Live from NA May 26 - June 2, 2018!!

[EeyoreRN]

More embarkation day photos

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Cabin 7093, inside

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Cabin 6098 Signature Suite (upsell 11 days prior to cruise through TA at my persistent request - VD to SE $79pp). Didn't get good photo of seating area sorry...it was a pretty large couch and coffee table across from the bed. Also a fruit basket that we could request our favorites

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Embarkation day lunch in MDR disappointing from gluten free perspective. DD ordered a burger no bun, didn't have many other options. DS had a burger and fries. Both said the burger was dry and tasteless. DS like the fries but DD couldn't have them because they they were contaminated in the fryer. My tandoori chicken was really good. Can't remember what DH had. Didn't get photos of menu or all courses. Maybe we were too distracted by excitement of bring aboard.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Sailing away from Vancouver. We left exactly as scheduled at 4:30 under cloudy skies. We left before the princess ship. There was a sail away party on deck 9 aft with very sweet drinks in souvenir glasses. We had the proseco included in SBP which was good. We started back on 9 and then walked up to 10 for more great views.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

We went up to Crow's Nest to check out the space and have some drinks before dinner. I don't know what the space was like before the remodel but we enjoyed it up there. We love games and puzzles and books and took advantage of these during the cruise especially on unpleasant weather at sea days. It was crowded when we first arrived but cleared out at dinner time. Our canaletto reservation was for 7:30 so we had CN to ourselves for a few hours.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Stopped by the cabin real quick before dinner and this was already out:

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Already showed Canaletto food. Not sure if I included menus and drinks. We had Italian cocktails negronis and spritzers. We saw whale spouts from the windows up there!

 

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[madera1]

Already showed Canaletto food. Not sure if I included menus and drinks. We had Italian cocktails negronis and spritzers. We saw whale spouts from the windows up there!

 

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Enjoying reading of your cruise.

 

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Enjoying reading of your cruise.

 

 

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Thanks!!

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Sunday, May 27 was a rather gloomy weather day on the Inside Passage. Winds were pretty high and visibility a bit low, making our "scenic cruising" day less than ideal...for scenic cruising that is! We made the best of it!

 

Breakfast was our first experience in Lido. We found the food delicious but the atmosphere pretty chaotic. We managed to find a window table but it was stressful. The views are gorgeous and I love the fresh orchids on the tables. Again we were disappointed from a GF perspective. DD had been promised that the GF station would have pancakes or waffles available but when she inquired she was directed to a pile of packaged gf products for toasting (bread, rolls).

 

We had lunch in Pinnacle Grill, another suggestion from the CC community. It was excellent and well worth the $10 pp!

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Our lunch at PG. Forgot to shoot our first course, but it was lovely. Pretty sure DH had soup and the rest of us chose salad. For mains, I ordered salmon, DH chose filet, DD pre-ordered GF chicken and DS ordered the burger after confirming with the server that the meat would not be the same as the burger in MDR. His burger was delicious! Juicy and tender cooked perfect medium rare, as great as you would expect from any good steak house on land. All of the food here was terrific but I'm focusing on this burger because of how bad the other burgers on the ship were. If you're in the mood for a great hamburger on NA, go to PG for lunch!

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Dessert at PG lunch -see also the last two photos above...I think DH chose the coconut trifle which was layers of chocolate and coconut, I had the strawberries with sabayon. DD and DS both chose strawberry pavlova, which was finished off at the table. Lots of that happened on the NA, not only in the specialty restaurants but also in the MDR, giving HAL the edge for service and dining over our more recent cruises.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Portraits of our gloomy at sea day, spent mostly in CN and walking the promenade.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

The first gala night, Sunday May 27. Sorry about the shadows on the pics.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Gala night -first course - cream of artichoke and carrot soup ( good but couldn't taste the artichoke it was overpowered by the carrots), chicken with soba noodles ( contained no soba noodles), and arugula and frisee salad (see close-up for representative single leaf of arugula). This was our first experience of many where we found the menu ill-described the actual dish.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Gala night next course - no photos of the escargot which were scrumptious or the shrimp cocktail which was fine. For mains we tried the lamb (2), GF duck and stuff shells. Dessert was souffle and sundae.

 

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[tropicalkerry2002]

Eeyore, this is GREAT!!! Thank you!

[Flipfliptravel]

Just disembarked NA on Saturday with my 11 year old son - we loved the ship so will be following your report and excited to relive it all!!

 

 

 

How were the kid activities? Traveling with my 13 yo and 15yo in July!

 

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Eeyore, this is GREAT!!! Thank you!

Thank you and you're most welcome!

 

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[buckeyeann]

Really enjoying your report and appreciate learning of your experiences with the gluten free offerings!!

[EeyoreRN]

Went to BB King's and the Preview in the Mainstage, and back in our rooms, the When and Where for the next day, Monday, May 28, where we would be in Juneau, 1-9:30 pm.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Really enjoying your report and appreciate learning of your experiences with the gluten free offerings!!

Glad to help out! The key is go to customer service on day 1 and have a conversation. Also pre-order the next day's meals. The worst was day 1 lunch when there supposedly wasn't any way to fix that...but it was better after that.

 

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[EeyoreRN]

Monday, May 28, sailing into Juneau was as bleak weather-wise as the day before, but on our excursion to Mendenhall Glacier, the weather greatly improved!

 

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[EeyoreRN]

We had a really hard time choosing between two excursions in Juneau. One was the Tracy Arm small boat excursion offered through HAL. This was the one where the boat picks up passengers outside of Juneau around 9 am, ventures way into Tracy Arm and meets up with the ship later in the day. The other, the one we ultimately chose, was a paddle/hike ice adventure offered through Liquid Alaska Tours. While we were sad we missed Tracy Arm we were THRILLED with our adventure!! It was so cool to paddle a canoe on a glacier lake and hike up Mendenhall! One of the photos below shows a view of nugget falls, a view most visitors see from the trail near the visitors' center. We enjoyed a unique perspective!

 

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