Olivia’s restaurant about 40 minutes when we got our food. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock… After we got our food only a couple more tables got anything and then, Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

No serving people.

 

There were still two tables that hadn’t been served at all.

 

No serving people.

 

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

The non-natives were starting to get restless. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

I was starting to get thirsty. I had quickly slurped down my Pepsi, and needed a refill. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

About 50 minutes after we left the bus, one of the serving girls stuck her head in the door, and was quickly accosted (well, maybe accosted is the wrong word) by some of the people who hadn’t been served yet, nicely asking if they could get their food. The girl said it would be a few minutes to which the nice people replied that we had to catch our bus in 10 minutes, and need their food pretty quickly. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

 

A couple of minutes later, 2 servers came in with the rest of the food. By this time, there were only about 5 minutes until we were supposed to be back on our bus. None of us had been offered dessert. The people who were just getting their food said it was cold and almost inedible. The owner guy came in and said if we could just wait a few more minutes, they would be able to bring fresh entrees, and desserts. By the time he came in it was 3 minutes until we were supposed to be on the bus. The owner guy and the servers disappeared again, and we didn’t see any of them again.

 

We all got up to leave. It was a little awkward. I still owed them for a couple of Pepsi’s and would gladly have paid for those and a couple more, but there was no one around to pay. I even stood at the cash register at the Historic Skagway Inn, home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant for a couple of minutes until it was time to go. No one came out to take or money, or say goodbye or anything. So we left.

 

I don’t want to say a whole lot more about the Historic Skagway Inn home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant, because I’ve haven’t seen anything negative about the Historic Skagway Inn home of the historic Olivia’s restaurant posted on these boards, so, I assume that what we went through was not their normal operation, and since the motorcoach driver was very surprised when we talked to her about our service, maybe the Historic Skagway Inn is an OK place to eat. BUT, I can’t recommend it.

 

Rating for the food at the Historic Skagway Inn home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant – C – mine was OK, but I wouldn’t have called anything we ate a delicacy.

 

Rating for the service we received at the Historic Skagway Inn home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant – F - - - -. Incredibly bad, not rude, just nonexistent.

 

If it were up to me, I would skip lunch at the Historic Skagway Inn home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant. Even if the service had been good, it didn’t really add anything to the total Alaska experience. Maybe if they had offered semi-authentic food like was served in the heyday of the gold rush, it might have been OK. There was nothing to make this a memorable experience. We were disappointed.

 

Man, what a downer. I’m ready to move on to something more positive. So next time we will move on to the train ride. I love trains. This ought to be good.

[flashdog_1]

The Skagway Inn was closed on Monday, and we were in Port on Monday, so missed the experience. ho hum.

 

Those pups are so cute. Up on the glacier for a dog sled ride, one of the dogs did not have a dog house. He had to lie on the ice/snow. I asked about it. They said he had eaten his house and they didn't have any materials to rebuild it, since everything including the dogs were transported to the camp in the helicopter! When it got really cold they said they'd take him into their tent (probably with a muzzle on so he wouldn't eat their clothing! LOL).

[alwalaska]

Thanks for the update. I am trying to plan my excursions and your information is very helpful. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your day in Skagway.

[Mrs. cworld]

Actually, I thought the salad of field greens with the raspberry dressing was very good. Of course, for my DH (being the he-man) if the dressing isn't ranch or Italian, you can just forget about the salad. I would give the food an "F". The chicken pot pie was very, very bland and I couldn't get enough salt and pepper on it to give it any taste at all. My DH, don't forget to tell your readers about dessert from the Historic Skagway Inn.

 

Also, that single lady that sat down with us at lunch constantly griped about Princess cruises and said that she would only take Carnival from now on.

 

WARNING, if you are going to gripe about the cruise you are currently on, please, please, be very mindful of your fellow passengers. Since we only get to take a cruise every 25 years, we were having a wonderful time in spite of the lunch at the Historic Skagway Inn.