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Thursday 1 September – part seven: is that a whale outside?

At the appointed time, I headed out, leaving Mark in the room and checked in for both my appointment and the Rainforest. I had about 10 minutes to enjoy the Rainforest, which was plenty of time for me to enjoy some time in the gentle sauna, the aromatic steam room and the mild steam room, which really isn’t so mild.

Then Emily came to get me and we gelled instantly. She’s from the UK, from Carlisle in Cumbria in the northwest of England, which is a beautiful part of the country. We got chatting immediately and just didn’t stop the whole way through the treatment. It turns out that she’s only been on the boat for six weeks now. She was selected to join Steiner, who operate the salons on the cruise ships and went to London for three weeks of training. She was told on the Thursday afternoon that she’d be on the Wonder, cruising Alaska and flew out the next morning. She had (perhaps rightly?) assumed when she left home to join the training that she’d be cruising the Caribbean, so packed accordingly and had no time to go back home to get anymore clothes, so she flew out with what she’d packed and has had to buy during the season. Her story of being in flip flops in the pouring rain in Ketchikan was classic!

She told me that the last couple of weeks have been terrible for the weather and, on one recent visit, all the shore excursions in two ports were cancelled, it was raining so hard. Now that is not a cruise I would like to be on. :

As for the treatment itself, it was wonderful. I was in the salon area, where they do pedicures and manicures, with a view outside, so it was lovely to be able to see the scenery outside go by. I said that I didn’t want the scalp treatment and that was absolutely fine, with more time spent on my neck and shoulders, which really did need it and then she moved on to my arm and hands and my ankles and feet. All were exceptionally tense, which really didn’t surprise me and it was exactly what I needed.

I settled up the check and gave Emily a very generous tip, as she really had been wonderful. I did even say to her that if I saw another special, could I ask for her again and she said immediately.

I got changed and headed back to the room, discovering that Sue and Steve had only just called. I immediately suggested inviting them out for drinks before dinner and they wandered up a little bit later.



Just before they arrived, Mark spotted a whale outside and I saw something blow – I assume it was a whale? I think I’ve been spoilt by nature programmes over the year and expect to get a nice close-up of them, but of course real life isn’t like that. : Mark told me he also saw one fantail and one jump out of the water, which he loved, but I missed that.

When Sue and Steve arrived, we saw more whale activity, which was just as well, because at first they didn’t believe Mark when he said he’d just seen one! There were at least two, if not three. Again, the others seemed so much better at spotting them than me. At least I could say that I’d seen whales now, but so far, the sightings were just OK for me, whereas Mark seemed to be over the moon. Well, that’s the main thing.



We headed out, with me finding the same photographer who’d photographed us about three or four times so far, with a different backdrop, so we got a shot of the four of us. Can you spot who felt a bit awkward having his photo taken?



We were aiming for Diversions, as we’d really enjoyed ourselves in there last night, but tonight was a different story. As we neared it, it became clear that there was something going on in there, so we changed our minds and headed off to the Cadillac Lounge instead.



On the way there, Sue mentioned that she’d seen mulled wine in the lobby and I really fancied that, so I was really disappointed not to see that on the menu here. The guy told me he could go and get me some, so that worked...

Mark went for the Balsamic Grande, which contained Grey Goose vodka, five year old balsamic vinegar and fresh muddled strawberries. Was it as gross as it sounded? You bet! It was foul, although full credit to Mark, he did drink it, but goodness knows how!



My mulled wine wasn’t much better, as instead of having strained it, they left everything in the bottom of it. Not my idea of fun! :

Next: finally a duck sighting!