Drdarkknight

6am came way too early this morning and the struggle was very real. We managed to head up for breakfast at 6:45am and we’re surprised to see it was still dark out. We watched the sun rise while we ate and began wondering why we seemed to still be moving. Shortly after 7am the captain came on and announced that due to high winds and unsafe conditions, we would be missing Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. It was a little disappointing but it’s the right call. I have a friend in DR at the moment and she mentioned there was a big storm last night and that it was pretty windy. That meant we were getting a bonus sea day. I went back to bed for a bit and was surprised that within an hour the cruise director staff had planned an entire day’s worth of activities. I was pretty sunned out so we had an inside day. We spent the morning in one of the window nooks at Vines, reading our books. It was very nice and relaxing and once it got a bit later I enjoyed a refreshing glass of La Crema Rosé. We headed to Palms for lunch where I had the most amazing Thai spring rolls and some more aglio e olio spaghetti. No dessert for us as we rushed off to watch Deal or No Deal in the theatre. I wanted to play but they had stopped selling tickets before we arrived. The first contestant won $1 and the second won $150. It was fun watching the crowd get rowdy as more numbers were called. Keeping up with the busy afternoon it was off to Club Fusion for a presentation on the real pirates of the Caribbean. The speaker was absolutely hilarious. We finished off our afternoon with some beer at Outriggers Bar. I love this place because it’s in the shade but we can still be outside. Dinner was at Coral Dining Room and I swear I ate half the menu. I had the smoked salmon, escargot, bisque, tortellini, surf and turf and the chocolate pistachio dome. Then it was time for Marriage Match. I was in the game show last time but it was equally as fun being on the other side. We were crying laughing. We meant to end up at the I Love This party in the piazza but we ended up at Skywalker’s Nightclub which was bumping. We still are back in the room at a reasonable time, 12:30. Was today what we expected? Absolutely not. But we made the best of it and there’s no regrets. These things happen.

The staff did and I kindof did but I can’t say anyone else really participated in that way

We’ve travelled back in time this morning so I was wide awake before 7am, despite having the opportunity to sleep in as we don’t arrive in Turks and Caicos until noon. We decided to change things up and had breakfast at the International Cafe. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the one on my Alaskan cruise but it did the trick. Then it was up to the pool deck and once again it was pretty hot. We ended up moving to the Outrigger Bar which was in the shade and perfect. We knew Turks and Caicos was known for beautiful water and beaches but it still took our breath away when we got close. The water was so clear. We grabbed lunch at the buffet and then disembarked. We met our tour at the end of the pier and briefly saw my sister and her friend. I was doing the Junkaboo Party Bus. Things seemed a bit ‘not as advertised’ at the start when most of the group was older, immediately complained about the volume of the music, and asked why there was rum. Not entirely sure what was going on there but my friend and I brought the party to the party bus. First we headed to the far end of the island. We were given some rum punch for the journey (this will be a theme today).I think Grand Turk must be mostly known for their beaches because the tour was hilarious. “this is Tony’s car wash…this is Tony’s dry cleaning…this is the gas station”. Having grown up in what is now a cruise port, I often joke I wouldn’t know how to give a tour. When we reached the end of the island we got off to do a rum tasting. We tried regular, spiced and coconut rum. Coconut was my favourite. Back on the bus and heading to ‘town’. Town was about five buildings. We found a little stall selling drinks and each grabbed a Pina colada - the best I’ve ever had. It was so fresh and delicious. It blew my mind. On the next bus trip we received more rum punch and some bonus drink because the other people didn’t want any. The last stop was Governor’s Beach. We headed to the beach and then went looking for a drink. To our surprise nobody was selling beer. They had rum punch (of course) but only in bags that looked like blood donation bags. We had some but it was a bit bizarre. But the real highlight was the hour we swam in the ocean. We went all the way out the buoy and just hung out there. The water was so clear and beautiful and the sand was amazing. I could have stayed there all day. And we almost did. We weren’t given a specific time to be back on the bus but when we saw everyone else packing up we followed suite (there was no rum punch involved!). We went to the bathroom directly in front of the bus when all of a sudden I heard our guide on the microphone. I rushed outside just as it was driving away. Thankfully we were pretty notorious at that point so people quickly pointed out we were missing. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world but definitely would have been a pain. We went back on the ship and had some beers on the pool deck before heading to dinner at Island Dining Room. I had the Caesar salad, French onion soup (I can’t get enough of it), cheese-stuffed breaded chicken and chocolate soufflé. Afterwards we grabbed our customary glass of wine from Vines before setting up camp on the pool deck for the 80’s party which was set to last all night long. The 80’s party was fun! They had decorations up at the pool deck and the staff was all decked out. Did they sometimes play songs that were very much not from the 80’s? Yes. But when I did my Alaskan cruise it was in the piazza and there was a lot of 70’s music so this was way better. They also got their service game in check compared to the first day Sailaway. Tons of people walking around. Not much of a wait for drinks at any point. I honestly forgot how bumpin a deck party could be. It was awesome. We did get tired around 11 (them rum punches) and hit the hay early but since there’s a time change and an early wake up tomorrow it’s for the best.

We booked as soon as we were ready to leave without any issue. So that would have been around 10am. Because there were so many ships in port it took us until about 10:45 with traffic but I never received any type of surge pricing

We woke to our alarm at 7:30am and immediately played America from West Side Story. Once that was done it was time to get ready for our day in San Juan, Puerto Rico! After breakfast we headed straight out to start walking and were basically knocked on our butts from the heat. I’m having a flare up from a chronic health condition I have and am on a lot of steroids at the moment and I basically swelled up like a balloon. But we pushed through and I took us to La Fortaleza. The streets were relatively empty which was nice. But then I started feeling really sick so we headed back to the pier. We found a little cafe where I purchased a giant water bottle and we tried some local passion fruit beers. We returned to the terminal ahead of our walking tour of San Juan, which also incorporated lunch. It was an informative tour and well run. The guide did a good job of being heard despite the crowds. I was still pretty hot but there were chances to sit and a few stops into the air conditioning. Lunch was at a restaurant called Juanes. We had corn sticks for an appetizer followed by some amazing mofongo we made ourselves. Dessert was flan and we also received a mojito. I had done a similar tour last time I was in Puerto Rico. I found this one had more history/culture and less food - probably a good trade off depending on your thing. My sister’s friends’ family lives in Puerto Rico so we went to meet up with them for a couple drinks at my favourite San Juan bar, La Factoria. It’s always a good time there. Usually a lot of locals and good music. It gets pretty rowdy at night. When we told our guide we were headed to La Factoria she said “oh you’re here to party!”. We had time for two drinks before heading back to the ship. I’m glad I managed to make it through the day, despite swelling up like a human staypuff marshmallow man. Getting back onboard was a piece of cake and I took the greatest cold shower of my life when I returned to the ship. We got ready pretty quickly and headed up to the pool deck for the sunset Sailaway. Finally! Gorgeous views as we sailed away. And because I thought we were going to eat more in San Juan our dinner reservation wasn’t until 6:20. Plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. It was such a gorgeous Sailaway - I loved it. We went to multiple different areas of the ship to watch it, finishing at Outriggers Bar. Dinner was back at Palms, which I think is probably the fastest dining room. I had the vol au vent, spaghetti carbonara, goat cheese soufflé and chocolate cheesecake. I’m not sure why the goat cheese soufflé has been moved to mains - it is so tiny. We actually made it to the theatre tonight. We saw the production show ‘Born to be Wild’ which I have never seen. Or should I say we tried to watch it. First there was a twenty minute delay due to technical difficulties. This was actually fine as they pivoted and did the Yes No Gameshow. My friend thought it would be so easy and I told her it was actually really hard and it was fun watching. Then the show eventually started and it was So. Bad. So cheesy. Very elementary. We ended up quietly ducking out three numbers in. Since it was a bit of a crazy day in terms of my health we didn’t push it and stay up too late (though we really wanted to hit up Skywalkers). We had some Malbec and now we’re back in our room so we can enjoy Turks and Caicos tomorrow. This will be country #40 for me and I’m very excited.

For the person asking about temperature - I’ve found it a bit on the warmer side. The air conditioning her doesn’t seem to be kicking in as much as I’d like (but I’m also very sensitive to heat). This has included our cabin.

It’s a sea day today and a time change day. Time change day always messes with me. Unsurprisingly I woke up to find my phone hadn’t changed automatically so I set it ahead manually and went back to bed. Except when I woke up the ship time in the app had moved forward another hour, my friend’s app said it was 2:30pm and we were fairly sure it was 7:45am. We fell back asleep and gave the waking up thing a try again at 9am, to a lot more success. After some buffet breakfast we headed out to the pool deck to try to find some chairs. We were successful one level up. It was sunny but WINDY. We stayed out listening to music, chatting and drinking Prosecco until lunch time, though we never got in the pool. Then it was off to Palm for lunch. They asked if we would mind sharing a table and we said sure and were sat with two couples from Michigan. We had a great time and the food was tasty too - I had the calamari, aglio e olio spaghetti and sundae. We had the Princess Fine Wine Tasting at 2pm so we stopped off at Vines for a glass of cremant and listened to Sunny Duo in the piazza (a pianist and violinist). Now that we’ve discovered them we’re probably going to follow them around the ship because they were amazing. The fine wine tasting was as I have come to expect. Some basic wine knowledge. Some nice wines. We shared with two ladies from Alaska which was fun conversation. The wine tasting didn’t blow me away but it’s all about the vibes. The food pairings got off track fast. By the time we reached the Caymus we had three cheeses and some foie gras left. It did finish on time however. Then it was back up to the pool deck until it was time for formal night. Dinner was at Coral Dining Room this evening. I had way too many courses but everything sounded so good! I had the crab cake (probably my favourite of the night), pâté, beef consommé, gnocchi, beef tenderloin and turtle cheesecake. Afterwards we went to Vines for another glass of cremant. We caught some of the champagne waterfall. We headed to Explorer’s Lounge for the 8:30 game show Liar’s Club. We have found the sweet spot for getting there where we have a little two seater available for us for the show. It was awful. We left halfway through. I feel like I’ve seen Liar’s Club before and enjoyed it but not today. The stories went on so long and they weren’t funny and so we ended up just heading out after the first round. We basically spent the rest of the night up on the pool deck drinking Prosecco. Didn’t want to go too crazy as we’ll be in San Juan, Puerto Rico tomorrow and plan to have a very busy day.

Movies so far have been NFL, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Little Mermaid and The Haunting of Venice

After a very comfortable night’s sleep my alarm went off at 8am so we could start getting ready for our stop in Princess Cays, Bahamas! I have been to the Bahamas before, but only Nassau and Castaway Cay, so I was excited for a change of scenery. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous in the lead up to this stop. I was watching the weather and it kept calling for significant windy conditions, which I know isn’t the best at a tender port. We had a nice breakfast at the buffet, though it was a bit chaotic. I was able to get some red Bull to drink with my breakfast - hallelujah! Then it was off to the Princess Theatre to wait for our tender. Things were pretty organized and we were at Princess Cays by 10:15. The tenders were huge and reached the island quickly. Then we queued up for our bungalow. We were assigned Bungalow 12 - Avocado - and it was such a great location. Literally spitting distance from the washrooms, the bar and the beach. It was somewhat overcast and windy but since I legitimately thought we would miss the port I will take it. Plus I’m so pale lack of sun is good. We had a drink and then hopped in the water for a good hour. It was chilly but we got used to it pretty quickly. It was fun to just float around. Some people near us saw a stingray but we didn’t. When we arrived back at the cabana there was a charcuterie and vegetable plate waiting for us, along with a delicious lobster mango salad. Super refreshing. We had just finished that when they showed up with a full barbecue buffet plate for each of us - bun, corn, pork ribs, chicken drumstick and sausage. It was a lot of food and we were not expecting it. The bar managed to run out of both Prosecco and corona (it wasn’t us, I swear!). We thought the food was done but then they brought us all fruit and cheese plates! The pineapple was absolutely amazing. And then pastries showed up! This was an insane amount of food. We hopped back in the water again for a bit before packing up and returning to the tender. Despite leaving an hour before the final tender the queue was massive. It took us thirty minutes to make it to a tender boat. Glad we didn’t wait until the end. We reached the ship at 2:45pm and headed to Club Fusion for an enrichment presentation on great white sharks by Martin Graf. It was interesting but we were definitely a little sleepy after a full morning/afternoon. The bar was closed so we used the app to order some Prosecco. It took over thirty minutes. Not very efficient. Then it was time for a shower. I missed part of sailaway but that’s life. We made it up for the latter half but the island was already out of sight. The sun was starting to go down. It was windy! Thankfully I was wearing booty shorts under my dress (a must). Dinner was at the Island Dining Room and it was a lot more disorganized than we’d experienced yesterday at Palm. A lot of diners were commenting they’d been split up from their group. It took us twenty minutes before we could order. My sister and her friend have food allergies and ordered last night and they had no record of it. Our waiter honestly looked kindof pissed off about the allergy situation. It was tense until everything was sorted and then you could actually see him relax. We received our first course about 45 minutes in. I had the smoked salmon and crab and artichoke dip, which were both good. They came before my groups’ soup course so I watched them eat for a bit but that was okay. I want that French onion soup again…My entree was the ponzu miso salmon and for dessert I had the cheesecake. The macerated cherries were so good. Overall we ended up finishing dinner about two hours after we started. From there my friend and I headed to Vines for a drink. The wine list has changed somewhat since my Alaskan cruise which was nice but I was disappointed to see that they serve the wine in the same small dinner glasses. On Sapphire Princess we had the nice glasses when at Vines. In the piazza there was a man playing steel drums, which was festive. Then it was up to Explorer’s Lounge for a game show called Can You Survive? We didn’t play but it was pretty fun to watch. A combination of trivia and ‘minute to win it’ style challenges. We went up to the pool deck afterwards to enjoy some Prosecco in the fresh air. Bravo was in the theater tonight but we skipped it. I’ve seen it a couple times and it’s honestly not my favourite. My sister and her friend had tried to make the 7:30 show but left when they saw people sitting on the floor and returned for the 9:30. We weren’t sure how we wanted to end the night. Our choices were Crooners or a comedy show. Crooners was already packed when we checked so we continued on to the comedy show with comedian Phil Tag. Princess I guess is trying this new ‘laugh lounge’ concept in Club Fusion. We enjoyed ourselves. Definitely had a few laughs, even if it was geared for an older and more American crowd (to be expected). Tomorrow is a sea day and since we’re 2/2 for running completely through our drink package, we decided to head to bed. Looking forward to a full day onboard tomorrow.

In this particular case, I was joining my sister on a cruise she’d already booked. But additionally since I have a cruise booked with PCL in June this will mean I will be Ruby by that time instead of Gold.

Despite how tired we were I can’t say it was the best sleep of my life. I woke up at 6:45am with a sore neck but excited for later this morning. The room was perfect for us. Very spacious and the King bed was ridiculously comfy. There was a bar in the lobby that seemed really popular last night when we came back from dinner. Our hotel offered a shuttle to the cruise terminal for $15 per person but since Uber was $16 total we decided to use that instead. It was about a twenty minute drive to the terminal. I’m so thankful for the email Princess sent earlier this week notifying us which cruise terminal to go to. I haven’t embarked at a large cruise port in several years (I think Miami was the last one) so it would have been a struggle trying to figure out where to go. We went for 10:30 as that’s when the app said out embarkation window was. Port Everglades is crazy busy! We were so glad we were in an Uber. Definitely the right call. We were a little confused when we got out but one of the porters pointed us in the right direction. Once inside the terminal things were quite organized. We had to sit and wait for a bit but we were onboard and in the Palm Dining Room by 11:30. I always eat embarkation lunch in the main dining room. The buffet is too chaotic for my liking. A nice sit down lunch is the best way to start a cruise. I enjoyed the shrimp and avocado appetizer, the spinach and ricotta ravioli, beef tenderloin and Nutella gelato. Everything was delicious. Then we checked into our muster station and it was up to the pool deck, which was unfortunately a little rainy. We weren’t bothered though so we set up camp for the afternoon. My sister and her friend showed up around 1:30pm and we waited around for the Sailaway festivities to begin, complete with a lot of Prosecco. DJ Calvin came on 2:30pm to get things started. It got really busy and people were being a little rude. Our view was very quickly blocked without acknowledgment and getting a drink was like the Hunger Games. We kept a positive attitude throughout but it does show one of my least favourite parts of cruising. We essentially missed the Sailaway Celebration as we couldn’t see anything. The ship left pretty late - we didn’t get to see Sailaway as we had dinner reservations at 5:20. Dinner was quite good. I had the garlic prawns, French onion soup (amazing!), mahi mahi and creme brûlée. We took around 90 minutes, though dessert took longer than the rest of the meal. From there it was off to the Princess Theater for Comedy Magic with TJ Tana. We arrived there 15 minutes early and the theatre was about 50% full. I’ll keep that in mind as we get to the production shows. I wish we hadn’t come in the end - it was brutal. Not funny. So painful and cringe and ran long. We were so glad when it ended and quickly rushed to Club Fusion for musical bingo. Thankfully they were running into technical difficulties so we made it. We played three rounds and I managed to stand up twice (meaning I was one away from bingo) but I never won. Afterwards my friend and I headed back up to the pool deck for some bevvies and good conversation. We met up with my sister and her friend again at the Explorer’s Lounge for the 70’s party. I was surprised to see it wasn’t crazy busy. But it was a long day - I’m sure people were tired. I certainly was but I was determined to make it through this final event. I am really enjoying the house band, Symphonee so far! Very talented. By the time they finished I was pretty exhausted so it was back to the room and in a few minutes here, off to bed.

Trying to figure out flights to Fort Lauderdale was beyond a pain in the butt. It was only a few years ago I booked similar flights direct to FLL - also in January - for about $400. When I checked this time it was $1800. We waited weeks. I was continuously checking Westjet, Air Canada and Expedia and the cheapest I could find was $1200 - and that was usually if I wanted to stay overnight in Toronto. Unreal. And then I remembered Princess does EZAir, which I had never tried before. It was really user friendly to check out prices through the system and to my surprise, the ticket price was significantly more manageable than I was seeing anywhere else. The only caveat was that the flight to Fort Lauderdale was going to be early - 6:30am. My friend and I chatted and decided this was our best option. It was cheaper and we’d actually get into FLL at about 6:30pm which gave us an evening to explore before the cruise. Thankfully I bought a house last year and it happens to be really close to the airport so my friend stayed over last night. We also combined our luggage so we’d only have to pay one baggage fee. The airport was surprisingly busy for 4am but I have Nexus and was sitting at the terminal bar by 4:45am. We grabbed a light breakfast and some beer. The airport is a lawless place. We headed to the gate for boarding and…nothing. Mechanical issue. I was getting a bit nervous since there was a lack of updates but we were able to board about 40 minutes late. We had a long connection time in Dallas so it wasn’t an issue for us but some people looked pretty stressed. I’ve never flown American Airlines before but they sure are efficient. We boarded quickly and landed with only a 15 minute delay. Even getting off the airplane was super streamlined. And they give you the full pop can! We had three hours to waste at DFW so we had a nice meal at Maggiano’s and a beer at Beer Union to kill time. The airport is massive. We totally missed that there was a tram between terminals and walked all the way. Boarding the second flight was on time and quick. I was impressed with the leg room in economy. I was definitely comfortable, for an airplane. And once again we arrived early, although there was a fair amount of turbulence. Once we arrived in Fort Lauderdale we waited for our baggage and then located the airport shuttle. Things got a little chaotic at this point. Our bags were sent ahead of us on an earlier flight for some reason. So we had to find them. Then we couldn’t figure out how to get the airport shuttle. However, as soon as I called the hotel they had someone there in literally two minutes. That’s good service. When booking a hotel for tonight we debated between booking somewhere near the beach or near the airport, since it was just for the night. Since our flight wasn’t landing until 6:30pm and we would have to get an Uber to the cruise terminal regardless we opted for a hotel with an airport shuttle. Not to mention all the hotels were incredibly pricey. Saturday problems. We landed on the Four Points by Sheraton Dania Beach. We previously stayed at Four Points when we did Halloween in New Orleans and liked it so figured let’s keep the trend going. For dinner we wanted something within walking distance. I had noticed on Google Maps when I was planning our trip that there was a place nearby called Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant so that was an easy decision for us to make. I loved how their menu had wine recommendations for each dish! We did end up taking an Uber there and back - we were just a bit too tired and honestly didn’t want to walk around this late by ourselves. To our surprise the place was packed! Thankfully I had made reservations so we were seated in about ten minutes. To start we shared their cheese plate with a wine flight which was really fun trying the different combinations of flavour profiles. We then ordered a full glass of wine paired to our entrees. I had ordered the short rib risotto, which meant paired with the Cabernet Sauvignon. We waited awhile for our meals but were having chatting so didn’t really notice the time until a manager came over and apologized for the delay and then proceeded to cover our entire bill. We were shocked, to say the least. We hadn’t even mentioned anything. So if anyone is ever looking for a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale please show Cooper’s Hawk some love. Now we’re back in the hotel and can really feel that we’ve been travelling all day so I’m going to fall into a deep sleep for the rest of the night. Boarding the Caribbean Princess tomorrow morning!

This Live From will be short but sweet. Tomorrow my best friend and I (both 32F) will be heading out from Calgary to Fort Lauderdale for the 7 January sailing on the Caribbean Princess on a 7 day Caribbean cruise. We are both from Canada and have known each other for twelve years. We have travelled together before to multiple destinations including New Year’s in Mexico and Halloween in New Orleans and even lived together in Europe for a few years, so we know one week will be a piece of cake. My friend has never been on a cruise before. We had one booked for April 2020 but I’m sure we all know how that worked out. This will be my eighth? cruise and third with Princess. This was a rather spontaneous decision we made only three months out from the departure date. I’d been itching for another vacation and I asked her if she’d like to do a cruise and she said sure. This is where our group expands a bit. My sister and her friend are also cruising in January and suggested we join them (albeit in separate cabins). We didn’t really have a specific location in mind so that’s how we ended up booking this cruise! I’ve never done a Caribbean cruise with Princess before (I’ve done them with Disney and Celebrity - I loved Celebrity) so it will be a new experience and a smaller/older ship so we’ll see how it all pans out in the end. The itinerary itself is a mix of new but with some familiarity. My last Princess ship was the Sapphire and the deck plan seems pretty similar. Day 1 - Princess Cays, Bahamas - since there’s four of us we’ve decided to all go in one one of the private beach bungalows Princess sells. This solves our biggest problem, which is me. I am the palest person on the planet and cannot stay out in the sun for very long. This can be challenging at a tender port when folks want to enjoy the beach and the water. But with the cabana I have the ability to hop back in for some shade as often as I need without ruining anyone else’s fun. Although it looks like it will be windy so maybe it ends up being an unexpected ship day. Day 2 - At Sea Day 3 - San Juan, Puerto Rico - I’ve been here before but I’m the only one in our group. We decided to all purchase the same excursion through Princess so will be spending half the day doing a historical tour of old town with some food tastings. I’ve actually even done this tour before (or similar) but didn’t want to prevent the group from doing the excursion they wanted. Plus, I loved doing it the first time. San Juan was my favourite port when I did Caribbean with Celebrity so I’m very excited to return. As our excursion doesn’t start until 11 we plan to walk around ourselves beforehand. My sister’s best friend’s in-laws live in Puerto Rico so we’re going to meet up with them afterwards for a quick drink. Day 4 - Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos - This will be a new country for me! Number 40 I believe. Excursions are a little lacking and it seemed challenging to get anywhere outside Margaritaville (not that we won’t be going to Margaritaville) but we found an excursion on a party bus that takes us around the island and even has a beach stop. We decided to go with that. We will be splitting up from my sister and her friend for this one, as they are going to go snorkeling and see some stingrays. Day 5 - Amber Cove, Dominican Republic - I’ve been to Punta Cana so it seems only appropriate to hit up Puerto Plata this time. Complete with a rum tasting. The four of us will be together for this one. Day 6 - At Sea I’ve also never been on the Caribbean Princess but looking at the layout it seems pretty similar to the Sapphire Princess, minus Alfredo’s and a bigger Vines (I will not complain about a bigger Vines). We were happy to get a cabin only two levels below the pool, since we suspect that’s where we will spend a lot of our time. As Princess opened up their Medallion shipping to Canadians we took advantage of that. We both received email notifications on December 15 saying they had been shipped and they arrived 28 December (possibly earlier - neither one of us checks our mail daily). Considering the holidays I’d say getting our medallions over a week in advance went smoothly. I’m looking forward to posting my adventures!

I know I dressed really fancy because I’m dramatic like that but for the most part it was fairly laid back. The first formal night had a lot more participation. Simple dresses mostly. The second formal night barely existed. Very few people dressed up.

I didn’t try any myself but I believe they are at the ice cream place on deck 14

The time change destroyed me a bit today, even if it was only one hour. I woke up and it was almost 10am! I dragged myself out of bed and down to the International Cafe where my husband was sitting. Because I’d slept in I missed the culinary demonstration, which was a bummer. After breakfast we decided to finally go play some real Bingo. It was a blast and Bingo prices seem to be the only thing that’s not going through inflation. We didn’t win though my husband was only one number away on the coverall so he was mock-disappointed. We went to check out the Effy Boutique and quickly noped out of there when we saw the prices. We attempted to go to Alfredo’s but it was incredibly busy. We instead went up to the pool deck for a couple of beers. We like the bartender up there, Rahul, and had a nice chat with him. It turns out he’s likely to be working our cruise next year on the Sun Princess! We tried our luck at Alfredo’s but they were still busy. We said we’d be heading over to Good Spirits at Sea if something should open up. We were there about ten minutes before someone came to get us. Our final lunch was at Alfredo’s, where we shared a pepperoni pizza. Next it was off to the room to do some packing. My husband is a packing genius so I basically let him do his thing. We had to leave it partially unfinished due to the Grapevine Wine Tasting at 2:45pm. It ended up starting a fair bit late due to the popularity. I much preferred the Fine Wine Tasting. These wines left a lot to be desired. But the sommelier was brutal. In a lot of ways he seemed to be reciting from a script and then went he went off-book he went really off. Most people wouldn’t notice probably but as a wine nerd, I was cringing. Not sure if do Grapevine again. Also - please, people. Don’t talk throughout a presentation. I struggled to hear because the person beside me was talking the entire time. I don’t care that you’ve loved the white wine on the cruise. I don’t need to hear it three times. Then it was back up to the pool deck to watch some of the Inside Passage. Back to packing and then I abandoned my husband to go to Vines. I wasn’t being helpful anyways. Then it was off to dinner at Savoy. I think this is the slowest dining room. It always seems to take ages here. The other spots got through their growing pains early but here it still is taking far too long. I had the seafood cocktail, salmon cake, fish soup and ravioli. It was good but I would have preferred more ‘wow factor’ in a farewell dinner. I wanted to have dessert but I really wanted to attend an event starting at 7pm so I didn’t have time. We went back to our room to finish packing before returning to Vines to listen to Allure Strings one final time in the Piazza. She is so talented. I am going to miss being able to watch her every day. At 8 we headed over to Explorer’s Lounge to check out a game called Hollywood Hiccups. It was HILARIOUS. I thought my husband was going to die laughing. The cruise director staff re-enacted (if you can call it that) famous movie scenes on a shoestring budget. There was also some challenging trivia questions along with it. What a great final game show. Then it was back to Vines where we hung out and waited for the Farewell Party in the Piazza. We didn’t really pay attention because we were busy chatting and saying goodbye to our friends that work in Vines. It’s always so sad to say goodbye. I hope I’ll see them again. I’ll be posting one more update just to talk about disembarkation and my half day in Vancouver. I might also do a pro and cons list for anyone that might be reading this. Thank you to all my fellow cruisers who contributed to this Live From. Safe travels!

I can’t believe it is our last port today. Because Ketchikan looked like a good town to explore independently, we chose to not book an excursion here. We slept in a bit, until 9:30, and headed to breakfast at the International Cafe. We hopped off the ship and immediately headed towards Creek Street. We absolutely loved it as soon as we got there. We took a thousand photos and found the last of our souvenirs. I spotted a really nice patio that seemed to belong to a bar so we went in for an early morning pint. It turns out the bar is owned by a group called the ‘Eagles’ and if we wanted to drink we had to become ‘Eagles for the Day’, and the proceeds go to charity. We were happy to oblige and took our pints out to patio right along the creek side. While we drank a couple different members approached us and struck up conversation. They were so friendly! We continued our walk along Creek Street. I really enjoyed the various plaques describing their uses. I was surprised by the amount of history surrounding women and people of colour. We next decided to walk closer to the ship and find a place for lunch. That would turn out to be 108 Taphouse, a burger bar. It was small and busy! Always the sign of a good spot. They were out of a few items we wanted to try, unfortunately (elk burgers and the charcuterie board) but they still made a mean burger. Huge portion sizes. We had some time to kill so we wandered up the street and found a place called Uncharted Distillery, located in an old fire station. The lady working was so nice. I tried the Lavender Lemondrop and my husband had the Fire Station. I wish I’d gotten the Fire Station. If you like spicy drinks it’s a real winner. We next headed back down towards the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. We weren’t doing an excursion but had bought tickets independently. The line was massive but I was surprised how spacious it was inside. There was plenty of room for everyone and a lot of extra space. The show was really well done. I enjoyed it, especially the climbing and water events. My husband absolutely loved it. We had only decided a few weeks ago to buy tickets and that was the right call. We went across the car park to Fat Stan’s for our last Alaskan beer. We returned to the ship and got ready for dinner. I’m sure you’ll all be shocked to hear we went to Vines. Dinner was at Santa Fe at 5pm and I had the vol au vent, beef carpaccio, spaghetti carbonara and goat cheese soufflé. After dinner we went to the Wheelhouse Bar to watch a set by Allure Strings as we sailed away from Alaska for the final time. She is so talented I definitely want to catch her one more time tomorrow. We next went to the Princess Theatre for another show by Tricia Kelly. She was as talented as always and I can’t believe we had two different female performers on this cruise sing Bohemian Rhapsody. I also loved how in the lead up to the performance they played her performance on Don’t Forget the Lyrics. I wish they’d do similar videos before the performances more often. I’ve met her twice by now: once in Sitka and once outside the theatre last night and she’s so friendly. Then it was back to Vines for the Love Boat party. One of the cruise director staff asked if my husband and I would participate but we declined. I felt it was ‘greedy’ since we’d already participated in the Marriage Match game show. Spread the love. Since all six couples ended up being new I stand by that decision. It was a fun show combining game show activities with the Sapphire Princess Singers & Dancers and live music from Topaz. Probably my favourite Piazza party and probably the busiest as well. We left a few minutes early to head to Explorers Lounge for Big Screen Bingo. We had no idea what that meant but I can’t say no to free bingo. As it turned out, it was about movies. Totally in my wheelhouse! We had a great time and I won the third round, along with two others! As we approach our final day I’m definitely feeling the post-cruise blues. I’m excited for tomorrow but also wish I could do this for another eleven days.

It was through Princess

Hello, Sitka! As a fan of the movie The Proposal, I was very excited to visit! Since all I really wanted to do was see the town we decided to do the Taste of Sitka food tour. That didn’t start until noon so that meant we got to sleep in! We didn’t get up until 9:30am and went down for breakfast at the International Cafe. Because the pier is a distance away from Sitka’s downtown we had to take a complementary shuttle and we’d be meeting our tour there. Since we had to go into town on our own anyway we decided to just head in early to walk around, since we’d have no time at the end. We walked off the ship to another day of gorgeous weather. I had to take my coat off almost immediately because it was so nice out. T-shirt weather in Alaska! Catching the shuttle was decently well organized and it was about a twelve minute drive to downtown Sitka with great scenery along the way. We had about an hour to kill so we walked around downtown and the waterfront and bought some souvenirs for family. We went back to the shuttle drop off shortly before noon to meet our tour. And then we waited another 50 minutes! It turns out our tickets had a time thirty minutes early. And yet we were still waiting until the bitter end for people to show up. It was also a much bigger group than I was expecting: 24 people. I thought it was only 12. Our guide, Michelle, was the first Alaska-born person we’ve met this whole cruise! She’s part Tlingit and part Irish which I guess is pretty common for the Sitka area. Apparently it was a huge base during World War 2! Despite the hiccups at the start the tour ended up being fantastic. I had no idea Sitka was such a foodie town. We started off by taking a bus to Harbour Mountain Brewing Company, where we tried three beers. My favourite was the stout! I NEVER like stouts! We bought a pack of four ‘road pops’ and then we were back on the bus. The group was next dropped off at Mean Queen to try some oysters along with a champagne toast. I wasn’t a huge fan of the oysters - I prefer east coast - but it was still a fun and unexpected stop. We next walked to an art gallery where they had set up a long table and had many food items ready for us to try. Because of our group size it would have been a logistical nightmare to take us to all the various establishments, so they brought the establishments to us. We tried: reindeer sausage with duck prosciutto, Brie and caramelized onions; mac and cheese reindeer sausage; halibut ceviche; clam chowder; pelmeni; Dungeness crab; blueberry sea salt; and salted caramel ice cream. My favourites weee the reindeer sausage, ceviche, and pelmeni. We finished off with blueberry vodka shots and halibut nuggets at Bayview Pub. It was a great tour but I will admit we both left feeling a bit hungry. While the number of dishes is huge the portions sizes were quite small. Having done food tours in the past we ate a light breakfast which was a mistake in this case. Doesn’t mean don’t take it - just means eat a big breakfast before to tide you over. We had time to kill before the last shuttle so we stopped at Alaska Pure Sea Salt afterwards for a salt tasting (we bought the spicy hot pepper and alder smoked) and a tasting of local Alaskan hot sauces made of kelp! We caught a shuttle shortly after 3pm and decided when we arrived back at the pier to stop in at Halibut Point Crab & Chowder for a pint and a small order of chicken wings since we had an hour left before all aboard. I can’t say I’d recommend the wings but in fairness that’s not what they are known for. They were super salty. Ultimately, we absolutely loved Sitka. I don’t think we’d do an Alaskan cruise that didn’t visit Sitka at this point. We’d love to just spend a full day wandering the town and all of its shops and food trucks. What a pseudo-hidden gem of a place. After getting ready for dinner we headed up to the pool deck to watch Movies Under the Starts because I am powerless before ABBA and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again was playing. I didn’t realize they put cushions on the seats not including some rather big comfy pillows. It started off relatively nice but dipped in temperature quite quickly. We made it through about 70 minutes before we had to go inside. Also - my mistake in one of my earlier posts. They do have popcorn it just doesn’t come out until about 5:45. At 6:20 we went down to the International Dining Room for supper. The head waiter was right in the centre making penne arrabbiata, which was cool. I had the seafood antipasto, arancini, striploin steak and the soufflé. It was just okay (minus dessert). I’ve realized by now that the beef tenderloin here is fantastic but the striploin has a ton of fat you need to cut around. My husband felt he left half his steak on the plate after cutting out the fat. Then it was to - you guessed it - Vines. We had bought a packet of playing cards in Juneau so we cracked those out tonight. At 9:15 we went to the theatre to see Funch: Soul on the High Seas. He has been the resident pianist at Crooners this whole trip. We’ve been meaning to check it out but we’re always busy but I know from experience that Crooners also gets pretty packed before the entertainment. In the nicest way, I’m glad we didn’t take up seats at Crooners. He is very talented but it is not our style of music. That being said, I enjoyed most of his performance, especially Luther Vandross’ Dance with my Father. One thing to be said about Funch - he is living his best life on this cruise! We have seen him everywhere! We’ve seen him on the pool deck, in the elevator and at port. He’s definitely getting everything he can out of this in his downtime and that’s amazing to see. He’s also a super nice guy. We went back to Vines to watch the Rock and Roll Party in the Piazza. We were hoping Topaz would have new songs and we were rewarded! They really are a very talented band, it’s just the repetition we were getting tired of. We had a great time and a great end to one of our favourite days on this trip.

Going to bed early was absolutely the right call as it made waking up at 6am for Glacier Bay relatively easy. We hit the buffet by 6:30am to find it…closed? That was weird. It was about a ten minute wait before it opened up and we had to actually flag someone down to bring us drinks, despite the restaurant being nearly empty. We ate quickly and went up to Skywalkers for the 7:30am Rangers Chat, which was informative albeit short. Then we started the lap routine we had started at Hubbard Glacier. Deck 15 then down to 7, warm up and resume. It was windy and overcast to start but when we hit deck 15 for the second time at 9am it was gorgeous and sunny! Being the psycho Canadians that we are; we ordered cold alcoholic drinks and sat down at the bar. It was so sunny and hot my husband ran down our jackets to the room. While he was gone I noticed we were really close to a cliff side so I went to take a picture and there was a glacier coming right into view! At this point the captain had started his turn so my husband and I went for a lap around deck 7. We saw a lot of sea otters and got a look at another glacier before heading back to deck 15. We ordered more drinks and we’re about to continue our laps but when we walked over to the side to see there was Margerie Glacier coming into view! We stayed put and got some pictures and even saw some calving. I will say we both preferred Hubbard Glacier. Nothing wrong with Glacier Bay, we just felt Hubbard was more impressive. You can’t beat the weather today though. It was just gorgeous out. I didn’t think I’d get a sunburn in Alaska! At noon we went down to the International Dining Room for lunch. It was pretty good. I had the mozzarella sticks, aglio e olio spaghetti and potato latkes, with some ice cream for dessert. When the waiter brought my latkes he stressed that they were vegetarian, which I found odd. But then I realized everything I’d ordered was vegetarian and he probably thought I was one. Oops. We did another walk around the promenade deck before heading back to deck 15 until 3pm. We went down to Explorer’s Lounge for 3:15 to play Taboo. It wasn’t totally what I expected (I thought it would be set up more like a game show or trivia) but it was a blast. There was a group of 12 of us divided into six groups and we did two rounds. My husband and I won by two points! The game is definitely easier when you play with someone you know. Since you can’t use specific words you can at least say things like ‘what do we have in our kitchen that’s new?’ We got ready for our second formal night and then went to good old Vines for a drink before dinner. We tried out Pacific Moon tonight and had a seat right by the window. This was the quickest service by far! It was also one of my favourite meals of the trip. I had the crab and artichoke dip, seafood deviled eggs, cheesy tortellini, surf and turf and we split the pistachio dome for desert. That meant we arrived at the evening’s show with plenty of time to spare. Tonight it was The Voices of Tricia Kelly and by now the boat was really rocking. We haven’t really felt it like this since Hubbard Glacier so even though I was expecting it, it was a bit of a jolt. In any case, Tricia Kelly is an amazingly talented singer and hilarious to boot! I really enjoyed her. We rushed from her show to Explorer’s Lounge for the Marriage Match show. My husband wanted to put our names down and we were picked for the ‘newlywed’ category. It was part embarrassing part hilarious. I’ll get over it haha. We received a great prize at the end so it was certainly worth some mild humiliation. We went back to Vines for a bit and they offered to store our sparkling wine for us until we wanted to drink it. We checked out the White & Gold Party in the Piazza for about ten minutes but ultimately left. There was movie soundtrack trivia at 10:30 and I’m a huge movie buff. Normally I’d pick a special ship event over trivia but, to be honest, I’m tired of hearing the same songs at every party. We made the right choice because movie soundtrack trivia was so fun! I tied for first with 27/30 and would have had 28 if I wasn’t an idiot who messed up Back to the Future of all things. I lost the tie breaker question but that was okay; we had a great time and a great end to our day!

So the people checking passports say you need it but customs never asked for it. We were really surprised because we are both Canadian and we know that a vaccine record is no longer required to go to Canada. I think maybe the tour company hasn’t updated their notes yet?

A very early morning for us today, getting up at 6:30am. We dragged our very tired selves up to the buffet for a quick breakfast. We met for our excursion in the Wheelhouse Bar. I was a bit leery of how this would all pan out. Due to the rockslide in Skagway last summer guests were not permitted to walk outside on their own. Shuttles would be provided. To my surprise everything was incredibly well-organized. We queued up to receive our tour colour and instructions on where to go (either remain in Wheelhouse Bar or continue on to the Princess Theatre). We were told to stay put. When we saw our tour being called we almost had a heart attack when they checked our passports and then asked if we had our vaccine records. We didn’t know anything about bringing those! Thankfully my record is still on my phone but my husband got a new phone a few months ago so he was panicking trying to find a copy of it. Soon we were leaving the ship and heading to our bus. The gangway in Skagway is treacherous. It’s very, very steep. I saw someone push a wheelchair up it and it was just crazy. Our bus was only about 40% full. Our excursion today would be the longest of our trip, Experience the Yukon and Suspension Bridge. There will be many bus naps today. Our guide, Haley, was hilarious! We laughed all day long. The first trek of the journey took us through White Pass and then back into Canada. We stopped once for a photo op. Our first official stop was the Yukon Suspension Bridge. We had a good amount of time there - one hour - which gave us plenty of time to walk the bridge, read the outdoor museum exhibits, check out their wooly mammoth bones and even grab a snack. Only a short while after this we reached our exciting destination: we were now officially in the Yukon. We stopped at the sign for some photos and we’re greeted by a handful of sheep up in the mountains! We did one additional photo stop on the way to our second stop. Except then we ended up doing an extra surprise stop at the Carcross Desert! Who knew there was a desert in the Yukon? (Even if it isn’t technically the desert) Our next official stop was Wild Adventures Yukon and it was great! There’s a barbecue, a museum and a petting zoo. Obviously while everyone went for lunch I went to the petting zoo. It was fantastic. I got to pet every animal and I even got to hold one of the dog puppies! Once my animal loving was satisfied we went in for lunch. We also grabbed a beer from Yukon Brewery, which was pretty good. The staff were lovely and it was a really cool space. We had ninety minutes there and I think that was the perfect amount of time. We were running ahead of schedule so we took a short drive out to Emerald Lake, which unfortunately was still frozen over so there wasn’t much colour to be seen. Our next and final stop was the small town of Carcross, largely indigenous. It was a bit lacklustre. Most of the shops were closed. There were only a few small gift shops and a cafe open. But there was a beautiful golden retriever hanging out so I basically spent my time there with her. And then it was time to head back to Skagway. The drive was uneventful, except for when we were stopped in a long line because they were trying to blow up a mountain and cause an avalanche. You could see everyone get a bit nervous about how long we’d be stuck here but it ended up being fifteen minutes max. Our guide gave us the option to get dropped off in Skagway and since our dinner reservations weren’t until 7pm we figured why not. Our first and only stop was the Red Onion Saloon. It was okay, but I much preferred Red Dog Saloon. There isn’t a whole lot of town to see so we went back to the ship after a short walk around town. We both agree that next time we’d do a Gold Rush excursion or possibly the White Pass train. Then it was drop our things off and head to Vines before dinner in Santa Fe Dining Room. I was feeling pretty exhausted by this point and the service was incredibly slow, which didn’t help me in my mission to go to bed. The food was only okay. I had the chorizo, hot pot and fajitas and was too full/tired for dessert. As much as I wanted to stay up later and do a few more things I need to listen to my body and she’s telling me to go rest up. Since it’s a 6am wake up call for Glacier Bay, tomorrow, that’s probably for the best.

We got to sleep in a bit today (7:45am) because our tour wasn’t meeting until 9:05. Which was excellent because I was exhausted last night. Unfortunately my incredibly forgetful husband thought we were in Skagway, which is an early morning, and woke me up in a panic thinking I was going to sleep through the excursion. We had some time to kill so we went and walked around the upper decks to get our first look at Juneau. It was another sunny day! Getting off the ship was a bit backed up but we were on our tour bus in plenty of time. Today we would be taking a half-day excursion called Mendenhall Glacier, Salmon Hatchery and Salmon Bake. Our guide, Jerry, was informative and funny. He also drove the bus. Our first stop was the glacier. It was cool to see one so close but nowhere near as impressive as Hubbard Glacier. We went on a short walk to a photo point before heading into the visitor center to watch a film on the changing landscape. It was hot out so we shed a few of our layers. Very pretty but a bit sad to see how much it’s receding. In hindsight I wish we had walked to Nugget Creek Falls, but we weren’t sure we’d have enough time. From there we headed to Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. To start we were given a brief presentation on how salmon hatcheries work. We then got to go see hundreds of thousands of baby salmon in tanks. The hatchery also has an aquarium with some cool sea creatures and a giant crab. They also have touch tanks! I pet! Perhaps most importantly, we finally got to try salmon jerky! It was pretty good. We bought some peppered salmon jerky to eat later. Our last stop on our excursion was the Gold Creek Salmon Bake. The outdoor space is so cool! We first grabbed the best clam chowder from their first station before collecting an Alaskan Amber from the ‘Gold Strike Saloon’. We went through a buffet that had salad, beans, rice, scalloped potatoes and chicken before reaching the salmon itself. It’s probably one of the best cooked pieces of salmon I’ve ever eaten and it looks mouthwatering. I wasn’t a huge fan of the brown sugar butter glaze. We walked around the salmon bake complex some more and headed towards the waterfall. It wasn’t too far away so pretty soon we were on a school bus provided by the salmon bake to either take us downtown or to the ship. We chose downtown. For the afternoon we were going to explore Juneau through our liver. Our first stop was the Red Dog Saloon, where we stopped by for a Kolsh (or, as we ordered it, “the beer with the orca!”). My husband absolutely loved the place and it’s aesthetic. It was pretty crowded but it’s been the only thing he’s asked to do all cruise so I was happy to oblige. We did Duck Fart shots and he also had a shot of whisky, because “I’ve been rewatching Deadwood and they always drink it”. Our next stop was Devil’s Club Brewing Co. It was vastly different. Very few tourists and a number of locals. We each got a flight of three beers for $12. We then went to Amalga Distillery and had the strawberry sea donkey drink. Very similar vibe to the brewery and, again, mostly locals. Next up was an unnamed place. We’d walked by a small park with a number of small food shops. There was a sign advertising oysters and champagne so we went in on our way back. We had three oysters each and sparkling wine in a plastic up (which killed the wine snob in me but the tourist in me was delighted). You also get to pick your own mignonette so we chose a Serrano hot sauce and it was amazing. My husband says he’s determined to buy ten bottles of it before we’re home. Current count: 2. At this point he also asked if we could please return to the Red Dog Saloon. As I said previously, he asks for so little, I couldn’t help but say yes. Our last bar was Alaskan Brewing on the way back to the ship. We each got a flight of four of their beers we hadn’t tried yet. My husband was pretty tipsy at this point. I was okay because I didn’t do a bunch of whisky shots, unlike some people I know… As is now a two-day tradition, we asked each other what we’d do if we came back to Juneau. I said I’d like to do the trail to Nugget Creek Falls. My husband said he’d like to just hang in town. Probably to drink more shots of whisky. We looked at our phones and realized we only had fifteen minutes to make it back for our dinner reservations so we speed walked back to the ship. Thankfully because Juneau is such a long port day there wasn’t anyone else boarding when we were. We made it by 5:05. Dinner was decent but not my favourite. I had the prawn cocktail, fish stew and scallops with chorizo. My husband and I both ordered the scallops and his came with chorizo and mine had none. He gave me half of his and they were so good he ended up asking if we could have some extra and they brought us a bowl full! We were cutting it pretty close to the Libby Riddles presentation at 7pm in the theatre and I was worried we wouldn’t get seats. Goes to show this cruise is totally unpredictable because ten minutes before showtime it was only about 1/3 of the way full. I’m thinking perhaps because so many of the people on the cruise have been to Alaska 4+ times they’ve seen her before and decided to skip it. Or it’s the weird time of 7pm being the only time to catch her. In any case, I was thrilled I was able to make it. She did not let us down. Both my husband and I were fascinated by the Iditarod and her story. I even asked a question! Plus there were loads of puppy pictures. After that we headed to Vines to listen to Allure Strings again. It worked out well because A Night at the Klondike would also be occurring in the Piazza tonight, also with Topaz, and I was curious to see if September was also somehow a 70’s, 80’s and Klondike song. Not really sure how you would define Klondike but I was kindof thinking maybe some sort of folk music? Hopefully not country because I will leave if that’s the case. That could be the better option; I’d definitely be in bed early. To my surprise the Klondike show kicked off with performances by the Sapphire Princess singers and dancers! It was only two songs but fun to watch and I got this great picture of Stanley! As for the band, Topaz, I wouldn’t necessarily (or ever) call it ‘Klondike’ but it was a different variety of songs than we’ve heard recently so we were pretty excited about that. Future me probably wishes I was going to bed earlier but, alas, such is the life of a busy cruiser. There is always bus naps.

Patter for today. Welcome to Juneau!

It was an early morning for us today (7am) but that’s okay because we’ve finally reached land! We went up to the buffet for the first time today and we’re surprised to find a dry, sunny day awaiting us. After a quick breakfast we headed down to Deck 4 to head off on our excursion. It seemed to be a little delayed leaving the ship. We were meant to meet our tour at 8:15 but we were still in the gangway. We still made it on time, however. And then, we were in Icy Strait Point and whisked off one ship and onto another boat. We were doing a combination tour of whale watching and brown bear expedition. Whale watching was up first. To everyone’s surprise we saw our first whale when only a few meters from the ship! It was a humpback whale and we followed him for about fifteen minutes. Then we were off in search of more whales. This was a bit tricky since nature doesn’t follow a schedule. We saw a cute group of otters near some rocks. All in all we saw about four whales - including two tails! I’m sure people were expecting more and I could sense the frustration that they were all located near the Sapphire Princess. Still, it was worth the experience for us. After the whale watching we were split into two groups: 11:30 and 12:00. As we had the 12pm group we ended up with about 45 minutes to kill before we left. We walked around the historic cannery which has a free museum inside which was pretty cool. We tried to buy some salmon jerky from the Salmon Shop but it hasn’t arrived yet. We met our afternoon guide at the dock and our group was led to a bus. Throughout the thirty minute drive to Spasski Valley our guide educated us on some history of Hoonah and the Tlingit people. Upon arrival we were greeted by our ‘Bear Security’, a Tlingit man with a rifle should we encounter an aggressive bear. He announced there was a bear in the valley that day so the group basically rushed through the first two viewing platforms to get to platform three and see the bear. I found him! Though most people struggled to see him. We drove back to Icy Strait Point and my husband and I headed to Duck Point Smokehouse for a very late lunch. We also tried to famous Cannery Red Ale. I’m not a fan of amber beers but this was pretty good! The smoked salmon dip was so good I regretted sharing with my husband. Even from our little perch at the restaurant we were able to watch some otters in the water. Afterwards we discussed what we would do here if we did another Alaskan cruise. I said I’d like to do the gondola and the zip rider. My husband would like to do the walk into Hoonah. When we arrived back at the ship I immediately took the greatest hot shower of my life. It felt so great after a long, kindof chilly, day. The plan was to take it pretty easy tonight (for us). But first - to Vines! We went to dinner at Sterling Steakhouse tonight, our first and only time we will be deviating from the main dining rooms. It wasn’t very busy at all but the staff was wonderful. We started with some amazing garlic cheese bread. I can never go back to the main dining room bread basket after this! I had the scallops, shrimp bisque and a New York striploin. Service slowed down a fair bit after the soup course. Our water and drinks were empty and the empty bowl sat in front of us for awhile. When we finally got our steaks I was disappointed to see they forgot my baked potato. I didn’t bother reminding them, however, because the restaurant was absolutely freezing and I just wanted to keep plucking along so I could go get warm. The steak was only okay. I wish they had sauce options. It had more fat than I expected. Dessert was the salted caramel creme brûlée cheesecake, which was good but way too rich for me. Overall, I don’t think I’d go back. The staff was wonderful but the restaurant was colder than Alaska and the food wasn’t good enough to warrant being paid for. We next headed to Wheelhouse Bar, where we haven’t been before. Allure Strings was playing again and since we were having a low key evening I thought it would be a nice way to spend some time. We walked in as she was playing Mamma Mia on the violin. A string instrument and ABBA? I’m in heaven. It really picked up after the 7:30pm show let out. I was happy to see so many other fans of this type of music. Our last activity of the evening was the production show Do You Wanna Dance. I’d mentioned after the last one that I wanted to see more of the dancers and now was my chance! It was alright. Some of the numbers were really good and they tended to be the ones with a heavy focus on the dancers. My husband’s favourite was the southeast Asian style dance and mine was the swing montage. I have to say, after this day I am absolutely exhausted. I’m pretty much planning to fall asleep as soon as I post this. I’ll tell you all about Juneau tomorrow!