Drdarkknight

Icy Strait Point patter

Thank you for sharing your feedback on the performer. Performance is so subjective it’s always great to hear other opinions 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it! There were certainly a lot of enthusiastic audience members at my showing. And yes - Bohemian Rhapsody was definitely a nice surprise and well done!

After a relatively calm sea day yesterday compared to the previous day we had some rough weather through the evening and even I was feeling it. I actually ended up getting seasick which has never, ever happened to me in my entire cruising history. That sucked. When I woke up at 8:45am the rocking had calmed down immensely, thankfully. I got dressed and we headed down to the International Cafe for breakfast. It’s the third morning and the person who works Good Spirits at Sea already knows to expect me for my morning Red Bull. As with every morning to date, after breakfast I headed to the Princess Theatre, this time with my husband in tow. Today’s lecture from Sandra Schempp was on Understanding Alaska’s Mighty Glaciers, and it was also well-attended. It was interesting. I didn’t know much about glaciers before today and definitely feel more informed now. My husband actually retained a lot of it and kept mentioning things throughout the day! We dressed in our warm clothes and headed to the upper decks to see how it was. It was rainy and visibility wasn’t amazing but we didn’t find it overly cold. Now, for everyone reading, let me stress again that we are from one of the colder parts of Canada. Our tolerance is likely much higher than other people. We felt it was like a rainy fall day and we were only wearing toques and a button up jacket. Since we had just entered Yakutat Bay and there wouldn’t be much to see, we instead went back inside and down for the Pub Lunch at the Savoy Dining Room. We were lucky to be seated quite quickly but it seemed very chaotic. It was a bit of a wait to get our food and drink. I had the Ploughman’s Lunch or, as I like to call it, British Lunchables. It was a cool experience but I’m not sure we’d do it again. There’s better food elsewhere on the ship. From there it was back up to Deck 15 where it was absolutely pouring rain. I gasped and started skip-running because we were in between a couple of mountains and surrounded by icebergs and it was breathtaking. But there was a lot of rain and it was quite a bit colder. So what did we do? Grab some beer, obviously. We stayed up on Deck 15 for a bit then went down to walk along the promenade deck. And repeat. Up to 15, grab a beer, then down to 7. On our last trip up to 15 we saw Hubbard Glacier for the first time! We then went down to 7 to do our walk around and it was just amazing. First, we saw a herd of sea lions on the rocks/shoreline. We continued walking around the ship and it just so happened they were turning it to starboard as we went that way so we set up shop. We saw the glacier calve four times! The noise when it does that is incredible. Like a quiet thunder. We also saw a seal! The Naturalist said this was the closest she’s ever been to the glacier before. And to think earlier today everyone was questioning if we’d be able to see it much at all! It was a very successful day, in our opinion. We were both so happy we had binoculars with us. I was very surprised at how not-crowded it was. We had un-impeded viewing everywhere we went, which I wasn’t expecting. By 3pm we felt we’d seen everything we needed to see, so we went inside and dropped our warm gear in the room. We went to Explorer’s Lounge for Musical Bingo. It was fun but I lost every round by a lot. I knew every song though! We got ready for dinner and headed to our regular perch at Vines. I was extra excited about this visit, though, because Allure Strings would be playing in the Piazza. I am an absolute sucker for string instruments. Dinner was in the Santa Fe Dining Room tonight and so far it is my favourite of the dining rooms decor-wise. We split the shrimp spinach dip; and I had the smoked salmon cocktail, French onion soup and the Panko cod with Parmesan. All were delicious! Nothing on the dessert menu appealed to me to eat by myself (my husband also had a pasta dish so he was full by the time dessert rolled around) so I ended up getting myself the cheese plate. My husband had zero interest in the show tonight (he can do a lot of things but 45 minutes of a soprano singer is not one of them) so I attended The Incredible Vocals of Barbi McCulloch by myself. He’s been trying to find someplace to watch the hockey game all cruise and thought he had lucked out with the casino (pun not intended) but they don’t have a bar or sitting area in there from what he could see. It was playing in Churchill’s but he didn’t want to be smoked out trying to watch hockey. If anyone has any tips please let me know. It’s the playoffs and he’s struggling lol. The show definitely wasn’t as busy as I saw for the production show two nights ago or the comedian last night. It’s to be expected; I’m sure this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. She was pretty good but her skills are definitely those of a soprano. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by her rendition of Proud Mary. Then things almost went downhill. At 8:30 Dan St Paul was doing another show at Explorer’s Lounge. My husband went early to grab us seats and found it completely sold out. There were no seats anywhere. And this was fifteen minutes before the theatre even let out. Going to the 10:30pm show wasn’t an option, as I will not miss the 80’s party. We were both really disappointed. I think they need to consider moving venues for those type of shows. Game shows are totally fine and well-suited at Explorers, but comedians and whatnot that will be really popular they should put back in the theatre or at the very least Club Fusion. Our sour mood didn’t last long. We met at Good Spirits at Sea and I noticed it was still bright outside and suggested we grab our jackets and head upstairs. We watched a few minutes of La La Land on Movies Under the Stars before heading to the aft towards Outriggers Bar and the most beautiful sunset. We easily spent 45 minutes there watching the sun go down. The weather had warmed up significantly too. Then it was back down to Vines to wait for the 80’s party in the Piazza. I LOVE 80’s music, despite never being alive then. I was so excited. Unfortunately it was a bit of a letdown. There wasn’t a lot of audience engagement at the start and even the song selection was a bit lacking. I’m not entirely sure they have a good comprehension of what decades are…I was pretty frustrated by the time they played September with ten minutes left to go. If the band doesn’t have the repertoire to do an 80’s night get a DJ or don’t do it. By the end my husband said “I think this is the same playlist they played at the disco night yesterday” and I have to agree. If anyone heard someone yell ‘this is f***ing disco!’ when they played Shake Your Groove Thing as their final song…that was me. Sorry for the profanity. Hey, Princess, if you need a good 80’s set list hit me up ;). We have our first port tomorrow, in Icy Strait Point. I can’t wait to watch my husband experience the sensation of sea legs.

Patter for today. Bundle up!

Second sea day today! We were able to sleep in a bit today as the first lecture I wanted to attend was at 10am. Extra hour! My husband has been struggling. I think it’s a combination of the time change and ship movement. He’s a trooper though so he’s been pushing through. One thing I’ve noticed (being the neurotic planner that I am) is that the activities have been changing ever so slightly since we boarded the ship. For example, the pub lunch was supposed to be today but it isn’t anymore. I’ve honestly just decided to follow my schedule that’s delivered to the room each evening. There’s a few changes I’ve noticed since I last cruised on Princess in May 2019. Vines no longer does flights which is sad because I really liked how it was done, and the variety. There’s also very limited wine tastings. Can we tell I’m mostly noticing the wine? I’ve also noticed a change with Movies Under the Stars. It used to be that you would get blankets and popcorn. No such thing here from what I can tell. I miss the popcorn most. I would go up and grab a bag of popcorn every night even if I wasn’t watching the movie because popcorn is great. We woke up at 8:45am to find out the coach of the Calgary Flames had been fired. Definitely a good start to the morning. We went downstairs to the International Cafe for breakfast, which is quickly becoming our go-to spot for breakfast and snacks. The ham on this ship is delicious. I need to know where they get it because we don’t find ham this good at home! From there we split up and I headed to the Princess Theater for Sandra Schempp’s next Naturalist presentation. This one is Enjoying the Wonders of Alaskan Wildlife. Since we’ll be doing a bear expedition in Icy Strait Point this seemed more than a bit relevant. As with yesterday’s session, it was quite busy. I’d argue it was actually busier than yesterday. This lecture was fascinating. If I wasn’t excited about wildlife sightings before (I was) I sure would be now. There’s way more variety than I was expecting. I even learned about delayed implantation in bears. And got to see cute pictures of baby animals throughout. My husband skipped out on the lecture but according to the Shipmate Stalker he decided to walk around the promenade deck. He joined me at 11 for a presentation on ship navigation. This was also really well-attended. It was very interesting to hear about how ship navigation worked from the First Officer. He was funny, too! He spent a good while after his presentation answering audience questions. We next went to the International Dining Room for lunch. It was already pretty lined up when we got there, but we were seated quickly. Which was lucky for us because the entire time we ate there was a massive queue of people waiting. I think this cruise might not be the buffet crowd. Service was slow but the food was really good, as usual. I had the gazpacho, Chef’s salad with thousand island dressing, and the cherry trifle. I’m not sure what it is about this trip but I’m finding by about noon I’m ridiculously hungry. Must be my body adjusting to all the moving about or something. We were almost ninety minutes, which is unusual for lunch. We wanted to catch Deal or No Deal at 1:30 so we quickly headed there after lunch. We didn’t buy cards because I’ve never seen the show and had no idea what to expect. It was really fun to watch. Two contestants went on stage and both played right through to the end. One lady won $125 and the second lady won $1000! That was cool to see. We decided since we were on 7 to walk outside along the promenade deck. Suddenly I saw people rushing to the side of the deck so I ran near where they were and we saw a whale! I think it was a humpback. We had to rush pretty soon afterwards, however, as we had signed up for the Fine Wine Tasting which started at 2:45. It was quite busy; about 50 people. It was educational, though I already know a lot of this information since I’ve probably been to more than one hundred wine tastings. I needed a hobby during the pandemic… Still, these were good wines for $35. We had 6 wines with small bites as pairings. One sparkling, two white wines, and three reds (including the Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon). My favourite after the Caymus was actually the Chardonnay! I was surprised by this since I’m a red wine drinker. I was even more surprised that my husband’s top 3 were all of the reds. We joke that he’s a ‘basic girl’ because he loves Riesling and Rosé. We got ready for dinner and then headed for, where else, Vines. It was so busy! We found seats at the bar but every other spot was taken. This has definitely been the worse day for wifi so far. It’s been absolutely brutal trying to get any websites to load. Apple iMessages have been about 50/50. Dinner tonight was at the Savoy Dining Room and I wish I could have ordered the whole menu. I certainly tried. I ordered the Alaskan Coho Salmon; chicken, ham and Parmesan croquette; crab and corn chowder; seafood orrechiette, and seafood risotto. I ate like a fat kid and I have no regrets. I wasn’t a huge fan of the soup, orrechiette or risotto but that salmon and croquette was just so so so good. For dessert we had the crème brûlée and you can’t go wrong with that. I will say service here was the worst yet. It wasn’t that it was slow, necessarily, just hugely impersonal. Our waiter just sort of came and went and didn’t really follow up about anything. We weren’t told any recommendations for the menu. No offers of freshly cracked black pepper or anything like that. I felt bad for the guy; he seemed really overwhelmed. Tonight is also when I felt the true size of these two person tables. On my way to the seat I knocked the other table and sent a menu and glasses flying. It was pretty embarrassing and I spent most of the dinner stressing about trying to leave at the end. International Dining Room has been the only spot where we’ve consistently been provided with a four top table. From there it was on to our normal routine of heading to Princess Theatre for the night’s entertainment, which was comedian Dan St Paul. He was pretty funny. It was largely geared towards older people but it still made me laugh, particularly a bit about Costco. Afterwards we went to Explorers Lounge for the Yes No Gameshow. We didn’t participated but we enjoyed watching a dozen people try and fail to make it three minutes without answering yes or no. We stuck around Explorer’s Lounge afterwards for True or Moo. The crowd had thinned out significantly by then but it was still fun to watch. Once they finished we were off to our last activity of our very busy day - a 70’s Disco Party at Club Fusion! Having not been in here before I was surprised by how massive it is. But also how cold it was! It was a decent event, though they definitely played at least one song that was from the 80’s. I love watching the older couples dance. It’s so adorable. Scenic cruising through Hubbard Glacier tomorrow. Almost in Alaska!

Vines menu

We woke up at 6am due to the time change. After going back an additional hour last night we are now two hours behind MST. Being the nerd I am, I said to my husband “I’ve never been in this time zone before!” One thing I will say about inside cabins is you definitely feel the ship moving a lot more. We were rocking and rolling all night. Unfortunately once I was up and moving about it seemed to be ship-wide. I guess we’ve hit some rough waters. I have no idea how I managed to do this but my husband ended up joining me in getting up for 8am. We went downstairs to the International Cafe for a small breakfast. He was unfortunately feeling pretty seasick but he pushed through. I had a delicious egg tart and a ham and cheese sandwich. Super quick and tasty - I’ll definitely keep this place in mind for early mornings. Our first Naturalist presentation was at 9am in the Princess Theater. We arrived quite early but there were already people waiting. By the time the presenter was due to start, the theater was quite busy! The topic was Discovering the Inhabitants of Alaska’s Coastal Waters, presented by Sandra Schempp. It was very informative, especially the sections about salmon and whales. It made me really excited about all the wildlife we will hopefully be able to see this trip! Before we left my husband bought me a notebook for the trip (I’m a nerd) and I had already filled three pages of it with information from just this lecture. After this presentation my husband went off on his own and I stayed seated, awaiting the Shore Excursion presentation at 10am. All our excursions are already booked but I wouldn’t mind hearing more about the ports, especially since most our excursions are only half a day. It was informative for sure, though it did focus more on the excursions being sold, with some fun facts added in. My husband enjoyed the Welcome to Princess Event even though he didn’t win anything. They introduced the ship officers and guests had to guess what their role was. He has also learned how to find me in the Medallion App, which I found out when he asked me what I was doing in the bathroom… We met up again at Alfredo’s right when they were opening and enjoyed some tasty pepperoni pizza. We’re starting to realize that drink service is incredibly slow. We were over halfway done our pizza before we received our beverages. We had some time to kill before my next enrichment lecture so we went for a walk up on decks 14 and 15. It was a little chilly (9° Celsius) but nothing crazy. At 1pm I attended North to Alaska: Hoonah Ambassador Rachel Moreno and it was so interesting. I was already excited to learn about indigenous culture but this went beyond my expectations. She was a fantastic speaker, funny and engaging. The time flew by. I used to Shipmate Locater to see my husband was at the pool bar so I went and joined him there. Despite it only being an hour later the temperature had dropped dramatically. We only had one drink before heading inside. This marked the first time I found the ship crowded. There wasn’t much going on at this time so we figured we would head to the Piazza and listen to some music. Everyone else had the same idea and it was quite busy everywhere. We did manage to snag a spot at Good Spirits at Sea. We ended up heading back to the room for an hour and by this point the ship was rocking pretty bad. My husband had a nap while I got ready for the first formal night. We went down to Vines for 4pm and had a couple glasses of wine before heading to the Vivaldi Dining Room for dinner. Dinner was the best yet, though it’s a tough call. I had the crab cake, truffle cream gnocchi and beef tenderloin. For dessert we shared the Turtle cheesecake. If I had to pick a favourite it would probably be the gnocchi. I love that you can get smaller portions of the pasta. We then headed to the theater for the first production show of the cruise, Bravo. We showed up fairly early and that was a good thing because the place ended up absolutely PACKED. The show itself was so-so. Most of the singers were good, but I’d have liked to see more of the dancers. The theme of the show was unclear - there’s musicals, there’s opera, there’s a James Bond montage…but there’s also a random Queen song? Regardless, the girl who sang The Prayer and Skyfall was my favourite. From there we headed to Explorer’s Lounge for another Nathan Phan show. This was a more intimate crowd but I think I preferred it to his theater set, particularly the impressions and hearing more of his backstory. When that was over we returned to Vines for the rest of the night. At 10:15 the Dancing Through the Decades party started in the Piazza which we happily watched for the duration. I love music and I love dancing so I had a great time dancing in my chair. My husband does not and will not dance so chair dancing it is! I’ve been working my way through the red wine list at Vines. I only have Princess Plus but I don’t mind paying $3-4 extra for a nice wine. The party itself was really fun. A lot of participation after the first couple songs. I’m really enjoying the band Topaz. They are definitely my favourite musicians on board so far. Another sea day tomorrow!

It’s embarkation day! We wanted to sleep in but the universe had other plans and we were basically up and at it by 8:30. We went down to Preston’s for breakfast but all I really wanted to do was get on the Sapphire Princess already! We lounged around until 10:45 before walking to the cruise terminal. We were in Boarding Group A, which should be called at 11:30, but there’s no harm in being a bit early…especially when you have no patience 🙂 This turned out to be absolutely the right call! We were pointed towards where we dropped off our suitcases and between that, checking in/getting our medallions and going through customs we were on the ship at 11:34. Because the ship had just been in dry dock even the rooms were ready for us, which was excellent since we really wanted to drop our things off. The room is cozy but not as claustrophobic as I was expecting. I’ve never stayed in an inside cabin before but this isn’t bad at all. Our schedule and shore excursions were laid out on the table. First things first - food! We headed to the International Dining Room, which was open for lunch. We had an enjoyable meal of antipasto, some delicious spinach and ricotta ravioli and lemon-dill salmon. My husband was incredibly overwhelmed at this point, telling me ‘this is so extravagant. I’m just a poor kid from the streets’. (He is not and has never been ‘from the streets’). We then walked the levels of the piazza to get the lay of the land before taking the elevator up and doing the same with the upper levels. It was a nice day so we had our swimwear on. We grabbed some lounge chairs by the outdoor pool and settled in. We had a couple coronas and watched Journey: Live in Manila on Movies Under the Stars. We debated going in the pool until we watched a dad with his daughter get in and immediately leave telling his wife it was freezing. The Sailaway Celebration was fun. I always find them a bit corny but I enjoy them nonetheless. My husband really enjoyed himself. By this point we were supposed to be on our way but we were delayed by about an hour. This was a bit of a bummer because I love Sailaways and really wanted to sail under Lions Gate Bridge but we had dinner at 6pm. To kill time we stopped at Good Spirits at Sea for a drink. I had the Baked Alaska Martini which was delicious. Getting into the International Dining Room for our dinner reservation was a breeze. Dinner was phenomenal. The salmon gravlax was just *chefs kiss* and the baked potato soup was delish. The Alaskan cod was alright and we split the gelato baked Alaska for dessert which was to die for. We actually ended up finishing dinner in time to make the 7:30 show at Princess Theater. A Night of Comedy and Magic with Nathan Phan. He was alright. My husband really enjoyed him. I was surprised that the theater wasn’t very crowded. From there we went to Explorers Lounge for a game show before finishing the night off with a glass of wine of Vines. I can’t believe it but we are ready for bed at 10pm. Never thought I’d see the day.

So fun fact - I am a management consultant and I was just assigned a new client NINE business days before I left for our cruise. So that has been a fun thing to navigate. My husband and I also just bought a house and are taking possession June 1 so when it rains (all good things) it definitely pours. And by that I mean my poor husband basically has been packing by himself. So while I’ve been frantically getting onboarded and getting all my ducks in a row he’s been doing that. Bless him. We have managed to pack everything into one large suitcase and one carry on suitcase, though we did have to check our carry on since it was a sold out flight. We also have a backpack to use during our excursions. We are wearing some of our heavier clothes on our flight to save space/weight. Our flight left today (we had the exit row!) at 9:30am and landed in Vancouver at 10am. Everything ran on time and it was a smooth flight. I’ve only been to Vancouver three times and I was so young I don’t remember the first. The second two times I came with my best friend and we drove the first (that was terrifying) and took a cab from the airport the second time (also terrifying). We had intended on taking the SkyTrain but by the time we landed and got our luggage we were so hot and decided to just grab a taxi. It wasn’t too bad - $38 CAD as a fixed rate fee. My husband and I had debated booking a hotel near the airport or near the cruise terminal and he ultimately decided cruise terminal so we settled on the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel. The price was expensive (as most places on the waterfront will be) but not as bad as others and was still a reputable hotel and walking distance from both the SkyTrain and the cruise terminal. We were so excited when we arrived at 11am to find out we could check in early! Not only that we had been given a corner King unit with waterfront views! We took a few minutes to refresh and charge our phones before heading out again. We walked to Waterfront station but took the ‘long’ way (which wasn’t very long) so we could see the waterfront. We were able to see the Olympic torch, a Lego orca, our restaurant for dinner tonight and the cruise terminal! Definitely walking distance. Finding the correct train inside the station was another story but if you follow the signs you will eventually locate it. We took it to Yaletown-Roundhouse station and walked to the Yaletown Dock to catch the ferry to Granville Island. I was nervous in advance about how the ferry would work but it was a piece of cake. We stood on the dock for maybe two minutes when False Creek Ferries showed up and we hopped aboard. We bought two return tickets to Granville Island for $9 per person. The driver of the boat was really funny and told us lots of random, possibly true, facts on the 15 minute journey. I’ve been to Vancouver but it’s always been for concerts so my trips have mostly focused on downtown but I’ve always wanted to visit Granville Island. My sister had been there a week earlier and recommended a restaurant called The Sandbar. I had made reservations for lunch. It’s a little tucked away but the space is absolutely massive. The staff was so nice and the food was delicious. We split a fantastic bottle of 2021 Mission Hill Rosé the crab and artichoke dip. My husband had the Arctic char for his main, which he really enjoyed, and I had the linguine vongole. No dessert for us - we were stuffed! Following our meal we headed to Granville Island Brewery, which is a fairly well-known brewery in Canada. It looked packed but we actually were seated immediately. They had an option called the Full Map which we could share, which was ten 5 ounce beers so we selected that. My favourite was the Sunshine Coast Hefeweizen. So much so that I got my own pint of it before we left. We then took the ferry bus back to Yaletown which was incredibly organized and we barely waited and grabbed the train back to our hotel where we changed for dinner. We were ahead of schedule but also so hot that if we rested we’d probably fall asleep. So we headed to the hotel bar, Preston’s Restaurant and Lounge. It wasn’t very busy but the staff was friendly. We plan on coming back for breakfast tomorrow as I received a 20% off coupon at checkin. This dinner was going to be a huge treat. I’m a big foodie and in my research had found a restaurant called ‘The Botanist’. I immediately made reservations but I knew it was quite expensive. This isn’t unusual for us but we weren’t typically coming home and immediately buying a house so the circumstances were a tad different. We had seriously debated cancelling and doing something else but my husband had told me a couple weeks ago that he wanted to treat me to dinner there for my birthday. Works for me! We had an amazing eight course dinner with wine pairings and had a great time. The ambiance was great and we were surprised by the size of the restaurant. Even heading to the bathroom - which was a bit of a jaunt - was super cool as you walked through a bit of an art gallery. After dinner it was right in time for sunset - my absolute favourite time of day. We went for a walk along the waterfront and got some amazing views before heading back to our hotel. We went back to Preston’s for a nightcap and now we’re back in the room ready to absolutely die in this super comfortable bed and wake up for our cruise tomorrow!

After months of reading nonstop Live reports from all over the world it is finally time for me to start my own! On Friday my husband and I fly from Calgary to Vancouver before our 29 April sailing on the Sapphire Princess to ALASKAAAAA. We’re on the 11 Day Inside Passage Roundtrip, to be specific. About Us - We are both from Canada. I am 32 and my husband is 37. This will mark my husband’s first ever cruise. As for myself, I love cruising. I got started as a pre-teen with a couple of Disney cruises before doing a Royal Caribbean Mediterranean cruise when I was 18. I took a break for awhile to do a lot of land travel but returned when I was 26 to do Panama Canal with Norwegian. In 2019 I did a Caribbean cruise with Celebrity and Scandinavia with Princess. I was supposed to do Mediterranean with Princess again in 2020, but we all know what happened…(might be hitting that up next year though!). That’s not to say I wasn’t busy - I met my now-husband shortly before the pandemic and we got married in October. This won’t be our honeymoon - that was in Mexico - but this cruise lands right after my birthday and right before his, so it’s kindof perfect timing! As my husband has never been on a cruise it was up to me to pick one out. And by that I mean I was craving another cruise and booked one while he was asleep (he knows that’s how it all went down - I told him the next morning!) Having cruised on a lot of different lines I can’t really say I have a favourite. For me, it depends what I’m looking for. I’d never been to Alaska and I thought it might be nice for my husband to experience a ‘first’ with me, destination-wise, as I’m quite well-travelled. That made the cruise line decision easy as everyone everywhere says for Alaska Princess is the way to go. Having looked into Alaska in the past I knew I wanted a roundtrip sailing. Flying to/from Alaska from Canada is just way too complicated and expensive. That basically left me with the 14 Day Voyage of the Glaciers or the 11 Day Inside Passage, which I ultimately chose. What made that decision for me? There seemed to be more places for us to visit. Voyage of the Glaciers pretty much hits the same ports up as it does down. This way we get Hubbard Glacier, Glacier Bay, Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka and Ketchikan. It also means we have three sea days, which i enjoy and also have heard Princess has amazing enrichment activities for Alaska. As for my husband’s criteria, he doesn’t really have any except he HATES to fly (we’re working on it before we fly to Rome next year) so Vancouver at least is only about an hour or so in the air. With the flight being so short and running quite frequently we definitely could have flown out the morning of the cruise but I’m paranoid and with the state of airlines today, I’d rather give myself the extra day. That way if something happened I could still drive there in time to make the ship (it’s a ~11 hour drive). But we aren’t going to think about that. We’re instead going to fly out Friday, stay overnight in a hotel by the pier, tour around for a bit and have a nice dinner before all the excitement starts. Originally we were going to fly out in the late afternoon so we could put in a half day at work but when I realized my husband had never been to Vancouver before we decided to fly out in the morning and get some exploring in. I’m hoping he will enjoy cruising just as much as I do. He’s a beach bum and doesn’t understand why we’re going somewhere cold but I’ve slowly won him over in the last eleven months. In addition to the bones in my hand potentially surviving the flight to Vancouver, it also makes getting there a bit cheaper as flying in Canada is not cheap. I mostly fly with Westjet and had received a gift card at my bridal shower last year. Between that and my accrued Westjet dollars (through my credit card with them) and the companion voucher they offer I was able to make the flights relatively inexpensive. Only problem is you can only use two of them at once. My companion voucher was expiring by 31 March so I felt I had to use that, and then I used my Westjet dollars when I realized the gift card doesn’t have an expiry date. One downside to Alaska is booking it is expensive. We’re only in an inside cabin and it was quite pricey, especially with the conversion to Canadian dollars. We do have Princess Plus. We hadn’t been planning to do any specialty dining because I find the Princess food in the main dining room to be just as good, and included, but ultimately decided to try out Stirling Steakhouse one night. We don’t gamble so that will also help with the costs but I do love my Bingo and wine tastings. We got some OBC with our booking which we put towards our most expensive excursion which was really helpful. We’re using Princess for all our excursions, though at one port we aren’t doing anything. Icy Strait Point - Whale Watching Cruise and Brown Bear Expedition Juneau - Meidenhall Glacier, Salmon Hatchery & Salmon Bake Skagway - Yukon Explorer Sitka - Foodie Tour Ketchikan - wandering around ourselves I’m very, very excited to be back cruising and hope to keep people in touch and along for the journey!