Live from the Eurodam - 7/16-7/23 Alaskan Explorer

[Dunmore2]

Your pictures and descriptions are appreciated. Thank you. You said there was only one breadstick offered with your salmon and crab dip. Is there a basket of buns/bread/breadsticks on the table or offered by passing waitstaff?

[Brentt_M]

2 hours ago, Dunmore2 said:

Your pictures and descriptions are appreciated. Thank you. You said there was only one breadstick offered with your salmon and crab dip. Is there a basket of buns/bread/breadsticks on the table or offered by passing waitstaff?

There was a bread basket but it did not have any type of breadsticks in it and I just didn't feel like a roll or slice of bread would pair well.

[Dunmore2]

That’s too bad, breadsticks would be far superior! Thanks for answering.

[SailorMarg]

 

On 7/16/2022 at 10:05 PM, Brentt_M said:

Dinner at the Pinnacle grill was pretty good overall.  Service was very solid.  All of the food except my ribeye was excellent, but the ribeye was pretty average.  Clothesline bacon was an absolute hit.  Also gave my mom a nice chocolate birthday cake at the end.

We were on the sailing just previous to yours and also had our first night’s meal in the Pinnacle Grill.  We were extremely underwhelmed.  From the microwaved onions rings atop our overcooked and grisly ribeye steak all the way to our watery Caesar salad which they really shouldn’t call a Caesar salad because what they dressed it with was more an extremely watered down ranch, at best.  The lobster bisque was nearly tasteless. We had this same meal in January aboard the Zuiderdam on a 14 night Panama Canal cruise and everything was excellent.  Our meals continued to be equally underwhelming in the Main Dining Room later in our cruise.  Tamarind saved the cruise from being a complete dining wash out.  Whoever is currently the Executive Chef aboard the Eurodam is not doing their job very well.  I’ll be curious how you find the rest of the dining aboard.

[Brentt_M]

Yesterday was our stop in Juneau and it was a long day, but an very good one. We had a private whale watching trip booked with Jayleen's Alaska and it was absolutely amazing!!  We got into Juneau and the ship was cleared about 12:15pm, 45 mins early.  This allowed us to visit a few of the shops before we were supposed to meet Luke from Jayleen's at 2:00pm.  Luke called my cellphone about 1:30 to let me know he was on his way and was about 15 mins out.  As soon as he arrived we loaded up and head toward the marina at Auke Bay.   Luke kept us entertained the whole drive. Once at the marina we were encouraged to use the facilities as the marine toilet on the ship was available it would be small and tight.

 

Our boat was a 21ft Hewes Craft named Island Girl. It is a newer ship to Jayleen's fleet and it was beautiful and pristine.

 

Once aboard we headed out to the Saginaw Channel and the whales immediately started putting on a show!

 

While we were in that area we saw 7 different whales including a mother with her calf and a male escort.  We saw a lot of tail, some waving at us, a full breach and 2 partial breaches (missed then with my camera, but got to see them with my eyes). The boat also seemed to be like a magnet and the whales kept popping up right next to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending quite a while in that area with out even having moving the boat and getting our fill of whale watching Luke ran us a bit farther north to see some stellar sea lions. They were being extremely lazy and napping on a navigational body.  After a few minutes there we headed a bit farther and tried to find some Orca, but had no luck. Luke said they usually only see orca on less than 10% of their runs.  After that we headed back to the Marina. Our excursion was scheduled for 3 hrs and we actually got about 3hrs15mins on the water plus the 15mins of drive time each way so around 4 hrs total time.  When I booked this last year it cost me $895 to reserve the entire boat for our group. I do think prices have went up a touch since then (like everything), but at my rate that was basically $150 per person and I consider that a bargain especially compared to the ship options.

 

I cannot give Jayleen's Alaska and Captain Luke enough praise. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a more intimate whale watching tour!

 

I have some other videos, but will probably try to upload those when I have a better wifi connection.

 

 

[canadianbear]

Video was great!  We love our whales here on the West Coast…glad you had a wonderful  time. 

[Brentt_M]

Glacier Bay is a little foggy this morning...

 

 

 

 

[Brentt_M]

Last night for dinner 4 of us ate at Tamarind on a Casino comp and my stepdad and son went to the buffet for salmon night.

 

Tamarind is by far my favorite place to eat on the ship.  Service was so friendly and amazing and most of the food was excellent, but a couple of items were below normal.

 

We had some enjoyed a cold sake, our shrimp crackers and Jasmine tea along with the spring rolls, Thai beef salad, vegetarian ramen and potstickers for appetizers.  I also ordered a spicy tuna roll and spicy scallop roll.  All of that was amazing! Will definitely getting more sushi rolls throughout this cruise.

 

For our Entrées we had Dan Dan noodles, 2x Wasabi and soy crusted tenderloin, szechuan shrimp, and the wok seared lobster (I ordered the lobster and since it was a supplement item they said it was not included in my comp and encouraged me to order a 2nd entree that was included. That is why we ended up with 5 Entrées between 4 people.

 

The noodles and tenderloins were very very good. The ladies both agreed that the tenderloin was better than their Petite Filets from Pinnacle a couple nights ago and my daughter said she would be completely happy with the Dan Dan noodles for dinner every night for the rest of the trip.  However, both the shrimp and lobster were just so-so. Flavor was good, but it was as if both were prepared to early and sat in the back too long before being served and the tempura was extremely soggy/mushy which kinda turned me off from them.

 

For desserts we ordered one of each to share between us.  As much as I love the apps and Entrées here I really don't care for the dessert options.

 

 

My mom and daughter

 

spicy tuna roll

 

spicy scallop 

 

dan dan noodles

 

wok seared lobster 

 

tenderloin 

 

Szechuan shrimp 

 

mushroom side 

 

passion fruit cloud

 

manfo posset

 

Yuzu cheesecake 

[irishjim]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:08 PM, Brentt_M said:

Well we are all checked in and awaiting sailaway.  Absolutely love the Pinnacle Suite, but worried I am going back to a normal neptune and especially a standard verandah.

 

 

Beautiful  pictures.

[Brentt_M]

Glacier bay cleared up a little bit for us.  It really is one of my happy places. I just love it.  We did get see a bunch of otters, birds, a seal, and a bear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brentt_M]

Icy strait point was an ok stop last night.  I really did not take many pictures and the only thing we had planned was for my mom and daughter to ride the ZipRider.  

 

We has dinner from the MDR served in the suite and we're off the ship by 6:30. We walked over to the cannery and bought some souvenirs. My son also got a couple dozen mini donuts, butterscotch and raspberry I believe. He has been talking about those donuts since he found out we were visiting ISP again and he was a happy camper.  After the cannery we walked back toward the ship and got on the transporter to take us over to wilderness landing where my mom and daughter checked in to the ziprider. I decided not to spend the $50 to take the skyrider up the mountain with them since it was really cloudy/foggy. (I did find out the skyrider is free for crew and thought that was nice )

 

The ZipRider took forever! They were ticketed for 8:30pm and even though the actual ride down only takes about 75seconds they didn't get done until 9:27pm. All aboard was supposed to be 9:30pm, but there were at least 2 more groups from the Eurodam behind them. They said once they got to the top they said there were signs posted stating it could be 30-60mins after your ticketed time before your turn.

 

Outside of the wait they both very much enjoyed the zipline and would do it again. 

 

We got back to the ship right at 930 and the computer system went down for checking people in and we had to wait 5-7 mins for them to get it going again. The crew said it has been happening every night at 930 for the last week or so...

 

I went to the casino last night, but they did not open the craps table at all which made me very sad. I played a little bit of roulette and slots for a bit then called it a night.

 

My daughter tried to sit at billboard again last night but gave up pretty quickly. Her words were "it was like listening to bad karaoke."

 

 

 

[TwinMommyByGrace]

6 hours ago, Brentt_M said:

 

 

My daughter tried to sit at billboard again last night but gave up pretty quickly. Her words were "it was like listening to bad karaoke."

That is exactly the feeling we’ve had all week long with the 2 singers! Some songs it sounds like they’ve never even heard the song in their life and they’re just making up the key as they go. With a couple of drinks in you though, it’s kind of entertaining in a very bad way. 😆