Thursday, May 14 – on the high seas

We indulged in a pleasantly slow start this morning.  Ambled down to the dining room for breakfast, rather than the buffet, and were the last seated at a “shared” table for 8.  Our companions were from Pennsylvania, Australia, and (originally) Gary, Indiana, so we had pleasant conversation about weather patterns, the virtues of home cooking, and the desolation of having one’s Vegemite confiscated at the border.

We debated attending the naturalist’s talk on the history and points of interest in our ports of call, but decided that since we’d be under the care of a tour guide in each port, maybe we’d just go back to the room.  Catching up on reading, email, returning a stray call from the Orchard Glen maintenance super (who just KNEW I was still home ‘cuz my CAR was there).  A little napping and some needlework snuck in, and at a point the fruit bowl we’d requested arrived.

Since we had eaten breakfast a bit late and were looking forward to a full dinner, we made lunch off of some of the fruit, flanked by cheese and fruit-and-nut chocolate chunks brought from home.  Probably those latter should never have made it across the border, but we were happy for them to be sure.

In the early afternoon we split up for a little leg-stretching; Carolyn attended a presentation on Scandinavian cruises and Angie considered doing laps on the deck … but did stair sets instead, we’re moving fast and even though the temperatures are in the 50’s it’s chilly in a stiff wind.

Back in the room, we kicked back for a while and then devoted some time to preparation for our morning shore excursion – transferring to the “fastest tourist ship in Alaska” to cruise Misty Fjords.  And, presumably, we’ll be wanting to be out on deck for hours on end.  So we assembled our layers, put ID’s and other necessaries into pockets, and are prepared for our 6A wakeup call.  We’ll take everything we need to the breakfast buffet, as we have to be off the boat at 7:30A … a bit of a stretch after this lazy day.

Then we girded ourselves, quite literally, for Formal Night.  Come to discover that despite our “anytime” dining pass, there are no reservations EVER between 6 & 7:30.  So we take a 5:15 reservation, which is a tick early but seems like we might avoid the worst rigors of Formal Night.  And so it was!  We put on our finest … which a few years ago would probably barely have gotten us into the dining room at dinner … and enjoyed the company of 5 other ladies and a reasonably-priced bottle of bubbly.  The dinner menu featured dishes-by-decade as Princess is celebrating its 50^th anniversary.  We did that, a nice salad followed by a sorbet refresher and a lovely tenderloin with mini-quiche and crunchy sautéed squashes & asparagus.  The show-stopper was the dessert, crafted by Norman Love:  some sort of heart-shaped thin raspberry crust, filled with a raspberry mousse wrapped in a chocolate ganache … all placed lovingly on a thin shortbread.  With stylish décor on top, quite the finish to a good meal.

We were oh-so-right in our assessment of who would arrive later … we left to work our way through the “Champagne Waterfall” (of about 300 coupe glasses stacked into a pyramid and filled from the top one; each tier flows down to the next one) … fortunately staff was offering glasses of champagne at ground level and no one was trying to serve from the “waterfall.”  And, yeah, folks were dressed to the nines, or maybe in the case of certain ladies, to the threes?  Enough sequins and skin to impress anyone, and formal portraits being taken everywhere.

We were happy to escape back to our room and rehearse the upcoming few days, several port days (and therefore outings) in a row.  We need to pick nights to have room service so we can enjoy the wine we brought for ourselves, and figure out where we’d like to eat the other evenings.  Life is SO complex!

We have a time change overnight as we move into the Alaska time zone, one hour earlier than Pacific.  

Rather than try to figure it out, we opted for a wakeup call, secure in the notion that it will come at the right time in the right time zone.  Weather tomorrow may be a bit overcast, but no forecast for rain … looks like the Misty Fjords should reveal themselves to us!