Alaska Cruise – 5/16/2016

May 16, 2016 (Monday)

Excited. Today is the day we board the ship and are headed North to Alaska! We checked out of the Travelodge (we had made arrangements for the car to be parked there while we went on the cruise), had breakfast at The Pantry Restaurant on site (had the Monday special, which was 50% off).  We took the shuttle ($14.00 US per person) to the port. There were really long lines. The first wait was about ½ hour, where we had to show our passports and identification, then get our key cards. The second wait was with Customs, which went quickly.  Then it was on through security right before getting on the ship. Once on the ship we went to our room to drop off our carry-on bags and unpack a little. After that we went on to Guest Services and got a drink.

I forgot to mention that on the cruise we got a lot of perks – free drinks, free gratuities, and dinners at some specialty restaurants. These were all included in our great price for this Norwegian cruise.

We walked around a bit, did the “muster” and just explored. We went up to the pool area for the sail away but we weren’t sailing away because a cargo container ship was slowly coming into port and we had to wait. We went back to our room and dressed for dinner. We arrived early to “Le Bistro,” a French restaurant on level 12. Good and unusual food. Michael had scallops, four mushroom soup (where they put the mushrooms on the bottom and poured the soup onto the mushrooms right at the table), beef tenderloins with port mushrooms, and for dessert he had an apple tart. I had asparagus salad, lobster with artichoke hearts, and for dessert I chose a cream puff pastry with ice cream. Delicious!

After dinner we headed to the Stardust Lounge. It’s a smaller lounge and more intimate. They had a sample of the entertainment to come for the week which was called, “Welcome Aboard Show.” We were in bed by 8:30 PM. Long day and we’re old.

Mike here.  I have waited way too long to publish this trip and I have misplaced many photographs.  I know they are on my computer but I just cannot find them.  Managing the photos is huge now and I apologize for my laziness and incompetence.  We delight in telling the story in words and pictures.