Day 12: Seward

I’m not sure it ever got truly dark last night. We have our cabin TV set to the Bridgecam channel, and everytime I took a peek at it during the night, it was twilight-y. It’s pretty cool. 

With big plans today, I was up early and in Botticelli when it opened for breakfast at 7am. We planned to do some hiking, and I wasn’t sure if our schedule would include lunch. One and a half bowls of oatmeal, oranges and smoked salmon later, I was set. 

We were already docked in Seward (our last virgin port) and I stepped out on the Promenade Deck to check the weather. Whoa!  Cloudy, bitterly cold with strong wind from the north (I heard 30 mph gusts). This didn’t bode well for our day. I returned to the cabin to make sure G was up and await a call from Janna.

We planned to meet up and share a taxi to Exit Glacier to do some light hiking. We walked off the ship together about 8:30am and immediately ran into trouble. There were only four taxis listed on the directory in the terminal and, with a Viking ship doing a turnaround in port today, those were booked doing transfers to/from Anchorage. 

We took on a lot of provisions today. In fact, we were late leaving tonight because they were still loading pallets. I particularly noticed a lot of fresh produce being loaded. 

With our taxi options exhausted, we took the free shuttle to the Harbor stop and followed the driver’s directions to find a company offering shuttles rides to the glacier for $20 round trip. However, these could also be booked online ahead of time, and we couldn’t get seats until the 1:30pm shuttle, returning on the 4:30pm shuttle. It had already started to rain, and a four hour wait didn’t sound too appealing. Jana and her husband Alex decided to wait, but we moved on. 

Actually, we rode the shuttle around town to see what there was to see (not a lot). The most surprising thing to us was the Seward Military Lodge. We didn’t know there was military lodging in Alaska separate from Elmendorf AFB. 

Eventually our shuttle picked up Janna and Alex too. They had a change of plans based on the weather and were returning to the ship also. 

It was well and truly miserable out when we were dropped back by the ship and only my rain jacket (Outdoor Research Goretex from REI and I’ve seen two others with them on the ship too) saved me from being wet and frozen. We made it as far as the International Cafe and got some lunch, our first IC visit this cruise. 

I think we had no sooner stepped back on the ship when the rain stopped, the wind died down, the sun came out and it warmed up. It became a beautiful day…only those of us who had been off the ship at 8:30am knew what it had been like earlier. 

We spent most of the afternoon on the Terrace Deck, enjoying the 360° views surrounding the ship. It turned out to be a spectacular day. 

I’ve been skipping the PES Lounge lately but G stops by to say hi to friends. 

Green goddess salad with tofu. Yummy!

Cioppino is always great

The temp, the sun, the sunset. 

Wow!


It was another rose night. 

#spoiledbutlovingit

We recognized Princess Theater entertainer Rechelle Sears. She has an amazing voice and an interesting life story too. We followed her show with a walk across the Promenade Deck followed by some time on the Terrace Deck. This is the Alaska experience we could only hope that we’d get. 

More pics will be uploaded when we get cell service. 

Day 11: Valdez

We had a beautiful day in Valdez today. It would have been hard not to; the ship was literally surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks. Hard for that to not put a smile on your face right from the start. Plus, it was another virgin port. Oh happy day. 

With no schedule and an uncrowded ship, we lingered a bit over breakfast in the buffet. I posted the pics from the previous two days to this blog (and local cell service, though just LTE, was strong. Ten pics successfully uploading at a time makes me smile). The only time consuming part was getting them in the right place.

Valdez was a tender port, a situation that escaped me until today. It was listed as such on the embarkation day Patter, but, like most of the documentation that appears in the cabin on embarkation day, I missed it. Even the cruise director was confused, telling us we would be berthed until 11am or so, and then tender back to the ship after that. No, the ship was at anchor all day. We avoided the lines altogether and didn’t leave the ship until they announced open tender. 

It wasn’t just the surrounding scenery that was picturesque; we tendered in through a small canal that was very New England-like, with buildings on tall stilts over the water and an entire marina of fishing vessels. Once on land, we really had just one goal:  to get to Safeway; although there were hikes nearby, my body wasn’t feeling it today and G wasn’t high energy either. Safeway was about a 10-15 minute walk away and we just needed to follow our fellow passengers and crew to find the way. 

I quickly found the contact lens solution I needed (for $18 instead of the $9 I’d pay at home) and we picked up two packs of Mountain Dew for G that will eliminate the need to find it in port for the rest of the cruise. G wandered the store for a bit while I waited out front, watching the fine Alaskan men wearing shorts and flannel shirts (one was a dead ringer for Sam Hartman) kindly return their carts to the store after unloading their groceries. 

Getting the soda back to the ship wasn’t easy, but I think my left arm was getting shorter anyway, so that’s a problem eliminated. 😉

11:25pm sunset time!  This is what we came to see!

Back on the ship, we dropped our shopping in the cabin and headed directly out to the Terrace Deck. It was sunny and felt much warmer than the 56° that my watch said it was. We actually sat in lounge chairs (and took still more photos) while I talked with friend Martha on the phone (Martha, this was my view while we chatted). 

A beautiful afternoon!

While we were out there, Cruise Critic roll call member Janna contacted me about getting together to do something tomorrow in Seward, so we put some plans together before it was time to get cleaned up for the evening. I guess I was feeling guilty about going to dinner every night in a fleece and wearing warm socks and sneakers, so I wore “normal” cruise clothes and sandals tonight, thinking the day had been on the warmer side and that would be adequate. Big mistake. I froze all evening. It’s back to Alaskan wear for me tomorrow. 

Views, all the time in this part of Alaska

This salad was a work of art

Seafood bowl

A little light on the seafood and heavy on the rice

It’s not your imagination (and it wasn’t mine either)

Same dessert menu as last night

Happy Father’s Day!

Annalise and Ryan performed again tonight in the Princess Theater, so we went to their show (excellent) and then walked across the Promenade Deck to return to our cabin on the back of the ship. The water was smooth as glass, and sun was still high in the sky at 8:30pm and it felt almost as warm outside as it was on the ship. What a day!