Day 8: At Sea and cruising College Fjord

This will definitely be a catch up day on the blog. There are several things that I mean to say, but forget, as they are not related to the specific activities on any single day. The time has come. So buckle up for another GPS-worthy post, and I’ll just do some stream of consciousness blogging here. 

First though, I must discuss our wonderful day. At least briefly. I could boil it down to:  We ate. We drank. We ate again. Saw the most amazing scenery imaginable in College Fjord.  We saw a show. The end. But I’ll try to get a little more descriptive. 

Breakfast in Sabatini’s was a fruit plate and smoked salmon. Every day that I resist the brioche French toast is a victory day of sorts.  It was then time for some conversations with my brothers re:  mom. Difficult decisions are needing to be made. Still, they’re advising me to cruise on. And so I will. 

G went to the culinary show in the Princess Theater while I was attending to family matters, and returned to the cabin to tell me he had booked me for lunch in the Crab Shack at noon in the Savoy Dining Room. He would be joining me but not eating, as that sort of food is not his thing. Waiter Grete from Estonia was a delight, and we had a lot of fun.

Crab Shack menu

Popcorn shrimp and hush puppies

Can’t say this was exactly my thing…

…but I could have eaten a gallon of the smoked salmon chowder. 

I chose the Alaskan seafood pot as my entree and ate every delicious bite. 

And there’s always room for key lime anything!

I had just a little time for that delicious lunch to digest before going to an Alaskan salmon and wine pairing held in Sabatini’s at 3pm. This was something entirely new to me and involved two of my favorite food groups:  salmon and wine. It was really very nice and a pleasant way to spend an hour. 

And shortly after that the Sapphire Princess left the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska and entered Prince William Sound, and the views started immediately. Though the day had started out foggy, the sun was out and the sky was clear and the scenery as we sailed up College Fjord was simply magnificent. We went to the Pacific Moon Dining Room just to spend a few minutes with waiters Chandra and Paresh (we love them!) but ate quickly and tried to navigate the cluster of people at the very front on the ship on Deck 16. Finally, we went to the very back of Deck 14. We knew Captain McBain would turn the ship and we’d have the best view from there and we did…and just a handful of fellow guests joined us there. 

I had just watermelon and feta cheese for dinner.

The whole day had been a food and drink fest. 

Harvard Glacier

We were the blue dot. You can see from Google Earth how far back the glaciers go. 

I’ve don’t think we’ve ever had such a beautiful day in College Fjord. We are going to take Phillips 26 Glacier boat tour tomorrow in Whittier which should get even closer to the glaciers but it is supposed to be a bit overcast so the photos might not turn out as well. 

We just made it in time to production show Let Us Entertain You in the Princess Theater. We could have gone to the later show but I will be asleep long before it starts. It was another wonderful day on the Sapphire Princess and our second cruise starts tomorrow with a six hour boat trip. 

And, finally, some disjointed thoughts..

I have been remiss in not mentioning the wonderful emails I’ve received welcoming me back to the cruising world. I have not been able to respond to them individually (but will, once we are back at home) but they’ve meant a lot. I was actually quite unsure that anyone was interested in following along on a simple 14-night Alaska cruise. Apparently you are!  ☺️ Some of the emails have just been entitled:  FINALLY!  I guess it’s safe to say that we’re pretty happy about it, too. I’ve received three emails where people have sworn off Princess after some bad experiences during COVID, but may just try again, based on our very positive experience on the Sapphire. I am not jumping head first onto a larger ship, but I sure am happy on this one. 

It struck me just yesterday that, for a 19-year old ship, this one is impeccably maintained. Everything in our cabin works perfectly. Every drawer, every light, the shower, the sink stopper (this is key for me with hard contacts), the mattresses, the bedding, the towels…it’s all simply perfect. I’ve been on newer ships less well maintained. I known it’s obvious that I am more a fan or the smaller, older ships than the larger, newer ones, but the Sapphire does offer everything I could ever want on a ship. 

We made a couple of new purchases during Amazon Prime Days with this cruise in mind. One item was a charging block in bright green (less likely to leave it behind anywhere). With multiple Apple devices all requiring different charging cords, things are getting complicated. This simplifies them as much as possible, but we really should have labeled the cords. At home they all live in different parts of the house so we know which one charges which device. With them all in one place, I have to just try to plug each one in until I find the cord that works. 

In use in our cabin

That MusiCozy sleep mask with built in Bluetooth headphones is like my own personal blankie. 

I put it on, listen to music and I’m asleep in about a minute. 

Our inside cabin also has USB outlets on the night stand lamps. 

As for internet, the interface to access WiFi in the Medallion app works intermittently at best. I’ve shown four people how to use login.com in a browser for dependable access. If you have just one device, or a multi device package and don’t have to change between devices, it’s not an issue. But if you do, login.com is the way to go.

Typing login.com in the browser address bar brings up this screen.

Tapping on the Ocean Concierge tab in the bottom right corner brings up this screen…

…which allows you to touch My Beverage Package and see 

how many alcoholic beverages you’ve ordered since 6am when the 15 daily limit reset

Touch the More link in the bottom right you can get to this screen…

…choose a dining room and see the menus for the day. 

It took me a week to find this again. 

The Medallion app should have this info but I can’t find it there. 

Don’t get me started. 

Two years ago in this same area on the Majestic Princess, we didn’t even bother to our purchase WiFi for the second of our B2B cruises because the service was so spotty. Yesterday in Glacier Bay National Park, and again today crossing the Gulf of Alaska, it’s working perfectly. (You can tell by the number of photos I’ve uploaded). It’s not speedy but it streams video.  In fact, I can stream video right now. Hard for me to believe, with our super high speed WiFi at home, but this works. 

So far (knock on wood) I have stayed well, and the number of coughs and sneezes heard around the ship has been minimal. But the man in the next cabin has been coughing for two days.  Hope his germs stay on his side of the wall!  I wear a mask in the Princess Theater but nowhere else. And the elevators rarely feel crowded enough to make me feel nervous. As for hand washing, it’s 25 times a day at least.  Let’s hope my good luck continues. 

Day 147: Aruba

We were determined today to get to Palm and Eagle Beaches for the first time this winter. Ever since we'd been told about Nikky Beach, it was so much easier to get there that we'd kind of abandoned the beaches in the Hotel Zone. It was time to make up for that. 

After a quick breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet, we walked off the ship (the Vision of the Seas was behind us at the preferred berth) and caught the #10 Arubus to the furthest hotel. We then walked back, via beach, road and sidewalk, from Palm Beach to Eagle Beach. Today was sunny and HOT, with a stiff breeze, and by shortly after 1pm we were beached, sunned and walked out, and caught a privateer minibus back to Orangestad. 

We returned to the ship for a late lunch (so tired of pizza- I'll not be eating pizza again anytime soon!) and spent the remainder of the afternoon sorting through paperwork in our cabin.

At 4:30pm, we were on the Promenade Deck for our last sailaway of this entire winter, accompanied by our final bottle of Barefoot  Bubbly. (And I did a quick calculation:  counting Fort Lauderdale but subtracting our missed ports of Half Moon Cay and three Princess Cays visits, this was our 99th (!!) sailaway of the winter.)

As much as we hated to, we skipped Dinner with Darko tonight; I accompanied G as he ate a burger and fries in the Horizon Court Buffet (but didn't eat...yet). At 8pm, I had a much anticipated Ladies Night Out.  This had been in the planning for awhile, a last hurrah with some ship officers who have become friends, at the Crab Shack. I have been wanting to go to the Crab Shack since it was started on the Emerald Princess after the holidays, but as G considers this sort of seafood to be bait, not dinner, he was not at all interested. It worked out perfectly to do it with friends. 

Brown paper tablecloths and crayons to draw:

Serious tools for serious crab leg excavation:

We started with shrimp and hush puppies, and then had Manhattan clam chowder. Just these two courses made a meal, but the really good stuff was yet to come. 

The entrees, served family style- GORGEOUS and delicious!  Crab legs and mussels and clams and shrimp, corn on the cob and kielbasa. 

There was a choice of two desserts; we all chose neither. We were stuffed!!  It was so much fun to dine with new friends, and I'm happy I was able to try the Crab Shack. It's well worth the $20 per person charge. 

Meanwhile, G went to see Jon Root and Bill Berry, of juggling Team Rootberry, who came on board today in Aruba, so he was happy doing his own thing tonight. It was a harbinger of days to come; once home, we become unconnected at the hip, which is not a totally unwelcome operation after five months of togetherness.

;-)