Sailing North to Alaska

Sunday, May 1 - Sea Day

I slept well during the night, but was aware of when the ship hit open water. Throughout the night I was reminded we were on a ship from the rolling motion of my bed. This was a sensation I had not experienced for over two years and it was one I enjoyed.

Our clocks had gone back another hour but my internal clock had not changed. We were 3 hours behind Minnesota time which meant it was way too early to get up when my body thought it was 7 am. I made myself stay in bed as long as possible, but was still up at 5:45 am.

While Bob did his daily walk (on the promenade deck) I went up to the lido and filled my travel mug with coffee. This very activity was why I had booked our cabin, #8143, one deck below the entrance to the buffet. One flight of stairs between me and my coffee is a good thing.

Last night as we were going to bed we realized there was a light shining from under the closet door. I searched but couldn't find any switch that would turn it off. It was annoying to have the light on as we were trying to go to sleep so Bob finally got up and stuffed a towel under the door to block the light. This morning when our room steward, Made, knocked on the door I asked him about it. I felt silly when he said it was motion activated. Us jumping up and down out of bed trying to turn it off had the opposite results...our motion just kept it turned on!! 

By the time Bob returned from his walk, I assumed the lido would be a zoo. Sea days are like that. Everyone sleeps in and then shows up at the buffet at the same time. I suggested we have breakfast in the main dining room. Big mistake. Our request for a table for two was granted by being seated at one end of a table for 8 with the place settings next to us removed. Four other people were seated at the same table with us. The other tables were in such close proximity that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. No social distancing happening anywhere in the dining room.

Our table was in the very back of the dining room on the port side. The noise and vibration was incredible! It was what I would imagine it would be like dining inside of a box car on a fast moving freight train.  We waited for a very long time before anyone took our orders and even longer before we were served. Eating at the buffet would have been so much faster (even with the crowds). I can only assume that they were short staffed and struggling to keep up.

A "Port to Table Cooking Show" featuring salmon was scheduled at 10 am in the BB King Blues Club. These cooking shows have been added since the partnership between Holland America and America's Test Kitchen dissolved. I always enjoyed the ATK presentations so convinced Bob that we should attend the show. When we arrived a few minutes after 10:00, a presentation on flower arranging was in progress. 😕 

Thinking there must have been a mistake in the schedule we decided to go to the Crow's Nest on Deck 11 forward where Kainoa, the onboard naturalist, was demonstrating how to use binoculars at 10:30 am. I'm not sure that we needed a class on such, but the only other offering at 10:30 was "How to Look 10 Years Younger". 😆 The excursion desk is also located in the Crow's Nest so I stopped to inquire about getting tickets for the tram in Juneau and confirm that our port time had been shortened in Ketchikan (it had.) 

There was no sign of Kainoa or for that matter anyone else with binoculars in the Crow's Nest. It was then we realized the ship time really hadn't been turned back. (Found out that our room steward had mistakenly left the card with the time change notice last night.) So instead of 10:30, it must be 11:30 and time to eat!!

In an effort to somewhat stick to my low-carb diet, I ordered the Free Dive burger at the Dive In. (The burger is wrapped in lettuce leaves instead of a bun.) The burger was excellent but the lettuce leaves did nothing other than turn the burger into a slippery mess. Bob, as usual, hit up the Asian station. We found a table by the main covered pool with a window view, but there was nothing much to look at other than gray clouds and rain.

After the rocky night, both of us had taken sea sick meds in anticipation of a rough sea day. (Bob is convinced that he will be seasick anytime he sails in the Pacific.) But those meds combined with a dreary day made an afternoon nap sound inviting.

Shades of gray.

A few minute before 2:00 I woke Bob so we could go to the "Pacific Giants" talk in the theater. The cruise director narrated video clips from whale experts. His talk finished about 2:45 and we stayed in the theater to catch the next talk by Kainoa, the naturalist, on "Fins, Fur and Feathers." Besides random information on wildlife native to Alaska, he gave tips on when and where to have the best chances of spotting wildlife. He made it sound like seeing bears along the shore was pretty common, but I will be surprised if we do.

Naturalist Kainoa. 

A quick stop by the buffet for a cup of tea (me) and cranberry juice (Bob) and then it was time to get ready for dinner.

We had called the day before and made reservations for the main dining room and were seated immediately when we arrived. I was relieved that we were seated no where near the area where we had breakfast. Our table for two was alongside the windows, but close enough to the adjacent tables that we might as well all been at the same table. Bob was gracious enough to give me the view looking out the window while he faced the dining room.

The two ladies at the table next to us seemed friendly enough, but in the course of our meal we learned that the younger woman was very intoxicated and a recovering heroin addict. This information came freely from the older woman who happened to be her mother. She was very apologetic and filled us in on the details each time the daughter left the table...and this happened several times over the course of our meal. 

Eventually the daughter left and didn't return which gave mom even more time to explain her situation. I felt bad for the mother as she was trying to spend some quality time with her daughter, but she admitted she wasn't sure how she was going to survive the week. Oh, and just for the record...the daughter didn't fit the stereotype of a drug addict. She was well groomed and well educated with two masters degrees. 

Dinner service was slow enough that when we arrived at the theater, the Captain's toast was just beginning. Following the Captain's welcome we watched the Step One Dance Company present the show "Humanity". The six dancers performed to recorded music with an amazing technological light show synchronized to their movements. It was impressive, but I really missed the costuming and live music and singers that we have seen on previous cruises.

Before calling it a night, we stopped by the Billboard Onboard and listened to the pair of piano players doing Top 100 hits. I will admit I enjoyed them more than the show in the main theater.

When we came back to Deck 8, I got off the elevator and started walking towards our cabin and then realized Bob wasn't following me! He had stayed in the elevator and never said a word! One of the ship's officers was sharing our elevator and thought that was quite funny! Eventually he returned to our room carrying a pepperoni pizza!  (Have I mentioned how I liked being close to the New York Pizza place?) 😉

We continued watching a little more of the movie "Field of Dreams" until our eyelids got too heavy. And for the 2nd night in a row, our steward left a card on the bed saying "Turn back the clocks one hour." Hopefully this time they mean it!