ALASKA ADVENTURE 2024: Setting Sail - June 29 & 30

What's the first thing you would do aboard a cruise ship? For us, after chilling at the mid-ship Piazza (see below) and getting our bearings, we headed to the buffet for lunch! "All-you-can-eat" has always been one of my worst temptations. (Even though it was free, I would end up paying for it later that night as I had terrible trouble sleeping on a full stomach with the motion of the ocean.)

After lunch, we were happy to find that our luggage made it to our room before we did. We stayed on the Dolphin Deck (Floor 9) in room 628. It took about a full week for me to figure out port from starboard and bow from aft. Our room was port and aft. It had a balcony and served us well for the week. Watching the safety video and going to our mustering station were essential activities before we officially set sail.

Like the weekly fixture on the old Love Boat show (which was also a Princess ship), Debbie wanted to go to the Sail Away Celebration at 4 p.m. up on the top decks.

I guess confetti is no longer an environmentally friendly option, because this celebration was more of a dance party. Of course, the way I dance is a lot like this poor unfortunate kid who took a tumble down the stairs:

I don't think she's walking 500 miles anytime soon! (The good news is she was okay and quickly back to running around.)

The rest of our first night was spent touring the ship and its amenities and getting some rest after our airport olympics of the previous 24 hours. (I hadn't slept since Friday morning.) We did enjoy a nice supper in the Concerto Dining Room where I had steak and Debbie had chicken parmigiana. Before long, however, we were ready for sleep.

Sunday was a day at sea, We went to the ship naturalist's program on humpback whales and ended up missing breakfast. It was back to the buffet for lunch and supper, so we didn't exactly starve. Debbie planned for our next day at Ketchikan while I took a nap. That evening, we enjoyed the ship's musical program called "Encore" and then went to the comedy show, but it was so packed we couldn't get a seat. The ship was pretty crowded with an amazing number of staff taking care of passengers. 

Tomorrow: Ketchikan!