Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

Anyway, enough money talk (that’s what you get when you read trip report from bean counter).  Back to the Hubbard Glacier.

 

Not sure if everyone was on top of the news on Hubbard Bay but an NCL ship struck an iceberg while visiting Hubbard Glacier back in late June and was out of commissions for couple of weeks.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2022/07/11/cruise-ship-iceberg-repair-norwegian/10029574002/

 

Of course, some in the media called it “Titanic 2” but we all know that’s ridiculous.  Although throughout the years I have had non cruisers asking me about Alaska cruises on possibility of the ship hitting an iceberg as they watched the movie Titanic and be afraid of cold weather cruising as a result. 

 

Speaking of the Titanic, you wouldn’t think I would go through an entire trip report without the most famous song:

 

 

 

Anyway, you can tell there are a lot of small chunks of floating ice in front of the Hubbard Glacier.  Almost like a ring surrounding a Saturn. That area of ice serves to block many large cruise ships from getting in very close to the glacier.  Guess that’s why they charge your $290/pp to get a closer view. 

 

I like how this large chunk of ice ebbs and flows as most are pretty stationary:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Tired of looking at ice?  Yeah, me too.  OK.  Last set of series of ice photos for Hubbard Glacier.

 

At about 6 PM, the excursion boat came back to bring back the people that left earlier for the excursion.

 

 

 

From our balcony, you can see a glimpse of the open deck 7 Promenade area and I noticed there was nobody there at 6 PM so my wife and I went down there to get a different perspective.  Think many people are already at dinner or getting dressed for the first formal night.

 

Very narrow Promenade deck area at certain parts.  No way they can hold muster drill here.

 

 

My wife and I are the only ones on deck 7. That's too bad as many missed getting  pictures of the area before the ship turns south

 

 

That's where our balcony is relative to deck 7:

 

 

Amazing to see so much ice next to the Majestic.  The captain must be pretty brave to be steering in this close considering all the negative press from the NCL ship just couple of months ago. Don’t think Princess Corporate would be pleased if the Majestic was damaged from being too closed to the Hubbard Glacier.

 

 

In case you don't know what ice looks like up close:

 

 

 

Few more last pictures of the Hubbard Glacier area as the excursion boat is headed home and we had to hurry back to the cabin to shower up and get dressed for the first formal night of the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

Excursion boat sailed off in the distance:

 

 

Majestic Princess turned to head southbound to exit Disenchantment Bay:

 

[4x4bob]

I came to this party late so all of the drink trays were empty and each of the available snacks had one bite taken out of each one.

 

Also, I am not a bean counter and further more I do not eat beans out of extreme consideration for those around me.

 

I rolled through all 13 pages with great interest and much enjoyment.

 

From the very good photos provided by the OP, who is an avowed cheapo, he is using the highly modified cigar box camera with manual shutter release and finger twist spindles to advance the roll of 127 film. 😁

 

I would tip my hat to the OP for his effort, but the glare off from my shinny blond hair is often blinding to those around me.

 

So, I just offer much thanks for the OP's contributions.

Bob

[cr8tiv1]

Got to thank all that are going along with OP.  So refreshing to have a fun thread to break up the morning, afternoon, evening, night, and wee hours of the midnight clock strike.  Much needed relaxing therapy.

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

I came to this party late so all of the drink trays were empty and each of the available snacks had one bite taken out of each one.

 

Also, I am not a bean counter and further more I do not eat beans out of extreme consideration for those around me.

 

I rolled through all 13 pages with great interest and much enjoyment.

 

From the very good photos provided by the OP, who is an avowed cheapo, he is using the highly modified cigar box camera with manual shutter release and finger twist spindles to advance the roll of 127 film. 😁

 

I would tip my hat to the OP for his effort, but the glare off from my shinny blond hair is often blinding to those around me.

 

So, I just offer much thanks for the OP's contributions.

Bob

My sincerest apologies for not having the drinks refilled and the snack trays replenished.  That’s always the biggest concern as a host of any party (virtual or in person) is you don’t have enough food and entertainment for the guests.

 

It’s always difficult to catch up a trip report many pages after it started as people have moved onto new topics even though you still want to comment on underwear packing from the beginning.

 

The opportunity will come this weekend when I need to be out for couple of days to help my son move into his new place ahead of his upcoming college year so this will be a chance to “refill the cups/replenish the drinks/refresh the cabin”. A chance for the later arrival folks to catch up.

 

Thus, if anyone have any packing stories to share, bring them in by this weekend or ask questions about something I said way back in the beginning, now is time to post them.

 

Anyway, thanks for your kind words.  It’s always fun to do one of these trip reports after our vacation as I get to experience the cruise for the second time.  Similar to a BOGO (Buy-One-Get-One) cruise deal and with this second cruise I don’t have to sit in the plane for hours contorting my body and as everyone can see, this second cruise is not just 7 days but multiple weeks event so I really get my money's worth on my vacation dollar.

 

So do I get cruise point for this second trip?

 

You know some of the antique manual cameras are worth a fortune to collectors.  Some of the antique cameras are certainly more expensive than my $80 FMV 5 year old cell phone camera is worth that took many of these pictures.

 

As for humor, my joke writing staff of one is running out of good jokes.  Now I’m coming off as a whiner in complaining about what’s not right nightly without providing some comedy relief on the side. 

 

You seem to be a humorous chap – maybe you can write my jokes the rest of this trip report while I just focus on photo uploads.

 

I will pay you with a digital coupon to entitle you to unlimited coffee at the Princess buffet on your future cruise.  It's also known as FCC (Future Cruise Coffees).

 

Although given the quality of their coffee, not sure if that’s a payment or a torture…🤪

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Got to thank all that are going along with OP.  So refreshing to have a fun thread to break up the morning, afternoon, evening, night, and wee hours of the midnight clock strike.  Much needed relaxing therapy.

As always, thanks for reading along and your compliments.

 

I think you will need to watch Dr. Phil this weekend to get your therapy session allotment as I’m on sabbatical this weekend.

 

So can I bill you for the therapy time I have provided?  Cheapo Dad needs $$ for a new phone camera.🤑

[harryfat1]

OK, Onward and forward with the trip report:

 

Formal night.  Yes, we are old school and we dress up for formal night. My kids have gotten used to dressing up since their first cruise back in 2005 so they are familiar with the drill.  I have many suits from old days of Public Accounting where we had to wear suits even in 90 degree weather to meet with clients so wearing one is not an issue. 

 

However, finding a suit that still fits my old guy rounder mid-section is a different story as how many of us are skinner now than 30 years ago? Not gonna to be a pretty site if I try to bend down wearing an old suit.

 

After getting dressed, we went down to decks 7 and 6 at various photography station to have the shipboard photographer take our pictures (aka feeding crazy aunt in the basement).

 

 

[harryfat1]

Then comes the moment of truth whether or not we will get the table #352 as I walk up to the MDR podium entrance at 7:20 and “ding” my medallion device to sign in.

 

I informed the staff person behind the podium that we have daily reservation at 7:20 for party of 6 and I had Noel as at table 352 last night and I would like to be seated there again.

 

When the dude face started to frown as he was looking down at his screen, I knew something is wrong. He looked at the tablet for about 15 seconds and then wrote on a note to give to the “runner” staff person to go to our table to check. Then he informed us that our table is not ready and asked us to stand aside and wait.

 

So we waited and waited until the staff person came back and she gave us the story that the previous party was just finishing their dessert so we just need to wait some more.  OK. Got it.

 

After awhile another person came by and explained that they gave away our table 352 to another party but since I wanted Noel to be our server, they will set us up at another table served by Noel.  So just be patient and wait some more.

 

Oh, yeah, this “my time dining” is working out splendidly.

 

Finally, they brought us to the back and as you can see, they combined 3 sets of table for 2 to be a table for 6.

 

To refresh your memory, this was our table on first night.

 

 

This was our table for night #2.  Yeah, not exactly the same.

 

 

Looking back at our original table, #352, the people were just eating appetizers when we walked in so they probably been assigned that table as a walk-in a bit after 7 so they were not the 5:30 PM diners “lingering on” for dessert such that we can’t get our table at 7:20.

 

I will give the staff credit for rearranging the tables to seat us with the server we requested but what if those seats were taken by other walk-in diners?  Princess’ software should easily be able to give to the diners that have same reservation nightly onto a same table by “locking it” for 15 minutes.  If I am late, then release it to someone else as then it’s my fault for not showing up on time.

 

Anyway, enough ranting about table as long as we got the same waiter.  He remembered us and was very appreciative that we specifically requested him.

 

We reminded him of the allergy, and he said he will check with the kitchen after taking our orders to see if anything the family member ordered has nuts.  I believe after day 2, when he realized we want to come back to his area nightly, he was more proactive in checking with the kitchen on what items on the menu that night had nights so by time we showed up at dinner nightly, when he handed us the menus, besides telling us the “special of the day”, he also informed us on what items to avoid for possible nut allergy problems.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Anyway, enough seating drama.  Time for food.

 

Didn’t take a picture of the menu – probably got too flustered with all the table assignment issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As a result of having to wait to be seated and the typical meandering pace of the dinner staff, we didn’t make it to the production show at 9:30.  Instead we went to the Talent show audition early to grab a good seat – show started at 10:15 in the Vista lounge in the back.

 

The audience (us) get to vote for whom we like from the talent show audition (there’s another audition later in the cruise for people that couldn’t make it to the show tonight).  The top scorers will make it to the big stage on last day to be in front of judges like the TV show “The Voice” with the turning chairs.

 

As we missed the major song and dance production in the main theater, this was the consolation prize.

 

They have music in the piazza but let's just say the music era is not for our demographics.

 

 

Audition:

 

 

 

After that, there’s not much else going on other than the band in the atrium so we just got our usual bottled water from the IC on deck 5 and headed back to the cabin.

 

When the boys tried to open their cabin doors, it wouldn’t open.  The display know they are there and says “welcome” on the panel but there’s no “green’ circle around the door. 

 

Huh. Doesn’t really matter as they can access their cabin via our cabin’s internal connecting door and the door can still be opened from the inside to go out so it's not a safety issue.  Too late at night to call guest service to have it resolved. We will deal with it tomorrow.

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

25 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

As always, thanks for reading along and your compliments.

 

I think you will need to watch Dr. Phil this weekend to get your therapy session allotment as I’m on sabbatical this weekend.

 

So can I bill you for the therapy time I have provided?  Cheapo Dad needs $$ for a new phone camera.🤑

 

Considering you are giving virtual certificates as payment, they I will offer you similar.  I am savoring one of my last two peanut butter cookies from the IC.  Luckily, I have a cruise booked so I can replenish my stash.  I will be more than happy to eat your share of my cookies.  

 

I'm chiming in, again, to hear how many. pairs of underwear you are taking on this move in trip.  I hope your dear wife will not be offended by our intimacy.  

 

From a parent of girls, thank you for teaching your boys proper manners and etiquette.  

[harryfat1]

Last couple of pictures from the balcony for the day.

 

 

 

Saw the moon. 

 

 

Queue up CCR:

 

 

 

As always, our efficient cabin steward did the turn down service and provided new set of towels as we used them to shower prior to dinner.

 

He dropped off couple items worth noting:

 

First is the Glacier Bay schedule for tomorrow.  We are not morning people so we appreciate the later arrival as many other sailings start into GB at 6 AM.  Forget that. The southbound sailings come into GB at 9 AM and stays late.  More of my schedule.

 

[harryfat1]

Second item is the “Direct to Bus” program.  I didn’t see anyone on CC talking about this and per the staff member that told us on day 8, they had this program pre-Covid and stopped it and now they are bringing it back.

 

 

What the program is basically saying is since the ship started in the US and all the ports we visited are US ports, we didn’t really “visit” Canada.  So if we get off the ship and be placed in a “bubble” and headed directly to the airport and get on the plane home to US, for all intents and purposes we never really “visited” Canada as far as Canada is concerned. 

 

As such, no need to spend time and effort to make us go through Canada patrol if we are whisked off the ship directly onto a “bubble protected” bus and gets dropped off at the airport to go home.

 

To participate in this program, you must have US passport and have to have early afternoon flight and fly directly to US city.  All the criteria fits us and so I completed the paperwork next day and dropped it off at guest services.

 

Thankfully we were part of this program as if we had to go through more customs (Canadian) then we would have missed our flight coming home on day 8 but that’s too early to talk about it now at day 2.

 

 

This concludes day 2 of the trip report – see what I mean by day 2 will go much faster than day 1 as we are not sea day people. I think port days will be longer than the sea days in comparison as we like to walk around to see more things.

 

 

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Considering you are giving virtual certificates as payment, they I will offer you similar.  I am savoring one of my last two peanut butter cookies from the IC.  Luckily, I have a cruise booked so I can replenish my stash.  I will be more than happy to eat your share of my cookies.  

 

I'm chiming in, again, to hear how many. pairs of underwear you are taking on this move in trip.  I hope your dear wife will not be offended by our intimacy.  

 

From a parent of girls, thank you for teaching your boys proper manners and etiquette.  

Thanks for eating my share of cookies.

 

Packing the same number of underwear as nights so = 0.  Road trips are easier to pack as one duffle bag will do it.

 

Didn't want the CC fashion police to be coming after me for being under dressed.  Although I saw some shorts in the MDR and I was looking for the CC fashion police to confront the offenders. 

 

I was all set up with my cell phone and popcorn anticipating a Carnival like brawl of people arguing over the dress code like here on CC. I was anticipating a free for all fight that I can video and sell the recording to highest bidder online to help pay for my cruise but to my big disappointment - no fights or arguments on dress code for the cruise. 😭

 

https://youtu.be/JHVu-6VwS7Y

 

[4x4bob]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

My sincerest apologies for not having the drinks refilled and the snack trays replenished.  That’s always the biggest concern as a host of any party (virtual or in person) is you don’t have enough food and entertainment for the guests.

 

It’s always difficult to catch up a trip report many pages after it started as people have moved onto new topics even though you still want to comment on underwear packing from the beginning.

 

The opportunity will come this weekend when I need to be out for couple of days to help my son move into his new place ahead of his upcoming college year so this will be a chance to “refill the cups/replenish the drinks/refresh the cabin”. A chance for the later arrival folks to catch up.

 

Thus, if anyone have any packing stories to share, bring them in by this weekend or ask questions about something I said way back in the beginning, now is time to post them.

 

Anyway, thanks for your kind words.  It’s always fun to do one of these trip reports after our vacation as I get to experience the cruise for the second time.  Similar to a BOGO (Buy-One-Get-One) cruise deal and with this second cruise I don’t have to sit in the plane for hours contorting my body and as everyone can see, this second cruise is not just 7 days but multiple weeks event so I really get my money's worth on my vacation dollar.

 

So do I get cruise point for this second trip?

 

You know some of the antique manual cameras are worth a fortune to collectors.  Some of the antique cameras are certainly more expensive than my $80 FMV 5 year old cell phone camera is worth that took many of these pictures.

 

As for humor, my joke writing staff of one is running out of good jokes.  Now I’m coming off as a whiner in complaining about what’s not right nightly without providing some comedy relief on the side. 

 

You seem to be a humorous chap – maybe you can write my jokes the rest of this trip report while I just focus on photo uploads.

 

I will pay you with a digital coupon to entitle you to unlimited coffee at the Princess buffet on your future cruise.  It's also known as FCC (Future Cruise Coffees).

 

Although given the quality of their coffee, not sure if that’s a payment or a torture…🤪

Harry: I do not want to hi-jack your excellent thread describing your trip report.  However, I do want to share with you the history of Buffet Coffee on a cruise ship.

 

Back in the day of Christopher C. and his small wooden ships with sails that was going to find the new land the storage hold on those ships were very small so they could not store much firewood for a trip that was going to take months and months and and months.

 

So, the crew being what sailors are who wanted their morning cup of coffee put their heads together to come up with a solution.  They determined that dried goat droppings burned well as a fuel and did not take up much storage space and did not weigh very much.   So they acquired several bags full of the fuel and stored it on the ship.

 

Each morning the quarter master would lay some bricks on the wooden deck and start a small fire with the goat fuel to boil water to make coffee.  During the brewing process the smoke from the fire imparted into the coffee a unique flavor.

 

Tradition has it that down through the ages ship board coffee maintained the same flavor as the coffee that was offered to the crew on that ship.

 

So, you doubt what I am reporting?  Then next time you are on a ship go up to the buffet and ask for a cup of black coffee.  Wait until it cools then take a sip.  Then lets see if you finish the cup or sit it down on a table and go down to deck 5 to the International Cafe and order a cup of fresh brewed coffee.

Signing off

Bob

[harryfat1]

23 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

My sincerest apologies for not having the drinks refilled and the snack trays replenished.  That’s always the biggest concern as a host of any party (virtual or in person) is you don’t have enough food and entertainment for the guests.

 

It’s always difficult to catch up a trip report many pages after it started as people have moved onto new topics even though you still want to comment on underwear packing from the beginning.

 

The opportunity will come this weekend when I need to be out for couple of days to help my son move into his new place ahead of his upcoming college year so this will be a chance to “refill the cups/replenish the drinks/refresh the cabin”. A chance for the later arrival folks to catch up.

 

Thus, if anyone have any packing stories to share, bring them in by this weekend or ask questions about something I said way back in the beginning, now is time to post them.

 

Anyway, thanks for your kind words.  It’s always fun to do one of these trip reports after our vacation as I get to experience the cruise for the second time.  Similar to a BOGO (Buy-One-Get-One) cruise deal and with this second cruise I don’t have to sit in the plane for hours contorting my body and as everyone can see, this second cruise is not just 7 days but multiple weeks event so I really get my money's worth on my vacation dollar.

 

So do I get cruise point for this second trip?

 

You know some of the antique manual cameras are worth a fortune to collectors.  Some of the antique cameras are certainly more expensive than my $80 FMV 5 year old cell phone camera is worth that took many of these pictures.

 

As for humor, my joke writing staff of one is running out of good jokes.  Now I’m coming off as a whiner in complaining about what’s not right nightly without providing some comedy relief on the side. 

 

You seem to be a humorous chap – maybe you can write my jokes the rest of this trip report while I just focus on photo uploads.

 

I will pay you with a digital coupon to entitle you to unlimited coffee at the Princess buffet on your future cruise.  It's also known as FCC (Future Cruise Coffees).

 

Although given the quality of their coffee, not sure if that’s a payment or a torture…🤪

Thanks for the coffee story. I drank the Princess buffet coffee on the morning of day 2 and it wasn’t very good. Glad we had the drinks package, so I was able to upgrade to the specialty coffee the rest of the cruise.

 

I’m no coffee snob. At home, we just have the basic Starbucks coffee from Costco when it’s on sale so it’s not like we drink some hoity toity gourmet coffee. But I have to say the standard grade on Princess cruise is ranked below other cruise lines we have sailed on previously.

 

As for “hijacking the thread”, I don’t worry about such notion.  As I said in the beginning, I don’t prescribe the same “hijack” concept as others as I encourage/hope people will comment/ask questions on this entire trip report.  I’m not interested in doing a monologue from begin to end. 

 

I never understood why people would feel offended if a follow up question/comment is added to the discussion.  I treat this trip report like a virtual potluck party.  I provide the place/standard food/drinks/entertainment, but I encourage folks like yourself to add to discussion by dropping in comments or photos to share with other cruisers.

 

At the end of the day, we are all cruisers sharing our travels stories with each other and hopefully can help future cruisers make an informed decision when they start planning for their future cruise. More information from different perspectives isn’t a bad thing so yeah, if anyone has comments/suggestions on what I have written, please chime in. 

 

People can talk about the food pictures I have taken and let me know if you like the Princess version of French onion as much as I enjoyed it.  I asked if anyone ordered the Fried Chicken on first night’s menu.  If you have eaten it, please share your comments.  If it was good, then maybe future cruisers can order it.  Conversely, if it’s bad, avoid it. 

 

You don’t need to have cruised Alaska/Majestic Princess to leave a comment on this trip report. Tell me what you ate on your Princess cruise and tell me why you liked it so maybe others can try it.  Potluck. Share the info.

 

Just from this side comment, cruisers will have an idea that the Princess coffee could be subpar and they can budget accordingly.  More informed decision is a good thing.

 

OK, time to get off the soap box…

[harryfat1]

Day 3 – Glacier Bay (GB)

 

Princess Patter scan for the day:

 

 

 

 

 

Few things of note:

 

1 – ArriveCan. Yeah, right. Whatever.

 

2 – Glacier Bay – The ship will be there effectively the entire day from 9:15 AM to 7:15 PM when you count the rangers boarding and leaving as the official start/stop of the day

 

3 – The ship has minimized many of the shipboard activities while we were in GB. Needless to say this is the biggest event of the day.  Hubbard Glacier may be bigger in

size but it’s just a “cruise in and cruise out” viewing of the glacier.  GB is a whole day event including the park rangers so it’s a more immersive event

 

4 – While at GB, the ship doesn’t serve anything with straws or lids. Keep that in mind as you order various drinks

August 8 Page 1.pdf August 8 Page 2.pdf

[harryfat1]

 

In the real world, this would have been the dreaded Monday morning where you must start a new work week.  Queue up the Bangles.

 

 

 

In the alternate vacation world, this is day 3 of the cruise where days of the week have no significance. Or paraphrase an old movie – If it’s day 3, this must be Glacier Bay.

 

Here is screen shot of Google Earth to show that we left Hubbard Glacier yesterday afternoon and traveled down the Alaska coast and making our way inland toward GB.

 

[harryfat1]

First picture of the morning from outside the cabin at 8 AM is cloudy day as the Majestic Princess turns northward.

 

 

 

The naturalist was already on the PA system talking about Eagles as I was barely awake out with my cell phone taking pictures.  Too lazy to pop back into the cabin to get my zoom camera out.  Thus, all you folks get is this little dot (no, it’s not a smudge on your phone). That’s supposed to be an Eagle.

 

 

So if anyone asks me if we saw eagles on our cruise, I will tell them, of course, saw few flying above us – no need to say they look so small in the picture.

 

In case nobody read the schedule provided last night in their cabins, Princess has it on the big tablet screen by every elevator bank.  Technically for us is South to Alaska as we are heading south…

 

 

Not sure if everyone knows that there is a restriction of only 2 cruise ships allowed into GB daily. Here is the GB schedule for the week we were there – you can see mostly Princess/HAL/NCL ships visiting.

 

 

On our visit that day, Grand Princess got the early time slot as they came up from the north.  We got the later 9:15 time.  The Grand has the same 9:15 times lot when they do their turnaround later in the week as they head south from Whittier on Wednesdays.

 

 

[harryfat1]

As I mentioned that the door didn’t open in the boys’ cabin last night, I called guest services to let them know of the problem and they said they would send someone over to fix it.

 

OK, breakfast time.

 

My wife got the croissant as it looked pretty but she was surprised it wasn’t hot or even room temperature but kind of like refrigerator cold in that they put it in the frig for few hours before serving.  This was a surprise considering they have signs everywhere saying they bake their stuff fresh daily. 

 

If so, why the need to refrigerate a croissant?  Unless this was a leftover from yesterday and they refrigerate it and it hasn’t had time to come up to room temperature?

 

 

I love the waffle station.  Went there again today.

 

 

 

 

Remember to ask for the “secret stash” of smoked salmon.  Surprised they don’t make you say the “secret password” to get it…

 

 

 

Not too many breakfast photos today.  Kind of in a hurry to eat and run ahead of arrival at GB.

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by harryfat1
Typing with your feet is harder than it looks...

[harryfat1]

Forgot to mention last night that the cabin steward dropped off a US park service map of Glacier Bay National Park.  For anyone that has ever visited any US National Parks, you are familiar with the map you get after you pay the entrance fee at the kiosk.  Except for the cruise, they deliver the map to you in your cabin.

 

 

 

The park rangers boarded the ship at 9:15 while we were eating breakfast and at 10:30, they started their presentation of GB over the PA system.

 

 

The calm waters of GB as seen from our cabins as we headed northward inside the park.  For the morning, we wanted to venture off to different areas to see what the views are like from various parts of the ship.

 

This was from Promenade deck 7

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After awhile we headed up to deck 16 and 17 above. A lot more action up here.

 

Shipboard photographers are up and about so we “fed the crazy aunt in the basement”.

 

The area to the right is called “Gloomy Knob” park rangers were announcing over the PA system but it seems to have a whole lot of wild life sightings as she was pointing them one every couple of minutes and of course everyone with binoculars were all excited when the park ranger said “At the 2 o’clock area of the ship, there is such and such animal.” 

 

So if you are using this as a guide for your upcoming Alaska cruise, plan to set up shop early on the starboard side as the ship sails near it. 

 

Keep in mind if you are sailing from the south on the northbound one-way cruise, your arrival time at GB is 3 hours earlier than us so adjust your timing accordingly. Not being a morning person, I’m glad I didn’t have to wake up 3 hours earlier to be part of the process.

 

 

 

Port side

 

 

 

Then you see half of the ship run toward the starboard (right) side as that’s where 2 o’clock is on the dial.  Later on she would say, at the 11 o’clock, there is such and such and the masses rushes over to the port side to get a glimpse of whatever was mentioned.

 

Actually, the on-board comedian mentioned this behavior of people running across the ship between starboard and port side in his night time sketch. He’s saying the park rangers and the captain is just teasing the passengers as there are no actual animals out there.  They just want to see bunch of people run back and forth from side to side while they were rolling on the floor laughing up on the bridge.

 

Anyone concerned about the ship tilting over if all the passengers are leaning one side – should the captain enable the stabilizer on the other side to counterbalance all the people going to one side?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

Over at the movie screen above pool deck, they are showing European cruise highlights.  This is looking toward the back of the ship and you can see that everyone over on the left hand side of the picture (starboard side) as that's where the action is for the moment

 

 

Unlike the Caribbean, no one is fighting over these deck chairs in Alaska.  The chair hogs folks have moved over to Hollywood Conservatory to set up camp over there.

 

 

Well, take that back.  The “fam” decided to take a break here for a minute so took a picture.  Yeah, heavy coat on deck chair on a cruise ship.  That’s typical, right?

 

 

If you can zoom into the Princess warning signs on telling people how to behave.  They said over the PA system that there’s a heavy fine on cruise ships while at GB for any littering related incidents so during the 9+ hours the Majestic Princess is in the area, they will not serve any drinks with lids or straws.

 

Although it’s kind of sad that people need to be reminded of not throwing stuff overboard while on the cruise.  That should be common sense 101.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Anyway, back to the trying to get a glimpse of wild animals.  The park ranger said there was a goat to the right and everyone by the railings were all excited to look for it.

 

WHERE?  WHERE? The most common word used on deck that morning as most people can’t find the animals that the ranger pointed out.  Not as if these animals wear a neon pink jacket with a sign that says “I am here” for you to find easily.

 

As I’m blind as a bat after staring at Excel spreadsheets all my career, trying to find a speck of dot in the wilderness is a hopeless endeavor for me. When the ranger said there’s a goat by a tree on the rock, that’s doesn’t really narrow it down for me.

 

Some guy with binocular standing next to me exclaims in excitement, "Oh, I see it.  It’s right over there".  His spouse next to him with her own binocular was exasperated and said, “WHERE? WHERE?  I can’t find it”.  So he had to try and point, over there you see that rock?  Well move over to the left a bit and then down a bit…”

 

Yeah, whatever.  After a certain point you realize you are just not good at this “Where’s Waldo” exercise.  So I just aim the camera at the general direction of the mountain and take a picture and maybe find it after getting home.

 

 

 

 

 

So here is the goat at the end of the red arrow – that little speck of white dot. Only saw it after coming home looking at the screen intently.

 

 

Many people have binoculars with them.  Up to you to buy a set or not.  Alaska board has discussion on what specs to look for it that’s important to you. 

 

[harryfat1]

More pictures of GB: