I’m gonna sleep in at least one of these days… not asking for much, just past 0530 would be nice, especially seeing I’m supposed to be on holidays and all. After yesterday’s hectic effort, I really needed a heatpack as my lower back was not at all happy with me. But for some reason our cabin steward’s supervisor had told us we needed to call Room Service staff to come and take the heatpack to a microwave for me. But when I called, I got nothing, just a call back recording and they never called me back. So I had to harass the cabin steward after all, and by the time I got myself some heat, I was nearly in tears. š Mostly because it’s so hard to ask for help, let alone ask about four times over for the same assistance. But about half an hour after this confusion, the Manager of Housekeeping came to see me and made arrangements for my heatpack to be picked up every morning by the cabin steward and bought bak to me at 0630. So hopefully it won’t be so hard to get that sorted for the rest of our stay on board… not a great start to the day.
Breakfast was the usual smorgasbord of cooked breakfast goodies – scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hash browns, sausages, bacon, pastries, danishes, breads, bagels, fruits, yoghurts… I could go on and on here. I had a bit of scrambled egg with smoked salmon and some mushrooms, but watched on as my fellow diners went back for huge plate after huge plate piled high with food. I can’t believe how much some people put away. And to think they’ll be back in a few hours to do it again for lunch!
Sea days are usually pretty laid back and cruisey (pun just for you Mr K.) so we pottered around the shops a bit checking out the duty free – everything from awesome designer brand watches for a fraction of the prices back home to Russian diamonds, Indian pashminas, Canadian ammolite jewellery, Austrian Swarovski statuettes and jewellery, ties, cufflinks, souvenirs, clothes, designer handbags. A crazy array of stuff considering you’re on a ship. Far fewer pearls than the ships cruising the Pacific, which was going to be par for the course I guess. Bought Mr K a big chunky men’s watch – and I hope he really likes it because I am going to have to drag it all over North America for the next few weeks, taking up valuable luggage space and all! š
I went to a talk on the Glacier Bay National Park that we are going to be cruising through on the weekend that looks so amazing. They showed us heaps of photos taken just last week to tell us what to expect, where the best viewing positions were and what sort of wildlife highlights we might catch if we are lucky: seals, sealions, humpback whales, killer whales, sea otters, bald eagles, puffins and lord knows what else! Hints for new players – sea otters are scared off by camera flashes, so hopefully *that guy* who doesn’t know how to use his camera will turn his damn flash off if we see some. Apparently we have a good chance of catching big families of rafting sea otters, that’s when they all hang onto each other and float. Yeah… rapey rapey sea otters… Mimola, if you are reading this – I have decided it’s quite okay to eat sea otters, they’re not so nice the more you research into them š
Other than that I’ve had a relaxing day watching some talks on the ports we are going to, and caught a movie on the tellie while watching the gorgeous view go by outside our balcony (love this balcony room thing!). Tonight is formal night so time to go get gussied up.
Formal night is always a bit of good fun on the cruise ships. Some people will go the full nine yards and wear something that looks like a bridesmaid or mother of the bride type frock, others will wear something really simple and roll out the bling and others, because you have a huge floating international community going on, will turn up in a dress kimono or a elaborately beaded sari! Beautiful outfits everywhere and the men… well, most of them remember to throw in a suit and bring a tie. Then, of course, there is always the traditional champagne waterfall, which I’ve seen about a half dozen times now. So, (even though I shouldn’t) I am willing to admit I’m really only turning up to watch it in the vague hope that the whole thing will come tumbling down! š
After dinner we went back to the jeweller so Aunty Mary could pick up her earlier purchase… a fancy new watch that needed a link removed (the guys in the fine jewellery store know us by name already – not a good sign!), and then came back to the stateroom for a cuppa. Just happened to step out of a balcony for a moment and was looking out at the waves (which are now Pacific Ocean blue rather than the brownish ocean we were seeing between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland) and we saw some whales breeching and throwing themselves around not far off the side of the ship. We were watching them for about ten minutes, when suddenly one jumped out of the water barely 40-50m from us and we realized they were killer whales or orcas! Smooth, black and big white bellies! So cool!
Lovin’ Alaska so far and we haven’t even hit the ground yet! š
