Norwaylady goes b2b Alaska+Hawaii on Eclipse

[AndyCapn]

🙄 Don't 👂 to the 🦀. Your review is 🔥.

[vickykay]

Beautiful photo of you and Mr Norwaylady. 

[Norwaylady]

We took a “Clark Kent” before we went to Sky Lounge. Love the view❤️

 At 18.45 it was time to walk down to the theatre. (We have a policy onboard, no elevator) 

Tonight’s show is Will Martin

He’s from NZ and very talented🎶🎵🎶

Great show, great entertainment😂 

 

After the show, we went for dinner. We were given a beeper and a notice of 20-25.minutes waiting time. It was only 15.mins before we walked into dinner🥳 

Today’s menu:

Tonight we had the tuna poke from mdr as starter and Waldorf salad and red bell peppers soup. 

Main: risotto and pheasant 

Dessert: bananas forester and cafe pot de cream. 

 

Dinner was excellent, nothing wrong tonight. 

 

When we returned to our stateroom, it was a letter of notification from shore excursions AND a voicemail. Our tour in Ketchikan, rainforest walk is cancelled. 

So we will either get refunded on our sea pass card or we need to visit shore excursions to find a new option. 

🤪😳😤🥵 

So will take care of it tomorrow morning 

😟

[Norwaylady]

Todays cruise compass for Endecott & Dawes Glacier 

[Norwaylady]

It’s a bit gray and cloudy outside. But, it might change to the better… (you never know in Alaska, we have experienced this everyday;) So fingers crossed it will clear up a notch before we arrive at the glacier😌

 

Mr Norwaylady is having his princess sleep…… So I’m enjoying a cappuccino and a croissant in al Bacio. (And they have functionally WiFi😅😅) 

Later it’s time for a little “me” time aka manicure+pedicure🥰 ( it will not conflict for my glacier viewing;) 

AND again, it’s my pleasure to handle our shore excursion problem🙃 Let’s hope they have something available that will fit our wishes. 

[WNCtourist]

Really enjoying your review and especially the photos. Brings back great memories of our Alaskan cruise 10 years ago!

[Norwaylady]

So, it went from breakfast continental style to manicure & pedicure 08.00😎 (I said it would not be a conflict for my glacier view;) 

Alexandra meet Alessandra😂 Great nail technician from Brazil. Very easy to communicate as much or little as I wanted. 

Great service and no up-sales🙂 

(Unfortunately they forgot to tell me that they called from the spa reception at 07.30 to wake-me-up…. So they woke up Mr Norwaylady…. They just wanted to make sure I was coming…) 

I had been super-silent and didn’t touch the curtains or switch on any lights, to be kind to Mr Sleeping….. hahaha😂😅

Well, my effort counted🥰 

 

After the nail appointment it was time to go down to shore excursion. 0930 and just one in line. Great start. 

They had suggested a crab feast tour in our letter and on the phone.…..

Well, NORWAY 🇳🇴 crab, fish & seafood is our first choice at home. 

So it’s not very tempting…. (If you were struggling to understand why we haven’t had crab yet, now you know;) 

I must admit, we have in season: king crab, snow crab and the other type for dinner often. Typically Friday/Saturday enjoying ourselves at home🥰 And we eat sushi a lot. Typically once a week. 

Shrimps for peeling is always a winner in our home. 

We are catching crabs when we are in northern Norway and we have family that fish and give us🦀🦞🦐

So the price here is far over our paying will and it’s not worth it for us. 

 

Back to the tours available😎

They had another walking tour, it’s a different location and it’s more bear themed. But it will probably be a good trip. The tour leaves a bit later then the cancelled tour. So we will take a walk in town before we go on a hike. 

Problem solved and hopefully we end up happy. 

 

Time to run upstairs and put on the jacket and gloves. 

The weather was improving slowly as we got closer to the glacier. Great 😎

[Norwaylady]

The sail-in to Endicott arm & Dawes glacier is much more narrow then Hubbard. 

It’s very Norway & Fjordland National park NZ. 

The mountains has very visible signs of ice  that has been dragged over many millions of years. And you have a totally different scenery compared to Hubbard. 

 

We started on deck 14 but decided to go down to the helipad. Less crowded and beautiful view for 360’. 

 

The weather was great and the temperature was okay. Not shorts and sandals. You need to get dressed, the wind will cool you down.

The process was similar to Hubbard. They had 2 tender tours today. One 09.15 and a new group 11.15.

Milos was speaking indoors and the music outside was silenced. 

 

Great 360’ spin from our captain and we started our return out of the fjord. 

The weather just got better and better. At 12.00 we decided that we were happy and ready to move. 

 

So now it was time for a little lunch in Spa Cafe. Salmon and baby leaf’s. Then it was time to enjoy the view from the outdoor jacuzzi. Perfect weather and temperature to sit outside in the hot water and enjoy the scenery. It was picture beautiful, no wind and all mirror ocean. 

 

After the jacuzzi session, we wanted some soft ice in the beautiful weather. (It’s important to make the best of your day;

[abbydancer2003]

Gorgeous pictures.  You're on the 11 Day Alaska, rather than the 7 day I did twice this summer?

[Norwaylady]

8 minutes ago, abbydancer said:

Gorgeous pictures.  You're on the 11 Day Alaska, rather than the 7 day I did twice this summer?

 Yes, we will not go to Alaska for 7-days. 
So this fits our wishes better. 

7-days is to short. 
 

We are very happy for this sailing. 

Alaska is beautiful, we can definitely go again. Then we might do 7-days northbound to Seward, off the ship 7-days and then 7-days southbound. 

[Norwaylady]

This is how we look when we are not hidden in outdoor outfits and we are ready for an evening😂😝

[Norwaylady]

Tonight’s program is captain’s club officer party at 17.15 and then show & dinner. 

 

Tonight’s show is a production show, Rock City. 

 

Captain’s club party went as usual preforming. Drinks and presentation of officers. 

Great weather and beautiful view out the windows. Lots of whales puffing 🐳🐳🐳 and sea otters swimming around🦦 

Perfect timing for the party🥳🙌🏻 Sky lounge is our favourite. 

[Redking]

7 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

The sail-in to Endicott arm & Dawes glacier is much more narrow then Hubbard. 

It’s very Norway & Fjordland National park NZ. 

The mountains has very visible signs of ice  that has been dragged over many millions of years. And you have a totally different scenery compared to Hubbard. 

 

We started on deck 14 but decided to go down to the helipad. Less crowded and beautiful view for 360’. 

 

The weather was great and the temperature was okay. Not shorts and sandals. You need to get dressed, the wind will cool you down.

The process was similar to Hubbard. They had 2 tender tours today. One 09.15 and a new group 11.15.

Milos was speaking indoors and the music outside was silenced. 

 

Great 360’ spin from our captain and we started our return out of the fjord. 

The weather just got better and better. At 12.00 we decided that we were happy and ready to move. 

 

So now it was time for a little lunch in Spa Cafe. Salmon and baby leaf’s. Then it was time to enjoy the view from the outdoor jacuzzi. Perfect weather and temperature to sit outside in the hot water and enjoy the scenery. It was picture beautiful, no wind and all mirror ocean. 

 

After the jacuzzi session, we wanted some soft ice in the beautiful weather. (It’s important to make the best of your day;

Norway is on our bucket list.

[Smmessineo]

@Norwaylady This is a wonderful travel diary !  The pictures are beautiful. Thanks for taking us along with you. Our first cruise ever was Alaska in 2003. This brings back memories. I'm looking forward to the rest of the journey,  I think it's going to make me add another long cruise to the "must do" list.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Smmessineo

[Norwaylady]

Rock City…. What can I say? 

We have seen this show before, but the cast of this ship is on fire🔥

Great show, you can’t be angry after the show. 

 

Dinner was good, excellent service. No beeper, we were seated straight after arrival. 

We had for starters: gravlax and beef tartare 

Main course: shrimp pasta and the squab. 

Dessert: crème brûlée and ice cream 

 

The shrimps for the pasta, mmmmm, I can just have the shrimps. No need for pasta. 

They are really good🥰 ( mr Norwaylady had to ask for some extra shrimps😋) 

The squab was excellent. 

Dessert was as expected😋 Ice cream good and crème brûlée good. 

[Norwaylady]

[Norwaylady]

On return to our stateroom last night, we had received the invitation to the b2b meeting. 

[Norwaylady]

Ketchikan program 

[Norwaylady]

Ketchikan

 

Rise & Shine

Sun is up and the sky is partly blue😎 Looks like it will be a great day😎

The new tour we are booked on is Bear Country and wildlife expedition. (I am a bit worried that this might not be a winner, but we will be open minded and fingers crossed it will be a great tour;) 

 

Some words about the b2b. I asked one if the concierge on day 2. Will you do b2b testing? No, not as of now, she replied. 

Yesterday I had to barrow a scissor at guest relations. (Needed to cut of a irritating loose washing instruction on my headband😝) 

I asked again and the lovely British lady looked at me and said: theirs no need to be tested to be able to leave the ship in Vancouver when we return back after your cruise😝

I politely said: we are going onward to Hawaii, will we be tested, since they do on some sailings test b2b? 

She looked at me a bit, you could see the machinery tic. Then she smiled and said, we have not planned for that. Great that you will sail onward. Another lady in guest relations understood what had happened and she jumped into the situation, said no testing, enjoy your cruise. We are happy to have you onboard.

(I know we don’t fit the profile😂😂😂)

 

Today is the usual routine. Coffee pickup at al bacio, breakfast delivered to the room and off we walk🙃🤩😎

[39august]

Is your Hawaii cruise more than 9 nights?  The X web site says tests required for 10 day and longer cruises. We are going 10 back to back 9 nights next week. I would love if they discontinued testing for that second leg of the trip. 

[Norwaylady]

New town, new brewery😝

Took the grand walk in the city centre, creek street, harbour, up to the totem museum and ended up at a brewery😅 Bawden street brewing company🍻. 

A tasting paddle arrived at the table and Mr was happy 😊 

 

Ketchikan has the “jewel” road and the rest of the Caribbean stores…. Yep, shopping is possible😝

[Norwaylady]

Time to leave for our tour🙃

We meet the most “enthusiastic” person in the world on the pier…. She pointed us to the second school bus. YES, your reading school bus😊 

(Due to late in season, they are lacking bus drivers… so they had called out the school bus to take passengers to different locations for tours) 

Our bus driver had never driven cruise tours and they were notified this morning. So a first-timer day at work😎 keep that in mind😌

The extremely enthusiastic guide on the pier, arrived on the bus, picked up the tour tickets and said sanctuary to the driver. The bus driver tried to ask, sanctuary…. 

And the happy, enthusiastic guide just left. 

So off we went. 

 

We stopped at the sanctuary, left the bus and there was no one waiting for us… we went around the building and met a lady. She looked a bit strange on us. “We don’t expect a group now” 

Luckily our bus hadn’t left the parking yet. So after a little chat, by the lady. We were told: you need to continue all the way into the road/dead end. Then you will be on the correct place. 

So off we went to the correct place. 

 

We meet 2 guides, they followed the group on the walk. One in each end of the group. 

The walk is mainly on wooden boardwalk. 

After 2.minutes on tour, we could see a bear. It was going to sleep. 

We detected a bear in the salmon river. It was hunt for a snack. At one point we had 2 bears in the river and a small sleeper🐻

The tour ends at Alaska Raptor Center. They have a red-tailed-hawk, bold eagle and peregrine falcon.

All-in-all a great tour and guides. 

[Norwaylady]

We arrived back on the ship around 15.30. We were hungry after the tour. So we took a walk to the salad buffet in ocean view and had a late lunch and coffee on the terrace outside. The weather is beautiful, so it’s nice to sit outside eating and enjoy sail away from Princess cruises. 

 

After the lunch, we went down to relax and prepare for the evening. 

Tonight’s show is Domenic Allan. 

 

I have to send a huge thank you to shore excursions, all tours we attended in Alaska has been excellent. Great local guides. 

And when things got cancelled, we were able to find a substitute that fitted our needs and wishes. They listened when we said what we wanted and adjusted the options for our wishes. 

Today we were a bit sceptical, but it turned out to be a great experience and tour. 

We feel the value for money on the tours has been excellent and we are not regretting booking everything thru celebrity on this sailing. 

 

We had a pre show drink in Sky lounge. Enjoying the sail-away from Ketchikan. 

The sun was shining and it was really beautiful, so relax and just enjoy the scenery. 

[Norwaylady]

Tonight’s show was on fire. The eclipse orchestra is really good. 

 

Dinner in Blu was good. The service from Made & Seine is very good. All servers and sommelier’s do a very good job. Nothing wrong on service. 

Tonight’s menu is the weakest by now. It’s lots of good choices, but for our liking it’s not great. It’s missing the things we really like or it’s covered in tomato sauce. 

 

For starters we had: cobb salat, the mushroom risotto ball and the hot soup craw fish. 

Main course: halibut and short ribs

Dessert: blueberry apple turnover 

 

Food was okay/not bad. 

The risotto ball was good, cobb salad good. The soup smelled delicious but tasted okay/smell and taste not matching. 

Main course was okay. Short ribs was tender and good. The halibut is okay. The fish itself is perfectly cooked. Perfectly seasoned and pan fried. But what is up to the tomato-sweet chilly sauce it’s drowning in? 

The fish is perfectly done, but the sides and sauce is killing it. 

The dessert was good, but it needs a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

 

After dinner we called it for the night. 

[chemmo]

Really enjoying reading your review. So many people are always going to visit Alaska (or Norway for that matter) when they are older not realising that often the best tours in these regions are on foot, kayak or bicycle and need a good level of stamina and mobility.

 

You sound very much like ‘my glass is half full’ people, many would bemoan that their first choice excursions had been cancelled rather that be happy there were other options. I am sure that Shore Excursions appreciated your understanding, I feel for them when cruisers get grumpy about something they have no control over.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by chemmo