TRIP HOME

     We were scheduled to depart the ship at 8am but was 10 minutes early.  Disembarkation process was very smooth.  No lines and made it to the Blacklane pick-up point by 8:05.  Luggage ready and basically not immigration.  Took 20 minutes for our driver to get down to where we were.  Headed to airport at 8:25 and arrived there at 9:05.

No line at AA check in but there was a 10 minute line at TSA pre-check.  No problem as had lots of time.  Long walk to our gate and arrived there by 9:30.

                                                                  Our Blacklane limo

                                         Our airplane pulling into the gate.  Airbus 321

                  Departed the gate on time at 11:45 and only a 15 minute taxi out for takeoff.

        Settled into our first class seats and was served hot nuts, drinks, and this lunch.  Chicken entree was pretty good.  Dessert was chocolate ice cream in a cup.  What happened to the chocolate sundaes??

        Landed on time but LONG taxi time and then LONGER wait for our checked luggage.  Mike was waiting for us and we were home by 7:10.  

Turned air conditioning down as had it set to 80 while we were away.  Got my carry on unpacked and threw a Banquet pot pie in the oven.  Boy did that suck!  Rebecca watching football and now 8:30 and I am heading to bed.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.  Our next cruise will be mid December.  Will be flying to Barcelona and boarding Regent's brand new ship, Prestige, on its inaugural cruise to Miami.  I'll send out that blog site a few days before we fly to Barcelona, Spain.

We are excited as Jeff will be coming here for Thanksgiving.

Until next time, stay safe.

DAY 14 (DAY 7 OF THIS SEGMENT)---SAILING INSIDE PASSAGE

 

        This was taken at 3pm showing us starting through the Inside Passage.  It is 61 degrees under cloudy skies.  Smooth sailing as always the past 14 days.

LAST EVENING

       I finished this bottle so lasted almost the 2 weeks.  Regent puts this on my cruises just for me.

Elvin, sommelier, had this zinfandel ready at the table as well as a Rombauer chardonnay for Rebecca,

                                                    The soft shell crabs I ordered special.

                                                           Shrimp cocktail for Rebecca

                                                                   Got a window table

                    The beef bourguignon we special ordered was ok but not great as usual.

     This is a banana-macadamia nut pudding with ice cream.  May not look good but certainly was.

                                    Surprisingly, Rebecca had dessert.  This is creme brulee.

         We finished our dinner early and was surprised to find the theater doors open at 8:45.  We got our usual front row seats for the brand new production show, "Wild Cards".  It was an action packed show with great dancing and really great singers.  Following are some photos I took during the show.

        The show was over around 10:15 so back to the suite and jumped into bed.  Our clocks were turned back an hour at 2am so as to be on Vancouver time.  We lost an hour sleep.  I was so tired I forgot to plug my phone in to charge.

TODAY

        Rebecca's alarm went off at 7:00 and when I opened the curtains the sun was just coming up.

            I had a couple eggs on toast in La Veranda while Rebecca had her usual room service.

        We normally have Jerson clean our suite while we are lunch but today I asked him to do it early so we could get our luggage ready to pack after lunch.  

        I could check in for our flight tomorrow at 11:45 so got that done.  I went down to the Communication Center and printed our boarding passes.        

        I had the special pasta of the day in La Veranda.  Rigatoni with chicken in a saffron cream and basil sauce.

        We started packing at 12:30 when we returned from lunch and was finished by 2:00.  We've done this a few times!!!

        At 2:40pm two inside passage pilots came out and boarded our ship.  There's two because we will be transiting the inside passage all night long.for our 6am docking time at the Canada Place Cruise Terminal by 6am tomorrow.  We will be watching out for whales in the inside passage waters this aftrnoon.

        All the luggage will have to be offloaded before any passengers are allowed to disembark the ship. We have to rely on the local union dock workers to get that done in a timely manner.

        I believe we are in one on the first groups that will be called to disembark at 8:00.  We have a Blacklane limo scheduled to pick us up at 8:30 for our ride to YVR (Vancouver Intl Airport).  I hope this driver can find our pickup point.

        Our flight back to DFW Airport is scheduled to depart at 11:45 with a scheduled landing time there of 5:57pm.  We are in first class again for the flight home.  Mike, our driver, will be picking us up at DFW and we should be back home before 7pm.  There will be one more blog post about our trip home but probably not until the following day.

        This is today's Compass Rose menu.  We call this the "Last Supper" on all our cruises.  Again we have ordered something special.  For our entrees we ordered panko coated fried shrimp and for our desserts, Key Lime pies.

        Of course we'll start with our cocktail time in the Meridian Lounge at 6pm.  There is not show tonight but a dance party in the atrium at 9:15.  We'll not be attending.  Will be saying goodbye to our crewmember friends this evening.  We'll be back on Explorer again beginning of September next year for another two week Alaska cruise.  Jeff will again be with us the first week of it.

   

DAY 13---(DAY 6 OF NEXT SEGMENT)---KETCHIKAN, ALASKA

 

       THIS IS OUR FIRST VISIT TO THIS PORT ON THESE TWO CRUISE SEGMENTS.

BACKGROUND INFO

KETCHIKAN

        Ketchikan is the southernmost city in Alaska, located on the southern part of its panhandle, and has a population of 8,000.  Oddly enough this makes it the 6^th largest city in Alaska.  When you include the borough, the population is 13,000.  The city is known as “the Salmon Capital of the World” and Ketchikan Creek flows right through downtown where you can see plenty of salmon swimming upstream. 

        Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island was established in 1885.  It is surrounded by the Tongrass National Forest, 700 miles north of Seattle and 235 miles south of Juneau.  Air service and ferries are the  only way to get here.  As you might suspect cruise ship passengers fill the small town during the summer months.  Ketchikan’s economy is based on government services, tourism, and commercial fishing.  Their lumber industry was basically shut down by the Clinton Administration in 1996.  Is that Federal government getting involved in a State’s rights??  Ok, off my soapbox.  More trivia for you:  Ketchikan has the world’s largest collection of standing totem poles.     

LAST EVENING

          Just after sailing there was another little stream running down the side of the mountain.

                                            Then we saw the "growler" (ice) in the bay.

                                                 Seven Seas Society cocktail party at 6pm.

                                                               Alex, the cruise director

                                                                  Captain Giuseppe

                                                                    She sang 3 songs

                               The miso glazed sea bass with sticky rice was VERY good.  

        We asked that our desserts be sent up to our suite as we did once before.  However they did not show up for over a half hour.  So I called room service to ask what happened.  Nothing happened so I called back and told them to forget it.  About same time the door bell rang.  I was already in bed when they brought it in.  Rebecca had bite and I took it back out in the hallway.  Called for them to come get it.  They rang our door bell but I did not answer it.  Not very happy.

TODAY

        When I opened the curtains at 6:45 bright sunshine blinded me.  Another great day as already 59 degrees.  

                                                  As you can see another beautuful day.

       Last time we were here, a few years ago now, our dock was right downtown.  We will be docking next to the ship that is already at the pier.  It is a shame we are not docking downtown as Ketchikan is a very interesting and photogenic place.

       It is a Royal Caribbean ship, Ovation.  With double occupancy she hold 4200 passenger.

                                                        We will be docking next to her.

      It is a walk to get off the pier.  If not on a tour there is a shuttle that will take you to downtown.

        Our gangway was set and clearance received to go ashore by 9:45 (early).  I did see another cruise ship following us in the distance.  Not sure where they will be docking.

                                                    View today from our balcony.  YUK!!

        Rebecca is not going to be happy when she returns from her treadmill time.  The monstrous ship is blocking our tv satellite. 

        At 11:30 I have a 90 minute cooking class in the culinary arts kitchen.  It will be followed by a chef-led tour to the Hump Island Oyster Farm.  This will involve a boat ride to the farm.  I will hear how oysters are grown in the cold waters of Southeast Alaska.

                                 This is my cooking station and what I will be needing today.

Chef Erin demonstrated making a cocktail to start with.  We did not have to make it.  They served it.

        I will be making cioppino, a seafood stew that originated in San Francisco.  I am sauting onions, garlic, and some spices to start with.

I added some fish broth and crushed tomatoes.  The seafood is on right:  cod, shrimp, clams, mussel, and scallop.  I added it to the liquid mixture.

                                Covered with parchment paper to let fish steam cook.

                                                   Removed paper and fish was cooked.

           Served with sour dough bread to soak up some of the nice liquids.  It was very good.

                                              I then made this parfait which was also good.

        We then had a half hour bathroom break before meeting back in the culinary kitchen to head our for the tour of the oyster farm.  We headed ashore at 1:15.

        The building you walk into after leaving the ship is a HUGE shopping mart with lots of shops.  It used to be a pulp mill building years ago but cruise dock was added.

                                          Our tour group met our driver and guide in it.

                                              Nice van for 20 minute ride to the boat dock.

                                          Where we boarded our boat for trip to oyster farm.

                                                                 Boarding the boat

                                            It was a smooth 15 minute ride out to the farm.

        I sat and talked to our boat Captain on the way out.  He live in Corpus Christi but works up here 6

 months of the year.

                                     This is the oyster farm.  It is off the shore in the water.

        Ok, the oyster eggs are imported by the millions from Hawaii.  Then they are placed in baskets like this and lowered into the water for a couple years.  They are then the size of a quarter and transferred into bigger crates like this and put back in the cold water for another 5 years,  Very time consuming process of growing the oysters.

                  These oysters are flat instead of the round shell types in Louisiana.    

        We then went into a bar and were served 3 raw oysters with multiple different kinds of sauces.  I told them I did not eat raw so they grilled 3 for me.  They still tasted raw so I only choked down two of them.  You could buy more along with chowder.  Some folks did.  Not me.

     After we got off the boat on way back to the van, we saw this bald eagle in top of a dead tree.

It was a 15 minute drive back to the dock area so I was back onboard by about 4:30.  It was certainly a beautiful day for this tour and I did enjoy it.  66 degrees at 4:30.  I started working on finishing up this post.

        Our plan for this evening is cocktail hour in Meridian Lounge as usual followed by dinner in Compass Rose.  We did not care for the above menu so I ordered fried soft shell crabs as a starter.  Rebecca will start with a shrimp cocktail.  We then both special ordered as our entrees beef bourguignon over noodles.  We have had it many times on other cruises and like it.

        We should finish dinner early so as to get front row seats in the theater when the doors open at 9pm.  The production company cast is premiering a new show, "Wild Cards".

        We are sailing about at 6:00 and will be sailing in the inside passage tomorrow.  Tomorrow is packing day.  I did not proof read this so forgive any errors.