Random Notes, 5/24-6/7/17, Mariner, Rumorlite but LIVE!

[Mr Rumor]

Views of and from the Yukon Suspension Bridge, which hovers 60 feet above the Class Five rapids of the Tutsi River.

 

A final treat of our Skagway excursion was this view of a glacier valley on the Canada-U.S. border.

 

 

 

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[garyb(uk)]

why don't my pics turn out that good :(

[Mudhen]

BEE U TEE FULL! Thank you again for the wonderful photos! Awaiting a report on the Beatles!

Best,

Linda

[Mr Rumor]

Here you go, Linda and mates: The Beatles Farewell Dance Party was fab fab fab!

 

I saw them standing there (Shauna and CD Lorraine in matching tees!).

 

Ob la di, Ob la da, the hits went on and on!

 

Baby you can drive my train!

 

Twist and shout!

 

We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah!

 

 

 

 

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[forgap]

Wonderful, joyful pics! I think the dance parties are the best. Lorraine was our CD last year on our Middle East cruise. We had an "Arabian Nights" costume party. What a blast. Even folks with mobility issues were rocking and rolling! Lorraine has the unique ability to make you feel like an invited guest to her house. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

[Mr Rumor]

Hi, Jennifer! You said it all about the appeal and beauty of Lorraine in one sentence. This is our fifth cruise with her dating back to 2013, and it has been a joyful journey since night one.

 

Good morning from Seward. Yet another beautiful day!

 

 

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[liptastic]

It's such a delight each day to read your posts and see your photos when getting in from work. It sure makes me feel as tho we are on the cruise with you all. Eagerly await the second part of your cruise. Shauna is having a wonderful time on board, all happy photos. Thanks again, Jean.

[WesW]

Echo Jennifer's Kudos Rich. Thanks for sharing Shauna's delight her glee just pops out of your snaps. Hope y'all continue to have a wonderful Alaska voyage.

 

 

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[Travelcat2]

Rich - still following and loving your posts and photos. Just been involved with other things (especially our Amazon cruise which is making me a bit crazy). Continue to enjoy your cruise and we'll follow with interest!

[jeb_bud]

Mr Rumor, I've read that the E suites have binoculars. Can you please tell me what kind they are? If you have used them do you find them sufficient?

 

 

 

 

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[Mudhen]

Loving those pix and commentary! Keep 'em coming!

[Mr Rumor]

Jean, Wes, Jackie and Linda, thanks for the check-ins and kind words!

 

Jeb-bud, our E-Concierge Suite binocs don't carry a manufacturer's name. They measure 15x40, 66M/1000. I carry my own so I hadn't taken them out. But I did for you and trained them on a couple of the mountains in Resurrection Bay, and thought they performed well.

We continued to enjoy the best weather yesterday. Seward was mostly sunny, with a high just shy of 70. "You're very lucky," April, our driver/guide announced. "We had the coldest spring in 15 years and we've seen nothing but rain and snow the last two weeks."

We enjoyed our visit to Exit Glacier, in Kenai Fjords National Park. Ginny and Shauna stuck with the one-mile loop trail, while I ventured out on the 2.6 mile round-trip Edge of the Glacier walk for a better photo op. We finished with a tour of the Alaska Sealife Center, which I found to be just OK.

When we returned to the Mariner I knew immediately that our second week would have a different onboard flavor and energy than our first when I walked by a First Financial Security welcome table. I learned from the person manning the table that 211 employees of the Atlanta-based financial services firm and their spouses are onboard.

Also, there are enough children sailing for there to be two Club Mariner listings in today's Passages, one for "5-12 Years," the other for "Teens 13-17 Years." Here is the young people's breakdown, by age:

0-3: 3

4-12: 16

13-16: 10

17-21: 8

We showed up on Deck 12 for the Bon Voyage Scenic Sailaway at 5:15, accompanied by commentary by Terry Breen. Attendance was rather sparse due to the winds. We continued to enjoy the scenery over dinner in Sette Mare.

 

Later, we decided to check out the Welcome Aboard Live Dance party, with CD Lorraine, Social Hostess Carla and the singing members of the production cast sharing the mikes. It was good fun, with Shauna participating, but fading at the end. Memo to mom/dad: No Prosecco for our Little Rock 'n' roller before a dance!

 

Rich

[Mr Rumor]

I'm concerned that this blog hasn't lived up to its billing, namely that my Notes haven't been Random enough. I can't get much more random than reporting that yesterday Mariner crew/staff received new name tags with their names printed considerably larger than before. The old name tags had been an issue for some passengers in that the names were too small and hard to read.

 

Here, Federica (Sardinia, third Regent contract, Sette Mari server) models the new name tag.

 

Now if only the tags also included the crew member's country (but then they would have to be really big).

 

 

 

 

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[xrvlcruiser]

new name tags! I'm so glad!

[Mr Rumor]

Correction on earlier post: Our social hostess is Marla, not Carla, Sanders. Marla really rocked it on "Johnny B. Goode" last night at the Welcome Aboard Live Dance Party!

 

It's time for a fresh set of passenger numbers. All but 93 of the 653 passengers on Picturesque Peaks, May 31-June 7, are Americans. Of the 560, 298 are female, 262 are male.

 

Here is the complete Passenger Nationality Breakdown:

 

United States, 560

United Kingdom, 22

Canada, 20

New Zealand, 10

Germany, 7

Australia, 5

Brazil, 5

Belgium, 4

Switzerland, 4

India, 3

Laos, 3

Denmark, 2

Thailand, 2

South Africa, 2

Ireland, 1

South Korea, 1

Netherlands, 1

Portugal, 1

 

 

 

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[jeb_bud]

Jean, Wes,

 

 

 

Jeb-bud, our E-Concierge Suite binocs don't carry a manufacturer's name. They measure 15x40, 66M/1000. I carry my own so I hadn't taken them out. But I did for you and trained them on a couple of the mountains in Resurrection Bay, and thought they performed well.

 

 

Thanks for the binoculars info. 15x40 should give a good close-up view if I can hold them steady enough.

 

I probably need to buy a second pair anyway so DW and I can both look at things at Denali and during our train ride from Fairbanks to Seward.

 

My 1950s era Bausch & Lomb 7x35's still work fine. I'll pick up a moderately priced pair of 8x42s and that should do us.

 

 

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[Mudhen]

I will be keeping my fingers crossed for y'all for more beautiful weather and a kindly, considerate, group of financial planners. John and I ran into that kind of a thing on a Crystal cruise and it WAS NOT a great and wonderful experience. Hopefully these will all be lovely people!

[UUNetBill]

Wonder if those new name tags were partially driven by the Town Hall meeting with Jason M on our April sailing on Explorer? The point was raised that the type on the name tags was so small as to be practically worthless...and that comment received a long and loud round of applause. I'm only 56 with pretty decent eyesight and I had a hard enough time reading some name tags that I was afraid I was going to get slapped a time or three. :o

 

I also wonder if they're fleet-wide yet. Does anyone know?

Edited June 1, 2017 by UUNetBill
Additional question

[flossie009]

Mr Rumour,

Thanks for the interesting blog and fabulous photos.

 

Like Bill, we are glad to hear that guest feedback has resulted in a re-design of the name-tags. Even those with perfect vision struggled...........and for most of us of a certain age the old name-tags were impossible to decipher.

[Mr Rumor]

It was drizzly and overcast this morning on the way to Hubbard Glacier, which had me wondering if we'd get a replay of 2013, when we could barely make out Hubbard through the fog and rain. But, "Fear not," Terry Breen counseled in her morning talk, "Hubbard produces its own microclimate." She was right! As we neared, the winds calmed, the rain stopped and the skies lightened. We had a good hour to photograph Hubbard from 3.5 nautical miles away in Takutak Bay, as Captain Serena had the Mariner perform a slow-motion "pirouette" for our viewing pleasure.

 

 

 

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[Travelcat2]

So happy that you finally got to Hubbard Glacier (our favorite). We were able to get to less than one mile of the glacier but it was on the Navigator which is known to do well in seas with small icebergs. Your pictures are superb!!!!!

 

Have to admit that I am saddened by hearing that you have a large group onboard. Please let us know if they take over any dining venues while you are onboard and if they are friendly. Truly hope that this leg of your B2B cruise is as wonderful as the last one.

[Mr Rumor]

Thanks, Jackie. BTW, I was hoping we would get closer to Hubbard, but in a mid-afternoon announcement from the Bridge, Captain Serena explained that to go any closer would be to risk damage to the propellers from the ice. She added that we did get 2.3 nautical miles closer to Hubbard than she was able to get on the previous visit.

 

In her announcement, the captain also confirmed what we had heard unofficially earlier today: We have a Code Red situation. She said that three crew members and one passenger have influenza.

 

There are two levels of Code Red. At the moment we are at Level One, which means that a ramped-up sanitizing regimen is in effect throughout the ship that most passengers won't even notice. However, everyone will be immediately aware if/when we go to Level Two as a number of precautions would then take effect, including no self-service at the buffets, no salt and pepper shakers on the tables, no cookies on the cookie trays, paper menus, etc.

 

Rich

 

 

 

 

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Edited June 2, 2017 by Mr Rumor

[Travelcat2]

So sorry to hear about the Mariner being in Code Red. That is so unusual for this time of the year! Hoping that three of you stay healthy!

[Mr Rumor]

Thanks, Jackie; we, too! Even though we are still, as far as I know, Code Red, Level One, we got paper menus in Prime 7 last night and were minus our salt and pepper shakers. An abundance of caution appears to be on display, and that's good.

 

Other Mariner staff and crew like their easier-to-read name tags so much that they are happy to show them off, too! Here is Matilda (Cruise Consultant, second Regent contract, Sweden) modeling hers.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Mr Rumor]

The view from our window at 4:40 a.m. We dock at Icy Strait Point, Hoonah at 8.

 

 

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