May 10 – Seward, AK

May 10, 2024May 11, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley Leave a comment

Didn’t get to sleep until after 3am, ugh! But the good news was that I awoke to a much improved weather forecast.

We were docked alongside RC’s Radiance of the Sea. I was worried that our excursion to the sea life center would be jammed with people, but not the case. The Radiance was debarking/embarking today so while the terminal was mobbed, those passengers were not doing excursions.

Enjoyed the sea life center. This was our second time since we were here 2 years ago. Meandered our way through town to secure a souvenir magnet for Bill. Decided to share lunch (saw an otter or two from the window) and it was delicious. We shared a bowl of chowder and a fish sandwich for $50 including tip which I didn’t think was too bad. The only rain was brief while we ate lunch and we made it back to the ship for dessert. Walked 9000 steps before dessert time which should keep me net neutral on calories so far, right??

Went to a destination lecture at 4 pm and I could barely keep my eyes open. At around 5 pm I decided to take a little nap…wrong! I forgot that the embarking final-leg Seward passengers had a mandatory safety drill at 5:30. The PA system in the room must have dinged 8 times over the hour that I laid there.

Went to the bow for sail away at 7 pm. The weather was bad, visibility was low, scenery was muted, and saw no signs of wildlife.

We decided to shower and get room service…aaahhh.

May 9 – Kodiak Island, AK

May 9, 2024May 10, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley Leave a comment

Kodiak is home to the largest brown bear standing 10 feet tall. It’s also a rainforest.

Unfortunately we are on the non-scenic side of the boat. The nearby mountains are not covered in snow although it was snowing/misting off and on. We had decent enough weather while we were outside (10 am – 2 pm).

Our excursion today took us to the Kodiak History Museum, Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, Fisheries and Research Center, and Fort Abercrombie. Saw some beautiful scenery and learned about this fishing town.

There are less than 6,000 people on this island. Two thirds of the island is comprised of the National Wildlife Refuge so uninhabited by people but full of bears.

We got off the bus (school bus) in town and did a little shopping and gazing. We walked back to the ship before it started snowing again. The shuttle stopped running at 1:00 because all the buses in town were needed to transport the school kids.

Sailing away was beautiful with the snow covered mountains in the background. We saw several sea otters. I was in the shower, but Bill saw a sea plane descend very close over the bow of the boat. Next stop is Seward.

Tonight’s entertainment was a comedic pianist and he was quite funny. They seem to have fixed the boiler on the boat so the common areas aren’t freezing which is a relief. Dinner was good as usual.

May 8 – Sea Day

May 8, 2024May 9, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 1 Comment

Today is the big world cruise boat building competition. It’s pretty important to two entrants that are our friends. In 2022, Sarah won it while Bill and Anne came in second.

Well history repeated itself. Sarah’s boat held 72 soda cans while Bill and Anne’s held 42. They also got scored on aesthetics and speed. I had to spend almost an hour on the pool deck for this competition, but at least it was sunny.

Spent the afternoon at a memory lecture (too much thinking), bingo (very little thinking), and doing my first load of laundry on the ship (just about the right amount of thinking). Bill’s rash is getting better, but thought that doing his laundry in different detergent might be helpful. Who knows ….

Tomorrow we are in Kodiak.

May 7 – Dutch Harbor, Alaska

May 7, 2024May 8, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 3 Comments

Woke up to snow and unfortunately on the wrong side of the boat.

Since this is the first port in the US, everyone had to clear immigration face-to-face. It went pretty quickly.

Decided to treat myself to breakfast and a walk around the boat to get a few snow pictures.

It snowed off and on the whole time in port. Besides hiking Bunker Hill, the only excursion option was a hop on hop off van circuit. Those hiking the hill were crazy IMO. It’s pretty slippery so I hope no one got hurt.

We hopped in the van at 10:15 and they made a special stop for several of us who only wanted to go to Safeway. Visibility was pretty low. We had a small list of items and we picked up crackers and peanut butter for our Reverend friends. I’m so excited to have my coffee creamer!

Ended up benefitting from doing this favor for our friends. I didn’t charge them for the groceries ($12) and they gave us their prize points (165). Bill more than doubled his stash with this transaction.

Prices at the supermarket were probably 25% higher than normal which seemed reasonable considering the logistics of getting groceries to the island. The minimum wage and average salary are $46k and $15, respectively. Groceries take up way too much of that.

I received an interesting text today. I’m thinking one of my friends or family signed me up for this as a joke!

Lunch was good and I learned about a new dessert, Umm Ali. It can be spelled all different ways but is basically the Egyptian’s take on bread pudding. It’s made with puff pastry and smothered with a sweet cream and milk mixture and topped with an array of nuts, raisins and coconut. It was very good.

Orange milk cake, umm Ali, banana cake, and brownie

Spent almost 2 hours watching the sail away. The snow covered mountains looked awesome. I know in a few days they will seem ho hum, but right now they are amazing. People saw seals, otters, and whales. I only saw the whales.

Dinner was great. The sun doesn’t set until 10:15 which is weird. No more time changes for awhile, thankfully.

May 7 – Sea Day #6

May 6, 2024May 7, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 1 Comment

Not sure you noticed, but I made a mistake as I was numbering my sea days. The correct count is #6 today.

I may have an explanation as to why the ship is so cold. Rumor is that we have a problem with one of the boilers. They stopped heating the pool to divert some of that energy to heating the ship. Sure hope they fix things. I wore my coat to the morning presentation and brought a blanket to MJ. Fortunately our room is very comfortable.

At lunch today was one of my favorite desserts; sticky toffee pudding. I went thru the internal debate as to whether I was going to scoop it from the middle or succumb to my friend Anne’s peer pressure and take from the outside.

On my way to scooping I ran into the maitre d, who has a ton of experience on ships and high end restaurants, and asked him about the etiquette. He gave it some thought and said he knew of no prescribed etiquette and that I can scoop from wherever. I now consider this issue closed and I am not going to think twice about it. But as a result of today’s thought process, I forgot to take a picture of the dessert.

Not sure I told you that my husband loves to see doctors. He sees at least a half dozen on a regular basis at home. The first time he visited the ship doctor was for his gastrointestinal issues. Today he saw the doc for a rash all over his torso. The doctor thinks it is just dry skin, but gave him an oral and topical steroid (placebo?) to maybe help. The doctor visits and drugs are ‘free’ for world cruisers so I guess we should get our money’s worth.

I agreed to go to this Ladies Derby Party which meant I had to dress up….but it’s too cold (and I haven’t shaved my legs)!!! I threw on a cocktail dress and put on leggings and wore my winter coat. I lasted maybe 30 minutes at the party; not because it was cold but because I’m an introvert and it was too painful.

But, as we were heading into the dining room for dinner, I spontaneously invited this couple to join Bill and me. They are from Rugen; a German island north of Poland and south of Sweden.

We change the clocks another hour tonight and dock in Dutch Harbor, Alaska tomorrow.

May 5 – Sea Day #6

May 5, 2024May 6, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 1 Comment

I’m very bored today so this post might be as well.

Had a good night of sleep so that’s a positive. Decided to get out of the room and read my book in the observation lounge which is usually the warmest place on the ship. Well it was freezing there as well as everyplace else on board. It’s been cold ever since we left Japan.

The morning presentation I attended was on the lead up to D Day by the author of a book about it. It was really interesting. I guess FDR and Stalin were in agreement on the plan but Churchill wanted to continue to push North in Italy instead. It took a fairly long planning meeting in Tehran to finally get Churchill to agree.

Lunch then MJ. We play with one of the international hostesses on the ship. She wore a coat the whole time over her uniform.

One of my favorite desserts, malva pudding

I pulled out 2 wins at the end so I didn’t end up a big loser at MJ.

Went to the memory lecture at 4. At first I sat near the front, but Bill reminded me that people in the front often get called upon to demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques. So we moved further back in the theater.

One of the exercises was to learn the spelling of a very long word. I ended up getting called upon to recite the spelling from memory of Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide both forward and backward. I nailed it going forward and only slightly faltered in the middle going backwards. The memory technique might be useful in the future if I practice it.

Dinner with our reverend friends, the Eakins, was good and I learned a few things. Bill Eakins went to Oxford and had to recite the blessing before a meal in Latin in front of the Queen. He is in his early 80’s and recited it for us perfectly, as far as I could tell.

Also, there is a lady on this ship who has a table reserved on the pool deck all day. She basically lives on Silversea ships for most of the year. Well, she used to be Elton John’s publicist.

Ballotine of Corn-fed Chicken ‘Viroflay’ Spinach and Goose Liver Stuffing

May 4 (again) – Sea Day 5

May 5, 2024May 5, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 2 Comments

You wouldn’t think that these minor, but daily, clock changes would have much of an impact but last night I didn’t get to sleep until after 3am. Ugh! also disappointing is that I had no fresh daily word games this morning since I travelled back in time and had already played them.

Had a quick breakfast and FaceTimed with both families.

There was a county fair organized on the pool deck with games and hot chocolate. It was kind of fun. Put on all the winter clothes and lasted for about 30 minutes.

Had a good lunch but freaked out when I looked for the pictures I took of my food and they weren’t there. Well, turns out they were there but got moved to yesterday so they are out of order.

MJ, a presentation on iconic photos of the last 60 years, and Bingo rounded out the afternoon. Plus I’m reading a good book; Hello Beautiful.

The 6:30 entertainment, the singers and dancers, was cancelled due to rough seas. They are handing out sea sickness pills like candy at reception.

Dinner was good. I was dragging but stayed up to go to Liar’s Club at 9:30. You know how it goes, where you have to decide which of the panelists is lying. It was fun.

May 4 – Sea Day #3

May 3, 2024May 4, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 4 Comments

Finally slept thru the night. Tonight we move the clock back 23 hours … mind blown!

I caught the tail end of a presentation on trains this morning that Bill was attending. As I made my way down to where he was sitting, I saw several people sleeping.

The next lecture on memory processes, etc. was amazing. Unfortunately it takes practice (exercise) and I wonder how committed I will be to that.

I’ve included pictures of the Ladies Derby party invitation and instructions. I may just attend because I’ve heard the ship will provide hats. I did learn a new word; fascinators – the lacy fabric that European women draped around their heads during the 17th century.

Delicious Brownie and salted caramel shortbread

We play MJ in the bow (front) of the ship which really feels the waves. Well today the boat is really rocking and rolling. I felt weightlessness a few times.

Then I attended an interesting lecture on the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 about 10 years ago.

Played bingo which just goes to show that I’m trying to keep myself occupied while at sea. I did win 5 prize point to add to Bill’s cache.

Comedian and dinner. Back in the room at a reasonable hour to begin a new series; Poker Face.

I took some time to pack away most of my summer clothes and break out some of the heavy gear. Kind of weird to say that as we progress into May.

May 3 – Sea Day #2

May 3, 2024May 3, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley 2 Comments

I haven’t been sleeping great since we keep changing the clock. I was up from 4:30 to 5:30 this morning. After I got back to sleep I had a very strange Taylor Swift dream. Somehow my daughter knew her and brought her along to some family thing. I kept wanting to get a picture with her but didn’t want to be too obvious. When Taylor took off her hat, she had the cutest pixie haircut. That’s about all I remember.

I discovered there is another lottery winner on board. He won $31 million Canadian in 2017. His wife doesn’t like to travel so he goes it alone.

The ship is freezing today. Just giving us a prelude for what to expect when we get to Alaska.

Attended a great lecture on memory processes to learn names and faces and other stuff. This would have been more useful at the beginning of the cruise though!

Big night in the dining room for dinner as we say goodbye and head out of Japanese waters. On a related note, we were without internet for at least 5 hours today, so I may be a bit more incommunicado.

One of the new singers did a one man show tonight and he had all the old people up and dancing for the finale. ..and no one fell down and broke anything.

May 2 Sea Day #1

May 1, 2024May 2, 2024aprilsteedmanmanley Leave a comment

Bill had his boy breakfast this morning and there were 12 of them. I probed him for some blog worthy items but he had none. Can’t send a man to do a woman’s job.

Attended the geologist’s lecture on 2 big tsunamis in the past 20 years. I remember the one off Indonesia about 20 years ago, but drew a total blank on the one in 2011 off Japan which destroyed their nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

I’ve been monitoring the weather in Alaska and thinking that all the good weather we’ve enjoyed so far might come to an end. Seems like a good potential for snow/rain, 40’s, and wind. Guess you have to pay the piper eventually.

Had a bad day at MJ. I guess even the mighty fail (haha). Attended a lecture on space and the 3 companies trying to get there and commercialize it. Then decided to play Bingo to pass the time and I won 10 prize points to add to Bill’s collection.

We got invited to dinner, which was nice, but it meant dressing up for formal night. This also meant that I had to shave my legs. Ugh!

Tonight’s entertainment was a classical baritone singer. I guess he is Silversea favorite so we went, but bolted after 3 songs. We were back in the room by 10.

This is the second night we lose an hour. I think every night for several days we will lose an hour until May 4th when we repeat that day. I wonder how messed up my body and mind will get.