Greetings from the Crown - June 27 2015

Yes, I did get my shorex problem fixed!

Nina, we are so glad to hear that you two are cruising! Also, glad to you got the shorex issue settled!

 

I now have gotten my husband to admit that he now wants to plan for our next cruise, and that admission was very hard to come by, believe me! He loves to cruise, he just forgot how much until we got on the ship on Saturday!

 

We were so sad that you had to cancel the Oct 17th Cruise! But are extremely glad that Norman is renewing his cruising spirit! Best of Luck to both of you!

 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Until later!

Keep feeding us the Live Review as it sounds great!

Just Mike!

Spingal, I don't know what your friend was thinking... Great crew, always smiling (at least 98% of them), food is outstanding... There are always those that are impossible to please, unfortunately.

Mike, Frank and Keith, thank you for your well wishes! Alaska is just wonderful!

Greetings from Skagway, Alaska!

Juneau was yesterday. We just did a simple tour of Mendenhall Glacier and city tour... Our guide was really good and a native of Alaska. It was raining for most of the day, although it cleared up around 4:00 and the sun came out, for a bit, and it warmed up considerably.

Mendenhall Glacier was spectacular. No NBE (JimmyVWine, this is for you!)... Altogether, unfortunately, no bear encounters at all! To anyone who has not been here, it is much colder at the Glacier... It does make sense, right?

Well, little ol' stupid me finally figured out how to use the zoom in my new camera! Finally. Hopefully, when I return, I can post some of the photos, I have some good ones!

Last night was Alaskan night in the MDR. Halibut, razor clams, and, of course, king crab legs were all on the menu. DH had the halibut (very good) and Miss Piggy had two servings of crab legs. Yes, they were that good! I did skip dessert though! There was a new dessert item (at least for me), a rhubarb napoleon. I would have ordered it, but there was no room left!:eek:

Mike and Paul, you really will enjoy this ship, it truly is wonderful. I envy you your 28 days... :mad: But who knows what can happen in the next two months!

Again, last night, we were exhausted and went to sleep early. On this cruise, for me, there is no sleeping in as I don't want to miss the scenery!

This morning, I must have been up around 4:30, 5:00 and sitting on my beautiful balcony... The scenery is really spectacular before arriving in Skagway. Finally, there is snow on the mountains. Then, a bit later, room service came with my coffee...

Because of my husband's health, and he has trouble walking and yesterday was a bit too much for him, we are going to stay on the ship today. I might do a Houdini and disappear into town for a few minutes, but those are the plans.

DH is in a bit of a shock. He says he has never breathed in so much fresh (and pure) air in his life. Of course, he also has been singing Aloha Ye (sp)! He does hate cold weather... :D:D

A comedian is on tonight, sorry, I don't have the Patter with me this morning. I promise to bring it tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Glacier Bay!

Until tomorrow everyone!

Thanks again.

Thank you for doing this live. We board when you get off on Saturday.

We are on the Crown 28 day and miss your postings on our Roll Call.

Sorry you aren't joining us.

Was very happy for you when you got that upsell offer. Having a balcony is wonderful for Alaska. And your husband can enjoy the scenery and fresh air without having to wander around the ship.

We got the upsell offer as well and took it.

No questions for you just glad all is well and you and hubby are enjoying your cruise.

I had a great 28/29 day cruise on the Crown last October. We had the best ever CD staff. What are the names of your CD staff, I wonder if any from my cruise are on board now.

Enjoy your cruise!

Halibut and crab! Yum!

I'm very happy to report that I booked the 19 day cruise to the Panama Canal RT from LA....

My casino offer was still in force so I saved $2,000 off the original fare!

Very happy!

OMG!! "rhubarb napoleon" I love those. :D

I was planning on looking into the 19 dayer. :)

Thank you for doing this live. We board when you get off on Saturday.

We are on the Crown 28 day and miss your postings on our Roll Call.

Sorry you aren't joining us.

Was very happy for you when you got that upsell offer. Having a balcony is wonderful for Alaska. And your husband can enjoy the scenery and fresh air without having to wander around the ship.

We got the upsell offer as well and took it.

No questions for you just glad all is well and you and hubby are enjoying your cruise.

Thank you so much! I do appreciate this very much. I'm hoping for a miracle, then we could still join you... but I wouldn't count on it. Have a fantastic cruise!

That balcony is fantastic!

Miracles do happen.

OMG!! "rhubarb napoleon" I love those. :D

 

 

I was planning on looking into the 19 dayer. :)

Please do join us!

Miracles do happen.

 

Yes, they do!

Thanks for posting the dining room food each day! I thought we might do Crown grill on Juneau evening since we are late gettting back to ship, but that Alaska dinner sounded fabulous!

Greetings from Icy Strait Point...

Sailaway from Skagway was absolutely spectacular! Went to dinner fairly early. Nothing spectacular on the menu this time, but good nonetheless.

We then went up to our cabin where I stayed on my balcony for hours. This was awesome! This was also where the cold weather really started!

In a short while, we should be arriving in Glacier Bay so I'll sign off and get ready....

Weather this morning is really cold but with sunny skies. I'll try to check in later!

Was your excursion in Jueau with Princess?

Nina,

Thank you so much for your posts. It's helping me relive my recent cruise on the Crown. Yes, food is subjective and I'm sure that 100% of the people won't be pleased 100% of the time. That being said, I agree that the food in the MDR was for the most part, very good. If I had to prepare such a variety of food in such great quantities, I'd be hard put to do better. The crab legs you enjoyed were from Tracy's Crab Shack. We not only enjoyed them at Tracy's, but happily enjoyed them at dinner that night. King crab is too yummy to pass up!

I did have the rhubarb napoleon and rhubarb lovers will find it to be scrumptious. As for the crew, they were all wonderful, at least those we had contact with.

I love what you said about the glacier. When we were in Juneau, it was 82 and sunny. When our helicopter landed on Herbert Glacier, all of my layers came in very handy. Same thing the next day in Skagway, when canoeing out to the Davidson Glacier. Keep having a great cruise!

Nina;

Glad to hear that you are enjoying your cruise. It's nice to know that Norman has started to come out of his shell and remember that cruising is a fantastic thing. Hopefully, we can all sail together again at some point in time.

When we did the Alaskan Cruise 2 years ago, it was the warmest weather they had in over a decade. Upper 70's - Mid 80's. That made for a huge temperature swing when we did the helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Joe

Nina,

Do you happen to know the stats(how many Elites, Plats, etc).

And possibly the cutoff for Most Travelled?

If not, don't go out of your way to find out. Not that important, just curious.

Gloria

Greetings from Icy Strait Point...

 

Sailaway from Skagway was absolutely spectacular! Went to dinner fairly early. Nothing spectacular on the menu this time, but good nonetheless.

 

We then went up to our cabin where I stayed on my balcony for hours. This was awesome! This was also where the cold weather really started!

 

In a short while, we should be arriving in Glacier Bay so I'll sign off and get ready....

 

Weather this morning is really cold but with sunny skies. I'll try to check in later!

We love sitting on the balcony all day!

Glad you are enjoying yourselves. :)

Sorry guys, but it has been busy!

First, we had Glacier Bay... Absolutely stunning and amazing. Calving was heard and whales sighted from Skywalkers... It was great, although very cold! Bartenders were on deck offering anti-freeze! :D

What an amazing sight! I was up at the crack of dawn, again... At around 6:00 a.m., we made our way to Deck 16. It was magnificent!

After a wonderful day, we made our way to Sabatini's where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, with great views! Crab legs were not on the menu... Calamari, lobster three-ways were all excellent.

OMG! Norman Love desserts! I absolutely love them! At Sabatini's, you must have the tiramisu... I thought I had gone to heaven!

We loved Ketchikan... It really is lovely. We hired a taxi driver to take us around for about an hour. Wonderful! We saw the totem poles which are amazing. Then, we went eagle and bear hunting! We saw several eagles... We also heard a bear fairly close by but could not see him because of the dense vegetation. For my husband, hearing him was good enough! His thought was if I can't see him, maybe he can't see me! :D

Weather in Ketchikan was sunny, close to 70 degrees. Incredible!

Gloria, I did not attend the Captain Circle party... I didn't even see the Captain Circle Hostess... :o

This has to be the quietest cruise we have ever been on. We have not yet gone to a show, listened to music or dance. This cruise was all about Alaska and it's fabulous scenery.

Yes, this wonderful cruise is about to come to an end sadly...

I will post more about thoughts and comments when I get home tomorrow! :mad::mad::mad:

Sounds like a wonderful cruise. Thanks for sharing it with us

Looking forward to your reports! We too are on the Crown on July 11th. To board by 11:30am, I too am curious on how early you arrived at the pier? Safe travels and have a wonderful trip!

A good time to arrive at Pier 91 is about 10:30 or so. If you have no bags to check (e.g. a porter has already taken them or they're small enough that you're taking them on board yourself as carry-on) you may actually be allowed to enter the building, fill out your health forms and proceed upstairs to process. If, however, you have bags with you that you're going to check in yourself, then you will not be allowed to go inside the building and into the luggage hall until all the passengers from both ships have disembarked, cleared customs and the luggage hall has been set up to process luggage. Actual boarding of the ship will not start until about 11:00 or 11:30, depending on when the ship is ready to accept boarding passengers.

Tom

Well, regrettably, I'm home... :mad:

It has been a fantastic, if quiet, cruise. It was definitely therapeutic!

The crew was fantastic, from beginning to end. We were both very unhappy to disembark!

For everyone who asks if a balcony is necessary in Alaska, the answer is a resounding yes! I spent many happy hours on it!

Sadly, this is the end... for now!

Thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading along.

Thank you for the great review. We leave this Saturday the 11th, I can't wait. I know I will be sad coming home too!

Nina;

 

Glad to hear that you are enjoying your cruise. It's nice to know that Norman has started to come out of his shell and remember that cruising is a fantastic thing. Hopefully, we can all sail together again at some point in time.

 

When we did the Alaskan Cruise 2 years ago, it was the warmest weather they had in over a decade. Upper 70's - Mid 80's. That made for a huge temperature swing when we did the helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Joe

Joe, I'll meet you at Crooner's!

Thanks everyone!

I did forget to mention second formal night. Escargot were fantastic... lobster, not so much. I'll go with the beef Wellington next time! Dessert was the pistachio dome by Norman Love.. need I say more?

Not many people left the ship in Victoria... packing was calling...with tears in my eyes.

Hopefully, there's another cruise for us before the Panama Canal cruise. Do you think I'll still be sad after 19 days on the Island? That'd be a resounding yes!