Our glorious weather continued AGAIN today. This stream of sunny days in Alaska almost defies belief at this point, something Captain McBain pointed out at tonight’s Captains Circle Party. He said he spotted sunbathers on the open decks yesterday in Skagway. Yeah, we may have been among them.
We started today in Sabatini’s (fruit plate and half of a bagel and lox sandwich). Francesco, the Restaurant Manager there, is the sweetest guy ever. We will miss him and all of our Sabatini’s waiters (not to mention our dinner waiters). We spent the morning using the pools and hot tubs on the back of the ship, because it was just so warm and sunny.
About 1pm we went to Alfredo’s for the first time since the pricing change. Theoretically, we are grandfathered in under the old (free) pricing since we are in transit guests, but we also have Princess Plus, so we would get two free meals here, regardless. Let me just go on record as saying I’ve do not like the change, at least for Alfredo's. This is one restaurant where extra courses were not needed and are, frankly, too much. At home, we don’t have a starter and a dessert when we have pizza. Pizza stands on its own quite well.
New Alfredo’s menu
Alfredo’s antipasto
and the 4th and final Alaskan beer onboard, Kolsch.
I ate few bites of this, part of one slice of pizza and…
… few bites of tiramisu for dessert.
The extra dining charge makes much more sense for restaurants that were previously extra cost anyway, and less sense for Alfredos, which was free. To justify the charge, Princess added superfluous courses which are way too much food.
We rested on those wonderful double loungers on the back decks this afternoon. We love those things so much that I was crawling around looking underneath them to see who manufactures them last cruise. They are heavy enough to *almost* withstand EF1 tornadic winds but also have wheels so they can be moved for cleaning (which we do on our deck, a lot). Word got around and the Rooms Division Manager Charan made sure I had the product and contact information delivered to our cabin. One of these is just what we have been looking for for years, and we’ve well proved that they’re nap-worthy.
These things are wicked easy to nap on.
I returned to the Pacific Moon Dining Room after missing one night and was greeted by our wait staff like a long lost friend. Spoiled, and loving every minute of it.
Still, a three course lunch at 1pm doesn’t leave much appetite at 5pm, so tonight I ordered just the quinoa and butternut squash starter (quinoa is on the menu at home at least three times a week). Served with pumpkin and pomegranate seeds, it was quite good.
Quinoa and butternut squash
Chandra was concerned when I didn’t order an entree, and kindly remembered that I had liked the mushrooms that served with the salmon last cruise. He bought a plateful of mushrooms to the table, and they were the best.
A plateful of mushrooms (from the salmon entree),
Courtesy of Chandra 💕
Another dinner with amazing views
These were taken through our dining room window.
This evening, we attended this cruise’s Captains Circle Party in Club Fusion. A funny sidebar about that: we were sitting on the Terrace Deck last evening and I was getting straight on which night was the Captains Circle Party and which was the Most Traveled Guests cocktail party and we were throwing around the acronyms - CCP and MTG- in our discussion and the bartender overheard us and laughed, saying we referred to the parties the way the crew does. Hey, it’s not our first rodeo!
Anyway, back to tonight, Captain McBain hosts the funnest CCPs. He really is one of the most personable captains I’ve ever sailed with. He asked us tonight what our favorite cruising destination was and I answered (no surprise) French Polynesia, but refrained from adding that, at least it was in the old days when Princess still had a ship small enough to get into the really good ports.
The Most Traveled days for those interested:
1st - 1456 days
2nd - 1113 days
3rd - 554 days
MTG cutoff - 159 days (I think)
And we finished the evening just as we did last evening, in my favorite cruise fashion, sitting on the Terrace Deck in comfy clothes watching the scenery. Peter, the bartender at Outriggers Bar back there, greets us like it’s Cheers every night, and we love it. We will never tire of Alaska cruises for one simple reason: there really is something to see nearly every evening of the cruise.
A few more clouds tonight.
We are (finally) expecting rain tomorrow.
Source: Princess Cruises
Source: Princess Cruises
Source: Princess Cruises
Source: Princess Cruises
