I'm typing this on the second night of the cruise, on the aft (observation/Excursion center) of Deck 10, at 10:56PM PST, on 9/16/2019.
Deck basically means floor. Nadia and I are in room 4070, that is on the 4th level, while my parents in room 8022 and her family in room 8024.
We'll be adjusting the clock 1 hour back at 2am, for Alaskan time, as we head for Juneau.
I can feel some waves on the boat. There's no storm, just perhaps that time of the year, or this may be a normal thing, I have no frame of reference, this is my first cruise. We are currently around the North-West of Graham Island as I type this.
We may have missed our first night's open seating dinner. But no matter, at least we know how the Lido deck's (9th floor) dinner was like.
Now here's a brief, belated journal about our trip:
- 9/14 (Saturday), Nadia, Willy and their parents and I woke around 3-3:30 am, packed and drive to one of Nadia's co-worker's neighborhood in Queens, parked at no street cleaning lot after dropping off Willy and the parents at JFK. Nadia and I then took Lyft ($20 including tips), 10 min ride, to the airport.
With Alaskan Airline, we flew about 6 hours to SeaTec airport, where we met up with my parents. Walked from the airport for about 7 minutes to Sharps Roasthouse, at around $100+ for 7 people. Then we walked another 10 mins to our Hotel - Aloft, which was built last year. Great rooms, great free shuttle service to nearby restaurants and actually even the airport which we didn't know to use. Though we wouldn't have walked to the Roasthouse restaurant, an experience I prefer myself. Free coffee/tea and lemon/orange water.
Nadia tried to walk with me but after 7-11, she gave up. I walked around at Angle Lake while everyone was sleeping. Great lake view. We then ate dinner at the Silver Dollar Casino. Interesting place where on one side, there are people gambling in this smaller than the normal casino size restaurant, on the other side, there's this Mexican focused restaurant. I had asked for menu, but it was later when we were there that me and my dad realized there's also Chinese menu, seeing another table of Chinese eating their special "Hot Pots". We ordered two (seafood & beef/chicken) and it was delicious and very feeling. My dad loved it. We ate some mooncake before turning in for the night. We all slept from around 10:30PM to 6:30AM, a satisfying 7-8 hours sleep.
9/15 Sunday: We ate downstairs at ALoft. Regular American breakfast ($7 for egg, bacon, fries) Classic was what I ate. We played pool after that in the lobby. Then it was time to check out at 10:30AM. We were going to order 2x Uber/Lyft, due to the number of people and some sharp taxi driver tried to get our business, so for a fair price, we bargained down from $15/head to $70, which was around Uber's cost.
We arrived at our Oosterdam ship after passing and realizing how much bigger Norwegian Cruise where an European looking couple were dropped off from our van first. Piers 66. We are Piers 91.
The Cruise's check in process was rather fresh and grand to me. Instead of being treated like a criminal as if in the airport customs, the security for the Cruise was great, everyone, there was even one lady emphasized that "we are the customers they serve!" We tagged our luggage with the provided room numbered tags and have them scanned and delivered to our rooms as we continued through the check in process. The line was not but getting longer at around 11:40AM.
The process reminded me of a dream that I did not get a chance to enter into this journal. It was a dream perhaps a couple of weeks ago: Nadia and I were walking under the subway bridge and I saw very high Tsunami type waves heading our way from the other side of the overhead subway line. As we tried to escape, it was as if Solomon Page has prepared for all its employee a rather luxurious underground shelter. As we went through a secret passage through a rock seated in a park (I had to push and pull a disc-like latch in order to turn it to unlock and open a hatch) there underground shelter was just WOW, it was like an huge shopping mall made of glass walls everywhere. And as Nadia tried to show me our room, I woke up not finding our room. It's very likely the anticipation of the cruise caused me this dream. And the check in process environment was just about like my dream.
They took the parents' passports, which they promised to return before Victoria on Saturday. We ate lunch on the 9th floor (Lido) of the ship at around 1PM after checking into our rooms (4070-partial view for Nadia and I, 8020-balcony for Willy and his parents, 8022-balcony for my parents) where the luggage are still coming in. Great buffet. Ship started to depart around 4pm. It was a moment to remember as I see it from my parents' balcony from inside the room. Bought the $99, 300MB per day, 7 day wifi internet via the Holland America Navigator app, which has everything you need to know about the ship, including daily schedules.
I went to some Wild-Life talk in the evening with my dad as we came across it on deck 10. Dad and I walked around the top of the boat, discovering basket ball court on deck 11 or so as well as where to walk around the boat outside on the top floors.
Ate dinner still at the Lido, while we actually could have made reservation at the main dinning area on deck 2. The open seating that we had included in our fares.
I walked around the ship myself at night. Amazed from top to bottom. The Main Stage is a 3 floor (decks 1 - 3) opera style theater hall where they were playing Avengers Endgame at the time. I walked outside on Deck 3 as well as Deck 9's open Aft area. Great full moon casting amazing reflection on the waters.
9/16 - Monday: We woke up for dolphin watching and breakfast around 7AM. Saw the Sunrise while eating. Nadia's sea sickness returned since last night's dinner. Without Nadia and her parents, the rest of us went for the dolphin/whale watch at 8:30AM, first at the starboard, then at the captain's broadcast, we also saw some whales possibly breaching from afar off.
After that, dad, Willy and I went to book some excursion for next day. We wanted the Mendenhall Glacier. We booked a $99/person at first, which included salmon hatchery tour. That was because the lady at the desk told us that the rest were sold out. But when I asked another again later, the other lady told me that the other related excursion spots just got expanded and I immediately switched our 3 tickets to 7 $45/person Mendenhall Glacier Explorer package. This way we all get to enjoy the glacier together, after all, all these glacier hike/tour are very similar to each other.
Then it was lunch at Lido again. Then dad and I went to the Microsoft Studio workshop on OneNote at 3:30pm while mom passed up the Lincoln Center concert at 3pm for a sleep. Dad downloaded all 12-13 lessons from the lecturer via usb, as suggested.
Dad had some ulcer, gave him Watermelon powder. Ate great dinner at main dinning at 5:15pm reservation. Nadia couldn't finish her rissotoLost my keycard, had Guest Services at Deck 1 printed me one immediately, great service! Dad and mom enjoyed Lincoln Center concert at 8pm with good seating. Willy, his mom and I went for the 9pm magic show by Jessica Janes.
Now that I'm nearing finish and getting very sleepy. We made the second formal dinner reservation for Friday where we were told there will be lobsters. Our waiter host was Wishnu, an Indonesian who was overjoyed finding Indonesian comrades among us. He gave us some extra, such as the lamb racks. He did much to keep us entertained as well as well served. I shall stop here and return downstairs to sleep after hopefully doing some study about glaciers with my CUNY geology textbook.