Island to Alaska with Pictures (part 2)

[cworld]

Playing softly in the background is the song “I can only imagine”

 

From the Skagway Daily Express April 1, 2007

 

It’s Disney!!!

 

Skagway AK (FCI) – Today in Skagway there was a surprise press conference held at the Visitor Center in Skagway Alaska, to announce one of the best kept secrets in Alaska. Steve Jobs, CEO of Walt Disney Enterprises, Tom Bourcy, Mayor of Skagway, and Frank Murkouski, Governor of Alaska, were in attendance and announced in a press conference that lasted just over an hour that the Walt Disney Company is coming to Alaska in a big way. Mayor Bourcy, stated that WDC had completed the purchase of 92% of the land in and around Skagway, and should finish the complete takeover of Skagway by the end of March. Mr. Jobs announced that ground breaking on Disney’s Great Alaskan Adventure Theme Park and Experience would be held on April 15, 2007.

 

Mr. Jobs expected that the Phase I of the DGAATPE would be completed in time for the 2008 season. Mr. Jobs assured visitors that were planning to visit Skagway this year that there would be no significant changes this year. “Skagway should function normally this summer. We’ll continue with normal operations this summer. The White Pass will still run, the shops will still be open. Everything this summer will be just like it’s been for the last several years.” Mr. Jobs said. “Next year we will open Phase I of DGAATPE. Phase I will include a total Disneyifying of the White Pass train ride, and applying a light Disney touch to the downtown area.” Jobs said while he was discussing Disney’s plans. Jobs said the first phase would cost around $300 million, and would take about 160 days of good weather to complete.

 

Mr. Jobs then unveiled the mockup of the DGAATPE. This 1/100th scale model will be displayed at the Skagway Visitor Center. It shows Disney’s plans for the next 10 years. Phase II will include a underwater bridge to what Jobs called Paradise Island. The plans for the island include a major Disney hotel, and several high-end eating establishments. Also in phase II is plans for a 200 acre covered amusement park that will operate year round. Jobs said proudly, “it’s time we put Walt’s vision of a controlled themed amusement area into practice.” Mr. Jobs would not divulge the budget for Phase II, but it is rumored that the price tag is well over $1.5 billion. This would make DGAATPE the most expensive construction endeavor ever in Alaska.

 

Mr. Jobs stated that when Phase II was completed Disney would employ 2,500 employees in Alaska year round and 12,500 during the summer season. This would make Disney the largest employer in Alaska.

 

During the press conference Governor Murkouski announced the State would spend $100 million dollars to upgrade the Skagway ship terminal, and to build a new terminal in Anchorage. The new terminal in Anchorage will be built to handle the two new ships that Disney announced today. The terminal will be state of the art and Governor Murkouski said, would be available for other cruise ships when not in use by DCL. When the upgrades in Skagway are completed Skagway will able to accommodate up to 8 cruise ships at a time. Three new docks will be built on the north side of town, and one additional dock will be built on the south side.

 

Jobs stated that Disney would build their own dock facilities in Skagway and Juneau to accommodate the two new ships the Disney Cruise Line is adding to their fleet. Disney Cruise Lines announced the Disney Sand and the Disney Sea to the media in a concurrent session in Orlando, FL. The Sand and Sea are scheduled for maiden voyages in April 2008. The ships should arrive in Alaska just in time for the 2008 tourist season. The Sand and Sea will run three, four and seven day itineraries out of Anchorage during the Sand will spend the winter season cruising between Los Angeles to Hawaii. The Sea will cruise from San Francisco to DCL’s home Port Canaveral Florida via the Panama Canal.

 

All three men stressed that Disney planed to be very environmentally conscience. They said Disney would build a small nuclear reactor to help power the proposed park and all of the towns operations. Governor Murkouski stated that the power plant would produce excess capacity that could be used in other locations that aren’t currently served by commercial power.

 

The final question was for Jobs, he was asked why Skagway? Jobs replied “it was the place where they could buy the most land for the cheapest price.”

 

Disney’s stock rose 2% to $77.45 on these announcements.

 

And then there was this little ditty in the Orlando Sentinel.

 

April 1, 2007

 

In simultaneous announcements in Orlando and in Skagway Alaska, the parks division of the Walt Disney Company and the Disney Cruise Lines unveiled the plans for a major Alaskan Adventure. WDC introduced Disney’s Great Alaskan Adventure and Theme Park Experience, and DCL announced 2 new cruise ships the Disney Sand and the Disney Sea. Work should begin on DGAATPE in Skagway Alaska later in the month. The DGAATPE will include an environmentally controlled 200 acre theme park, a 20 mile train ride, 4 major theme hotels, 25 restaurants and a first of a kind underwater bridge. The total cost for all of the projects is rumored to be over $3 billion dollars.

 

I can only imagine.

 

Can’t you see Disney in Alaska? We (yes, all of us addicts would be traveling together) arrive in Skagway and step off the Disney Sand on to a sliding walkway that takes us to the monorail station. As we board the monorail, there is that world famous monorail announcement “Por favor mantanganse alejado de las puertas,” or “Please stand clear of the doors, and watch your step while disembarking.” (Think I’ve been to Disney World a few too many times?) The doors would close and off we’d go to our grand exciting experience.

 

The monorail would stop at the Ticket Center where Disney would expect us spend $100.00 or so to get a ticket to the same stuff that we get for free today. On the other side of the Ticket Center would be the stroller and wheel chair rental area and an ATM machine. The first thing you’d actually see of Skagway would be Main Street on Steroids. There would be 2 and 3 story buildings lining the boulevard with little white Christmas lights strung up on top of them. The Historic Skagway Inn would be at the end of the second block and would be transformed into The Historic, Disneyfied 5-story, 200 room, Skagway Inn. The hotel would house a semi-authentic turn of the century looking 4 star restaurant, (where everything on the menu would cost more than the national debt), a snack bar and 4 different souvenir shops. The rooms would rent for a mere $750.00 per night, but it’d be worth every penny. Downtown Skagway would have all kinds of shows and there would be a first run movie theater (featuring Disney/Pixar movies of course) just down from the hotel.

 

The White Pass and Yukon train ride would be redone with a train drawn by one of the real old timey engines. Right in the middle of the train there would be an uncovered car specially built for photographers. Special Apple Ipod’s would be issued to each guest in the language they prefer with commentary timed to the scenery. Thirty minutes or so into the ride the train would stop at a picture stop where guests could buy refreshments (at quintuple the normal price) including those cute Mickey ice cream bars. An option for the return trip to Skagway would be a cool chase James Bond ride in an enclosed climate controlled ski run thingy on a flying snowsled or something.

 

The new heliport would continuously be running helicopters to the glaciers for a mere $500.00 per person (sack lunch included). The dogsled ride would be continently located at the end of Main Street. Fishing expeditions would be available from the paddle wheeler docked across from the Ticket Booth. Submarine rides would leave on the half hour.

 

The theme park would have Gold Rush Land, Eskimo Land, A Fishing Village, Oil Land, and Snow Paradise. These lands would surround a 15 story hollowed out totem pole. Under the totem pole would be the 3-d show “Alaska the lost world”. There would be several great old rides that would carry over like the Runaway Mine Train, but there would be some great new ones like Polar Bear Run.

 

I can only imagine. But there’s no way I could afford it, so it’s probably not a very good idea.

 

Enough of ‘Dreamland, next time we’ll go back to reality…

[cworld]

luv2travel2beaches,

 

Thanks but I'm no pro. I don't know that I'd want to have to rely on my photographs selling to make a living. That sounds like a hard job. I like doing it for fun. The secret is in the camera. Spend a lot of money and the pictures turn out better.

[Mrs. cworld]

You must be a true professional photographer.

 

 

Yea, right, if my DH was a professional photographer, he would make alot more money than he gets for working for the federal government--HA!HA!

[Joy2Day]

Whew, scared me for a minute. I wondered what I'd been doing for the last couple of months. Glad to see it was just a technical difficulty. Glad your back with us.

 

Carl

 

 

Mrs. Cworld -- I'm guessing you've wondered that a time or two.

 

Carl, we're right here with you. I can hear the crack of the bat .....

 

Karla

[Mrs. cworld]

Mrs. Cworld -- I'm guessing you've wondered that a time or two.

 

Carl, we're right here with you. I can hear the crack of the bat .....

 

Karla

 

Karla,

You are correct--I wonder daily what my DH is doing--HA!HA! And speaking of the crack of the bat, the first scrimmage is tomorrow, the 14th. Yes, that's right--we will be spending Valentine's Day watching one of the two loves of our lives play the GREAT AMERICAN PASTTIME--BASEBALL!!!!! FYI: It's kinda hard for the other love of our lives to play baseball since they make girls play softball--HA!HA!

[ssapiers]

Yea, right, if my DH was a professional photographer, he would make alot more money than he gets for working for the federal government--HA!HA!

 

 

 

Maybe more money but look at that job security. Oh, wait air traffic controllers have been fired!!!!:rolleyes:

 

 

Bill

[cworld]

Maybe more money but look at that job security. Oh, wait air traffic controllers have been fired!!!!:rolleyes:

 

 

Bill

 

I made the mistake of becoming management so I can be fired at any time. Sigh. But, as I tell myself every day "I love my job. I love my job."

 

Oh by the way, pitchers and catchers reported today at a bunch of camps, and the boy has his first scrimmage today. Play Ball.

[cworld]

We boarded Bambi’s Big Blue Bus for the trip back to civilization. And yes, there was not very much civilization at the end of the train ride. When we got on the bus, Bambi informed us that she had gone by the Historic Skagway Inn home of intimate Olivia’s restaurant and they were very apologetic about the treatment we had received. They told Bambi that they had some staffing problems (ya think?). They sent our dessert with Bambi. Mrs. C might remember for sure, but what I remember is that it was a piece of blueberry or rhubarb covered sponge cake. I think I tried it, and it was all right, but nothing to write home about. They also sent bottles of water, which were appreciated.

 

Bambi also said she had contacted Princess’s customer services and told us to check with the shore excursion desk and they would be giving us a refund on the lunch portion of our little trip. (Cool. Like I said Bambi turned out all right.)

 

Bambi started the treacherous journey down the hill back to Skagway. It is a long and winding road that leads to Skagway (pun intended). We were all griping the seat in front of us with white knuckles. We were scared to death. Will this be the end? How many busses end up every year at the bottom of that cliff? Isn’t there another way down? Can’t we find a driver a little more experienced? About half way down we stopped so everyone could get out and puke. (Not really.)

 

Really, the trip down was pretty uneventful. We did stop once so we could get out and take pictures of the valley we had been seeing for the last 100 miles or so. The one thing we noticed (I’m sure no one else noticed, seeing as how I so blessed with this gift of noticing important stuff) was some rather large hockey sticks sticking up from the ground every 100 yards or so. I asked Bambi what these were for. She said that they were for the snow plows so they’d know where the road ended or how deep the snow was or something.

 

The picture of the hockey sticks is here:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351554714/1352522741070712923wTZola

 

We barreled through customs almost without stopping. I think they only asked if we all came off of the train then waved us through. It was wonderful to be back on American soil. I missed the land of the free and the home of the brave so much. I almost cried when we finally crossed that blessed line. (STOP IT Carl. You were in Canada for less than an hour. Yeahbut, it seemed like longer.)

 

We continued winding down the highway into Skagway. The amusing thing about the train and the highway is that they are on opposite sides of the canyon. You can see the highway from the railroad track and you can see the train from the road. It’s pretty cool. After a little while we started to get back in to Skagway. Bambi pulled up in front of the Klondike Experience. Before we got off of the bus Bambi made sure we got all of our stuff since this was the end of the line for her and us. I did tip Bambi gladly. She was probably the best escorted motorcoach driver we had the whole trip. She even seemed surprised when I tipped her, and seemed truly appreciative.

 

Rating for Bambi’s Big Blue Bus ride – A+ Bambi did a great job. She was full of information and she was very helpful with our problems.

 

Here’s what Princess said about the Klondike Experience –

 

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

 

You can see the Klondike Experience in the background of the garden pictures at the Historic Skagway Inn. Bambi directed us down a little alley to where we were met by “a guide in period dress” (leave it alone, Carl). This guide led us to an area between the buildings that looked like it was a trash dump area at one time. There were a couple of benches sat up here where we sat down and waited. In a couple of minutes 2 guys and a girl came out and started singing. Maybe I shouldn’t actually call it singing. It was awful. If a dog would have been around he would have been howling. One of the guys was absolutely tone deaf. He was trying to sing harmony with the guy that was singing the lead (isn’t that kinda the definition of harmony? Shutup.) This guy wasn’t even close. It hurt me to listen to it. I couldn’t wait until it was over. It was probably the worstest (yes I mean worstest) thing I had ever heard. Please, someone tell them they can’t sing and put them out of our misery. After about 10 minutes of torture, mercifully they quit singing. The 2 guys and the girl put on a little skit about something to do with the gold rush. By this time my head hurt so bad that I was ready to slip out the back way and go back to the ship. But, because I knew that the day would some day come that I would have to report on the Klondike Experience, we pressed on.

 

The next thing I remember is being seated in this big bleacher area. After a couple of minutes in front of the bleachers a movie started. It was a black and white movie about the days of the gold rush. About 3 minutes in to the movie the bleachers began to rock back and forth. This I guess was the “simulator” experience. I remember also being pelted with water, OK maybe it was just a mist, but it was annoying. It’s funny how when Disney does this stuff I enjoy it, but I didn’t really enjoy this. (It could have been that I really did have a headache, and wasn’t really interested in this “history” stuff. I’m not really a “history” buff.)

 

After the movie Mr. Soapy Smith came along and started taking things out of peoples pockets as we walked into a replica of a turn of the century city street, including the dirt road. The dusty dirt road. The really dusty dirty dirt road. It’s not a good thing when you have a headache to walk around in a lot of dust. My eyes were watering my head was breaking, I was ready to leave. They actors did a little ditty about Soapy Smith stealing someone’s life savings. It wasn’t very funny. Finally they opened the doors and escorted us to the area where we were going to get our gold. This perked me up a bit. GOLD. I’m gonna be rich. Hey, dear, we’re gonna be rich. Mrs. C was feeling about like I did, and she said something like, why don’t we just slip out the door and go back to the ship. The only reason we didn’t is because we didn’t know which door to slip out of.

 

The “pay dirt” (it’s funny, until I started writing this I didn’t know where the saying “pay dirt” came from. It does make a little sense now, getting a bag of “pay dirt” that might have gold in it was pretty exciting) area of the Klondike experience is actually set up pretty well. Each person was handed a bag of dirt and a pan. We were then shown to an area where there were 4 or so long troughs of water. These troughs were about 10 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 1 foot deep. They were set up so that the water was about at elbow height. There was room for about 30 or so people to work at the same time. They showed us how to work the pan to get the gold to the bottom, then get out the sand. After about 5 minutes I had 4 or 5 gold flecks in my pan. Remembering how we had done things the morning before, I got the gold out with the eyedropper and put it in the tube they gave us. So now we had more gold.

 

After about 15 minutes of that someone asked how do we get out of here? Good question. They pointed to the exit and all of us started to leave. Mrs. C and I couldn’t wait, except… I spy with my blue eyes, there, right there behind the door, a place I just couldn’t pass up. I needed to stop badly. So I did. Ahhhh, I feel better now.

 

We left the Klondike Experience and started back toward the ship. Bambi had told us of some kind of transportation from somewhere to the dock area, but we decided to walk. Mrs. C wanted to try to find some trinkets or something so we started back.

 

Before I move on, I better give my rating for the Klondike Experience. This is a tuffie. I want to give it high marks, because the setup was pretty good. This is one of those attractions that could really profit from the Mouse’s touch. The pre-show was absolutely horrible. The simulator portion was lame, and the acting was cheesy. One thing I just remembered was that in one area they served us some Sarsaparilla that was actually very good. But overall I wasn’t very impressed.

 

But my overall rating for the Klondike Experience is a --- D Needs lots of improvement. But then again I had a headache.

[noj]

And I had just about given up on seeing more with baseball season and all!!!!

[cworld]

Dahh, Dahh, Da, Dum Dum Dum Dum. Dah Dah DahDah dumdum dadada dumdumdum

 

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports.

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.

 

OH yeah baby, it’s that time again. Time for the vaunted, not to be missed, 2006 Winter Olympics. WhoHoo!!! I’ve been waiting for months with baited breath, just for this week. Aren’t all of you positively glued to your TV’s? What could possibly be better than turning on 4 hours of semi-live coverage of women’s curling? Now that’s a sport I can relate too. Pushing rocks down ice, then (well maybe I can’t relate to this part) sweeping the ice to make the rock move. How positively awe inspiring. I was listening to the radio Monday, and someone was dissing MSNBC’s coverage of women’s curling. Obviously they hadn’t seen any of it (especially the US women’s team). What drama, what passion, what action! (Note: that last sentence was full of statements and ended with an exclamation point not a question mark.) Everyone fess up, you’re missing work, you’re forsaking chores, you’re computer is set to notify you is something happens. The winter Olympics has taken over your life. NO? Really? Huh. Me either.

 

I’m not a real big fan of the winter Olympics. Everything is done on ice or snow, and I don’t like ice and snow. It’s COLD! I don't like cold. That’s one of the reasons I was just a little hesitant to take our little Alaska vacation. Alaska has the reputation of being the land of Eskimos and igloos. Not a place of warmth. But we went anyway, and unlike the Winter Olympics, the place grew on me. I still don’t like the cold. (By the way, the high today in OKC was about 20 degrees with snow and ice. Brrrr. Glad they cancelled today’s scrimmage. Really Brrr!) But then again, Alaska wasn't cold when we were there.

 

Enough of this extraneous, personal, boring junk, let’s get back to our extraneous, personal, boring adventure…

 

We walked out of the Klondike Experience and looked around. What to do now? It was still a couple of hours until the ship left the port, but all of our scheduled activities were completed, fini, done, over with, put a fork in it… (Stop it, Carl.) What do you do with 2 hours in Skagway Alaska? We could go to the bar and grab a couple of brewski’s. Ah, Carl, we don’t drink. Oh yeah. We could run over to the links and hit a few. Links? Here? I don’t think so. We could mmmmm, let’s see, we could run over to where the lady, dressed in the red dress, is hanging out of the window and check out what that’s all about. (Even I didn’t have the nerve to bring that one up.) So what’s left? SHOPPING…. Hurray. Let’s go shopping. Oh boy, that’s what I’ve waited all day to do. Go shopping with a headache. Yeeehaw. Two hours of shopping in Skagway. YES.

 

OK, where are we going to go to do this “shopping”. What do we need? Need? Shopping isn’t about need. Shopping is about… well… shopping is about shopping! (I know, I know. You can’t believe that someone that hates shopping “gets” it. Well, I do. I just don’t like it.) Actually Mrs. C just wanted to pick up a thimble to add to her collection and a couple of postcards to send to the kids, and maybe a sweatshirt. So we weren’t really going shopping. Right?

 

We walked down “main” street looking for a place to buy thimbles. “Main” street Skagway Alaska is one pretty impressive place. Let me tell you. There are about 10 or 12 buildings. The only one that even remotely interesting is the Welcome Center. It looks like it’s made of wood. Now, don’t get the wrong picture in your mind, this is not a log cabin looking thing made up of great big logs. The Welcome Center looks like someone glued a bunch of old wood on the front, and only the front of the building. The wood is glued in patterns that make give the building an unusual look. Some extra pieces have been added to the basic pattern to make interesting designs on the building.

 

See for yourself:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351554714/1352523550070712923RoWOdA

 

Main Street:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/419328125/2002510260075876446VhdEBj

 

We went inside the Welcome Center, because it’s apparently the only place in downtown Skagway with working women’s restrooms. There were a couple of people at the counter answering questions and handing out maps and stuff. The wood motif didn’t extend to the inside of the building (at least I don’t think it did.) After looking around for a couple of minutes we walked out into the blistering Alaskan sun and went shopping.

 

First we stopped at a t-shirt store and looked at the tee and sweat shirts. As we came out of this building we ran into our almost friends from New Jersey. It was her birthday, so we wished her happy birthday. We walked around together for a few minutes and talked about our mutual days. They had done the train ride in reverse. They invited us to join them for dinner, but because it was her birthday we decided to let them have an intimate evening together. We kinda talked about meeting later, but didn’t make any concrete plans (that’s the last we’ll see of them.) We said our goodbyes and went on our merry way looking for the highly illusive Skagway Alaska thimble.

 

We went into a couple more stores until we came upon a store that had thimbles and post cards. Two birds with one stone hurray. Mrs. C found what she wanted and we were done. What now? Back to the ship! Oh yeah, babe, you know what I like. We walked back toward the ship. As we walked I spotted the highest ship logo thing I could photograph and took this.

 

Pic of ship logo on hill:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/419328125/2252395000075876446ihkvkp

 

And that was it. We were through with Skagway. We got back on board the incomparable Island Princess and went directly to the medicine chest. (Frank I’ve got a sick headache.) I think I took a whole bottle.

 

What an absolutely wonderful day (at least most of it) we had in Skagway. Did everything go perfectly? No. Could things have been better? Of course. But all in all Skagway was a great success.

 

To the people of Skagway Alaska,

 

We visited your fair city on May 11, 2005. Thank you for allowing us to invade your beautiful city. Your clean streets impressed us greatly. We applaud and thank you for taking the time to make things perfect for our visit. Thank you for the great weather, you provided, and the wonderful hospitality. We hope to visit you again one day.

 

Again, thank you.

[JanaJohn]

Carl, am we supposed to believe that it was a coincidence you just happened to watch the U.S. women's curling team on TV? Isn't it possible you were watching because the 2 lovely Johnson sisters are on the team? Was that the drama, passion and action you mentioned??? :D

[cworld]

Carl, am we supposed to believe that it was a coincidence you just happened to watch the U.S. women's curling team on TV? Isn't it possible you were watching because the 2 lovely Johnson sisters are on the team? Was that the drama, passion and action you mentioned??? :D

 

John,

First question, yes. As for the rest... I'm not admitting anything.:cool:

[Sea Fan]

I have got to say Carl you are one entertaining guy, I have spent the last 3 hours reading about your Alaska trip. Your conversation with animals was the best! My husband and I cruised to Alaska with Princess in August of 2004, it was a great trip and the Star Princess was amazing. Can't wait to do it again. I'm just sorry we didn't discover your postings sooner. Keep them coming!

Dianne (Sea Fan)

[cworld]

After our exhausting day in Skagway, we both needed a little nap. OK maybe needed is to strong a word, but as they say on “Iron Chef”, “if memory serves me”, we both caught at least 40 winks after our long, grueling, arduous, demanding, day in Skagway Alaska, United States of America.

 

I think my stomach growling woke us. Neither one of us had had any thing to eat of consequence since the less than satisfying pseudo-lunch at the Historic Skagway Inn, home of the intimate Olivia’s restaurant. Since it was getting close to dinnertime we got dressed for dinner. While Mrs. C was finishing I stepped out on the balcony and snapped a couple of pics of our departure out of Skagway. It was starting to get a little cloudy, which affected the quality of the pictures. If I knew how to use this bloomin new camera I’d have probably done a little better, but... Here is one that passed our stringent, rigorous, quality control department.

 

Pic of IP leaving Skagway.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351554714/1352886494070712923qMNNdx

 

One of those little things that I enjoyed on our cruise was sitting on the balcony and watching the Incomparable Island Princess as it pulled in and out of ports. I don’t know why it fascinated me so, but it did. The thing that struck me the most was how quiet the ship was. Where I work, when vehicles get ready to depart, or arrive, they make a lot of noise. The bigger the vehicle, the louder the noise, except for the F-16’s, they’re kinda little but make a big noise. The only noise the Island Princess made when she was leaving or entering port was the noise of water gushing around the ship. There was absolutely no engine noise. I don’t remember that being true of the SS Dolphin, Scourge of the Seas, or even on the Love Boat, which I watched as a kid (OK, maybe I was a young adult). On the Love Boat, the horn would blow, and you could hear the engine roar, everybody would throw confetti and off they would go. On the SS Dolphin, Scourge of the Seas, the engine would run all of the time. But the Incomparable Island Princess, silently slipped in and out of her moorings. It was something I’ll never forget. It was something that fascinated me and I hope to experience again. Soon.

 

Mrs. C was ready and we were off. Dinner. I wonder what their serving tonight? Probably smoked gizzards or stir fried lice, or something that has little bitty portions, or that is seasoned until it’s no longer consumable . Now where did that come from? Dinner has been pretty good on the Incomparable Island Princess. Yea, but how long can that last? I’ve read the Cruise Critic boards before we left about the food on Princess and it’s supposed to reek. I’m just sure that tonight it’s gonna start reeking.

 

Hey, Carl, go back to bed and get up on the other side.

 

OK.

 

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If any of the above makes total sense to you, give me a call. I’ve got some career information you might be interested in. (That is if you’re under 30 years old. But probably if you’re reading this, you’re over 30, so forget it. Don’t call me. I’ll call you.)

 

Trying again.

 

Mrs. C was ready and we were off. Dinner. Wonder what their serving tonight. I hope it’s lobsters or crab or something. It’s about time, since we’ve been in Alaska for 3 days now and we haven’t had any real Alaskan food like great Alaskan King Crab. I can see in my mind a pile of succulent, long, thick, fresh Alaskan King Crab legs. You know, the Alaskan King Crab legs you see on those great commercials. Three feet long and an inch thick, I’m getting hungry just writing about it. Hey dear, how about sea food tonight? Or, maybe they’ll serve some great Italian dish. Something that oozes garlic and tomato and butter... Maybe there be a real PRIME RIB on the menu. This time we’ll remember to tell them to forget the gravy. Whatever... just quit talking about food and let’s go get some. I’m hungry!!!

 

But before dinner, and since we were in the area, Mrs. C needed stamps and I wanted to visit the excursions desk to see what they were going to do about our little lunch fiasco. The lady at the excursion desk was quick to say, “We’re sorry about the problem.” Or at least I think that’s what she said. I couldn’t really understand her. I pretty sure English was not her first language. She said she wasn’t sure what Princess was going to do, but she would go check. She disappeared for a couple of minutes. When she came back she told me that Princess had decided credit our account for the cost of the lunch. She didn’t have the amount right then, but assured us that we would see a credit on our final bill. Later, I saw the total. It turned out to be around $35.00 each. Pretty good. I was very satisfied, but still hungry.

 

Mrs. C was still in line, so I ventured over to look at the menu at the Bourdeaux dining room to see what I had to look forward to. Mmm, let’s see. Oh, pooh, I don’t have my glasses and it’s a little hard to see the menu says, but I think it I see that crab (YES!) is one of the main dishes. It might be my imagination (hear The Temptations singing in the background “It was just my imagination, running away with me”), or my hope. But I do believe that I will be dining on a large plate of freshly caught, succulent, juicy, moist, tender, luscious, sweet, fresh, Alaskan King Crab tonight.

 

Life is good.

 

It’s amazing how a nap changes your whole perspective. Just a couple of short hours ago my head was killing me, I was grumpy, and I wasn’t very good company. But now... I’m tanned (not really), rested, headache’s gone, and I’m ready to face whatever supper brings.

 

I skipped over to where Mrs. C, (well maybe the skipping was only in my head) was still in line and blurted out something about having crabs this evening. Don’t know why, but I got a couple of funny looks. I guess I’m just a funny guy. The line was a little long, and there wasn’t very much help, so I persuaded Mrs. C that we could come back by after dinner. I’m hungry. So off we went.

 

Life is good.

[margord]

Still with you Carl and still enjoying.

 

Marilee

[cruzluvr2]

cworld - still with you too. I just shared the link to your pictures with a fellow at work that is considering an Alaskan cruise. He was impressed!! I've checked pricing for him -- no deals this year:eek:

 

Gail

[Lizzybell]

Carl-we continue to enjoy hearing @ yours & Mrs Cs adventures on the Island-thank you. Princess is having another "cruise giveaway contest" Applicants are required to submit a story...i do believe "Island to Alaska w/Pics(parts 1&2)" would win. Liz

[cruzluvr2]

cworld - you want to enter that contest?? I'm still pulling your review over into Word docs - the two docs are nearly 200 pages by now.

 

Gail

[cworld]

I'll probably try to throw a little something together, but the limit is 3600 words which I find a little confining, and then there is the choice, hot or cold? Alaska or the Caribbean? Something we've already done, or something new? Hmmm. Better consult Mrs. C on this one. Also better get cracking on writing the entry. It's due by April 10, and we all know how fast I pull a story together.

[cruzluvr2]

Make us all proud!!:D I'd love to see you win. I'm sure Mrs. c would be pleased too. Now go, hurry, write, baseball season is quickly approaching.

 

Gail

[cruisingbug]

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS THREAD IS STILL RUNNING! :)

 

Since cworld's cruise, I've finished the second half of my pregnancy, had my baby, we're three months on and have another cruise planned!

 

Seriously, when I get a few minutes that aren't baby-centric (right now I'm headed to bed) I'll get caught up. But Skagway? You're only in Skagway? You've still got College Fjords, Whittier and the tunnel (the tunnel in itself is thesis material), Portage, Anchorage, etc. if you did a post cruise. The level of detail you have here is absolute craziness. I vaguely remember that I took a cruise, it was Alaska, and there were some ports and a whale or two... I couldn't tell you much more than that at this point!

 

Well, keep it coming!

[cworld]

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS THREAD IS STILL RUNNING! :)

 

Since cworld's cruise, I've finished the second half of my pregnancy, had my baby, we're three months on and have another cruise planned!

 

 

crusingbug,

 

CONGRATULATIONS! and welcome back. Yes, I'm just finishing Skagway. It seems like I'll never get through this thing. Hope you enjoy catching up.

 

Carl

[cworld]

It’s been a while since we’ve done this so, why don’t we play a little game?

 

cruisingbug’s message reminded me of a little, minor, insignificant, unimportant, petty inconsequential, item I may have forgotten to mention.

 

There was this thing that Mrs. C and I got every day we were in port. “It” usually led to the highlight of our day. “It” usually brought both of us a few moments of happiness, although a couple of times “it” brought an irritation. Every day I literally couldn’t wait until “it” happened. Sometimes “it” would come and go, at the most inconvenient times, and that made me sad.

 

What is “it”?

[cruzluvr2]

Could "it" be room service waking you with that first cup of coffee?

 

Gail

[cworld]

Gail,

 

Nope, don't drink coffee.

 

Sorry

 

OK, since Gail got us rolling and I know that all of you are just waiting to see what you can win in our fabulous game let's talk about what's really important. That would be the dough, the stash, the smack, the bling-bling...

 

But before we talk about our prizes there is a little item my best friend the lawyer said I need to sneak in.

 

 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Void where prohibited by law, statute, or common sense. May be void where not prohibited by law if the law is vague about the prohibitions covering contests, games of chance, lotteries, or other forms of entertainment. The contest is limited to one entry per Island to Alaska with Pictures poster, per day.. In the event of more than one entry per poster per day is entered, the entry with the earliest time stamp on that day will be accepted as the final entry for that contestant on that day. The Grand Prize will be granted to the entry that correctly and completely answers the question, “What is “it”?” as outlined in the Island to Alaska with Pictures (Part 2) posting dated February 24, 2006, at 9:59pm, posting number 5921243. To enter this contest post your correct and complete answer to the question “What is “it”?” in the Island to Alaska with Pictures (Part 2) thread no later than December 31, 2008. Along with the posting send a self addressed stamped envelope to the home address of the author of Island to Alaska with Picture (Part 2) by the close of business on January 31, 2009. In the envelope you must include a copy of your post, a recent bank statement and a check for $2.00 to cover the shipping of any prize. In the event you are not awarded a prize, you check may be returned. Winners will be notified by mail no later than July 12, 2009. Entries will be judged on their completeness and accuracy by a panel of 5 judges drawn at random from a pool of the author’s available friends and family members. Secondary prizes may be awarded for the most creative entry, and for the least creative entry. All entries become the property of the author and will not be returned. Submission of entries authorizes the author to publish posts about the entrant and/or a list of winners names. It allows the author to use these posts in any capacity without legal obligation or financial reimbursement. Winners are chosen by the author and his discretion or lack thereof is unquestionable and will be considered final. Employees of Cruise Critic, Princess Cruise Lines, ItAwP Inc., and anyone else we deem unacceptable and their immediate families are not eligible to participate. Government fees and taxes are the sole responsibility of the winner. The author of Island to Alaska with Pictures (Part 2) may or may not acknowledge receipt of entries due to the volume received. The author of Island to Alaska with Pictures (Part 2) reserves the right to end this contest without further notice.

So what will our Grand Prize winner take home? I’ve been thinking a lot about that over the last hour or so... and I’m drawing a blank.

 

Oprah hasn’t called, and after the little “potty” mouth episode this week I’m not sure I want to be associated with her anyway. I mean, what good would it do me to go on Oprah if I was an author? It would only mean about 200,000 books (at $4.00 or so each to the author) sold the next day. No big deal. Since I’m a little tight on cash right now, so no trips to Gotebo or Cache, or Slapout, or Gauge, or Lottawatta or Nowatta or Stillwater or anywhere else in Oklahoma are probably in the cards.

 

I’ve got it, the winner of the “What is “it”?” contest will receive, when completed, a complete autographed copy of my first book. Now that should be worth something. In fact I’ll make it one of my rough draft copies complete with complete handwritten notes. (Ain’t I somethin’?) All of this could be completely yours if you just... you know the drill.

 

Good luck.