Wednesday/Thursday

I didn’t post last night because we were up so late, so I am taking care of that this morning. We are on our way to Sitka, VERY rough seas, much worse than yesterday. They say it will calm down when we get closer. We are 4 hours behind EDT. Breakfast has just arrived!

So much for Sitka – the Captain just came on and said we will not be able to anchor due to the rough seas and winds that are 40-50 knots. Guess it’s another fun day on board ship!

Wednesday - At Sea

We were awakened by the blowing of the fog horn on Wednesday. We opened our curtains only to find ourselves in very dense fog along a fairly narrow channel, however, we were soon in open waters. Our butler brought our breakfast about 9:30 – lots of smoke salmon, bagels, and cream cheese, after all, we are going to Alaska! After breakfast we noticed that the ship began to “roll” pretty significantly. Mom and I were staggering around while trying to unpack and get our suitcases put away. I will say it was very challenging. Thanks to the many grab bars in the bathroom, we were able to take our showers without incident. By about 11:30, the motion had gotten to both of us pretty badly. Dad was back taking his after breakfast nap and sleeping like a baby. Fortunately I had brought the motion sickness pills that I acquired on our trip last fall and Mom and I both took one. Those things do the trick, but make you quite drowsy. Dad and I went down to the pool and grill to get a light bite of lunch. They have great burgers and I had a Panini. We ended up sitting with the couple who is next door to us. He is from Sweden and she from Denmark but they have lived in BC for 45 years. They were wonderful to talk to and discuss travels. They have done a number of Uniworld river cruises such as the one we did in October. They recently returned from the Passau to Budapest route. After finishing our lunch, we brought a burger back to Mom in the room. It was then time for Mom’s hair appointment since it was the first formal night. I went up with here since she was pretty “wobbly” and stayed for her appointment. When we returned to the room it was just before time for tea. The 3 of us wandered down to the other end of the ship to enjoy tea time with a wonderful pianist. They had every type of little sandwich you could imagine and sweets galore. They do have scones, but they are different from what I’m accustomed to and their clotted cream is different. I have found a new tea that I love called “Paris”. It was getting close to 5 by the time we returned from the room. The motion sickness had subsided as had the seas, but we were still drowsy. All 3 of us took a nice nap, but had to wake up to get ready for dinner. Tonight we were dining with Staff Captain Fabrizio Rota from Italy. We were all dressed in our formal attire and make our way to the dining room. We were seated at the Captain’s table with 2 other couples, 1 from California and the other from Vancouver, but who were traveling together. The Captain joined us for a really wonderful dinner. We started with a scallop gratin of some sort, but it was delicious. We then had our caviar with buckwheat blinis, it was also served with a shot of vodka (wish I had known that since I had ordered champagne as my “go with”), but it was really wonderful. We had a soup course, then our sorbet and finally our entrée of filet mignon with fresh horseradish. Dessert was a cherry compote of sorts. The executive chef came over and introduced himself and we took a picture (yes, I am making a really weird face). The dinner and conversation was all so wonderful we were there until 10:15, and the evening show had already begun. We made our way to the Athenian Lounge where we caught the second half of the Broadway musical review. We met the cruise director, David Lawton, as we left the lounge and he ended up joining us in the Panorama Lounge (on our deck) for after dinner cocktails. We talked with him for hours and he even took me out on the dance floor a time or two. He is from Wales and has a thousand stories. We sat around talking until about 1 am, so it was time to return to our suite. We all had such a wonderful evening, but it was time to go to bed. We had to do a few things such as make our breakfast selections and get our laundry together (how great is complimentary laundry service!). We were too concerned about staying up late as we gain an hour tonight. We will be 4 hours behind EDT. Until tomorrow…