June 2nd Hubbard Glacier

I am so happy when I can wake up when my body wakes up and today was just such a day.  Since we are at sea making our way down south to Yakutat Bay to see Hubbard Glacier I get to sleep in.  Everyone should be happy Vickie is rested.  I wake and get dressed and sneak out to get my latte and Bernie’s tea and we enjoy it in bed watching Brett and Andy on the morning show.  

I quickly shower as the International Dining room is serving breakfast only until 9:30 and we make it there by 9:15.  But my experience on this ship has been that seating in any of the dining rooms for every meal is really poorly done.  We often experience long waits to even see the hostess/head waiter or we are shuffled to a different dining venue.  At night we have been told to go to Vivaldi or Pacific Moon as they are less busy even though we can see that there are tables available.  At lunch in International we have been told “Horizon Court is also available” which is a bit put offing since we are obviously wanting sit down meal in a dining room as this is where we have gone and we are within the timeline.  Not sure why this happens here but I do feel like I am bothering them. 

Anyways we are sat at a lovely table (after about 10 minutes of waiting) with two other couples who just joined yesterday.  We love hearing about their experiences in Denali and Anchorage and we share what we have seen and done on the first leg. 

We want a relaxing morning and many of the activities are similar to what we had last voyage and similar to most cruises so we just grab our books and look for a quiet place.  Which ends up being a lot harder to do than we thought.

The Atrium is hosting the fruit/vegetable carving demo with Devon hosting – poor kid he is new and he is having a hard time, he just doesn’t seem to be in his element, not sure if assistant cruise staff is his thing. 

The Atrium on all levels is having sales from the boutiques.  The shopping show is about to start in the Princess theater.  Wheelhouse is hosting a lecture from the spa.   Explorer’s is doing an Art preview.  Sabatinis has arts and crafts.  Club Fusion has zumba then bingo.  I make my way up to Skywalkers and sit by the window and read but can’t help buy overhear conversations around me. 

There are a lot of first time cruisers on board and many are questioning things or saying things I know they don’t know the answer to or the wrong answer and I have to bite my tongue to not clarify the issue.  One couple was going on and on how they thought the Captain was Filipino – which he isn’t he is Italian.  Another was saying the ship was built in China – which it isn’t it was built in Italy.  Another was talking about having to back track towards Whittier heading north tomorrow to visit Glacier Bay – which is not true we head south towards Glacier Bay.  

Another couple questioned the loyalty program and how to move up and that it should happen at the beginning of the cruise – but they don’t know that you move up after you have completed your fifth cruise not at the beginning of your fifth cruise.  We have learned to just keep our mouth shut unless someone specifically asks us a question.  Trust me.

I head back to the cabin and we call room service to change out our mini bar.  We switch all the hard stuff for vodka and all the pop or soda as my American friends call it to Perrier.  And the answer is yes you can switch out your mini bar for a bottle of wine or two coffee cards by calling room service.

Tonight we have made reservations at the Sterling Steakhouse for 6 pm for us.  Should be lovely travelling along bay while having dinner. 

Oh we also found out that Peter John our Captain Circle friend who was suppose to be getting off in Juneau to head to the Dawn has had a change and is now staying on the Diamond as planned.  These things happen on board ships and he goes with the flow.