ArcticKitty Tackles Alaska - Carnival Splendor 02-10 May 2022- Trip Planning, Trip Report, & Mehhhhbe Some LIVE

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 5 / Cruise Day 3

 

Second Sea Day / Tracy Arm Fjord
 

 

I really enjoyed the day beds on the Splendor.  
 

 

We made good use of them.

 

 

The good views just came to us.

 

 

Remember how I said I wasn’t feeling the greatest this day?

 

 

Well Tracy Arm must have made me feel better.

 

 

Whilst exploring the ship for different view points, I found that I was much more comfortable enjoying the views I’d I kept moving.  I got antsy if I stood still.  I must be a cat whose vision requires movement to work properly.  I think this is why I get bored on small boats like catamarans.  Anyway, Special Someone is a much more well adjusted person than I am and wanting to just chill so we split up.  I have no idea where he went I went to the jogging track.  Originally I was going to just walk ten laps to have at least walked a mile because we track our on foot miles for a Spring Duathlon Challenge we’re competing in.  I did the mile and then as it does often when you drink as much water as I do, nature called.  After I found a potty, I realized I was nice and warmed up from all the stairs.  So I decided to try slow running half a mile.  That’s where I raised the bar. Now, I will apologize to this point to all of the everyone else who just wanted to stand in the middle of the jogging track and take selfies and professional portraits because I said excuse me, politely and gently, a lot.  It was video game running dodging all those humans.  That said, I decided it’s a jogging track and I could jog on it if I wanted to.  There was a man fast walking the entire time, too.  I saw one other person run a little while I was up there.  So anyway, I raised the bar to half a mile and then I did that and it didn’t seem that bad so I did a mile and then I started to feel really good so I decided to keep going.  I didn’t actually raise the bar I just kept the door open to see what I would do.

 

I won’t say it was easy, but I ran a whole 5K.

 

This was significant for me because I’ve never run more than half of that outside of a race.  I usually need the structure of a race to motivate me to keep going.
 

It was definitely the most scenic race I’ve ever ran.  I felt so thrilled and lucky to be alive and able to move the whole time with all that grandeur surrounding me.  I felt so tiny but such a part of it.  I definitely heard someone remark “that’s not how I’d want to spend my vacation” but it was evidence to me of the person I’ve become that it was exactly how I wanted to spend my vacation.  
 

I didn’t look at the entire time I was going and I was surprised at the end to find that I’d matched my best race time.  To be fair, that race had hills and gravel, but this race of one had no structure or competition and I had all those candid photographers to dodge.

 

For those who are curious about the track experience, I went in expecting nothing and give it a solid thumbs up.  The surface under the tan band is actually cushioned to some degree.  I noticed the difference when I ran off to dodge the peoples.  My home indoor track is 1/8 of a mile and keeping count of that many laps is already irritating enough that when I do a 1.5 mile timed run I have to have someone count for me because I can’t remember what lap I’m on. I thought a 1/10 mile track would be even more annoying but for me it was better being shorter because I could remember the number for half a lap and then repeat it and say to myself “10 and a half” or whatever number I was on.  The track was wet most of the trip, but it was dry in the sunshine that day and I’m glad it was there.  So I’d completed both the cycle and run portions of my on side triathlon at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 5 / Cruise Day 3

 

Second Sea Day / Tracy Arm Fjord
 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, folks, after we run, what do we get to do!

 

We get to eat!

 

Best part of becoming and amateur athlete is that it’s increased my eating capacity!  Now I get to do more of the things I love!

 

 

I’m just here for the snails.

 

Actually, the garlic butter is pretty good, too.

 

Now I do have to share one snobbish Princess comparison, which is they have the proper snail bowls with little divots for the individual snails and that amps up their presentation significantly.  That said these were tasty and I only had to relinquish one to Special Someone.

 

 

The spring rolls were basic.

 

 

As I was posting this, I was confused why there are only two starter pictures.  We never ordered only two starters.  That’s because we got Caesars and shrimp and didn’t record them evidence.
 

 

We gambled and got two lambs and were glad we did.  It was delicious and tender.  The jelly was too green for my tastes as when my mom wasn’t too busy raising me in a cave she did her own canning and her jelly was not that color.  I was jealous that Special Someone got more Brussels Sprouts than I did.  He tried to mansplain me that they were hiding under my meat but I helpfully lifted the lamb up to prove him wrong.

 

 

We also got two orders of the stuffed portobellos because we both love portobellos.  The chunky marinara sauce was top notch but the middle layer of the filling was revolting.  The bottom was spinach, which was fine but then between that and the cheese was this weird mush of pumpkins or sweet potatoes, basically Thanksgiving mixed in somewhere it did not belong.  So please folks, unless that sounds good to you, order every other mushroom dish on the Carnival Splendor, but do not order this fungal disaster.

 

The portobello pictured was mine.  Special Someone started eating his while I was out on a strategic walk.  In my absence, the server had brought these plates and had given me a solo shroom and had given Special Someone a double and told him he needed it “because he was a big strong man.”  Little does he know that I have a faster metabolism and can our eat Special Someone by a long shot.  
 

Anyway, I am an intrepid vegetable eater and the jar of baby food slathered on there didn’t deter me as I scraped it off all three mushrooms and at the bellos and the spinach and the cheese and left the poor servers with a big gloppy pile of baby food.  
 

 

Ha!  I also did not record evidence of having also ordered the schnitzel.  It was really good and I ate most of it.  Special Someone are a little of it.

 

 

For as small as the apps and entrees are, it continued to surprise me that the desserts were full-sized.  Fortunately we both liked the cheesecake.  
 

I am not at all responsible for this second appearance of the melting cake.  This one was a lot more cooked and was more solid.  It was better than the previous liquid one, but it still wasn’t good enough for me.

 

The diet I am on, and I swear my life on it, is that I eat whatever I want.

 

That’s it.

 

Really.

 

I eat whatever I want, but only what I absolutely want.

 

That’s the key.

[KmomChicago]

On 5/12/2022 at 2:01 PM, chadci said:

I'm scared to visit Seattle.... mainly because I won't want to leave.

I’ve heard it said it’s dangerous to visit for that very reason. 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 5 / Cruise Day 3

 

Second Sea Day / Tracy Arm Fjord
 

 

After-dinner scenery.

 

 

Basically you can just wave your phone around and click anywhere and get a good picture.

 

And no, it does not look like this at home.

 

 

Not at all.

 

Not at all.

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway

 

Good morning!  Well, in real life it’s night time but bright and sunny like morning, but in cruise time it’s morning.  I got into a bit of a morning routine of going down to deck 5 to Java Blue to get the daily papers (schedule, puzzles) and then up to 9 for water bottle refills.  Most

days I had room service being the coffee since it was a lot to schlep.  Some days we also ordered tea or just hot water for our own tea. Remind me to review the tea situation later.  I am not shy about being a tea snob in addition to being a food snob and a coffee snob.

 

Anyway, this morning when I went down to get the papers, which I promise I will scan and upload soon, I decided to go see if the arcade had been fixed.

 

 

It was!  
 

Please welcome Alien to my family.

 

I thought I definitely won at this game, but Alien told me that Alien won the lottery as well.  
 

 

Now trying to time the arrival of morning room service was a game for which I just did not understand the rules, like chess.  The first time I’d thought they were 45 minutes late until I realized ship time had changed and we’d forgotten.  Also, how am I supposed to know when I’m going to wake up?  I tried to guess when they’d come, but most days I utterly failed and they had to wake up Special Someone.

 

 

I returned to discover this beauty was the result of checking the box for “melon” on the order card.  I ordered this as often as I could.

 

I did not keep track, but we also ate our way through the sugary cereal menu.  Having grown up in that cave without arcade games or sugary cereal, they were new to me.  This was literally my first time eating Lucky Charms and they were much tastier than I thought.  And continuing with my habit of mixing foods from different parts of the ship, I got chopped nuts and dried fruit from the oatmeal station on the buffet and made trail mix with the cereal.  
 

Most days I also put a 1 or a 2 next to the peanut butter box.  We probably shouldn’t talk about what I did with all that peanut butter but I found plenty of uses.

 

 

Final picture for the moment.  Does anyone else find this disturbing?  It creeped me out.  Kept seeing biohazard bags outside this stateroom.  Saw it so many times I broke down and had to take a voyeristic picture.

 

[KmomChicago]

7 hours ago, arctickitty said:

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 5 / Cruise Day 3

 

Second Sea Day / Tracy Arm Fjord
 

 

And then we peeled ourselves away for the Military Appreciation event.

 

 

For those who haven’t attended one of these, there is a slideshow that plays the songs for each branch of the military plus the coast guard and the respective members of each branch stand up and sing along when it’s their turn.  Then there was a bunch of slides thanking other groups of people ranging from NOAA to Public Health Service.  Then there was an open mic.  We didn’t stay for much of that because we’d had our full and wanted to get back outside.
 

 

 

Besides the poor scheduling (it was 4pm when we were in Tracy Arm 1-7pm) I asked Special Someone what he thought and his reaction was along the same vein as mine, that it was kind of glib or flip.  Andy is a comedian and he told jokes the entire time, which is not a problem per se but the jokes were about himself and for us detracted from whatever the experience was supposed to be. 

 

Now before we get labeled as Andy haters, we had some other fun experiences with him, we just felt there was probably a better suited host for this event.

I’m not surprised by that. Andy’s goofball demeanor fits many Carnival activities but unless he develops another channel he can switch on when needed, the military appreciation event is not really a natural fit for him. He is young and still new to the CD gig. Obviously his humor and joviality and work ethic got him this far and like most workers he should develop more skills and wisdom and maturity in time. 
 

I also don’t think every Carnival cruiser will adore any one CD. I may also have simply been captivated by Andy’s sexy but not-too-brilliant British accent, his roguish, disarmingly attractive smile which he displays almost constantly, and the way he affectionately called me “Love,” as in, “Andy you did a great job trying to figure out this dumb Walk the Plank game.” “Oooh, thank you, Love.” 
 

[maluhia87]

11 hours ago, arctickitty said:

 

I’m just here for the snails.

 

Actually, the garlic butter is pretty good, too.

 

Now I do have to share one snobbish Princess comparison, which is they have the proper snail bowls with little divots for the individual snails and that amps up their presentation significantly.  That said these were tasty and I only had to relinquish one to Special Someone.

 

Carnival used to have the escargot plate with divots.  Must have gotten rid of them over the years since they are more single use dishware. 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway

 

Good morning.  It is now morning in Alaska in real life as well as morning in Alaska on the cruise.  
 

It’s time for our first Port Day Breakfast!

 

Breakfast hours were indeed modified for some of the ports.  Skagway was our longest port at 7am to 8pm and breakfast would open at 7am.  Since we had such a long port, we decided this was a day we’d have a sit down breakfast first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm.  Guess we first did the space dance.  This is the house made granola and it’s excellent.  If the food has been cutback elsewhere, this is how Carnival is spending all their money because it’s almost entirely nuts and seeds.  It was lightly flavored and sweetened and just perfect.  



And this is burnt grapefruit.   Oh, excuse me, it’s brûléed grapefruit.  I was put off by the char (couldn’t they have just toasted it?) but I dove in anyway and the four bites were delicious.  The ginger sugar was present and tasty.  They cut the fruit into fourths and leave behind a lot of the flesh stuck to the peel.  I tried different implements to scrape more fruit off but gave up.  
 

 

Can anyone guess what this is?  Nope, me either.  It’s the breakfast bowl with a side of chicken sausage.  Like with the Salmon Superfood Salad on the Sea Day Brunch menu, they just don’t seem to comprehend what a breakfast bowl is usually like.  Similarly, the exactly two raspberries were perfect and I appreciated them.  They were the only raspberries I saw the entire cruise.  
 

 

I wasn’t getting full from my breakfast bowl so I asked for smoked salmon no bagel and chopped this up and added it to my bowl.  
 

 

Special Someone ordered the short stack pancakes with regular pork sausage.  We had a secret pact to swap links so we each got one of each flavor.  You can see that it came with the toasted pecans but it was missing the whipped ricotta and the caramel described on the menu.

 

 

Special Someone let me have a pancake and it was light and fluffy.  He even let me take the one from the middle so it didn’t have powdered sugar on it like the one on top did.  I think our server appreciated my food rearrangement skills.

 

 

Special Someone ordered the avocado toast but hadn’t paid attention that it comes with eggs.  This order came on a nice thick sourdough.  The pieces of avocado at the back ends of the toast had a funny hard texture and taste and reminded me of the one time I was misguided by impulse shopping and bought the frozen avocado slices at Costco.  They have a funny texture when you thaw them and are just never right.  Anyway we ate everything!

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway

 

 

Welcome to Skagway!

 

Yes, the backside of the city jail is the first thing that caught my eye enough to be photographed.  I tell you, my brain is not like a lot of others.

 

 

However, I quickly decided to pretend to be normal and took a picture of the trains.

 

 

After a short loop around a very quite downtown Skagway, and a stop into a locally owned hardware store where I bought some native seeds, we headed towards the Dewey Lakes trail head.  The orange string caught my eye.

 

 

I thought this project was interesting on all sorts of levels, so here it is for any science nerds out there to enjoy.

 

A different facet of it is that not many people realize that Skagway has a native community.  If you look carefully around town, you’ll find them!  This sign prompted me to tell Special Someone about how there’s a pot of federal money that a lot of tribes get to work on environmental remediation in their communities and many of them have really vibrant environmental programs.  These programs usually have enough money for a scientist or two as well as a bunch of technicians who can be trained to do the work without any pesky educational requirements (a major barrier for a lot of Alaskans).  They also usually have a community engagement component and teach kids about their local environment and encourage everyone to be stewards of their land.  It was neat to see evidence of this project at work.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway

 

 

It did not take long to start getting views of Skagway from the Dewey Lakes trail system.

 

 

I didn’t mention my mishap of the day.  The trekking poles I’ve used for several years have a broken clip on them that makes it nearly impossible to change the length.  Knowing that the hiking on this trip included a lot of elevation change, it’s better to have changeable sticks since you want them shorter going up and longer going down.  Special Someone had an extra set that came with his snowshoes that he’d never used.  I was a responsible traveler and followed the rule to never take something on a trip that one has never used, so I took them out for local walks in my neighborhood.  They worked just fine.  Until we got to the first trailhead of our first hike of the trip and they wouldn’t close up after I set them to the size I wanted.  Heck, they wouldn’t close up to any size.  The tubes just kept sliding up and down wherever they wanted.  We finally got one stick set in a position but gave up on the second.  One stick is better than none!  I left the other one behind a trailhead sign, curious if it would still be there when we returned.  
 

 

We loved the Dewey Lake trail system immediately.

 

 

The first stop was the reservoir and then the second stop, pictured here, above and below, is Lower Dewey Lake.

 

 

Since I have a compulsion to do things I am scared of, I had to go stand on the little floating dock.  
 

 

It was not bad at all to stand on and gave me some good views of this long, skinny lake.

 

 

Special Someone dared me to make use of the ladder but I did not bite the bait this early in the day.

 

 

Locals stored their small watercraft nearby for easier access to the lake.

 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

There are pluses and minuses to spring hiking in Alaska.

 

 

One plus is the increased amount of waterfalls from spring runoff.

 

 

Another is all the bright green fresh spring plant growth.

 

 

We enjoyed the water and the green everywhere we went.

 

 

We enjoyed the rocks, too!  I promise lots of rock pictures ahead.

 

 

We ate brunch with this view.

 

 

The downside is spring hiking in Alaska is the risk of running into snow at elevation.

 

 

I’d started the hike wearing my waterproof/snow proof gaiters but had taken them off because they were making me hot.  When we hit snow, I should have had them on, because the snow went up into my summer hiking boots.  
 

Having spent the entire winter muddling through a record high snow season, we weren’t too thrilled with hiking on snow.  In some areas it’s slick and dangerous and in other areas it’s deep and dangerous.  We can do that at home any time we like.  We spent maybe 20 minutes hiking upwards in the snow before we ate brunch at that beautiful viewpoint and then turned around to head back downhill and towards many other trail options

 

And then we ran into our friend Andy!

 

And the Fun Squad!

 

Wearing the absolutely correct type of snow gaiters and MSR snow shoes.  
 

We were so surprised but it warmed our hearts to know that a shop in town had rented them the proper gear AND given them proper instructions on how to use the snowshoes (there is a little thingie you have to flip on them when going uphill that helps with your stability.  My plain Jane snowshoes at home don’t have these).  
 

We saw quite a few other crew out attempting this trail including a group of Italians who said they hadn’t been on land since Dubai and hadn’t packed clothes for anything except Dubai and had never expected to all of a sudden come to Alaska.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway

 

 

Some topical comments on cruising and fitness before we continue with our hike is Skagway.

 

I was curious if I would maintain my weight and fitness during the trip, loses gain, or ???  On my past cruises I lost weight on all 3 Princess cruises because my activity level increased drastically compared to life at home back then, but I gained on my one Norwegian cruise because the food was so plain and terrible I could never get satisfied and I just ate junk food all the time.  I’ve given life a hike a few days to stabilize so that I could collect evidence to render a verdict on this cruise.

 

Drumroll, please, it appears that I’ve at least maintained my fitness level.  Since I was still off work all week, I got to go to in-person yoga and the first class was tough.  To be fair, however, I went on a short night’s sleep dehydrated with no coffee after a hard day of drinking and traveling the day before (we haven’t discussed yet what transpired during my first ever visit to a Centurion lounge).  The instructor gives variations all the time and I have never taken the “easy” ones before but that was the day to take them because I needed them.

 

My first swim after the cruise I felt strong and powerful in a way I haven’t felt in the pool before.  I’m such a beginner at swimming that before this, the most laps I could do without a break was 4 (so 100 meters).  I felt so great I decided to shoot for 20 (500 meters) which is one-third of the distance I’ll need to swim (in a freezing lake) for my triathlon.  I was so surprised how quickly the laps ticked away and it was my first time finding a groove like in running when it sucks so bad at first but then it gets better.  I took a break and did another 10 laps more leisurely but the verdict ok swimming was that I’d definitely improved while away.

 

Today was my first time back at spin in two weeks and it’s hard to judge because we had a different instructor and her style was very different, and it felt like hard work pretty much all the time, but spin is kind of supposed to be like that, and I got my second longest distance during a spin class, so I’d say I at least maintained and maybe got a little better.

 

I mention all of this because I’m a person who feels like I don’t have enough time in this life to regress and go back to my past ways, and moving actually feels good to me, so while I mostly had confidence in my ability to eat what was right for me and get enough physical activity, all that temptation is just everywhere on a ship, so I wasn’t sure how it would pan out.

 

As for weight, subjectively and objectively, I’m about the same as before I started.  With the stress and change and routine of being off work for a few weeks before the cruise, I’d gained about 5-7 pounds before hand.  My job was very physically active and even trying to do 3-4 workouts per day was not keeping up, especially with not having the super small super healthy breakfast and lunch I got at work.  I’ve checked my weight a couple times since coming home and I’m somewhere between my embarkation weight and 2 pounds gained.  I’m pretty confident that once I get into a new routine with my new work assignment, that even though it might not be quite as active, and I won’t get the free healthy food, it should be less stressful, and I’ll make the choices I need to for my at-home pounds to come off.

 

 

Alien came with us on this hike.

 

 

We were happy to discover this outhouse at Lower Dewey Lake right by the intersections between a bunch of the different trails.  It even had a seat and toilet paper!  
 

 

We were impressed by this boulder slab.

 

 

We walked along the Lower Dewey Lake trail and eventually selected Sturgill’s Landing as our second (third?) hike.

 

We were in awe of the living creatures of all types.  These brown bumps are baby ferns waiting to be hatched.

 

Since we did so much elevation change on this set of hikes, we got to see a lot of different ecosystems.

 

 

 

I really liked this lettuce-like plant and Special Someone was interested in the little brown blobs growing on it.

 

 

On this and all of our hikes this trip at times we wished we had a naturalist with us to explain more of the details of what we were looking at.  There’s always so much to learn.

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

Continuing on Lower Dewey Lake towards Sturgill’s landing, we took a short side spur and found a dozen or more of these vines wrapped around trees.

 

 

We loved the colors of this log.
 

 

Woodpecker!

 

 

 

Such a magical path to meander.

 

 
 

Truly an enchanted forest.

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

And then we began descending in earnest.

 

 

Please enjoy the ride.

 

 

And the views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost there.

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

We made it all the way down to Sturgill’s Landing.

 

I love driftwood and it was a feast for my eyes as well as a playground for my feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by arctickitty

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

We enjoyed ourselves at Sturgill’s landing and then hiked back up to Lower Dewey Lake, finished the circumnavigation of the lake, and then hiked back to town after visiting the friendly trailhead outhouse again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

My broken stick was still at the trailhead so we picked it up on our way back to town.

 

I have cell service with an Alaskan company that typically has the best coverage in small towns, but once we got back to town, my phone wouldn’t work.  I’d also forgotten to bring the paper map of Skagway, so I did not know how to navigate us towards alcohol, but we needn’t have worried (we didn’t) as we walked right up to Skagway Brewing.

 

 

I am not really a beer drinker in real life and for that matter I’m not much of a drinker at all but I like to try new things and I love samplers (have I mentioned that lately?) and I’d noticed that most of our ports had locally brewed beer flights so it seemed like a good way to sample our way across Southeast Alaska.

 

 

We had a glass of the spruce tip blonde and the dark sampler.  I liked the spruce tip the best.

 

 

I love to read menus and noticed the list of house made infusions but kept my mouth shut because we were already drinking on very empty stomachs (and they were not serving food at that time) but Special Someone eventually noticed the specially labeled bottles on the bar.  He’d been randomly saying “tequila shots” at inopportune times that had nothing to do with tequila but this time he was in the right place and the bartender heard him and poured us shots.  They were really good and made us want to try all of the other infusions, but we had a ship to catch, so we refrained.  Next time, however, that strawberry rhubarb bourbon has my name on it.  
 

 

We were running short on time towards the end, but we spotted a boat belonging to friends of friends.

 

 

When we got to the pier, I made Special Someone slow down so we wouldn’t look like pier runners.  
 

We were so curious how far Andy and the Fun Squad had made it on their hike!

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

 

 

 

All aboard means it’s time for dinner!

 

 

There’s so many photos I’m going to show the food in the next post, but first, in case anyone was wondering what Carnival serves when they put “bacon pan drippings” on the menu, this is it.  It was really terrible olive oil with bacon bits and herbs in it.  That was the last time we asked for that!

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

Thanks to @KmomChicago we knew the broccoli was soup; Special Someone got some.

 

 

I tried the mango cream (cold soup) but it was room temperature and kind of strange.  They did give me a soup spoon this time!  After this I decided I was done with the yogurty cold fruit soups.  I thought most of the MDR food was comparable to Princess—different but on the whole comparable—but the cold fruit soups is one niche that Princess wins at.

 

 

Anothee Caesar.  We ate a lot of these but didn’t always photograph them.

 

 

Pulled wild boar.  Tasted like pulled pork.

 

 

Meatballs.  Very moist inside.  And yum.  Red sauces seemed to be a culinary strong point.

 

 

We crossed our fingers and ordered two tenderloins.

 

 

They were tender so we ate them up.

 

 

This is the 50th anniversary salmon couloubiac.  The crust was undercooked and the salmon over cooked so I ate the crust and all the veggies and what I could manage of the fish.

 

 

Special Someone also got linguine with sausage.  It was ok IMHO a little sweet.

 

 

This is the cheese plate.  It’s cute so I had high hopes for it.  But the cheese was dried out hard as rocks.

 

 

The pineapple was bomb.  I would have eaten another.

 

 

Special Someone tried the bitter n blanc and found it to be a bland bread pudding.  
 

We left satisfied, though!  Mostly because of the tenderloins.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 6 / Cruise Day 4

 

First Port Day / Skagway
 

 

And then it was bedtime.

 

I had made the mistake of wondering aloud what would be the upper limit on servings of peanut butter that room service would bring.

 

Special Someone wrote “coffee cup full” and drew and arrow next to peanut butter on the morning room service card.  I sure didn’t sign my name to that!

 

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by arctickitty

[KmomChicago]

Glad your dinner experience worked out roughly equally well as ours for that night. Husband was extremely pleased with the grilled tenderloin, actually put it up there with the best plates of beef he'd ever had. His prime rib a few days earlier was well done though he had asked for mid rare, but he said it was still okay. And then, one of his two strip loins at brunch was truly excellent and the other was okay. Luckily none of the inedibles we've been seeing reported.  While the Bitter and Blanc was not offensive or anything, it was unremarkable as you note and not well described on the menu. Thanks for the soup shout out!

 

Loving your review. After my 2nd divorce I expected never to marry again. I was in my mid 30's and planned to join orienteering groups and start doing work vacations with American Hiking Society. I am chubby and not in any way gracefully athletic or very well coordinated, but the one activity I have always loved is walking / trekking / hiking / rambling, whatever you want to call it. Only my first (of 3) husbands like it as well as I did, so I don't do it as much as I wish. We sometimes get out to go morel hunting in the spring, and we typically walk a lot on vacations, but otherwise not so much.

 

Your hike outside of Skagway is like a dream come true for me. The snow means it wasn't sweltering hot. It looked absolutely beautiful and must have been a sublime experience for you and Mr. Special. Sounds like that guy earns the peanut butter sessions, whatever they may actually be. Oops, did I type that out loud?

 

In other news, not to be a downer, but yesterday we had an 18 year old kitty at the rescue who needed to see the vet, for what we suspected and what turned out to be her final vet visit. Like I did for old Jaba a few weeks earlier, I petted and held Cuddles and blubbered like a stinkin' baby with a poop filled diaper, then pulled myself together and brought her back to the farm to rest in peace.  My least favorite part of volunteering, but so important to show up and be there with and for them and I would not have it any other way. 

[arctickitty]

2 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Glad your dinner experience worked out roughly equally well as ours for that night. Husband was extremely pleased with the grilled tenderloin, actually put it up there with the best plates of beef he'd ever had. His prime rib a few days earlier was well done though he had asked for mid rare, but he said it was still okay. And then, one of his two strip loins at brunch was truly excellent and the other was okay. Luckily none of the inedibles we've been seeing reported.  While the Bitter and Blanc was not offensive or anything, it was unremarkable as you note and not well described on the menu. Thanks for the soup shout out!

 

Loving your review. After my 2nd divorce I expected never to marry again. I was in my mid 30's and planned to join orienteering groups and start doing work vacations with American Hiking Society. I am chubby and not in any way gracefully athletic or very well coordinated, but the one activity I have always loved is walking / trekking / hiking / rambling, whatever you want to call it. Only my first (of 3) husbands like it as well as I did, so I don't do it as much as I wish. We sometimes get out to go morel hunting in the spring, and we typically walk a lot on vacations, but otherwise not so much.

 

Your hike outside of Skagway is like a dream come true for me. The snow means it wasn't sweltering hot. It looked absolutely beautiful and must have been a sublime experience for you and Mr. Special. Sounds like that guy earns the peanut butter sessions, whatever they may actually be. Oops, did I type that out loud?

 

In other news, not to be a downer, but yesterday we had an 18 year old kitty at the rescue who needed to see the vet, for what we suspected and what turned out to be her final vet visit. Like I did for old Jaba a few weeks earlier, I petted and held Cuddles and blubbered like a stinkin' baby with a poop filled diaper, then pulled myself together and brought her back to the farm to rest in peace.  My least favorite part of volunteering, but so important to show up and be there with and for them and I would not have it any other way. 

This early season itinerary was perfect hiking weather for me.  The southeast was already full blooming in spring, which it’s not at home further north where we live.  I can’t stand hot weather so it was wonderful to have nature pretty much take care of the heat built up from exertion.  And if Skagway seemed perfect, Juneau was even better.  
 

Special Someone and I met during what I would consider the heat of the pandemic for Alaska and while the parts of Alaska we lived in (I lived 90 minutes farther south at first) had very few restrictions, both of our jobs had very stringent requirements that included our non-at-work behavior and had the ability to impact us negatively if we didn’t follow their rules, which we both did, so focusing on outdoors activities was just about the thing we could do.  We met at a time where I was determined to learn how to do more “Alaskan things” and he was new here and wanted to try everything so we launched into it all with loads of enthusiasm.  
 

I am very sorry to hear about Cuddles but glad that she and all of these other incredible kitties have you.  My cat sitter said my babies got pretty stressed out the last few days and unleashed Poop-Aggeadon on us, but aside from one “I’m mad at you mommy” poop WHILE I WAS AT HOME from my Tiger with the most feelings, they’ve adjusted and have been happy to have me back.  My house (condo) came with a little tiny fenced in back yard and since the 3 feet of snow melted while I was cruising, they got to explore the yard for the first time this spring.  My tiniest baby, Dandelion, true to her name nibbled the weed buds immediately.  It’s so precious to see them explore and love it, although the mama cat howled a lot.  While I was swimming, Special went and bought a truckload of soil that we shoveled and leveled and then planted grass into in the hopes of having a more pleasing looking area than a scruffy torn up lot where dogs were left unattended.

 

Peanut butter update coming soon!

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 7 / Cruise Day 5

 

Second Port Day / Juneau
 

 

This is what happens when you (or your traveling companion) order a coffee cup full of peanut butter from room service.  
 

We also got more beautiful fruit plates and ridiculously sugar cereal and this was the morning that when I went out for my morning walk routine I also got pancakes, ham, cold cuts, toast, and cheese from the buffet for DIY breakfast sandwiches.  I did learn to poke the toast with the tongs before selecting because the first piece I grabbed was hard as a rock and could be used as a percussion instrument.  The pancakes, ham, and cold cuts were all perfectly sized to make half moon sandwiches and were delicious.

 

 We made it off the ship around 7:30.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 7 / Cruise Day 5

 

Second Port Day / Juneau

 

Welcome to Juneau!

 

On our way to the gangway we ran into cruise director Andy and asked how his hike in Skagway.  He said they made it all the way to the top!  Good job Andy!  Good job Fun Squad!  As we were setting off for more hiking, he said to be sure to let him know how it went as he was looking for hiking ideas for Juneau.

 

 

Chicken on a Stick was our first stop.

 

 

We’d read an article about how the owners of this food stand also run a business in Juneau that caters to crew needs and they’d suffered during the shutdown and were not sure what was going to happen this year because they made 6,000 sticks of chicken and the crew from the Norwegian Bliss hadn’t appeared.  The chicken is delicious and we definitely recommend it.

 

 

Juneau has the best food options of the usual Southeast Alaska cruise ship ports thanks to the politicians, lobbyists, support staff, and all the wining and dining that goes on.  We hadn’t planned this in advance, but after the chicken on a stick success we kind of decided to do our own food tour of Juneau as we made our way around.  
 

After a brief reconnaissance walk around downtown Juneau, I initially selected The Rookery Cafe, but once we got inside I saw that they use beans from Stumptown.  I decided to all out coffee snob and reject them for using beans from Oregon when we could walk across the street to Heritage and drink locally roasted.  Besides, even our local stores stock Stumptown!  Life is short!  I did notice that The Rookery had excellent-looking pastries so we got a mixed berry one and saved it for later in our hike. 
 

 

Then we did indeed walk across the street to Heritage.  Their special of the day was a Forget-Me-Not latter and as we know by now, I am a sucker for a daily special and Alaskan-themed coffee specials are a rare breed, so I was all set.  
 

For those of you who are sailing with Carnival to Alaska later this summer, please remember the official state flower of Alaska.  🙃

 

We also got their drop of the day and it was good but what we call crunchy coffee as quite a few grounds found their way into it.

 

We were sufficiently caffeinated and began walking uphill towards basin road, which leads to several trailheads in Juneau.
 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 7 / Cruise Day 5

 

Second Port Day / Juneau
 

 

This was an architect’s office and I found it fascinating.  The relief map of the mountains shows a proposed location for a municipal-owned gondola, which is a hot topic in local government currently.  The city & borough of Juneau operate a ski area that is not financially self-sustaining (but helping locals recreate outdoors is critical to physical and mental health in Alaska) and the idea is to be able to generate some revenue in the summer.  The counter debate is that the city would be operating a tourism business competing with local businesses and the age old debate of what is the role of the government and what is the role of the local business community?

 

 

 

 

 

A small dog park.