Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Voyage of the Glaciers (2015)
Inside Passage to Alaska
I got up at 7am. While this seemed quite unnecessarily early, Bruce and I were both awake and knew that we simply weren't going to do any more sleeping. Breakfast was in the International Café and followed the well established format of granola and yoghurt, followed by an egg muffin and coffee. (We only paid for the coffee as almost all on-board food, as ever, was included in the cruise fare.) This was to be a full day at sea and our voyage was due to take us northwards up the coast of British Columbia, using the rather anatomical-sounding Inside Passage. This partially sheltered route involved navigating the lengthy strait between Vancouver Island and mainland BC, then crossing the open waters of Queen Charlotte Sound before partial shielding from the Pacific would again be provided, this time by the further flung mass of Graham Island.
I had actually sailed much of the Inside Passage on one previous occasion, when a memorable journey through Western Canada by road, rail and ferry had seen me taking my rental car on board a car ferry for a journey from Prince Rupert (not too far from the Alaskan border) southwards to Port Hardy (at the northern end of Vancouver Island). It was probably just as well that I had previously covered this section of the cruise, as today's weather was similarly dismal to the previous day's departure from Vancouver - so miserable, in fact, that I took no external photographs at all.
Our choice of the day's activities started at 0945 with a short film called Heart of Alaska, which was being shown in the Princess Theater. It was an in-house production, and commendably well done. We then decided to take part in a Trivia Quiz in the Vista Lounge, ordering a Bloody Mary each to assist with (or more likely, hinder!) the process of mental recall. Our joint score was 14/20, which didn't seem particularly good until the host revealed that the winning score was 16/20.
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| The Conservatory (photographed on a brighter day) |
We then spent some time relaxing in The Conservatory, a covered pool area with loungers that hadn't been present on Sun Princess for our Japan cruise in 2014.
We again turned to the International Café for lunch; at the very least, it more or less guaranteed that we would choose a lighter option. Buoyed by our respectable performance at the morning event, we decided that another attempt at a trivia quiz was in order. Unfortunately the early-afternoon version, with a different presenter, was deadly dull - as indeed was our performance! Next came the Maître D's wine-tasting event in the Botticelli dining room. While this suffered from presenters who simply talked too much, we did manage to identify a delightful white wine that would make an excellent choice to accompany dinner.
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| Nightclub venue One5 found an early-evening use as a premium passengers' lounge | |||
After all that, we relaxed in the room for a while, during which - so I was reliably told - I had a half-hour nap. As this was the first of two formal nights on board, we dressed smartly for the evening events. There was a new concept on this ship: an airline-style lounge provided for premium passengers, which gave an effective early-evening use for the nightclub space before it opened for its intended purpose. We had a couple of Rob Roy cocktails there and a few nibbles from the beautifully presented buffet.
Making our way to the Botticelli dining room at the appointed time of 1945, we were delighted to be allocated one of very few tables for two. Dinner began with a duck soup and terrine starter, followed by a second starter of Agnolotti stuffed with veal. This was followed in turn by a sorbet palate cleanser, and then a main course of turbot and mashed potato. Dessert came in the form of a poached pear and the whole meal was accompanied by a bottle of the white wine that we had remembered from the tasting event.
Lest it be thought that today was a continuous episode of laziness and over-indulgence, I should end by pointing out that during the course of the day, we completed three brisk circuits of the Promenade Deck, sometimes in the face of miserably adverse weather conditions. Furthermore, we hadn't set foot in a lift all day, all vertical movements having been accomplished the old-fashioned way, by using the stairs!