Day 3: Juneau

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

Monday, June 30th: Juneau
The adventurers woke up feeling fine and hungry. We met the gang at breakfast and at last I was able to eat a full meal ;-).

The ship got into port a little earlier than expected, so we shopped in the stores along the main street. I noticed they have a lot of diamond jewelry stores in Juneau. I, luckily, did not have time to shop. Outside there is dense fog, that gray pea-soup thick fog that makes you want to stay in and read by the fireplace. Sprinkles of rain added to the dreariness of the day. NOT the kind of weather for hiking up mountains, which is exactly what we were going to do today. JuneauFromTram

Unfortunately, the activity I really wanted was voted down. I wanted to do the dog mushing one. You got to meet the female gold medal winner of the Olympic Iditarod competition and learn how to drive a dog sled. You also got to meet the dog teams and play with the puppies. Who would vote down that? My hubbies family, that’s who. I’ll be a sport and go along, even though riding a tram up a steep mountain is not a person afraid of heights’ idea of fun.

[Remind me to tell you about a hot-air balloon adventure sometime in the future…]

Well, the tram ride turned out to be very mild and nothing scary at all. The hike, however, was not the ‘leisurely walk in the mountains’ they advertised. I knew I was in trouble when our guide, Betsy, handed out walking sticks. By the time we had hiked up the side of Mount Roberts, my stick was my new best friend. Too bad I’m not coordinated enough to snap pictures while hiking with a stick…

Betsy was a fun and knowledgeable guide. She taught us about the plant life we saw along the way, encouraged us, took us to a place to have all natural ingredient teas and little cookies. We also got a peek at the parks ‘bear cam’ and watched adult grizzlies catching salmon. I love watching grizzlies – on TV.

I did not flake out, and I made it up and back without any side-adventures. Still, I was happy to hike back down the mountain and get back into the tram.

: Aerial View of Juneau

I took a photo of Juneau from way up high in the tram, before it began its decent. I wanted to prove to my children that Grandmas are tough. It happened to be a magnificent view as well.

We blended in well with the other weary and soggy adventurers returning to the ship.

TTFN,

Jodi

Day Two: Pass The Dramamine

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

June 29th, Sunday: At Sea
More accurately – At Sea-sick (even with regular doses of motion sickness meds – damn generics!), both hubby and I felt gross. Lack of sleep and a wildly moving ship did us in. Hubby, who NEVER gets motion sick, was just as green as I was. Our cruise mates were blissfully unaffected.

Sometimes, we hate them.

We tried to take a nap, but could not sleep. The cabins all around ours have children and what sounded like dogs too. The worse was when they would run up and down the corridor. Slamming the exit door closed in their wake. I have no idea how many kids were on board, but I can tell you that door has slammed 62 times already today.

Bunk Beds — See the beds stuck to the side walls? They stuck out 12″, making our path to bed only 12″. We had to crawl in and out of bed. Or bang our heads and elbows. **We paid an extra $600 for this feature.**

It took us a couple of days to put everything together and figure out we had been screwed. Our travel agent moved us to a different room because our ocean view was a “fully obstructed” view. Hubby’s brother did not change his arrangements and his view and cabin were way better than ours. Our window was still ‘partially obstructed’ and we had 2 bunk-beds taking up room.

In case you’re not familiar with cruising, days at sea are usually ‘formal nights’. I had been waiting for months to wear my gorgeous, sparkly, gown. And I wore it, even though lavender’s and deep purples do not go well with green. We were able to eat something finally and that helped our stomachs a lot.

My sis-in-laws and I wanted at least one dance with our tuxedo-ed men before they ran off to change clothes. Since it would be an hour until the dancing started, we lost. However, they did promise dancing after the 2nd formal night.

I remain skeptical, but hopeful.

Day One: Airports & Embarkation

July 6, 2014 ~ JodiLea

Saturday, June 28th, 0500.
The Hilton’s shuttle was prompt and we got to Sacramento Airport in plenty of time to go through security at 3 different places, and be at our gate with a few minutes to spare. The TSA were efficient, even if your boarding pass was not marked as ‘TSA pre-check’. Being searched was very thorough and so was the inspection of my bag of meds. Hubby stood in pre-check with me, but his boarding pass was not marked, so he had to start over in the long line. Even so, he made it through before I did.
I noticed that the x-ray operators did not like the people who could not be x-rayed. I got snapped at, and evil-eyed at each security point. The ‘friskers’ were not hostile at all and they were professional and speedy. Finally, we found a Princess Cruises rep., and he guided us to where we turned in our luggage to transfer to the ship. The line for the shuttle to Pier 91, had 5 people, including us.

Our bus driver was really fun and she gave us a ‘tour’ of Seattle during our 45-minute ride out to the docks. The building with the colorful flag is the Starbucks Headquarters. She also pointed out Safeco field (home of those #$%&*! Seahawk’s).

After getting to the first cruise check point at the pier, we were guided into a large maze that wound back and forth, countless times. Exactly like cattle. To put it into perspective, Disneyland never has lines.We met some fun people during that 2.5 hour wait. Expecting another thorough pat-down, I was surprised at how brisk the frisk was to get onto the walkways to board the ship. My bag was rifled through, but not totally unpacked and repacked like in the airport. After going through two different winding snake lines to embark the ship, we were once again x-rayed, patted down, and we finally stepped onto our ship, and escorted to our cabin. It was now 1:45pm.

Once the passengers began boarding, our luggage began coming aboard. We did not have to worry about picking it up – it would be delivered to our door. Very nice touch 🙂

After the Golden Princess (our ship) left port, I began to feel hot and nauseous. I took my motion sickness medication, however, they let me down on the high-seas. I’ve been cruise ships, but going towards the equator. The Northern Pacific seas are much rougher.
Now I know why the corridors are so narrow.

Last Cabin Waaay at End — Heading To Last Cabin

So you can walk down them with your arms outstretched and palms flat against the walls preventing a terrible fall. We should have had those kind of corridors in college – but I digress…
In order to get around, you needed to hang on to something. Still, you swayed and stumbled like a drunken sailor.
After such a busy day, our feet were ready to lie down in our cabin and rest. That was not to be. We were ravenous! So all six of us ate at one of the restaurants, while we worked on getting a table for six in the Donatello Room. The maître d’ and his wait staff will do everything they can to grant your wish. I could really get used to this!

It’s sort of like being a princess. Without the tiara.

Until tomorrow…