{"id":1108,"date":"2016-05-11T06:06:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T06:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelwithus.us\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2016-05-11T06:47:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T06:47:29","slug":"why-we-arent-getting-off-in-any-of-the-ports-except-i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelwithus.us\/?p=1108","title":{"rendered":"Why we aren’t getting off in any of the ports (except I am)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Snowy<\/a>
Snowy peaks around Skagway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today is Tuesday. We are in Skagway. I am sitting on our balcony listening to the sounds of the port and some very loud work being done on the ship. It was sunny here about 30 minutes ago and Mary pointed out that the sun would not be on our balcony for long, so we both decided to sit in the sun and meditate. I had some difficulty with my meditation app so Mary finished before me and went back inside. When I finished my meditation I opened my eyes and took in the beauty of the trees and the water in front of me and then I saw a bald eagle fly from one set of trees to another. I wanted my binoculars so I called Mary on her phone because I knew if I took my eyes off the eagle I would lose him. She didn’t answer, so I banged on the balcony door and motioned and she came out with binocs and we both watched the eagle for a little while. He didn’t move and I marveled that I had spotted him all by myself. I don’t have the best vision and am terrible at seeing things when people point them out to me. Mary pointed out whale blowholes to me about 10 or 15 times on Saturday night and I saw nothing. So it was so wonderful that I had seen this eagle all on my own and that I could put my binocs down and look away and look back and he was still there. I looked at him over and over again. I actually got a little teary.<\/p>\n

Moments like this are why Mary and I love to cruise. We love to sit out on our balcony and see things and listen to the water. This cruise, however, is a bit of an experiment, because it is a mass-market cruise. We try to do luxury small-ship cruises when we can because they are so completely different from the huge mass-market cruises. No crowds, no lines, amazing food, no nickle and diming – everything is included, a completely serene experience. But we can only afford to do a luxury cruise once every 7 years or so, and we had such a nice time on the Queen Mary sailing from Southampton to New York last year (a mass market), that we (especially me) were jonesing for another cruise.<\/p>\n

Back in September I saw this cruise on sale. It was $1400 per person for a balcony, and included gratuities and $400 cruise credit. We put down a deposit of $250 and had until late February to change our minds. And then we got more and more excited about the cruise, even though we knew there were many things we would not like and that we should keep our expectations low.<\/p>\n

We cruised Alaska once before at a travel agent rate, on Regent, a very high-end line that is now incredibly expensive and we will probably never be able to afford again. We were stunned by the scenery right outside our window. We’ve been wanting to do it again ever since. But we knew from our experience in the Caribbean on the Queen Mary and from a short Celebrity Pacific Northwest cruise that getting on and off a mass-market ship can be really trying. So we decided that we wouldn’t get off the ship this go-around, other than in Juneau, where I wanted to see my friend Jeannie. For us, cruising has become about being on the ship. It’s not like you have enough time to really experience the town you are in with 10,000 other people for 5 or 6 hours. And once the majority of the people get off the ship, the ship becomes a much more tranqil place to be.<\/p>\n

So I’m going to tell you about some of our more lovely moments of the past few days and some of our less lovely. I’ll start with Ketchikan, our first stop, on Sunday. It was not yet 7 am when we were woken up by the sounds of first our aft neighbors and then our forward neighbors getting ready to do whatever shore excursions they had signed up for for the day. I was very disappointed that the walls are so thin, and I have continued to be disappointed. Though we haven’t heard much more from our aft neighbors, we hear A LOT of our forward neighbors – their tv, their conversations, the man coughing. The man has a very loud voice. I learned this when he came out on his balcony with a beer yesterday morning at 6:45 as we were watching the fabulous ice show of Tracy Arm. (We were also treated yesterday morning to a view of the man below us in nothing but his undies. His wife pointed out that we were above him and could see him but apparently he considered this to be an incentive. (Note from Mary: since we are above them, and since his undies were of the speedo variety, this view included some butt crack – scenic, indeed.)) This is probably my biggest complaint so far. I am really sensitive to noise and hate that we hear our neighbors whenever they are in their stateroom. Luckily for me, most normal people (i.e. not us) do not spend much time in their staterooms so it’s really not a huge issue.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, after our neigbors left there was brief silence before we heard a loud hubub coming from the area of our balcony. At that point we gave up, got out of bed, and opened the curtains. Our stateroom was directly above the spot where passengers were getting off the ship and vendors were setting up to sell tours. I was very disappointed that we were on the side of the ship looking out on the port. There are two sides to a ship, starboard (right) and port (left). On our last Alaska cruise we had been told to book port because they view is better from that side. I had forgotten that advice, but in reading about Celebrity I had learned that there are outdoor smoking areas on the port side. So I specifically chose starboard because I did not want cigarette smoke wafting onto our balcony. Alas, starboard has always been the side facing the dock when we are in port so it is louder and a little less lovely. Yesterday, in Juneau, we overlooked a bunch of shipping containers. Today our view is fabulous, but there’s still a fair amount of noise from the dock. So that’s my second beef against Celebrity. Why do the smokers get the port side? I wish everyone would just use e-cigarettes.<\/p>\n

Ok, I’m going to stop my anti-smoking rant and get back to Sunday morning. I love chocolate covered strawberries and I saw on the room service menu that I could order an unspecified number of chocolate covered strawberries for breakfast for $5. Or I could order 12 chocolate covered strawberries at any other time during the day for $24. I decided to go for the $5 strawberries. We put out our room service breakfast order on Saturday night – in addition to the strawberries, Mary ordered a basket of pastries and coffee. The order came promptly at 9 am and Mary immediately dove into her pastries. When I came to get my strawberries I saw there weren’t any. Apparently they had missed that part of the order. I had to wait another half-hour but eventually I was rewarded with six humungous, slightly green chocolate covered strawberries, which we put in the refrigerator and enjoyed over the next 2 days. We ordered some more for this morning and they were better than the first batch. I’m loving the room service chocolate covered strawberries and I’m marveling over the math. It is a 240% markup if you order your strawberries after 9 am!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The torture device, AKA hammock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After breakfast on Sunday we decided to go for a swim. On the way to the pool I saw this really cool-looking hammock for two and I thought we should try it. I did what I consider to be a Mary D’ish thing. That is, to charge ahead into something without considering the consequences. I tumbled into the hammock and said, “Come on!” Mary said, “I’m not sure that will hold both of us,” and declined to join me. I then had to figure out how to get out of the hammock. In doing so, I tweaked something in my back and it’s been HURTING ever since. It hurts to bend over or roll over in bed or put my jeans on. It’s a sad story.<\/p>\n

We chose to swim in the Solarium pool, an indoor swimming pool long enough to do laps. We swam for about 10 minutes, the only people in the pool, and then we spent some time in the jacuzzi and then went into the spa locker room and showered and saunaed. The sauna is huge and we were the only people in the pool, the sauna, and the jacuzzi. The sauna is in the women’s locker room which I think is fabulous since I like to sauna au natural. There was a woman in the locker room bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t sauna with her husband (he had to use the one in the men’s locker room), and I saw her point but could not truly share her pain.<\/p>\n

Mary wanted to eat at the pool grill, but there was a huge line, so instead we got lunch at the buffet and sat outside enjoying the sun and watching the tourists down below. I was tempted to get off the ship, because there is a hardware store in Ketchikan that I love, Tongass Trading Company, but ultimately it just seemed better to lounge around in our stateroom.<\/p>\n

Mary has created categories for the food: bad, tasteless, OK, good, and excellent. So far most of the food has been in the tasteless to good categories. A big exception is the ice cream. There are two venues for ice cream. One is in the buffet – there are about 8 rotating flavors and you can choose toppings including chocolate sprinkles, oreos, reeses pieces, and chocolate sauce. This ice cream is free. The other area is the Cafe Al Bacio gelato bar where the price is $5 for two scoops. As past Celebrity guests we were given coupons for one free gelato each. The first day I saw that they were offering 2 for 1 gelato from 4-7 pm. They would not honor our coupons so we couldn’t get 2 for 1 for free, but I figured we would like it so much that we could use our coupons later. I did not know that there is 2 for 1 gelato every day from 4-7. Also I did not know that I would not really like the gelato. It was too rich for me. So we paid for our gelato and still have the free coupons.<\/p>\n

The upstairs free ice cream, however, is excellent. On the day they had coconut sorbet I had coconut sorbet at both lunch and dinner. It was flaky and perfect and reminded me a little of Hawaiian shave ice. Mary had guava sorbet and felt the same way. Today I had one scoop of peanut butter ice cream and one scoop of pina colada frozen yogurt, both muy delicioso.<\/p>\n

We’ve been eating mostly in the buffet and while there is a great variety and excellent signage indicating whether items are lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, and\/or sugar-free, most things look better than they taste. Last night we ate dinner in the dining room for a change. We had requested a table for two and received a table for two – yay! I had a grilled asparagus salad, and lamb wrapped in phyllo with roasted root vegetables. I thought both items were excellent. Prior to dinner we went to the Molecular Bar where they make fancy, creative drinks and I ordered some sort of strawberry something something with ginger foam. I brought this concoction with me to dinner. It was delicious and very strong and perhaps that is why I thought our dinner was so wonderful!<\/p>\n

Tonight we are going to order room service and spend the evening on the balcony as Mary believes the scenery will be very beautiful leaving Skagway.<\/p>\n

I know I’m jumping all over the place. Are you even still reading? I’m trying to cover a lot of ground. Yesterday, as you know, I got off the ship and spent the afternoon with my friend Jeannie while El Grumpio (Note from Mary: Hey! That’s La Grumpia, por favor!) stayed on the ship. I had a lovely time with Jeannie. We went to her beautiful, secluded house and I met her husband, Tim, and her dog and then we drove to the boat ramp and helped Tim launch his boat and watched him motor away in said boat and then we took a short scenic hike to a beach where we had a great view of the Mendenhall Glacier and then Jeannie took me back to the ship and we called Mary and asked her to go out to the balcony and wave to us, and then Jeannie left and I got back on the ship and Mary and I had the lovely dinner I just mentioned. I had been worried a little about walking too much with my injured back and injured foot, but I noticed as we walked that my back began to feel better, and Jeannie reminded me that walking is very good for a bad back.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160510_175911234\"<\/a>
My swag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That takes me to this morning. We docked in Skagway, I woke up (in that order) and my back REALLY, REALLY hurt. I thought more walking might help and I decided to get off the ship and walk into town to get an Alaska t-shirt since the one I bought last time we were in Alaska is faded with holes in unseemly places. There were no crowds getting off the ship and it was a mostly pleasant walk to downtown. The t-shirt store was a madhouse, but I managed to find a shirt that kind of fits and for spending more than $10 I also got an enormous Skagway tote bag and a caboose whistle. You never know when you’re going to need a caboose whistle. I also bought a lip balm that said it was lemon-flavored and locally made. It wasn’t until I got back to our room that I noticed that it was called “Yellow Snow” and had a picture of a bear peeing in the snow. Classy. The tote bag was big enough that I could shove my heavy jacket and my binoculars and my phone and purse in it and just put the whole thing through security when getting back on the ship. As I was walking up the gangway a passenger getting off the ship said to me, “Wow, look at you! You got all your shopping done and it’s only 11 am! Where are the best bargains?”<\/p>\n

This brings me to a question Jeannie asked me yesterday which was, “Can you explain to me why all the people get off the ship and go to all these jewelry stores? There are SO MANY jewelry stores!” I could not answer this question. I was able to tell her that on one of our free travel agent cruises years ago we were required to sit at dinner every night with other travel agents and the main topic of conversation was which free charm they had picked up in port that day for their charm bracelet from Diamonds International. It made no sense to me then and it doesn’t now.<\/p>\n

Back on the ship Mary and I had lunch at the pool grill (no line, but a bossy man behind me) and then we went to the Solarium and had a swim. (Mary had ridden an exercise bike while I was battling tourists at the Alaska T-shirt company so I pointed out to her that she was doing a triathlon today.) Again we had the entire solarium to ourselves and the view was amazing. Mary said she felt like she was swimming in the alps. People look at us like we’re crazy when we say we’re not getting off the ship, but, I said to Mary, “Which would you rather do, this or mingle with the hordes at the t-shirt store?” After our swim and jacuzzi and shower and sauna, we headed for our free ice cream. But there were two women from the spa giving free shoulder massages in the hallway. I quickly abandoned my ice cream plan in favor of a “free” massage. The young woman, from Thailand, noted immediately that my right shoulder was tighter than my left, extolled the benefits of Thai massage, and then said that there was an in-port special on Thai massage that had ended at 1 pm, but if I booked right then she would extend the special price. I thought she gave a good massage, I thought maybe she could help my back (she could also potentially hurt my back, I realize) and she suggested that I come at 8:00 tomorrow evening, “before bed.” How could I say no? So that will use up $112 of our cruise credit + 18% gratuity, but I think it will be nice.<\/p>\n

Mary thinks this is too long and is asking when I might be done so she can read it. You may also be asking when this will be done so you can go on with your life. Well I’m almost done. I thought, though, that you might be interested in how we have used our cruise credit so far: $126 for unlimited “high-speed” internet. This “high-speed” is new for Celebrity. They call it Xlerate and this cruise is the inaugural cruise for the new Xlerate internet. They advertise you can Skype and watch Netflix but it takes 5 minutes for Facebook to load. However, I have seen some people Skyping, so maybe the Netflixers and Skypers are hogging all the bandwidth. To continue my list: $6 for the 2 for 1 gelato, plus tip. $12 for chocolate covered strawberries and tip. $9.50 for a beer for Mary. $15.50 + tip for my fancy Molecular cocktail. $12 for a glass of wine for Mary at dinner last night. $7 for Mary’s capuccino after dinner last night. After my massage tomorrow we will have $82 left. Some of you, including my wife, may say this is the most boring paragraph ever. Others of you may enjoy lists and knowing how much things cost. I aim to please everyone. For now, I bid you all good night. In our next installment we’ll see how we fare tomorrow on our Sea Day, with all these Damn People all on the ship!<\/p>\n

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Today is Tuesday. We are in Skagway. I am sitting on our balcony listening to the sounds of the port and some very loud work being done on the ship. It was sunny here about 30 minutes ago and Mary pointed out that the sun would not be on our balcony for long, so we … Continue reading Why we aren’t getting off in any of the ports (except I am)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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