A few months ago, our new found friends from the Italy tour, invited Marty and me to join them for an Alaskan Cruise. I was a bit skeptical, as I don't like boats, and I don't like crowds. But I adore these friends, and I am certainly a love of adventure (within reason), so when Marty expressed his enthusiasm at joining them, how could I refuse?
So, we are presently staying on the Norwegian Joy which left port from Seattle yesterday and is headed to Juneau, Alaska, landing tomorrow in the afternoon.
Our check in time was at 10:00 AM, so we shared an uber down to the port, handed over our luggage that was all appropriately tagged, and continued through the process which was relatively seamless. After clearing security, we had our boarding passes scanned, were issued our boarding cards for the week, and were each handed a placard saying "Group 9".
We then began our merry way down yet another hallway which actually featured some entertaining artwork.
We found ourselves in a large room, filled with seats (and people) where we sat and waited for the boarding to begin.
It was an hour and a half later when the call was made to begin boarding. Priority groups took precedence and then the groups were called by number, which somehow became a free for all after Group 5 was called. Suddenly, the line was out the door, stretching down the long hallway where we had come. Fortunately for us, a young couple asked us all to join them in line so that we didn't have to backtrack from whence we had come, and we were now finally heading to the ship.
We passed the stationed life boats, each of which holds 419 people each according to Marty.
Nice to know, isn't it?
Once on board, our cards were again scanned and we were told that our rooms were not ready and to head to level 16 to the cafe. By now, it was lunch time, and believe me, there were plenty of food options to choose from.....after we washed our hands at the entry washing station. An attendant stands guard to be certain that everyone does just that.
I wasn't particularly hungry, so I chose a salad and some fruit, and I will admit, a small piece of cake, which came from this:
I cut my piece after taking the photo. Obviously, someone got to it before I did.
Marty told me he was going off to get some fruit, and he came back with this:
Rum Raisin Ice Cream. He told me that the raisins counted as a fruit.
While we were waiting for the rooms to be ready, we admired the views of Seattle from the ship.
The skies had cleared offering a lovely, crisp looking scene to enjoy.
It wasn't until nearly 3:00 when it was announced that our rooms were ready, so we made the long trek from the restaurant to our room, which involved several flights of stairs and an extremely LONG walk since we had been on the front of the boat and our rooms are on the rear AFT of the ship.
As you can see, our room is actually quite large. The distant doors open out onto a lovely balcony. We had expected the luggage to be outside our room, since we had been told that it would be delivered to our doorway. I checked my air tag and saw that it was still sitting on the pier. We were scheduled to leave at 4:00 on the ship, and at 3:58, my luggage was still sitting at the pier. Marty's had been delivered, as had most of our friends' suitcases.
I'll admit, I was a bit concerned, as it was packed with everything I needed for this Alaskan adventure.
The boat started to move, and I waited about 5 minutes before checking the app for my air tag. It showed the luggage on the road just outside of the boat, and I figured that if it had moved that close to the boat in 10 minutes time, then it must be on board because, obviously, they knew it belonged on the ship if they were moving it.
Luckily, I was correct, and when we returned to the room, it was sitting in the hallway outside the door. Phew! That was certainly a relief!
And, as if to make things a bit more stressful, the toilet in our room had an issue where we would flush it, and it would run, LOUDLY, like Niagara Falls (Ok, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration), for 20+ minutes. I mentioned it to the steward, who looked at me and said, "oh, that would be annoying, I suppose". Annoying? Marty and I had to yell to hear what the other was saying!
We thought it had finally fixed itself, when it happened again. Yep....another 20 minutes. I'll admit, between that fiasco and the worry about the luggage, I was a bit unsettled. This wasn't exactly the adventure that I had anticipated! But, it appears that the issue had been resolved. (Fingers crossed).
Here are some photos taken while we left the port.
We enjoyed a lovely dinner in the Savor Restaurant with our friends who increased by two as Marcie invited two of her German friends to join us. They are delightful as well.
I enjoyed a delicious Greek Salad, Chicken Piccata and this lovely Creme Brûlée for dessert. (Okay, so I know that I had cake at lunch but I sure did walk quite a bit on board and I did have that mile trek pulling luggage that was never compensated for)
After dinner we relaxed in the observation deck, where we had some outstanding views.
Most were difficult to capture due to the brilliance of the sunshine.
We then decided to head to our room to see if we could capture the sunset, but getting to our room took us a bit longer than we had anticipated. I still managed to capture some of the beautiful pink landscape though.
We opted to have breakfast delivered to our room, which is a perk offered by the cruise line. You can order as much as you like at no charge and pay $5.00 to have it delivered at your preferred time. What a treat!
We are at sea until tomorrow afternoon, which is how I have time to write this.
We were told to put our clocks back and hour before going to sleep, as nothing updates when one is at sea. I had anticipated the phone to automatically update as it generally does, so Marty and I were a bit confused about the time this morning and it appears that we were up and awake an hour earlier than we thought. No worries there....more time to enjoy the beauty surrounding us.
We enjoyed that lovely breakfast outside on the deck, and we even spotted some whales jumping in the distance. We'll be on the lookout for more, that's for sure! Our room neighbors tell us that it is their feeding season, so as we get into narrower channels, we should see more a bit closer.
I'll be sure to keep you posted! In the meantime...have a great day...or afternoon...or evening, whatever it may be.
Wait...before I go, I have to share this photo of the center of the ship interior.
Pretty spectacular, isn't it?
Until next time....
