Monday, May 20, 2019- At Sea, Seattle to Ketchikan

Monday, May 20, 2019. At Sea, Seattle to Ketchikan

We met for breakfast in the Portifino dining room.  This dining room is situated midship by the Atrium with its 2 panoramic elevators in addition to the 4 normal elevators.  Only Portifino is open for breakfast service.  Both midship dining rooms are used for anytime dining during the dinner hour. 

George was feeling under the weather with a headache and upset stomach, perhaps from the rolling seas through the night.  He got dosed up with Tylenol, scopolamine gel and Dramamine, and was able to join us after breakfast at the morning naturalist lecture about Alaska wildlife.  That turned out to be more of a port talk advertising his favorite excursion activities.  

Next was morning trivia, which we did not do so well on. The winning score was only 13/20, and we had managed only a 10/20.  

We then attended a talk by one of the captains from the Most Deadly Catch Discovery Channel show.  One of the boats featured on the second season was nearly capsized by a rogue wave. That ended its career as a full time Bering Sea crabbing boat, but it was remodeled into a boat specifically to serve the tourist industry as a floating fisheries demonstration boat.  Again, this talk turned out to be just a big advertisement for the Crab Fishing Excursion.  

Dave and George both wanted to get trinkets for their girls, so we attended the Princess Shopping show, but didn’t end up winning any of the prizes that were tossed way over our heads by the very strong armed host who managed to get prizes back to the 10th and 12th rows.  We also didn’t win any of the raffles, so that was a waste of time. 

We grabbed a quick lunch in the Crown Grill which was hosting the Pub lunch, featuring some mediocre fish and chips.  In the past, Janet and I had decided to pass on the Pub lunches because they just aren’t that special, but because it was situated right outside the Princess Theatre, we did it just because we were a bit crunched for time and it was convenient.

We discovered that you can get regular drip coffee for free with the coffee card outside the buffets, but they sure act as though they don’t want to pour any more coffee than is absolutely necessary, making you hand over your card, and not offering refills.  That was a little odd.

We did stop by the International cafe and got some of their featured espresso drinks to get a start on using our coffee card punches.  Janet donated one of her punches to Dave for a Mocha Latte, and she had a Chai Tea drink, while Ben had a Tiramisu to Go and a Salted Caramel Latte during the course of the day.  

After lunch, we went our separate ways for the afternoon.  Ben got in a work out, and Janet got some reading done on her books.  We then got dressed for our first formal night. 

Janet and Ben did the 4:15PM trivia by themselves as none of Ben's other brothers was too interested.  George just showed up briefly and realized he needed to get changed for the formal night, so he didn’t end up sticking around and playing.  As it turns out, Ben and Janet managed to win that trivia, and got string bags for their effort.  

Dinner featured jumbo prawns and medallions of tenderloin.  These were good, but the prawns were not the giant lobster tail like prawns that Janet and I have had in the past, and the tenderloin did require a steak knife, rather than just a fork.  But there was the Chocolate Journey Hazelnut bar dessert.  

We attended the vocalist’s program staring Sonia Selbie was an energetic and fun program with some pop songs spanning the 50’s to the 2000’s, which in her British parlance, she referred to as the “Naughties”.  She did a very unique arrangement of Meghan Trainor’s “I’m All About the Bass” song that harkened back to the style of Judy Garland that was very unique and entertaining.  Ben and Janet loved it, while George, who apparently is a Meghan Trainor fan, hated it. She also did a very good Annie Lennox tribute.  

Franklin did the 7PM ballroom “Jive” class instead of seeing Sonia Selbie.  

Ben and Janet joined a couple from Texas on the 50’s and 60’s music trivia, but were a long ways from winning that.  The 50’s and early 60’s are just not our bag.  Most of the songs were had not hit #1 on the charts, but most were top 40 hits at some point. There was only one Beatles song, zero Motown songs and zero Elvis songs.  The winning team did manage to score 17/20 so someone is good in that era.  Just not us.

Our clocks go back an hour tonight. Tomorrow, we arrive in Ketchikan early in the morning.  We have to be on the dock for our Saxman Village excursion by 7:30AM so we’ll be off to bed early, and will probably grab a quick breakfast in the buffet.