Day 2: at Sea

Day 2: Saturday we were at Sea traveling 492 nautical miles in a more northerly course, sailing along the West coast of Vancouver Island, named after the famous British explorer George Vancouver, an officer of the Royal Navy. At Triangle Island (mile 350) we pass to the west of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

We had plenty of time to tour the ship, watch movies at night, attend the first performance in the Mondriaan Lounge and basically just to relax and enjoy ourselves Claude did spend a little time in the casino during the sea portions of the cruise. He won enough to buy me a very pretty jade necklace. He should have kept playing--there were many other pieces of jewelry and clothing that I could have bought.

We attended a briefing called "Discover Alaska-Juneau & Sitka". Claude also attended Alaskan Best Brews Ale Sampling. He had draft Alaskan ale during the sail away party, liked it very much, and decided to taste all the ales made by the Alaska Brewing Company. All were good.

While Claude was tasting beer, I attended a Diamond and Gemstone seminar and saw some beautiful jewelry. We both had a "sparkle in our eyes". Mine was from the beautiful jewelry and I think Claude's was probably from all the samples of ale he had consumed--either way, we both had a good time

The food on the cruise was fantastic. You could schedule a dinner in the formal dining room, (the Rotterdam) go through the buffet or eat in one of the other smaller specialty restaurants. We chose the early dinner in the Rotterdam on the second level. The service was great and we had a good view of the ocean as well as the first level dining room. It’s always a lot of fun watching the people as they enter the dining room. The second level is reserved seating and the first level is open seating. For reserved seating they have early and late seating. You had to be there at your selected time (there was a few minutes leeway, but not much) or you could not be seated. We selected a table for four and were seated with two women from Fairborn, Ohio which is near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We really enjoyed their company and loved listening to what they did each day.

The buffet served 4 meals a day so you had plenty to eat. There was also a buffet and grill available near the swimming pool which was open all day. You could get anything to eat almost any time of the day. The midnight meal usually had an international theme.

We chose the early seating (5:30) for dinner in the Rotterdam. We had five smart casual dress nights and two formal nights. No jeans, t-shirts or sweats allowed although we saw this dress code broken many times. Gone are the days when one needs formals and tuxes for the formal evening but still nice evening wear is expected.

The movie for the night was The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and Denis O'Hare. The movie was about an Alaskan family, but was not filmed in Alaska

In the Mandrian Lounge the show for the night was a saxophone player, Craig Richard. He put on a great show and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. After the show we went for late night (11 - 12) snacks in Lido restaurant, which featured American Food.


One of the nights was the Chocolate Extravaganza. The entire area around the swimming pool was set up with tables of different desserts made of chocolate. There were several chocolate carvings; chocolate fountain with fruit; numerous ice sculptures; and plenty of unusual drinks to enjoy while stuffing yourself with food that you should not eat.