Day Seven. At Sea. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

The big event of the day was I lost my phone, so there will be no pictures. (wound up using Christine’s camera)

Brent Nixon Bald Eagle show. Relaxed in the morning until 10: 15 and went to the  Brent Nixon Bald Eagle show at 9:15. These are always terrific. It’s always great to see an animated guy in his 60s giving presentations filled with info. 🙂

Mary Amanda Fairchild and the “Last Song Played on the Titanic.” Miss Amanda is a character. We found out her real name is Mary Amanda Fairchild and at 11:30 she did her presentation on the “Last Song Played on the Titanic.” This is her real love and area of expertise. She called herself a forensic musicologist. We also found she is a world renowned classical harpist and often plays with the Salt Lake City Orchestra.

We saw Orcas. We went up to have lunch on deck 14 and we were hoping to spot some Orcas, and we did. I think we actually saw 7 or 8. I had brought my binoculars to get a close look at them. I was carrying both my phone and the binoculars in the same pocket and somehow this was what caused the disaster that followed.

Lost iPhone. Some time at lunch I noticed that I didn’t have my iPhone, Apparently it fell out of my pocket somewhere between the theatre and lunch. I didn’t have service on the ship so I wasn’t checking it all the time. My best bet is that it fell out of my pocket at the theatre.

Hope. Chilled in the room all afternoon hoping the phone would be found but it never was. Gorgeous day. All the rain was left up north in Alaska.

50th Anniversary Martini. Our last chance to be served by Abibbi, the amazing bartender in the Martini Bar. We spoke to a couple who were on their 70th cruise.

Victoria. Went on our walking tour of Victoria. I think we were last here and in Canada in general with the family in the summer of 2000.

Fan Tan Alley. We’d heard about this narrow alley in Chinatown and decided to check it out.

Dinner at the Swan Pub and Brewery near Market Square. it’s amazing how big and Imperial pint is. had that burger Christine was craving.

Luggage out at 10 p.m. We had to have our luggage outside the room by 10 p.m. We had signed up for the valet service where they check you in to your flight, give your boarding passes, and then check your luggage all the way through to your final destination. Wondering if could possibily be that easy.

Day Eight. Leaving the Ship. Seattle. Sacramento

The clean up begins. The disembarking process was really pretty easy since our bags were gone last night. I had a small backpack that I put all our sleeping stuff in and we took it all up for the last breakfast. We are going to miss the custom omelets and eggs benedict every morning. This is our deck six hallway we probably walked 50 times on the trip.Back in Seattle again. The disembarking process was really pretty easy. Walked right off the ship, waiting in a line to go through customs. Just showed a guy our passport and he waved us right on through. We had to walk back to the place for app-based ride share that we were left off last Friday.  We could have book a dierct shuttle for $27 each, so a Lyft was a better solution. As often is the case everywhere now the app-based shuttle pick up area was a mad house, but we finally found our guy and off we went on a very smooth trip to the airport.

Yes. The luggages was there in Sacramento

What We Learned from Our First Cruise

Here are some of the insights we learned as first-time cruisers.

Overall. We’d give the experience a ten out of ten. Looking forward to figuring out where we want to go on the next one.

Pretty people. We were a little worried that we were going to be surrounded by hundreds of pretty people and feel like we didn’t fit in. What we found was a total cross section of society. We felt very normal.

Dress up nights. We are not big dress up people. What we brought and wore was just fine. This is nothing to stress over

Hidden charges. Our total for all the extra charges was $7.61. We bought a water in the mini bar that wasn’t covered. Our travel agent was great in helping us figure out what extras we wanted to pay for up front. We bought the Premium Drink Package and that turned out to be great. Otherwise we would have been counting pennies every day. The only excursion we purchased we purchased online and saved 30%. Also we paid all the tips up front. All that just made sense.

Nightly dinner. We had the 8:30 time slot which turned out to be fine. We sat at a table of eight, but two of the people never showed up. The six of us had a great time and I highly recommend sitting at a large table to meet people. WE looked forward to seeing our new friends every night at dinner.

Food. All the food was better than expected. Never did try a specialty restaurant, and from what we heard that was a great choice. Every night there were a lot of choices. You got an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. You could try all of them if you wanted to. The cafe where we ate most of our breakfasts and lunches had all the choices you could every want. The made-to-order stir fry was my choice at lunch

Room Service. Room service in the morning was free and we really enjoyed our tea and coffee early in the day. You could even have a full breakfast if you wanted to.

Lectures. We loved the 50-minute lectures by Brent Nixon on the nature we might see along the way. We learned about, humpback whales, bears, Alaska glaciers, and bald eagles. Mary Amanda Fairchild played the Miss Amanda character and told us the history of the town and what to do there. We missed the one on Ketchikan but saw the ones on Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria. Then her last lecture was on the last song played on the Titanic. She is also a forensic musicologist and helped solve this mystery.

Entertainment. We went to every one of the shows. They became a part of our nightly routine. Cocktails at 6. Show at 7. Dinner at 8:30.  Friday 24 – Comedian – Fred Klett; Saturday 25 – Amadeus show; Sunday 26 – Journey Tribute Band; Monday 27 – Singer – Mark Preston; Tuesday 28- Juneau late/no show ; Wednesday 29- Rock City – rock anthem show; Thursday 30 – afternoon comedian – Daran Howard.

Travel agent help. From all we gathered from talking to others and our own experience use a travel agent to book your cruise. They know all the ins and outs and can be very helping in helping you get the best deal. Highly recommend our Erin Larkin at Ships and Trips travel in Sacramento.

Most important advice. Be a person who is up for adventure and who goes with the flow and you will have a great experience wherever and whenever you travel.

Jordans and Alaska Cruise 2018…out.