wordell1

Dinner last night was "A Taste of Asia"

I had the chicken and cabbage dumplings, theshrimp pad thai, and the royal chocolate cake. I missed taking a picture of the dumplings.

My wife had the spring rolls, the teriyaki salmon, and vanilla ice cream.

Again, the food was really good. No complaints on anything. The restaurant was less busy tonight, maybe people tired from the excursions or just didn't like the menu.

There are alot of Asians on this cruise. There is a large group from Malaysia on a tour.

1 hour ago, twangster said:

I have an app that can remove wires and mesh fences.  

I hope you don't mind I modified your photo.  

 

 

Wow, that is awesome. I will humbly accept any help or advice on photography you wish to give.

We then walked back into town passed the docks.

We ate at a pretty good place for burgers or halibut fish and chips.

There was some cool architecture and shopping in town as well as some good street food options.

We shopped a while and then went up to the castle before getting the shuttle back.

My app tracked us at 6 miles walked for the day.

Total cost for thus excursion was $30 for the Raptor center, plus lunch.

We left tbe raptor center just as the first tour bus arrived. Mission accomplished!

We the walked over to the Sitka National Historic Park. There is a visitors center with lots of information on the native amaricans who lived in the area before the Russians and then Americans came.

 There are some easy walking trails that show lots of different torem poles and different topography along the way. You can walk all the way out to the site of a battle between the native amaricans and the Russians.

We came in from the back side so we ended the hike at the visitors center. This was highly enjoyable as we got to see some really pretty forrest areas as well as river and coastal areas all in one relatively short hike.

We took the free shuttle into town and then took a 20 minute walk to the Raptor center. We wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds and were almost the only ones there when we arrived.

This was well worth the $15 admission. We were able to see multiple bald eagles up close and learned a lot about the birds. This is a great center and they rehab and release a lot of birds. The ones you can take photos of are not able to be released.

There was also a short nature trail that lran along a river up to a small waterfall.

Waiting to depart it Sitka. We are taking the shuttle into town and doing a do it yourself tour.

Here are some pictures of the Alaskan coast as we came in to Sitka. The last one is the port.

I confirmed with a crewmember this morning that it was a medical emergency and that the helicopter did not land but used the winch to load the passenger.

Must be a medical emergency because a Coast Guard helicopter just came right past our cabin and landed on the bow helipad. This is almost 11 pm ship time.

It us 10 pm ship time and the sun is just now setting. We roll back 1 hour tonight to line up with Alaska time. 

We have been blessed with outstanding weather so far, hopefully our luck will hold.

Sitka tomorrow.

MDR review - night 2 "A Taste of France"

I ordered the French onion soup, the beef tenderloin and the warm apple cobbler.

My wife ordered the Caesar salad, the Spring pea and asparagus risotto, and the cheese plate.

I enjoyed everything that I ordered. The beef tenderloin is my favorite thing from the old menu and it was just as good as I remember. My wife enjoyed her salad and the risotto but felt that the cheese plate was lackluster.

Service was good but I definitely notice that both nights, the waiters and assistants were very busy. There was little time for any interaction. They were friendly, but noticeably rushed. It didn't affect any service,  but I could see how it could. We are on MTD dining, but that is what we typically do so the comparison is still valid.

We will see how the rest of the nights go.

One thing I see as a definite improvement on Ovation (all of Quantum class?) Is the pub. The Amber Oak pub is typical of the pubs on Royal ships, with 2 notable improvements.

The biggest is that there is food! One of the great features of a good pub is the ability to get pub food while you drink. Most pubs on Royal do nit have even a basket of pretzels available.

The second is TV's. I was able to watch the Premier league FA cup final this morning. Ovation doesn't have a Playmakers so the pub makes a good substitute.

We went around lunch for a few beers and had some of the appetizers. Both were good and only cost $4. This is the pulled pork nachos and pretzels.

Bumper cars are fun!

I really liked the SeaPlex. It's really a great feature of the Quantum class. This ship is really well designed for Alaska cruises with lots of indoor space that stll have great views.

As I am writing this, we are lounging on a 2 person chair/bed in the Solarium. 

I would bring everyone to the earlier time. Worst case,  they make you wait. I would be surprised if that happened.

Late sunset tonight. View from. Our balcony. There is also a full moon.

It's definitely the main point of the cruise, but we have had great views since leaving port.

This is our first time eating in the MDR with the new menus. For night one, I was pleasantly surprised. The meal was good all around.

The menu was "welcome aboard". I had the crab cake, the prime rib, and the key lime pie. All were very good. I especially liked the key lime pie.

Nope, you need a certified copy with raised seal.

Some of tbe 2 bedroom Grand Suits on Oasis and Allure (not sure about the others) have the hot tub.

This is from Oasis.

I was able to get a reservation for the North Star. It was actually pretty easy as I don't think many passengers were looking at it.

Definitely fun, I may try again later in the week.

Once on, we had drink at the North Star Bar to celebrate. Great views from this bar.

The Seattle Pier 91 terminal is a hot mess of confusion.

We arrived around 10:15 to see both Ovation and Celebrity Solstice in port. It looked like both had just started letting the bulk of passengers off.

The drop-off area is a narrow driveway between the 2 ships. were thousands of people trying to make their way out to the taxi/ride share pickup area. Which is out of view to the right of the attached picture.

Our rideshare was trying to drop us off in front of the terminal (to the left of the picture). It was very confusing as to where to drop bags, and there were so many departing passengers that it was almost impossible to find. The area is where the blue tent is at the bottom of the picture.

We were able to figure it out and board and it was easy once we made it into the terminal.

I heard from a crewmember that they have had some issues with getting luggage off to the staging area. 

we will definitely be getting off early using self carry to avoid the mess.

I woke up this morning to the Norwegian Sun at the cruise port across from the hotel.

We will need to take a short ride to the Royal Carribean terminal which is a little north of this one.

The Marriott is well situated and the room is comfortable and has great views. As much as we like to complain about the cutback in service on cruises, I notice it more at hotels. These days, there isn't much difference between premium hotels like Marriott, and budget hotels. You get a room, but there's not much more to it. Service on Royal is much better.

If you can get the covered parking in the north lot, you are literally at the terminal.

Closer to noon, we headed out again and went to the aquarium which we enjoyed.

From there we went back to Pikes Place which was much more crowded. I really enjoyed the variety of shops at the market.

It is just a perfect weather day today. 65 degrees, but feels warm in the sun.

We have reservations tonight at Anthony's Pier 66 which is across the street from our hotel.

I'm really happy that I decided to add an extra night to our precruise stay so that we could spend a full day here in Seattle.