Enter your search terms Submit search form

My Portrait Photography
My Nature Photography

Thursday – Inside Passage

8:00 AM thru 4:00 PM

Daily Program

Another Lazy Sea Day

Another lazy day at sea, another morning sleeping in - isn't cruising great!  We finally decided to get moving and hit our the Rotterdam for breakfast again.  As usual the service was very good, with everything we needed being handled.

With no major activities today it was a perfect way to wind down after three very full days in ports.  I think we probably over did it a bit, but who knows when we will get back again.  A quick check of the daily program and we were each off to our activities of the day.

I figured a mid-morning stop at the ice cream bar was in order, and I was right.  A waffle cone sure hit the spot.  As we had not really entered the inside passage yet, the sites were mostly the open sea.

We all got together again for lunch in the Lido and review the afternoon.  They had announced that we would be in an area whre we might see some Orcas in the late afternoon, so we were excited and hopeful.

Food and Beverage Highlights

This activity took place all around the Lido pool.  Here you could learn how to fold napkins, carve fruits and vegetables or buy numerous souvenirs.  To top it off they had the obligatory ice carving demonstration.  The weather was nice so the roof was open over the pool, making the sports deck an excellent viewing location.

Back Stage Tour

You needed to pre-register for this tour the day before.  The tour started in the Vermeer Lounge and covered everything you would like to know.  The tour was conducted by a few for the cast members.  The dressing rooms and costume storage areas were surprisingly small.  It was very interesting to hear how they managed to do the costume changes so quickly.  The stories about learning to dance on a rocking boat were interesting too.

After seeing the magic show we did want to know if the stage has any trap doors - it does not.  The staff also told us the Hal was a good line to be a performer on as their only extra duty was a few hours in the library.  Apparently many other lines work the cast very hard doing other things.

Inside Passage

As we entered the passage we began to see more land sights again.  One of the interesting ones was the world's largest totem pole shown in the first photo.  You can see it towering above the trees.  The ship's course brought us reasonably close to this sight.  As the shipped continued southward it was interesting to not the differences in the shoreline compared to further north.

Orcas!

We reached the area where Orcas were often seen and saw one in the distance and then nothing.  After about 30 minutes we gave up and headed to our cabin.  Then over the announcements came the call of Orcas.  First on the port side and then the starboard.  They were everywhere.  The naturalist got very excited and said they had not seen so many before.  The captain practically stopped the ship so we could watch.  The Orcas played for a good fifteen minutes and then we were on our way.

We took these shots from our verandah.  I wished I had stayed on the bow, but did not want to miss any by returning.

The Flood

When my daughter and grandma returned to their cabin they found a crew working in it.  Apparently the cabin next door had flooded their bathroom with the toilet and the water had flooded this cabin too.  They were in the process of cleaning up the water and assured us that all should be fine.  She asked about moving to another cabin, but they said all they had was a smaller cabin (and implied is was very nice) below and that their cabin would be fine.

After dinner when they returned to the cabin at 10:00 PM they found fans being used to dry the floor and coffee grounds spread (cabin smelled like the inside of a coffee pot).  She called the hotel manager again and they said they could move them to another cabin (implied it was similar to current).  As it was late and my daughter was already just about ready to sleep, moving was not an option.  If we had another day, she would have switched in the morning.

Dinner

After a hard day at sea, a good dinner was mandatory. 

Menus: Dinner Dessert

I started with the Crab and Artichoke Dip, Cream of White Mushroom Soup and the House Salad.  For my entree I had the Mixed Grill.  Once again everything was quite good.  I also tried the Alaskan Amber Fish and Chips that my daughter didn't finish - very good.

Tonight our servers performed a short thank performance that was fun to watch.

As usual me and my daughter headed to the ice cream bar for our waffle cones.  When we got there they were closed!  How could that be.   We were both very disappointed.

Tonight's performance was "The Musical Comedy of Gary Jenkins".  The show consisted of musical comedy and impressions.  The impressions were so-so, but did not detract from the humor.  The better you knew the artist being parodied, the funnier the bits were.

The worst part was having to pack our bags to leave.  It took longer to pack than it did to unpack.  Finally all was done and we were ready to call it a night.

Going to sleep tonight was a little sad as we knew tomorrow we would be in Vancouver and headed home.

Enter your search terms Submit search form

My Portrait Photography
My Nature Photography