Monday, September 25, 2017 At Sea Day.
The ship rolled throughout the night as it cruised west of Vancouver Island northward. When we woke up at 7am, all we could see out our balcony was gray fog and rolling seas with a 3-4' swell. It was surprising that the ship was rolling as much as it was, because the sea conditions looked pretty calm. The stabilizers on the Norwegian Pearl didn't seem to be doing a very good job of neutralizing the rolling. We have certainly been in much heavier sea conditions on Princess cruise ships with a lessor degree of roll.
Perhaps I was being a little hard on the Norwegian Pearl's balcony stateroom comparison yesterday. Since the Pearl's last remodel, they have added some modern and welcome electrical upgrades. There are easily accessible 110VAC outlets that are wide enough to accommodate normal US electrical devices. There are also USB charger ports built in on the underside of the bedside lamps, and on the wall panel under the TV.
All our recent Princess rooms have hidden outlets behind the TV's which are very difficult to access, and the outlets are crowded very tightly next to each other so that only the narrowest 3 prong plugs can be inserted side by side. We have been in the habit of bringing special extension cords to access these power outlets on Princess ships to give us enough outlets to charge all our iDevices. There is a single 2 prong 110v shaving outlet high above the mirror in the bathroom marked "Shaver only". I did bring a short specially constructed extension cord to allow us to plug in our two Sonicare toothbrushes and nightlight into it. It would be nice if all cruise lines would integrate night lights into their cabins.
While I railed about the toilet compartment being so tiny, both it and the shower compartments do have sliding glass doors that isolate them from the sink area. The Princess staterooms use a fabric shower curtain, which gets the job done, but the Norwegian shower enclosure is larger and roomier. However, brushing against the shower curtain in the Princess bathroom isn't as bothersome as hitting your head while on the toilet in the Norwegian bathroom.
This is an at sea day, as we cruise north past the Queen Charolette Islands. We didn't have much planned so we had a sit-down breakfast in the Summer Palace. They did have two variations of eggs Benedict on the menu- the classic and one with smoked salmon. Both ended up with overcooked eggs, but Janet was lamenting the absence of eggs Benedict on the Crown Princess breakfast buffet during our Norway cruise. The eggs Benedict was her standard go-to breakfast item on all our earlier Princess cruises. We ended up missing the morning general trivia, and went to attend the "This is Alaska" presentation in the theatre. We learned that Alaska is the only state name that can be typed all from one row on the typewriter keyboard. That might turn up as a useful trivia tidbit at some point. The rest of the presentation showed video of glaciers, whales and bears with sale pitches for the ships' paid excursions to let you get closer to these attractions. None of the videos showed what it would be like to take the excursions in pouring rain and 40 degree weather, which is the forecast for Icy Point Strait and Juneau when we get there. It was not nearly as interesting or useful as the destination expert lectures that Princess offers on its ships to prepare passengers for upcoming ports of call.
We decided to try the Lotus Blossom for lunch. This is an Asian fusion restaurant that is complimentary, except for the teppanyaki tables and sushi bar. Their menu featured pot stickers, steamed or fried, noodles fried or in broth, and fried rice. We got there at noon and we were told they were full, but could take a pager and be notified when a table was ready. It took about a half hour, but our pager was soon buzzing and we were seated. The service was decent, but the food was not very good. Ben wanted to order ramen, but the closest they had was a bowl of rice noodles with BBQ pork in broth. The broth was about as memorable as instant ramen broth, and the BBQ pork floating in the soup was so dry, it was not really edible. The pot stickers were pretty forgettable, as were the stir fried noodle and fried rice dishes. Still, we didn't end up hungry, but we won't have to go back there again.
Franklin was eager to get in a hot tub, while everyone else was more in a mood to nap. The sun burned its way through the gray for a brief moment, but we were soon plunged back into the sea of gray. There was a salsa class, but we didn't really feel the inspiration to go get sweaty on a rolling stage. The last dance class that Janet and Ben did together was too crowded and not much fun, so Janet dug into a paperback book she brought, and Ben took a nap. Then while sitting on the uncomfortable sofa looking out the balcony, Ben spotted a school of dolphins jumping through the swells towards the ship. We dashed out onto the balcony to see them jump through another swell as they headed directly at the ship. They soon ended up behind the ship's wake, but as we looked out over the grey horizon, we soon saw a large whale breech and make a huge splash at the edge of the gray horizon. We then saw several other smaller purposes or dolphins splashing around on the surface. Some seemed to be chasing bait around in tight circles, splashing their dorsal and tail fins on the surface. Others seemed to run parallel to the ship, although the ship quickly overtook them.
We managed to gather up enough steam to head to the Crystal Atrium for the 4pm afternoon general Trivia quiz. We teamed up with three young people from Oklahoma and New York City, but out of 20 questions, we managed 14 right answers. The winner had 16, but grading was on your honor, and there was no prize at all. So much for life altering prizes on Norwegian for trivia quizzes. We didn't feel so bad about missing the 9am trivia quiz after that. We did use our beverage package to have a round of alcoholic drinks. Janet ordered a Moscow mule, hoping to get it in a copper mug, which we had seen earlier on the cruise, but alas, unless you pay another $9 for a souvenir copper mug, it comes in a plastic solo cup. Ben asked for a Canadian Club and ginger ale, but the closest they could come up with was a 7 & 7.
After trivia, we retired back to our room to rest up our brains until dinner at 5pm in the Summer Palace dining room. We met up with Franklin and Betty, and were seated at the same table as yesterday day, and had the same waitstaff with Alvin and Muhammad. Fennel salmon and Pot roast were the featured entrees, and sushi was available as an appetizer. Janet had noticed the sushi chef busy preparing lots of octopus Negeri behind the sushi counter at the Lotus Blossom at lunch. We'll, it so happens that he was making sushi rolls to be served at tonight's dinner as appetizers. We were happy to get to try their octopus, ebi-maki and tuna rolls at dinner for free since you have to pay extra to have them at the sushi bar. The salmon and pot roast were both excellent, but poor Betty, as well as many other guests, were feeling a bit sea-sick. Ben's appetite was off as well, but he was able to eat most of the dinner and dessert. His dessert was a raspberry chocolate mousse cake, which was very good.
After K-Von's show, we headed from the front of the ship to the aft, where Karaoke was starting. Franklin had signed up to be the 7th singer, so we ordered up drinks and hunkered down for the show. There were two women who did a good job on Linda Ronstadt and Gretchen Wilson songs. There was a guy from North Carolina who did two decent country western songs, and a guy from New Mexico who did a decent rendition of ZZ-tops. There was a large group from Idaho, that went up and did several really terrible renditions of various songs, and a totally tone deaf guy who attempted a Motown song that was actually painful to listen to. Franklin did Billy Joel's "The Stranger" and he did a pretty decent job of it. It wasn't the best, but it was also far from the worst.
Fortunately, the last singer was one of the women who did a nice rendition of "Crazy for You", which was a nice way to end the show.
Franklin linked up with Dante again, while Ben and Janet headed to O'Sheehan's, where they split Jamaican jerk chicken wings and a Reuben sandwich, both of which were quite good. This took us to after midnight, but we have to turn our clocks back an hour to get on Juneau time tonight. We arrive at Icy Point Strait tomorrow at 1pm. The captain says to keep an eye out for whales as we enter Icy Point Strait.
