mj_holiday

April 30, Tuesday, Victoria, British Columbia Our excursion today was wine tasting at three local wineries, well we had to drive about an hour to get to them, but I guess that’s local. The drive was pretty and the wineries were also very pretty. The three wineries had different styles of wine and different ways for tasting. We learned a lot about each of the wineries and the various wines. The first winery had a Pinot gris with a little carbonation, which we really enjoyed. The second winery we went to, the tasting was conducted by the owner’s wife. She gave us very good information about the different varietals that we were tasting. The last winery had tables set up for us outside as they brought the various wines for us to taste. It was an interesting and fun tasting excursion but as I looked at one of the wineries on the web, I see that they cannot ship outside of Canada. May 1, Vancouver, British Columbia Time to be dragged off of the Explorer. 6 AM came very early, but we were ready to vacate our suite by 8 AM. The disembarkation was delayed by 40 minutes waiting to get a clearance from some government official. We were heading to a taxi to go to a hotel in Vancouver for the afternoon and the evening. While the driver was taking us to our hotel, he arranged for taxi to pick us up the next morning. Our original airline reservations were for noon, but they change the flight to 6 AM. We got to the hotel blue, got all our luggage in and the cab left and I went to check in. They did not have our reservation. I pull out my phone with my information show it to the lady and she inform me we are at the wrong hotel. I had told the taxi driver we were staying at the hotel blue. That is where he took us. The lady at the reception desk read my information and said I was at the wrong hotel. We were reserved with Blue Horizon Hotel.😱 We got another taxi cab and then got to the correct hotel, the Blue Horizon. Thank goodness it was not a dump. The hotel was very nice a little millennial, but very nice I had to call the taxi driver we had a reservation with and let him know I had been at the wrong hotel and the address of our new hotel. Have you ever had a taxi driver laugh at you on the phone? The room was nice and comfortable. We had a late breakfast at their restaurant which was very very good. Took a nap in the late afternoon. Walked around the neighborhood and found a restaurant and bar to go in for a couple drinks and a snack. Our taxi driver showed up the next morning at 4 AM. We made it to the airport and had an uneventful trip back to Texas. Our car was not damaged by any hail and we drove home to Oklahoma City. It really was a great cruise with great crew, great food, a great ship and great ports, We really enjoyed ourselves

Ketchikan, April 28 We stayed on board this day, DH had a cold/allergies/something that was bothering him and we just had a relaxing day. We did start planning for what to put in which suitcase as we will soon be leaving the explorer. Didn’t do any good trivia. We went to dinner and DH got a coughing fit and couldn’t stop, so I took our two glasses of wine and we left the main dining room. Both maitre ds understood what was happening and asked what they could send to our room to eat. April 29 – Sea Day – Inside Passage We slept in this morning, and DH is feeling much better I won a game at bingo, the prize money isn’t very shabby at all. Through the inside passage was very relaxing the view was obstructed by some fog, but it was still very pretty with the shapes of the mountains and the trees. Today was the last trivia game of the cruise, the Cruise Director had been keeping track of team points on all the sea days. We were very surprised to learn that we were in the running for a winning total. The questions were tough and we missed several but I guess not as many as other teams. We got an all around third place and weren’t we surprised.

On our previous cruises we have asked for a bottle of wine and a bottle of calvados by email Guest Services and they were there when we arrived. This last cruise we did the same thing and nothing was in our cabin when we got there. We asked our steward and then next day he said he could not get the calvados, so we selected another one. We attended an event with the head bartender during the cruise and asked him about calvados, and he said they couldn't get it any more. No further explanation.

On our way home and bring this up to date then. It was a great cruise.

Saturday, April 27, Sitka Great sun sunshine started off the day. The port had a couple of golf carts at seat six to take those with some mobility issues parent DH parent from the dock to the shuttle buses, a great idea. The shuttle buses took us to a central parking lot in town. That would be easy to find when it’s time to head back to the ship. several of us needed to go to the pharmacy, which was maybe three blocks down the sidewalk. After those errands, DH and I stopped in “. Ernie’s Saloon”, and found a table to sit at. Before we had a chance to order a beer, a very senior gentleman walked up to us and invited us to join him at his table, which we did. He has lived in Alaska since he got back from Korea and was a wealth of information about the area. He showed us the cut out from the local newspaper which had announced our ship in Port that day. The bar also had a very nice bar dog named George. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping for souvenirs and looking around town. There was a fantastic Russian orthodox church. We had a late lunch in a local establishment, we had fish and chips made with local freshly caught halibut. We split a lunch and still couldn’t finish it all. Just a great lunch. Back to the ship for trivia, not good. Ordered a small snack for our suite since we had such a big lunch.

Friday, April 26, Cruising Hubbard Glacier. The pictures tell most of the story. It was a sunny day getting to the bay, was a very pretty sail in. The main glacier and a couple smaller ones were really interesting to see. The narrative was very informative. Apparently, later in the season you have a better chance of seeing the glacier calf. The ship did a 360 turn, so all definitely had a chance to see the glacier

April 25 Seward Seward is a large port with lots of stuff going on. As I got off the ship to take the shuttle into town, I suddenly realized there weren’t any arrows telling me which way to go. We have spent 15 plus days in Japan where there was an abundance of arrows to make sure we knew which way to go. Not only were there no arrows today, but there were no other regents guest just then for me to follow. Well, I headed out of port and yes I got stopped and told I was going the wrong way. I finally made it out of the port, and after being turned around a couple times to get to the correct bus and the correct side of the temporary fence I was in line for the shuttle. There was another cruise in port today. Each ship was running a shuttle plus the port itself had a shuttle. The town of Seward had a lot more homes and businesses and hotels than I had imagined. We have been here 15 years ago just going from the train to the ship in the rain. So it was very interesting seeing the town. Lots of the homes had large windows and plexiglass balcony railings to take in the view, but it must get cold here in the winter. We did not take an excursion, so the walk around town was very interesting. Back to the ship and trivia and we did not place at all.

April 24, Homer, Alaska it was a beautiful day and we took the shuttle bus into town. The shuttle bus was very convenient and went to three places around the town. We went through all three stops and decided on a stop on the strip we walked into the first building we saw with an open sign and it looked familiar. I’m sure I’ve seen it on TV on some travel show they did not have food but they had cold beer and DH I had one and then headed back to the ship for lunch.

After six days at sea, we can finally walk on solid land. The first thing we did was turn our phones off of airplane mode so that we could get the correct time on our phones. The excursion was a panoramic drive around Kodiak. You really didn’t get to see that much because windows were fogged, but stopping outside the bus (a school bus at that.) you could see beautiful vistas. The extemporaneous talk of the driver was very interesting, such as 99% of the power used on Kodiak is renewable. In search of a toilet I found this. After the tour I went in search of a pharmacy to get some stuff that we’ve run out of. I headed to a small Safeway store that had 95% of its shelves devoted to liquor and beer. The guy at the register was able to help me with a small display that they had, and I found some of what I needed. Back to the ship in time for trivia and we placed third again. We had an excellent dinner, everything from the selection to the taste, and the service was very good.

OK, we have been through our second April 20, April 21, and we are now starting April 22, I think. As I said we’ve been notified that we have to miss Dutch Harbor and they gave us another port and they passed out the schedule. But then last night I got excursion tickets from destination services that say today we’re going to be in Kodiak Alaska. So I’m not the only one that gets confused. I will head down to destination services this morning to make sure where we are. The second April 20 was uneventful, except our trivia team placed first. April 21 was a Sunday and they had the Sunday brunch. The way they have it scheduled they’re really wasn’t a crowd whenever you wanted to go. It was a very nice display and I’m glad we went. I have no pictures but I need to say how great the food has been in Compass Rose. We are on our 21st or 22nd day and I have not seen a repeat in the menu. I will provide more details from either out to sea or Kodiak Alaska, once I figure out where we’re going to be

We paid for the entire cruise, not by day. The cruise was identified as Tokyo to Vancouver, and showed when we would cross the international dateline. However, I don’t remember seeing both April 20 listed when I was making dinner reservations in the specialty restaurants.

It’s still April 20 as we finish the first one and start the second one. finally, our trivia team placed on the first April 20 and it was first place at that. Hopefully we can do a repeat of this on the second April 20. As shown by the invite above, you have to spell out which April 20 you’re talking about. We headed to dinner in the Compass rose, and there was a line. (this is very unusual.) It seems everyone else wanted to get an early start on their evening, The clocks get set ahead two hours tonight as we head toward the international dateline. We will have to wait and see what the second April 20 brings us. The question for us on the second April 20 is what pills out of our pill organizer do we take since we are having two Saturdays.

April 20, the first one We are on our third day since we left Otaru. I called this April 20 the first one because we will be having a second April 20 tomorrow, we are crossing the international dateline. We keep ourselves busy with bingo, reading, trivia, watching the scenery go by, it is very relaxing. Since we boarded April 1, the service has been fantastic. Crewmembers always have a smile on their face while they are working very hard. An example of their service happened yesterday. DH and I had gone to the La Veranda for lunch. We found a table and then went to get what we wanted. I went out to the pool grill to order a sandwich and came back sat down and didn’t seem DH. I said s__t, where is my husband? A staff member walked up and asked if she could help me. I said no thank you, I’ve just lost my husband. She looked up looked around and found him for me. Yesterday Regent had an event that was new to us. They organized all the states and countries that passengers are from and divided it up into five or six sections. So at 6 PM we went to the section that included Oklahoma and met other people, mostly from Dallas, it was a nice event.

No their arms were by their side (mostly). I think this was their first outing, since they had to be reminded often to hold their place on the cord. They were very cute with fluorescent yellow hats.

Now I will discuss umbrellas in Japan Keep in mind that Japan is a small country and many places have small stores, gathering, places etc. and it rains quite a bit. I started noticing umbrella stands outside, or just inside the entrance too many places. After thinking about it, I’ve come to realize that putting your umbrella in the stand as you go into the store, keeps water from dripping all over the place and making a mess or causing someone to slip. The first umbrella stand, I will show you is from the Tokyo Hilton outside the door in a covered area There appears to be a common one at a lot of stores. There was another interesting umbrella stand that also had large strings of some type of cloth so that you could dry your umbrella off when you put it in the stand. We saw that in immigration at one port and planned to get a picture of it on the way back, Murphy’s Law meant that we were ushered through a different mouse maze going through immigration coming back and we did not get a picture. One more picture I want to share with you is the creating the creative solution of having the umbrella always ready. I am not sure if this umbrella belong to our guide or the bus driver that day. I really don’t think there’s a problem with petty thieves messing with the umbrellas stowed outside stores.