May 26, 2022 Sea Day

One problem with writing a daily blog after the fact is that you quickly forget anything you haven't memorialized in pictures.  So, this is going to be brief. 

I got up reasonably early (Cathy had been up for hours because she didn't sleep at all last night). We decided to go to the dining room for breakfast. We were seated at an aft table overlooking the ship's wake and given a huge breakfast menu. (Sorry no menu pics)

The menu we had compliments of Professor Cruise 

The menus on the other pages of this website seem to match the menu we had on our cruise. 

I ordered the Eggs Benedict with crabmeat.  Cathy ordered an egg platter.  We immediately noticed how stingy Holland has become with things like butter and syrup.  First of all, no more whole pats of butter, they now cut them in half and give you like 4 halves. Of course, always ask for more, if needed. And second, for an entire order of pancakes, you again get skimpy butter and syrup in a teeny container that was only a teaspoon or so. What? Again, tell them you need at least 5 of those or a big dish of syrup. Sheesh. 

After breakfast, the stomach games began for me. OMG I was so nauseous. Was it the food or just my wonky stomach? We will never know. 

But the sun was shining and as our ship was only sailing with about 700 passengers, deck chairs abounded! Of course, there were pool towels and wool blankets available. The temperature was close to 70, but still a bit chilly with the wind. 

And of course, there are always a few quite odd people on a ship. Here is one example:

The scenery was beautiful as we sailed north. 

We pretty much did a whole lot of nothing and just watched the beauty of the passing scenery!  I drank a lot of ginger ale and had a green apple and some broth for lunch. 

We 'shopped' for replacement clothing for Cathy in the ship store. Note to Holland America: Not every women that sails on your ships needs a size XXL, 2XL etc. The store had 1 pair of pants in medium. We begged them for crew clothing. Very, very sad. And the expense--OMG T-shirts, 2 for $40, hoodies $75. Insanity really, but when you have no clothes, your choices are limited. 

Cathy made the best of everything and certainly didn't let this ruin her trip. We were having a great time so far and talked to a ton of lovely people---all now know about the luggage situation and the cancelled flight drama!

We also discovered the Crow's Nest on the deck above the bridge. What a great place. A huge room with window walls on 3 sides. It was furnished with comfy chairs and ottomans facing the front of the ship. The side windows had tables for two.  In the middle of the room were sectionals, larger tables and a great coffee/regular bar.  The Caramel Lattes are THE BEST! (they are included if you have the drink package)  

That afternoon, the place was fairly empty, so we were able to snag two of the comfy chairs facing front. Another great way to watch the gorgeous scenery. 

As dinner time rolled around, my stomach wasn't feeling a dining room experience so we went to the buffet and just chose what we wanted.    

A little about the buffet:

1.  You cannot serve yourself any food--you don't even pick up a plate. It's all served by the kitchen staff. 
2. Everything that is served in the dining room is served at the buffet. 
3. They have this lovely salad bar---again, served by the crew and it is amazing
4. They have a separate dessert area that also serves ice cream in a variety of flavors and with several toppings. 
5. There is a pasta bar and a poke bowl area along with fresh rolls and sandwich fixings. 
6. When you choose a seat in the lido area, silverware and napkins are on the table and crew members bring you drinks---water, lemonade and iced tea are free.  They also serve bar drinks. 

I'm sort of sick of reading these stupid articles written by people, who I am convinced have never cruised giving people all this misinformation about cruising.  UGH

Now, I do normally prefer to dine in the dining room, but once in awhile, the buffet is a great choice. 

We did stop at BB King's lounge after dinner and the band was fabulous!  A lovely, intimate setting with comfy seats and booths, bar service and a large dance floor. It was soon to become our favorite venue!  Highly recommend! Best show I've seen on a ship! Their sets are about an hour long and that a perfect amount of time so you are then free to see and do other things on the ship!

Cathy and I did visit Guest Services to inquire about her luggage. It was our first encounter with Michael, the "leader" of guest services.  We were not impressed. He seemed unwilling to really do anything to help, other than say Cathy's luggage may be in Juneau.  Sigh

After a full day of beautiful scenery and lovely, unexpected sunny skies and warm temperatures, we headed back to our cabin. 

May 27th, 2022 Juneau, Alaska

Cathy, my early-bird friend was up and about for a couple of  hours before I got up. The ship was headed towards Juneau. We were expected to arrive about 11AM.  We had a very long port day too. 

Unfortunately, the excursion we had booked and paid for was cancelled. Sigh. Something about our timing and tides. But it ended up being just fine. We booked Mendenhall Glacier and a Whale Watch through the ship.  

We began our day in the Crow's Nest once again with Caramel Lattes and then switched to Bloody Marys.  Oh my were they tasty.  All of the chairs around the perimeter of the Crow's Nest were taken but we found a great table where we could see just fine. 

The scenery was getting more beautiful by the day.  We were just surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was amazing. 

As we approached Juneau, we saw there were a couple of other ships in port. And the skies were still sunny and it was quite warm outside.  We watched as the ship docked in port and then made our way to the gangway to board our excursion. 

NOTE: there were plenty of tour operators in port where you could have booked a ton of different excursions.  We chose to stay with the ship because they refunded our original money back to our onboard accounts 

There were only about 25-26 people on this tour! We drove through Juneau and I saw at least 20 Bald Eagles just hanging out on the light poles. Mind-Blowing. 

When we got to Mendenhall Glacier, there was a nice visitor center and trails that ran all over the grounds.  We got fantastic photos.  

The second part of the excursion took place on a large, 3 story boat. We were told the boat could hold 250 people, but again, there were 26 of us!  Private Tour.  There was even a small bar and store that sold various kitchy kind of things. They served free coffee and donut holes. Of course, we had to have a shot of Baileys in our coffee!

We headed out into the sea in search of whales. The first thing you look for is the spray of water from the blowhole.  Then the whales usually surface. We had many sightings and even managed to capture a whale tail!   It was just incredible. The skies remained sunny and there wasn't a lot of chop on the water!  The tour was several hours long. 

The bus was waiting for us at the dock and took us back to the ship. I believe all aboard wasn't until 10:30.  We opted to get back on the ship about 8:30-ish.  It was too late to go to the dining room so we feasted in the Buffet instead!  

No food porn to share! Sorry!

No luggage for Cathy either. Our "helpful" Customer Service Manager, Michael, stated no one had notified the ship that luggage had been delivered to the small Juneau airport.  And he would not Email or contact anyone about it.  WTF? 

Interesting fact about Juneau. You can only reach the city by boat or airplane.  No roads outside the city!

The casino once again called my name! So, off to 3 card poker I went. I did pretty well and managed to get a straight flush and a few other decent payouts. So, this girl went back to the cabin in a very happy frame of mind!

We were honestly on the go from the time we got up until we went to bed. Eating drinking, dancing in BB King's, just overall having the time of our lives! 

It was a 'best day ever' kind of day!

jilly