Glacier Bay
Up at 6:00 AM. Discovered the Wake Show on the TV that discussed everything that would happen during the day. Wish we had discovered it earlier. It was like a detailed description of the items in the Princess Patter .We listened for a while then went to breakfast at the Horizon Court. The Park Rangers were supposed to be stationed there, but we never did see them. Went to the Lido Deck and looked for whales (found one or two). It started to rain a little, so we headed back to our balcony and turned on the TV to watch the Margerie Glacier and listen to the ranger commentary. We saw one incidence of glacier calving. The sound of the glaciers moving sounded like thunder.
Decided to go to lunch before seeing the Lamplugh Glacier. We went to the Bordeaux room instead of the Horizon Court. Had a burger, fries and a volcano! Checked the action up on deck and found it was pouring so we headed back to our balcony to view Lamplugh Glacier and the John Hopkins Glacier. Great views from our glacier. The captain turned the boat 360 so that all could have a great view. Doreen had a nail treatment appointment at the spa, so I decided to do our one load of laundry (underwear) at the laudromat at the other end of the ship. My timing was right because I was able to grab one open washer and then an hour later one open dryer. I was glad I had brought quarters because the change machine was empty and I would have had to walk down to the guest services on deck 5 and wait in line to get quarters (thanks cruisecritic.com). As it is, I traded change for dollars for one lady who was short a dollar in change. Both washers and dryers require two dollars to operate. The dryer does run for 50 minutes.
In between waiting for the wash, I visited the internet cafe and checked mail, watched the rangers leave, then checked on photos that were being posted. When Doreen came back we both went down to the photo area and decided to break down and get some photos so that we could get the photo album. The photo album is set up so that after the cruise you have 60 days to add photos and then you are sent a hard copy of the album. The only problem is that Princess does not provide the pictures electronically. They tell you to scan them in when you get back home. It seems like Princess should get out of the dark ages and provide the pictures electronically as well as physically.
The second formal dinner was this evening. Things were a little confused at the Bordeaux dining room. The pagers weren't working and there was a line. The maitre d' calmly took peoples names and room numbers and asked them to come back in about half an hour. We decided to walk around and get photos taken in front of the scenes that we had not previously seen then walked through some of the shops. We came back one half hour later and were immediately seated at a table for two. We were not even asked to share a table. Sat next to a charming couple from Florida.
We got to the 8:15 Motown show at about 8:20 and there was standing room only. We decided to stand in the back and watch, since we didn't want to wait for the 10:15 show. Even though we had to stand for an hour, we enjoyed the show. We then went back to our room and our laundry that we had turned in the morning before was there, neatly pressed and hung. We also received our paperwork for disembarking with instructions on bags. Decision time! Which bags are we taking on the train, which bags are going to Denali and which bags are going to Fairbanks? Complicating the issue was the fact that tomorrow morning was our Ultimate Ship Tour. We knew we would be receiving 2 chefs jackets and 2 bath robes. Where do we put them?
Before we retired for the night, we noticed that the ship was rocking much more than usual and the waves were getting bigger. We were out in the Gulf of Alaska! Looking out our balcony, we realized that the next land was Hawaii!
Day 8 - College Fjords
When we got up at 7AM, we noticed that the ship was really moving around. We quickly got dressed and had breakfast at the Horizon Court. Our Ultimate Ship Tour started outside the Wheelhorse lounge. As we sat there waiting, we watched the people walking down the hallway. Everyone was sliding from side to side as they walked, just as if they were all tipsy! Good thing my wife's patch was working.
The Assistant Cruise Director, Security Officer and Photographer accompanied us on the Ultimate Ship Tour. They toured us through the laundry rooms, the galley, the area where the ropes and anchors are stored and controlled, the print shop, the photo shop, the engine control room, the medical office, and finally, the bridge where we met the captain and talked with the staff. With all of us controlling our steps because of the waves, a number of questions were raised about the ship's stabilizers. The captain commented that on a day like today, if he did not use the ship's stabilizers, noone would be standing on the ship.
We were well fed during the tour. In the galley, we all had a tall drink as well as yummy treats. In the medical office, we were invited to drink juice or tea or water. After a tour of the bridge, we were brought to the captain's conference room and provided with champagne, orange juice, and more treats.
The tour lasted about two and a half hours and it was very interesting. We posed numerous questions and all were answered. The Assistant Cruise Director talked about the employees and the type of contracts that they sign on to. The engine control officer answered numerous questions on the engine drives, the water and waste control system and the numerous inspections that the US government conducts. I felt the answers were honest with no attempt to sidestep the question. It was obvious the crew was proud of their ship. As we walked down the crew hallways, we got plenty of smiles and hellos.
By lunch time the rocking had settled down. It was obvious we were entering the area around College Fjords. We had lunch in the Horizon Court. Today was special cake day and there were dozens of different cake varieties to try ( we had seen many of these cakes being prepared during our tour). We went up on the Lido Deck and were greated by cold, foggy weather with some wisps of snow. After a little while we decided we had froze enough and went down to our balcony to watch. We approached the first glacier and the captain started to do what we thought was going to be another 360 turn. As we turned, we could see another large glacier and thought that would be our next travel spot. Surprisingly, the ship only did a 180 and we headed back out of the Fjord. The naturalist signed off after only one hour of discussion, 3 hours short of the time that the Patter described. What happened?
We started packing. Our chef's coats and bath robes arrived. The robes were really plush and made packing decisions worse. We decided to go down to the Boutiques shop and pick up another carry on bag. We decided that we would send our large bags on to Fairbanks and each of our carryon bags that we originally had would got to Denali. Doreen took the new carry on bag as her bag for the train while I took my backpack stuffed full. We were supposed to have our bags outside our door before 5:30PM.
OK, everything packed and most outside the door. We went to dinner and shared a table. Caesar salad, curried pumpkin cream soup (yum), New York strip steak, and Baked Alaska for dessert. While we were at dinner, the announcement came on that were were making port in Whittier 3 hours early. Apparently, the weather report was calling for gale force winds in the Gulf of Alaska and the captain didn't think we wanted to experience the waves resulting from that. Good decision. At least now we knew why we only got one hour of viewing in the College Fjords.
Stopped at Guest Services and received a copy of our bill to check out. Then walked around the ship one more time before retiring to our room. We were docking at Whittier by 9PM. Rain/snow was coming down hard and the hills around the bay were showing numerous waterfalls. Beautiful and at the same time scary. One last night on the ship. First time we closed the balcony door all but a crack because it was so cold outside.
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