zgscl

We were treated to a beautiful sail into Sitka Sound this morning. I can't believe how great the weather has been this sailing. After we had cold weather in July last year maybe the weather fairy decided that I deserved a warm trip? Sitka used to be a tender port but now has a cruise terminal outside of town (they still tender ships on days with many ships). Passengers are bussed into town which is a 15 or 20 minute drive. When we were here in 2021 we had to take busses and then tours departed from downtown. This year tours appear to depart from the cruise pier which is a major improvement. At the end of our tour we had the option to get off downtown or stay on the same bus back to the ship. The “Best of Sitka: Otters, Raptors and Bears” excursion truly highlights the best of Sitka. We started with a 3 hour boat tour on Sitka Sound searching for wild life. It is fairly uncommon for the whales to breach (jump out of the water) in Alaska, this is more of their mating rituals and displays and usually occurs in the tropical waters where the whales mate. During that time they don’t eat for months before migrating back to the North to feed. You typically see them at the surface, diving down with the fluke (tail) and then come back up with a big puff of air. We got incredibly lucky and found a mother humpback whale teaching her calf how to jump and saw at least 25 breaches. Absolutely an incredible sight. The guides were completely blown away. We also found a grey whale which is rare this time of year in Sitka. Combined with the perfect weather this was really an incredible tour. The Fortress of the Bear is a fun place to visit. When bears are shot for getting too close to humans one thing I never knew is that the cubs are often also killed as they cannot survive on their own. The Fortress of the Bear was founded to give these cubs a place to go. Unfortunately once the bears are in captivity state law prohibits them from being released to the wild. They do their best to give these bears a realistic environment and even go as far as to hid their food around the enclosure so the bears have to forage for it. The bears are incredibly smart and have an amazing sense of smell. They can smell which handler came into the enclosure to hide their food and will usually trace the same route they took just by smell. There is an artificial river and during salmon season they release salmon for the bears to catch and eat. On the drive to/from the Fortress of the Bear you come across a funny sight - the retired San Francisco Bay ferry "Vallejo." She was retired in 2018 and I guess found a new home up in Sitka. I wonder if she will get a new life as a tour boat eventually? Or maybe it is just for private use? Would be interested to know. She was built in 1994 and has a capacity of 267, and is capable of 34 knots according to the SF Bay Ferry website. Finally we visited the Raptor Center which takes in injured birds of all varieties and rehabilitates them and sends them back to the wild. In general the birds are kept in a special enclosure designed to minimize contact with humans. There is a one way glass for visitors to see in and the handlers spend as little time as possible in there. The goal is for the birds to heal and be released back into the wild. When release is not possible they will transfer them to the educational side of the facility where they will have more contact with humans, can see visitors, etc. During the educational session we met Kylie, a male red tailed hawk. Kylie was found injured as a young bird and found by someone who decided he would be a good pet. Instead of sending him to a qualified facility like the raptor center they raised him at home during his formative years. While he worked with a falconer and is fully capable of hunting on his own, he cannot be released back to the wild. They released him twice and he would repeatedly beg for food from street vendors and when they didn’t feed him he would start dive bombing people which is of course dangerous for both him and the people. Kylie lives in the educational portion of the raptor center and is often used for demonstrations as he is very comfortable around people and does not get uncomfortable with large groups. After returning to the ship I headed straight to the lido cabana for lunch. The Lido had already closed but I had another of my favorite "Cannonball" burgers from dive in and I also tried the strawberry smoothie which was great but somehow not quite as good as the orange.

Midship elevators are now only missing one of the side ones. They have all the others working. Definitely slowed things down during embarkation and disembarkation in ports as you have to take the midship elevators to the gangway most of the time. Good to know if I ever do a back to back! I just ignored the letter and no one ever said one word about it.

Wednesday - Sitka

We had a nice evening sail away from Icy Strait Point with a beautiful sunset. Seattle offers a fantastic service - Port Valet. You can get checked in to your flight from the ship and they take your bags from your room directly to the airline. The program is free to all guests and paid for by the Port of Seattle. As far as I know they are the only port that offers this as a free service (in fact I haven't seen this offering from any port I have sailed out of since the pandemic other than Seattle). Somehow I made the naughty list for the muster drill. I definitely scanned into my station during the drill. The safety video was not playing on the TV when I got to my room so maybe it didn't count it when I navigated to it through the TV menus. As it turns out they just send you a letter with instructions if you don't attend.

Lunch in the Pinnacle Grill was good. It is also a short and scenic sail over to Icy Strait Point. For dinner I went to Canaletto which was also excellent. The Crab Risotto was excellent - After being blown away on the Nieuw Amsterdam this dish has been a bit of a disappointment for on every cruise since so I am glad they got the flavor back into it! I always ask for some of the popcorn from the brownie with my ice cream at lunch. It is a great addition. Sometimes my mom will just ask for a bowl of it for desert.

Tuesday Menu & Programs

Tuesday - Glacier Bay Is there a more beautiful placed in the world to wake up in than Glacier Bay? And we couldn't have asked for better weather. I think we made it farther up the Johns Hopkins inlet than I have before.

For dinner on Monday I went to the Pinnacle Grill. The food was good, although I do notice that the pre-desert sweets have been downgraded from previous cruises. I totally forgot to get a picture of the pork chop.

I highly recommend the "Luxury Whale Watching" tour in Juneau if you can fit it into your trip budget. It is pricey, but it is one of the best tours I have ever done. This is my third time and I will definitely do it again. They take you out on a yacht with no more than 8 passengers. They are very good at finding the whales and they spin the boat around so the stern is facing it. Excellent viewing and no need to fight for deck space. It is $479 per person and is 100% worth every penny. I have had great sightings all 3 years we have done it. They also stop to show you Mendenhall Glacier on the way (and you get a great view from the boat also). Side note - take this with HAL and not Celebrity. Celebrity wants nearly $700 for the exact same tour in July. Good for them I guess as they have been sold out for months. We will be doing something else when we are back here with them, as much as I love this tour I don't think it is quite worth that.

Just leaving Victoria!! They are generally set for the season. What you see in the app is most likely going to be accurate.

We have been so lucky. Everyone has been telling us it is not normally like this in May.

So the ice cream is good. I think the rest is a waste of space. Last time I just asked for 3 scoops of the mango and I was very happy. Ill have to ask about the chocolate that looks great!

You should totally do that 🙂

Good to know about the seafood boil. I don’t think it sounds like something I would want to try I’d do better with the $10 lobster tail at pinnacle grill. I should write them about red velvet pancakes. It works a lot better. As I recall the dish actually had a sweet cream cheese butter that they served it with. It was one of the best breakfast dishes I’ve ever had and resembled the cake without being the cake.

He should totally mention it. They are so good about allergies, etc. I know they even let people pre-order the day before and they will special make whatever you want.

Monday - Juneau Totally skipped breakfast. Sleeping in was just too tempting. But I had an early lunch in the cabana which was delightful. The cabana is worth the price to simply avoid lines in the lido. I also order way too much, but thankfully didn't have to carry the multiple plates. The sail into Juneau is quite beautiful. We are so lucky with weather this week. Lunch menu was never posted but it is an express menu. Usually fish and chips or one other option. Monday MDR dinner Monday Daily Program

Not sure if they have that normally or if it was just for the Mothers Day Brunch. Probably they have access to that regularly. I feel like lactose intolerant is a pretty common thing.

We are racing the Princess ship to Juneau. We lost, but our ship is much prettier. They are heavily advertising the Seafood Boil in the Lido - haven't done one of these but seems like it will be in the lido one night. Almost seems to replace the Sel de Mer popup which I haven't noticed at all. Late night buffet was your typical fried and leftovers. Pizza was great as it always is.

Tamarind was great, and one of my favorite specialty restaurants. I just have to remember the Mango Posset is the desert that I am not a big fan of.

I will ask. I think it would not be a problem - I believe they use the bar mixers as the base so they could most likely leave out any milk products (if it even contains them). The bartenders are quite creative! They have a few other non-alcoholic blended drinks as well so I think they should be able to make something work!

Mothers Day Brunch - Pinnacle Grill Contrary to common practice in most specialty restaurants they did not charge extra for additional entrees. You could also choose whatever you wanted as a starter. Greek Yoghurt Crunch Pot Pinnacle Burger Red Velvet French Toast Kind of weird dish. The bread is too cakey to be french toast. And the topping is whipped cream which would have been better as some kind of cream cheese based frosting or glaze. I get what they were going for but it just didn't really work. I had red velvet pancakes at the Hilton LAX many years ago that were out of this world. I think they would do better with that and then to do a more traditional french toast.

My apologies for the delay! I have been quite busy and the internet has been dreadful the last few days as we travel through the inside passage between mountains. Will see if we can get better coverage this evening off Sitka. Sunday - Mothers Day MDR lunch menu (same every day except Juneau has a limited menu due to arrival time) MDR Dinner menu Daily Program

The food has been great, although I am doing all specialty dining and lido when that is closed. The MDR is no longer exciting to me LOL

I was assigned 11:20 and ignored it completely. I came at 1:20 and virtually walked straight through everything and onto the ship. Not so for the Princess ship. That extra 1,000 people sure makes a difference. The cabin is a Neptune Suite and it is lovely! The smoothie is from the non-alcoholic menu at the pool and is $7.50. I am certain they would be happy to add alcohol for the appropriate up charge. They have strawberry, orange, banana, pineapple, pina colada and you can do single flavor or mix and match. Same menu at the Lido and Sea View pools.

One each of the side banks are out of order. Wonder if this is related. Hope they get them back up and running.