After our late start on day one, we knew that we would not get to Sitka. Sitka had been our planned first port, and a lot of people were disappointed. I was glad that it wasn’t Icy Straight that was cancelled because we have a whale watching excursion scheduled for that port.

Day 3 at sea

The seas had been rough all night and I woke up a bit dizzy. I don’t normally get seasick, but a Bonine and a Sudafed to clear my head helped a lot. When I went out to breakfast I noticed that the water in the pools was sloshing around like crazy. It was pretty cool outside, and there were kids in the crazy pool having a ball. It was definitely a wave pool. You can see below just how much rocking and rolling there was on the ship. This is definitely not typical of a cruise. I didn’t feel unsafe though, just a bit queazy.

British Pub Lunch

We didn’t do a lot on day three. We did go to the British Pub Lunch in the Bottacelli Dining Room. The line went from the door, up the stairs, and quite a ways down the hall. It’s definitely a popular meal. I had Bangers and Mash, He had Fish and chips, and it was all delicious. After sailing Carnival so many times with their lackluster food, I’m really enjoying the good food on Princess. Get there early, or, according to our ship’s naturalist, Susan Hazlett, get there half an hour before the end of lunchtime, to get a seat. I believe the time was noon until 1:30 pm.

Princess is a really good cruise line, but I do miss the room stewards on Carnival. I always got to know them a bit, and we always got the towel animals in our room every night. No towel animals on Princess, and I really don’t see my room steward a lot. He does a great job though.

I took the afternoon to work on my blog in Skywalkers Lounge. It’s got great views of the ocean and it’s quiet. Good place to work.

Evening dinner and show

We went again to our main dining room (MDR), Michaelangelos, and sat at our new regular table, number 207. I love going t o the same table every night, so I was glad that we got a regular table seating with the same waiters each night, Lorenzo and Awmi. I love getting to know them a bit. I also enjoy getting to know some of my fellow cruisers a bit. Princess does a great job of seating us with people that we have things in common with.

After dinner we went to the production show. This one was a ventriloquist named Michael Minor. Let me tell you, he is hilarious, and he sings too. The young man on the right is our Cruise Director, Nick. He definitely has energy. I believe that this is only his third day on this ship.

And that’s the end of day three.

Onto Day Four

Day four was our day to go to the Hubbard Glacier. You don’t get off the ship there, the ship takes you to the glacier through Yakutat Bay. This is one of the biggest glaciers known. It’s really beautiful, surrounded by snow capped mountains.

We ate breakfast, and then went back to the room to dress warmly, and I’m glad we did. We then staked out a place in the front of the ship on the Promenade deck, deck 7. We didn’t have to get there very early, there were plenty of places to watch the scenery. You could see the beautiful mountains and even a bit of the glacier from miles away.

Let me tell you, it was very cold in the front of the ship. I live in the southern United States and I haven’t been that cold in a very long time. I suggest that you dress very warmly in layers. I had on a pullover shirt, a sweatshirt, a puffy vest, and a light winter coat, plus a hat and gloves, and I was still cold while the ship was moving.

Hubbard Glacier

We spent hours watching the glacier approach, it took quite a while for the ship to get to it. After we got there, the Captain turned the ship in a circle at least two full times. That way everyone could see the glacier, even if they were on their cabin balconies. It was beautiful! And then the calving started. This is when chunks of the glacier fall off and into the water. This makes a very loud thunderous noise that you don’t expect to hear. We saw seals on an iceberg too! Definitely amazing. Our ship’s naturalist, Susan Hazlett, kept us informed over the PA system on what we were seeing.

This glacier is definitely larger than it looks on a picture. It’s 300 feet high and 7 miles wide. And over 60 miles long. I’m glad we got to see it. I kept moving from one side of the ship as it turned to the other side on deck 16 to see more of the glacier. And I found that when I stayed in the sun, I was much warmer. This glacier is a must see! The ship left the glacier at 3 pm, and then it was time to go in, warm up, and get ready for dinner.

The rest of the day

After that we didn’t do much except go to dinner and some shows. Dinner was good, as usual. The dessert wasn’t as good as the rest, but it wasn’t horrible. Then it was off to two shows. The production show was a Disco show, which was enjoyable, and then we went back to see another show by Michael Minor, the ventriloquist. He’s that funny! It was a good day. Can’t wait for tomorrow and our stop in Juneau. Finally we get to step foot in Alaska!