ACorgan

We saw orcas 🥰 My pics weren’t great, but was amazing to see in person. Several adults and two juveniles. The crew was super excited too - said they only see them in this close about 5x per year

The first part of our Best of Sitka: otters, raptors, and bears tour has already lived up to it’s name and we found an otter. We’ve also seen several bald eagles and a humpback whale. Just got word about a pod of orcas not far away, so the boat is headed that direction to see if we can find them 🍀

They were not require for our checkin on this cruise. I was a little worried because the HAL app gave me a pop up prompt for ArriveCAN a few days before our cruise, but then I never saw it again. Once on the ship, they did have us fill out a paper declaration form in preparation for our Victoria stop

Correction: I think it was a frittata, not an omelet

I was supposed to join a work call this morning, so had to forgo our usual Pinnacle breakfast for room service, since not enough time to dine between my call and leaving for our excursion. I got the veggie and goat cheese omelette delivered. The first bite was a little flavorless, but then I discovered the pile of crushed red pepper in the top center. Once I distributed that more evenly, it was a delightful breakfast. After wolfing down my breakfast and fighting with internet and zoom to get connected to my call, it got cancelled one minute before it was scheduled to start 🤦🏻‍♀️ Oh well, now back to vacation mode for our outing

Briefly stopped by the orange party. It was more of a club scene - you could smell the sweat as you walked in, the live music was blaring, and the dance floor was packed with people. Fun if that’s your thing, but it’s not really mine, so quickly made my way back to the exit and headed upstairs for the night. As I breezed through I noticed drink menus placed all over with the special orange drinks and I saw a waiter passing around a dessert that looked like a cream puff with chocolate on it. I should have guessed this would be a popular event since the majority of the people in the upper main dinning room seemed to be wearing orange outfits at dinner🍊

Tonight was the culinary council dinner. We started with the sushi and the crab cake I wasn’t excited about any of the mains listed in the menu, so was thrilled that the club orange special was the shrimp fettuccine, since I’ve had it before and it’s a solid choice. My dinning partner got the pasta dish that was on the main menu (a rigatoni with sausage) Dessert was my standard fruit plate and the ricotta raspberry tart Tonight is the orange party. I might try to go to it, but there’s also a chance that I’ll end up in PJs in my room before then; we’ll see how the evening goes

When I was able to see the glacier so well from the ship, I worried if I had wasted money on my small boat excursion to Hubbard, but those fears were completely unfounded and I found it well worth the money. The excursion boat had three levels and plenty of comfortable inside seating We went way closer to the glaciers than the ship. This is a view looking backwards and the ship is behind the large island The Hubbard glacier was very active and we saw quite a bit of calving. We initially got within a half mile of the glacier, but kept having to back up as the current pulled us closer in. The crew mentioned that they had an outing earlier that day with Celebrity but there was way more ice then and they had trouble getting up to the glacier. What a difference a few hrs makes. We had little ice and gorgeous sunny weather ☀️ There was another glacier near by that I’ve already forgotten the name of. It doesn’t really calve much, but was still very pretty We saw a couple of seals swimming around and on the way back to the HAL ship, spotted a few sea lions Overall, it was a well-run tour and I’m glad we went. The only negative is that I missed the Dutch pea soup they serve on the bow of the main ship, but that’s a trade off I can live with

I think so? I remember seeing some events listed for wildlife talks in our program. I haven’t attended any of them, so not sure about the qualifications of the speaker(s)

The weather cleared up and currently have great views of the glacier directly from our veranda. I tried going back up to the bow, but it was a crowded crush of people now, so just stayed long enough to purchase a hot mulled wine. Now we’re throwing on all our layers and heading to the meet up at the world stage for our catamaran tour.

We were up bright and early for Hubbard glacier day and were once again at the Pinnacle right at opening. We had the full English (without the mushrooms) and the Asian congee Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the full English. It was perfectly edible, but wasn’t as good as the other breakfasts I’ve had on board. I would have liked my over-medium eggs and my tomato cooked a little more (whites were still runny) and my fried toast cooked a little less. The sausage and the hash browns were good, but the back bacon was a little flavorless (missing the saltiness I usually love about bacon and ham). I was told the congee was delicious. After breakfast I spent the next few hours holed up working, but emerged a little after noon, when they opened the bow. It’s a foggy day and a passing ship informed our captain that they weren’t able to see the glacier due to the weather. Luckily, we had prebooked the catamaran excursion, so hopefully we’ll at least get a glimpse of it 🤞

We were more than a half hour late to dinner tonight, but thankfully that hadn’t given away our table yet. For appetizers, went with the arancini and the seafood deviled eggs. Both were delicious, but it probably helped that it was after 9pm PST and we hadn’t had a real lunch, so we were famished The club orange special was shrimp jambalaya. I jumped at this one since I’d so enjoyed it in a previous cruise and it didn’t disappoint. It’s just such a flavorful dish and has a decent amount of spice without an overpowering kick Dessert was red velvet cake and, for me, my standard fruit plate. Tonight the cantaloupe was much improved

The other people on our whale watching tour were from a princess ship and from a Norwegian ship. The couple from Norwegian sounded like they were having a rough time 😞 They complained that their ship was completely overrun with out of control children. They prefixed it by letting us know that they cruise with their own kids, but that the ones on the ship seemed to have no supervision and were running amok which dramatically lessened their enjoyment of the cruise. They also said they were very thankful they had a balcony room because people started staking out all the chairs in their version of the crows nest and just stayed there sleeping in the chairs all day. Apparently some of the chair hogs were arriving as early as 4am to “claim” their space 😮 We were feeling good about our choice of HAL after that conversation (and I’m sure the Princess passenger was feeling equally thankful about her cruse line choice)

We went whale watching with Jayleen’s and we’re very happy with our trip. Just had five passengers, so plenty of room to move about the spacious boat. We saw Mendanhall Glacier from the ocean, several whales up very close (including a mom with her calf), and plenty of sea lions. We had a great time and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this tour to others

We had brief thoughts about catching a tram up during our free time, but the line wrapped all the way around the building, so even if we made it up there in time, we weren’t confident we could get back down in time for our tour. We debated about Tracy’s Crab Shack or the Red Dog Saloon, but I’ve been to both before and walking around and shopping didn’t sound appealing when it was so warm (73 degrees F) and crowded. In the end we decided to come back to the ship for a bit. Currently enjoying a mai tai from the Ocean Lounge while having a few snacks in the Neptune Lounge. Good to hydrate and rest up before our boat adventure 😉

When I tried the speed test just got this screen, which looks quite different from yours:

As soon as we got off the ship, we headed towards a kiosk and bought bus tickets to the glacier. Just grabbed the shortest line, which ended up being “Juneau tours” and we were glad we did. The other bus companies had massive lines by the port, but once we walked over, it was less than a 5 min wait for our bus and only 4 people in line in front of us. Less than 10 people on the whole bus, so plenty of room to spread out. Same good luck coming home. There was a huge lines at the bus stop, but they were all waiting for a different company (M&S or something like that?). When we walked over, we were able to jump right in a waiting bus for Juneau tours and another Juneau bus was pulling up as we left. Only about a dozen people on our bus back. At the park, we did the walk to nugget falls, which was a nice paved trail, just under a mile each way, and very minimal elevation change On the way back, we stopped at the viewpoint for the glacier We skipped the visiter center since I’ve been there before and we are short on time. I asked a park ranger if worth walking over to the trail to look for spawning salmon, but she let us know you won’t be able to see them until after July 15th. Now we’re headed back to town to see what else we can squeeze in before we meet our whale watching tour in 2 hours

Looks to be a busy day in port. From my veranda, I can see the Norwegian Bliss and the Ruby Princess. The Ruby is tendering, which looks like a pain, so glad we have a dock. Just waiting for them to give word that we can go ashore

I ended up going to the gym, mostly to justify my overpacking 😅 I had packed two sets of gym clothes and yesterday’s set went out with the laundry. Even if I never set foot in the gym again this trip, it was now worth bringing the two sets of outfits 💪 It was gorgeous scenery, so I decided to forgo my usual video watching and just listened to music while enjoying the view. Turns out virtue is its own reward and I saw a whale spouting off the forward Port side not long into my workout (see - figured out what to call right/left based on the helpful crew here on cruise critic 😉🙏). Later, I also caught a flash of black off the forward starboard side, but didn’t get a good enough look to know if it was a whale, seal, sea lion, or something else 🤷🏻‍♀️ We’re going whale watching in Juneau later this afternoon, so hopefully this will just be the first of many sea life sightings today 🤞 They announced that we’re making really good time and should arrive at Juneau by 12:15. The posted arrival time is/was 1pm, so not sure if this means we might be able to get off the ship early? I’d be very happy with that since we’re hoping to squeeze in a trip to Mendenhall glacier before our whale watching trip

Such a great tip; thank you!!

Today is Juneau day 🐋 The clocks were set back an hour last night and to my surprise, my cell phone (which is in airplane mode, but connected to ship wifi) changed time as well. I was bemoaning the fact I was so wide awake at 6:30, but then checked my watch and realized it was 7:30 PST, so that’s respectable. Since we were up and going, we arrived at the Pinnacle at 7:30 on the dot for breakfast and snagged another window table. I tried the pan Asian breakfast this morning. The rice was a tad mushy at the bottom of the heap and I just couldn’t bring myself to eat cauliflower and carrots that early in the morning, but the rest was really good. The tamagoyaki (egg roll) was tender and had just a touch of sweetness to it, the salmon was well cooked, the miso soup tasted as it should, and the dipping sauce worked well on the white rice To catch up from last night, when we returned to our room after dinner, we had a cute towel animal and some chocolates We’re just starting to go through Stephen’s passage now. As we were walking back from breakfast, I noticed the scenery on the right side of the ship (can’t ever remember which one is Port and which one is Starboard) was stunning with snow capped mountains in the distance. However, our balcony faces the other way, towards Admiralty Island and I’m too lazy at the moment to wander, so here’s our current view, which is still very pretty, if lacking the large peaks: Haven’t noticed any whales yet, but will keep an eye out. During breakfast there was an odd overhead announcement asking one of the ship staff servers (missed the name) to contact the bridge immediately. Hope everything is ok with them; it sounded ominous After breakfast settles, have to decide if I’m going to hit the gym again or decide it’s ok to skip, since planning to do a (short) hike later today 😉

I started out with the lofty goal of never taking the elevators at all this cruise, but that only lasted until our first dinner yesterday 😞 My phone says I climbed 17 flights of stairs before I gave up, so that’s not too shabby. Still mostly using stairs during the day, but if going from 2 up to the lido or crows nest, I snag an elevator instead

I jinxed myself with the praise of the internet. It’s being very slow this evening. Tonight was the first dressy night, gala evening, or whatever they call it now. In the MDR, I didn’t notice any tuxes, but many men in suits and ties and some just in nice button up collared shirt (no tie). Women’s wear much harder to classify, but sufficient to say people were dressed fairly nicely, especially for a cruise to Alaska. For our starters, went with the duck option and the crab and artichoke dip The club orange special tonight was the short rib. I was torn since I’ve had that on a previous cruise and really enjoyed it. I wanted something lighter though, so decided to go with the fish. Joke was on me since the fish came with some sort of heavier cream sauce. It was delicious, so no regrets. My table mate did get the short rib and reported that it was still incredibly tasty Dessert at our table was fruit and cheesecake. The cantaloupe was a little mushy, but the rest of the fruit was delightful I’m probably going to “invest” a little more at the casino tonight and then will shoot for an early evening again. I’m taking daily meclizine to prevent motion sickness and it makes me very drowsy, so more naps and earlier to bed than I would be at home

I have no idea how to tell if it’s starlink or not, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the internet so far. I upgraded to the highest package and while I wouldn’t try it for streaming services or zoom calls, it’s doing far better than my sailing last August on the Zaandam (also best package available). Texting pictures to people takes awhile, but the images do eventually go through

We have Pinnacle booked for our last night (Victoria), but not planning on anything else. I hadn’t anticipated our dinner time being so early though, so need to check in about tomorrow night. We get back from our excursion at 8pm, so not sure if will be ok to come a half hour late to our 7:30 MDR fixed seating, or if we need to figure something else out. Planning to ask our MDR servers about it tonight. If the MDR is a no-go, might see if we can get late Canaletto reservations