YVRteacher’s dad is on a cruise! Live from the Jewel Aug 19- Sept 2, 2024

[YVRteacher]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

Hello, Turner Glacier. Many years from now, Turner and Hubbard will meet

[Sand and Seas]

Wow!  Absolutely awesome photos!   

Thanks for dealing with the wifi and sharing with us😊

[YVRteacher]

My pleasure!

[YVRteacher]

400 year old ice!

 

[Wink87]

4 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

400 year old ice!

 

So cool! Literally and figuratively!

[Hogladyrider]

WOW.... Simply AMAZING pics....BEST I have seen this cruise season!

[YVRteacher]

1 hour ago, Wink87 said:

So cool! Literally and figuratively!

I see what you did there!!!

[YVRteacher]

24 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

WOW.... Simply AMAZING pics....BEST I have seen this cruise season!

It was a truly wonderful excursion. The captain told us that the rain and the grey weather would allow us to see the glacier better. The naturalist, Nicole, encouraged people to embrace Southeast Alaska’s weather and step outside. 
 

I asked Nicole a little bit about herself. This is her fourth season in Alaska, 2 in Seward (Kenai Fjord) and 2 doing the Hubbard excursions. She is studying marine biology in college. She is wonderful! We enjoyed hot chocolate and doughnut holes along with the incredibly close glacier viewing.  All these photos were taken 1/2 a mile from Hubbard. If I heard correctly, the Jewel was 7 miles away. I used all our shore excursion budget for this week on this one excursion.  Actually we don’t have a shore excursion budget but in my mind I did.

 

i also loved these scarves for sale on the small boat.  They are beautiful but my friend just brought me a beautiful scarf from South Africa. 
 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

Our captain did a phenomenal job providing both sides of the boat with excellent viewing opportunities. We could go out back and we could alternate between the viewing areas on the port and starboard little decks off the bow.

 

We were sad when our time at the glacier was up. I loved the distinct line between the glacier melt water, the fjord and the ocean

 

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

Wait! We are not done: there is another special treat before we board the Jewel.

 

Sea lions!

 

Chunky male doing some yoga

 

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

Females and babies 

 

The grunting was awesome! These sea lions are grunters, not barkers.

 

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

I spy the Jewel

[YVRteacher]

Once back on board after going through security, Dad announced to everyone, “I’m back in one piece!”

 

I wanted to go to Cagney’s for dinner so dad could have lobster bisque but dad only wants to eat in the Palace MDR now. I have a feeling we are going to forfeit all our specialty dining meals this week. 

 

 

I didn’t really want to go to the Palace because there was not a lot that appealed to me. However I said sure, picked up the cheese tray from the butler and happily declared, “I’m just going to have cheese for dinner.”

 

 

In the elevator everyone oohed and aaahed over the cheese plate and one guy was pretty much drooling over the blue cheese.  I took the lid off and offered him the blue cheese. He said no then I said go ahead and he took it all. He ate it right there and was in blue cheese heaven. He said his wife was going to ask questions when he came back to the cabin smelling like cheese.

 

Being chilled from a full afternoon of glacier watching, I asked Kevon if there was any vegetarian soup. The chef whipped up a delicious roasted tomato soup into which I crumbled the cheddar cheese from the cheese plate.

 

 

 

I also had the spinach and artichoke dip which was the best I’ve ever had. They only gave me 7 tortilla chips to start so I needed a top up. I felt embarrassed to ask for more chips but there was no way I was letting that spinach and artichoke dip go to waste.

 

 

Dad had clam chowder (his favourite) and shrimp with pasta in vodka sauce.

 

 

 

  Tonight we learned Prosecco with pineapple is not dad’s favourite.

 

 

We shared dessert. I forgot to take a photo. 

 

Me: what are all these raisins doing in my Apple strudel? 

 

 

Edited September 1 by YVRteacher

[Seas2mountains]

18 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

After reading your post I realized that this visit to Seward could not be my last! Like you, I love Seward. Have you been to Exit glacier? I haven’t been there.

No, this can't be your last visit to Seward! 

 

Yes, we went to Exit glacier in June 2015 before our first NCL cruise ever on the Sun. We love staying in Seward as it such a beautiful area and so much to do. Whittier does not sound like it is a great port.  

Thank you for the amazing and spectacular Hubbard Glacier photos! You have convinced me to pay the $350/person for the excursion as the cruise ship cannot get as close as the excursion boat.

Enjoy your final day at sea with your Dad! 😀 Thank you for bringing us along!

[YVRteacher]

Entertainment:

Comedian Jeff Harms

 

I enjoyed him. 

The ship started rocking and it sounded like we were hitting things. The bow smacked down so hard I thought we were going to lose decks 1-4. The comedian was swept from side to side and after quite a good joke where the  punchline  timed perfectly with a huge rocking motion of the ship that induced an audible gasp of fear from the audience he looked upward and apologized to god for his joke. 

 

I have never had to hang on to the ship’s walls to move from point a to point b before. The barf bags are out and the bartenders have applied cling wrap all over the bar to prevent glasses and bottles from sliding.

 

I just had to endure two complete versions of Sweet Caroline. Melvyn finished the first and the crowd asked for an encore so he obliged. We are at Maltings. Our happy place!

 

Drink tally day whatever this is

Dad

2 beers

1 pineapple Prosecco

 

Yvonne

Painkiller

2 pineapple Prosecco

1 pistachio martini (I asked the bartender for a Milky Way and he didn’t know how to make one and I couldn’t google it since wifi doesn’t work so I have this instead. It is like the whole liqueur section met up for a party with some chocolate drizzle in my glass.) 

Make that 2.

 

 2 pistachio martinis. I don’t know how I’m going to walk back to the cabin. Dad already went to bed.

 

You know how some parents write adorable notes professing their love to include in their kids’ lunch boxes? I never got one of those.  Instead, I got this at 10:15pm when I returned to the cabin after my night of two martinis:

 

 

I responded:

 

Oh crap does this cabin feel like it’s about to implode. It creaks, rattles, squeaks, moans and clicks. It is like being trapped inside a beginner marching band in a never-ended parade. I am going to lose my sh¥t this week. 

 

I can hear dad coughing through the wall. Oh dear.

 

I’m so seasick I can’t write anymore.

[YVRteacher]

Week 2 day 3

As you can see from the weather report, today it is going to Rian.

 

For a treat and to ensure a sleep-in I ordered us room service breakfast. It came right on time but was completely missing my food. There was food for dad, fruit to share and no meal for me. Sigh. I’m tired of the errors. 

 

30 minutes after dad’s food was delivered my food arrived.  All the food was excellent. 

[YVRteacher]

Dad is fine today. I was worried after that coughing last night. No cold or sniffles.
 

He moaned all the way through breakfast even though there was nothing to moan about. We are not eating room service breakfast again: he doesn’t moan like this all through restaurant breakfasts. I just get the private show. Lucky me.🙄

 

I made dad shower and put on clean clothes today. He couldn’t figure out the taps and knobs in his shower so I had him use the simpler shower in my room.  He was much happier with that. Fortunately dad doesn’t use conditioner because the bottle is empty. It was empty when I needed it last night too.  Today my hair is frizzy. It should be straight.  I left a note for the room steward to please refill the conditioner. Isn’t he supposed to check this daily? Or at least check on embarkation day? 

 

Since breakfast was delayed we missed arts and crafts tech cord organizer this morning. I wanted to do that. 

 

Our concierge is so disorganized (and I believe lazy and and not at all suited for the job) that we did not get the glacier viewing invite until an hour before the event started yesterday.
 

We did not get the priority tender information until the room steward brought it at 10:30am today. This is after we had been at anchor for 90 minutes. If people in suites were out and not in their cabin they wouldn’t have known. On other ships and on this ship with other concierges this information has been provided on either the first day of the cruise or at least two days prior. 

 

Up until the start of this season port arrival announcements were blasted into cabins and, as much as I love Cruise Director Emma, I did not enjoy being woken up hours too early on my vacation with those announcements. They stopped doing that and I am glad and grateful. 

 

Tender tickets (for people without shore excursions or who did not have Latitides or Suites/Haven priority) were available this morning at 7:00am. At 10:53am ticket holders 15 and 16 were called. I wasn’t paying strict attention but I think groups 28 and 29 were called at 11:15 and tenders were open (no tickets needed) by 11:30am.

 

After breakfast I wanted to walk around the ship for a while to get some exercise. We didn’t realize just how hard it was raining.  I asked dad if he wanted to play Scrabble or get drinks.

 

You know how that situation unfolded, right?

At O’Sheehan’s I drank my painkiller in two sips. I was sending my dear friend a birthday message and heard the bartender say “would you like another one?”

 

I responded “oh yes please” before I realized he was talking about a Bud Light to the man next to me (not dad.)

 

The bartender, the man and I all laughed!

 

It is all okay because I got a refill on my painkiller. 

 

Two painkillers in and I was feeling great! Dad was grumpy as all get out so I pretended I was full and gave him my third painkiller. He loved it!

 

Morning bubbles off the balcony in Icy Strait Point right before we saw a whale. These cold weather bubbles are so fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YVRteacher]

As Jayleen says (hundreds of times a week) “tail!”

 

This is Frederick. He lives here.

 

Rainbow!

[YVRteacher]

 

We tendered to Wilderness Landing where the Bliss was docked. I had a flashback to the time we met Jim Badger out on that dock when we were on the Jewel and he had moved to the Bliss: it was a stunningly sunny day and we were thrilled to see Jim again after cruising with him for years on the Jewel-class ships.  We used to book cruises specifically to cruise with Jim. He was wearing shorts and his legs were white like chicken legs.  My heart just aches for him and his family. Caaaatsssss.

[YVRteacher]

 

 

 

Once ashore we took the transporter gondola and were treated to two deer. One was itchy. The other was sleepy.  

 

 

 

 

@schmoopie17 I feel like we need a comment about Doc, Grumpy and Dopey…

[YVRteacher]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked along the beach then a heavy rain cloud opened up above Icy Strait Point. I put a raincoat on dad and gave him a chocolate chip cookie. 

 

Eventually it was raining so hard we ducked inside a building to wait out the worst of the storm. 

 

Then we waited 30 minutes in the line for Lil Gen’s Mini Donuts.

 

 

The ravens kept us entertained.

 

 

 

and so did the zip line in the fog

 

[littlegit]

21 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

 

We tendered to Wilderness Landing where the Bliss was docked. I had a flashback to the time we met Jim Badger out on that dock when we were on the Jewel and he had moved to the Bliss: it was a stunningly sunny day and we were thrilled to see Jim again after cruising with him for years on the Jewel-class ships.  We used to book cruises specifically to cruise with Jim. He was wearing shorts and his legs were white like chicken legs.  My heart just aches for him and his family. Caaaatsssss.

I love Jim Badger and his sardonic sense of humour. He is such a great entertainer.  Please let me know what happened to him.

[YVRteacher]

We did a doughnut taste-off with 4 flavours

Yvonne chose:

Peach Mango

Salted Caramel

 

Dad chose:

Fruit Loops (such an odd choice! When he pulled the first one out of the bag he asked me where the fruit was so I think he expected something different. I don’t think he knows about Fruit Loops cereal. )

Chocolate Raspberry

 

Verdict: we did not even get close to a winner. We loved them all!

 

Dad commented, “this is too many doughnuts.”

 

I responded, “did you say something about too many doughnuts?”

 

Dad: “oh no, not me!”

 

My dad also asked me if this was lunch. It was lunch time, but it didn’t feel like lunch to me to I told it was pre-lunch and that we could get some pizza once we were back on the Jewel.
 

Don’t tell security, but we brought 4 dozen mini doughnuts back on board for crew. 

[YVRteacher]

9 minutes ago, littlegit said:

I love Jim Badger and his sardonic sense of humour. He is such a great entertainer.  Please let me know what happened to him.

He was riding his bike where he lives in Florida and a woman hit him while driving and he did not survive.