My first order of business this morning was to make some more travel plans for late May. Actually, I was getting texts last evening about getting new plans in place, but was too tired then to safely be cancelling flights and booking other flights and extending hotel stays. We are on the final stretch with track meets and graduation travel; in less than two months I’ll be sitting at home wondering where almost 23 years went and what I’m supposed to do now.
I had just Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast. And lots of hot coffee. I simply have not been able to warm up since we left Cabo. Then, as I mentioned in my post for Los Angeles, I attended James Engman’s lecture on glaciers, which was very interesting. He mentioned the Tracy Arm landslide that happened last August and shared some photos of its impact. I don’t think any ships will be allowed back in there for years, and most are substituting Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier. I know I said this last June when we were in Alaska, but it bears repeating. The Endicott Arm fiord is simply gorgeous. It’s not the lesser option at all.
I had to go by Guest Services before it gets too crazy at the end of the cruise. We decided to purchase Princess transfers for $44pp from the ship to the Seattle airport. It was about the same price as pre-reserving an Uber and will require less luggage dragging.
It took until early afternoon to finish up yesterday’s blog post, which is quite a trick. I need to remember that for the future. What did I do today? Wrote about what I did yesterday. What did I do yesterday? Wrote about what I did the day before. And so on and so on. Harious!
We did return to the Sanctuary Restaurant for a light lunch (soup for me). Finally I gave up trying to warm up and just stood in the shower for fifteen minutes or so. That finally did the trick. On a related note, this ship in Alaska will be the first time this class of ship will be in a cold weather environment and they’re working hard to figure out how the outdoor food prep on the Dining Pronenade is going to work. I think it’s going to be quite a different experience. It already started feeling like that after we left Cabo. The outdoor dining works because of the heat lamps in the ceiling but they already can’t keep the cooked food warm enough to serve.
Today was the final formal night of the cruise (joy!) and there was amother Most Traveled Guests event, a cocktail party, held at 7pm in Good Spirits. It was attended by all the senior officers and we were able to get to know Captain Gennaro Arma better and I just tonight connected the dots that he was the captain on the Diamond Princess in Japan during Covid, and the person in that photo that went around the world’s media of the last person to leave that ship when it was all over.
 |
| Lots of goodies at the cocktail party. Why did the we even have dinner tonight? |
 |
| HGM and the F&B director shaking the cocktails with Captain Arma videoing them with his own phone. |
 |
No one enjoyed themselves more than the captain!
 | | His world -famous photos from six years ago. |
|
We went from there directly to the Princess Arena for tonight’s theatrical production show called Illuminate and we walked into the arena to find a huge circus tent on the center of the stage. As soon as the score started it was quickly swept up and away but I have no idea where it went.
The show was different. Lots of energy, lots of talent, not exactly my kind of show.
 |
| This dance with lights from above was the most entertaining part to me |
And that was our day. Just two more left. We’ve had the best time on this ship!
