LovetoCruise87

I understand where you are coming from and you will get no argument out of me. I believe also that this is very close to becoming an everyday virus, just like the cold and even seasonal just like the flu. 

I understand where you are coming from and you will get no argument out of me. I believe also that this is very close to becoming an everyday virus, just like the cold and even seasonal just like the flu. 

expedition voyages on the Viking Octantis in the United States and Canada will continue to require a pre-departure COVID-19 test.”
So, they haven't suspended the pre-cruise testing for this ship in the United States. I really don't see any changes to the pre-cruise testing until late this year. 
 

This will never stop. Just as people with colds and other contagious bugs get on ships every day.  The big question is how to deal with covid cases on board. The next step is to get rid of the quarantine floors and just let people recover in their rooms like we do everything else that just requires OTC meds and rest to shake.

If cases are increasing, it's only mirroring national trends (which are starting to decline as the surge is ending in the northeast), not anything specific to cruise ships. 
 

I understand where you are coming from and you will get no argument out of me. I believe also that this is very close to becoming an everyday virus, just like the cold and even seasonal just like the flu. 

I understand where you are coming from and you will get no argument out of me. I believe also that this is very close to becoming an everyday virus, just like the cold and even seasonal just like the flu. 

I agree and also 'slow' is a bit of an easy term to describe their speed. They move slower than a very small snail! lol

Society is learning to live with the virus.  The end of pre-cruise testing is a step in that process just as society has adapted to live with other viruses.  
The calls for change are the beginning.  The question is... will the CDC make the change?  They've been slow to change cruise ship policies throughout this pandemic.  

I would like to see at least one or both go but I can understand the need to keep one or the other for liability sakes. Liability is really the only issue I can see as a stop gate to dropping testing and vax requirements. Because the ship is a sort of "closed" environment, anyone who catches anything will try to sue. I would say if they could include language in the cruise contract that absolves the line of liability, it would make it easier. But people don't read the contracts now, it would just make the lines look bad. If they do get rid of testing, I believe it will happen after the summer is over. 

Day Eight: Starting Our Post Cruise Adventure 
Sadly, we had to get off the cruise today. We had time to eat a quick breakfast and then go back to the room to get all our stuff. There was the option to check our bags and get them when we got off, but we didn’t want to damage any of our suitcases so we took them all. Once we got off the cruise we were in Seward where the bus tours are. We were really early to our tour so we sat on a bench and waited for the bus to arrive. Fifteen minutes before it was supposed to leave my dad got a text saying we were put on a different bus company. This bus was almost entirely full already and there were only four seats left and none of them were together. Only one each on the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh rows. I was in the seventh with a window seat. We had great driver and tour guide on the bus named Mike and Brenna. 
We drove for a while then got to the Exit Glacier. We got out and went to hike for about an hour. It was a bit of a difficult hike for me but that could just be because I don’t hike much. We got to this overlook pretty close to the glacier and got some awesome pictures. Then it was back to the bus and on the way to Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. 

We got to the wildlife park and they gave us all our lunches and a water bottle. The lunch had a sandwich (ham, turkey, or roast beef), carrots, potato chips, and cookie. It was a really good lunch, but we didn’t have any tables designated for us so we found these rocks that looked like benches near the bear enclosure to eat. After we ate, we went to see the bears, owl, bald eagle, wolves, porcupines, caribou, moose, and a lynx. We would’ve seen more, but eating took up a lot of our time and we had to get back to the bus. 



Our next stop was a ski lodge. We didn’t go skiing but we did go up the ski lift. It’s not like the benches that are open, it was a gondola and could hold thirty-ish people. It only took us five minutes to go about 2,000 feet up. Once we were up there it wasn’t much colder, but there was snow! I made a little snowball and threw it at the ground. An Alaska trip isn’t complete without snow. 


The last stop was the Ulu Factory in Anchorage. We only got five minutes there so we went in the gift shop then right back on the bus. An ulu is a curved kind of knife that’s special to Alaska. We got one at an earlier port. 
We were a little late on drop offs. We were supposed to be at our stop around 5:15 PM, but we got there at 6:45. If you go on this tour be sure to not have a immediate activity afterwards because you might be late. My dad’s cousin picked us up and it was an hour and fifteen minutes to her house in Willow, where we were staying for the night. We got there, had pizza for dinner, watched a show, unpacked, and went to sleep. 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day Seven: Hubbard Glacier 
It’s the last day of the cruise, but don’t worry, it’s not the end of my adventure or of my blog just yet. We tried to wake up early but I slept till 8 am. We got bundled up then went outside to see the glacier from the ship. It was pretty cold but the glacier looked so cool. There were pieces of ice floating all around in the water. There was this one piece that looked like a swan. Ice bird instead ice berg! We then got a quick breakfast and went back outside to get some more pictures with it. 

After we had seen every possible angle of the glacier my mom and I went to do some scrapbooking. It was only thirty minutes long so we only had time to get the supplies and make a little scrapbook out of the scrapbooking paper. It was fun and seems like a good idea to keep memories. 
Earlier this week we signed up for the egg drop. Now it was finally time to build it. We had a design that had a paper cup with balloons all around it and a parachute on top. We went to the ninth floor in the Centrum for the competition and if we had been launching straight down the egg would’ve been fine. Sadly they made us launch over a bar and it tipped and the egg fell out. 

We went to get lunch and on the way I found another duck! This one looked like a Wonder Woman duck and she was hiding by a ship map. Afterward we went to do a riddle contest. We only missed two questions but still lost. We stayed to do another trivia and got smoothies. The smoothies were amazing, but each was seven bucks so if you get one, enjoy it. I sure did, my strawberry one was amazing. 

My brother and I left in the middle of the trivia to go rock climb. Neither of us had rock climbed in a while so we couldn’t make it all the way to the top, but I think I did pretty good for it being my first time. 
We all met back in the cabin and got fancied up again. Since it was the last night there wasn’t any photos though. We went to a variety show that had two songs by the orchestra, a tango dance, and comedy. It was really good and all the performers were really talented. 

Next it was time for dinner. I had a Caesar salad, turkey, and apple blossom a la mode. It was all amazing, but I didn’t have time to stay for dessert so my brother brought it to me at teen karaoke. A friend and I sung “If I Had A Million Dollars” together. It was really fun and my dessert was still warm when I got to it. 

I went to play some ping pong with a friend and my brother. None of us were really good at it but we had tons of fun. I’m pretty sure we hit it on the floor more than on the table. At least it was entertaining. 

We went back to Optix one last time. We got out Twister and played a couple rounds though we weren’t really sure who won. We played a bit of foosball then had to leave. We got back to the room and helped finish packing till about 1:00 in the morning then we were out like a light. 

Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day Six: Skagway 
We docked early today so we woke up early. We had a very quick breakfast then got started on exploring Skagway. We were supposed to have an excursion, but it was canceled so we just explored the city. We went shopping for a while. My brother got a lot of cool display souvenirs with moose and sled dogs on them. I got some earrings with the colors of the northern lights. 
After we were finished shopping, we decided to rent some bicycles and go around the city to see some nature on them. I think we were going to rent regular bicycles but then we found electric bicycles for only a little bit more. They had two modes on them. You could pedal with varying amounts of help from the engine or you could use the throttle. I got up to 20 miles per hour in both, but for most the time I was at around 16 mph. It was really really fun and my favorite experience yet. The shop we rented from we Klondike Electric Bikes and they were amazing.

On the bikes we went to Gold Rush Cemetery which was really beautiful. There was a waterfall there and the water was really cold. Then we went back on the bikes and went a little farther to a little beach with a ton of rocks. We tried skipping rocks, but since we’d never done that before, none worked so we went back and returned the bikes. 

We shopped a little bit more, then decided to go on a hike. We went to Yakutania Point which was a hard hike since it was really windy. We stood on a giant rock that made it look like we could’ve just been blown off into the ocean. It was really fun, but very windy so we left to the ship. 

We got to do some Harry Potter trivia but we didn’t win. Then I rushed off to do teen table tennis. I’m very bad at table tennis so I only got to do the first round but it was really fun cause I got to do it with a friend.
We got back to the room and I blogged a little bit. Yet again we got fancied up and got some more pictures done then went off to dinner. I got Caesar salad, spaghetti, and molten chocolate cake with ice cream. They were all absolutely amazing and the cake was to die for. 
We went to Optix and we played twister. I lost the first round, but tied the second. Then there was a Mario Kart tournament. I made it past the first round but lost in the second. It was still really fun. We went back to the room and fell asleep in a snap. 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day Five: Sitka
We anchored at about 7:00 this morning and since we have a front room, it woke us all up early as the anchor was lowered. There weren’t enough docks for all the ships that were going to be here today so we had to tender. For any of you who don’t know what that is (I didn’t), tendering is when you board a smaller boat, such as the lifeboats, from your ship and go to a smaller dock. Usually you have to get a ticket to tender and they’ll call your ticket number when it’s your turn. The captain had told us yesterday that we could tender from 8:00-9:00 AM with no ticket. Only problem was everyone wanted to do that and they couldn’t use all of their lifeboats so the line to board was super long. Finally we got to the front of it and boarded the tender. There were about a hundred people in there in total. It was helpful cause it brought us right to town, whereas if we docked, we’d have to take a ten minute shuttle. We planned to get in port with tons of time to spare before our afternoon excursion to shop. We also did a walk up a little hill to get some good pictures.

For our excursion, we got into a sightseeing boat that had a nice warm heated area with a tiny little shop where you could get complimentary hot chocolate, tea, and donut holes. There was also a second floor that was open air so you could see really well. We saw about five whales, a ton of sea otters, and sea lions. They were all amazing to see and I wouldn’t trade that excursion for anything else. 



Afterwards, we went back to the ship to catch a movie. We got a little more fancied up but not too much since it wasn’t formal night and headed off to get some pictures.    Dinner was great. I had tomato soup, steak, and tres leche. The tomato soup and tres leches were amazing. The steak was a little fattier than I’d prefer. 

My brother and I rushed off to a teenager silent disco right after. It was really cool and I’d do it again. They had these light up headphones that would switch color depending on what music you were listening to. Then we went to Optix and I learned how to play Super Smash Bros! I won twice after I figured out the controls with my favorite character, Princess Peach. There wasn’t any schedule for Optix so we just hung around then went back to the room and yet again fell right asleep.
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Travel Day Post
After a 4:00 AM wake up call, we were on our way to the airport to catch the first flight. Unusually, lines for both checking bags and security were shorter than expected when we got to the Orlando airport. We did have a bit of a holdup before we could get to our gate though. One of our bags had to be searched because they didn’t know what something in it was. So they took it aside and pulled out our lunchbox that we brought to eat on the second flight. The perpetrator was a block of cheese. Luckily that didn’t make us late for the first flight and we got on with no problem. Sadly my dad couldn’t sit next to the rest of us on the plane, but he was only a row up and across so it was alright. The flight was smooth and I got a cup of hot tea about halfway through. We got off at Toronto and only had an hour and fifteen minutes to get through customs and catch the flight to Vancouver. 

Customs was pretty easy too, we had to walk a lot and then we got to the desks with the people checking everyone. You show them your face and passport and they make sure you are who you say you are and then they ask if you’re bringing any food. If you had meat or dairy, they had to make sure it was sealed and from the USA. We had brought salami and that troublesome block of cheese so it took a little longer but then we were on our way to our gate. The best part about customs was that we got to skip the whole security line. Then we were on our way to the flight to Vancouver and got there just in time to board. 
 
The five hour Vancouver flight was tiring. This time they had soda so I got Sprite and my mom got Diet Coke. I tried to sleep on the plane for a bit, but I’ve never been able to sleep that well when we’re flying. When we started the descent to Vancouver, we saw the mountaintops peeking out from the clouds and it all seemed so magical. 

Once we got our checked bags, we headed over to pick up our rental car. It was a little small for all our stuff, but we made it work. Then we were off to the Lynn Canyon to see the suspension bridge. The whole forest was like we stepped into a fairytale and we hiked for an hour. We might have done more, but there were so, so, so many stairs. Either way, I highly recommend it, just don’t forget your water bottle and camera. 

We got to the Airbnb which was rather comfortable and had our airplane leftovers for dinner. Then we got the must do of any vacation: ice cream! It was at this cozy little place called Welcome Parlour Ice Cream that had a kind of sampler dish where you could get four scoops of ice cream. I shared it with my brother, Jonathan, and it was amazing. Then we met a very friendly dog who just loved attention. It was nice that even though we had to leave our dog at home, we still had dogs around. 
 
Finally we got back to the Airbnb and Jonathan and I just fell straight asleep, excited to board the ship the next day. 
 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

We are booked on Harmony Sept 4. Got our bid letter as well. We are currently booked in a ocean view balcony. The offer of ocean view large balcony and JS were disappointingly high for the minimum bid, so we are just going to keep what we have. 

I could not agree more!!

I could not agree more!!

I could not agree more!!

I could not agree more!!

Can only share recent experience... it asked me to enter CC info when I put in my bids.