Alaska Bound - July 16-30 2018

If it's summer, it must be cruising to Alaska time.  Or, at least, it seems that way lately.  Or maybe not.  I don't know.  I was last in Alaska in the summer of 2016, so that's 2 years ago, not one.  But I'm going again next year, so then it will have been one year.  I just confused myself. 

This year's cruise is identical in almost every way as the one I took in 2016.  The only difference is this year Adrienne was able to join me.  In 2016, she broke her leg just 3 days prior to our cruise and couldn't go.  I still went without her, because that's the kind of best friend that I am.  She stayed behind in Seattle, where she lives, and had surgery, and I hopped on the ship and sailed merrily away.  I mean, I was ALREADY there, bags packed..............

But this year, no broken bones.  No delayed flights.  No excuses.  We both made it onto the ship.  Our fearless chauffeur and lifelong friend, Michael, picked us up at Adrienne's house the morning of, and whisked us to Pier 91 cruise terminal and lovingly deposited us at the front door.  He was also good enough to take us past the famous Fremont Troll on the way, so I could get a picture of it.  I've never seen the troll before.

Our ship for this 2 week voyage is the Zaandam.  I sailed to Antarctica and South America on the Zaandam in February 2016.  She was and is, a nice ship, carrying about 1,400 passengers.  My last time on the Zaandam, however, the shower in my cabin only gave off lukewarm water.  That was a bit of a problem when you're in Antarctica.  Well, that was then, and this is now.  Good temperature shower water this time, but guess what?  The cabin thermostat was not so accommodating.  It was set on it's coldest setting, but only yielded us a constant temp of about 73 degrees.  It was okay for me, but my polar bear friend Adrienne was not as happy.  We survived though.  It only got a little hot during the night from time to time.

Our cabin was on the Main deck, Deck 2, at the aft of the ship.  The next to the last cabin.  There is a door leading to a very small back deck which was great.  Hardly ever anyone there, plus it had stairs that led up one flight to the Promenade Deck, which is the walking deck.  Since I try to walk every day, this proximity was awesomely wonderful.  Speaking of walking, I managed to walk 6 days out of 7 the first week, and the same the second week.  I did 20 laps a day, which according to the ship's measurements is about 5 miles.  My Fitbit agreed, as did my iPhone.  Not many people on this cruise were walkers.  It's quite different from longer cruises, where you get a regular contingent of walkers in the early mornings.

As an aside, on my last cruise to Cuba, I had a set of neighbors on one side of me, Stu and Esther, and Stu usually walked several miles each morning, part of which we did together on some days.  It's fun when you get to know your neighbors.  They are from Queens and I really enjoyed getting to know them.  Esther did the On Deck for a Cause 5K walk one day, and Stu and I sat on our private lanai lounge chairs and cheered her on.  Weren't we helpful??!!!

Back to Alaska --- after Adrienne and I got settled and unpacked, etc. we took a walk around the ship and took care of some housekeeping chores - making dinner reservations at the Pinnacle, Canaletto, etc.  As a 5 star Mariner now, I get some extra freebies on my cruises, and a couple of complimentary dinners at the Pinnacle are included.  We wanted to make sure we had some good date options before things got filled up. 

We normally choose early fixed dining - and ask for a table of 6.  That way we can usually get 2 other couples, or maybe a couple of other solos with us.  We've always had good luck with that arrangement.  This time, we had a family of 3 at our table, from outside of Reno, Nevada.  They were nice and we all got along well.  We also had another solo traveler join us - a man from outside of Chicago.  I guess the best thing to say about him is that we were like oil and water.  I was glad I didn't have to sit with him every single night, as we went to the Pinnacle a few times as did he.  I think deep down he's a really nice and sweet person.  It's just that he's one of those people that just talks a lot to fill the silence void, and he was at times quite belligerent and argumentative.  For example, he was arguing with me (yes, I lost patience with him) about Cuba.  Now, I just got back from Cuba and he's never been!  But he needed to tell me all about how Cuba is and completely ignored what I had to say.  And that was just one example.  I could go on.  And maybe I will, but not now.

I've been starting to take aerial photos as I fly across the country.  This one above is shortly after take-off from my home airport of Sacramento.

One of the snow-capped volcanoes on the way up to Seattle.

I think this one is Rainier.  That's Seattle area below it.

The Fremont Troll!

The Zaandam's back pool has cows.  Adrienne loves cows.  Kind of like how I love pigs.

Sail away with a pretty day in Seattle behind us.

Guess we're on the right ship.

Every annual trip Adrienne and I take, she has special t-shirts made for us.  This year we got to wear them twice - once for our Bermuda/Canada trip in May and now this trip to Alaska. 

Well now, this is new!!!  Each hallway intersection on every deck has this new piece of carpeting.  Hard not to know which way to go now!  I loved it.

I came upon this cute couple walking on the promenade deck one morning.  I loved their jackets.  They'll never lose each other this way.  I actually ran into them in Sitka later in the cruise and found out that the husband has a brother and that brother and his wife were also on the cruise and THEY also have the same jackets.  Well now.  That's pretty darn special.... They kind of reminded me of a couple I met on my world cruise last year.  They always dressed alike in the same Hawaiian shirts. I mean, identical.  Same color, same pattern.  They wore them to dinner, even.  I found that pretty funny, in a good way, of course.

So this is the tshirt up close.  Mine is pink (my favorite color) and Adrienne's is purple (her favorite color).  Notice how my name is first.........   🙋🙋🙋🙋🙋