The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist!

[jenseib]

We continued around the park and our guide told us bits and pieces about it.

 

vic144 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

vic145 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

This is the story pole, which I believe has been refurbished a few years ago.

 

vic146 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Our guide pointed out and said this was an extremely clear day. She said typically you can’t see those mountains out there….which by the way is the US…Washington State. Pretty cool! And here comes a Princess ship too.

 

vic147 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

We kept on with our guide pointing out things and giving us more info.

 

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[jenseib]

She really kept commenting how clear it was today though. The fact that she talked about it so much must really mean it’s typically much foggier.

 

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The Mile 0 marker is the start of the over 8,000 km Trans-Canada Highway that spans the entire length of Canada.

 

vic152 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I am not sure what I was aiming for here. I guess just the lapping waves on the rocks.

 

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[jenseib]

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Again she commented on how clear it was and this was not a normal site.

 

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[jenseib]

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The yards were so pretty along the way.

 

vic163 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

And soon we were back at the port.

 

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A few more ships were here now too.

 

vic166 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

We got off and handed our guide a tip and took a few pictures.

 

vic167 by Jenseib, on Flickr

[jenseib]

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While on the ride, Claire was constantly complaining about her arm. She was sure it was broken and going to fall off. It never even had a bruise. Now I am sure she whacked it good and I am sure it really did hurt, but there was nothing I could do about it except offer her some ibuprofen, which she refuses to take, so if you won’t take anything for pain, I tend to feel less sorry for you.

Also she was now getting hungry. So she started in on that a bit. We told her we would get something to eat before she was at the death stage.

 

As we got off, we asked a taxi driver how much it would be to get to Butchart Gardens. It was going to be over $50 each way and then our admission price as well. We decided to pass on that. As much as I would have loved to have gone and seen the gardens we couldn’t justify paying over $100 in transportation alone. There was a restaurant at the outer edge of the port area that our guide told us was good and popular and we debated on walking over there for dinner.

We found a spot to sit and think it over. Lots of the crew members were sitting there so I think this is where they could get wifi as all were on their phones or tablets. I connected to one free wifi, but it was extremely slow. I saw lots of options for those with passwords so I am guess that many of the crew could get connected to those.

 

vic171 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

vic172 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I gave up on the wifi and we walked over to a little gift shop in the port area and it was pretty worthless…. Very small and nothing catching our eye. Not even a magnet that interested me.

 

We decide we were really closer to the ship than the restaurant so we might as well just go back and have dinner onboard and save some money.

 

 

Up next……Dinner

[SuiteTraveler]

Here’s something you don’t see every day.

 

Our guide had a story about this hotel, which I no longer remember.

 

vic133 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

James Bay Inn is haunted by the artist Emily Carr, supposedly as this is where she died of a heart attack in 1945. Reportedly there are electrical and auditory hauntings in this building as well. Emily Carr was both a painter and writer who focused on the indigenous people of the Pacific NW and then landscapes.

 

Great review! I have thoroughly enjoyed it!

Edited January 6, 2016 by SuiteTraveler

[RobTheGob]

Our guide pointed out and said this was an extremely clear day. She said typically you can’t see those mountains out there….which by the way is the US…Washington State. Pretty cool! And here comes a Princess ship too.

 

I drive down there almost every day to look at the Olympic mountains (even in the winter) - so I think the guide was slightly confused... They're only about 20 miles away!!

 

BTW - thanks for the GREAT thread!

[jenseib]

James Bay Inn is haunted by the artist Emily Carr, supposedly as this is where she died of a heart attack in 1945. Reportedly there are electrical and auditory hauntings in this building as well. Emily Carr was both a painter and writer who focused on the indigenous people of the Pacific NW and then landscapes.

 

Great review! I have thoroughly enjoyed it!

 

Yes! That was the story she told. I was thinking it was haunted but then I thought maybe I was remembering something else. Thanks!

 

I drive down there almost every day to look at the Olympic mountains (even in the winter) - so I think the guide was slightly confused... They're only about 20 miles away!!

 

BTW - thanks for the GREAT thread!

 

Good to know. Being that I never have been there I just had to go by what she said.

 

Thanks

[jenseib]

One restaurant I had wanted to try was Le Bistro. It is the French specialty restaurant. I had heard mixed reviews on it so I never made a reservation ahead of time. Tonight would be the perfect night to try it. We figured if we didn’t like the food we had time to go to another restaurant or even the main dining room.

 

We walked down and asked if it was possible to get seated and they said yes and led the way. Now Claire was not opposed to going here but she was now dead set on getting one last order of truffle fries from Cagneys. I told her if we couldn’t get them here I would call up our butler and she could get them.

 

So we had a seat in a practically empty restaurant.

 

vic173 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

We kind of got a weird vibe in there though. I think because it was slow the waiters were just not on their top game. It wasn’t bad service….just kind of weird.

 

We had this bread to start out with…I forget what this stuff with it was…maybe a salmon mousse?

 

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We asked if Claire could get fries, which were not listed and they said yes. We were hoping they would be the truffle fries

 

Skip ordered a soup…I am pretty sure it was a mushroom soup and when it arrived it came like this. We totally laughed as this was not what any of us expected. Skip said it was good though.

 

vic184 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I got the escargot.

 

vic185 by Jenseib, on Flickr

[jenseib]

Someone is in pain.

 

vic186 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I also got the French onion soup.

 

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It was all good.

 

I don’t remember if Claire had an appetizer or not, but if she did, I did not take a picture.

 

Skip ordered something with lobster in it for his entrée which shocked me as he doesn’t eat lobster ever usually. I don’t remember what it was, but I think that its pasta…or potatoes…I didn’t take a picture of the menu so I can’t remember now. He said it was pretty good though.

 

vic189 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Claire and I both got beef tenderloins.

 

vic190 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Hers with fries and no sauce.

 

vic191 by Jenseib, on Flickr

[jenseib]

Sadly they were not truffle fries.

 

These steaks were the best ones we had on the ship. They were so wonderful in taste and so tender we could cut them with a fork. Now I wish we had come here more often.

 

Time for dessert. I believe Skip ordered the Chocolate Napoleon.

 

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I took a bite and it was really good.

 

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Claire went with ice-cream.

 

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And I went with the Crème Brulee.

 

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It was all good and I would come back here again in the future.

 

A few pictures before we left.

 

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A look back at our table as we left.

 

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[jenseib]

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This is quite the sculpture at the entrance.

 

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Not one you would find on DCL. Hahahaha

 

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A look outside.

 

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[jenseib]

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It was an amazing sky tonight.

 

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We headed back to the room to change and pack up the rest and set the bags out. This guy was waiting for us.

 

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Penelope and Silky were waiting for Claire.

 

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[jenseib]

We packed up the room and we looked out at the beautiful sky.

 

vic202 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

The Princess ship was docked next to us and it looks so pretty with lights lit up, but try as I did, I could never get a good shot of it.

 

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[jenseib]

We went for a walk around a bit and looked outside at the pier.

 

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I saw this and couldn’t figure out what a Rest Ted area was. LOL.

 

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OOOOH! Restricted area….just had part of it covered over.

 

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By now we were starting to have some tears about the cruise coming to an end. Claire gets emotional sometimes at the end of vacations. Yes we are all sad, but I know for her it is also due to lack of sleep. Then there were tears that she would never have truffle fries again and we didn’t get any tonight. Oh dear! I quickly called Melony and asked her if she could get some for us. She kind of acted put out about it…but that is her JOB! She said she would call and find out as it was just about time for Cagneys to close. I prayed she got right on it as I knew Claire was going to be one unhappy camper if she didn’t get any.

 

Luckily she was able to get them and Claire was so happy and ate them like it was her last meal ever. I thanked Melony but honestly it really did leave a bad taste in my mouth about how she acted put out…and I was making up envelopes for tips at that moment. I actually left her a lot less that I had intended to from my preplanning. Not that she wasn’t good, she was fine, but not over the top and we never did get some of the things we requested, like a foam topper for Claire and foam pillows. And we rarely saw her. If I had used her services more, I would have left more.

 

vic212 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

We all got ready for bed and watched some tv then. Skip and I faded out early but we found out the next morning Claire was up late again and she even watched us leave port. Oh my word. She is so overtired, yet she doesn’t go to sleep when she has the chance. Crazy kid.

 

 

Up next…good by Jewel.

[monteman]

I have been reading your review since I discovered it about 10 days ago. I am now sad too, now that "our" Alaskan cruise is almost at an end! Thank you so much for this wonderful review and all the heart and work you have put into it. I had been wanting to go to Alaska but always end up choosing warm weather cruises. After submerging myself in this review, I decided maybe it's time to actually do Alaska.

 

My husband and I now are planning to do one in 2018, thanks to you!

[jenseib]

I have been reading your review since I discovered it about 10 days ago. I am now sad too, now that "our" Alaskan cruise is almost at an end! Thank you so much for this wonderful review and all the heart and work you have put into it. I had been wanting to go to Alaska but always end up choosing warm weather cruises. After submerging myself in this review, I decided maybe it's time to actually do Alaska.

 

My husband and I now are planning to do one in 2018, thanks to you!

 

Thanks for reading along. I always like it when people feel like it was "our" cruise because that means I must make it feel like it's all really happening now.

 

Alaska is amazing and I can't wait to go back. I do love warm weather cruises, but I really prefer those when it's cold at home, so Alaska in the summer makes perfect sense!

[jenseib]

Day 9, Aug. 8, 2015, Saturday

 

No one in their right mind wants to go home from vacation….that being said, Skip is always one who wants an early flight home (which I now rarely book…too bad for you), and typically is just done with vacation on that last morning. If we don’t have an early flight though he wants to do something to fill up our time before the flight…no rest and relaxation for him….as in 2014 when we had a later flight out of Orlando and he decided that morning we should go to Universal for a few hours.

 

Believe it or not, Skip was in no hurry to get off the ship today. That is a sure sign he had a wonderful time!

 

When we woke we were in Seattle already. We let Claire sleep a bit and I went outside to make some calls and check my phone and all that good stuff.

 

The port was busy with activity this morning.

 

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It was a little foggy this morning too.

 

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I headed back to the room and watched out on our balcony.

 

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It’s so depressing to know you have to get off the ship and someone else is going to have your room.

[jenseib]

I made sure we had the rest of the stuff gathered and ready to go and went for another walk.

 

This was interesting…they were loading these cages and taking the luggage off that way.

 

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I went to get some breakfast. Pretty much the same thing I had every day.

 

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I headed back to the room and we finished getting ready for the day. Skip and Claire got some breakfast. Claire isn’t really big on breakfast but we kind of made her eat something since it could be awhile before we eat again. Once we had our bellies full we had to do the inevitable…..we had to disembark.

 

We headed to the Suite disembarking meeting area, which was at Chin Chin today. Florentina was there and took a group of us off. Basically she held some people back who were in line to get off and let us through. It’s funny as one guy was trying to get around her and she told him to stop and he just gave her a strange look and kept going. I suppose he was wondering why these people were allowed to cut in line.

 

We grabbed our bags and made it through Customs easily. We got off earlier than I expected. I like to wait till the last second to get off, but I guess we were moving faster than I thought that day. We headed outside and found the Shuttle Express stand and checked in. We told them we were early and he said it would be about 30 minutes or so. We found a spot out of the way and camped out.

 

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And I took some pictures.

 

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[jenseib]

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Claire and I went over around the side and took a look at the ship again.

 

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When we walked back Skip was getting ready to call us. We had been called to board the shuttle and he was bringing the bags over to load. We had a lady driver and all the guys tried to help but she said it was just easier for her to do it.

 

We piled in the van and off we went. The driver asked what airlines and she told us that she was not going to drop us off in front of the Southwest area because it was very congested and she would drop us off further down and we could walk. Ok then. LOL.

 

The driver set her GPS to get us to the airport, which I thought was weird because you would think she would know the way back and forth easily if this was her job. Maybe she was new and still learning the ropes?

 

I took a few pictures as we went along.

 

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[Wavesprite]

Do you by chance have the menu from Chin Chin? I didn't see that you went there? (Or missed it)! Thanks for writing an amazing review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Loonbeam]

As an fyi a lot of shuttle drivers use the GPS to keep track of traffic now.. Time spent sitting is a run with tips they are not doing. The local parking facility at the airport I use keeps them on for a 10 min drive.

[Tinknock50]

I really enjoyed your trip log ! I even felt the last day sadness with you.

 

Glad I have a trip booked on the Jewel June 4th. Your review only made the excitement grow!

[jenseib]

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We arrived and were dropped off. Skip had talked to the driver a bit and told her we had a late flight (as did the other family in the van) and she gave some ideas of places to go that were fairly close to the airport. I think one was a park or garden and Skip asked if we wanted to go. I didn’t really care and in the end we decided we may be rushing it too much to get there and back.

 

We got in the very long line for Southwest. I had a bit of worry because I know you can’t check your bags in too early (found that out the year before). I figured we were border line on time now and I sure as heck didn’t want to drag these bags around any longer. A SW person came down the line and asked what time flights were. I believe ours was at 2:05. She told us we should be fine and that by the time we got to the front we would be right at the check in time. Good! I believe at the time we got in line it was about 9:40ish.

 

seattle22 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

We finally made it up to the check in and I worried as we were still early but they had no issues and took our bags. Thank the Lord!!!

 

After that we walked all the way down to the smoking section, which is at the very end of each side of the terminal. We sat there for a bit and I texted family and friends and checked emails and all that fun stuff.

[jenseib]

We then decided to head inside and get through security.

 

Then we were on a quest for lunch. I thought it would be good to do a sit down place since we had a long time to kill but it seemed no one agreed on anything or wanted to wait so in the end we found a pizza place and went there.

 

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It wasn’t busy at all when we arrived but by the time we left every seat in the place was filled. I guess we arrived at the right time. I would have stayed there longer just chilling but Skip said we should get up so our table was freed up for others.

 

We headed to our gate and it was packed. I think there were 2 or 3 flights going out of this gate before us so we had quite a wait. I found a seat near a plug and plugged in devices to keep us charged up and Claire played games on her kindle and I on my phone. There was only one free seat, so I took that and Claire and Skip sat on the floor. Skip took a nap.

 

seattle23 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Skip asked why we didn’t stay another night then. I just rolled my eyes. Seriously???? Had I done that he would have been mad most likely.

 

As we waited around we did get some snacks and we saw the one family who were on our flight here…they had gone on Princess. They were taking the flight before ours. I had looked at the flight but it was quite a bit more in cost when I was booking and never went down that I saw so I chose the later one. That flight was overbooked too. They kept announcing that they needed people to give up their seats and they could get on the next flight and of course some perks were offered I am sure. Skip announced that if our flight was overbooked we were giving up our seats and we would tell them we would fly out tomorrow. Who is this man and what has he done with my husband? Of course our flight was full, but not over booked and we soon were called to board the plane.

I sat in the middle again and Claire in the window seat. The thing is she kept leaning on me and Skip was too and I felt so cramped and started having anxiety. I tend to get that at times when I know I am trapped, but typically it’s on the way home. I think the excitement of going someplace on the way there keeps it down. I got wiggly a bit and I mentioned to Skip I was having it and he said he was too. I guess we both were just tired as well and we were now crashing.

 

One thing I did to pass the time was I paid for the wifi. This was wonderful and I know on all future long flights I will buy it. I might even do it for some shorter ones as well.

 

I kept smelling a bad BO smell….and it was CLAIRE!!! I asked her if she had put deodorant on and she said I had packed it already so she didn’t. I let her know that in the future she can ask me for it. LOL!!!

 

seattle24 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Our next stop was Chicago. When we got off the plane we made our way to our gate but we had a little bit of time. How different it was tonight compared to last week during the day. Much more quiet and we noticed right away the popcorn place was not open and no scents of that wonderful stuff was floating our way.

 

We decided to get something to eat here as well and settled for McDonalds. We ordered our food and took it to our seats and ate and waited. I decided I should let my Aunt Mary know that our flights were going well and on time so she was aware since she was picking us up in Detroit. She never responded and I joked with Skip about it….”Should we be worried?”

 

chicago1 by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Time to board the next flight. I love that this flight is only about an hour long.

 

chicago2 by Jenseib, on Flickr