DEBBO1012

Yes!!! We had three of them helping our group on that day and then took pics with them. I ding know how to add pics of ai would show you😊

Alaskan Cruise Day 6 - Icy Strait Today we slept in a bit and headed to Icy Strait. Fun fact, it has the highest concentration of bears in the world AND just around the corner is Point Adolphus which is one of the world’s premier whale watching destinations. As you approach the buildings you’ll see two gondolas. The green gondola is free and takes you to town and the historic cannery. The red one costs $60 and takes you to the mountain top and zip line. It is very fast!!! None of us did that. It beautiful, but nothing interested me so I went back to the ship to check on David. We got hot tea and coffee, headed for the big, comfy chairs on deck 15 observation lounge and are watching eagles and people. People are the most entertaining. After hanging out for a while we decided to try for the 6:30 showing of Jersey Boys even though we had signed up for the 9:30. We got in!!! Words are not expressive enough for this wonderful and entertaining show. I got in trouble for taking a pic when all of “our” Jersey Boys were on stage together. We made our way to our new favorite place called the Local. We got wings again, listened to karaoke and a fun Asian band play all our favorite oldies. Love this place and wish we had found it earlier. Headed to our room full of joy. I got my music fix as well as my spicy food fix which I had been missing terribly. Plus the company we are keeping is pretty special.

Alaskan Cruise vacation Day 5 - Juneau Our add on of priority status has been a godsend since David is still under the weather so I order his food to be delivered by room service if I’m gone. Today was one of those days. The rest of us were off the ship at 7 in Juneau and walked up to our gathering place for the busses to take us to our excursion, Harv and Marv’s Outback Alaska, Whale Watch. We all highly recommend them. Call 866-909-7288 to make a reservation for your day in Juneau. We rode about 15 minutes then boarded a small boat to take us out. Just our group was on board. We chose this because the larger and cheaper whale watches have 50 or so people all vying for position to see the whales. We have 9 (minus David) on ours. We immediately spotted a hump back cruising and our captain positioned us so we would not interfere but could see. The onboard naturalist was great, telling us pertinent information but not droning on and on. We saw whale after whale, some mothers and calves…13 in all. They also pointed out all the glaciers and the stellar sea lions. It was awesome! Back on the ship, we checked on David and got the announcement the ship would depart for glacier bay in an hour. We decided on the time to meet to watch the various glaciers go by, the Sugarcane Mojito bar. It was a perfect place to gather, have some refreshments and chill, recounting our fab whale watch, and waiting for the Beatles Experience to start that evening. I ended up waiting upstairs with David and watching from our balcony. By the way, if you do this cruise, shell out for the balcony and try to get on the port side. It has been amazing! The Beatles were fabulous! Everyone sang along with every song and there was a smile on all our faces nobody but our age could understand. They do different Beatles shows, this one was the early Beatles and songs written by John. The next one Friday night is the later Beatles and their white album. This is a must do! We hadn’t eaten dinner so made our way to the Local, a place I had walked through one day and saw bar food. We were starving for something with lots of seasoning so we order the chicken wings with sweet chili sauce and original buffalo style plus some spinach dip and chips. YUM! It was so good we couldn’t resist dessert of cheese cake and carrot cake. Double YUM! We all agreed it was our best day so far.

Alaskan Cruise vacation Day 4 - Sitka We are approaching our first port, Sitka, and have already seen some amazing scenery, eagles and whales. It is sunny and gorgeous with Mount Edgecombe, a dormant volcano, passing just outside our balcony. We chose the port side, but it is yet to be determined if that was correct. The people I asked were mixed. So far port side - 1 and starboard side - 0. We decided to wait until and masses descended on Sitka, having breakfast and lunch on the ship and heading to the Internet cafe one more time. Our phones still don’t communicate well. After the obligatory pics by the town sign (Mark filled in for David) we visited the beautiful Saint Michaels Cathedral. So lovely and ornate inside. There was a Russian couple going through a solemn ritual at the alter which was so interesting. After walking around town a bit, we ended up at a candy store I had read about on Cruise Critic called Chocolate Moose. I bought several pieces of REALLY dark chocolate, their specialty, for David who was still under the weather and stayed on the ship. Next came pics of the town totem pole and then back on the ship to get ready for our SIX concert. It is about Henry the 8th six wives, to my surprise. I thought it would be a similar show to the wildly popular Branson and Coleman SIX a capella group of brothers. Wrong! It was high energy singing and dancing accompanied by an excellent all female live band. Definitely a thumbs up from the ladies in our group and a thumbs down from the guys, many who slept through it. We got in late and have a whale watch cruise planned for 7 am in Juneau so fingers crossed we get some much needed sleep and our phone alarms work to get us up. When in port we take it off the Bliss wifi and airplane mode. When on the ship, we put it on Bliss Wifi and turn on airplane mode, but in order to communicate we have to have minutes left on our wifi plan. This phone thing is becoming a pain.

Alaskan Cruise vacation Day 3 We began with the sad news one of our cruisers father had taken a turn for the worse. They got an Internet package and phone service set up so communication would be easier and decided since there is no way to get home to stay busy. The rest of us helped with that all day and evening and here is how the rest of the day went. We decided to try the Garden Cafe buffet this morning. I’m not a buffet girl, but am game to try just about anything so away we went. The noise, crowds and activity is at such a high level I’m immediately in the flight part of “fight or flight” mode. Instead I walked around concentrating on the tons of food choices and ignoring the noise little by little. Finally, back under control, I decided on eggs benedict which I watched the cook make. It was delicious! We decided to leave the throngs and go to the Internet cafe because once we left port our phone didn’t work so we couldn’t communicate. Someone suggested we should have brought walkie talkies like we did 20 something years ago, lol. Instead of wistfully wishing for days gone by, the 6 of us joined the other 4 sitting around the Internet cafe for the next 3 hours. One person who shall remain nameless went up to the desk for help no less than 7 times. It went from stressful to funny. Each time the very handsome, young and very tech savvy (one of five) Jeff said “hello again, what’s going on this time?” We also discovered these guys were the Jersey Boys onboard entertainment we have tickets to see! Soooo cool! THEN, I started a campaign of getting everyone’s Canadian forms filled out that were due. They have to be perfect, filled out in ink and no scribbles. Each time someone would get finished, I would take it to my very friendly, go to girl in immigration so I didn’t have to stand in the very long customer service line. (Look for the ladies with clipboards roaming around trying to alleviate that line by helping people on the move.) Each time she would shake her head and give me a clean form to take back for them to redo. “NO SCRIBBLES!” Oh, ok so back I would go and give them a new form. “What are they going to do throw us in jail?” Ummm, I don’t make the rules, David. At one point in the hour long process, we were all hot, hungry and tired of sitting so I started trying to talk her into taking them with scribbles. She gave me the teacher look and handed me a new form with force! “NO!!!” I demurred took it back, handed it to them one last time. “See you in the pokey!” We headed for lunch back at the Garden Cafe. Oh, lord….. Luckily, I found hot and sour soup which was delicious and also found an Indian food counter way in the back. I followed an Indian fellow through the line and got everything he got. It was all delicious and not too spicy except for the fermented pickle medley I took a huge bite of and gagged…that stuff had some funk goin on. We went to a presentation about our itinerary, but the guy talked so fast my Okie brain didn’t process a thing he said. By this point in the day, I needed a noise break so took a nap in my peaceful stateroom. Ahhhhh Next, we went to a reception for Latitude members. Latitude is the name of NCL’s frequent cruisers club. Royalty greeted us as we entered (the captain and first mate, etc all in their dress uniforms). The captain welcomed us then handed the mic to fast talker so I have no idea what “important info” we got. Dinner in Savor was good and we rushed to the Cavern to try to catch the Beatles show. Standing room only so, nope! We decided to call it a night and I’m so glad we did. I slept like a baby from 9 pm until 4 am this morning. Yikes, now what do I do?

Alaskan Cruise vacation Day 2 Day 2 began with 5/6 of us searching for caffeine because the Moore Coffee Shop didn’t open at 8 as the sign proclaimed. We waited 10 minutes and made our way to Ludi’s down the street. It was our lucky day because not only was the caffeinated coffee delicious, they had an Hawaiian flair to their cooking so we could have chosen spam, musubi or lau lau, which was so fun to see, but we went traditional and had a variety of “normal” items we all shared. But better than the huge portions was the conversation ranging from the mundane to the sublime. Having known each other most of our lives, all topics are on the table along with the biscuits and gravy. Having chosen comfy clothes and shoes for the day, the hotel arranged for a driver to come pick us up and take us to the Norwegian Cruise Line -Bliss pier, so we squeezed into the tiny ancient elevator with all 7 of our pieces of luggage plus backpacks galore. Our driver squeezed them all in his suburban plus the six of us and plus two more at the last minute and away we went. On cruises, the first thing you do is put your cruise identification tag on EVERYTHING, including backpacks and purses. I’ll explain later, but trust me. Our driver dropped us off with our pile of luggage and away we went, trudging toward the luggage drop off. No need to let the throngs of guys with carts take it for you, it is just a few steps away. Keep your backpack with you. It should be full of (in order of importance) passports, cruise documents, meds, books, and candy. Kiss your luggage goodby, drop them off with a guy you hope is legit and keep trudging toward the NCL check in. You feel like a rat in a maze, but it’ll be over soon. We opted for priority service at about $80 per person and so far I think it is worth it. They have a special line for us priority folks for check in and a guide who takes us through a special tunnel and voila, we board the Bliss and it is beautiful! First stop is the bar for a Diet Coke, beer or whatever suits your fancy and we try to start relaxing. The first day makes you feel like the first day of school or a first date, but try to calm down. Some people are absolutely freaked out so just smile and be polite while you wait for about 4 hours as the previous guest’s rooms get cleaned and you get the word yours is ready. We ate a yummy lunch at Savor, laughed until we cried, walked around, read, sat around, laughed some more and finally got to go to our stateroom. Gorgeous! We sat on our balcony (yes, it is worth it), unpacked a little, went to “sail away”. SO fun, don’t miss it, unpacking can wait. We went to an early dinner at Cagney’s Steak House, one of our two specialty restaurant dining we got “free” with our booking. David and I aren’t big steak eaters so we opted for seafood. It was very good and the yummy wine was Shades of Blue Riesling. Dessert was raspberry creme brûlée. I’m not a big raspberry person, but I can’t pass up creme brûlée. It was fine, but would have been better without the evil raspberry throughout. We planned to go to a show after, but since 3/6 had not had their luggage delivered, they opted to go back to their staterooms and unpack. David and I walked around the ship, familiarizing ourselves with the ship, finding where the buffet is, where to refill our OSU water bottles (16th) and checked out the shopping on the 8th level. Our comfy shoes finally gave out so we headed back to our stateroom. Once there we ordered coffee to be delivered at 6:30 am with room service (a perk of priority) ummmm, yes! It was a great day, my stress is gone, David’s is getting closer and after having sat all day, lying prone felt wonderful and I think I was asleep in 1.5 seconds. I love cruising. The jury is still out with David.

Alaskan Cruise vacation Day 1 This is our second Alaskan Cruise, the first 20 plus years ago in the Holland America Veendam for my parents 50th anniversary. My dad got sick so they had to cancel, but some in this same group plus others went last time with us and it was an absolute blast! Our flights yesterday starting at noon with Southwest were comfortable and on time. No crazy incidents on either plane. We landed at 5 pm and took a taxi to the historic and not air conditioned Moore Hotel, built in 1907. We knew they provide fans so took the chance just to stay here. We stayed cool and comfortable and it is a phenomenal place to stay…one of my top 5. It’s more like a little Paris apartment. Pics below. We are only a couple of blocks from the pier where our cruise departs and downtown so we walked a couple of blocks to the Blarney Stone pub to meet some of the others. We walked in to the entire bar singing “Happy Birthday” to David. So fun! We had reservations at the Fisherman’s Restaurant at the pier and all 10 of us met for David’s birthday dinner. His choice was seafood and seafood we got. I started with a raw oyster shooter that was spicy! Then we had sourdough bread made on the premises and their famous clam chowder (my eyes rolled back in my head). We should have stopped there, but David wanted to try their Captain’s Platter and it was delicious. Even though we shared everything (except the shooter) we were stuffed and it was 10:30 our time so everyone decided it was bed time. It was a perfect day 1 and I wouldn’t change a thing except our little kitchen has a coffee maker but no coffee so David went to the front desk to ask for some and all they have is DECAF! Ummmmm, nope! I’ll bring my own next time and there WILL be a next time because even if we don’t go on a cruise there’s an historical Moore Theatre next door, the pier to explore, whale watches, a ferry and so much more here. Day 2 begins in about 15 minutes when we all meet in the lobby and walk to a REAL coffee shop just around the corner.☕️

This is what I was searching for when we were trying to decide between several ships and itineraries but didn’t find so I write one each day. Hope you find it useful. Thanks for all the individual input in choosing this cruise. Ten old friends from high school and college all in our 70s have traveled extensively together for decades and plan to continue as long as we are able. No mobility issues in this group and we all search for the most fun adventures so we travel well together.

Thanks to all, this is great information. Keep it coming as we are meeting online today to make some final plans.

Thank you everyone! Very interesting info. Keep it coming. We have all been on a cruise to Alaska before but want to make this one the most memorable. Our itinerary is: *Sitka 11-6 Endicott and Dawes *Juneau 7-1:30 (we have already booked a whale watch) *icy Strait 7-3 *Ketchikan (Wards Cove) 6:30-1:15

Thank you everyone! Very interesting info. Keep it coming. We have all been on a cruise to Alaska before but want to make this one the most memorable.

There are 10 of us traveling together and several want to take a train ride. Is one offered on the 7-day cruise?

I took both tamiflu and cipro, but just used the tamiflu. My nasal sprays to kill virus are Xlear and sovereign silver.

For sure. We were in a dive cruise once years ago and I got an ear congestion. Ruined my whole trip because as a diver you HAVE to be able to clear your ears and I didn’t have any meds with me to take for it. Ugh!

Definitely! I take eye meds with me also because I have gotten eye infections in years past before I started bringing my own prescription meds.