It was a very surreal feeling waking up on the last morning of our cruise and coming to the realization that that morning would *not* be our last full day on board the beautiful Coral Princess, instead, while everyone else was packing up and readying themselves for their journeys home or to their next destination on the next day, Chris and I would be taking a trip right down the hallway to our new Stateroom where we’d reside for the Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise. I just shook my head and pinched myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming.  Speaking of dreaming, I’d dreamed for a decade of being able to do just what we were right in the middle of doing, back to back Alaska cruises. We spent most of this day tootling around the ship because we wouldn’t be to our “Scenic Cruising” destination until around 6pm that evening.  We had made reservations at the Bayou Cafe, one of the “Specialty Restaurants” on board, for 6pm too and we’d be doing some of the scenic cruising viewing right from there.  SIDE NOTE:  We’d be taking the 26 Glaciers Cruise out of Whittier, Alaska (where the Coral would be docked) the next day which would take us back into College Fjord only even closer to the glaciers than the cruise ship would be getting).  This was a very low key, relaxed day for us. Shoot, we didn’t even have to pack, well I take that back, we did have to pack the things that we had in the drawers, and I had to gather up all of my magnets and maps and such that I had sticking to the walls…more on how they transferred us in my next post.  For now, let me show you the Princess Patter for this day:

And here was my outfit for the day:

We decided to eat very lite that day because we knew that we’d be eating a pretty hefty meal at the Bayou Cafe later that evening. So we took our sweet time getting ready that morning and then we headed on up to the Horizon Court for a little bit of a late breakfast.  I must pause here and say that we enjoyed the Horizon’s buffet, whatever time of day we decided to pop in there on this cruise.  Everything was always hot, everything was always super clean and organized, the service crew members were jolly, and the food was excellent.  You will not hear one complaint from us about the Coral’s Buffet.  Here are some pictures that I clicked off on that morning:

When in the Horizon Court, crew members will come around and ask what you’d like to drink and refill your coffee/tea/whatever else for you. There is also an entire self-service drink station that is always open no matter the time you enter.  Here are a few pictures of what they offer:

The Amuleto Italian Cafe is also part of the Horizon Court and this is where you can get your choice of sweet treats from cookies, to bread puddings, to cakes, pies, and much, much more. My personal favorite was a warm vanilla cream that they had out almost every day…I would have put that stuff over a steak if I didn’t think I’d be looked at strangely. 😉 lol Of course I’m kidding, w-e-l-l, maybe I’m not. 😉  

After we were finished with our breakfast, we headed to the “Onboard Outlet Sale” that was being held down on Deck 6 mid-ship in the Provence Dining Room:

I controlled my urge to pick some things up just because they were a great price and instead picked up these 4 spiffy magnets.  One for myself and one for each of my girlfriends and their hubbies who we’ll be cruising with to the Caribbean in the coming months. 🙂

After we finished, well I should say, after I finished at the sale (because Chris was waiting out in the Atrium for me…haha), we decided to take a little walk around the ship and click off a few pictures of a few venues. 🙂

This is the Chapel:

The Wheelhouse Bar:

We clicked off a couple of shots of the Atrium…Such a pretty area!

And Crooners:

Also Meridian Bay:

I’ll tell you this table of Brighton jewelry called to me for the entire two weeks we were on board because I really love Brighton, but, I abstained and can you believe it, I made it through without purchasing one of these pretties. 🙂 

Here is the Casino:

And I thought these were super pretty, these were part of the Fine Arts display that they set up and down throughout the week–I believe the final art auction was on this day–don’t quote me though on that one…haha…I don’t have one lick of wall space available for Art so if I’m totally honest, we didn’t pay too much attention (*although* I would love a Robert Kincaid one of these days…<sigh>…more dreams). 🙂

We then headed back to our Stateroom and hung out in there and leisurely packed up what we needed to pack readying us for our transition to our next room the next morning.  Before we knew it it was time for us to head on down to the Bayou Cafe. I chose to change my outfit for this little outing:

And here is a picture of the two of us…Chris hadn’t changed yet, he actually wore a dress shirt and slacks (he didn’t want to wear jeans into a Specialty dining venue—I think you could but, he wouldn’t–his preference of which I’m fine and dandy).

And here is the menu:

Dinner was delicious…absolutely wonderful!! And this is what we had for dessert the “Buttermilk Bread Pudding with the Pistachio Caramel Sauce” <~~~ HELLO…SO good!!

As we were sitting and enjoying our dinner, College Fjord was very quietly gliding by as we sat and gazed at its magnificent  glory out of our window seat.  Here are some shots we took while at dinner:

And then we headed back to our Stateroom and Chris caught a couple more shots. Here was a pretty impressive glacier—BTW, all of the glaciers in College Fjord are named after US Ivy League Colleges. 🙂 Some of the names include: Amherst, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Harvard, Smith, Vassar, and Yale. This is Harvard Glacier:

And here it is cropped down a bit–it was a pretty hazy evening and we were I believe the Captain said 13 miles away.

As you can kind of see by this picture, we were starting to lose the light so Chris and I spent the rest of the evening hanging out on our balcony and watching tv…we are a couple of old curmudgeons sometimes huh?! 😉 We laid our heads down on this our last night on our Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise.  One of which, as all of the other Alaska cruises have done in the past, left an indelible imprint in our minds and hearts, filling our very souls with memories that we will hold tight to for the rest of our lives. The next morning, we’d awaken in Whittier, Alaska and we’d be ready and very able to start on a new adventure, our Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise.  As I sit here and write this, I am again brought back to that sweet, contented feeling that I had as I shut my eyes knowing that we had a whole week left in which to drink in even more sights and sound of this my “Happy Place”!

Here is a sneak peek at the next day’s 26 Glaciers Cruise, I canNOT wait to share that awesome day with you (and wait until you get a look at our next week’s Stateroom)…;).

***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

And here is a link to Episode #10!