Did that cruise really happen? Or was it a dream?

[jaspersmycat]

Mary:

 

This is great. Wonderful pictures and commentary.

 

I think I saw you and Keaka at the Explorations Cafe more than anywhere else during the cruise. I thought it was great when Keaka brought you your special coffee out to the bow when we were sailing into Tracey Arm.

[AlohaPride]

Mary:

 

This is great. Wonderful pictures and commentary.

 

I think I saw you and Keaka at the Explorations Cafe more than anywhere else during the cruise. I thought it was great when Keaka brought you your special coffee out to the bow when we were sailing into Tracey Arm.

Yes. We loved the specialty coffees and the ceramic mugs (don't get the paper cups, people!).

 

That day on the bow was special.

[AlohaPride]

Thank you so much for your review and wonderful pictures! The one of the girls in the eagle's nest was amazing!! This trip is on my bucket list...just trying to talk DH into doing it,..he hates cold weather:) but I told him we have to go to Alaska at least once!! Again thanks!

 

I'm loving your photo journal. Your photographs are great and are making me consider an Alaska cruise. Thank-you for taking the time to share your adventures!

 

You both have GOT to take this cruise. It's wonderful!!

[Huskerchick]

Fantastic review. Love the pictures. We've done Alaska but it's been a few years and this makes me want to return! Can't wait to read about the rest of your adventure.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[kittercat85]

Still loving all your posts! Hubbard Glacier is spectacular. I will have to make sure we get there someday.

 

And I am SO jealous that you got the recipe for the dive in sauce. I was in love with it too. Fries with dive in sauce... mmmmmm.

[tommui987]

Turns out that 3:00-3:30 was ALWAYS ice cream time.

 

The thing I appreciate about HAL is that I can get ice cream even late at night!

[jbhcw]

You both have GOT to take this cruise. It's wonderful!!

 

:) I am showing this post to DH!! My plan is 2016...14 day on whatever Hal ship that is doing the 14 day cruise.....again your narrative and pictures are outstanding...good job!!!

[obriendan]

Mary,

 

What a wonderful review. What beautiful girls. It is such a pleasure to see how your family has grown since we first met you. You, Keaka, and your sister were kind enough to take us on a tour of the North Shore of Oahu when we were members of the "Voyage of the Spammed" in 2006. You also went to the luau at Barbers Point and reserved the best seats for our group.

 

Dan and Barb

[RetiredMustang]

Mary,

 

What a great thread! I'm enjoying reliving our cruise, with your different perspectives of the ship, the ports. etc. We all truly have different cruises on the same cruise, don't we?

 

It was very enjoyable to meet you and Keaka (and your amazingly cute daughters). Thanks for sharing another look at one of our favoritest cruises!

 

Dave

[AlohaPride]

Day 14 Sitka and our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

 

We had a LOT to do in Sitka and I was antsy to get off the ship and get to it. First we had to get off the ship. We went for our tender ticket and sat around for about 30 minutes before our number was called. When that happened, the girls were ALL in the bathroom! So I had to rush in and tell them it was time to go and hurry them along. We boarded the tender (I had to hold our 3 year old as we made our way down the stairs) and were finally in Sitka.

 

In the Visitor’s Center a group was set up to take pictures with sled dogs. They had 2 red huskies and one husky/wolf. They allowed people to pet the dogs, but it was $20 to take a picture with them. We decided to pass on the picture as it’s close to impossible to get all three girls to look at the camera and smile at the same time. It would have been an expensive bet that we probably wouldn't have won. LOL

 

We walked about 1 mile to the Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center. It was a beautiful walk, although most of it was uphill. We passed a stream with a lot of salmon jumping. We paid our admission and started looking around. The first bird you see is a Bald Eagle that is too injured to ever be released again (much like Lady Baltimore in Juneau). There were also Golden Eagles, Owls, Ravens, and other birds. In a wooded area they had birds in more natural habitats without coverings. The birds were leashed, but it was apparent they were being prepared to be released back into the wild. Inside the building was the rehabilitation flight center. We were told there were a lot of birds in the rooms, but we only saw 3. There was only 1 bird flying around, however. It was hard to see in flight centers because the glass was tinted so your reflection got in the way. When we were done we took a ¾ mile hike that loops from the rehab center back to the entry gate. One of the offshoots on the hike took us right to the bank of a river teeming with live (and dead) salmon and a LOT of Ravens and Sea Birds. It was smelly, but beautiful.

 

 

 

Next, we walked through the Sitka Park to the totem poles and then back down to the Sitka Sound Science Center. It’s under major renovation removing lead-based paint. It was $5 per person for all 5 of us to enter the center. Had we been told it was ONLY a touch pool with sea stars and urchins we would have passed on this activity. We have that here in Hawaii and would have rather saved the $25. The salmon hatchery wasn’t operating, although we did find salmon eggs in the stream that ran next to the center.

 

 

 

We called a taxi and for $21 plus tip we were taken to the Fortress of the Bear. As a side note, there is a hop-on-hop-off buss for $10 per person that would have taken us to the Raptor Center and Science Center. Then we could have purchased shuttle passes to the Fortress for $15 for adults $11 for kids. I thought $21 for the taxi was a great deal. The driver also gave us a little tour when we passed interesting places. It was a great ride.

 

The Fortress of the Bear is a wonderful place! They are currently housing 8 bears. 5 brown bears and 3 black bears. They were all orphaned as cubs and would have died had they not been taken in by the Fortress. The Fortress also places other orphaned cubs and injured bears with zoos across the country. They are looking to expand their operations. There are three bears in an enclosure on the right. The female bear asks for food all the time. She even knows sign language! She either reclines on a big tree trunk in the and signs “more” or she stands up on her hind legs, waves to get attention, and then signs “more.” If the trainer says “no more” in sign language she does a different sort of wave that can EASILY be interpreted as “forget you!” It was pretty amazing to watch. The three black bears are only 18 months old. All bears are born in January while their mothers are hibernating. My girls thought that was pretty cool. Two of the bears were “hunting” salmon in the pond in their enclosure. The other one was causing trouble by messing with the other two bears. In the third enclosure were two more brown bears. The trainer walked out on an overhang and filled a ball with dog food. The bears know to jump up out of the water and hit the ball. The dog food falls out. These bears were not as active as the other three. I could have easily stayed there all day and watched the bears. For $15 total we were allowed to hop on the shuttle back to the visitor’s center.

 

 

 

We were starving by the time we made it back, so we went to eat at a little organic panini place (I can’t remember the name). I’ve got celiac and knew I’d pay for eating the sandwich, but it was SO worth it! I also had the BEST apple fritter I’ve ever had in. my. life. Yum. After a little bit of shopping our time in Sitka came to a close. There were some AMAZING sales because the season was ending. Yay!

 

We changed into our bathing suits and made our way to the pool/hot tubs. At 5:30 we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We had 7pm reservations at the Canaletto for our anniversary. We dropped the girls off at Club HAL and made our way to the Lido.

 

I wish I could say it was a good meal. We were told that they could accommodate my gluten-free needs, but in reality that meant lettuce, nuts, and beets without cheese or dressing and dry pork chops with no sauce. Had the waitress told us what would be missing in each dish we would have ordered something else. Service was painfully slow. Our waitress stopped serving us half way through our meal and the man who had previously been clearing the tables started serving us. He didn’t know anything about the menu. Each time we needed a drink refill we had to ask to see the wine steward and wait another 10 minutes before he came to our table. It was a wonderful dinner because I was alone with my husband on our 10th anniversary. I only wish I could say the meal was worth our time. Thank God the dinner was included in our booking and we didn’t have to pay for it. We ended up laughing about it before the meal was even over.

 

After dinner we went for a walk around the ship. It was a relaxing, fun, romantic evening. A cruise is a wonderful way to celebrate an anniversary!

We picked our girls up at 10 and went to the magic show given by Jonathan Neal and his assistant Liane. Wishnu, the assistant dining room manager, did magic tricks and card tricks for our girls almost every time he saw them. We knew a “real” magic show would be interesting for them. It was very good, even though the 10 pm show was sparsely attended. He did a few tricks that even my husband was amazed by, and he’s a huge skeptic. We had a lot of fun and it was a great end to a fantastic day.

 

I have a TON of pictures from Sitka, so I'm going to post them after this.

[AlohaPride]

 

 

 

 

 

[AlohaPride]

 

 

 

 

Cross Mountain

 

[AlohaPride]

I feel like I won the lotto! All three looking AND smiling!!

 

 

 

 

 

[AlohaPride]

Day 15 At Sea

 

We set our clocks forward and boy did we feel that hour!! We slept in very late and were lucky to make it to breakfast in the Lido before it closed. The Lido hours seem short, although I know it takes time to switch dishes between meals. After breakfast, it was too late for the girls to go to Club HAL, and Hannah wanted to check out the 75% off sales at the shops. So, that’s what we did.

 

We came across the “Gold” by the inch. I knew it was plated, but when Hannah asked the lady about the gold the lady was not forthcoming with that information. All the sales person said was that it was 18k, NOT 18k plated. An unknowing customer might think they were actually buying real gold. We were also told by the sales woman that it was $1 an inch. Hannah picked her chain and after it was measured and cut the sales person told Hannah it was $3 an inch. Okay, fine, I’ll help with the cost because Hannah was not expecting to spend that much of her birthday money on a bracelet. So, we had a little math class. 6 inches times $3 equals $18. That’s when the sales person finally chimes in with, “Oh, and it’s $5 for the clasp.” I feel like the sales person should have been far more forthcoming than she was about the overall costs. Hannah loves her bracelet, and I’m glad. I just hope it doesn’t start to turn her wrist green.

 

After paying for the bracelet we went to the gift shop. Hannah used the rest of her money to buy some stickers and stuffed animals for her sisters. I was proud of her for thinking about her sisters.

 

We met up with Keaka and the girls at the Lido and had a quick lunch before dropping the girls off at Club HAL. I decided to attend the Grand Finale Art Auction. I had guessed a price for a piece of art, and the closest guess would win a free piece of art (not the piece we were guessing, obviously LOL).

 

Now, I know people will say that art on board is overpriced, and that the art auction is a waste of time. I tend to disagree. I don’t collect art as an investment, though. I collect pieces that speak to me, and if they are a reasonable price FOR ME I buy them. I fell in love with a piece by Shan-Merry called Vivaldi and did a reserve for the piece. This means that when it came up for auction I would win it and no one else could bid above me. It was fun.

 

Happy Anniversary to meeeeeeeee!

 

After that, I won a raffle for a free piece of art. The woman in front of me gave me the certificate for the art she won because I already had a shipping tube going and she didn’t want it. Then they announced that the price of the artwork was only $75 more than my guess, so I won yet ANOTHER free piece of art.

 

If you don’t know much about art, like me, the auction is a great event to attend simply because you’ll learn a lot. The auctioneers don’t just bring forward a piece and then name a price. They tell you about the artist, how they paint, what they were thinking, what the meaning of the piece is to them. Even if you don’t want to buy anything, it is a very informational event and you very well could win some art. Shipping is $35 for a tube to the Contiguous 48 and $45 to Hawaii, PR, and Alaska. You can put up to 6 pieces in a tube. Oh, and champagne is free. ;)

 

On our way out another passenger gave me his certificate for art. So, I left the auction with four free pieces, a bottle of champagne (because I also won the spirit prize LOL), and a limited release print of a piece of art I fell madly in love with. It was a wonderful experience.

 

After the art auction I made my way up to one of the aft suites to meet with a gentleman who was a World War II Aviation Navigator who was shot down over Germany and spent 15 months in a prisoner of war camp. His daughter had given me his biography that had been published in a POW book. I listened to him tell his story while we watched for whales. I was so honored to be in the same room with him. His story is fascinating and his attitude about it all was inspiring.

 

After I met my family at the Lido for our afternoon swim we got ready for our last formal night. We also were going to celebrate Hannah’s 7th birthday. We all ordered the fruit appetizer, the girls had the cherry soup and I had a salad, and then we all ordered the Surf and Turf (I got double turf because I couldn’t eat the surf). It was very yummy! At the end of our dinner we had the crew parade. Then, after a little wait, the dining room staff sang “Happy Birthday” to Hannah, who did NOT share her cake with the rest of us! The little bum. We all ordered the Crème Brulee and a few of us (not naming names! **coughKEAKAcough**) had the flourless chocolate cake AND the Souffle au Grand Marnier. They were all really yummy.

 

Yes, this is right. I didn't take a single darn picture on ANY of the formal nights!!! We just have to take another cruise to try again. :p

[Don't spammy]

Thank you for the great pictures from Sitka. Sounds like you made some lasting memories for your anniversary.

[thetexasaggiecruiser]

This was such a wonderful review to ready and enjoy. Congratulations on all the art! I tend to skip those auctions and after reading your points, I'm going to attend ours in December, so thank you for that insight.

[0bnxshs]

Day 5: Ketchikan

 

<SNIP>We happened upon the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local. My husband is a member of the local in Hawaii, so it was neat to go in and say a quick hello.<SNIP>

 

That really rings a bell and proves that no matter how far people are located from each other, we really are all neighbors. Last year on our Golden Princess cruise to Alaska, my FIL and I saw the local and stopped in to say hello also, hailing from 606 in Central Florida.

 

I wonder how many brothers (and sisters) stop in to say hi each year?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Love the picture of the bears in the water.

You were really lucky at the art auction.

[ourfamilylovescruising]

Great review!! thanks for taking the time:D

[AlohaPride]

That really rings a bell and proves that no matter how far people are located from each other, we really are all neighbors. Last year on our Golden Princess cruise to Alaska, my FIL and I saw the local and stopped in to say hello also, hailing from 606 in Central Florida.

 

I wonder how many brothers (and sisters) stop in to say hi each year?

 

It's so funny, because my husband is probably the least pro-union union member of 1186 here in Hawaii. BUT I have a knack of finding all the IBEW's whenever we go on a trip. There are a lot of visitors and "travelers" here in Hawaii. We have a gift shop and everything. ROFL They had a guest book in Ketchikan that had a lot of signatures.

[AlohaPride]

Day 16: Victoria, B.C., Canada

 

Can it be? Our last full day on board. These past few days have been pretty depressing thinking about having to get off this beautiful ship and go back to "normal" life after such an outstanding adventure. I need to figure out a way to make this my "normal" life. LOL

 

We didn't dock in Victoria until around 1:30. They had an Indonesian themed lunch in the lido and for the first time on this trip the HAL Cats played in the Lido. FINALLY! Some live music! We really missed having entertainment in the Lido at lunch time on this trip (other than a really quiet solo guitar player), and will make comments on our surveys saying as much. The food was delicious! We couldn't have the peanut sauce because of our Faye's peanut allergy, but everything was soooo good!

 

We dropped the girls off at Club HAL at 2, and we had to pick them up at 4, so we decided to just walk around and try to find something to do with the girls when we picked them up.

 

As we left the terminal we saw a dear friend of ours. We knew he was meeting up with another friend, but she wasn't off the ship yet. I went on board to call her, but she wasn't in her cabin. When I came back, Richard said he had his phone and she would call. He decided that he wanted to take us on a short tour of his home town. SCORE!!

 

Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf. Why didn't we think of this in Hawaii?? It is a series of docks with real houses sitting on the water. Each house was different and had its own character. Wish such a shortage of land in Hawaii, you'd think we'd build something like this. I guess hurricanes and tsunamis make it unrealistic. The houses were beautiful.

 

 

I loved the water taxis!!

 

Next we drove to The Fairmont Empress Hotel (most commonly known as The Empress) is one of the oldest and most famous hotels in Victoria. It is beautiful!! Richard goes for cocktails when the patio opens every April. The ivy on the outside turns crimson red by Christmas. It was already changing color when we were there. The tea service looked amazing, and I'll have to make a point to take the girls back when they are older for tea. We also got to see the bee hives on the property. I think a Christmas visit to Victoria is in our future. I even looked at booking for this year and was quoted about $200 a night! That's about half what we would pay here in Hawaii for a room over Christmas!! Yippee!

 

 

 

We then walked across the street to the waterfront. It was really beautiful. I wish we could build right up to the waterfront in Hawaii. I enjoyed seeing the art and crafts of some local artists. Unfortunately, by this point, our suitcases were stuffed with souvenirs so I couldn't buy anything.

 

Across the street was the Parliament Building. It was so grand. Richard explained that white lights are attached to the perimeter of the building and around the dome. At Christmas time they change the dome lights to Red and Green. There was a large field in front of Parliament and a statue commemorating the Canadian soldiers lost in World War I, World War II, and Korea. The sign read, "To our glorious dead. They died the noblest death a man may die fighting for God and right and liberty, and such a death is immortality."

 

 

 

After a short drive up to the Country Club golf course, Richard took us back to our ship. I found our friend and sent her out to see Richard. I was so glad they were able to connect.

 

The last night at Club HAL was the Pajamarama Party. The girls had been instructed to arrive in their PJs and to bring pillows for the pillow fight. They also were going to erupt the volcano they built their first night at Club HAL. We had reservations with our party at the Pinnacle at 7, and I also had to drop the girls off at Club HAL at 7. When we got there we discovered that Club HAL was locked and Andy didn't have the key to get in. The other leader had gone ashore with the key by accident! Andy had called the front desk to get a master key about 20 minutes before 7 and was still waiting. At 7:15 I asked him to call again. The Cruise Director had guests on board and wanted to drop some kids off in Club HAL as well, so he was finally able to locate a master key. I rushed down to the Pinnacle where everyone was waiting for me.

 

Even without the windows the Pinnacle is beautiful on the Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the service was extremely slow and 4 out of the 6 of us had to return our steaks because they had rested too long and were far beyond well done. Once we each received our meal the food was really good. I was sad that they were all out of Brussels Sprouts, but I ordered asparagus, spinach, and mashed potatoes to make up for it. Everyone, except my husband, had the Baked Alaska (hello Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia!). My husband had the volcano chocolate cake.

 

We were 5 minutes late to Mass, but they were already at the homily by the time we walked across the hall to the Culinary Center so we didn't stay. The captain had asked Father to start early so no one missed the Dancing With the Stars Finale.

 

I don't know if the service on the ship wasn't up to par on our last night because a lot of crew were getting off the ship in Seattle, or if it was because they didn't expect anyone to be on board with such a late stop in Victoria, but there was an obvious difference between this last night and all the others. Dinner was almost 3 hours long and we missed Mass. That said, I was not complaining because I got to enjoy more time with our friends. I don't know when the next time we will see them will be, so I was soaking it all up.

 

We paid for an extra hour of child care this one night in order to get some packing done and to enjoy our last night on the ship together. It's $5 per child per hour. We pay about $15 an hour in Hawaii, so we thought it was fair.

 

After we put our cases in the hall we went to get the girls. We were given folders with all their work from the 2 weeks, said our goodbyes, and went down to the Lido to search for Joseph, Aris, Ann Marie, and Wishnu. We could only find Joseph and Aris. We were sad that we didn't get a chance to say goodbye (and give a little something) to Ann Marie and Wishnu. BUT we are now friends on Facebook and will be seeing them when they come to Hawaii!

 

It was hard to go to sleep this last night, but sometime after midnight we were able to finally get some rest.

[AlohaPride]

Day 17: Seattle

 

We didn't have to be off the ship until 9, but our room steward woke us up at 6. How kind of him. We showered, got dressed, grabbed our backpacks and spent the next few hours in the Lido desperately holding on to our time on board.

 

At 9 sharp we made our way back to the Promenade and off the ship. We grabbed our bags and made our way back to the Seattle Express Shuttle (at sign "S" but different from the Shuttle Express service). It was a pretty funny ride to our hotel. The driver had to stop at 4 hotels. So he drive to the closest one, but needs to take a u-turn to get to it, same story with hotels 2 and 3. Lots of u-turns. Had he just gone to the furthest hotel ALL the others would have been hit on his way back to the airport/cruise terminal where he could have dropped those people off as well. A 40 min trip turned into almost 2 hours. The girls took naps in the back of the shuttle.

 

After we checked into our hotel room the girls really needed to finish their naps. We had passed a local craft and art fair at Angle Lake Park down the street from our hotel. We decided not to go into Seattle and to go to that fair instead after the girls slept for a bit (6 hours of sleep is NOT ENOUGH for young children LOL). We were going to meet with another dear friend who was willing to drive to us instead of us going into Downtown to meet him. How blessed are we to know so many amazing people?!

 

The girls all woke up at about 3. They slept for about 3 1/2 hours! I was able to use my cell phone as a hot spot and catch up on what I had missed over the 2 weeks we had been gone. I had no idea Brad and Angelina had gotten married!

 

This hotel room is much much nicer than the first one we had. The A/C works really well, and it was cleaner. We will most likely stay at this hotel or the Clarion the next time we are in Seattle.

 

The Angle Lake Park International Festival was not very International, but it had a kids' play area, a splash pad, food trucks, and really good live music. Our friend met us and we spent a good 2 hours just catching up and shooting the breeze. It was a wonderful last afternoon in Seattle.

 

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a 7-11 to load up on snack and rent a movie from Red Box. The hotel does not have DVD players, so we watched the movie on my laptop. It was a low key, relaxing night before our last day in Seattle.

 

 

 

Our last day in Seattle included a visit to the EMP Museum. If you haven't been, you really MUST go! It was so cool!! We wished we had more time to look around, and the sound booths complete with full drum sets were a HIT with our girls.

 

 

 

The Christopher Reeve Superman!!

 

Wicked Witch of the West's HAT!!

 

Alaska Airlines got us home safe and sound. It was a late flight, so the girls slept and I was able to watch Maleficent on the overpriced entertainment tablet. LOL It's nice to be home, but I sure wish we were still on that ship. This was the vacation to top all vacations we have taken so far, and our plan is to do it again in 5 years when the girls are older and we can be a little bit more adventurous (ala Dave and his "live from" thread). We also are going to do that zipline in Hoonah!!

 

Thank you for joining us on our adventure. If you have any questions, I'd be pleased to try to answer them.

Edited September 16, 2014 by AlohaPride

[AlohaPride]

 

 

 

[tommui987]

Enjoyed reading your "diary" and the pictures. The only bears I've seen in Alaska were either a mile or so from the road, or the stuff-ones at the stores!

 

Welcome home!

[POA1]

Thanks for such a great trip report!