Adventure to Alaska

No photos yet due to connection problems - too slow and too expensive for now - $.50/minute which is aggravating enough at normal speed, much less the one THIS thing is doing!
We are cruising north up the Inland Passage of Alaska at 23 knots; it’s 59 degrees. The sky was completely gray this morning, but right now it is more blue than cloudy. There are die-hards out on the pool deck actually wearing swim suits and laying on lounge chairs. The boat is so smooth that it seems like we are only on a virtual boat with video scenery sliding by.

I got a total of 30 minutes of sleep the night before we left. We had to be up by 3:45 to make our flight. We flew through Seattle and onto Vancouver, B.C., then took a tour bus to the ship. Vancouver surprised me, because many common business signs are in both English and Chinese, and we passed many shops selling the same stuff I saw all over Hong Kong a few weeks ago. And it wasn’t just in the part of Vancouver that is “China Town,” it was the whole time going through the city. I would like someone to explain to me why there are so many Chinese there, but no one I was with seemed to know.

We boarded the big boat at 1:30. We have an internal room, which is an odd experience, because it has no windows. When you wake up, you have absolutely no sense of what time of day or night it is, nor what the weather is until you go out. There is the “boat cam” channel on the TV– it a camera shot off the nose of the boat. I suggested we mute the TV and leave it on all night, then it will be our window when we wake up – Well I thought it was clever...

It’s a beautiful boat, they’ve come a long way in 20 years since I was last on a cruise ship. They are much more like a regular elegant hotel than a boat. There are a LOT of places on this ship too - nooks and corners and bars and lounges and cafés and restaurants, a casino, a library, a live, 3-story performance theater, a movie theater, indoor, outdoor, and semi-outdoor spaces. There are activities that are coordinated, help-yourself activities, quiet-time places, the gym, the climbing rock wall, the spa… All of the food is included, none of the alcohol is (of course). I just can’t eat all day, it’s almost disappointing. My strategy is to only eat whatever I REALLY love. So far on my cruise experience:

(One clause, before I start – “we” is used for me plus any one of varying combinations of people from the group of 13 – we tend to float in and out of contact, doing things together, splitting off based on various interests, etc.)

We boarded, found our rooms, unpacked a bag, ate lunch, and I napped. When I woke up we had to do a safety drill so we all know where to go if we hit an iceberg or another cruise ship. Informative, and a great picture opportunity, all those people in big orange safety vests lined up on deck. We are on second dinner shift in the dining room, which is at 8:30, so we can take our time and not be forced out for anyone after us. So after the safety drill, we met on deck to have a drink and wander around the ship. I must say, the first margarita was truly exceptional – these guys really know what they’re doing! After a few minutes of looking over the pool crowd from a balcony (and quickly deciding to take that off the agenda in the future), we began to wander around the decks. We had a snack in the “solarium,” where the indoor pool is. We got another drink, and wandered some more, discovering for ourselves the miniature golf course, the over-sized tic-tac-toe set on deck, the obscure cafes that are tucked into corners, the dispensers around the ship that serve coffee, water, and lemonade 24/7. I think I agreed to meet up with a few people after that, but it’s so easy to get sidetracked here with all the input, I never quite made it, and had to apologize at dinner. Oops. I instead read the volumes of information they give you in your room. Dinner was very “dining room on a cruise ship” – big table, great waiters, great food, fun conversation. After dinner we… wandered around, took some photos, almost got blown off the deck by the winds, which of course prompts everyone at the front of the ship to do their best imitation of the “King of the World” line from Titanic. Finally, more sleep. (For the sake of my stories, there is “nap” and “sleep.” Nap implies daytime or short ones, sleep is night. There is also “snack” and “eat” – snack is not scheduled meal time, eat is official. I hate to say this, but I think these distinctions are going to comprise the majority of my reports until Wednesday, when we finally get off this boat for the first time…) But this morning I worked out in the gym - THEN we ate ,wandered around, and snacked. We did choose our "team" excursions for our 3 days in port later this week, and I fiddled with my photos on my laptop. Now here I am writing and listening to the piano player in the Windjammer bar as people in formal wear being to swarm... looks like I'd better go turn myself into Cinderella for the ball. The agenda tonight is meet the ship's captain, eat, drink, go to a live show, and then go dancing. Probably a snack in there somewhere too...