Wednesday 5th Skagway
Alaska
Yet another very small town located
in a fjord surrounded by mountains. All very pretty and almost unreachable by
land. We haven’t documented it but there have been swarms of seaplanes
everywhere since Vancouver and a scattering of helicopters. In all likelihood,
there wouldn’t be anywhere flat enough to land a plane on an airfield. The clouds
tend to be low but it is very pleasant.
We did the usual things and then
went ashore. Town was very close and the stroll was very pleasant. As usual,
there were swarms of jewellers selling very expensive jewellery – mostly exotic
tanzanite and ammolite etc. We wandered into a couple to complete our
collections of free handouts and took the opportunity to look at the rather
striking topaz which flare and sparkle with a range of blue/green/purple lights
– they market them up here as Northern Lights.
All along the rock wall where we berthed were graffiti from past ships/voyagers. Very interesting to see.
One of the local brothels. This town had wooden sidewalks in every street.
No comment
Snow plough/drill thingy for the Yukon White Pass
They come with labels that read
$1200 but the attendants are eager to assure you that that isn’t the price –
the actual price is $945. Without pausing for breath they continue to run
through a sliding scale of discounts that progressively bring the cost down to
$385 – you don’t say anything all this time. I should mention that they get one
on your finger and make sure that it stays there all the time, while they
maintain a barrage about how exquisite it looks on you and what fabulous hands,
fingers and nails you have!!
We rather like the Northern Lights
and one would be a great souvenir of Alaska but in all likelihood they would be
selling at a premium on their actual value. We shall see how desperate they are
on the way back as we revisit all the same towns. They will all close for the
winter after that.
We had a good walk through the
residential part of the town to the fringes where bears might lurk. This took
us past the town library, which had closed for the year the day before. The
souvenir shops were doing a roaring trade with everything discounted by half
and there were some bargain tshirts etc on offer. We suddenly realised that we
had 15 minutes to get back for the 2pm trivia and set off into a freshening
wind to get back.
Hehehehehehehe
No success or memorable moments in
any of the trivia today. The evening show was an English singer/impersonator
who was very good. Later, they had Battle of the Sexes, which the girls won,
and The Quest, which we skipped, having seen enough men in bras.
Thursday 6th At sea –
Hubbard Glacier
There was a general understanding
from last night that we would go and admire the Hubbard Glacier from the
balcony of Gail and Dean’s Grand Suite. They told us the Captain would get up
close to the base of the glacier for 15 minutes, turn round to give the other
side a look, and then steam out of the fjord again. I joked that we would be
there at 6.45.
We woke and headed up to the
helipad at the front of the ship before 7. It was Cold, particularly with the
20 knot wind. We braved the chill up near the front, admiring the fjord, the
approaching glacier and the increasingly frequent and larger icebergs floating
past. The water at the edges of the bay had the appearance of semi-frozen
slurry.
Berg
Chunky ice slurry
Hubbard Glacier
Yes, it was pretty chilly
When we reached the glacier, the
boat turned to the left so that the right side was facing the ice wall – about
40 metres high and 4 miles wide. We were a km away but it looked much closer.
Gail and Dean are on the port (left) side so we didn’t go up there. By the time
the boat turned, we decided we had seen enough and headed up to the buffet.
On returning to the cabin, we
discovered phone messages from Gail at 7.15 saying “we have ordered breakfast –
come on up”. Being in a suite, they can order the full menu from the dining
room rather than the room service menu. So they had ordered 4 eggs benedict and
the fruit plate etc etc. Luckily it’s all free but most of it got thrown out. I
dropped in and apologised for missing them.
We spent a long time in the gym.
Luke was doing his Detox talk, which all the boats offer as part of a series of
wellbeing lectures, all of which are designed to sign you up for 12 months
worth of algae extract at $95 per month to thoroughly clean out your liver and
your wallet.
Noon saw the second and final round
of the progressive trivia. We thought we had a good score from round 1 and we continued
to get a lot of points through the various stages of identifying art works and
general knowledge questions. At the end, Nikki pored over the score sheets and
then simply announced that team Densa had won with 56 points. No mention of
anyone else – hell who cares, we got the caps and gold medals. Gail and Dean
must have done well too and have made sure they sit with us in future.
We had hoped that the largesse
would continue in the remaining trivia events on this the last day, but they
returned to handing out key chains and fridge magnets. And we didn’t win anyway
– just kept coming 2nd. Young Brian seems to be attracting a lot of
wins and is apparently staying aboard for the next cruise - we will have to either join him or assemble a
team to compete.
The bingo jackpotted from the
morning and was shaping up to be worth a few thousand in the afternoon but it
was obvious that the whole ship was going to be there, paying $48 for a sheet
of cards, and the likely return was actually pretty low so we saved our money.
The various shipping lines generally have similar rules but we discovered that
Royal Caribbean allow you to withdraw your unspent cabin credit in cash. This
was far more appealing than wasting it on trinkets in the shops so we did that.
Most people opt out of the
automatic tipping system on RC, but being Americans, they are quite used to
tipping and will be handing over about $50 per head to the waiters. We don’t
plan on doing that and it seems unfair to deprive them of the chance of getting
tips for the next 2 cruises as well so we thought we might spread the
unhappiness by moving to a different table. Except the other guests want to
stay with the same waiters L
Dean has improved and we don’t mind either way if we share with them. We will
see them at the trivia anyway and it might be good to have a change of face at
dinner. We left the whole heap in the able hands of Ben the Head Waiter and
will go along with whatever he organizes.
The night ended with two farewell
trivia, both of which went to Brian & Co. J won a spot prize of a keyring,
which she gave to one of the couple of girls at our table, who seemed extremely
cloudy-eyes touched by the gesture. We had offered them our highlighter prize
on day 1 and they said they really wanted a keyring. To complete the Hot Girl
on Girl Love In, Nikki wrapped J in her ample bosom and hung on to her for the
longest time. And we aren’t even getting off the ship! It was the same with
Jess on Cunard - what is it with these girls – are they missing their Mums or
is she emitting some unresistable alluring magnetism? The night ended with a
juggling act in the theatre and then a late night comedy with the Seinfeld
comic from day 1, who was interesting rather than funny. We were well ready for
bed by 11.
Friday 7th Seward Alaska
This is the end of the cruise for
most people. We went up to brekky at 7am and most of our row of cabins was open
and fully made up all ready for new guests. We packed and moved out soon after
8am – the row we are moving to was all open but none of them were made up. We
met our new steward and left the big bags in the corridor, taking the small
ones up to the solarium on deck 11.
This is a very pleasant place to
sit in relative quiet, with a lot of recorded bird twittering and running
fountains creating the ambience of a tropical water hole. The mist outside is
lifting and the snowy mountains are appearing. We should sit here more often
but are always busy doing stuff. If the gym had not been locked we would have
been in there again.
Soon after 10 they decided we could
go ashore so we moved in and headed off to town in the shuttle bus. We stopped
off at the information centre, where we learned about a bus service to a
glacier 12 miles out of town where there were free ranger tours. We strolled
along the beach for a mile or so, watching the whales jumping across the far
side of the bay/fjord and an otter paddling along our side.
Mt Alice
The town library provide computer
access so we checked emails, finances and news but couldn’t get the blog up.
The AFL finals start this week and the Eagles and Dockers will both be playing.
We had lunch of huge almond
cinnamon scroll, coconut muffin and . . . hey get this – Anzac biscuits from a
local baker and then caught the bus out to Exit Glacier. Ranger Jim was waiting
for us in full khaki regalia and a can of hair spray . . sorry bear spray. He
took us across to the river running out from under the glacier and then
upstream, passing over successive ridges of moraines left each time the glacier
receded from a previous limit. We passed successive signs showing where the
face of the glacier had been in 1917 and progressively receding up the valley.
Ranger Jim
There are people next to glacier. Right hand side mid pic. Just to give you scale.
He also showed us marks left by
mooses and bears on tree trunks and how porcupines eat the fresh bark 8 feet up
in the air. We were wondering how they get up there and then he explained that
there was 8 feet of snow at the time. He led us up to a viewing point below the
face of the glacier, at which point we headed off on our own up the track to
get closer to the ice. It grew noticeably very much colder and then started
raining gently. We got as close as we could from that angle and then headed
back to catch the 4pm return bus, which dropped us a mile or so from the boat.
Dinner was brought forward to 5.30
to make time for a boat drill at 7.30. We found Ben, who directed us to a new
table. We passed one of the old waiters on the way and exchanged cheery smiles
and a handshake, so no obvious hard feelings there. We had a table for 6 to
ourselves but after some time a pair of Americans from Texas joined us.
They were very keen to hear about
our adventure and proclaimed that that was what they wanted to do. They have
just sold their business running tours on trains and boats and planes (and
coaches) and they are just finalising their responsibilities to groups of
clients who had pre-booked. They have 18 clients with them on this boat and
have just picked them up after a land tour of Alaska. Their name is Leyland,
which we found amusing in view of the famous Aussie Leyland Brothers.
They started off saying they would
be sitting with the clients tomorrow, but later they said they will be with us
again. We suggested they could go sit with the clients and send them over two
at a time to meet the Crazy Aussies.
There were 2 trivia sessions – we
tied the first one against Team Brian with Tom and Marty from our first table
and then made heavy weather of a quirky music quiz partnered with 3 American
ladies. We then went to find what the Pursers office had made of our request
for a change of rooms to get away from our sharp end cabin, which has the
further deficiency of sharing an interconnecting door which is completely
unsoundproofed – we could hear everything from next door and it is presumably
reciprocal. They will let us know in the morning.
Saturday 8th At Sea –
Hubbard Glacier again
We slept through stretch and abs
but put in a long gym session after a quick brekky. I popped down to reception
a few times and finally caught up with the decision maker, a Mr Jadhav from
India. He listened and offered us a room at the back, which I said would
probably not be any improvement (remembering Courtney) and he then said he had
one midships. That sounded fine and he printed me a key and said ‘go have a
look’.
I prised J out of the gym and we
went to see the room, which turned out to have a BALCONY!!!!! Bang in the
middle of the ship and at the end of a row so we had an extra large triangular
balcony. This choice was a no brainer. We went back to our room, packed,
dragged the bags down to the new room and scuttled off to morning trivia, which
we won! I had met Brian in the gym and booked him for the morning quiz.
We decided to try lunch in the
dining room for a change. It was very good and we met some more nice people,
who were mesmerised by our Botswana experiences. They only offer lunch in the
dining room on sea days, but it is a good alternative – next time we might just
eat the “salad” which can include a full meal.
Upstairs, we unpacked and then
settled down in our balcony paradise to watch the approaching fjord and glacier
at Hubbard. You will recall that we were here 2 days ago but it was early
morning, misty and COLD. Today was much better, although we still rugged up
thoroughly, and there were a lot more “calvings” with chunks of ice falling off
the face, a much brighter blue in the ice and the mountains standing out in the
background. Also, the new Captain took the ship much closer to the ice face.
It was beautiful and we were
thoroughly grateful to be enjoying it from our own private balcony. As it
turned out, we approached to the right hand side of the fjord, which gave us a
perfect view all the way in, and then parked facing the glacier from our side.
They lowered a rescue boat to collect a small iceberg. They were struggling to
control what looked like a relatively small chunk and it will be interesting to
see what they make of it later.
Much better viewing day
Calving
Fetching ice
I did some washing and then we
dashed down to the afternoon trivia, which we won again, this time with Dean
and Gail. It was capital cities and we all contributed a fair share of answers
– it was interesting that Dean remembered capital cities by whether his
squadron had had targets there J
We took the prize from another team of Aussies, who later explained that they
were switching ships in Vancouver to continue to Australia, in order to comply
with the Jones Act - some USA
legislation designed to protect USA shipping companies. This concerned us
mildly but from what we have been told it is hard to see why they were given
that advice?
We found the Texans back at dinner,
along with an African American couple, dripping with gold. They must have eaten
in the speciality restaurants last night. Interesting people – he turned out to
be a long-retired computer consultant who had programmed much the same sort of systems
I had back in the 70s. It was interesting that each of the three couples shared
grandchildren from earlier marriages, if you follow.
The captain had his welcome
cocktails tonight – no rum punch L
They had sculpted the 1 metre iceberg into an interesting shape with a light
underneath – quite novel. We managed to dunk a fair number of champagnes, and I
poured one over the chessboard and the adjacent artwork and the furniture –
much like the Giant Double Extra Schlurp in Vancouver. It was their fault for
having an invisible ridge down the middle of the chessboard ;-)
After 15 minutes we headed back to
the evening trivia, hoping for a daily hat-trick. We shared with Brian and Gail
and another lady in Movie Tunes, which we felt pretty confident with, but somehow
the films and theme songs were obscure or unhelpful and we managed a bare 50%.
Even so we thought we might do well but one other couple managed 70% - and we
were the ones who were onboard last week! Heaven knows how they managed that?
J went upstairs to share the theatre
balcony with Gail for the English comic impersonator while I caught up with the
blogging.
Sunday 9th Juneau
Aaah natural light in the morning J We did a big gym,
trivia and then went ashore. We were supposed to have been tied up right next to
the main street but we ended up a long way from town. This was probably due to
the late appearance of Silversea Shadow, one of the Really expensive boats with
only a few hundred passengers, which got pushed sadly up the fjord by a tug and
tied up in the best berth.
It was a gloomy day with a constant
attempt to rain – we went straight to the library where we gained access to one
of their computers for half an hour each with a really good response time. We
were happy to find them open on a Sunday – on a cruise ship you have no idea of
days because the crew work 7 days a week. If it were not for the inserts in the
lift floors we would have no idea what day it is. There was no news of any
significance except that West Coast had a very big win and Fremantle also made
it through to the second round of the finals. The only news we get from CNN is
the Presidential election circus.
We had a wander round town, bought
some discounted souvenirs and then decided to buy one of the Northern Lights
Topaz rings. We found a sparkly one at a good price and took it. By then it was
very close to afternoon trivia time and we hastened to catch a shuttle bus.
They were 3 questions into it but the team had kept us places and we won on a
tiebreak from the other Aussies. Dean came up with the two critical answers.
That makes four wins in two days.
The African Americans didn’t turn
up for dinner, which was relatively subdued. The Cruise Director’s wife turned
out to run the evening trivia with some new format, which we didn’t catch on to
right away. Another team picked up the crucial first choice answers and got a
much bigger score – they got the coveted coffee mugs, which haven’t been seen
so far on this boat. And there were 9 of them in the team! The other presenters
have all been noticeably effusive in declaring “this program has been presented
on behalf of Cruise Director Bobby Brown” but his wife didn’t bother.
One of us had been very slack in
not preparing photos for the blog so we spent the rest of the evening catching
up. We don’t feel strongly pressed to see repeats of the shows from last week –
maybe next week?
Monday 10th Skagway
We did an early breakfast and then
set off to walk the backwoods to the Lower Dewey Lake. Yes it is only a mile or
so but that was vertically upwards. We had a series of clothing layers to cope
with whatever cold, wind and rain might eventuate and strolled through the town
and across the rail line. From here it was pretty much us and the trees
and . . . bears?
When we were in Seward the other
day, at the ranger station, there was an information sheet about bears. If you
are attacked by a black bear you should try and fight it off; with a brown bear
. . . play dead. But if it starts eating you (!!!!!!!!) then try and fight it
off???????? This was kinda on our minds as we trudged up the very steep and
slippery slope without even a hair spray to fend off grizzlies.
We didn’t have a map and there were
a series of forks, some of which had signs, not all of which were helpful to
us. We found our way to the top of the hill, at which stage we towered waaay
above the 13 storey boat below and its funnels. We were about 3 times that
height.
The path veered to the back of the
hill and the reservoir opened up between the pine trees. It was quiet up there
and very peaceful. We were walking along remembering Ranger Jim’s advice that
you need to keep making a noise so that the bears hear you coming and move
away. But one of us didn’t want the bears to move away and the other wasn’t
convinced that it was advisable for them to hear us.
We headed off in search of the
lower lake but the paths divided and forked off in all directions and it was
going to be tricky finding our way back. Also, it was going to lead downhill
and that meant another steep uphill climb to get back to the top. So we went as
far as the point where we could hear the waterfall, by which time the tracks
were tending to be waterlogged. Then we turned and backtracked. It was very
good exercise and a highly pleasant hike through some beautiful country with
delightfully fresh air and lush forest and ferns/shrubbery.
On the way down we met a pair of
Germans with a guide, half a dozen Japanese and eventually an American couple
from the Silverseas Shadow. They told us they had developed propeller trouble
and had to dump their itinerary to get a tow into Juneau. They were guest
lecturers onboard and gave talks on ancient history and whales, although they
are professors of medicine and chemistry respectively! We checked the litmus
paper quiz question with the latter and she got it right J Apparently, the
massive fare on that boat includes an open bar and half the passengers are
pickled by lunchtime anyway so it doesn’t really matter what they tell them.
We made it back to the morning
trivia and won it, lunched, and joined in the Sudoku contest. I finished first
but made a mistake in one cell and J finished third with mistakes, so we scored
Silver and Bronze medals in a field of 6. Then back to town to post the blog.
As it happened, they wanted $5 per hour so we didn’t bother.
Old Rail Station
Harbour seal who had a good long look at us
J went to the Alaska quiz with the
other delusional people who thought they knew enough, while I put in a quick 50
minutes in the gym. Then it was time for the past passengers cocktails and Rum
Punch!! I was shameless and had about 7, which made for a very easy evening.
We were only four for dinner again
and we happily did religion and politics, with everyone having a frank say and
nobody feeling offended. That only leaves sex for tomorrow from the list of
taboo subjects. They put on delicious scallop risotto and lamb shanks and the
waiters sang O Sole Mio.
Mrs Cruise Director’s wife was back
for the evening quiz – this time it was Who Am I with a further twist that you
could answer after 1 2 or 3 clues for 5 3 or 1 points. One of the questions
started “He began his career in Scotland, spent most of his time in America and
then moved back to Scotland”. We put that straight in as Sean Connery but it
turned out to be Bobby Brown (the Cruise Director). We seemed to have better
judgement and faith in our answers than the rest and we won. Imagine our
delight when she came over with another six fridge magnets . . Not.
We told her straight out that at
the risk of seeming ungrateful we had far more fridge magnets and keyrings than
we needed and it was time for the caps, coffee mugs etc that they usually
offer. She ignored us completely and blathered on about what a lot of plans and
good ideas they have for the trivia. She is going to winkle out all the old
quiz questions and destroy them – brand new questions from now on. She seemed
to expect us to be grateful? “Aloof and distant” came to mind. The other 5
people in that group are all Diamond Plus members, each with hundreds of nights
cruising with RC and they are all pissed off.
We had a blog break before the
Disco Inferno night down in the Atrium. They handed out more flashing rings and
the “Village People” turned out again to entertain the crowd. J and Gail
flaunted themselves shamelessly with the barechested crew and had a thoroughly
good time.
Tuesday 11th – 9/11 in
the USA
We realised the special
significance of the day from the CNN coverage. Being the 11th
anniversary, the story didn’t make the front page of the New York Times and the
President did not attend any ceremonies at Ground Zero. They are getting ready
to move on although obviously they are never going to forget. Interestingly,
the US consulates in Cairo and Benghazi got invaded today.
We headed ashore by tender and took
to the nature walk along the beach and back through the forest, pausing on the
way to wait for the zipliners coming down what is supposedly the world’s
longest zipline. They come down 6 abreast in little chairs with no brakes –
there are collapsible springs at the end of each wire. The heavier people come
down a lot faster – apparently at up to 95 km/hr.
There was no wildlife but we
enjoyed the walk through the forest of huge dead-straight pine trees. Squirrels
don’t count. (J they are wildlife!!!!) The
highlight was when we came across a pile of droppings **photo prompt**. We
figured from the size that it had to be a bear. There seemed to be something
like a fish entrail running through it. It was Firm Fresh and Moist – rather
like a good steak :C
We repeated last week’s walk in the
other direction to the town, and went further up the hill, hoping to see Boxcar
– the giant black bear that has taken to hanging out in the backstreets, but he
wasn’t around. The large building housing the Wood Carving Project was
interesting. They were hand carving huge wooden totems from solid tree trunks.
Apparently they sell for $5,000 per foot in height. So a 6 metre totem costs
100 grand. I suspect they probably get sold to Government agencies spending
taxpayers’ money.
We did another lap round the nature
trail. There were a few other people there by now but the bear poop was still
there. We saw a few energetic seals frolicking off the beach but still no
whales.
After lunch J did the line dance
class while I had a nap. We both hit the gym after a weigh-in and then turned
out for trivia. Mrs B was back and, after last night’s big talk about tearing
up all the old questions, proceeded to start with about 7 hoary old trivia
favourites. We tied with another team but failed the tiebreaker – how many
sides does a banana have (5). The other team had 7 players! We were also aware that they had only named 6
dwarfs but the team that marked their paper allowed them a point – they proudly
told us that because they thought it was our paper. The prizes were belt
carabineers (pretend mountaineers clips).
I found that Bobby had returned my
call from last night so I rang again and spoke to him over the phone. Told him
the prizes were miserly and his wife had ignored our attempt to discuss it with
her. He will look at it.
We talked about eating dinner at
the buffet instead. This would assist with a couple of issues (we took the
calculator to the scales this afternoon). We only went tonight because we
thought it was lobster night.
Evening trivia was again taken by
Mrs B. She offered a multiple choice format which is a great leveller. We were
2 off the pace – the teams which won each had 2 members, which was a turnaround
from recent events under her. In an
apparent instant response to my call to Bobby, she handed out Tshirts!
We had an early night and slept
through what was subsequently described as “almost a hurricane”. We are even
more delighted to be in a midships cabin.
Wednesday 12th Ketchican
This is our last chance to go
ashore in Alaska but we may well pass – the forecast has been fulfilled with
constant rain blowing in sideways on strong wind. It won’t be nice out there!
Early morning CNN reported that the US Ambassador to Libya died in the embassy
attack – is there any end to this blind hatred? We also noticed an ad for
arthritis medication which went on for about a minute detailing at great length
the risk of heart attacks and stomach bleeding and urging caution in taking the
medicine.
We hit the gym about 10 and stayed
there until trivia at 11.30, which we won and picked up more Tshirts. All that
with one phone call! We went in for a restrained lunch and then back to the gym
until about 3.30. This included a leisurely stretch and 12 minute snooze.
Afternoon trivia was interesting –
we won after 3 tiebreaks. The Australian dropped out on the 2nd one
so he wasn’t around to answer Q3 – which animal sleeps the most? So we scored
another 6 Tshirts. Tonight is sports so we won’t be in contention for that. We
got back to the room to find a message from Bobby. Probably not coincidental
that he rang while we were at trivia. He said they have got the staff together
and clarified the number of team members that are allowed (umm it’s only his
wife who needs to be told) and the prizes should “build to a crescendo” as each
trip ends. Yes exactly – but they hadn’t. Anyway, everything is now as it
should be. For the benefit of non-Aussies, koalas sleep 22 hours a day.
Flushed with success, I dropped
down to the foyer to see Mr Yadav. He seemed happy to see me and said the boat
is fully booked at this stage for the next leg to Hawaii but if any
opportunities arise for an upgrade he will bear us in mind. Just come down and
see him an hour after we sail. We are very much delighted to have had this
lovely room this week and anything else that might happen would be
spectacularly wonderful.
We are going to eschew lobster in
the dining room for lettuce at the buffet. If we can gnaw our way through that
in 30 minutes we can make the first show (tribute to the Temptations) and then
use the Platinum Members invite which Gail kindly passed on to us for the
cocktail party (thinks – calories?).
Well that all went according to
plan. The “Temptations” were better than the Motown group we saw a few weeks
ago but after a while the white suits with long, baggy coats; red tie,
handkerchief and shoes, and the constant girly steps and synchronised arm
waving do tend to become irritating. We met the captain on the way into the
cocktails and indulged in a few Rum Punches and Bahama Mamas. Overnight the
wind must have come up because the boat was shuddering a lot (rather than big
rolling) but we slept well throughout.
Thursday 13th _ Cruising
Inside Passage.
We lost an hour overnight and woke
to a flat sea with our sister ship the Rhapsody steaming in parallel a few
miles away. Whales were out in force over breakfast and now there is another
cruise ship running with us as well. Today is a sea day as we cruise the Inside
Passage back to Vancouver.
We won caps in the morning, spent
mucho time in the gym in the afternoon, before heading down to our balcony to
watch whales. The sea was glassy flat and the sun was hot so we bronzed our
bits in preparation for Hawaii (sorry kids).
We were just starting to think
about dinner when the boat found its way into a cluster of small islands and
suddenly the ocean was full of whales – blowing and tail slapping all over at
fairly close range. And then suddenly – Oh Joy – Orcas!! Tall fins jutting out
of the water and as they bobbed and dived there was a flash of black and white.
It looked like a family of 10 or so passing barely 100 metres from us. J was
beside herself and my camera ran out of memory L
Dinner in the buffet was very good.
We sat there looking out of the window and fed on shrimp ceviche, delicious
sweet and sour pork and salmon grilled to our taste. Tonight the chef was
cooking crepes and, diet aside, we shared a succulent pancake with coconut, almonds
and banana. Oooh and some chocolate L
I sent J to introduce herself to Mr
Yadav at the desk and thank him again for the use of the balcony room. As
expected, he warmed to her enthusiasm about the orcas and it would not be
astonishing if he found his way to allocating us another upgrade tomorrow. If
not, we had a wonderful week anyway and it didn’t hurt to share some gratitude
with him.
The farewell quiz started almost
half an hour late. Just as well Gail and Dean weren’t there because they have
enough caustic comments about the activities already. Marty said they had a 5
page letter with their review form. Anyway, we won again (Tshirt). The music
trivia immediately afterwards finished with a couple behind us claiming 13
points but J said they marked their own sheet? We were next highest with 11.
We went to use our casino vouchers
– J had a bit of a go at the roulette and we left with more than we started.
Quick look through the shops and then down to the cabin to pack. We don’t know
anybody who is staying on for the next leg to Hawaii and we will need to start
from scratch again with trivia teams. We did very well with what was basically
the 6 from our original dinner table plus Brian and an old lady who was
constantly throwing in wild suggestions. We ended up good friends with Gail and
Dean and enjoyed our time with dozens of others.
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