Yes Bay, InnerSea Discoveries part 6

Posted on October 23, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger
Pirate Airworks of Ketchikan takes Safari Quest passengers for a flight

Float Plane over Yes Bay

Fishing Charter with Yes Bay Lodge

Say yes to Yes Bay. Another day of freakishly good weather on our InnerSea Discoveries cruise in southeast Alaska. Batman, our fishing guide from Yes Bay Lodge, picked us up at our yacht in a 20 foot Olympic boat around 7:30am. Everyone else turned down the fishing charter in favor of hiking or kayaking. Batman had gear that works quite well, but was perfectly willing to let us try our tackle in this fishery.

Yes Bay Lodge fishing charter on InnerSea Discoveries cruise

coho caught on Yes Bay Lodge charter

“There’s two superheros in the boat today,” John said. “My fishing name is Spiderman.”

(This from running a boat by himself in Canada, with many rods hanging out the sides like spider legs.)

So if they are superheros, what does that make me, Lois Lane?

Neet's Bay fish hatchery, Alaska

Moon Jellyfish at Neets Bay

Batman turned out to be the great sort of fishing guide who gears the trip to the client’s whim. We fished for coho on John’s new invention, the mini fat squid. This little squid proves quite effective in many fisheries with its glow stick light and UV pigment. After slamming several coho in quick succession, we decided to try to find out if a trolled stinger could catch fish. We put a half ounce white deep stingerwith UV hook tubing behind a 0/0 flasher and trolled it close to the downrigger ball. It did indeed get hits, so the answer to can you troll stingers is yes.

Bear Watching at Neets Bay Fish Hatchery

Bear at Neet's Bay Fish Hatchery

Young Black Bear

We stopped after we had four fish in the boat. That would be enough to feed everyone on the yacht. We had no need for more. Batman suggested a trip to the Neets Bay Fish Hatchery.  Bears love the easy fishing in the salmon stream. Another boat from Yes Bay Lodge had just docked before we got there, so we threw them our lines. The water around the dock glowed with moon jellyfish undulating in the current like a luminous army of invading aliens. We got out of the boat and headed toward a trail. Bonus, a restroom! Had to stop there.

Neet's Bay Fish Hatchery, Neets Bay Alaska

Window on the World

Batman said once at the hatchery he ran into bears right along the people trail. A mother and her cubs. The mama ran one bear off and stole its fish to feed to her cubs.  She treed another bear. Nowhere near that much action on our visit. We did see a couple young black bears catching fish in a seagull laden stream. John took photos of bears. I took photos of little black specks. Amazing what a difference a telephoto lens makes. After they ate their fish the bears left, so we headed back to the boat. On the way we stopped for artsy photos. I could not resist the perfect frame.

This is MY rock

Sea Lions

On the return trip to Yes Bay we stopped near a rocky point. We aimed our cameras at a group of sea lions sunning themselves on the rock. The males sat up and scratched themselves.  They barked loudly and fought halfheartedly.  The females ignored the males’ shenanigans and basked almost statue-like quietly soaking up the rare sunshine.

Flightseeing over Misty Fjords National Monument

After a lunch of curried chicken on rice back at the Safari Quest, we had a skiff ride back to Yes Bay Lodge.  We boarded a Dehavilland Beaver floatplane from Pirate

Flightseeing over Misty Fjords with Pirate Airworks

Misty Fjords By Air

Airworks of Ketchikan.  John volunteered to take the middle seat for our flightseeing tour of Misty Fjords National Monument because he flies over that sort of area often.  Since I had a window he handed me one of his fancy cameras. New toy! I tried to take artsy shots where parts of the plane interacted with the scenery.

We had nice clear views of forests, lakes, waterways, and mountaintops. John even

Misty Fjords National Monument

Wing Over Water

saw some mountain goats. The pilot said many of the multitude of lakes we flew over had no names and remained untouched by humans. At times the ground beneath the plane changed from appearing practically under the pontoon to thousands of feet below in a split second.

“It’s nice to see where I’m going for a change,” the pilot said. “Usually we fly under the clouds between the mountains.”

They don’t call this area Misty Fjords National Monument for nothing. Normally the Misty Fjords truly are misty. Perhaps we did miss out on the mysteries of an eerie mist, but I ‘ll take the sun any day.

“I’ve been here 6 times and never seen the tops of the mountains before,” Ed complained. “You aren’t getting the real Alaska experience.”

What can I say, when you get lucky, you get lucky, and get lucky we did. You would think he would be happy to finally see those mountaintops. What a curmudgeon. There’s one in every crowd, never can please everyone. We had a nice view of Safari Quest far below as we returned to Yes Bay Lodge.

Boom Swing on Safari Quest

Polar Drop

Back at Safari Quest, the staff hung a rope swing from the boom normally used to raise and lower kayaks from storage on the top deck to the water. Kevin tested it out fully clothed. Several people (all wearing swimsuits) followed soon after. It looked like fun, but they did make a mad paddle from the splashdown to the boat. With my intense aversion to immersing myself in cold water, I had to settle with watching others jump while thinking it would be fun in warm water.

For dinner we had duck and some of the halibut John caught from a kayak. At dessert time the staff came out in costumes with 2 servings of dessert that had lighted candles. They placed those in front of John and I and sang happy anniversary. Somebody let the cat out of the bag on our impending anniversary later in the month. When we went up to our room we found a plate of grapes, two champagne glasses, and an ice bucket with a small bottle each of sparkling cider and champagne. Luxury in pursuit of adventure, the American Safari Crusies way.

The former sister lines InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises are now combined under the name Un-Cruise Adventures.

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Wrangle, InnerSea Discoveries Alaskan Adventure part 5

Posted on October 16, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger
www.summitcharters.com, Wrangell, Alaska

Summit Charters Jetboat on the Stikine River

Our Alaskan wilderness adventure media trip provided by American Safari Cruises and InnerSea Discoveries continues with a visit to Wrangell.

Stikine River, Wrangell Alaska

Inside the Jet Boat

Day six: Following breakfast, we took a short walk across the dock in Wrangell and boarded a jet boat driven by Captain John Taylor from Summit Charters of the Stikine River Jet Boat Association. We were fortunate to have Brenda Schwartz-Yeager, a well-known local artist, for our guide. She also captains river boat charters. She entertained us with stories of her adventures as a 4th generation Wrangell Alaskan. As the jet boat cruised up the Stikine River we came past some float houses. At least they are supposed to be float houses, though all were high and dry, and the only occupied one sat at quite the angle on the sandbar.

Stikine River near Wrangell, Alaska

Float House, High & Dry

She explained how only those few lucky long time residents like her who have a cabin grandfathered in in their family can have anything on the land there, but the river is state territory so they have float houses for moose hunting. She has a float house too, which can be moved from place to place (assuming it is actually floating at the time). One time they started to move it, then anchored up for the night as it is a slow process to tow a house up the river. During the night the river rose and the float house took off on its own. They had to put out an APB on it. Imagine calling around on the radio asking “Have you seen my house go by?” They did finally find it, and as it turned out the very cooperative house seemed impatient to get where it belonged as they found it quite close to where they planned to put it.

Bear tracks in river sand, Stikine River Alaska

Bear Tracks on the Beach

We stopped on a wide sandy beach (the sand is actually glacial silt.) with a beached floathouse. This one at least came to rest in a flat spot. Everyone took their private hikes, ignoring the fact that in bear country safety is in numbers.

Bear hidiing in the trees: “I’m supposed to be the one who does THAT in the woods!”

We explored the area a bit and found bear, wolf, moose, and wolverine tracks on the beach. We did not find any bear, wolves, moose, or wolverines. Captain John spotted a mountain goat up on a mountain. It pretty much looked like a white speck. Normally these tours go far enough upriver to see a glacier, but the water was quite low so we headed back. I’d trade low water for all the sunshine we’ve had any day though.

Wrangell Alaska Tlingit tribal house

Chief Shake’s House

After lunch back at the yacht, we walked over to Chief Shakes house where local native Americans and part native americans, mostly of Tlingit ancestory shared their personal histories , the stories of how they got their native names, and what the designs on the backs of the blankets they wore meant. They did some singing, dancing, and storytelling. Outside they had a little display the children had made of how they gathered native foods. They offered up a bowl of dried black seaweed for tasting. John liked it, but I thought it tasted exactly the way seaweed smells.

That afternoon for the first time, I did not miss out on the cookies. Fresh baked chocolate chip. Mmmm. Rumor has it yesterday’s were coconut.

Dinner choices included sockeye salmon or prime rib. The boat got underway for Yes Bay, and did not stop until roughly 3am. Safari Quest does not normally run overnight, but the Wilderness Discoverer and Wilderness Adventurer that will actually run the InnerSea Discoveries cruises will be equipped to do so.

InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.

Posted in Alaska, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, Un-Cruise Adventures | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

LaConte Fjord to Ideal Cove, InnerSea Discoveries part 4

Posted on October 9, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger
American Safari Cruises

Safari Quest in LeConte Fjord

Day five: Another day of Alaskan cloud failure (or what the rest of us call sunshine.) The crew of the Safari Quest had the anchor up and the boat underway before breakfast, which included the best muffins ever, coconut lime. These warm, fresh from the oven homemade muffins tasted so good they were one of the highlights of the cruise.

Icebergs Up Close in LeConte Fjord

Following breakfast, we boarded the skiffs for a tour of LeConte Fjord, included on the InnerSea Discoveries Eastern Coves itinerary. We passed towering icebergs grounded on the terminal moraine of LeConte glacier. The face of the glacier itself lay 11 miles distant down the winding windy fjord in waters teeming with icebergs and bergy bits, so we stayed near the entrance of the fjord getting up close and personal with the ice bergs there. The other group ventured farther into the fjord, but cold wind and clusters of icebergs blocked them from progressing very far.

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All the nearby icebergs looked white, while some in the distance glowed with a beautiful blue iridescence. Pursuit of the blue icebergs seemed as futile as finding white ice on Baird Glacier. The deep blue ones always stayed distant. Once we got close they were all white, or at best light blue. The color is all about the purity and density of the ice and the way light refracts from it, so getting close changes how we see the light in the berg and thus the color we perceive.

My favorite berg had several caves. One cave tunneled all the way to the other side. We could look through it and see water lapping against the far edge. Some icebergs had large overhangs clinging precariously overhead. One had a big boulder of ice that seemed to sit unattached on top of it. Popcorn-like crackles broke the silent stillness as air pockets burst in the melting ice. Kevin broke a bit off a passing iceberg and handed it around so we all had a chilly taste of glacial ice, water in its purest form. After close examination of a big berg with a large overhang, we moved down the way 100 yards or so. Kevin stopped the skiff, opened his backpack and began to pull out mugs. He filled them with steamy hot chocolate and offered to add peppermint schnapps. Everyone had just started sipping cocoa so rich it tasted almost like drinking a candy bar when all of the sudden we heard a loud crack and a crashing splash.

“That was the overhang we were just looking at,” Kevin said.

Sure enough on the way back the overhang had vanished and new bergy bits appeared floating next to that berg as if by magic. Heading back to the yacht, I sat near the bow and (as if I couldn’t see this for myself) John called out “Watch out Lois we are heading straight for an iceberg!”

Noticing he gave no warning to Pokin, who sat a hair closer to the front than me, but apparently could see said looming iceberg for herself, I replied “I don’t know, I was going to stand up and do the Titanic thing.”

“When Kate Winslet sailed with us she actually did stand up in the bow and spread her arms and even sang the same song she sang in the movie,” Kevin interjected.

Back at the ship, they served us BLT&C (bacon, lettuce, tomato & chicken) sandwiches and soup for lunch while the boat got underway and headed for Ideal Cove. I had to pull the tomato slices out of mine though, anything more than little diced pieces is just way too much tomato for me.

Hiking the Ideal Cove Trail

Once we anchored up in Ideal Cove, almost everyone set out for a hike. John decided to go kayak fishing by himself instead. In the skiff, on the way to the trail Kevin mentioned that some of the crew had come up with Indian type nicknames for themselves, and he needed one.

American Safaru Cruise, InnerSea Discoveries itinerary

Boardwalk through the Muskeg

“How about High on Nature,” I suggested. I thought it fit because he’s the only one I’ve ever met who could get so excited about the underside of a blueberry bush or the pattern of water on mud. And I thought I was easily amused. I did not get the feeling he wanted to use it though.

“It sure is beautiful out here,” someone said. “I’ll be sad to have to go back to the real world.”

“This is the real world,” Kevin said. “All this was here before anything man made. Nature is what the real world is all about.”

“It’s like a mirage,” somebody mentioned.

“Mirage,” I said. “Isn’t that a hotel in Vegas?” Followed by silence. Wrong thing to say I guess. Las Vegas is so far removed from wild remote Alaska it could be on another planet.

Alaska 2010

Ideal Cove Trail

After a fairly short hike on a forest service boardwalk trail, with much stopping for various people to take photos, we came to a bridge with a view of a beaver dam where the Ideal Cove Trail hooked up with the Three Lakes Trail. The short hike group decided that this would be the place to turn back. I wanted a longer hike than that, so with a bit of apprehension that the long hike may turn out to be too long, I set off with the rest. We hiked through the muskeg, or Alaskan peat bogs, where we saw natural bonsai trees, dwarfed by their living conditions in the peat bog rather than human manipulation. A crow loudly scolded us from the top of a grove of tall trees. We didn’t need a translator to know that his cawing meant get out of my forest you trespassers.

“How do you suppose they got the boards here to make this trail?” Someone asked, followed by much speculation.

“It would be a lot of work to pack all these boards in.”

Alaska 2010

Scenery on Ideal Cove Hike

“Maybe they dropped them by helicopter.”

However the boards got there, it is amazing that someone built boardwalk trails in the middle of nowhere. They must get some maintenance as well, or there would be a lot more broken and submerged boards than there are. Through the peat bogs, there are places where some will have boards 2 to 3 high and others do not. A few either have a bit of water running across or squish down into the bog when stepped on and get water over the top. Probably the next candidates for stacking one board higher. Some boards even have fish net stapled over them for traction.

Trail from Ideal Cove

Sleeping on the dock

After awhile we came upon a dock in a lake. The dock had a picnic table, with a small pair of socks on it and a blue t-shirt underneath. A rowboat with one oar sat in the water, tied to the dock. It seemed like a good place for a rest, so everyone sat down either at the table or on the dock. Those on the dock soon lay down for a nap. We lay quietly in the silent stillness of the place until Nellie woke up to the buzzing sound of dragonfly porn taking place on her leg. I had tried earlier to take a picture of a dragonfly, but it left whenever I turned the camera on, only to return as soon as I turned it off. By this time I had given up on dragonfly photos and joined the nappers, but with all the good flat spots already taken I found a comfortable board on the part slanted to the water’s edge like a boat

Boardwalk trail in Alaskan Wilderness

Three Lakes Trail

launch. This did puzzle me a bit as any boat light enough to be carried a considerable distance down a narrow winding board trail with many ups and downs could probably just be dropped straight off the dock into the water.

We hiked awhile longer until the trail ended on a logging road. After hiking up the road a bit, we came to another trail and back into the woods we went. I noticed that even when I did not stop to take pictures there seemed to always be an ever-widening gap between me and whoever was ahead of me. Any looking around widened the gap further. Beats me how they can go that fast on a narrow boardwalk and see anything at all other than the boards under their feet.

Ideal Cove Trail, Alaska - Boardwalk Forest Service trail

Bridge at the Beaver Dam

Eventually we came to the beaver dam and the bridge, and back to the beach. Kevin called the boat for a skiff to come pick us up. A voice on the radio said that John went out alone in the kayak and they had heard him blow a whistle. They sent the skiff to investigate. I don’t think the others heard because they seemed a bit surprised when the skiff did not come our way.  The radio mentioned the whistle blowing for a second time. I hoped nothing bad had happened. After a few minutes of needless worry, the skiff reached him and the radio said he had caught a fish. The other skiff set out in his direction and somebody mumbled something about how many skiffs does it take for a fish. I thought he would surely be Mr. Unpopular that night as people complained about the wait cutting into hot tub and cocktail time. It turned out the first skiff left with no supplies and he needed a float to bring his monster fish in.

Finally one skiff came our way. John’s skiff got to the boat first (it must have towed the

Halibut caught in Kayak

John’s Halibut

kayak as he was there as well.) All grumblings were forgotten as people who had never seen a halibut before marveled over his 60-pound fish, caught on a 3 1/2 oz pearl green Point Wilson dart. Dinner that night was already in the works, so we had halibut tacos for lunch the next day with plenty left over for another meal.

Anchors away and off toward Wrangle. As we passed near Petersberg during dinner, many people abandoned their king crab for their ipads and internet phones and that all-important internet access.

We hadn’t seen many other boats before, but there they passed quite frequently. We had fun playing “What’s that Cruise Ship.” One member of our party could identify them all, even the state ferry.

InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari cruises are now both under the name Un-Cruise Adventures.

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Thomas Bay and Baird Glacier, InnerSea Discoveries part 3

Posted on October 2, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger
Alaska 2010

Safari Quest

Our Alaskan wilderness adventure provided by American Safari Cruises and InnerSea Discoveries continues in Thomas Bay.

Thomas Bay Alaska

waterfall viewed from above on bridge over Cascade Creek

Day four: We woke up to another beautiful sunny day. We couldn’t have had better weather if we ordered it up special. What a bonus on a trip where we expected nothing but rain. Following another tasty breakfast buffet, we had two hike options to chose from on the Cascade Creek Trail, the rather ambitious hike or the waterfall hike. We took the old fogie option. I mean the waterfall hike. We saw lots of hemlock and some sitka spruce trees. Some clinging precariously to the side of the rock. In this area of southeast Alaska, everything starts out as rock. The lichens gain a foothold, making way for moss, which eventually eats into the rock enough for small plants to gain a foothold (or should I say roothold?) and finally trees. Even sandy seeming areas are glacial silt, ground from ……(what else)….rocks! We passed some moose scat on the boardwalk, and saw some flattened skunk cabbage where they had bedded down, but did not see any moose. No bears either.

Thomas Bay Alaska

photographing waterfall

We hiked to the waterfall, where everyone took some lovely pictures, then hiked across a bridge and on to a veiwpoint at the river. The trail from there went up a steep rock which the ambitious group had climbed earlier, but this group all said time to stop. While they milled around taking pictures of the river I climbed the rock. Just had to do it. Of course once you go up you have to come back down, but even the down was not as bad as it looked.

On the return trip the rest bypassed the waterfall without so much as a glance, but we lingered a bit while John asked me to go stand up near it for photos. So while I stood there taking a cold shower in the waterfall mist, the battery in his camera died.

We had time to paddle around Thomas Bay in the kayak before the ambitious group returned. During our lunch of turkey wraps and hot caramel apple crisp ala mode, the boat moved on toward Scenery Cove for the afternoon hike on Baird Glacier.

The terminal moraine(or farthest point the glacier ever was) is now well under water, but there is a rather shallow bay going a distance between there and where

Baird Glacier

baby tree on Baird Glacier moraine

the moraine is on dry land. The glacial river had spots deep enough to edge the skiff up to for a dry landing. The moraine has lots of round rocks, and boulders, ground off the mountain and rubbed smooth from eons of glacial movement. As the glacier retreats, new forest develops in its wake. The moraine was full of soft spongy moss, the starts of bushes, and even a few

Baird Glacier

“Are we there yet?”

infant trees. We could hear either wind blowing through the glacier, or the meltwater river roaring by. Probably a mixture of both. As we hiked farther inland, we found a moonscape of pyramidal formations in the silt. Several people had fun jumping around in jello-like mud patches. I kept my feet dry as I had chosen to wear my hiking boots that day rather than the trusty Alaskan tennis shoes. Bad choice. Later I did hear complaints of cold feet from people who had fun in the mud and ended up walking on ice with wet shoes.

John did not realize the first icy spot we crossed was actually ice until he went down,

Baird Glacier

silt castle

dunking a large expensive telephoto camera lens into muddy wet silt. The ice and snow looked the same as the silt on the surface. He cleaned his lens the best he could and put it in the backpack, useless at least for this excursion. Back at the boat he found much to his great relief that he had only broken a filter on the end.

Formations around us got taller and icier until we realized we were indeed on the glacier. All that silt mixed in the ice

silt formation, Baird Glacier Alaska

Bigger Silt Castle

made it rather hard to tell where moraine ends and glacier begins. Off we went in pursuit of clean white ice. At first it loomed in the distance. After hiking awhile we could see the white ice over the next rise. Well maybe the next one. OK, the one after that. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the ice where we stood was the white ice we saw from several rises back. Hmm, take off the sunglasses and it does look somewhat white. Baird is a very dirty glacier, at least when you hike in from the sea. The hills got taller and the crevasses longer and deeper, and still the white ice always seemed to loom up ahead

Baird Glacier, Scenery Cove Alaska

ice in the mud

or maybe where we had already been. We turned back when we reached an uncrossable crevasse. We took a bit different route on the return trip. When we came to a slick steep spot, Kevin, our expedition leader reached out, offering a helping hand to each person as they crossed. Most of them took it.

“I’m good,” I said. “I have my trusty walking stick.” Promptly, I fell. Lesson learned, next time take the pro-offered

Baird Glacier

white snow at last (sort of)

hand. You look a lot stupider falling down than accepting help. I guess that makes John and I the klutzes of the group, nobody else fell, though some did opt to take the steep downs at a seat-slide.

Somehow I ended up at the back of the line. Perhaps because I walk slow. Anyway, we got to a large area of the squishy mud. It seemed to support the first person to walk on it (so long as they refrained from jumping up and down.) With each succeeding person, the mud got squishier and squishier, each one sinking in deeper than the last. So I found my own route and stepped where they didn’t. I managed to keep my shoes dry until we got to a crossing

Baird Glacier, Alaska

Sleeping on the mossy moraine

where the only way to avoid the really deep boot-sucking mud was to step where everyone else did. Sigh, no choice now, I followed. And sunk down deep enough to get wet, muddy shoes. At least we were on the way back and I would not have to spend the entire glacier walk that way. In fact at that point I am not sure if we were even still on the glacier.

Back on the moraine we found the other group of hikers sprawled out on the moss like kindergarteners at nap time. Our group was supposed to be the long hike and theirs the short, but they seemed to have gotten farther into the glacier by taking a different route. They did do it faster though, so technically I suppose they were still the short hike.

“Try lying on this moss with us,” they said. “It’s wonderful.”

American Safari cruise

John on paddle board

So we stopped laughing at them and joined in for a comfy snooze. The moss did feel something like a mattress. We rose only when our guide came back from the beach claiming we must leave because the skiff had arrived to take us back to the yacht. One guy said he did not want to get up and to come back for him tomorrow. Odds are he would not have enjoyed the cold windy glacial night alone in the middle of nowhere without so much as a garbage bag to keep him dry in the night mist if they had really let him stay there. On the way out, somebody spotted our wildlife for the day, harlequin ducks.

Scenery Cove, Alaska, American Safary cruise

John’s polar bear swim

After we got back to the ship, John gave the stand-up paddle board a try, then decided to dive off the stern for a quick polar bear swim followed by a sprint for the hot tub. Having a huge aversion to immersing myself in glacial water, I skipped the swim and went straight for the hot tub.

That night an erie green light appeared in the sky above the mountains on the

horizon. If watched for a bit, the light would radiate and grow before shrinking back to its original glow, only to project skyward once again. The northern lights at last, one of the things I really wanted to see. John said it would take setting the camera up on a tripod for a long exposure to get a picture of them, which he did not do, but Kevin and Abby did.

Alaskan cruise with American Safari Cruises

Abi’s northern lights, courtesy of Inside the Travel Lab

InnerSea Discoveries and its sister line American Safari cruises are now known under one name: Un-Cruise Adventures.

Posted in Alaska, Shore Excursions, Un-Cruise Adventures | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

InnerSea Discoveries Alaskan Adventure part 2 Windham Bay to Frederick Sound

Posted on September 25, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger
Safari Quest yacht on wilderness adventure

Safari Quest in Windham Bay

Windham Bay Alaska

Day three: In September of 2010, we went on a wilderness adventure with American Safari Cruises, testing the itinerary for InnerSea Discoveries, which begins its inaugural season in 2011. We began the third day of our journey, which is actually the second day of the cruise, in Windham Bay, Alaska. After a tasty buffet breakfast, the crew handed out rubber boots to all the guests.

Alaskan Tennis Shoes

Alaskan Tennis Shoes

“These are Alaskan tennis shoes,” they said. We heard that again from locals we met all through our Alaskan adventure.

These boots are soft and flexible and very comfy. Much nicer than the barn boots I have at home. Great to wear anywhere Alaskans go, on boats, hiking in the woods, I even saw people wear them in town when we stopped in Wrangle.

Walker Cove, Misty Fjords National Monument Alaska

me paddling kayak

The energetic (translation: young) group set out for a 5 mile paddle up to the head of the inlet. The not so energetic went for a skiff ride in an inflatable boat. We decided to try out a kayak on our own and did neither. I had never used a kayak before, but I did win some rowboat races growing up. We paddled down the shoreline a bit, past a stream where many seagulls feasting on post-spawning salmon dotted the landscape in white. We headed for a point of land that always looked just a short distance away, yet never seemed to get any closer.

catch and release

rockfish on Point Wilson Dart

We gave up trying to reach it and stopped. We dropped a line with a 3 ½ oz green pearl Point Wilson Dart. No matter where we are, or what swims beneath the surface, John loves to go fishing. Minutes later the rod tip dipped down. I got out my camera while John reeled in the line. Closer and closer to the boat it came, revealing a small rockfish, which we let go. After catching and releasing a couple more rockfish we paddled across the bay toward a tiny island covered in evergreen trees.

Four furry brown heads popped up from the water whuffing loudly in an angry sounding way.

Sea Lions basking on sunny rock

Sea Lions

Sea lion #1: “What is that?”

Sea lion #2 “Let’s go see.”

John (rather smugly) “They’re coming right over to where we are.”

Me (having never before been in the vicinity of large beasts in such a small boat) “Can they tip us over?”

John “No.”

Sea lion #3 (Heading toward the kayak) “Do you think it’s hungry?”

Sea lion #4 “I wonder what it eats?”

Sea lion #1 “US!”

Four brown heads popped back out of the water, noisily snorting and puffing. They dived back under and zipped off, resurfacing in the distance.

Unlike the sea lions, a group of seals on a rock nearby completely ignored us. They seemed intent only on basking in the rare southeast Alaskan sun.

We stopped and dropped a line down to the bottom, using the same dart fishing lure as before.

Cluster of rock fish near the bottom:”What is that?”

“It sure looks tasty.”

“Mine, mine, mine, mine,” (ala the seagulls in Finding Nemo.)

“Oh, yeah, it’s mine……..Yiiieeeeee”

“Hey where did Fred go?”

“He got that thing and took off in a big hurry.”

“He never shares.”

Back at the surface, Fred Rockfish blinks at his first sighting of sun and sky. Once removed from the hook, he races to the bottom, debating over whether to warn the others or wait for them to bite the hook so he can have a good laugh.

Being the fastest sinking jig on the market, the candlefish dart reached the bottom before Fred did. Still looking for Fred, the other rockfish missed it and a small unknown stickleback sneaked in, grabbing the hook for its own quick ride to the surface. Point Wilson Darts catch everything.

American Safari cruise, Alaska

seal splashing in the distance

Over at the seal rock, the fast rising tide quickly immersed their sunning area. The bright red kayak stealthily approached in hopes of photos. Too late, nothing left above the surface but heads. We should have come sooner before the water covered their rock. An eagle flew overhead and the seals spooked, splashing off into deeper water while the eagle’s shadow passed over their submerged rock. Like many furry spotted ping-pong balls, they bounced back to the rock as quickly as the eagle faded into the distance.

We paddled back to the Safari Quest, the silence of the watery wilderness broken only by the occasional call of a bird or voice from the ship carrying across the glassy bay. As much as it felt like it took forever paddling out, it seemed like no time at all on the way back. We hitched the kayak to the stern and climbed on the yacht, marveling at the weather. Michelle said it has never rained when she visits Alaska. So perhaps it was her last minute addition to our group that changed the weather rather than my lack of a sun hat.

We joined a group for a skiff ride to the beach and a hike on Marce’s trail. Marce herself, captain of the Wilderness Discoverer came along with the group. The odor of decaying fish invaded our nostrils, ever stronger the closer we came to shore. We walked along a beach populated only by seabirds and the occasional pink salmon swimming near the shoreline in search of its spawning stream. Dead and rotting salmon littered the banks of the stream. A few live ones still swam in the creek. Nature in action, nutrients for the ecosystem as well as scavenging birds and animals. All along the banks of the stream, we had to be careful not to step on slippery slimy spawned out salmon. How do they get so far from the water? How squishy that rock feels under my foot. Oops, not a rock. Thank goodness for those Alaskan tennis shoes!

Marce's trail, Windham Bay Alaska

King of the Stump

We followed a game trail where we could find one and bushwhacked where we couldn’t, always on the lookout for bears (which we did not find) and boot-sucking mud (which we did.) I found I could avoid the boot-sucking mud by walking mainly on roots, or at least green mossy areas tested for solidity with a poke of my walking stick. A rainforest is a very wet place even in the sun. We took a true wilderness hike with no man-made trails. Often we had to double back and seek a different path, always climbing over, ducking under, or squeezing through trees and brush. We came across some bushes dripping with sweet ripe blueberries.

“Release your inner bear,” Marce advised, munching happily.

Back on the beach as we awaited the skiff for the return trip, Nitakuwa, first mate of

Photo courtesy of Go Fish Magazine

spouting whale

the Safari Quest, told us everything we never wanted to know about the life cycle of barnacles. Starting with the fact that they are hermaphrodites. They possess the longest male organs proportionally to their size of anything in the animal kingdom. As they sit there on that rock, they can invade a neighbor some distance away. The larvae swim with the plankton, easily recognizable by their fan of legs. Barnacles are a crustacean, related to lobsters (though no doubt not nearly as tasty.) The larvae have a cement gland on their heads and swim with one chance of finding a good rock to stick it to where they will spend the rest of their life standing on their head. Perhaps that is why some prefer the bottom of a boat or whale. Those that appear upside down are actually rightside up. Such is the random life of a barnacle.

We returned to the ship to the delicious aroma of cooking food and a tasty lunch of pasta and brownies. As the boat got underway, we slipped into the steamy hot tub, the warmth enveloping our bodies as the jets massaged our feet and backs. What a view from the top deck of the ship. We could see the distance clearly, but not anything close to the ship from down inside the hot tub. Whales will poke their heads up now and then to look around, which is called spy hopping. From the hot tub,we did the same, looking over the side for whales while we cruised through Frederick Sound where humpbacks often hang out. Once we spotted whales, our inner photographers just didn’t let us stay there and watch. We all had to jump out dripping all over and grab our cameras. I had a bit of lens envy as all those folks with long lenses clicked away and I looked sadly at my little point-and-shoot while no whales came within its range. There’s a lot of photos on this cruise, but all do-it-yourself shots rather than the posed photos they take to try and sell you on the large cruise ships.

humpback whale in Alaska

whale tail

A mother humpback dived deep below the surface, leaving her calf above on its own. The (not so) little one popped its head out as if in a spy hop, then thunderously slapped the surface. It repeated this behavior the whole time it was alone. The calf splashed and jumped about joyfully when mama whale returned with a blow of her spout.

The day ended with a dinner of prawns and berry tart and anchorage in Thomas Bay.

InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises combined and are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.

Posted in Alaska, Un-Cruise Adventures | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

InnerSea Discoveries part 1, Seattle and Juneau

Posted on September 19, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Safari Quest

Misty Fjord National Monument, Alaska

Safari Quest in Misty Fjord National Monument

InnerSea Discoveries – the Uncruise

There’s an old saying that states if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Normally that is the truth, but once in awhile it’s not. When the offer came to take a media fam trip to give the new InnerSea Discoveries Alaskan adventure itinerary a preview on an AmericanSafariCruises yacht, it was way too good to pass by. We’re pretty much Motel 6 people, and this would be like Holiday Inn people staying at the Four Seasons. Granted it’s a working vacation, but who can complain when the work is this much fun.

photo courtesy of Go Fish Magazine

Necky Kayaks

When I learned they had Necky Kayaks aboard, it added to the excitement as I’ve wanted to see one in action for years. During the week leading up to this cruise, I checked the extended weather forecast online every day. Not a pretty sight. It called for rain every day of our trip. We packed a lot of extra clothes so we would have dry things to change into several times daily after exploring the great outdoors in the wilds of Alaska. I opened my hat drawer and picked the closest thing to a stylish warm hat I had. I looked at all my sun hats, almost grabbed one, and then shut the drawer thinking what for?

Day One: We met our travel group in Seattle at the lovely new Maxwell Hotel, a quaint boutique hotel near the Space Needle. Some of the people in our group came from as far away as Spain. We had about an hour drive to get there, with a stop along the way to leave our beloved dog at the PetSmart PetsHotel. The Maxwell had a stand of cupcakes and coffee in the lobby, a free treat for guests. Quite a nice hotel. We never got a chance to try the indoor pool or the bicycles available free for guests to use.

After checking in, our group met for a tour. The rest of them climbed into a stretch limo, while we got in our car and followed someone from the cruise ship company so we could leave the car in their parking lot during our cruise. We saw the Wilderness Adventurer at the dock along the way. We met up with the rest of them at the dry dock for a tour of the Wilderness Discoverer as it undergoes renovations, including an underwater bow camera. These are the two ships InnerSea Discoveries will use. Eventually all the ships in the American Safari Cruises fleet will have the bow cam feature as well. The flat screen TVs in the rooms will have a channel dedicated to the underwater camera where guests can relax in comfort as they watch life under the sea. With much smaller vessels than the major cruise lines, American Safari Cruises and InnerSea Discoveries explore the wilds up close and personal where the larger ships can’t go. Captain Dan plans for the decor of the Wilderness Discoverer to look something like an early forest service lodge. When he mentioned donations of old sporty items, I immediately thought of the saddle that has sat in my hay loft unused for years ever since a horse I once owned threw a bucking fit so intense he broke the saddle tree. Captain Dan seemed interested so perhaps if you sail on one of his ships someday, you will see that saddle as a lamp.

After the tour we had a wine tasting. My sister, the wine connoisseur, would have appreciated that. It was wasted on me since I don’t drink. My husband, John, did give me quite a surprise by drinking wine though. Not since the very early years of our marriage have I ever seen him drink, though he did admit to sipping a bit of wine in China to be polite to his hosts. Following that, we enjoyed a very informative presentation about the unbelievable, unforgettable, unimaginable uncrowded uncruise upon which we were about to embark. We learned that they are a green company. We also learned that they have culinary cruises on the Columbia River featuring local wineries. My sister would love that if it weren’t for the food part.  She’s allergic to just about everything normal people eat.  Through camping trips with her I have learned to appreciate things like brown rice flour, amaranth crackers, and shopping the hippie section in the grocery store.

Before turning in for the night we checked the extended weather forecast for Juneau and Ketchikan. Much to our delight it suddenly changed from the rain it had said we would have for the entire trip to sunshine for the whole next week. Probably because I didn’t pack the hat. Oh well, a sunburned nose might work for a good luck charm.

Day Two: We all met outside the hotel with our luggage. Most everyone else had one little wheeled suitcase and a backpack. We had a whole one of those bellboy’s hotel carts full. I find it quite embarrassing to stand there with all that luggage while everyone else has so little. John had more, than me, but that included camera gear and fishing tackle. I used to have a normal size rolley suitcase, but it broke in Australia, so now I only have tiny ones. Some of the other people actually used those tiny ones. Perhaps they didn’t bring spare shoes. (How does one pack for all that rain we were supposed to have without spare shoes?) I had to borrow John’s mega bag from China, and well if you have the space you just keep filling it. At least I do. So will we pack lighter next time? Probably not, but I will make an attempt to get a normal sized bag.

One stretch limo ride later we arrived at the airport. We took a long walk down the c-gate wing just in time to find out they had switched us to a d-gate. Sigh. Turn around, go back to start and head a different direction. With no further mishaps we boarded the plane and soon headed to Juneau. Our bags made it fine, but they lost some of John’s equipment.  So while the rest of the group visited restaurants and tourist shops, or took the tram up to Mt. Roberts or the bus to Mendenhall Glacier, we went to the plumbing and marine supply store looking for a substitute. We did see a lot of salmon hanging out in a riffle of water under a bridge that everyone else missed out on though. We had a bit of time left so we wandered into a jewelry store advertising end of season sales.  I just couldn’t quite negotiate the cost of the bracelet I wanted down a price I wanted it badly enough to pay.  Sadly, I left empty-handed.

Off we went to tour the Safari Explorer (very nice) before boarding the Safari Quest. These ships belong to American Safari Cruises, parent company of InnerSea Discoveries. So we are getting a bit of a sample of the luxury life onboard a yacht as well as the adventurous side of the InnerSea itinerary.

Once onboard everyone settled into the salon for a welcome aboard drink.

“We have two kinds of fruit punch, raspberry or pineapple/coconut,” the girl behind the bar said.

I chose the pineapple/coconut, which tasted so good I was just thinking about asking for seconds when John said “That has rum in it.”

“The girl said it was fruit punch,” I replied.

Turned out it did have rum in it, and here I hadn’t had alcohol in over 20 years.  Must have been some pretty good stuff for me not to notice it at all.   She did not say it had alcohol and I didn’t ask.  I probably should have known since it came from a bar.

photo courtesy of Go Fish Magazine

thar she blows

We saw 3 humpback whales on our way to the night’s anchorage at Windham bay. After a scrunptions dinner, we had a dessert that reminded me of a challange I saw on the food network channel. Contestants had to upscale a familiar comfort food into something ritzy. It made me think of strawberry shortcake, with bits of fresh strawberries, yet the cake had been replaced by a tasty pastry and the whip cream by an amaretto mousse.

American Safari Cruises and InnerSea Discoveries are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.

Posted in Alaska, Port Cities, Un-Cruise Adventures | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Spirit

Posted on September 8, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

In 2005, America was in the middle of a huge poker craze.  Like many other people, my husband and I spent many Friday or Saturday nights at the local Indian casino playing low-stakes poker in their non-smoking poker room.  (This was before the ban on smoking in public places so it was the only place I could play as I am allergic to cigarette smoke.)  I had not managed to talk him into going on a cruise until we discovered Card Player Cruises. Finally, my chance to get him onto a cruise ship!  We chose the Mexican Riviera cruise on Carnival, due to both the date (December) and the cost (low).  Being the cheapskates that we are, once again we had an interior room.  I learned on my last cruise where not to stay (rooms were assigned and mine was under the stage.)  This time we had a choice, and we selected a nice quiet room on a floor with nothing but other rooms not only on that floor, but the one above and the one below as well.  I also carefully selected a room near the middle of the ship as the closer you are to the middle, the less movement there is, and I sometimes have problems with motion sickness.  I was always the kid who got carsick, seasick, or sick on the rides.  Now even a swing can make me nauseous, but amazingly enough I have yet to have problems on a cruise ship!  Anybody who does have seasick problems on a cruise ship might also want to select a room on a lower deck because the higher you go, the more exaggerated the motion.  You also get the added advantage that rooms on the lower decks tend to be cheaper.

At the time we took this cruise, my niece lived in San Diego.  She picked us up at the airport, and following a nice visit and a night at her house, she dropped us off at the dock.  After the usual embarkation procedures we came on board and found our room.  Unlike my daughter, who enjoyed posing for all the pictures cruises take, my husband had no patience for them.  He waved them off with a glare, in spite of the fact that he is a photographer himself.  Rarely ever would he stop for a photo.   We hardly had any pictures to look for, and none worth buying.  I rather missed the fun I had with my daughter looking for our photos on the previous cruise.  Although I am about as photogenic as a baboon with diaper rash, if there are enough photos I can usually find one I can live with.

My husband spent practically every waking moment on board in the poker room, but I like to have some time to do other things.  So I explored the ship by myself and found several nice quiet places near windows to sit and read.  And the gym, the shops and the promenade deck where you can walk (or jog) around the whole ship outside.  I even found little laundromats to wash and dry clothes for a few quarters, and iron them for free.  Overall the Spirit was quite a nice ship.  I was a bit disappointed that the water slide had a sign on it that said closed for repairs for our entire voyage, yet I never actually saw anyone working on it.  I really wanted to try it too.  Then again if it was open it might have been infested with many noisy children and I may not have tried it anyway.  I haven’t got much patience for waiting in line for anything if I don’t absolutely have to.

There was one thing I seriously did wonder about in the design of the ship though.  Who in their right mind would put a cigar bar right in front of the entrance to the main dining room where everyone has to go?  Wouldn’t that be better located in some out of the way place where you wouldn’t stumble across it if you weren’t actually looking for it?   So every mealtime (unless eating on the lido deck)  I had to hold my breath and make a run for it.  OK walk fast enough not to run out of air before reaching the dining room door.   Actually running probably would not fly.  Obviously some people liked the cigar bar or the cigars would have stayed harmlessly unsmoked in their boxes while the lonely attendant stared into space wondering if his shift was over yet.  I wonder if they have relocated that cigar bar to a less populated area by now?  It is not currently listed on the deck plans to the ship on their website, but I do not recall whether it was back then either.

There were two poker rooms, open only to the people who booked through Card Player Cruises, and not the other passengers on board.  One of them was near the entrance to the dining room and thus, my arch-nemesis, the evil cigar bar.  The other was up one floor and quite nice.  To be fair, the games rotated from room to room, so I only played when the low-stakes games were in the upstairs room.

I found a little miniature replica of the ship in the form of a Christmas ornament in the gift shop, and it has hung on my tree every year since.  I bought 2 and sent the other to my daughter to hang on her tree in Australia where she has lived since her senior year in high school when she went as an exchange student with the famous last words “It’s only for 6 months.”  Don’t let your daughters be exchange students. They’ll never come back!

I think the other passengers had assigned seats in the dining room, but the ones who booked through Card Player Cruises could sit anywhere that had a Card Player sign on the table, so we pretty much sat somewhere different each meal.  Some of the waiters were definitely faster than others.  More experience perhaps or just more efficient.  The poker room closed for dinner and whenever the ship was at shore.  Otherwise some people may have spent the entire cruise in it.

Our first stop was in Acapulco.  We booked a shore excursion on a bus tour that took us to see the cliff divers.  The tour guide was one of the best I’ve ever seen.  He had previously lived in the US for a time and spoke English quite well.  He taught school full time and only did tours a couple times a month or so, yet made more money in tips than teaching.   He explained that the reason many Mexican houses have rebar hanging out the top is that the occupants add rooms on to their homes as they can afford it.

“Don’t feel sorry for those people,” he said as we passed a group of squatter shacks pieced together with whatever scraps of wood or metal people could find.  The group surrounded their hovels with barbed wire, and spliced into nearby powerlines for stolen electricity.  “In a few years these will be nice homes,” the guide claimed, hard though it was to picture that.  “And whoever’s land that was will have lost it to the squatters by then.   People who want to keep their land have to keep the squatters off of it.”

Even the Mexican government loses land to squatters.  You learn some interesting things on a bus tour if you have the right guide.

The cliff divers were quite spectacular, diving from great heights into a narrow channel where they had to time their jump so that they would land as the waves came in to avoid bashing their heads on the rocks below.  They passed a tin through the crowd to collect tips when they finished, and I must say, they certainly earned whatever people gave them, though they seemed to quite enjoy earning it.  Good thing they are not in the United States where L& I or OSHA or some such agency would probably shut them down.

After the show, the bus took us to an open air restaurant in a quiet cove where we had a nice snack.  We walked across the road to a beach where we saw people riding horses.  Probably rental horses.  I was quite glad I was not on them as they looked somewhat thin and one struggled under the weight of a person too heavy for it.  People there do what they can to earn a living and even the animals work hard for a meal.  Most anywhere there are people selling things, and cute little boys calling “lady, lady, lady” as they try to get you to buy something.

Next, the ship stopped at Zihuatenejo. This was a tender port, so the ship anchored out in the bay and they dropped the life boats that double as tenders to take people to shore.  We did not schedule a shore excursion for this port, so we just got off the ship and went to see what we would find.  We passed some people on the beach renting jetskis.  Or at least most people would call them jetskis.  I once had a friend who was a jetski fanatic, who insisted that only the stand up sort are real jetskis, so in his opinion those were watercouches.  Not having swimsuits with us, we passed them by and checked out all the little shops.  Many of them were in temporary tentlike structures rather than permanent buildings, and most sold the sorts of things tourists like to buy.  I bought a bracelet that I thought was opal at the time, but is probably actually some sort of shell.  Still pretty though.  When we ran out of things to look at, we asked the jet ski guys how much.  The price was not bad and as it was kind of late, they were willing to negotiate extra time into it, so back to the ship for swimsuits we went.  We just rented one and rode double (cost half as much that way and as I mentioned before, we like things cheap.)  It was really fun, I had never ridden one before.  We did circles around the ship and zipped all over the bay.

After we got on board and it was nearly time to leave, they kept announcing several names to check in with the crew.  Perhaps they hoped these people had somehow managed to slip in without sliding their cards through the scanner that keeps track of who is or is not on board.  Because when they say the ship leaves at 6:00, they mean it leaves at 6:00.  Not 6:05.  A quartet of people from the card player cruises group learned that the hard way as their cab pulled up to the dock just in time to see the back end of the ship cruising out of the harbor.  They had one expensive cab ride to the next port.  They did get a joke award at the end-of-cruise presentation for the card player group though.  That was one pricey award.  I’ll stick with my free card player cruises t-shirt.

One day they had a formal night where everyone was supposed to dress up for dinner.  My husband did not want to dress up, and did not bring any nice clothes with him.  So that night we ate on the lido deck.  And found out that the menu in the main dining room included lobster.  LOBSTER!  We missed lobster because he didn’t want to dress up.  You can bet that the next cruise we went on he brought some nice clothes!!!!  Even though we missed the lobster, he still says the food on the Spirit measured up to his standards, which are quite high as he has been to many 5 star fishing lodges.

Another night they had a midnight dessert buffet.  That one we didn’t miss.  All the deserts you can imagine lined up one after the other.   More things than any one person could possibly try.  YUM

Our last stop was Manzanillo. We took another bus tour there, but without such an interesting guide.  This one stuck to the scripted speech.  We drove past two active volcanos, one of which had a plume going, and on to Colima and Comala.  We saw some recently discovered pyramids under partial excavation, a church with scenes of the Mexican Revolution painted in large murals on the interior walls, and a museum of the history of the area.   The early residents of the pyramid era had a lot of artifacts involving fat dogs, which it seemed they raised for food.

Too soon, the ship returned to San Diego, the end of another cruise.  We could hardly wait to book the next one.

Links to information about Carnival Australia

My trip on the Spirit was taken long before Carnival Australia existed.  For information relating to Carnival Australia, see my blogs about the Legend.  If you are looking for general ship information or differences between Carnival Australia and Carnival America try Carnival Legend.

For views inside cabins on a Spirit class ship see Cabins on Carnival Legend.  Want to know what’s for dinner?  Try Carnival Australia Dining Room Dinner Menus.

Posted in Carnival, Mexico | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ocean Breeze

Posted on July 12, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Ocean Breeze

Welcome to the My Cruise Stories blog for CruiseNewsSite.com.  Since this is my first blog, I’ll start with my first cruise, on Imperial Majesty’s Ocean Breeze.  While there is still a website to Imperial Majesty, they no longer have a ship, so no links included here.  Sadly there was a site that said this boat has been scrapped.

My husband purchased this 3-part vacation off a fax from a time share, then kept putting off actually going.  Finally when it got to the use it or lose it stage, I went with my daughter.  Good thing too, as she and I are easily amused.  He is too accustomed to 5 star fishing lodges and probably would have spent the whole time complaining, where we had a great time.  If one cares to Google Imperial Majesty, there are all sorts of comments and not all of them good.

After getting off the plane in Orlando, the first stop was at the car rental, where we were pleasantly surprised with a Mitsubishi Eclipse instead of the cheap tiny economy car we were supposed to have.  I drove to Cocoa Beach for the first part of our journey, where we entertained ourselves for 2 days with $2 Styrofoam boogie boards and ocean waves.  I did say we are easily amused.

From there we went on to Fort Lauderdale for the cruise.  We took the crowded freeway, as we did not discover the parallel toll road until the way back.  The toll road was well worth the money because of the lack of traffic and the rest stops like little shopping centers with gas stations, gift shops and food places.

Finally we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, in plenty of time to board, but not early enough to beat the crowd.  Oh well, can’t have everything.  We waited through the usual lines, had our pre-boarding photos taken, and finally got on board. Tropically dressed crew members selling welcome aboard drinks they called Bahama Mamas greeted us as we set foot on the ship.  I must say I save a lot of money on cruises because I don’t drink.  My daughter was only 18 or 19 at the time so she could not drink alcohol whether she wanted it or not.  One could blow through a lot of money in very little time buying alcohol on cruise ships.

We had a bit of time to explore before the mandatory life boat drill.  We found the tiny pool that made for good jokes by the ship’s comedian, the hot tub that never seemed to be open at convenient times to use it, and the fitness center we never bothered to use.  But exploring is always fun, whatever you might find.  At the lifeboat drill I wondered why we had to go so far to find our assigned lifeboat when we could practically stand under one after exiting our room.  I hadn’t considered that people who did not have rooms on that deck would have a greater distance to go, so we had plenty of time to walk down to the farther boats while they didn’t.  Luckily I have never been on a cruise that needed to use the life boats for anything other than tenders for ports where they couldn’t dock.  It might be kind of fun to see one of those barrels pop up into a boat, but only for a test and not out of need.

I have no idea why they assigned us to the room we had.  The ship was not full, and the cabin boy said that he had to move all his spare sheets and towels, as he normally used that room for storage.  The room resembled a hallway with one single bed at either end, and a couple feet of floorspace between them.  The closets, drawers and mirror lined the one wall that did not have beds against it, with about a foot or so of space to walk on between them and the beds.  At one end was the door to the largest bathroom I have ever seen on a cruise ship.  It had what looked like a cement floor, a toilet, a sink, and a shower head on the wall with an old curtain that pulled around it.  Not very fancy, just big.  So when the ship’s comedian made jokes about the tiny bathrooms, I guess he had not seen our room.  Peeking into other people’s rooms as we walked past when they had open doors, I saw that the layout there was much like that of any other cruise ship, and nothing like our room at all.  (Does everyone peek when doors are open, or am I just weird or snoopy?  I’m always curious to see what the other rooms are like.)  The ceiling vent spewed a constant stream of cold air.  Unable to find any controls, we asked the very nice cabin boy how to shut it off.  He said it didn’t, but he did tape cardboard over it to reduce the air flow and gave us extra blankets.  Other passengers said that their (more normal) rooms had controls for the air flow and temperature.  Hmm. One room is not as good as another.  Next time look for those free upgrades.  Live and learn.

Once the boat got underway, the casino opened.  My daughter’s first time in a casino.  We found a couple nickel slot machines side by side and each set to work on one.  After putting a few nickels in, she was quite dismayed that no money came out.  I managed to keep a straight face amongst my internal laughter while I explained that Las Vegas was not built on slot machines spewing out money like ATM’s.  That pretty well dampened her interest in the casino.

The people at our assigned table were quite friendly, and the food and service both good.  We decided to go to bed early that night, as we had an early shore excursion the next morning.  After going to bed we discovered from all the thumping and banging overhead that our room was directly under the stage.  Should have gone to the show.  We made sure to go the next night.  Might as well see it since we were going to hear it anyway.

From our windowless interior room, we could not see what went on outside.  Heading out to breakfast we saw that the boat was already pulling into Nassau, where it was dwarfed by the other cruise ships already there.  More picture taking as we left the ship.  My very photogenic daughter loved posing for all those pictures they take.  I just hope not to break the camera as I am about as photogenic as a rabid orangutan.  We did have fun looking for all our pictures.  Mostly she looked great and I looked horrible, but we did find a couple where the camera lens was still intact after contact with me.

We followed the rest of the people on the same excursion to the boat that took us out to a reef for some snorkeling.  We bought some little bags of fish food pellets so we could coax the fish up close.  I have not seen that done anywhere else I have ever been snorkeling.  In fact in some places they specifically ban feeding the fish.  I don’t know if it was the location or the fact that this was some years ago, but whatever the reason we set out with our little baggies and a cheesy underwater disposable camera in search of brightly colored fish.  We did not have to search far,  lots of fish everywhere.  The most abundant type of fish seemed to be the only ones interested in the fish food, so perhaps we’d have seen more of the others without it, but would not have had the fun of feeding the hungry ones.

When snorkel time ended, the boat dropped us off on a small island they called Blue Lagoon Island.  The movie, Blue Lagoon was filmed there, they said, as was Gilligan’s Island.  After I got home, I mentioned to my family that we had been to the island where Gilligan’s Island was filmed.  “When we went to Hawaii,” my parents said, “They told us it was filmed there.”  “I took a studio tour in California,” my sister said.  “They said most of the filming for Gilligan’s Island was done in the studio.”  So who is telling the truth?  Who is lying?  Or were bits and pieces of it filmed in various places?  Or maybe the show had some outdoor shots in one location and the movie made many years later in another?  Maybe I should have Googled that instead of wondering all these years.

The island did have a lovely shallow lagoon with white sand beaches and crystal clear blue water, which was great for swimming.  A good thing too since the exterior beaches were too rocky and had quite a heavy surf.  They served a nice barbecue lunch buffet under a shady roofed area.  Exploration of the island revealed a multitude of comfortable hammocks in various places,  some with excellent views of palm trees and bright blue seas.  After spending a pleasant afternoon there we caught a boat back to the dock.  Walking back to the ship, we passed an adorable little local boy who called himself “Cheap Charlie” and tried to sell us some wooden turtles with bobbley heads.  Also cute, but what would we do with them?

We went to our room to shower and dress up for the formal dinner, and found the room already occupied.  There, on one bed, sat a towel dog wearing a pair of sunglasses my daughter left in the room.  Not having been on a cruise before, this was our first introduction to towel animals.  At the time we thought we were quite special for the cabin boy to have made that for us.

More photos.  They set up a backdrop depicting the famous Titanic stairway for the formal photos.  I’m not sure if imitating the ill-fated Titanic on a moving boat is a good plan, but it did make for some nice photos.  At dinner there was a new person who had not been at our table before.  He said he lived in the Bahamas and went to school in Florida, but did not like to fly so he used that cruise for transportation.  “Just wait until desert,” he said.  “The crew will dance around with fire on their heads.”  And so they did.  All the lights went out and here came the conga line, the crew dancing with fire on their heads to serve baked Alaska.  I have not seen that on any other cruise!

“What language do they speak in the Bahamas when they aren’t talking to us,” I asked him.

“English,” he replied.

Oh.  Way to feel stupid.  Oh well, learn something new every day, so they say.

Pretty much about the time we finished breakfast the next morning, the ship had already reached Fort Lauderdale.  So it really didn’t need much in the way of pools and things as most of the time spent on board was eating or sleeping.  This was just enough of a cruise to whet my appetite for a longer one, one that did have some time spent at sea while awake.  Alas, it took several years and a poker cruise to convince my husband to actually take one, but once he did the cruise bug bit and now he can’t wait for the next one either.

My daughter and I spent the last bit of that vacation in Orlando.  We had to go to the presentation for the time share through whom the trip was purchased.  We declined to buy one and skipped off with our prize for attending.  We each got tickets to both Disney World and Medieval Times for less than it would have cost just to go to Disney World without having attended the time share presentation.  If you have a few hours to spare and the willpower to say no, you can get some pretty good things for listening to time share blurbs.  My husband and I have gotten tickets to Cirque de Solei in Vegas and a day’s guided fishing on a panga in Mexico.  Still don’t own a time share either.

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Hello world!

Posted on July 9, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Welcome to my cruise stories blog.  My goal is to write entertaining stories of the cruises I have taken that also provide helpful information to other cruisers (or people who want to know more about cruising,) whether for a specific cruise, ship, or port, or for cruises in general.

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