The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist!

[jenseib]

There was a Nick Live show going on in the Fyzz Lounge at 1, so that is where we were headed. As we headed there someone was asking another person where he could see the bridge. I heard him and pointed him to the right direction. It’s on deck 11. You go towards the front of the ship and then you will find the area. Skip was impressed you could see the bridge and said he would like to go, but I told him we were running late so we would have to do it after the show.


The show had already started when we arrived but we did find some seats on the edge. These chairs are so neat looking, but next to impossible to move. We wanted to get a better view…..instead of the pole, but we could only move the chairs a few inches. Nothing to grab on to and the legs didn’t make for an easy move either.


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This was basically a contest with activities and trivia. Winning wasn’t what I would want to do. You got pies in your face and slimmed….but I guess for a kid that is exciting.


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He was the grand winner of the event so he got a total slime. Yuck!


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When it was over we waited a bit before leaving to let it clear out as it was pretty full and we would just be fighting crowds.


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We then made our way to the bridge viewing area. It has all sorts of plaques, awards and info in the room and then a glassed off are you can look through.


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It was interesting to see our route and where we were at the moment. (they had this on a TV station in the room as well)


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We could’ve spent more time in there looking everything over but Claire was not quite as interested as us. And there were others in there so we didn’t want to block their views of everything. The room is fairly small.


We separated again with plans to meet up for the pizza making at 3.


Claire and I headed to the room. Our tickets were there! Yay!!!!!

I forgot to mention that when I talked to Florentina earlier today that she apologized for everything that went on yesterday. This was a heartfelt one and it meant a lot to me now. She was honest and told me she had never had an issue like this happen before and she didn’t know what to do. I hope that NCL now trains her on what to do, but the fact that she apologized and told me she was in a panic did smooth things over with me much more.


I don’t remember why we went back to the room, but I know I needed to take an ibuprofen. I didn’t have a drink with me…and why would I drink water? LOL. I really don’t know why I didn’t drink the water, but the sparkling wine bottle was there so I decided to try to open it. Let’s just say I rarely drink this stuff and had no clue how to open it. I started twisting off the wire and Claire had her head right over it watching. I said to her “you better back off as I don’t know how to open this and for all I know this thing is going to go poof”. At that exact moment Claire slightly backed up and the cork just went flying with a lot of force. I asked Claire if she got hit and she said no, but it just missed her. She said she felt the wind of it pass her forehead. Knowing that no one got hurt we then laughed about it. I poured myself a glass and it was pretty tasty. I am not sure if this is “good” stuff or not, but I liked it.


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I sipped on this all through the week. Skip never had any.


It was time to head to La Cucina for Family Pizza Making. Surprisingly, Skip was there waiting for us.


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It filled up fast and soon there were no tables left.


I ran up and took a few pictures of the pizza area.


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They were small personal pizzas.


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Skip and I weren’t hungry, so we decided Claire would just make one and we would nibble off of it. Many families did make 1 per person, but it would’ve been a waste for us.


They had people line up and there were a lot of people so we just sat back and waited for the line to die down. As we were waiting someone shouted dolphin and I ran over to the window to see. I kept missing it, but did get a shot of it going under water.


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Looking at this next picture, I really can’t tell if it was truly a dolphin or an orca. Orca’s were spotted all day long…and of course I never saw one.


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The line started to lessen so Claire and I went to wait.

They had coloring sheets for kids to color while waiting. I thought it was funny that they had a Disney sheet.


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Claire is hard at work making her pizza perfect.


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See the guy in the green down at the other end in the left. He was the only male kid’s club counselor. His name was Captain Crunch. Skip kept laughing and saying “What parent would name their kid Captain Crunch.” Claire would get mad and try to explain they all had fake names but Skip played dumb.


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They put the pizzas on a tray and then the gal marked down where it was on the tray and which tray and then they took them to back. When your tray was done they would call your names…..though they had the girl with the quietest voice doing it.


We started to nibble before I remembered to take a picture.


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After that was over, Claire wanted to go to the kids club and Skip went off on his own too. I think he went to the Casino.


We went to the club entrance and found out that her age group was on deck 6 forward in a room. It was basically a conference room that they were using for the 10-12 year olds. It was right near the Stardust Theatre entrance on deck 6.


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The door is to the left in this next picture.


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I signed her in and they told me what time the club closed. She could check out then or I could come get her. They would be in the Splash academy at that time. Claire was nervous about checking herself out so I said I would come up there and get her.


I wandered around then for a bit and took a few pictures.


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Up next…Claire’s favorite dinner!

 

[bcwife76]

It really is quite a colourful ship!! They certainly don't go for the understated look on these ships! But I'm not saying that in a *****y way, I actually think it's quite cheerful!
Very glad to hear Florintina worked it all out for you and that she did give a sincere apology.

 

[ilovedevin]

Oh man I am all caught up, now I have to wait I hate waiting LOL. WOW I am so sorry you had such a crappy beginning of your cruise. I can only assume that it get's better since Skip want's to go again? We went on an Alaskan Cruise in 2012, so pretty. Now we are waiting for the next 77 days to go by and then we are going on a 15 day Hawaiian Cruise.

 

[dolphingirl47]

The show looks like the one they used to have at Universal Studios in Florida. What a shame that you missed the dolphin/ Orca. The pizza making activity looks really neat.

Corinna

 

[jenseib]

It really is quite a colourful ship!! They certainly don't go for the understated look on these ships! But I'm not saying that in a *****y way, I actually think it's quite cheerful!
Very glad to hear Florintina worked it all out for you and that she did give a sincere apology.

Yes it is very colorful! it's nice for pictures though!

Oh man I am all caught up, now I have to wait I hate waiting LOL. WOW I am so sorry you had such a crappy beginning of your cruise. I can only assume that it get's better since Skip want's to go again? We went on an Alaskan Cruise in 2012, so pretty. Now we are waiting for the next 77 days to go by and then we are going on a 15 day Hawaiian Cruise.

LOL. I wish I could write faster...well I probably could, but the pictures take me forever to edit.
I would love to go to Hawaii. I have 2 co-workers on the DCL Hawaiian cruise right now.

The show looks like the one they used to have at Universal Studios in Florida. What a shame that you missed the dolphin/ Orca. The pizza making activity looks really neat.

Corinna

Yes, very similar to those shows. It's a shame they did away with them there. They were fun. Paige went with her step mom once and made it to TV. They asked her a question of something and it was aired. Very short segment but we were all excited.

 

[jenseib]

While I was walking around a Crew Member was walking the same direction and saw my Disney Castaway backpack that I was carrying. He asked which ships I have been on and which cruise directors I have had….You guessed it. He used to work for DCL as well….on the Magic. He was super friendly and we chatted a bit till we parted ways.


The weather actually had gotten better today too. The wind had died down a bit and it was not quite as cold out anymore. I was happy for that.


I headed back to the room for some reason and our daily treats were set out.


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These cookies were almost as good as DCL’s.


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I headed down to the casino and blew a few dollars. Let’s just say... I am not very good at slot machines. But it’s fun to do and I really limit myself on how much I spend.

Skip was there and I sat with him for a bit and then we headed off to pick up Claire. The line for the Splash Academy was very long. I told Skip to weave up there and see if he could see Claire and tell her to check herself out. He couldn’t see her.

As we got closer to the front I heard one of the counselors say that all the Dolphins had been dismissed and had already checked themselves out. Skip had a bit of panic. I told him not to worry as Claire is always supposed to go back to the room if she checks herself out and to wait for one of us.

FYI..The kids clubs on NCL are not open during dinner hours. I know for some this is kind of a pain. It was Ok for us, but Claire does like to sometimes skip dinner and go to the club. A few times she had asked if she could go while we had a reservation for a meal…as we often eat late. In most cases it didn’t work because the clubs typically closed by 10 PM as well.


So we headed back to the room and she was there. She did tell me she was walking with new friends and got herself turned around and ended up at the front of the ship. So her friend showed her her room before Claire came back to ours. A little tip that helped my family many times….the fish in the carpet swim towards the front of the ship. Both commented to me how after I told them that tip they were able to turn themselves around a few times when going to the wrong way. Of course one time I did not pay attention and led my family to the front instead of the back. I guess when I am leading they assume I know what I am doing and don’t pay attention.


We decided to shower and get ready for the first show tonight.


The Show tonight was Band on the Run. I was VERY impressed. I think Disney puts on fabulous shows and this could compete. The singing was well done and the costumes were great. For those who read my Caribbean Princess report….the costumes were great and the singing was horrid.


After the show we went out on deck for a little bit….it was windy again, but still much better than last night… and then it was time to head towards Teppanyaki for dinner.


We had to check in at Chin Chin and we were early so Skip sat down and I took some pictures.


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We loved that bubbly bar. We thought it was so pretty.


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Claire and I decided to go down the steps and check out the bubble bar closer.


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Claire sat on the floor and I tried to take pictures of her in front of it. Every single one I took without a flash, where the bubble colors shown much better..she was either closing her eyes or looking away. The best of the bunch was the one and only one I took with a flash…of course.


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There was a guy playing piano and singing….we personally do not like this kind of entertainment usually, but it was obviously very popular as they had entertainment like this every night around the ship.


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Right around 8:30, the time of our reservation we were taken back into Teppanyaki. You have to walk through Chin Chin to get to it. We were seated and looked over the menu.


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I wanted the Lobster and Scallop combo but not the calamari…(Sorry but I think it’s disgusting) so I asked if I could have filet mignon instead. I have read other people have done this but our waiter acted like this was a big no no…but he told me to just keep it a secret and he would make it happen. Fine by me. He didn’t say how long to keep it a secret though. LOL.


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The chefs came out.. .there are 4 tables and they all work at the same time. With Teppanyaki they only have a few seatings a night and the chefs all cook at the same time for each seating.


Now since we are on a ship, they can’t do all the same sort of tricks you will see on a land based hibachi grill. They don’t do the big poof of fire and they don’t do the steaming onion volcano. But they still do some of the similar tricks the other ones do.


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See the egg in the air in the next picture?


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While he was doing all of his egg tricks one got away and knocked a glass of water all over a lady and her son at our table. She took it in good stride though and the chef kept apologizing over and over.


This next one is something I have never seen done. He made a flower design out of the egg.


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He also cooked things differently than the land based ones do.


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A snake made out of egg!


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Instead of throwing meat for each of us to catch in our mouths…always a favorite of Claire’s….he threw pieces of egg. I guess egg is less expensive? That would be the only reason I can see why they do that. I caught mine though!


Soup was different also than what we normally get at land based restaurants.


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It had chunks in it and Claire was sure it would poison her. LOL. I ate one…pretty sure it was tofu…YUCK. I told her to just eat around those. The soup was just ok in my opinion.


Next was the salad…again this was different than what we are used to. I wasn’t a fan. It was a seaweed salad and it had an odd texture to it.


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Also at the land based ones we go to they typically serve the rice first and then plop the veggies on top and they are all mixed up. Here each person gets one stack of veggies.


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And rice is served in a bowl.


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Still tasted good, just noting the differences.


My scallops.


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And my steak.


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I never took a picture of the lobster. End the end I ended up dumping my bowl of rice on my plate and mixing it together. WE also were served extra if we wanted. Claire loves the rice and took extra. Claire got the filet mignon too. I think Skip got steak and chicken.

It was very good but I think our chef was a little heavy on the sauce. My food, especially the steak was just a bit too saucy tasting to me. However Claire LOVED hers and begged to come back again. While sitting there I looked on the iConcierge app and found that they did have lunch openings on our next sea day and booked it.

 

[jenseib]

For dessert we had 2 choices…Green tea cake or Fresh Fruit. You couldn’t pay me to eat green tea cake so I went with the fruit. So did Claire but Skip got the cake.


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Claire is pretty selective with fruit. I convinced her to try the kiwi and now she is a kiwi lover.


We were all very full but we enjoyed the meal. The bills came as this is a specialty restaurant. Without looking it up I want to say this one is $29 per person. Kids are not discounted. But Claire loves her steak so even if we had paid for it or actually paid for the dining plan, she would have gotten her money’s worth. We found with the specialty restaurants they all did the bill a bit differently. Some made each of us sign our own copy, even Claire, and taking each card to run through. Others would allow one of us to sign and some only needed one card to run through. It didn’t really matter to us too much except a few times when Skip wanted to leave but couldn’t till the cards came back. They often were a bit slow with this process.


After dinner we rolled ourselves outside again.


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The wind did pick up a bit and I found a cubby to stand in to block it while Skip chatted with a new friend he made.


The sunset was beautiful again tonight.


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We walked around a bit…checked the gift shop to see if any new merchandise was out…nope! And got some drinks to take back to the room.


We had this waiting for us tonight.


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The pink doll is Penelope and she is lying on top of “silky”. Silky and Penelope come on every trip with us. Yes my 10 year old still needs them to sleep!



We settled in for the night watching tv and drifting off. Tomorrow was our first port day. Ketchikan….here we come!


Up next….Our first taste of Alaska!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Dinner looked delicious. We also did the Teppanyaki. I would have been all over the green tea cake.

Corinna

 

[jenseib]

Dinner looked delicious. We also did the Teppanyaki. I would have been all over the green tea cake.

Corinna

I did try a bit on the 2nd visit...it was ok, but I would not want the whole thing for sure.

 

[westcoastfldisneygirl]

All caught up, and can't wait to see Alaska!!!

 

[rndmr2]

Looks like you had a nice dinner.

We tried to go to that one on the Gem but they were booked solid by the time we tried to look for openings. Seems pretty similar to others I have been to like Teppan Edo. I actually really like tea, even green tea but I have to say that green tea cake didn't look too appetizing.

Pretty sunset pic.

 

[Caretames1]

I'll say it again, the food! The only thing I wouldn't try, the green tea cake.... Shudder

I'm glad you got the apology that want was warranted, and you finally felt it. Hopefully it's all smooth sailing from then on out.

 

[linetbo]

I love the fact that even if you are not on a Disney cruise you have Disney with you on your clothes, bags, lanyards, etc. You are a proud Disney addict!!

 

[jenseib]

All caught up, and can't wait to see Alaska!!!

It's just so amazing!

Looks like you had a nice dinner.

We tried to go to that one on the Gem but they were booked solid by the time we tried to look for openings. Seems pretty similar to others I have been to like Teppan Edo. I actually really like tea, even green tea but I have to say that green tea cake didn't look too appetizing.

Pretty sunset pic.

I booked the first one pretty early and was so happy I did. Claire just loves these type of places. I am supposed to be doing Teppan Edo in Feb with a group of friends. It will be my first time there.

I'll say it again, the food! The only thing I wouldn't try, the green tea cake.... Shudder

I'm glad you got the apology that want was warranted, and you finally felt it. Hopefully it's all smooth sailing from then on out.

Yeah I am not into any tea so the sound of it was gross to me. LOL.
Most everything went smoother from here out but we still had a few glitches.

I love the fact that even if you are not on a Disney cruise you have Disney with you on your clothes, bags, lanyards, etc. You are a proud Disney addict!!

I am a proud DCL sailor and I have no issues wearing their stuff!

 

[jenseib]

Day 4, Aug. 3, 2015, Ketchikan, Alaska

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was last night we had to change our clocks back another hour. I was kind of surprised. I didn’t realize all of Alaska was 4 hours different than home. I actually thought only parts of it were and not the parts we were visiting.

Our excursion was a fairly early one today…8:15. I set my phone alarm to be sure we woke up in time, but I figured we weren’t going to have too many issues being that our bodies were still on East coast time.

I think I ended up waking up around 5 AM. I know it seems too early, but it was around 9 at home.

I went out on the balcony to see where we were.

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We were still moving but there were signs of life! I turned my phone on and had reception. Skip leaped out of bed to see if he did….he didn’t. He had a dumb phone and he had a lot of issues getting it to connect in ports the whole trip.
A Princess ship was following us.

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It wasn’t raining at the moment but there was mist and fog in areas. I just loved how it looked. So different than the other itineraries I have sailed in the past.

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Any doubts I may have had had now totally disappeared. Alaska is amazing, Stunning, Breathtaking!!!!!! There is just no other way to describe it.

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At some point I headed to deck 7 for a bit so my pictures are from both my balcony and deck 7.

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With phone service I was also taking a few phone pics and posting them on facebook, and checking my emails and chatting with a few friends. It was nice to update them and tell them that things were now going better than our check in day.

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It’s kind of hard to see, but I caught a bird in midflight.

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I kept seeing splashes in the water and couldn’t figure it out. Later I learned and realized it was salmon jumping.
On my trip back from deck 7 to our room I past Tsar’s. I never did go in there to eat nor did I ever go back in and take pictures after our Muster Drill….but I did take a picture of this sign.

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More pictures of the wonderful scenery.

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The Princess ship was catching up to us.

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There were just so many interesting things to take pictures of.

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As we were getting ready to dock the Princess ship went past us.

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All tied up.

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Our view from our room.

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Up next…Our first Deadliest Catch sighting….and breakfast.

 

[jedijill]

That was Miso soup at your dinner. I don't care for it at all.

Fun that they have all the optional dinners but they seem steep especially when I compare to the Palo upcharge. Alaska looks amazing! I've got to get a trip planned there soon.

Jill in CO

 

[Mrs Green]

The soup was miso soup, right? I love miso soup, though I get it that not everyone is a big fan. I am SO glad that the staff apologized and explained more about why the did such a piecemeal job of getting your reservations straight.

 

[westcoastfldisneygirl]

Yay! I've been waiting to see these photos. Alaska is beautiful. I can't wait to see and hear more!!!

 

[bcwife76]

Yahoo, roll on the Alaska photos!! Gorgeous so far

 

[maxiesmom]

I"m loving your report! But I have to ask, any idea why the Princess ship would go by your ship so quickly? Do they think faster is better or something?