Chris and I had done 4 Alaska Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruises in previous years, so we were well versed in that particular itinerary.  So when I woke up on this our first full day aboard the Coral on this our first Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise, I was excited for the *new* itinerary.  Today would be a “Sea Day”, but, as you’ll see, we kept ourselves quite busy.  Of course we were up super early because we were still on East Coast time…and this is what greeted us to say good morning.  The sunrises and sunsets on the water, not to mention in Alaska, are amazing!

I was not going to be in a rush to do anything on this day, nor was I going to plan anything to do on this day.  It was nice to just putter through getting myself ready without having some place to be at a certain time…ahhhh, I was finally starting to relax! 🙂 This is the outfit I chose for this day:

After I was up and dressed, we decided to just trip on down to the IC (International Cafe) to get a quick breakfast–and another cup of tea.  Chris had already been out and around the ship and gotten his first cup of coffee and had brought me back a cup of hot water with a tea bag–something he did for me every single morning on these cruises:

Here is a picture of the coffee bar that is attached to the IC–OF course this is where Chris used his Coffee Card every day, and I would also go and get a specialty hot chocolate (YUM) that came “free” with my “Soda and More Package”:

We had some fog move in after sunrise that morning…it was quite eerie and we heard the ship’s horn blowing at regular intervals for quite a while. Chris also caught some really neat pictures.  Here is a picture of a cruise ship that we dubbed “The Ghost Ship” that was following us:

And then these beautiful creatures arrived…At this moment in time we didn’t know exactly what they were, but, later that day, I purchased the Alaska Cruise Companion book from one of the shops (I’ll show you a picture of that book in a bit), and in there local marine life is listed and we determined that these beauties were “White Sided Pacific Dolphins”.  Chris didn’t think that these pictures would turn but, they’ve become some of my very favorite ones that he captured on this trip.  They were having a blast and there were a tons of them—SO much fun to watch them frolic and play!

As the fog was lifting, a Pilot was brought on board — I’m not totally sure why on this day, but, usually they are brought on board to help the Captain navigate through waters in which the Pilot is extremely familiar.  Regardless, here is the Pilot boat approaching the Coral, this time it approached on the Starboard side of the ship:

I then sat down to go through the Princess Patter to see what was going on throughout the day:

And inside the Patter that day, there was a Shopping Spotlight flyer– I didn’t go to any of the jewelry events, but, I did hit up the Shops on board and the Holiday Store at Sea sale:

On my way to do a bit of browsing and shopping I ran into two folks that I knew out of our Alaska Cruises on Princess Facebook Group…I’ll tell ya, I was thrilled to meet Janet and Phil!!! SUCH sweet and lovely people!!!

I stood there and talked to them for quite a little while and then I tripped on over to the Atrium and to where the onboard shops and current sale was happening.  Here are some things that I purchased, first, I stopped into Calypso Cove…

And picked myself up one of those “Alaska Companion Books” that I spoke about above:

You’ll also find this map included inside this book.  It delineates the routes that Princess Alaska cruises take (the North and Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruises, the Seattle roundtrip cruises, & the San Francisco roundtrip cruises). It also includes Waypoints and shows you pictures of the wildlife one might see if they look outside at those particular times. I hung it up on our Staterooms walls and I cannot tell you how many times we referred to that map on our journey. 🙂

This is the page in the book where we looked up those Pacific White Sided Dolphins:

And then later that day we observed this Minke whale right off of our balcony. At first we thought that it was a Humpback whale, but we’ve seen many of those gorgeous HUGE creatures in the past and we knew it wasn’t big enough to be a Humpback, and our Alaska Cruise Companion book confirmed that we were right and clued us in to what it was:

Okay, back to my little shopping foray. 😉 As most of you know, one of our daughters Christin is a Kindergarten teacher, and I am always on the look-out for books to purchase for her class, books that might just get those sweet young minds geared up to go to Alaska one day.  Here is one of the books that I purchased that day, also in Calypso Cove:

I found a Coral Princess magnet, Christmas ornament, and shopping bag as well:

And then last but not least from Calypso Cove, I couldn’t resist “Stanley the Stowaway” bear, I grabbed up that cutie pie right away (Chris just rolled his eyes and grinned at me….lol).  Here he is:

Then I zipped on across the beautiful Atrium to “Essence” and I purchased my Clinique makeup.  I always wait until I am on board a Princess ship to purchase my moisturizing lotion, yes, it *is* cheaper on board. And I bought an eye shadow pallet this time as well.

The ship was a buzz of activity on this day, one time when I was walking through the Atrium, a couple of the onboard chefs were putting on a fruit carving event…I stopped and took a little video and watch them perform magic with all sorts of melons and fruits, talk about talented, I was blown away!! 🙂

 

 

 

 

Here are the finished carvings up close:

 

 

Chris and I decided to do a load of laundry on this day as well.  There are laundromats on most Passengers decks, on the Coral, they are located toward the aft.  I always take my own Tide pods and Downey dryer sheets, if you want to purchase detergent and dryer sheets on board, it will cost $1.50 in “tokens” that you purchase with your cruise card out of a vending machine that is located in the laundromat.  In addition, you will need to purchase tokens to run the washers and dryers, each load will cost you $6, $3 to wash and $3 to dry.  The use of the iron and ironing boards is free.  Here are some pictures for you:

I wanted to go and check out that Holiday at Sea sale, and can y’all believe it, I didn’t buy one thing?!! Go me! lol BUT, I did click off a few pictures of what they were offering for sale that day:

 

 

Here is a picture of the Coral Princess’ Atrium, she is such a beautiful ship that is in great shape!

I clicked off some more pictures as I made my way around the ship that day, here is just a hodgepodge of some of the shots I took:

That fog stayed with us a good part of the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to listen to these fellows one time as we were walking through the Atrium:

 

 

And then later in the day, we saw these little birdies scooting across the water…We spent a ton of time out on our balcony…So calm, so serene, and just lovely.

I know that we went to the Horizon Court for dinner that evening because again, we were pretty tuckered out from all of the traveling…and I didn’t click off one picture…go me! lol After we were finished eating, we came back to our Stateroom, watched a movie and crashed again…early. I have absolutely no complaints about our Sea Day. 🙂

Next up in Episode #5, I’ll tell you all about our first Port of call, Ketchikan, Alaska…a quirky, colorful, wonderful town! We’d be doing the Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s tour–again, this would be our 3rd time doing it. 🙂

And here is a link to Episode #5!

 

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139**

~Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤