River Cruise

Just 7 weeks from today we will be boarding this River Cruise! We booked this cruise  in Septemeber 2016! We will be traveling with the American Queen Steamboat Company on the American Queen for a "Music of America" Cruise Memphis to  Nashville, with my stepbrother Rodney and wife, also named Sharon. This is actually their "dream trip" and they invited us to go along. Should be an interesting and different experience for us as we have not been on a river boat cruise before, except for a dinner cruise. The Itinerary is interesting and sounds relaxing along the river. We have heard the food is fantastic on this cruise line. We booked our flights on July 9, RT Fresno so no extra driving. We will fly into Memphis and back home from Nashville. 

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Heading Home

I didn't sleep very well last night, always concerned I will not be on time or hear my alarm. Anyway, we were all at our appointed place by 8:40a to disembark. At 8:50a I asked the staff about our number, he said he already announced it. None of us heard it - but off we go. It is like a herd of cattle but it went smoothly. I called the Seattle Shuttle each time I was supposed to. However, we still had a long wait for their arrival. I suppose it really didn't matter since our flight is not until 3:30p but standing around "waiting" is never amusing. We got to the airport so early we could not check our luggage. There is a rule about no sooner than 4 hours before your flight. Even though we were just 20 minutes before that - no exceptions. So, we wait again. Eventually that was all taken care of and we breezed through security to search for a lunch spot. I was happy to eventually find Anthony's, where John and I have eaten in the past. We all ate our lunch there and lingered a bit so we have less time to wait for our flight back home. 

Salsa & Shrimp

Finally we are in the air. No views of the beautiful mountains today as there is still some smoke present. We did have a fantastic view of Lake Tahoe on the way home though. We approached a taxi at the airport to take us home but apparently our trip was not far enough to benefit them, so even without using Script they were not interested. As it turned out Deb and Sam have their vehicle at the airport so they took us home, along with Jeff and Kathleen. 

It's always good to be home again, safe and sound, thank you LORD for another safe journey. 

Explorer of the Seas - Day 7 - Victoria, BC

Our last day of the cruise, getting off tomorrow. It is a lovely day here in Victoria BC. Unfortunately, my back is tweaked today so I am moving slowly. The kids all went off the ship around 10a I think. We were in port at 9a. Deb, Sam, Jeff, and Kathleen took a pedicab into town, Steven and Saira walked. I know they ate and had some beers but I don't know what else they did. After my back was feeling better we went off the ship and walked around a little bit, then came back onboard. 

About 4:30-5p the Celebrity Solstice came into port and as we were watching her dock we saw the kids coming back to the ship as well.  

It was our last dinner tonight - the week went by really fast. However, I will say we are all pretty full of both food and drink and by today it is not as special as it was last Friday. We enjoyed our meal and then we all went to pack.

We joined Deb, Sam, Jeff, and Kathleen up at Dizzy's for a little bit but we were tired and headed back to bed. We have an 8:40a departure time from the 4th deck dining area. I hope that goes smoothly since we have the Seattle Shuttle scheduled to take us to the airport.  

Explorer of the Seas - Day 6 - Cruising

It was a somewhat quiet day for us cruising. We turned the clocks back ahead to our regular time today, that made it seem like we got up late. We all had an early lunch in the dining room and then we all went our separate ways. I didn't sleep so well so we came back to our cabin, after a brief stop looking at some of our photos. 

The kids all played cards up top somewhere and saw whales breech while they were up there. Nice! They also played miniature golf before the fog came all the way in. Steven played some dodge ball tournament or something. Whatever they were doing, they all had fun. 

Dinner was 6:30p tonight. It was Macarena night! They played it and we did our best. Our waiter Budi did a fantastic job! The feature was a lamb shank, delicious but Jeff is so full he could not eat, he sat with us for most of the time. Maybe skipping dinner will help out his digestion. Steven also left before dessert! I know Jeff and Steven ate pizza around 5p. It's catching up to them. Later in the evening we all ended up at Dizzy's - first for cards, then for the music. Tonight was Western, not sure of exactly what they called it but it was a nice mix. The DJ was nice and even taught a few line dance steps to those who wanted to learn. 

Macarena Time

Foggy Tonight

Cards

Our DJ this evening

Explorer of the Seas - Day 5 - Cruising Tracey Arm Fjords

We woke up about 7a, I believe we entered Tracey Arm Fjord around 5:30a. It is not as cold as I thought it would be, it is 41F and sunny. I don't think any of the kids are too disappointed at the views (maybe Steven is) but John and I are surprised it is nothing like the Hubbard Glacier we have seen in the past. That glacier if absolutely breathtaking, but this Dawes Glacier is similar to the Mendenhall Glacier that you can just see from the town in Juneau. We could not go to the Sawyer Glacier because the ice flow was heavy. Besides that slight disappointment, the views are, of course, spectacular! 

Good Morning Dawes Glacier 7:45a

Deb, Sam, John, and I had breakfast in the dining room - very nice Eggs Benedict. Steven, Saira, John, and I had lunch in the dining room! After lunch we headed to the casino to try our luck. I more than doubled my meager allotment to lose and quit with $71. John and I went back to our cabin then. At 2p we went to the Ice Show, which we really enjoyed. There are some really talented skaters! The guy who did back flips was amazing! For this ship you do not need tickets to go to the show but they schedule you to go by Muster Station numbers, which are listed in your Cruise Compass. However, that said, they open it to everyone 5 minutes before the show starts. I might go again. 

This Guy Did Back Flips!

After the show I played Bingo - No I didn't win the cruise, darn. Maybe next time! There was a special event for Platinum and above at 4:45p. I was surprised after all the rather boring introductions that our Captain sang for us! He sang "Margaritaville" and then a song for his crew first in English and then in the Filipino language (Tagalog I think). It was actually quite moving. 

Formal night - LOBSTER - Our table had 18 lobster tails, a few prime ribs, a couple of pasta dishes... are we stuffed? Yes indeed! I won't say who ate the most lobster tails...John and I had just one each! John and I retired to our cabin after this. All the kids went to change (stretchy pants?) and I think they were going to the 70's dance or something tonight. We are all having a great time. 

Explorer of the Seas - Day 4 - Skagway

Steven and Saira went to Grizzly Falls Zip-line. They had a great time and even walked on swing bridges and zip-lined upside down!!! They have a lot of Go Pro videos but I don't know quite how to post those! The other kids went into town and did some beer tasting, got some jewelry, and walked around. I'm not sure what else they saw. 

John and I had coffee in our room and went up for a very late breakfast. I just felt tired today so after walking around the ship we just came back to our cabin. We did plan to get off but it never happened. 

The Ship was Quiet

The Port was Busy

The kids all got back about 4p and came over. Then we all met for dinner at 6:15. Another delicious dinner. This time the service was slow as well. Our waiter is great but his assistant doesn't do much and he is pretty swamped. The head waiter (I think) came and apologized for them temporarily losing our partial bottle of wine from last night. They eventually found it and all was well. We set sail around 8p as scheduled. Everyone seems a little tired tonight so I suppose we will all be asleep soon and then looking forward to cruising the Tracey Arm Fjords tomorrow. 

Good Night

Explorer of the Seas - Day 3 - Juneau

Our Morning View

Welcome to Alaska

We got up, got ready and went upstairs to the Windjammer for Breakfast. It was so crowded that I left John there and went back to our cabin with my coffee. He said he didn't mind and it was just so busy that I would rather enjoy the balcony for my morning coffee. 

We all met for lunch in the dining room at 11am...well some straggled in but eventually we were all there. See my photos on Facebook for the delicious Crab Cake Benedict we all had. It was fabulous. 

Now we regrouped and met at our cabin to disembark and head to the Roberts Mountain Tramway, our excursion for the day. There are stunning views of the area from the tram and the area up on Roberts Mountain. The Tram attendant said it is the 6th sunny day they have had this season! They get 100 inches of snow in the winter and 90 inches of rain in the summer. It certainly explains why it is so lush and green here! We strolled around and saw various things up there. There is a bald eagle to see, I guess it was injured and has this large pen as a home now. There was a native Tlingit man carving a totem pole, the nature center, gift shop, restaurant, and other displays to see. We had a cold drink at the Timberline Bar and Grill and shared crab nachos, which were marvelous. Steven & Saira stayed on a while with us but then we headed down the mountain as well. They joined the other kids at the Red Dog Saloon and we came back to the ship. John took a nice nap and I worked on this blog and my photos. 

Our ship from Mount Roberts

The kids all made it back to dinner at 6p. Another gastronomical delight. Tonight I had rack of lamb, but I forgot to take a photo of it. The other hit of the evening was seafood ceviche. After dinner everyone went their separate ways but managed to filter back to our balcony cabin to experience sail away. So much fun today and this beautiful moon at 9:45p tonight! I believe there is just about 7 hours of mostly dark sky tonight. 

This was 9p

The Radiance of the Seas left port just before we did. 

Explorer of the Seas - Day 2

We slept pretty well but we heard the fog horn from the ship beginning in the wee hours of the morning. I think Steven & Saira got up the earliest. They went up on deck and just about froze. When we saw Deb, Sam, Jeff, and Kathleen later they must have been right behind them. All of them ate breakfast in the dining room but at different times. Deb called us about the time we were getting up, to see if we were okay. For sure we are but yesterday was a long day. Steven and Saira called later and we made arrangements to meet for lunch. We dined at the Windjammer Buffet and I cannot even list all the choices there were! However, it seemed really crowded. Anyway, it was nice and we had a table right by the window. It is still foggy and pretty chilly outside.

Our captain seems amusing in his announcements. He said tomorrow in Juneau it is going to be 66F and that is hot summer weather for Alaska. He has said other funny things as well. For instance yesterday when it was Muster he welcomed everyone and then pretended he forgot the name of the ship, and added that he hope we enjoy Hawaii.

After lunch John took a nap while Steven, Saira, and I looked in a few shops. They took off to do miniature golf but they were too late. I shopped a bit more and headed back to work on the blog. The older kids stopped by while John was sleeping. We made the plan to meet at 4:30p at Dizzy's Bar on deck 14. However, when we got there, there was a private party so we relocated to the R Bar on deck 5. After that we all went to get ready for dinner because tonight is our first formal night. 

Here we are looking spiffy!!!

Steven, Saira, John, and I went to the headliner show tonight, it was disappointing and first they left and then we left before it was over. I think Steven and Saira joined the rest of the kids as they were going to two different locations for dancing. The first was before 10p and then there was a 70's thing at 10p. We went to bed! 

Explorer of The Seas - Day 1

The first day of our cruise has arrived! We were scheduled to leave Fresno Airport 6:05a but we actually left at 6:30a. They could not get the jetway to move from the side of the plane. Regardless, with the tailwind we still arrived in Seattle Airport at 8:18a. We had a shuttle scheduled to take us to Pike Market Place. Even though I called as directed when we landed, we ended up waiting an hour for them. That was a little disappointing. There was a lot of traffic but we arrived safely to the Pike Place Market. First on our agenda was FOOD as we are all hungry. Most of us didn't eat breakfast. We just happen to find Cafe Campagne where we were all delighted with our choices. I had the best crab quiche I have ever tasted. After that we walked around the market, we even got to see them tossing the fish, which is such a popular attraction at this Fish Market. After that the kids went on to other things, I think Old Stove Brewery John and I walked around looking in shops. We got tired and found an outside table at Place Pigalle to have a cold drink before heading back for our shuttle to the ship. 

We scheduled a 1:30p pick up and we were waiting about 10 minutes after that so I called. They then told me I was to call them again for the pick up. That was not what they told me, Sam verified he heard it the way I did. At any rate they arrived and we were to the port in about 15 minutes or less. 

Boarding was incredibly fast due to our 2p arrival time. No sooner did we get on and get settled, it was Muster time. Shortly thereafter we set sail. I was disappointed the Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries were not in our room until AFTER Muster. But it worked out that the kids came over and enjoyed it on our balcony!

Dinner was delightful but the service was pretty slow. I can expect it to be slower with 8 people but 2.5 hours is too long. Hopefully it was just the first night back up and future meals will be a bit faster. We almost gave up on dessert arriving but it finally came. I think we all had big plans for after dinner but in reality we went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately! 

3 Days!

I think we're all set. Everyone going (Deb, Sam, Steven, Saira, Jeff, and childhood friend Deb, Jeff, and Sam) has their documents filled out and printed, flights in place, and passports are ready! It will be SO nice to get away from the heat. Sadly, I see they expect a heat wave including Seattle, our departure port. It is supposed to be up to 100F - very rare for Seattle. At least we will sail away from it!!!

READY!