Live from the NCL Spirit B2B July 5-19, 2023 (more sarcasm and grumpiness!)

[KACTravels]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:26 AM, www3traveler said:

The Spirit will not be in the Alaskan waters in 2024.  Will be sailing out of Taiwan to Japan and South Korea.

We LOVE the Spirit and had planned on cruising her again, but our itinerary was cancelled.  On the NCL website, there aren't any sailings listed past April 2024.  I'm curious how you are aware of the information on Taiwan, Japan and South Korea?

[www3traveler]

13 minutes ago, KACTravels said:

We LOVE the Spirit and had planned on cruising her again, but our itinerary was cancelled.  On the NCL website, there aren't any sailings listed past April 2024.  I'm curious how you are aware of the information on Taiwan, Japan and South Korea?

News story posted 20 June 2023 by Cruise Industry News.  Check it out and add it to your bookmarks.  They send emails at least twice with updated cruise news.

[omahabob]

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/06/norwegian-spirit-to-sail-from-taiwan-in-2024/

[disneylover89]

Enjoying another one of your adventures with your dad, have a wonderful trip!

[YVRteacher]

11 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

My refresh button got worn out today - I was starting to worry! Lol. Sounds like dad is having a great time - so I know that means you are, too. So happy for you both. I went thrifting today and picked up some very "fancy" outfits for the QE!

 

Lets plan to get together in early August!

Sure! Would you like to get together in Norway or Iceland? 😉

 

Have you started packing for your upcoming cruise?

 

We are both having a wonderful time and have been so happily busy! Long port hours and bright sunshine mean lots of time ashore.

[YVRteacher]

2 hours ago, KACTravels said:

We LOVE the Spirit and had planned on cruising her again, but our itinerary was cancelled.  On the NCL website, there aren't any sailings listed past April 2024.  I'm curious how you are aware of the information on Taiwan, Japan and South Korea?

Hello friend!

[YVRteacher]

2 hours ago, libtrek said:

Crossing fingers for you too. That would be the ultimate cherry on top for me. Thinking of the Jewell for 2024, prices seem high. Probably will wait until April or so to book.

We could get up to some serious librarian shenanigans!

[vacation44]

Really enjoying reading about your trip as I knew I would!  Glad you and your dad are having a wonderful time.

[lgdesign]

On 7/7/2023 at 1:50 PM, YVRteacher said:

Me: what flavour is your yoghurt?

Dad: yellow

 

My new favorite flavor of anything is now "yellow".  Thank you, Dad!

 

I'm a new reader enjoying all your posts.  Thank you, too!

[YVRteacher]

Spirit Day 4 part 1

Juneau

Another hot sunny day! At breakfast Monica told my dad to make sure he wore his hat. He said he would.

 

We did Tri-Bond Trivia and won with 14/15. Then we did general trivia and won that too. I had a chat with the Cruise Director’s staff member Dee Dee.  She worked on MSC for 8 years before switching to NCL and this is her first contract with NCL. She couldn’t move up on MSC because she doesn’t speak Italian fluently.  She is supporting her mom at home in South Africa and has just made enough money to renovate her mom’s house.  She said she makes twice as much money on NCL as she did on MSC (I didn’t ask how much she makes!) She also said she loved Vancouver because she was able to get her hair braided. I knew the name of the salon and recommend a place for poutine across from the salon the next time she visits Vancouver.

 

When you get off the ship in Juneau, do not get on this bus😉

The Juneau welcoming committee is dog-tired today

Of note

Protective of French fries

Truffles were procured. We had them shrink wrapped.  When we came back to the Spirit I put my truffles in the fridge. Dad put his in the safe!

 

 

[www3traveler]

WOW!!  Love your Dad's idea for hiding truffles.

I have hid chocolates more than once from staff in my safe.

 

How are you doing?

 

Have any of the Senior staff said anything about sailing out of Taiwan next year that is repeatable in polite English?

 

BIG BIG BIG BIG HUGS

 

Love and prayers always

[YVRteacher]

2 hours ago, disneylover89 said:

Enjoying another one of your adventures with your dad, have a wonderful trip!

Thank you! We are definitely having a wonderful cruise!

[YVRteacher]

1 hour ago, lgdesign said:

 

My new favorite flavor of anything is now "yellow".  Thank you, Dad!

 

I'm a new reader enjoying all your posts.  Thank you, too!

Hello! Thanks for reading!

I had a student who, when I asked him what his favourite colour is, replied, “Lego!”

[YVRteacher]

36 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

WOW!!  Love your Dad's idea for hiding truffles.

I have hid chocolates more than once from staff in my safe.

 

How are you doing?

 

Have any of the Senior staff said anything about sailing out of Taiwan next year that is repeatable in polite English?

 

BIG BIG BIG BIG HUGS

 

Love and prayers always

I don’t think we have ever been as busy on a cruise as we are on this one.  We have spent so many hours ashore and barely had any ship time.  I have chatted with the waiters and restaurant managers about Taiwan and there has been some subtle eye rolling.

 

Thank you, as always, for your kindness and care.  I’m doing great!  My dad changes month by month and I’m noticing on this cruise he needs to go to bed quite early and he sleeps about 11 hours.

[YVRteacher]

I think we were hiding the truffles from ourselves, not from the staff!

[YVRteacher]

Whale watching

Jayleen picks us up at 1:00pm and we drive to the small boat harbour.

This is not our boat.

 

This is our boat.

 

The plan is to enter Auke Bay (Auke means lake) head up to Stephens channel then enter Saginaw. Locals flood the beaches, some in bathing suits and some getting a full-body tan!  Jayleen says no laundry or dishes get done when the days are hot and sunny like this because they know it won’t last. 

Usually when we do whale watching in Juneau the Chilkat and Coastal ranges are shrouded in fog but today the peaks are clear and crisp. We learn that the mountains with curvy tops are less than 5000ft above sea level and the ones with craggy peaks are between 5000 and 8000 ft. Why the difference? Glaciers covered the mountains up to 5000ft and as they shifted and melted the wear and tear smoothed the mountain peaks.

 

Zooming along, we bounce by Admiralty island which has the 3rd highest density of brown bears in the US with 2 bears per square mile.

 

I asked Jayleen why some whales have white markings on their flukes and some are all black. White is the ressesive gene and black flukes are dominant. Whales in the southern hemisphere where the bottom of the ocean floor is light-coloured sand tend to have more white markings and whales in the northern hemisphere where the ocean floor is darker (Jayleen said it’s black shale) have more black markings.

 

 

It takes a humpback 30-60 days to migrate from Hawaii to Alaska.  95% of the whales in Juneau do migrate from Alaska to Hawaii while 3% go to Baja and 2% don’t migrate due to lack of hormones and not getting a signal that they need to put on the weight needed to migrate. Some skinny whales somehow know they wouldn’t survive a migration so stay in Juneau year round. When she was 12, Jayleen and her dad were part of the scientific study and data collecting that proved that some whales stay in Juneau year round. They took photos of the same whales every month for a year. Jayleen’s dad bought her first boat for her 11th birthday. When I was 11 I got a Michael Jackson record.

 

 

We saw more than 20 different whales today.  For two hours we focused on a group (not a pod-they are not a family and are not related) of 14 whales bubble net feeding.  I will never forget the gift of this day! Humpback whales are not born knowing how to bubble net feed and only 20% of these whales know how to bubble net feed.

Today I learned that the start of bubble net feeding is the alpha whale dives down as deep as it can go.  It targets a school of fish (today herring) and starts blowing big bubbles underwater to confuse the fish.

The alpha whale then makes a feeding call and the rest of the whales that are working as a team to feed dive down as deep as they can go. All the whales swim around blowing bubbles and scaring the fish tighter together in their school. The alpha whale takes the position directly under the school of herring and uses both bubbles and its body to bring the herring to the surface. At this point all the whales rise to the surface with their mouths open and voila! Mouths full of fish!  Humpback whales need to eat 2000lb of fish and krill daily and the size of their throat is only as big as a softball.

 

Jayleen opened up the bow and one of us (me!) got joyfully soaked as we bobbed through the rigorous waves.  At one point I caught a whiff of garbage mixed with unfresh outhouse and I turned to Jayleen and said “it stinks out here!”

 

She said that’s whale breath!

 

As I got sprayed (drenched right down to the skivvies) Jayleen asked me if was ok and I said are you kidding? I just got to smell whale breath! (see above photo!). That’s like a once in lifetime opportunity!

 

(The sun was bright and hot and I knew my clothes would dry quickly.)

 

There were 5 passengers on our mighty little boat and we had great karma because there was no scarcity of whales. Bubble net feeding, tail slapping, tail waving, breaching, arguing (we did see an argument where one whale out of 14 left the group), diving, 2 sets of mamas and babies. Sea lions. Bald eagles. Moment after moment someone on the boat (including the captain!) exclaimed wow!  

 

One word to describe our whale watching adventure with Jayleen?

 

Wheeeeeeee!

 

I had a friend who attended one of Leonard Cohen’s last concerts. When I asked her how it was, she said it was so incredible she never needed to go to another concert.

Today was our Leonard Cohen concert of whale watching.

 

Dad, enjoying a spectacular afternoon whale watching 

[YVRteacher]

Back on board, we had the worst dinner experience we have ever had on NCL. Absolutely atrocious. 

I had preordered vegetarian food. I tried to order a plain green salad and they gave me an option of a Greek salad. I said that would be fine. This was ordered at 9:00am.  They had 8.5 hours to make a tiny Greek salad.

We were seated for dinner at 5:30. At 6:30 I asked the waiter to please bring our food. He came to apologize to say there had been a miscommunication and they didn’t have food for me.  He wanted to know if I wanted another drink. I didn’t. My blood sugar was low and I needed food.  The maître d, who was the person in charge of ensuring my food was ordered, came to say there had been a miscommunication. She then asked why we haven’t been eating breakfast and lunch in Cagney’s.  We have eaten here every day.

 

When the food eventually arrived. There was a little bit of tofu and the sides from Cagney’s.  Absolutely no effort was made to make me a nice meal.  The zucchini had so much pepper I couldn’t eat it, the mushrooms had so much garlic I couldn’t eat them.  So I had onion rings and tofu for dinner. My dad rated the meal a zero out of 10.  We wanted to see the show so declined dessert because we didn’t have time. In short, dinner at Cagney’s sucked.  Do better, NCL!

 

Wanting a sophisticated drink that wasn’t grape-based I ordered a Matador but the waiter came back and said the bartender didn’t have the ingredient to make a Matador so would I like a Sidecar instead. I said I was willing to try. It is somewhat refreshingly sour but not to my taste. My dad drink it and I had an Old Fashioned instead. Another Old Fashioned was enjoyed in the theatre during Blazing Boots.

 

The Stardust Theatre was full and the crowd definitely enjoyed the show.  I loved the song selections and the lead singers but thought the costumes and the choreography were tacky, sleezey and outdated.  Of course other people will have different opinions. My dad liked the show, especially the Dolly Parton and Shania Twain numbers.

 

After our boots were blazed we went to the Garden Cafe for dessert. Baklava! They had baklava!  We took our baklava outdoors and enjoyed sailaway with a side of honey, walnuts and filo.  Beautiful!  

A tug pulled us away from the dock in Juneau. I wonder why it was a pull and not a push?

 

As seems to be the new normal, dad went to bed and I went to the thermal spa to write and enjoy the heat.

 

Bubbles were blown.

[www3traveler]

I am so glad that you are building such wonderful memories.  Dad might not remeber but you will.

 

Did you ever have dinner with Hasen?  Hasen had a RM on the Jewel who loved salmon and dark chocolate, not sure which he lovedd more.  One time in Seattle Hasan, Noel with a couple of others walked up to the Pike Place Market to buy some fresh salmon for an Officers dinner.  The price gave them sticker shock and they came home without any.  Poor babies.

I remember when Manoel was first named RM on the Pearl, after the RM had been promoted to F&B.  Jorge did not last long as F&B-- was not qualified.  Left the Company a short time later

Edited July 9, 2023 by www3traveler
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[YVRteacher]

Today we are docked at Broadway dock in Skagway. We are currently sunbathing while helicopter watching at Spice H2O. Painkillers are involved.

 

Breakfast in Cagney’s was perfect. We won Tri-Bond, laundry is in and we are about to leave for some Ghosts and Good Time Girls. 
 

Come along as we spend a sunny day at the start of the gold rush!

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, YVRteacher said:

When we came back to the Spirit I put my truffles in the fridge. Dad put his in the safe!

Sometimes even daughters just have to admit, Dad does understand some things!  🤣  I'm starting to think that your dad is who I want to be if/when I grow up.  Maybe I'm already part way there.....

[omahabob]

I thought good time girls were only legal in Nevada.

[ChiefMateJRK]

29 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Zooming along, we bounce by Admiralty island which has the 3rd highest density of brown bears in the US with 2 bears per square mile.

Yikes!!  Just to put this into perspective, there are 2.84 sheep per square mile in Iowa (but 422 hogs per square mile).  Iowa has the highest literacy rate in the nation and the most hogs per capita.  What does this have to do with cruising?  Absolutely nothing.🤣

 

disclaimer: I've only set foot in Iowa a few times in my life, but it is a really nice place.  Fortunately, I don't believe that there is any meaningful bear population.  Live in Iowa.  Vacation in Alaska.😎

[ChiefMateJRK]

38 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

I had a friend who attended one of Leonard Cohen’s last concerts. When I asked her how it was, she said it was so incredible she never needed to go to another concert.

Today was our Leonard Cohen concert of whale watching.

 

Dad, enjoying a spectacular afternoon whale watching 

That sounds great.  Thanks for sharing.  I do like some Leonard Cohen!

 

24 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Bubbles were blown.

As it should be!

 

[libtrek]

Librarian shenanigans, I love it! Folks tend to believe those old stereotypes, but just about every librarian I know is wild and crazy. I see Dad did wear his hat, good job. I am for sure booking that whale watching for Juneau next trip. Mar (ian the librarian).

Edited July 9, 2023 by libtrek

[UKstages]

48 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Iowa has the highest literacy rate in the nation

gosh, I don’t think so.