Alaska Day Two

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

September 17th was a sea day. I love them, which is why I’m sure I’ll enjoy the world cruise next January which has considerably more sea days and port days. Last night we said goodnight to a sky full of brittle northern stars.  This morning dawned ominously gray, but the sun burned through in short order and we had sunny skies as we skirted the southern shore of Vancouver Island on our way to Juneau.

As a side note: There are a few, admittedly very few, archaeologists who’ve posited that this island could be the Vikings’ fabled Vinland instead of Maritime Canada. The theory is that because ocean levels were considerably higher in 1000 AD that they are now, there was a navigable Northwest Passage that took them all the way around to this island south of Alaska. Don’t know if it’s true, but it’s fun to ponder.

We breakfasted in the main dining room and had quite a sampling of international fare. My friend Joy had an All-American breakfast, Mike a classic English breakfast complete with bangers (pork sausage) and baked beans. The DH had French Toast, and I had an Asian breakfast—miso soup, grilled salmon on a bed of rice and tamagoyaki (Japanese scrambled eggs!) 

Then at 10:30AM we all took the kitchen tour. It was a fascinating behind the scenes look at how 2100 passengers and 850 crew get fed three times a day. 150 crew members serve in the galley, from the highly skilled executive chef all the way down to the dishwashers.

Occasionally, I’ve heard of cruise passengers going to the pursers’ office on the first day of their voyage and removing the automatic tip from their shipboard account. They claim they prefer to tip the crew they interact with directly. The problem with this strategy is that there are tons of crew they never see, yet are working very hard to make the voyage pleasant.  The automatic tips are divided up among all the crew, but if a passenger removes the autotip, they are effectively stiffing all those folks who work in unseen, yet essential, positions. So the DH and I embrace a both/and philosophy of tipping. We pay the autotips on our account, and on the last day, we slip something extra to our dining room staff, room stewards, and anyone else who has rendered us exceptional service.

Here are a few eye-popping stats about the weekly average consumption of food on board: 11,830 lbs. of meat, 4450 lbs. of seafood, 3,814 lbs. of poultry, over 23,000 eggs (!). Lest you think we’re way out of balance on protein, a cruise ship goes through 137,500 lbs. of fresh vegetables a week, too. Oh! And 300 gallons of ice cream.

At 11:00AM we watched the cooking show at the culinary science center and learned two new recipes for salmon. I’ll be sharing those later. Apparently there are some differences between Atlantic salmon (which are mostly farmed now instead of fished) and wild caught Pacific salmon, which require cooking to different temperatures to insure doneness but not over-doneness. My take-away was that I really need a meat thermometer.

The show ended at 11:45 AM, so we headed up to the Lido deck for a quick lunch since I’d hoped to catch the art auction at 12:30. Time got away from us and we arrived fifteen minutes late. They hadn’t started yet, but all the seats with an open space beside them where I could tuck Herkimer (my portable O2 concentrator) were taken. I was actually wearing out a bit, so we decided to hit the Thermal Suite for a soak in the hydro-pool and a quick nap on the stone loungers.

Then it was time to shower, rest and recharge in our lovely cabin for a while. I know there are plenty of activities on board we could be joining, but sometimes, the joy of cruising is simply doing nothing. The DH and I are both a bit introverted and crowds exhaust us after a while. This way, we’ll be ready to socialize this evening.

Tonight is a Gala night, so the DH will wear his tux and I’ll don my long black dress with a black and gold jacket. Sparkle is the word of the evening. 

After supper, we hope to catch a string quartet playing Dvorak at 7:00pm. If we can stay up long enough (we’re sort of old farts when it comes to our bedtime), we’d like to see the 10 PM reprise of the stage show as well. The kids they hire for these cruises are usually quite talented and I have no idea how they can dance so well while the deck pitches beneath their feet, but they manage it somehow.

Here's a pic of our friends, Joy and Mike, stepping out in style. Joy is rocking a vintage cocktail dress that belonged to her mother. I don't know about you, but I'd give my left pinkie toe to be able to fit into one of my mother's dresses from when she was young! 

More later…

PS. The dancers were cancelled because of the motion of the ocean so we heard a comedian, Kevin McGill. He was pretty entertaining and seemed to be tailoring his show to his audience with quick ad-libs. A genuinely funny guy.

Of course, he did sort of nail me. He asked if any of us took photos of our food. I had to raise my hand. But contrary to what Kevin says, I don't post the pics to gloat (a la "Neener-neener, I get to eat this and you don't.") I post the lovely plates of food because I think the chef does a wonderful job and it almost looks too pretty to eat.

Almost... 

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