Who closes the indoor pool on a sea day? Apparently, Holland America. I know they also have the sea view pool and it is heated, but the cold air outside makes it less than pleasant. Not sure what happened to make them close the pool but they were scraping and sanding so people were discouraged from sunning themselves around it. I hope it was not routine maintenance as I would think that would be better served on a port day when the majority of guests are at shore.
Even though I didn’t set an alarm, I still woke up at 6:45. Made my way up to the coffee bar after 7:00 and the barista told me I was her first customer of the day. I guess everyone else slept in also.
We had breakfast in the dining room and sat with 2 couples from North Carolina. They were not traveling together but they found out they didn’t live that far from each other. Small world. After eating, the weather finally cooperated to let us finish a full mile around the ship. We still needed our hats and jackets but at least there was no rain or mist hitting us in the face.
Chuck spent the majority of the day in the casino. I sat out in the pool area for a while and then got ice cream for lunch (don’t judge – it was my first ice cream of the trip). Went to the presentation of the Future Cruise director and saw a 12-day Canada trip – Boston to Quebec – that looked interesting. I decided to stay for the tour director talk about the upcoming ports. I thought it would be a hard sell of Holland America tours but she only mentioned them among other information that she had. It was a good presentation.
It is another Gala Night so I came back to the room to get cleaned up and Chuck followed closely behind.
The view from the Ocean’s Bar was really spectacular – high jagged mountains covered with snow. The tour speaker said if the day is nice tomorrow, we may get to see Denali. Tomorrow night is the best chance to see the Northern Lights. The sky will have to be clear and I will have to be willing to be out on deck from 10:30 to 1:00. Both of those chances iffy.
We sat with a couple from Texas who have traveled extensively by both RV and cruising. They highly recommended going to see Mount Rushmore so maybe we can do that land tour in 2020. The Gala dinner was very good. I had the sole and Chuck had the steak. We wisely skipped dessert.
The stage show tonight was another performance by the Zaandam singers and dancers so we opted to skip it and call it an early night.
Tomorrow is Anchorage. Tonight’s towel animal is a bear.
Fondest Travel Memories 