lovestocruise19

Hubby and I took the mile trail to Nugget Falls, which was gorgeous! We also saw a bit of the glacier. You can actually see more of the glacier itself closer to the entrance and park service building. We watched a short movie on Alaska and I bought pretty glacial blue earrings.

The next day was Juneau. We had booked the Mendenhall Glacier Explorer with Carnival. We took a bus approx. 20 minutes across town to get to the glacier. Our bus driver, Shari, was very nice. She had binders of photos from Alaska and told everyone she'd wear a bright yellow hat so we'd know which bus to get back on when it was time for her to pick us up. She gave us facts about Alaska and even some funny personal anecdotes. She told us that the way to remember the five types of salmon in Alaska was to use your fingers. Chum, Sockeye, King, Silver and Pink (Chum rhymes with thumb, sock an eye out with your index finger, middle finger is tallest, hence King, you wear a ring on your ring finger, hence silver, and pinky finger, pink).

We ate in the MDR that night and I tried salmon for the first time. Yummy! It was wrapped in phyllo dough. We watched the Studio VIP Show.

We ate lunch on Lido and then hubby went back to the room to nap and I went to Serenity (located in the aft of Deck 9 on the Splendor) to eat ice cream/cookies and look for whales. I was just about to head back to the room when I heard someone shout, "whale!" It was in the distance, but it was so cool to see one in the wild. I got a video of it spouting water through its blowhole. I wore my whale tail earrings that day and I think they brought me luck!

Our "mascot" I'm glad we got off the ship right away that morning. It was beautiful for a few hours until the clouds rolled in.

Wildlife! Lol!

Nature trail

We didn't book any excursions for Icy Strait Point, so I had just planned for us to get off the ship and walk the nature trail, go to the cannery museum and do some shopping. The weather was gorgeous. A little chilly in the shade, but the sun was out and that made all the difference. We saw a bald eagle getting chased by crows. Then the eagle hung out right by the ship on a metal piece of the gangway. He was our mascot for the day. 😆

We watched the comedian in the Spectacular Spectacular Theater, which is the main show lounge. The only thing I didn't like about that was that we were seated on Deck 5 and it was kinda hard to hear him at some points between being so high up and I could hear music wafting in from the lobby. The next morning we ate breakfast in the Gold Pearl Restaurant so we wouldn't have to fight the masses up at Lido and so that hubby could get an over medium egg. This was the first time we've done regular breakfast in the MDR.

Okay, I figured. I will just keep checking periodically.

Steakhouse food I wasn't a fan of the rosemary chicken, but man, this "Art at the Table" dessert made up for it for me! And, of course, hubby enjoyed his steak.

The food was quite delicious. Desserts were lacking in taste and quantity, but the food was spot on.

That night, we had reservations for the steakhouse for our 10 year wedding anniversary. I don't eat red meat, but I knew the steakhouse had chicken and we had never splurged on the steakhouse before so I booked it as my anniversary gift to hubby. There was a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law seated next to us from Mississippi and Florida. There was a big suction noise, which ended up being a crew member fixing the men's bathroom right next to our table. They asked what the noise was and I told them and mentioned that it was our anniversary. Luckily the repairman didn't take too long. Lol! The daughter-in-law makes bracelets and she gave me one with turquoise beads and a little silver ship that says Alaska in honor of our anniversary, which I thought was so sweet. We all ended up chatting some more in between courses and the mother-in-law ended up buying us champagne to toast our anniversary. She also gave us sage advice, "Don't marry someone you can live with. Marry someone you can't live without." I don't know if they will ever see this, but I just want to thank them so much for making our anniversary even more special. They took a picture of us:

The secret deck was colder since it is in the bow of the ship. Hence my jacket. Which was a GREAT purchase! It had a windbreaker material on the outside with a hood and a fleece liner. In Seattle, I used it without the fleece liner since it is a style where you can convert it. Very nice jacket and I will definitely get more use out of it in NH. The hat was made by my Mom. 🥰 Too icy to proceed

This was my favorite shot of the day. I just love the contrast of the white snow, green trees and blue sky!

We went to Lido to get lunch right at noon so we could go back to the room to view more scenery. Seemed like everyone else had the same idea. I was in line at the deli for a good 25 minutes. I got the falafel wrap, which I didn't really care for and it wasn't worth the wait. However, while in line, I did chat with a nice girl from Portland, OR who was on her first cruise. After eating lunch in our room, we went back and forth from our balcony to the secret deck on Deck 7 to see the sights of Tracy Arm. We didn't make it all the way to the end, though, because it was too icy and the ship had to turn around for safety's sake.

We then watched from our balcony as we approached Tracy Arm Fjord.

We ate on Lido for breakfast and wandered around the ship a bit, taking in the scenery. Quite different than a Caribbean cruise!

The next morning I woke up early (twice) and caught a bit of a sunrise.

The Java Juice is separate from Java Blue Cafe and only featured on the Splendor. I was going to try one, but never did.

I loved this display shelf that resembled the Carnival funnel in the gift shop. So cool! We watched the Epic Rock show that night and went to a PG comedy show. The comedy was held in the Moroccan Lounge, 5 aft. Funny thing about this selfie. I made hubby pose for elegant pictures that night, but the next day I didn't like any of them (I kinda had a feeling I wouldn't because the photographer had us doing dumb poses like with our arms crossed and standing back to back. It made me feel like brother and sister and not a couple on their 10 year anniversary cruise!) so I ended up framing this one of us as our elegant night photo.

We ate in the MDR that night for elegant night. Hubby was grumbling about a fellow cruiser dressed in a hooded sweatshirt. I guess it was their most elegant hoodie? Lol! Alaska definitely has a more casual vibe for clothing. However, I like to wear dresses to dinner even on non elegant nights, but that is just me. Just realized you can see the hoodie lady in the background of this picture. 🤣