low_delta

I made a calendar of pictures of Alaska as a Christmas present for my mom. I thought it turned out well. They're kinda small, being only 8-1/2 x 11 (doubled, hanging), but other than that, they're pretty nice.

You can click here to view it, and you can purchase it, if you'd like.

They cost $22, but you can get 40% off if you enter "GIFT" in the special offer code box. And shipping would be $6 per item, so it would come out to $20. Not cheap, but there you go. And I don't get any of that money, btw.

I was College Fjord's Coral Princess of 2011! And I got to ride on a really big float!

So there was this boat...

Two swimming pools (one indoors), five hot tubs (two indoors), a movie screen overlooking the pool and deck area, two dining rooms, another buffet dining room, two smaller "restaurants", a casino, "boutiques", bars, lounges, theater, a small library, a four story atrium, decks, lounge chairs, balconies... in chilly Alaska.

We saw a couple of talks by the ship's naturalist, one on life in Alaska, and the other on the gold rush. We saw a cooking show by the ship's Executive Chef and the Maitre d'Hotel, followed by a walkthrough of the galleys. We saw a fruit and vegetable carving demonstration. We did a wine tasting. Might have done another, but we were watching the glaciers at the time. I drank some good scotch for cheap, and bought some too. Heard the lounge band. Mom went to a singing and dancing show. We missed a talk by Libby Riddles, the first female Iditarod champion. Cyn got a massage. We sat in the hot tub for a while (that was the only time I was really warm).

Before the cruise, we got upgraded from two interior rooms, to a balcony suite. There were only ten of these suites on the whole ship. Very nice, even if we did have to share a room with my mom. It had a jacuzzi tub and a shower. A sofa bed for my mom (which, after a couple of days, she said was comfortable). A balcony we hardly used since it was so chilly, but it was a nice view through two sets of glass doors.

One of the benefits of being a suite passenger, was that we were considered to be elite passengers. There didn't seem to be a lot of benefits to this, but my favorite one was being able to eat in Sabatini's restaurant for breakfast. Waiters in fancy uniforms, who push in your chair for you, and place your napkin in your lap. Fine breakfast dining. Fancyish food in small portions, so you know it's expensive. And it was quiet - usually only two or three other couples there. We could also attend an evening orderve-and-drink time, but we never had time for that. We also got to wait in a different lounge from the riff-raff, for disembarkation.

They had two kinds of dining to choose from. One was "traditional" seating, which meant you had an assigned time, table and waiter for the week, and a shared table. The other was "Any time dining". This meant you could show up whenever you wanted, and sit wherever you wanted. We took this, because we didn't know when we'd want to eat. It turned out that we always ate around the same time, except a couple of evenings, when we ate at the buffet, and we usually shared tables anyway, so we could have chosen the traditional dining, but anytime dining worked out better. There were a couple of meals where we shared tables with traditional diners whose tablemates didn't show up. So those diners had to wait for us to be seated and then order. Not a good situation for them. I enjoyed the shared tables, for the most part. Forced interaction. We met some nice people that way. One night we were all tired so we got our own table. I wasn't feeling well, and was in no mood to try to make conversation.

The food was always good. Never spectacular. Offhand, I can't think of any mediocre dishes I had. We ate in either the Bordeaux dining room, with menus, or in the Horizon dining room, at the buffet. The buffet was good, since it had a wide variety of menu items. Not all of these were great, but some were, and they had much better than the usual buffet fare.

They had two formal nights. Formal nights used to mean black tie. Nowdays you can get away without a tie. I saw a few tuxedos, but most men had sport coats with or without ties. I had a dress shirt with tie. Many women simply wore nice dresses. There were a few cocktail dresses, but very many mother-of-the-bride dresses. The first formal night was our first day at sea. Afterwards they had a little gathering in the atrium, and introduced the senior staff. They had live music and had a champagne fountain. They had various photographers set up to do portraits.

Another perk of the suite upgrade was that they gave us $2000 shipboard credit to sweeten the deal. This almost covered our shore excursions. Cindy and I paid about $1300 on top of that, and that was it for the week. That included souvenirs, excursions and drinks. Food is free onboard, but wine, liquor, soda and upscale coffee is not.

Here's the short version...

Saturday: Got up at 4 am to make a 6:30 flight to Chicago. Made it just fine. Had enough time to make the connecting flight in a different terminal. Got to Vancouver, and went through customs. The guy at the booth asked why we were only in Canada for one day. Took a bus ride through downtown and boarded the ship. The weather was very warm - hot in the sun, and I didn't bring any warm-weather clothing. But that was only for a couple of hours. We set sail at 4:30. Went to bed earlyish. Probably 9:00 local time, but it was a long day.

Sunday: We were at sea all day. Couldn't actually see land all day, though we were in the inside passage. Explored the ship some more. Saw a presentation by the ship's naturalist. 55° and cloudy.

Monday: Had to be off the boat by 6:45 to make our excursion out of Ketchikan. Misty Fjords Boat Tour. First, a longish boat ride through an area that was nice. Then my camera battery ran out and discovered that my spare was dead. We passed the picturesque New Eddystone Rock, and an island with some Native pictographs, and then went into the spectacular Rudyerd Bay, a fjord with high cliffs, waterfalls, etc. We also saw a couple of whales and caught a glimpse of porpoises. It was very cold. 55° and cloudy, but windy on the boat. I discovered that I did not bring enough warm clothing along.

In the afternoon, we again set sail. We passed through the narrows outside of Ketchikan. Apparently, many whales were sighted, but we didn't see them, since we were at dinner. Later, Cyn and I were at the bow watching the sunset. After the sun was low enough that we could tell it wouldn't be a great show, we retreated to the warmth of the lotus pool room, and sat on deck chairs watching the sea. I saw a glimpse of a splash below. It was a humpback tail, and was followed soon by another.

Tuesday: Docked in Juneau. Cyn and I took a four mile hike in the rainforest on the hills at Mendenhall Glacier. I was sick by this point, but not so sick I couldn't do the hike. We saw a bear eating salmon in the stream by the visitor's center. We went back to the boat for an afternoon lunch, and then went out for an evening whale watching cruise. We saw six whales, and a bunch of sea lions and harbor seals. 55° and cloudy.

Wednesday: Skagway. In the morning, we rode the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad. A spectacular ride up the valley to the British Columbia border. In the afternoon, we took a wildlife viewing jet boat excursion. Saw a moose and a few bald eagles and nests. It was very cold, since it was an open boat. 55° and cloudy.

Thursday: We pulled into Glacier bay before noon. The weather was beautiful - 55° and sunny, but fairly calm. We saw Marjerie Glacier calve. Saw a few other glaciers as well. We had narration from some local park rangers. Headed out to open sea in early evening, and the seas got rougher.

Friday: Entered Prince William Sound just after noon. Entered College Fjord in the afternoon. It was cold, raining and Windy. 52°, I think. Most people were lined up indoors watching the glaciers, but I, and a few other hardy souls were out in the weather with our cameras. By the time we got all the way up the fjord (up fjords!) the rain had just about quit and the winds calmed a bit. We had to have our bags packed, since they were picked up around 8:00. We had only our carryons after that. Cyn and I spent almost an hour in a hot tub. We got to bed after 11:00.

Saturday: I was the last one up, at 6:30. We had breakfast, and then waited in the lounge for our 9:15 disembarkation. An hour and a half bus ride through the tunnel and along the water to the anchorage airport. We were there about half an hour until my cousin and her husband picked us up. They showed us some sights around Anchorage, including the lake where all the float planes dock, and the downtown. We had lunch at a place with local color and a mining theme. We stopped in to see what may be the world's largest chocolate fountain, across the street. Then we drove up to Hatcher Pass, in alpine territory. Then they took us back to their house for a while, before it was time to head to the airport. We got there about 1.15 hours ahead of time, took our time checking in and going through security, and by the time we got to the gate, we found they were boarding already. We took off 25 minutes early.

Sunday: I slept off-and-on for most of the five hour flight. We arrived in Denver five minutes early. Made our connection with time to spare. Took off five minutes early, and our two-hour flight got us to Milwaukee 25 minutes early. Odd. Our bags came out about the time I got to the carousel. We made it to our car and drove home. Got here around 10:30, and my mom drove home from here. The weather is nice - 65° - but after the freezing cold of Alaska, I wish it were warm.

I'm tired. I'll probably take a nap for a while, and go to bed at my usual time.

Probably took 1000 pictures. I'll try to fix up some to show the highlights this week. And then get back to the Utah pics.