Denise T

Happy Thursday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. Rainy morning but seems to be clearing up. I have some respiratory thing going on. Not really bad, just a sight cough. I am working on my grading and stuff. Oh. I did find out that I was nominated for Faculty of the Year at one of my universities. I was surprised. Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

We saw many whales while on the ship. You have to look for them. Always be out on deck if possible. We had a verandah cabin, and we would sit and watch for them. One day alone we spotted about five from our balcony. With the excursion, the boats go to where the whales are known to be. We did the HAL excursion that used Gastineau Guiding. The captain of the boat was in communication with other boat captains and the captains worked together to get to the whales. We went early in the season. By July, you will probably see more whales. I also recommend looking at the buoys. You may find sea lions. In July you may see more bears as the salmon come back to Alaska. Also look up at the trees, you should be able to see eagles. Bring a good pair of binoculars.

Picture time! First up Seattle.

Happy Wednesday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. Rainy today. This means that Fancy will not want to go out as she hates rain. I feel a cold coming on. Not surprised with the amount of sneezing and coughing on the cruise. Doing my best to fight it off. Back to grading assignments today. Yesterday I did a ton of laundry, but that chore is done. After grading I will be working on a lot of business stuff. Bon Voyage to @VMax1700! Happy anniversary to @summer slope! Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

There were 2 dressy nights. The first was Day 2 which was a sea day. The second was day 6 which was when we were in Ketchikan.

@marshhawk, my heart breaks for you. Furnando will meet all of my fur babies who went ahead of him. They will welcome him with open arms.

Happy Tuesday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. Back to the daily grind and routing. All of our fur babies are home and happy to be home. I must admit that while away I had my best sleep ever. My Sheldon loves sleeping with me, but he usually ends up sleeping on me making it hard to breathe with his cat fur. But I do love hearing him purr in my ear. Fancy is struggling with her allergies as are we. In Alaska, the air is so fresh that it was wonderful being able to breathe. Oh, we met the new neighbors. They seem nice. Now I am planning our next vacation to New England next year. And of course it's back to work. @marshhawk, thinking of you and Furnando today. It seems like we are with them for a short time, but they give us so much. Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Happy Monday, Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. It is tough getting back into a regular routine after a cruise. We got home around 7:00 pm yesterday after a long day of flying. We got up at 3:00 am Seattle time. Today it is back to work for me. Luckily, I can work from home. Today we pick up our fur babies from boarding. The cruise was wonderful. I cannot say enough good things about the crew on the Eurodam. My room stewards were awesome and everywhere we went on the ship, we were met with friendliness from the crew. There were lots to do and sometimes it was hard to decide what we wanted to do because things were scheduled at the same time. It is hard to come back to real life. I had to get my own coffee and breakfast this morning. Next year we are taking a break from cruising to do a driving road trip to New England in the fall. We plan to get back to cruising in 2027. NCL now sails out of Philadelphia. I wish HAL did. Sailing out of Philadelphia will save us money on flights and hotels. That savings will allow us to book a suite. We will of course continue to sail HAL for our Alasa cruises. I am impatiently awaiting the email that confers my degree. I will be "attending" a virtual graduation ceremony in July as I did not want to travel to Texas for the in-person graduation. Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

I am finally back home after a long day of flying from Seattle to Philadelphia. Now that I have stable Internet, I will be downloading photos of the trip. I am so happy because I did capture a whale in one picture. All in all, this was a great cruise. I had so much fun with my sister, and we do plan to go back again. It was sad to have to leave. But the pictures are coming so stay tuned. And thank you everyone for following along.

My sister is saying the exact same thing!

Forgot to post Skagway pictures. These pictures are from 2023 as we did not stop at Skagway this time.

Hello all and thank you for following along. I will have my pictures posted over the next few days. Victoria: A bit of a disappointment. We were delayed getting off of the ship. I suspect it was a medical emergency as when we were walking to the terminal, someone was being taken off the ship in an ambulance. We were so late that our excursion, a horse drawn carriage was cancelled. We did not know about it until we got off the ship. I guess I was hoping that they could have informed us while we still on the ship. With no excursion and the Norwegian Bliss getting off at the same time, we just went back to the ship as our time was even shorter. It was almost 8:45 pm when we got off the ship. We just hung out a bit on the ship. Earlier in the day we played BINGO and I was one number away from a free cruise. Lost any winnings in the casino. Final thoughts: I enjoyed this cruise. There were ports that I wish we were in longer. Our whale watching excursion was a blast. I think the crew on the Eurodam was the best that I ever had. They were attentive and so friendly, going out of their way to make the cruise enjoyable. Our room stewards were the best. They were always checking in with us to make sure everything was okay. The chefs in the specialty restaurants and MDR stopped by our table. Service was great. This is why I love the smaller ships. Now, if HAL could embark from Philadelphia, that would be great. Taking a break from cruising in 2026 and planning for 2027 to cruise again. Stay tuned for the pictures.

Happy Saturday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. I am reluctantly back from a wonderful cruise on Eurodam. I cannot say enough about how wonderful this crew was. Attentive, extremely friendly, and always reaching out to make sure that our cruise went well. I hope to have my photos up on my live over the next few days. We are still in Seattle and fly out early tomorrow. @cat shepard, I am so sorry for the loss of Bindi. They always know when it's time. I am grieving with you and my crew in Heaven is with Bindi. Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Forgot to post yesterday. Ketchikan. Nice walkable port. Extremely rainy so make sure that you dress accordingly. There were six ships in port today. We walked the port. Walked Creek Street and the fish ladder. Too early for salmon. We did see lots of eagles. It was really to short to do a lot. We did room service breakfast and Dive-in lunch. Dinner was Cannelleto. Service was great and the food delicious. Then we wandered the ship for a while and back to the cabin. We are getting tired. Our stop today is Victoria where we will do a horse drawn carriage.

Too brief. And rainy. Which it would not be Ketchikan if there were no rain.

No, I have not. I watch too many crime shows and so my brain goes to conspiracy theories as to how they will use that for id. I watched too much NCIS.

I really haven't had issues posting to CC. I am planning on a photo dump this weekend once back in Seattle.

MDR open til 900 pm and Lido is open from 5:30 to 8:00 pm and then 10:00 pm - 11:30 pm for select stations. It will vary during the week.

They still had the Yuzu cheesecake but I had the Passion Fruit cloud.

Back in the cabin. Dinner in the MDR was awesome. I use that word a lot. The food was delicious. I have been eating a lot of fish because I can't cook fish and this is my chance to eat good fish. Very attentive dining room staff. The crew on Eurodam have been very attentive. Always asking how we are and how are day in port went. Our two room stewards always great us and as if we need anything. I even had guest services call to make sure we are getting all of our Club Orange benefits. I did not experience this on the Nieuw Amsterdam two years ago. This says a lot about the hotel manager. After dinner, we listened to the dueling pianos. There are shows but we haven't gone to them because there is so much to do. After that it was Orange Party time. Great turnout. The Rolling Stone ban sounds great. Now, I am very tired. Tomorrow is a very short day in Ketchikan.

Hi just saw this. I could not tell you because I cannot remember what the old menu was. The food was awesome and so was the service. I notice that the restaurant staff are working hard to memorize names of passengers. Our server Lilian kept addressing us by name which I thought was great. She was the best.

For those asking about dress. I suggest dressing neatly. Polo shirts and nice pants. I was not aware of anyone enforcing dress codes but Alaskan cruises are more casual. My sister does not dress up for anything or anyone. She wears nice jeans and a sweater. I wore sneakers to Pinnacle and Tamarind because my feet hurt. No problems. My sneakers are purple so they look pretty cool.

They were not checking tickets. I prebooked but got in line anyway and got on. It is not mandatory to do but strongly suggested. We were in with Caribbean Princess but they came 2 hours after use and left an hour after us.

I did prebook a time but when we got off the cruise ship the line for the shuttle had a digital sign that it was open and no reservation was needed. Carribean Princess was coming in at 11 so they probably did timed booking. On the way back, even thought we booked for 1:15 we finished early and just got in line and got on the shuttle. Shuttles run every 10 to 15 minutes. It does not matter which ship you are on, you get on the same shuttle as the ships are docked side by side in Sitka. No one was looking at tickets when we boarded both times. This may change.

Sitka today. Had a very nice day so far. On and off rain. Went on a hike in the woods and then did some shopping. For those who have never been to Sitka, there is shopping at the port and a few restaurants that were not open. You take a shuttle bus into downtown and you can walk several nature trails or walk around the downtown area. We are in port with the Caribbean Princess. The shuttles seem organized. Breakfast was in the main dining room and I had a delish veggie frittata. Lunch was in the buffet where again, the food is pretty good. The staff in the buffet make my day. They are so happy and attentive. Spending time in the Ocean Bar working. Tonight, dinner in the MDR and then the Orange Party is tonight. I will hopefully be able to download some photos soon. Tomorrow, Ketchikan.