Semi-live from the Discovery Princess | April 30 – May 7 | Alaska Inside Passage

[OrcaGirl]

Just now, memoak said:

Most every large bar on all the ships I have sailed on has Makers Mark, Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace bourbons and all fit into the plus package

Screenshot this off the Take Five menu…

[OrcaGirl]

Wow I’m tipsy. I’ve been drinking waaaay less all cruise since I need to keep an eye on the ladies but I’m making up for it on this last sea day. 
 

Still writing up the rest of Ketchikan.

[SportsFanatic]

14 minutes ago, memoak said:

Most every large bar on all the ships I have sailed on has Makers Mark, Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace bourbons and all fit into the plus package

We were on the Regal in January and they said they did not have Makers  Mark and had not carried it in over six months. So that is why I am checking because my son didn’t want to get the drink package if they didn’t have it.

[SportsFanatic]

14 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

Screenshot this off the Take Five menu…

I am wondering why there is no price showing after it. 

[OrcaGirl]

13 minutes ago, SportsFanatic said:

I am wondering why there is no price showing after it. 

 oh good point, if I remember later I’ll ask

[OrcaGirl]

Day 6 — afternoon and evening

 

Okay, where were we?

 

After our Ketchikan tour, we dropped off our layers and shopping in the room and headed to the buffet for lunch. Delicious!

 

 

But the drink situation — grrr…. I ordered a Baked Alaska cocktail for me and a ginger something premium tea for mom via the app. My cocktail showed up within 20 min and was delightful. But no sign of the tea… we finished lunch and waited a bit longer. I sent mom and D back to the cabin and waited longer still. Eventually I went down to the International Cafe to ask what’s up. Oh they’re out of ginger tea and that’s why it never showed up… so why did the app still show the order as ‘on the way’?!?! The dude at the coffee bar didn’t seem to understand my frustration, and sure, it’s not his fault, but come on Princess! If items aren’t available at the time of ordered, they either shouldn’t be available to order or someone should come by to say sorry, not available right now…

 

 

After all that, mom and I headed to the Enclave for a bit and then had a nice long nap in the cabin.

 

We stayed in our balcony for sailaway (watching a dozen or so eagles fishing right close to shore) and about 20 min after the all-aboard time, the captain came on over the PA system to say that two passengers hadn’t come onboard yet and that if they showed up before 5pm sailaway to let them known what we thought of that. 🤣

 

So sure enough I see a couple walking slowly towards the ship, looking at their phone. (It’s a big ****int ship, how lost could you possibly be?!?!)

 

One of the portside workers and an officer on a radio went up to them and then they started running… to the cheers and jeers of everyone on the balcony. After 20some cruises, that may have been the funniest pier running incident I’ve seen.

 

We did a quick stop for photos, and then to dinner.

 

 

We were seating in the Santa section of the dining room.

 

 

The apparently-new/updated menu for elegant night:

 

 

 

 

The escargot was good if quite salty. The steak and lobster was yummy, as was the raspberry swan.

 

 

 

 

After dinner we claimed some seats in the theatre for the Spotlight Bar production. (It seems like every cruise line I’ve sailed recently has had a production show set in a bar, eg Choir of Man on NCL, Broken Strings on Celebrity…) It was okay; I did. appreciate their rendition of Little Nas X’s Old Town Road with an Anna Kendrick-esque Cups intro. My mom declared it “loud”.

 

 

 

 

After that we were beat and ditched our plans for the Enclave to hit the hay early. After changing our clocks forward as instructed.

[memoak]

3 hours ago, SportsFanatic said:

We were on the Regal in January and they said they did not have Makers  Mark and had not carried it in over six months. So that is why I am checking because my son didn’t want to get the drink package if they didn’t have it.

On long cruises they often run out of certain brands. The difference in the major bourbons in the plus package are all pretty close in taste.  Makers Mark is actually pretty far down my list the Woodford Reserve is one of my favorites but the are all pretty much the same. He is not going to drink if one brand is not available ?

[BamaVol]

26 minutes ago, memoak said:

On long cruises they often run out of certain brands. The difference in the major bourbons in the plus package are all pretty close in taste.  Makers Mark is actually pretty far down my list the Woodford Reserve is one of my favorites but the are all pretty much the same. He is not going to drink if one brand is not available ?

I was thinking along the same lines.  Makers is okay.  I wouldn’t pitch a fit over the ship not having it when Woodford, Knob Creek and Bulleit were available. I looked back at a picture I took at a bar on the Caribbean Princess in March and don’t see Makers.  But Buffalo Trace was in stock.

[pirate4sail]

Thank you for all the lovely pictures and truly appreciate your humor in these posts! Can you tell me are the curtains in your room dark enough to allow for sleep? The light all the time 17 hours I’ve read!!!!

[SportsFanatic]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

On long cruises they often run out of certain brands. The difference in the major bourbons in the plus package are all pretty close in taste.  Makers Mark is actually pretty far down my list the Woodford Reserve is one of my favorites but the are all pretty much the same. He is not going to drink if one brand is not available ?

It was a four-day cruise so I don’t think they ran out, they said they haven’t carried it in over six months, but was hoping, maybe it was just a certain ship.I know  he drank another brand since they didn’t have it, but  he just wasn’t happy with the other choices. 

[SportsFanatic]

I love all your pictures of Ketchikan. I’m very excited to go there. We have been debating about going to the Saxman village or the Totem  Bight State Park.  It looks great and how lucky no rain!. 

[FrankieJayIII]

19 hours ago, SportsFanatic said:

I am wondering why there is no price showing after it. 

They have the ability to remove the price when out of stock?

[Cali Viajera]

I am enjoying your blog!

[CruiserN1]

Thanks for the TR. I am enjoying following your trip.

 

Kayaking in Sitka is phenomal, if you make it back there. Last trip the guide brought up these incredible sea stars and placed them on the bow of his kayak for us to see. Incredible experience.

[OrcaGirl]

Hey everyone, sorry for radio silence. I will come back and finish up the trip report in a few days, but had a little glitch in my plans:

 

[nini]

3 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

Hey everyone, sorry for radio silence. I will come back and finish up the trip report in a few days, but had a little glitch in my plans:

 

Good grief!!! WTH? Drink lots of water!!!

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, OrcaGirl said:

Hey everyone, sorry for radio silence. I will come back and finish up the trip report in a few days, but had a little glitch in my plans:

 

Oh my goodness, so sorry to hear.  What an awful way to end your trip.  Hope you feel better soon and that your mom stays healthy!

[OrcaGirl]

Okay, feeling much better compared to the first few days of COVID, so let's quickly recap the final sea day.

 

We started the day in the thermal spa, as we were wont to do. I'm so thrilled that my mom enjoyed this space...

 

 

We popped by the Atrium after breakfast for the towel folding demo; we didn't receive any towel animals ourselves for the duration of the cruise, so I can see why they save this for the last day (so there's no immediate influx of demands on room stewards).

 

 

 

 

Today I 'discovered' the Bellini Bar while watching line dancing, and enjoyed their tasty beverages, bringing one of them into the theatre for Deal or No Deal for luck... well that didn't work, we didn't get a single win between the three of us.

 

 

 

 

And then to afternoon tea, which was the only must-do for us today. Important to note: one fellow passenger was adamant that she had made reservations for afternoon tea because she had clicked the 'I'm Going' button in the app... but no, there are no reservations for afternoon tea. You get in line outside of the Skagway dining room, and then at 3pm they open the doors and seat your party.

 

I left mom and D in the theatre as Deal or No Deal wrapped up and hustled over to the Skagway dining room to snag a spot in line, as we'd seen it snake around the deck on the earlier sea day. I ended up second in line, and we got our own table by the window.

 

 

The small bites and treats were very good. I'm not a tea connoisseur but the ladies seemed to like it, and the servers kept their cups full. Only downside was the lack of proper Devonshire cream for the scones, but otherwise it was a delightful experience. (Fun fact: as an honest but stupid university student, I was stopped by customs bringing a tub of clotted cream into Canada from the UK... at the height of the mad cow scare...)

 

 

 

After tea, D went for a nap and mom and I retreated to Princess Live for the "Hollywood Hiccups" game show which wasn't so much a game show or trivia session but just a hilarious time of the crew acting out various movies. Kudos to the entertainment staff for that one.

 

 

 

We meandered back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. While getting dressed, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something moving out on the water. A humpback whale! I yelled for mom and darted out onto the balcony half-dressed, and sure enough the whale surfaced and did another impressive tail slap. We lost sight of it pretty quickly, but I was so glad we got that moment.

 

To dinner! We had planned to go back to the Ketchikan MDR again, but since we had filled up at afternoon tea, it was much later than normal (for us) by the time we got to Ketchikan and the waiting area was packed and the lineup looked quite disorganized. So we high-tailed it out of there and back-tracked to Gigi's Pizzeria.

 

We ordered two appetizers (a salad and an antipasto platter) and two pizzas (Hawaiian and vegetarian) to share between the three of us. The pizza was indeed very good, but was it better than on the Celebrity Edge? Hard to say... I was surprised but pleased to see slices of avocado on the vegetarian pizza.

 

 

As we were sitting there finishing up our pizza, I remembered to check our photos from the previous night. They were... not good. We decided to skip stopping by the photo deck to get our 'free' prints. There were also some glitches with the app when trying to access the photos.

 

 

Everyone was stuffed but you can't not order tiramisu when the opportunity presents itself, so mom and I shared one. Very good.

 

 

We were fading so we headed down to Good Spirits for a final drink while D headed to the Guest Services desk to settle up her bill (she wanted to pay her tab in cash). I don't know if it was because it was the last night or what, but the service at Good Spirits was... not good. We took a seat, and were ignored for a good 15 minutes or so. Waitstaff were walking around and taking orders from other tables, but kept missing our table. I couldn't even order via the app because the fancy cocktails exclusive to Good Spirits aren't available online. Finally a seat opened up at the bar so I walked over and placed my order. In the end, my Butterfly was pretty and got a lot of comments from passersby but was actually kind of meh.

 

 

We got back to the room as the sky was starting to change colour. Finished up our packing and set out our luggage. And then, once again, I noticed some movement outside. Dolphins! A small pod of at least three dolphins were doing some flips off the portside. A pretty great end to a pretty great day.

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by OrcaGirl

[Bemidji Ty]

Glad you are better.  Thanks again. 

 

[triple7tahoe]

It was not until just now that I realized your post was about the cruise we were just on. I enjoyed reading your comments and comparing them to our experiences. We seem to have enjoyed many of the same locations. Then I got to your post with the "test results" and said "Wow". When we finally got home on Sunday (Long trip from ship to our home across the harbor 🙂 ). I felt like I had caught a bad cold and went to bed; stayed there for three days. Now I have to wonder if I had a mild version of Covid, certainly feeling better now--Hope to be great by the upcoming weekend as we are back off to Alaska (on Royal, Saturday). 

[sharryan]

Hello.  We were on this cruise as well.  We also brought Covid home with us 😞This was our first cruise and we did love it.  Wish I hadn't been so ill this week as that's the time you want to talk about it etc.  Sitka was beautiful.  I wish our weather would have been better for the rest of the days.  Juneau was particularly sad as I had looked so forward to a 2pm arrival.  Somehow my dreams didn't include me standing outside in the rain with the town looking so dreary and the mountains hidden by clouds LOL.  We had a small ship whale-watching trip booked for 4:15.  So waited for that.  They picked us up, drove us most of the way there, stopped for a scenic picture and then got the call that it was too choppy to take us out.  Back we came to the ship.  Waiting for our refund.  I just wish they would have made the decision sooner so we perhaps could have done something else.  By that time we were too tired, cold and wet to do anything.  Thank you for your recap.  It was great.  We missed all the yummies in the morning at the International Cafe as we were later risers.  Had the buffet every day.  It was good.  We loved the app and ordered on it most of the time as it seemed easier for the servers but we did miss out on some drinks.  Loved DuVaul !  If you were at Deal or No Deal that was my husband that went up first (in my place)  Won some money which was fun!

Take care and thank you for sharing!

[OrcaGirl]

16 hours ago, sharryan said:

 If you were at Deal or No Deal that was my husband that went up first (in my place)  Won some money which was fun!

Take care and thank you for sharing!

 

We were sitting in the row directly behind you! 😂

[OrcaGirl]

Disembarkation and return home recap

 

No room service on disembarkation days, so I set my alarm early and headed down to the International Cafe for some coffees and teas and breakfast foods to bring back for the ladies.

 

 

Despite picking the latest available disembarkation time on the little piece of paper a couple of days prior, we were assigned to an early-ish group (Aqua 3). We said goodbye to our cabin and headed down to the Vista Lounge, our designated waiting area.

 

My mom was soooo ready to get off the ship.

 

 

Our group was called relatively quickly, and by 8:10am or so we were off the ship and headed for the luggage hall. Despite a port staff person saying that some luggage was still being offloaded, I found ours easily and we headed towards customs and immigration.

 

Except there wasn't any? We didn't need to show our passports or talk to a person, or anything. Just walked right out the building.

 

I should have booked a transfer, as the ride share parking lot was reeeeeeeeeaaaally far from the terminal. Fine for me, less fine for the ladies who needed several breaks and were probably cursing my name.

 

But we found our Lyft and headed off to our Hyatt House hotel near the Space Needle. It wasn't cheap, but the location was great.

 

 

We spent the rest of the morning on the Hop On Hop Off bus, choosing to just go along for the ride and not hop off anywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Once back at the starting location, conveniently across the street from the hotel, we headed into the Seattle Center Armory for lunch.

 

 

The Skillet Counter burgers were good, portions were huge, but that is not poutine. Nope.

 

 

We wandered back to the hotel via the gardens, and then chilled in the hotel room for the rest of the afternoon as mom caught up on 90 Day Fiance...

 

 

 

 

None of us had any oomph for going out for dinner, so I ordered in Thai food from a nearby restaurant and had it delivered to the lobby. We called it an early night... and then I woke up around midnight feeling a little stuffed up.

 

Oh no! I was really, really hoping it was just allergies or cruise crud. I tossed and turned the rest of the night, as my breathing just got more and more congested.

 

We had tickets for the 7:50am train from Seattle to Vancouver, so I sent the ladies downstairs for the complimentary breakfast buffet while I tried (and failed) to not toss my cookies. I masked up, we called a Lyft, and headed to the station.

 

King Street Station was a lot more chaotic that I remember it being in pre-COVID days, but we got our luggage tagged and passport checked and I joined the looooooong boarding line. Next time, I'm flying.

 

It was a full train, and we weren't able to get seats facing the water but at least got three seats together. I felt miserable the entire way, just hoping that my mom wasn't going to get sick.

 

There were a few delays due to freight traffic on the tracks, and then more delays getting luggage off the train once we reached Vancouver. Finally we made it and my husband was waiting to pick us up. They dropped me off at home while they headed to their hotel and then grabbed lunch, and I crashed for a few hours and then took the fateful COVID test. Managed to stay COVID-free across three years and four cruises, but I finally succumbed.

 

Mom and D tested that afternoon and the next couple of days, and stayed negative. Woohoo! (Sooooo glad she got her latest booster just a couple weeks before the cruise.)

 

And that's a wrap on this cruise adventure...

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by OrcaGirl

[Cali Viajera]

Thank you again for sharing your adventures 🛳Hope you recover quickly 😀

[Nolafan]

Thank you for all of your beautiful pictures and your trip reporting. I hope you feel better soon!