Cruise Day 2

Today was a typically quiet day at sea.  We enjoyed made to order omelets for breakfast, I played bridge from 10am until 11:30, then after lunch we attended a port talk about Kodiak and Anchorage . We found out we do have to tender into Kodiak as well as Valdez, later in the cruise. 

We've been discussing our room size and layout, looking ahead to our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise next February.  The room on the Nieuw Amsterdam looks to be about the same as this one which is also nearly the same as we experienced last year on the Westerdam where we had no major complaints.  But this criuse, we find it a bit crowded, storage lacks convenient shelves, and desk offers much less storage space than we would like.  In the end we attributed it to downsizing from a Princess mini-suite ,and are sticking with the planned February cruise.  Holland, unlike Princess,  has only one basic size for their verandah (balcony) cabins. 

The seas were a bit rough this morning, but are very calm as of this evening.  Mary even took off her anti-nausea bracelets!

Our Have-It-All package included two premium dinners and the first one was tonight in the Pinnacle Grill,  We had an excellent meal with an appetizer, main course of filet mignon with mashed potatoes, and dessert.  Check out my Clothesline Candied Bacon appetizer!  YUM! 

Mary had a special Alaska dessert - Strawberries Romanoff. One thing HAL does very well is customize their menus for the region you are sailing in.  So on this cruise we have lots of special Alaska menu items.

Later this evening when we got back to our room, this little fella was waiting for us!  Very cute!

After dinner we went to the Captain's Welcome where he introduced himself and his senior officers. All of the senior officers are very experienced, having 20 -30 years experience with HAL. So we are in good hands. 

Another sea day tomorrow since we are scheduled to arrive in Kodiak at 11:00 am Wednesday.