To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 4/28 x 3 and it's COMPLETE!! - Page 12 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I must have dozed away as when I woke up, it was nearly 4:00 pm. The boys weren't back yet, so I decided to go find them at the cinema. It was a little tricky to find as it was either extremely aft or forward- I can't remember. But soon enough I made it there- it was very neat.
I waited around for about 20 minutes, and judging by the number of people who poured from that theater, I guess others had enough of the weather out the windows.... Kevan told me there were people standing in the back watching the film.
We stopped in the shops once more and Kevan bought himself a wildlife book as well as bottle of Amarula cream liqueur. I forgot to tell him he wouldn't get to take it back with him- that it would be delivered to us the last night of the cruise- so when he found me, it was quite funny- in this little kid voice he said.. "Honey, the man took my liqueur away!"
I stopped by the computers to check email once more. I never had a problem getting on a computer the entire week- one thing I loved about this ship is that there were terminals not only in the internet cafe but in other spots as well.
This is me in the Internet Cafe:
We ran the book back up to the room to drop off the book and around 5:30 headed up to Windjammer. I just wasn't in the mood to dress up enough to be in the dining room and I know that surprised my 3 fellas. Windjammer's offerings were slightly reduced over those at lunch- but they had the best roast beef I have ever had on any trip- including buffets at WDW and on DCL. It was so goood, it practically melted in my mouth- and the dude didn't hold back on the beef- he threw 3 or 4 slices on my plate! Matt and Aaron went for the usual fare and Kevan decided he had better steer clear of curry for awhile- so he did some roasted chicken and trimmings.
We headed back to the room to grab the Compass and the scene from the balcony was just downright creepy but at the same time really cool.
Couldn't see a darn thing. Matt wanted to check out the arcade so we headed up there. I got a $20 credit card and let Aaron and Matt split it evenly for games of their choice. Matt and Kevan played air hockey for quite some time while Aaron did a few racing games.
Right outside the arcade, there was a group of kids, clearly in the same family, completely unsupervised- wrestling, being loud and obnoxious, blocking traffic into both Fuel (the teen club) as well as the arcade. The oldest kid in the bunch looked to be about 14- and honestly, since becoming a teacher especially, my patience for this kind of stuff runs really thin. I walked right back into Adventure Ocean and told the crew member there about this group- to which she said she would take care of it. I understand letting older kids walk around the ship if they are responsible and well behaved enough- but this group of 7 or 8 kids was led by a 14 year old who was clearly not mature enough to handle the group. The youngest was about 5. What is wrong with people?? Sad, sad and I'm hopping down from my soapbox and back into happyland with this report.
By the time we got back to the room, it was about 7:00 and Magnificent Marcilano as I dubbed him, had already come in to take care of nightly turn down. He had even found Fumble and Polar (Polar is another friend of Matt's- consider him a stuffed animal version of Ed McMahon to Fumble's Johnny Carson)- and had placed them just so on our bed.
Matt and I took showers just to relax and wind down. We did throw on sweatshirts and head out to the balcony one more time- just in awe of the weather. As we all settled in, Aaron asked if we were getting off the ship tomorrow- to which I replied a strong Yes! And I think we all made comments to the effect of thank goodness or yay..
It was just kind of a tough day with having icky weather and really, not so much to do in terms of onboard activities. There were a few but they certainly didn't appeal to the whole family at once- one aspect where DCL takes a lead. But don't get me wrong- we were okay with it- it just wasn't the most action packed day ever. Tomorrow, however, would be a much, much different story...
Coming Up Next: Oh, please, please, please.... no repeats of whale watching in Monterey....
Wow, that fog does look creepy! A day at sea without sunshine seems weird, and I could see us getting bored soon. Can't wait to read more and see more pictures
Too bad about the liqueur, that would have probably warmed up the balcony!
Yeah, that's what i thought too. And how then do you get it home? Pack it in your checked luggage?
The photo from the deck is really I'm hoping the next installment is good and that your whale watching experience is positive.
__________________
ºOº ~*~
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Kevan was up at 4:30 and came to get me to show me what had transpired overnight. It was like Tinkerbell also had taken vacation to Alaska and brought a major dose of weather pixie dust. The skies were bright and clear- and this was my first look outside that morning!
This was when the reality of being in Alaska really hit me. It was absolutely awe inspiring and little did we all know we hadn't seen anything yet! I went back to bed by 5:00 and then was back up at 6:30. By the time I had woken up, Kevan had already been up to Windjammer. I got in the shower and he got both the boys up to head up to breakfast. I so wish I had brought the camera because at the entrance of Windjammer, we became accosted by a character Bald Eagle. It wasn't a line up and get your pic made kind of thing- he would literally go up to people as they made their way in. We ate fairly quickly as we all were incredibly excited and wanted to watch our arrival in Hoonah (Icy Strait Point) from the balcony.
At about 9:00, Icy Strait Point and Hoonah came into view:
Today, we were booked on the Marine Mammals Watch excursion and our tickets said to be in the Tropical Theater by 10:15. We headed down about 9:45 because I had no idea what to expect in terms of how we would be lined up or boarded onto the tenders.
When we got there, I was very pleasantly surprise. There were several departing times and each group was assigned a certain section. When one section got up to leave and board a tender, the next section moved over to the exit. It seemed very seamless. At the same time, those who were not on organized tours had to go to Schooner Bar to pick up a tender ticket- and they were calling those passengers by ticket number over the PA. They had 2 tenders in the tour gangway and 2 in the non tour gangway- so they were moving people out fairly quickly.
I got some neat pics of the ship as the tender pulled away:
As we approached Icy Strait Point, the little town area that greets all cruise ship visitors, I was able to get some good pictures of the Cannery and information building.
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As we disembarked, we were directed to wait outside but never told anything about what to do after. We had gotten in a line for the whale watch boat but then heard a guide saying something about having the blue sticker and tickets ready. What blue sticker? Someone behind us told us that you had to check in at the counter in the info building. So we gave up a fabulous place in line to go get it- and when we reached the counter, were told not to worry about it. Grr!! I was seriously ticked off and very alarmed at the number of people boarding that boat- there must have been at least 75, if not 100 and there did not seem to be much outdoor space at all. This excursion wasn't cheap. Breathe, breathe, breathe.
Our mistake turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We ended up at the very back of the boat outside. This turned out to be a good thing as I will explain in the next post (which will be continued after this one).
The naturalist onboard started her announcements, giving us a brief rundown of animals we would hope to be seeing. And this is where I had visions of our disastrous whale watch with Cheryl and Mark in Monterey, CA back in 2006. We spent 4 hours on the choppiest, roughest seas in freezing cold temps only to get a 15 second glimpse of a humpback whale. Poor Mark got a glimpse from the back of the boat, where he was sick as he could be. As with all our adventures of the Pendrys, we had a great time with them and even laughed about it later- but the absence of whales left us all deeply disappointed.
So anyhow, I snapped out of my trip down memory lane in time to hear that we were heading to Point Adolphus, which was known for it's abundance of humpbacks.
We passed by the Serenade and that was so neat to see it from a distance- here is a pic and video clip of that:
It did get a little tiring standing on the way out to Point Adolphus but the scenery was spectacular. My coridal husband and Matt were a bit away from Aaron and I, however they seemed to be having a fine time.
Matt came over and stood next to me and we spotted a few bald eagles on the way out there- but they were too far away to photograph. Matt started to really get excited about the prospect of seeing whales up close.
The scenery was amazing..
The boat slowed down considerably and immediately to my right I heard a commotion- then Aaron exclaimed.. "I see one!!"
Of course, as soon as word got out, people started scrambling and unfortunately, I was about 2 people deep back. I was so amazed at first, it took a few seconds for my brain to register to get the camera ready!
I had just checked a setting, when I looked up and the whole boat went nuts.. a whale breeched right out of the water. It was the most incredible sight I had ever seen. So quick though- most of the people around me immediately checked their displays on their cameras, and very few got a good shot of it.
In the distance of this shot, though, a fin was rolling out of the water- this was immediately after the breech. I've tried to photoshop all of these and am not having much success- in all fairness, we were still a distance away when all of this went down..
There was one we kept an eye on for some time..
The naturalist onboard told us to keep an eye out for air being blownout of the blowholes, as she said that's usually a semi-prep for a dive and a better chance of seeing dorsals and possibly a tail fluke.
All of a sudden, I can't explain it.. the whale was joined by another and another and then we found ourselves with a nice big group of them. We were standing right by the entrance of the top deck, which up until this point had been roped off. They let 30 people up at a time- and we got up there in the first group- because we were at the back. And the viewing only got better from there.
I've saved the best of this post for last- Matthew did a fabulous job with an mpeg clip of the whales.
Oh wow, what a great time you had - love the video.
Maybe we'll have similar luck when we eventually take an Alaskan cruise - I have to say after that fateful day in Monterey, I've almost given up hope of ever seeing whales and am slightly worried about the prospect of another whale watching cruise...
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that's what i thought too. And how then do you get it home? Pack it in your checked luggage?
I'm hoping the next installment is good and that your whale watching experience is positive. 
ºOº ~*~ 
I was seriously ticked off and very alarmed at the number of people boarding that boat- there must have been at least 75, if not 100 and there did not seem to be much outdoor space at all. This excursion wasn't cheap. Breathe, breathe, breathe.
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