Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers – Episode #10 – Turn-Around Day: Whittier, AK; the 26 Glaciers Cruise, Tour of the Seychelles Suite D701

On October 22, 2017January 5, 2022 By ArlynnIn VacationsLeave a comment

Our Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise had officially come to an end and normally, I would have been crying big elephant tears because I would have been walking off of the ship and making my way home. BUT, for the first time ever, all I had to do was to literally walk down the hallway from our mini suite D407 (mid-ship) to the Seychelles Suite D701 (aft) and begin our next adventure, the Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise. Before we left our mini suite to make the transition to our next stateroom, we received this “Log of the Cruise” for the Northbound leg of our cruise in our ‘mailbox’:

Yes, yes, I did say that we’d be moving to a suite for this part of our journey…let me tell y’all, I literally got lucky and found that suite on Princess.com for not too, too much more money than what we would have had to pay for the mini suite, so we jumped at the chance to experience the suite life in that sweet suite! There were many perks that came with staying in a suite, one of which was that we got double the “Captain Circle” points to go toward our ‘loyalty level’. Truly, if I’m honest, and I am never not honest, I can NOT stand to hear folks lamenting about how wonderful they are because they are Platinum or Elite members of the Captain’s Circle (Princess’ Loyalty Level Program)–All it really means is that they’ve spent a copious amount of money with Princess cruises in the past and “expect” perks for doing so–blah, I’m just happy to be able to cruise thank-you-very-much! We are Platinum and still have like 6 or 7 more cruises to go until we hit Elite. I hope upon hope that I remain humble and grateful for each upcoming cruise that we are blessed enough to take and never, ever worry about what level I have attained in the Captain’s Circle. 🙂

ANYway, let me tell you about the “Turn-Around Day” process so that those of you who might take a back to back (b2b) cruise moving forward will know what to expect. The evening before the last day we received a packet from Princess that included this letter and instructions:

As you saw in the information above, we didn’t have to pack up completely, instead, I had used my packing cubes and garment folder and Chris had done the same, and we packed up all of the items that we had in our drawers and out on shelves into our suitcases. We left all clothing that was hung up on the hangers alone and before we knew it, our room Steward Kurt knocked on our door and told us that our next accommodations were ready for us to move in to. We were blown away, we fully expected that we’d need to wait until after we were back from our planned excursion (the 26 Glaciers Cruise) before we’d be able to unpack and such. Instead, here came Kurt with a helper who had a cart in tow. They started to fill up that cart with our suitcases and hangers and whoosh, we were heading toward the aft and to our next room the Seychelles Suite D701. There was such a flurry of activity that I neglected to take one picture of that process…go me right?! Gracious! We arrived at our stateroom to more of a flurry of activity and Kurt introduced us to our next room Steward, Jimmy. Kurt had told us that he had already told Jimmy all about us, that we were very kind, down to earth folks. Jimmy was so kind right from the very start, so much so that I told him to calm down, that we would not expect to be treated in any special way…hard to explain really. Bottom line, we are just regular folks who don’t need special treatment.

Here is a Facebook Live video that I took shortly after we got unpacked in our new digs for the week:

And here is a link to a much slower paced and detailed tour of the Seychelles Suite that I created for my YouTube “Arlynn’s Travels” Channel:

Here are some still shots of The Seychelles Suite:

We’d be leaving soon with our “Passenger in Transit” cards and our new cruise cards to go to meet our guide in the cruise terminal for the 26 Glaciers Cruise, but, as we waited, we got to see the flurry of activity that occurs before one ever steps on the ship on turn-around day. First, there were some officers in the Seychelles Suite as we were arriving there and they were inspecting everything–as I mentioned in my live video above, there are a team of 5 of them that inspect every single stateroom on the ship before boarding begins. In addition, the things that we had ordered via our Cruise Personalizer before the cruise started to arrive such as, my spiffy cup that went along with my “Soda & More” package & our water package (BTW—PLEASE be aware that if you would like a water package for your cruise that you *must* order it via your Cruise Personalizer *before* your cruise. A water package is not available once aboard):

Here are some pictures of the beautiful town of Whittier…Well, pictures that Chris took in the wee hours of the morning and then a few that we took while waiting to depart for our excursion:

Here is the outfit that I chose for this day:

We were ready to go!

Here is the Princess Patter for that day and some of the other paperwork that the Princess folks dropped in our mailbox that morning:

A couple of Suite perks that we weren’t prepared for were these two lovelies…The plate of tasty treats was just a one time deal, but, the fruit bowl was refilled each day (and we could choose the kind of fruit we preferred):

Okie dokie, it was finally time for us to disembark and head to our mode of transportation for the 26-Glacier cruise, the Klondike Express:

Our first stop was the cruise terminal where we met our guide who gave us our table assignment card and our lunch tickets and led us to a line where we waited to board–BTW, we’d chosen what we wanted to eat earlier in our Northbound cruise. You can see our tickets from Princess in the envelope below the lunch and table assignment cards, I had arranged for this tour through Princess via my Cruise Personalizer months and months ago:

And onto the Klondike Express we stepped, here is a little brochure that was sitting atop our assigned table when we got there–btw, we shared a table with a lovely couple from California…shout out to Erin and David!

And after a little safety talk from the Captain, we started on our journey…It was a magical day filled with sights that were just astounding, amazing, phenomenal, and very, very memorable. I took a bit of video on this day and I will post it below, but, first, here are some of the pictures that we caught on this very special excursion. If you ever get the chance, I highly, *highly* recommend that you take this awesome tour!! I am so sorry that I do not remember the names of the glaciers, there were SO many!! lol. All right, get ready for your eyes to have a party now…3-2-1…GO:

And that my friends was that, I do not even remember where Chris and I ate dinner that evening, I do believe it was at the Horizon Court though. Another Suite amenity is that you get a complementary meal in Sabatini’s (one of the Specialty restaurants) on embarkation day, but, we were bushed when we got back and we called the dine line and were able to reschedule for a day later in the cruise. Truthfully, we crashed and watched tv for the rest of the evening. I will say though, that nothing could compete with what we’d already laid our eyes on earlier that day. We had a wonderful time…Alaska just continued to give and give and give to us.

Next up, the magnificent Hubbard Glacier…Here is a sneak peek:

***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 #11!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers – Episode #9 – NB – College Fjord, Bayou Cafe, & Ship Venue Pics

On October 20, 2017March 30, 2018 By ArlynnIn Vacations3 Comments

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!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises: Episode #8 – NB – Glacier Bay National Park

On October 14, 2017March 30, 2018 By ArlynnIn Vacations8 Comments

It’s Glacier Bay day you say? Ohhhhhh ***h-e-l-l-o*** to my very favorite “Scenic Cruising” day! The feeling that I’d always gotten after visiting Glacier Bay National Park on each of the 4 previous times we’d been lucky enough to visit was one of complete and total satisfaction. The words that I have used to describe how this place made me feel are numerous and may sound a little gushy, but, pristine, gorgeous, breathtaking, soulful, perfect, and sweet describe just how I had felt when we had been there in the past. I could sit here all day and tell you how I’ve felt about this place in the past, but, now, in this post, I will be showing you more than telling you about our day. Here was the sunrise that morning:

Here is a video that Chris took as we were getting ready to sail into Glacier Bay:

Here is the Princess Patter for that day:

I was up way early and dressed in anticipation of the day we were going to be having, this is the outfit that I started out the day in…

See that cape? I love that cape, but, that cape drove me crazy! It was pretty windy as we were sailing into Glacier Bay, and I had a camera in my hands pretty much constantly, and well, let’s just say that I was doing more pulling down and yanking around of that cape while cruising along. It quickly found a spot on a hanger in the closet and I donned one of my new “Alaska” jackets, the purple one reversed to the navy blue side, here I am much more ready to have my hands at the ready and on my camera instead of wrestling with that lovely cape:

And here was Chris, standing pretty much where he stood for the entire journey:

We had a lovely surprise that morning. A great friend of ours had given us a gift of a “Balcony Breakfast” and we’d chosen to indulge on this morning.

We had some good eats that morning, a Princess crew member came into our room and set the breakfast up inside of our room because it was a bit damp out on the balcony (AND just to say, it would have been damp if we’d had a covering over the balcony, the rain was coming in side-ways for a time not just dropping from above). ANYhoot, here is what our breakfast looked like that morning–We asked if we could switch out the Champagne for something else because we were not going to drink it–Unfortunately, according to that Princess crew member, that wasn’t an option. Oh well…we also had hot tea, coffee, and juice to drink.

YUM!! That was delicious!!!

Here came the Park Rangers, because Glacier Bay is a National Park, Rangers are brought on board so that they can commentate on and educate us about Glacier Bay (you can hear their commentary on the outer decks, in the Horizon Court, and through the stateroom tvs on channel 41). They also hold a Junior Ranger program for the kids on board. They give “Ranger Talks” in the Theatre, anyway, you can take a peek at the Patter above to see what all they do while with us. Here are a few pictures of some of the information that they bring on board with them…you can purchase items as well.

I walked around by myself for a little bit of time and saw that they set up their table of information on the upper deck of the inside pool area.

And while I was out and about being nosy, Chris was catching some gorgeous pictures as we were sailing into Glacier Bay…Like I said, I’m going to be showing you more than I tell you in this post. 🙂 Get ready for some gorgeous shots moving forward from here:

We were starting to come up onto Lamplugh Glacier, first I’ll show you some pictures of this beautiful glacier and then I’ll put in a little video that I created while cruising up to it and while sailing passed it.

And here is my video:

We saw some hanging glaciers as we cruised as well:

I will admit that this day was not the sunniest day that we’d ever seen in Glacier Bay and it did drizzle on us pretty much the entire time we were in the Bay…But, y’all know what? It didn’t bother us one iota, trust me, *nothing* can ruin Glacier Bay Day…If someone did complain about the weather, and I over-heard them…well, if they looked my way, they’d see the disdain all over my face…get over it people! You are in Alaska, and you are in a place that not everyone gets the privilege to experience…so what, you’re a little wet…dry off and look past yourself and enjoy where you are and what you are seeing!

Anyway, I digress, we were now ever so quietly cruising up to the main attractions of the day. The Grand Pacific Glacier and Margerie Glacier. The Grand Pacific is nick-named the “dirty” glacier for obvious reasons (wait till you see the pictures that I will share with you from our Southbound voyage when I get to that Glacier Bay day, the Grand Pacific will look totally different):

Margerie Glacier sits to the left of the Grand Pacific, and the Captain will sit and allow one side of the ship to view it for 30 minutes and they he will pivot the ship and allow the other side to view it for the exact same amount of time, we were on the Starboard side of the ship, so we were 2nd in the queue to view. When it was our turn…my oh my, it took my breath away just like it had done every time I’d seen it. I will hush now and just add some pictures of the magnificent Margerie Glacier—Watch for the calving pictures, she really performed for us that day. And then I have a video of me commentating that will morf into that gorgeous ice flow’s calving events that it was kind enough to share with us that day. Here goes:

And here is my video of me commentating and giving some “Fun Facts” about these two amazing glaciers–And watch for the calving events at the end!

Wow, well now, that was something huh?! Here is a picture that I caught as we were ever so slowing pulling away from the beautiful Margerie Glacier–As I mentioned in the video, I wasn’t too, too sad this time as I knew that we’d be back again the very next week…how lucky were we?!!

Chris and I were pretty hungry by this point, so we skipped on off to the Horizon Court for a late lunch:

We walked around the ship for a little while, here is what the outdoor pool looked like on that day:

We headed back to our stateroom just in time to see the boat coming back to pick up the Park Rangers, they disembarked when we got back out of Glacier Bay…bye bye girls, see y’all in a week!

Right after we exited Glacier Bay the Naturalist started commentating from the Bridge, as with the Park Rangers, her voice could be heard on the outer decks, in the Horizon Court, and via the stateroom tv, channel 41.

We chose to stand on our balcony for this wildlife spotting event. Here is what we saw floating on by our ship…I was thrilled!!!

Let’s try to zoom in on one of these little dudes:

Would you look at that?! It was Sea Otters!! They were SO cute, they floated by on their backs like they didn’t have a care in the world…and they looked at us like as if to say, “Are y’all crazy?”. “*This* right here, where we are, is the LIFE!!” 😉 Of course, our bodies might not be quite as adept at handling the water temperatures as these little (that aren’t so little…they are about 5′ long!) tykes are! 🙂

And then as Gloeta was just finishing up with her commentary, we spotted a humpback blow and three little seals as well. I took this picture below…I was completely lucky to catch that whale blow…haha…and you can see the three seal heads bobbing in the background.

I remember that evening, the rain had finally moved out and we were enjoying standing out on our balcony and drinking in the sights…Honestly, we had no desire to go to one of the shows, we’d much rather watch the show that was going on right outside. 🙂

As our light started to fade, we caught one more glimpse of one more humpback whale that evening…

And our day was done, again, this day in Glacier Bay did not disappoint. I was again amazing, humbled, and blown away by the beauty and grandeur of that place. I was extremely happy that we’d be back once more before we returned home. I remember saying a prayer of thanks for that fact. Again, when my head hit the pillow that night, I was just about as content as a girl could be.

The next day, we’d be cruising in College Fjord, here is a sneak peek:

***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 #9!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises – Episode #7 – Skagway-Chilkoot Charters Yukon Rail & Bus Tour

On October 10, 2017March 11, 2019 By ArlynnIn Vacations10 Comments

Northward we travel on our adventure! On this morning, we arrived in Skagway, Alaska our third and last port of call on this Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers trip–We’d be doing 2 “Scenic Cruising” days after Skagway. On this morning, it looked like our good weather luck had run out. 😉 There were low lying clouds and mist at the dock.

As I always like to say though, “Please do *not* book your cruise to Alaska based on the weather!”. The weather is ever changing and can go from sunny and warm to rainy and chilly in the course of just a few hours. So we were not upset about this change in weather at all. I did do a quick morning video, but it was not a Facebook Live video because the cell service was pretty awful there and I could not get a strong enough connection to maintain a Facebook Live video. Here is what I did make though:

(OH btw, did you see that landslide in the video? We’ll revisited that once we start on our Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise).

As you heard me say in the video, we’d be taking an Excursion with Chilkoot Charters and Tours and we’d be doing the Yukon Rail & Bus Tour. Our tour started pretty early that morning so I went ahead and got myself showered and put together for the day pretty early. Chris had retrieved our regular coffee and tea from the International Cafe–We did not want to eat a heavy breakfast that morning as we knew we’d be on the go all day long…Sometimes my stomach rebels if I eat too heavy…so I abstained from doing so most mornings that we had an excursion planned.

ANYhoot, here is my outfit for the day, I took a rain jacket with me on this day too…so glad I did, I needed it later:

Here is the Princess Patter for the day:

Chris and I were off of the ship by around 8:10am and after a very short walk (like to the end of the ship) we arrived at our meeting place; we were scheduled to meet our Chilkoot Driver by 8:30. We clicked off some pictures of the beautiful Coral Princess while we waited.

This is always my favorite port in which to dock. Because of the clouds on this day, you can’t see the mountains that literally soar up behind the ship, but trust me, they are a sight to behold…just stunning!

It wasn’t long before our driver “Jenny” showed up in her Chilkoot Charters van, I will say, it was so much more pleasant spending the day climbing in and out of this van than it would have been climbing in and out of a motor coach. Old “bad knees Arlynn” appreciated this van *so* much!

First let me say that Jenny was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of her, but, she was a cutie pie with pretty red hair. When she told her stories as we climbed the mountains in route to the Yukon, she’d finish each story with “And that happened on a “Friday” or “Saturday” or on another day of the week…I thought that was cute…she had a great sense of humor, I really enjoyed listening to her. I wish upon everything that I could remember ALL that she said…I don’t know how she keeps all of the information that she imparted to us straight…she was a gem!

All right, let me show you some of the sights we’d be seeing on our way up to Canada…I’m just going to show you a couple of screenshots from Chilkoot’s blurb from their website so that y’all can get a sense of this amazing company–they are very organized and your day is mapped out beautifully!! (Chris and I did the Bus up and Train back down):

So we drove through the thriving metropolis (of course said in jest) of Skagway first before we headed up the Klondike Highway to the Yukon, Here are some of the sights we viewed on our way:

This is a snow blower…a very l-a-r-g-e snow blower!!!

As we traversed up that mountain, we saw SO much that I don’t quite know what was what to be truthful. BUT, I have a ton of pictures to share and I will label the ones that I’m positive of what they are…

Here was my view btw…our van was only about half full, so I planted myself right in the center of the back seat…I had a great view out of both sides of the van:

We had traveled past a few “Points of Interest” already and Jenny regaled us with her stories as we drove…I was quite enjoying myself already! We’d passed “The White Pass Trail of Ninety-Eight”, “Brackett Wagon Road”, and “Pitchfork Falls” and one of our first stops was at “Bridal Falls” and while we were stopped and out of the van taking pictures, Jenny took her water bottle over to the falls and filled it right on up with that wonderfully fresh water:

SIDE NOTE: My gracious, I look like a big MELON in that jacket…haha…I purchased that one before I left and ordered it up a size…I’m a big girl, but, I didn’t need that jacket to be *quite* that large…lol. OH well, I am who I am huh? 😉

We hopped back in the van and traveled on up the mountain and around a few turns and then Jenny said that we had a cool photo op coming up. Bridal Falls from a distance right when the White Pass train was passing over the bridge that spanned the distance over the falls…Here are those shots…pretty cool (and it was pretty cool outside too…the temp was dropping the further North we traveled).

After taking a look at the “William Moore Bridge”, we stopped at the “Welcome to Alaska” sign for a photo op, Jenny took this picture of us with our own camera. 🙂 I’ve been wanting this picture for YEARS, so I was just tickled to finally be getting it. 🙂

So Northward we traveled, y’all can take a look at the list of “Points of Interest” above, but, now, I’m just going to show you some pictures of the beauty and grandeur that appeared in front of us…the skies started to clear a bit (for a time) and we really caught some gorgeous shots.

The Fall colors were out in places too…so, so pretty!

As we were traveling we passed through Fraiser, British Columbia its claim to fame is that it is a Port of Entry into Canada; we needed to show our Passports to a Border Control fella. We were not allowed to take photos there.

Jenny decided to zip on past the “Welcome to the Yukon” sign because there were a couple of motor coaches sitting there and all were waiting to get their picture taken with the sign (we stopped later on our way back down to Fraser and the train depot where we’d catch the White Pass Train)…

We rode by “The World’s Smallest Desert”:

And our next stop was “Emerald Lake”…My gracious, it was breathtakingly gorgeous. I took a little video of our time there, here it is (please excuse the wind, it was quite breezy that day):

And here are some pictures that we caught while stopped at Emerald Lake:

Emerald Lake was as far North as we traveled on this trip, so after viewing that beauty, we climbed back in the van and started to head back down the mountain, we’d make a couple more stops along the way, first up was to Caribou Crossing, a quirky little place that the locals have made into quite a nice little stop for tourists. You can find more information by clicking on Caribou Crossing Trading Post.

It was a fun little place to visit, you could do a sled dog ride if you wanted to do so, or you could go and look and HOLD the PUPPIES which of course I made a bee-line to do!!

They also had a petting zoo there…OMGosh y’all, I was in Heaven!! I purchased a little bag of grain and I took turns feeding “Thelma & Louise” the two beautiful Alpacas and I had enough left over to feed a couple of sweet little goats too. 🙂 I was a happy girl!

Fun times for me right there!!! ^^^

Next up was lunch…They make the same lunch each day right there on the premises at Caribou Crossing and you just walk in and they hand you a tray with your barbecue chicken and fixin’, and then you are pointed in the direction of a nice eating area. There was complimentary water and coffee available (I think coffee, I don’t drink it and Chris didn’t have any so I might be wrong on the coffee front…haha). (I have no idea what the cost of the meal would bed for someone who was just stopping in for a meal; our meal cost was covered by Chilkoot). And there was a bar in there where folks could get a beer, mixed drink, or soda…I opted for a Diet Coke…we paid a pretty little penny for that too. Regardless, there were donuts for dessert..YUM!

We had a lovely time at Caribou Crossing and when our time was finished there, we climbed back aboard our van and Jenny transported us to town of Carcross. It was a lovely little place with the train tracks running straight through the middle. The town was obviously erected around the tracks and the ‘business’ that they’d bring to help the town survive. 🙂 There were a plethora of shops in which peruse, many of them, well mostly all of them that I saw contained merchandise that was locally made by Alaskans. I didn’t see anything that met my fancy, but we did get an ice cream cone which was delicious and we strolled around the town until it was time to head to the van and eventually to the White Pass train that would take us on our ride down the White Pass Trail. Here are a few pictures of Carcross:

Whoops, I forgot about our little stop at the Yukon sign…Here are a couple of pictures that we caught there:

While we were on our way to Fraser to catch our train, Jenny told us of, and passed around pictures depicting the story of the just how hard it was for gold seekers to traverse the Chilkoot Trail and cross over into Canada (there were actually two mountain passes that led folks to the gold they were seeking, the other one was the White Pass Trail–of course, where they eventually built the railway). ANYway, the Canadian Mounties could see that many of the folks who were trying to make the trip were arriving with way too little goods that would not sustain them through a winter. So a new law was put into place which required all prospectors to bring 1 ton of goods to the border before they’d be allowed to cross over into Canada! It was estimated that it took each prospector 27 trips to achieve that requirement…OMGosh, can you imagine. It is a very interesting story and I encourage you to go ahead and read up on it here.

Here is a picture of a card that Jenny showed us listing the required 1 ton of goods:

And here is a picture of said 1 ton of good that we took while walking through a little museum at Caribou Crossing:

Well, right about the time that Jenny was finishing her story, it started to rain…which was okay with us, but, we did put our cameras away for a while. We transported from the van to the train seamlessly.

Unfortunately, it was so cloudy, rainy, and foggy, we were not able to get pictures of that White Pass…I do know it is absolutely gorgeous though as we’ve done just the train excursion before. I will show you some pictures of the inside of the train car and a few pictures that I took out the window of the train as we slowly made our way back down that mountain pass to Skagway. It was a very relaxing and lovely ride, we chatted with other folks in our train car and just relaxed.

There was a stove in each car, and trust me, we needed it that day, it was quite chilly. Also, there was complimentary bottled water in each train car.

I guess it took us an hour or so to get back down into Skagway. A Border Control fella came on board to check our Passports once again as of course we had entered the United States on our journey. By the time we were ready to get off of the train it was practically pouring rain. Jenny had told us when she dropped us off at the train in Fraser that she wasn’t sure it would be her who picked us up when we disembarked the train (it would be *someone* from Chilkoot), but, there she was waiting for us. She drove us right on back to where she had picked us up about 8 and a half hours earlier. We generously tipped Jenny as she had been an amazing little guide, and I might have even given her a hug on my off of that van. We’d had a lovely, lovely day!! I have not one more picture of that day though…I was completely exhausted, truly. Chris and I hurried back to the ship with our hoods on our heads and umbrellas open. I have no memory of what we did for dinner that night…lol…I’ve been sitting here wracking my brain, <shaking head>. I’m pretty sure it was the Buffet, either that or Pizza again. BTW folks, the Horizon Buffet was amazing on the Coral, honestly. The food was always hot and fresh and the desserts were fantastic. I’ll be showing and telling you more about that in a future blog post.

All right, I’ll close this one out as our day in Skagway was coming to a close. I didn’t do a lick of shopping that day, OH except for a baseball cap that I purchased while on the train, but, who needs to shop when there is so much beauty to behold and stories of the gold rush up the White Pass and Chilkoot trails to hear. I was a very tired lady but a very satisfied lady when my head hit that pillow and when I felt the ship’s oh so subtle movement. I slept like a baby that night. 🙂

Next up, my very favorite day, a “Scenic Cruising” day in Glacier Bay National Park. Here is a Sneak Peek:

***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 #8!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises – Episode #6 – Juneau (Harv & Marv’s, Tracy’s Crab Shack, & More)

On October 6, 2017March 30, 2018 By ArlynnIn Vacations5 Comments

I’m telling y’all, there were times on this cruise that I felt like I’d never been on an Alaskan cruise 4 other times in the past. I don’t know why that is, but, this time, I seemed to pause many more times to take in the gorgeousness that surrounded us at just about every turn. Such was the case on the morning that we cruised oh so quietly into Juneau Harbor. There was a mist that was just dwelling in the crooks and crannies of the mountains and hovering over the city of Juneau…it looked almost mesmerizing. I had never seen it look the way it did that morning and in addition, I did not remember the Harbor being so pretty. Here are a couple of pictures that we captured that morning:

The Norwegian Jewel beat us into port…Here she is sitting prettily in the mist:

I stepped out on our balcony and did a Facebook Live video that morning…I’ll post that here for y’all to take a peek and listen at:

Once that mist lifted, the blue skies appeared and it looked as if we were going to have a lovely day in Juneau….Here are some pictures of Juneau Harbor as you look across that bridge to Douglas Island and beyond. Chris caught these while I was getting ready for the day:

Here is the Princess Patter for that day:

And here was my choice of outfit for the day…I added a jacket to this choice because I knew that it would be quite cool on the water when we went whale watching (and it was):

We lounged around in our Stateroom until it was almost time for our excursion with Harv and Marv’s Outback Alaska – Whale Watching.

We were so looking forward to this adventure! In the past, we had always taken the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Quest excursion through Princess (4 times), and those trips were absolutely amazing, but, this time with Harv and Marv’s, we’d be on a much smaller boat (pros and cons…I’ll lament upon that further in a bit). We had made arrangements for this excursion online before we came, so we knew just what to look for once we disembarked and were on the dock…a Harv and Marv’s employee in a bright orange jacket holding a sign…we found that fellow pretty easily, I have not one picture of him though because I was busily chatting along with him and the others who’d be on the excursion with us that day. Anyway, he led us to a van where we climbed aboard and were transported over to Auke Bay and to where our smaller boat and her Captain were waiting to take us out on the water to find some humpback whales and as you’ll see, a few other creatures as well. 🙂 I neglected to take a picture (slacker that I am…lol) of that van, but, here is a picture of one just like we rode in that I pulled off of their website:

The driver gave great commentary as she drove us through Juneau on our way to Auke Bay, and we chatted with the folks from other cruise lines who she had picked up on her way to us. It was quite an enjoyable little trip. It took us every bit of 1/2 hour to get to our destination. When we arrived, all we could see was that mist that we had seen while coming into Juneau Harbor. It was ALL over the place. Come to find out, a family that was in the van with us had been scheduled for their whale watching trip that morning, but their boat Captain cancelled that trip because of the mist and thankfully there was room on our boat for them. The mist was *starting* to lift, but, it was an eerie little trip at first…haha…not.even.kidding. Here is one of Harv and Marv’s boats, and we rode in one very similar to this one:

I believe ours was called “The Alaskan”, here is a picture that I took of the inside:

It was quite a nice little boat, very clean, and the employees that we’d come in contact with including the Naturalist on board and the Captain were so very nice and welcoming!! This is a GREAT company and they bend over backwards to make sure your trip is awesome!!

Now, some thoughts about going on the smaller boat.

~Cons: It is a rockier ride…*much* rockier than on one of the bigger catamarans that we’ve always been on before, so if you are at all prone to sea-sickness (we are not), this probably isn’t the excursion for you. And it was a bit more difficult to steady ourselves to take our pictures. In all honesty as well, Chris missed having an upper deck which always provided him a higher vantage point for taking pictures.

~Pros: The personal touch is something that I enjoyed greatly, the Naturalist took time out to answer all of my geeky questions. He was a wealth of information that I just drank in. I told him about the bubble net feeding that we’d witnessed in Snow Passage and we figured out together that we had seen one of the whales in the books they carry with them of the whales that are regularly seen in Alaskan waters. Here are the pages we were scouring trying to find that whale tail from just the evening before:

(And just a reminder picture, here is the whale tail that we saw from the Coral in Snow Passage, a match to #1758 in his book):

To say that I was excited about that was an understatement. 🙂 So yes, a big PRO for me…Also, the smaller group of people was very nice, I believe we only had 16 people aboard. We all got to know one another pretty well and it was a nice atmosphere. Our Captain Gabe was *excellent*! He was determined to give us the experience of a lifetime, so we headed straight through that mist that was hanging over the water (no pictures…ugh to me) and was very successful at finding us some whales to view which of course was the biggest PRO of all. The first Humpback that we came upon was sleeping…haha…and was not awakened by our presence. It just rolled around and took breaths and obviously did not have a care in the world:

We moved on from this sleeping giant and were almost out to the Lynn Canal which apparently has a pretty intense current running through it which gathers up tons of good eats for the whales…and that is where we hit the jackpot. Here are some of the whale shots we caught on this very special day:

Here is one little video that I caught:

Well, it was just about time to return to shore, but, before we did, Captain Gabe took us over to this Coast Guard buoy on which Stellar Sea Lions *always* are vying for position to lay upon. 🙂 Here are some pictures and then I’ll add a little video that I took of these funny, loud, and pretty lazy creatures. I LOVED seeing them “chat” (honk and holler) at one another:

OMGosh, did they put on a show or what?!! I guess that’s what they do all day, every day, in-between meals. 🙂

As we were heading back in, the Captain pointed out Mendenhall Glacier to us…WOW, was it ever gorgeous to gaze upon from the water!! I was blown away…This is the first time that I’d ever seen it from that vantage point. Here is a picture that Chris captured:

Oh what a wonderful time we had had on Auke Bay with the folks at Harv and Marv’s. Here is a little souvenir that they gave to us as we were disembarking. BTW, we do give tips to our excursion hosts, so we slipped Captain Gabe a $10 bill as we were disembarking.

We climbed aboard a motor coach for the trip back to the cruise dock, the driver stopped so that we could get out and take a few more shots of Mendenhall Glacier:

And on we traveled back to the cruise ship dock:

Then the driver dropped us off at the end of the cruise dock–Traffic was awful on this day and he had offered to take us right back to our ship, but, we ended up telling him not to worry about and we walked on down the dock. Our next stop on our way back to the ship was going to be an amazing place to eat right there on the dock on our way to the ship and that was Tracy’s King Crab Shack, Here are some of the sights we saw while walking to Tracy’s.

And there is Tracy’s to the left:

Here is the menu, we both chose the “Crab Shack Combo” and Chris got an extra king crab leg:

To say that we had an awesome meal is a huge understatement! It was delicious!! As you can see, we ate outside in the sunlight…it was lovely. 🙂

It was time for us to head back “home” to the Coral Princess now; for the first time I wasn’t too sad to do so because I knew that we’d be right back here the next week. 🙂 I doubted if we’d eat at Tracy’s again though (it was pretty pricey…haha), so we caught these pictures as we were fixin’ to walk back to the ship:

There is Mount Robert’s Tramway:

And look who we saw gazing down at us from the trees. 🙂

Do y’all know what? I was pooped! But, we’d had a wonderful day in Juneau. I got to see the tops of the mountains for the first time ever (on this our 5th visit to the city), I went on a new whale watching adventure on a small boat with awesome people, I got to eat king crab legs outside on a beautiful sunny day with the love of my life. What more could a girl ask?! Not much I’d say, not much. 🙂 If memory serves, we gathered ourselves up some pizza later on that evening (Princess has the BEST pizza btw), settled in and just relaxed on our balcony for the rest of the evening. Again, I felt so blessed and thankful that we were able to be in that spot at that moment in time and I drank in every single second, holding on to those memories, tucking them deep inside my mind and heart. I know that sounds so sappy, but that is truly how I felt on that day.

Okie dokie, our next stop was Skagway! Wait till y’all see what I have to share with you from our adventures on that special day! Sneak peek:

***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 #7!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises – Episode #5, Ketchikan & The Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s Tour

On October 3, 2017March 30, 2018 By ArlynnIn Vacations11 Comments

Chris, as always was up super early on this the morning that we were oh so quietly sailing into Ketchikan; a quirky, colorful, little town that holds many sweet memories for me. Here is a video that Chris caught right before sunrise:

I was still snoozing away as Chris was walking around the ship taking pictures and gathering up his first cup of coffee from the International Cafe.

My gracious it looked like it was going to be a gorgeous day in Ketchikan! We were surprised and felt extremely lucky that this was the case as it is usually raining and cloudy in Ketchikan. I was actually able to take a bit of a live video for the Facebook “Alaska Cruises on Princess” Group (I’m one of the Admins in that group)—Feel free to go to that link and join if you’d like to do so). 🙂 Here is a portion of that live video:

And then as promised in that video, I come back for a 2nd Facebook live video…In this one I start in our Stateroom D407 and give a very quick room tour:

ANYway, I finally pulled myself away from talking to the folks (who I adore) in that Group and I got myself showered and dressed for the day. Here is the outfit that I chose:

Here is the Princess Patter for the day:

Okie dokie, it was now time for us to head on out and walk over to the Aleutian Ballad for our day’s excursion. As you heard me mention in the video, we would not be in Ketchikan for all that long on this day, so when making arrangements for an excursion, it was an easy choice. We love this “The Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s Tour”. The crew never ceases to entertain us with their harrowing stories of their time on the Bering Sea when they were Crab Fishing–not to mention the fact that I’m a huge fan of The Deadliest Catch tv show, so I’m a bit star-struck every time we take this tour. 🙂

I took a little video while we were walking over to the Aleutian Ballad:

And here are some pictures that we clicked off while on our way:

When we climbed aboard the Aleutian Ballad, it was like I was home again..haha…We decided to climb on up to the upper deck and enjoy the views from a different vantage point than we ever had done in the past. And to my surprise, I was actually able to take a bit of live video as we were sailing away out of the harbor. Here is a snippet of that video:

And here are some pictures of our time on this wonderful excursion.

The Captain slowed the boat down as we passed “Annette Island” an island that is home to the only remaining Indian Reservation in Alaska. Bald Eagles also nest right there on that Island and the indigenous folks encourage and appreciate the Ballad coming by and providing a snack to the Eagles…Now, on this day, we only saw a couple of Eagles because one of the crew told me that they consider the “snacks” that they provide as pretty insignificant. Most of the Eagles had traveled to where the bounty of food was located…there was a Salmon run happening when we were there and trust me, the little snacks that the crew threw out did not in any way deter the Eagles from heading over for a more tasty and much larger meal in the Salmon. 🙂 Chris did manage to get a few amazing pictures of those couple of Eagles, here they are:

And here is one of their massive nests!! Did you know that Eagles take a mate and remain with that mate for their entire life? Yes, indeed they do. Also, did you know that the Bald Eagle doesn’t get that beautiful white head until they are 5 years old? Yes, indeed that is true…I’m just full of fun facts huh? 😉 ANYway, here is that nest.

As we cruised through these beautiful calm waters of the Inside Passage, I had to stop and just take it all in. I again found myself tearing up at the beauty and grandeur that *is* Alaska. I again pinched myself to make sure that I wasn’t well ensconced in a very sweet dream. And I once again drank in every sight and sound and said a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to the Lord for allowing us to be right there in that place once again. Chris happened to catch a picture of me was I was lamenting upon our blessings…here is that shot:

Our time on the Aleutian Ballad was coming to an end and I was quite humbled once again after I heard the crew’s amazing stories of their time doing the deadliest job on the planet…crab fishing. Here is our picture with 2 of the crew on the Aleutian Ballad and some more pictures of the sights we saw as we were cruising back into Ketchikan.

We did do a little bit of shopping on our way back to the Coral Princess, but, we were moving so fast that I didn’t take one picture. I did get a jacket though…it has “Alaska” embroidered on it, it is purple and reverses to navy blue; here I am wearing it in the navy blue.

We climbed back on board our big, beautiful cruise ship and headed out onto our balcony and watched as the crew prepared for our sail away…I was a bit sad to be leaving, but, this time, that sadness was quelled by the thought that we’d be right back here in a week on the Southbound cruise. And then this little bit of excitement interrupted my thoughts…As y’all know, if you are not on board at the time of sail away the ship ***will*** leave you behind…so everyone is always super careful and makes arrangements with that “All-Aboard” time well plastered in their minds. It is obvious that these 2 people thought that doing a bit of shopping *almost* caused them to be left behind. Yikes!!

And here are some of the sights we saw as we sailed away…

Later that day, we were heading through a place called Snow Passage. We’d seen on our Princess Patter that our Naturalist would be doing some commentary from the Bridge. (Btw…all Princess ships have a Naturalist that is on board for their Alaska cruises…we had one on our Hawaii cruise as well):

So we had eaten at the Buffet when we got back on board from our excursion and had gathered a cup of hot chocolate for me and a cup of coffee for Chris and we were out on our balcony with cameras at the ready so that we’d be well prepared to catch any marine life that might want to show themselves to us and we cruised through Snow Passage…AND boy oh boy did we ever get a treat!!! Here are some of the pictures that we captured of the majestic Humpback whale…and yes, these were taken from our balcony on the Coral–that said, I did crop them down quite a bit (Chris has an amazing zoom lens). 🙂

This is a special whale tail to me…I’m going to jump ahead in my time line for just a second here. The day after we caught these pictures, we went on a whale watching excursion out of Juneau and I had a chat with the Naturalist on board our whale watching boat and he showed me this book which contains all of the whale tails that they regularly see in Alaska and have categorized. I came back and compared a picture that I captured out of that book and low and behold this is one of the whales that they have pictured and categorized…Check out number #1758 in that Naturalist’s book of whale tails that are Seasonally seen in Alaska!! I was blown away that I had actually SEEN one and was able to tell him where so that he could add it to that whale’s information!

All righty, we’d had a very full, very special day in Alaska…My head did not hit the pillow before I was asleep and dreaming of what our next adventure might entail. This lady was again in awe of the magnificent place in which we were traveling. Life was good!

Next time, I’ll share with you our day in Juneau and our adventure on that whale watching boat in Auk Bay. 🙂 Here is a sneak peek at some of the sights we were able to put our eyes on that day:

***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 #6!

Alaska Voyage of the Glaciers Back to Back Cruises Series: Episode #4 – Sea Day & More!

On September 30, 2017October 3, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations6 Comments

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 ❤

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glacier Cruises, Episode #3: Embarkation, Stateroom Tour, Princess Patter, & More

On September 25, 2017October 3, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations2 Comments

Okay, where did I leave off, ahhhhh, yes, it was finally time for Embarkation! Trust me y’all, I had been planning, waiting, planning, dreaming, planning, planning, and planning some more for this trip for over a year. One of Chris’ nicknames for me is “The Planner”, Not.Even.Kidding…he chuckles at me all of the time for my planning ways. 😉 So as we traveled via motor coach from the airport to Canada Place I was getting more and more excited as each second passed, and when I laid eyes on that beautiful Coral Princess, I just about hopped out of my seat with excitement…like I mentioned before, I felt like a little child on Christmas Eve…a-n-t-i-c-i-p-a-t-i-o-n of the memories that I knew were getting ready to be made.

So our bus barreled down underneath of Canada Place and pulled into a parking space, we sat there for a second and then a Princess Representative came onto the bus and gave us instructions as to what would be happening next. He told us that we were to head on into the cruise terminal and straight on over to check-in–there were plenty of Princess/Canada Place employees directing our route.

First, as you read that sign, Chris and I didn’t have to worry about our baggage because if y’all remember, we had dropped our luggage off with the Princess Rep at the airport and it was most likely transported separately and already on board or in a holding area waiting at the ship. Now, moving on along, because Chris and I are at the “Platinum” level in the Captain’s Circle program (which just means that we’ve spent a copious amount of money with Princess and have cruised a lot) we were sent directly to a Princess “Preferred” Check-In representative. Normally, we would have been directed to a “Priority Boarding” waiting room, but, because they had started the Embarkation process, we were whisked straight over to the check-in. Before I go further, here is an explanation of what one receives when they reach the Platinum level in the Captain’s Circle:

“Complimentary Cruise Atlas^{^}
Every year you will automatically receive a copy of our Princess Cruise Atlas. It includes details on all itineraries and sailings for that year, making it easy for you to plan ahead.

Preferred Check-In
When you arrive at the port, don’t wait in line. You, along with your family or guests that are traveling with you in the same stateroom will be invited to use the Preferred Check-In desk to help expedite your embarkation.

Platinum Disembarkation Lounge
In recognition of your loyalty, and to make your last morning with us more enjoyable, we invite Platinum Members to use the Platinum Disembarkation Lounge, offering light refreshments and peace while you await disembarkation.

Complimentary Internet Credit
Each Platinum Princess Cruises Captain’s Circle member will receive a complimentary Internet credit to be used either on the computers in our Internet Cafés or wireless Internet on the passenger’s personal wireless device. The amount of complimentary Internet is determined by the length of the sailing.

Voyages 7 days or less, 150 minutes
Voyages 8-20 days, 250 minutes
Voyages 21+ days, 500 minutes

As a Platinum Captain’s Circle Member you will be recognized as such when you initially log on to the Internet onboard. Upon the initial log on you will see a screen which shows you how many complimentary minutes you are eligible to receive. In addition, you will have the opportunity to select more minutes at the available rates. This offer is only available at the time of the initial log on.

Only usage exceeding the allotted amounts will be charged to your onboard folio. The Internet activation fee of $3.95 is waived for Platinum and Elite Princess Captain’s Circle Members.

^*Members are eligible for a higher tier on the next cruise following completion of necessary cruises and/or cruise days. Land portion of cruisetour does not apply.
^{^}For UK and AU/NZ Members, your Cruise Atlas is mailed out upon request. UK Members please call 0845 355 0065, AU Members please call 13 24 88, NZ Members please call 0800 780 717. #Subject to availability. Not combinable with any other Internet offer.”

And here is what our cruise card looks like…These cards are going to go away (I’m betting) pretty soon as Princess is rolling out the Ocean Medallion across the fleet in the coming months. If you’d like to read about the Ocean Medallion, here is a little LINK for you.

Anyway, here is what my card looked like:

The sticker that you see on the card is one that shows the waiters/waitresses/bar folks that I got the “Soda & More” Package. Here is a blurb about what I was able to get because I had the “Unlimited Soda & More Package”:

“Indulge yourself with this premium Unlimited Soda & More Package, entitling you to unlimited fountain soft drinks, plus mocktails, juices, and complimentary hot chocolate throughout your cruise. Price includes service charge. Package must be purchased for full length of voyage, cannot be shared, is non-transferable, and is non-refundable within 3 days of sailing.”

ANYhoot…We also filled out our health questionnaire as well…we were moving so fast through this process that I did not have one second to click off a picture of that… <sigh>. It in effect asks you whether or not you’ve been sick in the last so many days and such.

We were also given a little map of the Coral Princess that was folded up to be the same size as our cruise card…Here is what it looked like:

Okie dokie, next stop was U.S. Customs…We literally just walked to where they collected this green card that the check-in person had given to us, a U.S. Customs employee collected our green card and we were then free to board the ship. It was NO big deal…Not sure how it is for others who aren’t Americans…truly, I do not know. I was not allowed to take pictures in this area, so therefore this is the only picture that I have of that time.

Next stop was Security where we had to take out our laptops and put everything through scanners (like you do at the airport…didn’t have to take off our shoes though). And after we cleared that, we were walking up the gangway and boarding the Coral Princess:

Right after we stepped on board our pictures were taken so that they’d have a picture that would go hand in hand with our cruise cards. To clarify, cards are scanned every time you disembark and when you reembark they compare your card with *that* picture. 🙂 Then we stepped over to have our Embarkation picture taken—Y’all won’t get to see that picture because Chris and I looked awful…yes, just awful in that pic…haha. We had been told that our Stateroom – Mini Suite D407 was ready and that we could head strait to it, and that is exactly what we did. 🙂

Here is my YouTube video from my Arlynn’s Travels Channel where I give a very detailed video tour of our Mini Suite D407…I’ll post pictures below as well so that y’all can get a closer look at things. 🙂

That was a very, very nice Stateroom. 🙂 We found our Princess Patter for that day on the desk…Here it is:

In addition, we had ordered a couple of things from our Cruise Personalizer and both things were sitting there waiting for us when we entered the room. One thing was a “Water Package”…12 bottles of water for a little over $6. NOTE: Please know that if you would like bottled water like this, you *must* order it via your Personalizer ***before*** your cruise…this package is not available for purchase once on board. 🙂

And yes, we did “purchase the water”, I’m not sure why they call it a “gift”…although it was a gift to ourselves..haha. 🙂

There was also this Welcome Aboard letter:

And this lovely gift that we did NOT purchase for ourselves:

And there was this spiffy cup that I received because is comes along with the Soda and More Package:

We were so happy to be on board and I could feel the stresses of travel start to lift. Chris went off to purchase a Coffee Card from the International Cafe…Here is an explanation of what a coffee card is:

“Savor the rich offerings of our New Grounds coffee program. We’ve partnered with the American Barista & Coffee School to ensure our baristas are trained in the fine art of handcrafting freshly brewed specialty coffees. Featuring premium beans sourced from Caffe Boasi in Italy, you can choose from espressos, cappuccinos, lattes and even hand-crafted iced tea fusions and more. And be sure to purchase a New Grounds Coffee Card on board for great savings. Of course, complimentary hot coffee is available in our dining rooms, bars and the Horizon Court.”

I hung out in the room doing that room tour that you saw up there and unpacked as much as I could. We found out later from our Stateroom Steward Kurt that there was some kind of Coastguard drill earlier and that is why our luggage wasn’t delivered until later in the afternoon. I also walked out onto the balcony every now and again to just take a peek out there and see what was happening:

It was almost time for our Muster Drill which is a maritime regulation..no ship can set sail unless the passengers know where they are to Muster (gather) if they hear a certain tone come over the PA system. Chris and I always go about 1/2 hour early so that we can get a seat. And yes, on Princess you carry your life jacket with you and they do allow you to practice how to put it on. One very special thing that happened at our Muster drill was that I met a sweet lady that I had met in the Facebook Group “Alaska Cruises on Princess” (I’m one of the admins in that group). Phyllis and her hubby Ken walked by us at the muster and we stopped and hugged and Chris grabbed a picture of us. Here we are standing in our Muster Station, the Wheelhouse Bar. 🙂

It was so good to meet her in person!!! ❤

Chris and I headed back to our Stateroom after that and low and behold, there were our suitcases, so we started unpacking. 🙂 We didn’t head up for the sail-away party, instead we hung out on our balcony and I caught this video. 🙂

Here are some shots that Chris caught with his camera as I was taking video:

After we passed the Lion’s Gate Bridge, we headed for the Horizon Court (the buffet), I did not catch any pictures of what we ate that evening, but, I can tell you that we were quite impressed with the buffet on this trip. Everything always tasted good, was freshly cooked, and it was always clean as a whistle. I’ll expound more in future blogs about the buffet and the Coral Princess and my impressions…I’ll just say here that up to this point, the Coral had always been our favorite, and our opinion hasn’t changed after this trip. We love the Coral Princess!

On our way back to our Stateroom, we walked through the indoor pool area and I clicked off a few pictures…because y’all know, I always had a camera around my neck just in case any photo opportunity presented itself. You’ll see below that I also took a picture of the roof…apparently it has the ability to retract…neat!!!

Then we walked past the outdoor pool and saw the MUTS screen (Movies Under the Stars):

We went ahead back to our Stateroom, I took a quick shower and we spent the rest of the daylight hours out on our balcony watching the world go by and gazing upon some beautiful sights. I was calm, I was content, I felt very blessed to be right there at that moment in time, and I was excited for the adventures that were ahead of us. 🙂 It wasn’t long after I had those thoughts that we climbed in bed and were asleep before our heads hit the pillows…stupid jet lag! 😉

Coming next, Episode #4 where I’ll tell you about the first day of our cruise, it was a sea day, but, we still kept busy doing this and that and the other thing. 😉 Here is a sneak peek of that sea day’s sunrise:

And here is a link to Episode #4!

***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 ❤

Alaska Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises, Episode #2: Traveling & A Sweet Visit

On September 20, 2017October 3, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations17 Comments

Okie dokie, it was finally *the* day, *the* day that I’d been anticipating for what seemed like forever! It was time to leave and head to the airport. Here I was at around 2am that morning, finally all packed, freshly shower, and already sleep deprived because I couldn’t even lay my head down on my pillow; that’s how excited I was for this trip, I was like a little girl on Christmas Eve! Our first flight was at 6:55am, but, you know, you have to be at the airport so many hours early now-a-days (although we did apply for and got approved for TSAPre✔️, so that did help us zip on through some of the arduous process of flying now-a-days.

That first step out of the door was the hardest, even though our daughter Christin had already arrived and would be at our house caring for our pups for the duration of our trip, I was in tears as I stepped out the door to climb into the car. I hate leaving our puppers, so, so, so much. And this time it was even a bit harder because our big Newf Sophie has been struggling with many joint issues as of late and I just could hardly stand to leave her. BUT, I knew that she had everything that she needed, i.e. Christin, the correct amount of pain medications, new, large throw rugs strewn about the hardwood floors to help her get up easier, and a strong spirit, so I knew she’d be okay. Still, it was so hard to leave. You can see the rugs strewn around behind me and the couch and beyond in this picture—Chris found many rugs like these at our local Home Depot and he purchased every dark brown one that he could find…Bless him!! ❤

Here are the three sweet puppers that we left behind in the very capable hands of our daughter…as I said though, I left with tears streaming down my face. ❤

Here’s Sophie (Newfoundland):

And Samson (Newfoundland):

And Gracie (Golden Retriever):

And all three:

All righty, so off we headed for the airport. It was the day before we were to climb aboard the beautiful Coral Princess and leave out of Vancouver for our back to back Voyage of the Glaciers cruises. Our first stop once across the Country though would be on Vancouver Island, B.C (Victoria). We got to the airport with absolutely no traffic issues…miracles of miracles in these parts, yes, even in the middle of the night. 🙂 We took a picture of where we were parked in the garage at Dulles Airport, quite the large hub of an airport.

We’d be flying Air Canada for all three of our flights on this day.

The first leg was Northern Virginia to Toronto on this jet:

Second leg would be Toronto to Vancouver on this jet which was the most comfortable of all of the jets we flew in that day, this one was actually quite nice:

Third leg would be Vancouver to Victoria and that is where we’d pick up our rental car and head to our dear friends Liz and Mike’s house for hugs, a lovely dinner, and wonderful conversation. First things first, we had to get there. As y’all know, I cannot stand negativity, but, I’m going to get a little negative here. Even though Chris had procured us “Exit Row” seats for the first 2 legs of the flight which provided me tons of leg room that was awesome, I still felt like we were two sardines in a can…what is it…have they cut 4 inches off of the seats? Or well, maybe I’ve expanded that much, but, dear me we were smooshed…miserable…tried (and succeeded) not to be grumpy as we flew across the country. We were *supposed* to land in Victoria at 1:40pm local time, but, we were delayed so long in Toronto that they had to put us on a later flight…ugh…I was SO sad that that had happened. But, Liz made everything okay, she was so gracious, so loving, and so supportive in her responses when I texted her to tell her the bad news that I couldn’t be sad for too long. We’d be late getting to their house, BUT, we would be getting there *that* evening! Here is the plane we endured for the 11 minute flight from Vancouver to Victoria (of course you sit smooshed in the plane for 30 minutes before take-off and for another 15 as you are taxying to the terminal…BUT, the flight was only 11 minutes…haha. <slapping self on forehead> ) 😉

This was me after that flight…I was pretty much in a daze by this point. 🙂

Okie dokie…We had landed in Victoria!! Woohoo, strike up the band, do the happy dance, breathe a huge sigh of relief…the hardest part of our journey was now behind us. So we headed to the luggage carousel to retrieve our luggage…well we got a bit of a surprise when my purple suitcase rounded the bend…the front pocket was gaping open and the zipper had been ripped apart…oh joy, joy…that was a fun piece of luggage to push over to the rental car agency and then out to the car then later into the hotel then…well, I’ll continue this little saga a little later. 😉 Here is the pocket I’m referring to–thankfully, the jackets that I’d stowed in that pocket were miraculously inside the large suitcase compartment.

ANYhoot, we finally found our rental car, loaded Liz and Mike’s address into our GPS (my phone). It was a 45 minute drive over to their house from the airport…I tried really hard to slap on a little bit of makeup and put a comb through my rat’s nest before we got over there…but, truly, I could hardly breathe, the butterflies in my belly were definitely doing a dance for that entire car ride. Vancouver Island is absolutely gorgeous btw, although I don’t have many pictures of it because I was too busy primping…or trying to anyway. 😉 I did manage this one shot:

We pulled up in their driveway and there sat sweet Liz waiting for us to arrive. As most of you know, Liz was diagnosed with ALS a little over a year ago. I could NOT wait to get to her to give her a HUG…Chris barely had the car stopped and I was stepping out to make my way over to her so that I could hug her neck! ❤

OMGosh y’all, what a sweet hug that was!!! Here we were a few minutes later:

Talk about happy, I was SO excited to see her…boy oh boy do I love this sweet lady!!! ❤

We made our way into their beautiful home and Mike had prepared us the most scrumptious of meals…that I did not take one picture of…UGH…I’m so sorry. But, everything he fixed for us was completely delicious!!! We so enjoyed every bite. Then it was gift giving time…Liz has been building a beautiful dollhouse so I had gotten her some little items to make a “Red Wagon Decor” out of, along with a miniature Newfie doggie figurine (that looked like their sweet Newf Jack (rest in peace) when he was a wee pup, and a bracelet.

After dinner we headed out to their back deck to chat for a nice long little while. As you can see, they have a front row seat to the most beautiful cove I’ve ever seen. 🙂 And they get to sit and watch all of the cruise ships dock in Victoria. Here are a few shots of the view off of their back deck:

And we even had some beautiful visitors come around:

The sun was was setting as we sat out there and chatted away…it was a wonderful, sweet time with Liz and Mike. But, we knew that we needed to head on out and get to our hotel back over across town as we’d be spending the night there and heading back over to Vancouver via another one of those planes and 11 minute flights very early the next morning. OH those goodbyes were bittersweet though…my heart just about broke into a million pieces…truly! ❤ ***THANK you so much Liz and Mike for having us over to your home and for the great food, conversation, and love…such genuine friends y’all, I can’t even begin to tell you what an affection Chris and I have for both of them!! ❤

Chris and I climbed back into our rental car and begrudgingly headed to our hotel. I was pleasantly surprised with the hotel though…It was the Best Western Plus, Emerald Isle Hotel in Sidney, B.C. (very close to the airport).

Here are some pictures of our room which was actually a suite with a kitchenette…very nice. 🙂

And what did Chris expend the rest of his energy doing that night? Yep, you guessed it, he fixed my suitcase’s zipper using nothing more than a butter knife, his tenacity, and his ingenuity. What can I say, the man can fix ANYthing! lol (I felt bad though because Mike had given us a roll of duck tape at my request to be used to fix that gaping pouch—no worries though, I’ll pay him back the next time we see them). 🙂 I was much relieved about that zipper though, I must admit. 🙂

Trust me y’all, I did not feel my head hit that pillow that night…I slept like a baby…And we were back up and moving very early the next morning because we had a flight to catch that would carry us back to Vancouver and to our awaiting cruise ship. 🙂

Talk about beautiful country…the Pacific Northwest’s views are breathtaking!

This was my outfit for this day, still looking pretty tired, but, this was after about 5 hours of sleep and a shower…haha:

We landed in Vancouver pretty early that morning, we actually were offered an earlier flight than we had booked…so we jumped at that because we figured that once we were in Vancouver, we could get to the ship pretty easily. We had arranged for a Princess transfer from the airport to Canada Place (the cruise port). Once we landed we headed over to the luggage carousel and our luggage was literally the only luggage on said carousel …haha…we figured out that that flight was probably full of either commuters or those that had checked their luggage though to another far-off destination. 🙂 Once we had our luggage, I went looking for our Princess Representative that I knew wouldn’t be too far away, and I was right. Princess has a little kiosk set up right past Carousel #6 in the luggage pick-up area. We headed that direction immediately…

It wasn’t long before a Princess Rep showed up and took possession of our luggage–We had placed our cruise luggage tags in the front pockets of our suitcases and had placed them on our suitcases when we retrieved our luggage. That was all she needed, we didn’t see our luggage again until we were on the ship. Nice!! She told us that we needed to be around between 10:15am and 11am (it was only 9am) and that is when we’d be gathered up and escorted to a motor coach for the trip over to Canada Place. Chris and I took that opportunity to go and grab a bit of breakfast right there in the airport.

Chris and I had a hearty breakfast and then headed back to the Princess kiosk and found a nice comfy seat. We met a lovely couple while sitting there and chatted with them, I got a lovely phone call from a dear lady that I’ve met through the Alaska Cruises on Princess Group on Facebook, her name is Eva and she and her hubby Steve live right there in Vancouver—Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to meet them in person this time around…but, we hopefully will do so the next time. 🙂

Our Princess Rep picked up up at around 10:30ish and we were escorted down a level and on out to our awaiting motor coach. The traffic in Vancouver on this day was pretty crazy, our bus driver said it was because it was Labor Day weekend…it took us almost an hour to get over to Canada Place.

But then all of a sudden, the beautiful Coral Princess came into view. 🙂 AND it was time to start our cruise!

One of the members of the Alaska Cruises on Princess FB group posted this beautiful picture of the Coral as it sat waiting for us right after sunrise that morning.

Oh yes, the butterflies in my belly were fluttering again, I was so excited to be going to my favorite place on the planet, Alaska.

Next up, embarkation, a tour of our Mini Suite D407, and more! Here is a sneak peek of what our Stateroom looked like for the Northbound cruise…

And here is a link to Episode #3!

***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 ❤

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises, Episode #1 – Packing

On September 19, 2017October 3, 2017 By ArlynnIn VacationsLeave a comment

Hi Everyone!! Over a year ago, Chris and I decided that we wanted to go back to our most favorite place to visit, Alaska! And we decided that we wanted to do it via Princess Cruise Lines, because, let’s face it, they really do Alaska in grand fashion and we love cruising with them. First, let me show you our Itinerary, which was simply a Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers Cruise which began in Vancouver, B.C. and ended in Whittier/Anchorage Alaska. It was then immediately followed by a Southbound Voyage of the Glaciers cruise which begin in Whittier/Anchorage, Alaska and ended in Vancouver, B.C. Here are the specific itineraries.

Here is the Northbound Itinerary:

And here is the Southbound Itinerary:

Chris and I traveled the day before our cruise was to set sail because we wanted to visit very special friends of ours Liz and Mike over on Vancouver Island (Victoria), B.C., more about that very special visit in the next episode.

I digress, I am starting this new Blog Series at the very beginning of our trip with a packing blog and videos. The first thing that I want to do is to share with you my secret weapons that I utilize when it comes to packing for any trip and especially when packing for a cruise. These awesome weapons are packing cubes and garment packing folders. Our daughter Christin gave these tools to us for Christmas a couple of years ago and I was completely skeptical as to how they would help me “Ms Organized” be any more organized. Well let me tell y’all, they HAVE made me even more organized than I ever thought possible. 🙂

Here are the Packing Cubes that I use, they are from Shacke Pak and here is a LINK for you:

And here is the Medium Garment Folder that I use, it is from Eagle Creek and here is a LINK.

Before I share with you a video that I created the day before our trip began of me literally packing up my cubes and folder and then my suitcases, I want to go ahead and share with you two other videos that I created not long ago where I show you “What’s in my Carry-On” and “My Must-Haves” <~~~Things that I take on every cruise~~~. First, here is a picture of the backpack I use for my Carry-On bag…It is a Vera Bradley Campus Backpack (unfortunately, the Vera website does not sell this particular version of backpack any longer, but, here is a LINK for it on eBay.

Here is a picture of my backpack pretty much ready to go:

Here is a link to my YouTube video from my Arlynn’s Travels YouTube Channel entitled “Alaska Pre-Cruise Report: What’s In My Carry-On & My Must Haves” where I show and tell you about everything that I was planning to take along with me on this trip. You can find links to everything that I mention that are linkable in the description of the video.

See, I told you, I am crazy organized..haha..ridiculously so sometimes. 😉

All right, while I’m at it here, let me go ahead and give y’all a link to my Alaska Cruise Wardrobe video that I created to show y’all what I was planning to take on this trip. There are links in the description of that video as well. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VgOmLLMInE&t=199s

And now, I will share with you the video that I made up the day before we left for our trip–You’ll see the organizing power of those cubes and garment folder in action. 🙂

All right, that does it for Episode #1 in my new Alaska B2B Voyage of the Glaciers Cruise Series. Here I was at 2am the morning that we were fixin’ to head out go to to the airport…and nope, I had not gone to bed…in fact, I stayed up straight though and until the next night…excited much? Yep, I’d say so…haha. 😉

Next up, I’ll be telling you all about our flights across the Country and about our time with our dear friends Liz and Mike. BTW, Liz is the lady who encouraged me to start blogging almost 2 years ago now; I’ll be forever grateful to her for that nudge. 🙂 <3.

Here is a link to Episode #2

A little scripture for y’all:

***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 ❤

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Category: Vacations

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers – Episode #10 – Turn-Around Day: Whittier, AK; the 26 Glaciers Cruise, Tour of the Seychelles Suite D701

And here is a link to Episode #11!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers – Episode #9 – NB – College Fjord, Bayou Cafe, & Ship Venue Pics

And here is a link to Episode #10!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises: Episode #8 – NB – Glacier Bay National Park

And here is a link to Episode #9!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises – Episode #7 – Skagway-Chilkoot Charters Yukon Rail & Bus Tour

And here is a link to Episode #8!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises – Episode #6 – Juneau (Harv & Marv’s, Tracy’s Crab Shack, & More)

And here is a link to Episode #7!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises – Episode #5, Ketchikan & The Bering Sea Crab Fishermen’s Tour

And here is a link to Episode #6!

Alaska Voyage of the Glaciers Back to Back Cruises Series: Episode #4 – Sea Day & More!

And here is a link to Episode #5!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glacier Cruises, Episode #3: Embarkation, Stateroom Tour, Princess Patter, & More

And here is a link to Episode #4!

Alaska Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises, Episode #2: Traveling & A Sweet Visit

And here is a link to Episode #3!

Alaska: Back to Back Voyage of the Glaciers Cruises, Episode #1 – Packing

Here is a link to Episode #2

And here is a link to Episode #11!

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