arctickitty

Good Morning Cruise Critic! What a novel idea to wake up to natural daylight in the winter! Just a friendly reminder that although I will continue to post live periodically, internet allowing, it’s not always going to be in real time or sequential or the full story. I like to do a mix of posting some highlights and if I have time (usually while waiting for something) might post a story, but typically the details and stories will come afterward I go back home.

We arrived in Seattle about 4 hours late in the N gates. Special Someone determined he had lounge access at The Club @ SEA so we rode the train to C and then walked to A. I am who I am so I timed our trek. It was healthy. The Club is no Centurion but it did have a bar and an espresso machine. I didn’t like the lattes the machine made but I did like the dark chocolate mochas. And I really liked the cucumber lime water and the big pint glasses to drink it from. When I saw the list of their 4 signature cocktails I told Special Someone that it was his duty to help me drink all 4 of them. We tried a variety of the food; it ranged from OK the blech. I asked why the hummus was green and he said he thought it was guacamole. So then I asked why the guacamole is green. Our first cocktail was their Loaded Bloody Mary that was missing its loaded ness but the flavor in the liquid part of the drink was top notch. It has a lot of complexity beyond the spiciness. Second was their margarita made with their own fresh citrus blend. It was pretty good and the citrus was quality but the other drinks simply outshone it. Next we tried the Blood Orange Mimosa which wasn’t blood orange colored or even very orange tasting but it sure was delightfully slurpable. Finally we tried the Spiked Citrus Cooler and as much as I enjoyed the Bloody Mary, this was a knockout for me with the combination of the fruit and cucumber flavors. I drank this one down. (Sorry, no picture). This drinking experiment showed that what I think I will like doesn’t always turn out to be my favorite. We appreciated that the drinks were small and poured with a light hand as it allowed us to taste all four of them without feeling any ill effects. Afterwards we walked back from A to D and then took the train back to the N gates and I had it timed perfectly and we walked right on board with our proper boarding group.

Back in Alaska, we discovered a coffee vending machine in the lower level of the Fairbanks airport. Since the secure area is so tiny we walked around outside security for awhile before going through TSA.

PS: I was so confused when the Uber driver took a suitcase and walked to the front of his car and popped the hood. Took me a minute to figure out what he was doing.

Bring it on!! I love weather!! Air travel wasn’t bad once we finally boarded. Seattle had snow which made all the planes late getting into Fairbanks and then our plane had a mechanical. They decided do to a plane swap but then changed their minds and we flew on the original plane but they had to shuffle the gear and crew back. When we got to the point at which we thought we’d miss our connection I called Reservations and got in the virtual queue as well as the physical in-person one. I was able to get our connecting flight rebooked during boarding. So we made it! We got to experience LA rush hour (in a Tesla) with a driver with a suspended license for having gotten a ticket for doing 107 (or so he claimed). Very chatty guy and he showed us how the autopilot works and battery display.

@LawDog61 thanks for the update! I have enjoyed rocking and rolling in the past so I hope I still do! I do hope the outdoor decks aren’t closed all the time but we are adjustable people.

Thanks @TheRabbit for answering for @Cowboys60

Yes we did!!! We high-fived each other that we made it to LA pavement. I think all my ideas of things to do this evening are fizzling plum out as it catches up with me that I’ve slept 45 minutes at a time 2 or 3 times since I worked on Monday. Y’all would think it’s hilarious how many urban things I don’t understand like I’ve never seen a Tesla before.

aloha @Cowboys60 if you click on the icon with 3 horizontal lines and then forums and then find your roll call you should find it. Yes there is a meet & greet mentioned in there.

haha.

Good to know! I’ve thus far enjoyed rocky seas so I’m hoping that trend continues!

It kept going…

I saw that in the app and clicked on it partially to see what would happen, if anything. I will report back.

Welcome to Alaska.

Crazy to believe that travel day is here already. I worked all day today but I felt like vacation started over the weekend. We hit 10/10 over and over again visiting small businesses we found near trails challenge signs. Our area has a hiking scavenger hunt and we got 4 signs on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Amidst that, we found a lot of food gems. This is a raspberry cupcake cocktail from Hoarfrost Distilling, one of our several local distilleries.

Nope, we’ll see when we get there. It’s our only rental car reservation at this point, but we both can adapt and go with the flow.

I absolutely relate. I’ve tried writing my name and phone number on the bottom but it rubs off so quickly.

Thanks for the info @Bungus! We booked Avis for Hilo because we saw several reports that they had a shuttle.

17 below this morning…Tiger says hello:

Woke up to 10 below this morning but lots of smiles as some useful trip items have been acquired… I have lost or misplaced my good swim cap. I have freebies from triathlons I’ve competed in but they just don’t work as well, so Special Someone got me a new one of the kind I like…lucky for me REI had just one in stock. That’s all I need. While he was there he also saw the proper kind of eyeglass string that I need for our surf lesson. About once a year I seem to do an activity that requires one and I’ve been too cheap to buy one so I just tie a bunch of hair ties together. Special Someone is not too cheap. That’s why we keep him around. We also got a Nalgene bottle sip lid attachment for me. When traveling, especially in a warm climate I need a fast flowing straw in order to help me get enough water quickly enough. If I open the whole , I’m clumsy and spill it a lot so this style of sip lid works really well for me. Unfortunately I lost the last one I had. I’m not sure if I’m joking or not about putting some of his apple tags on my modified water bottles because once you buy the bottle and the special lid, they’re not cheap. And that’s not even counting the sentimental value of the stickers. I swam last night and smashed it on freestyle which has been my goal to learn this winter. I swam in 2 triathlons last summer using only breastroke and it is true that slow and steady completes the race (not everyone does) and I never swam off course, but I wanted to learn freestyle. I took a couple of adult swim lessons and have gone from swimming 1 lap of freestyle at a time to 4 and then 12 last week and yesterday I did 20 in a row adding up to 500 meters. Maybe we are delusional but we imagine we are going to pace off all the pools to measure them so I can keep tracking my swimming distances on board. We both participate in a virtual challenge called Race Across Alaska and, besides the triathlon training, need to continue accruing miles for the race.

@KLM3164 hope you’re having a fantastic time on board!!! And hooray for a healthy elderly lady kitty!!! Mine just happened to be due for their annuals. Last cruise my boy kitty scraped his toes open so I got him checked to make sure he was healing well before I left. Unfortunately my cat sitter has a having a family emergency and it doesn’t seem likely to calm down quickly so this morning I started thinking of alternatives. One of my coworkers used a service called The Pet Nanny that starts at $30 per day minimum. Then I thought, one of my coworkers got her hours cut at work, why not pay her the $ I’d have to pay a stranger and I’d trust her tons more. She said YES!

Less than one week to go… Leaving on this trip doesn’t quite feel real yet, but I’ll blink and it will be happening. The Big News here is that Special Someone came home on time and we’ve been getting him used to the cold. It’s been dropping below zero again some days but not crazy far so it’s all very manageable. We had him out on snowshoes not long after he landed. I’ve practiced swimming some more and have gotten even better and my last time with flippers went more smoothly and I didn’t feel as weak as when I first tried it. Aiming to practice two more times this week! It’s hard work to get two swims into one work week, but this is the week to do it. Our medallions arrived in the mail with the Princess lanyards and we’re glad we have our own other options. We both want to try them on our wrists and are intrigued about the hands-free experience. Cruise clothes are a whole separate beast from everyday Alaskan clothes and we played dress up the other day to try things on. I’m bummed about the white & gold theme night as neither of us has anything those colors and our local thrift store had nothing suitable either. We never dress up at home so we plan to dress up for all three formal nights and I’m glad there are three because I have 3 thrift store dresses I bought for my last cruise and I only wore 2 of them. I will just say that purple will be happening. Maybe on white & gold night. And last night I got my hair sparkled which is the closest you will get me to a spa or salon so my hair is all festive and cruise ready now! The babies all had their annual well-kitty appointments and are all healthy so that was good timing for before a cruise.