| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 14 February 2005 |
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My dinner was Escargot, Pasta in Garlic Cream Tomato Sauce, Sautéed Salmon Fillet in Pernod and Fennel Sauce, Raspberry Creme Brulée, and coffee. Everyone else had the Cherries Jubilee. Sherry and Sara reported that they snuck on to the Regal Princess (actually the Regal Princess allows visitors, even though the Dawn Princess doesn't). They say the Dawn Princess is much better; the Regal has much less wood and brass, and was mostly steel (?).
We did some laundry-the washer and dryer are free, but the detergent costs US$0.50. Not a big deal to me, but I did see a crew member squeezing shampoo containers into the machine for his laundry. This makes me wonder how well the staff is paid.
The shows this night were not very appealing ('New York, New York'-a production number show-and a cabaret artist). What was appealing was the Robert Service Poetry Reading, given by John Lawrence in the Wheelhouse Bar. First he gave a biography of Robert Service. Service was in England in 1874, and during gold rush he was in Los Angeles and Mexico. In 1904 his bank transferred him to White Horse, then to Dawson City, where he met stampeders who told him tales of the Gold Rush days. Service had been doing recitations of other people's poetry, and was best known for his performance of 'The Face on the Barroom Floor' written in 1887 by Hugh Antoine D'Arcy. He had been writing poetry for a while, but never did anything about getting them published. In 1908 he got a bonus and his aunt suggested that he publish his poetry for his relatives as a Xmas gift. He took the poems to a publisher, who called him a few days later, asking, 'Do I understand that you want to pay us to publish this?' 'Well, yes.' 'Well, we would like to publish this commercially. You would get 90% of the proceeds; we would keep 10%.' 'Are you crazy? Who would buy this?' 'Well, we've been showing the poems around the office and already have 1800 orders.' So The Spell of the Yukon was published and within a year, 'The Shooting of Dan McGrew' and 'The Cremation of Sam McGee' were the most recited poems in the English language around the world. Service went on to write more poetry, served in the ambulance corps in World War I (from which came Rhymes of a Red Cross Man), lived in the South Seas and France, fled France at the beginning of World War II, then returned to live out his life there. He died in 1958, saying that although he was considered an expert on the Gold Rush, he had forgotten everything the stampeders had told him.
Lawrence then read 'The Face on the Barroom Floor,' 'The Shooting of Dan McGrew,' and 'The Cremation of Sam McGee' (see Appendix). He did not read any of Service's non-Yukon poetry, but I've read some of his World War I poetry and there is no way they would read anything that depressing on a cruise ship.
July 31 (58N, 136W, sunrise 4:52 ADT, sunset 21:26 ADT): We arrived in Glacier Bay very early and boarded the rangers (John Jameson, John Baston, and Alex Andrews) about 6 AM. However, they didn't start narrating until about 9 AM.
We sailed past Reed, Lamplugh, and Muir Glaciers, then stopped in front of Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers for quite a while.
We saw some wildlife during the way, but nothing like the ads lead you to believe. We saw three brown bears on the shore quite a ways away, and a lot of birds (black-tipped kitty wakes (?) mostly, and some puffins). Binoculars are an absolute necessity if you want to see anything. We also saw some calving of the glaciers (that's when pieces fall off), but nothing very big.
Throughout all this it was intermittently raining, sleeting, and (possibly) snowing. I was wearing a wool shirt, a blouse, a wool vest, a photographer's vest, a scarf, a jacket, and gloves, and was still cold.
We dropped off the rangers about 3:15 PM and Mark and I went inside for hot soup and coffee so we could warm up. So naturally that's when the pod of four or five whales showed up, which Mom and Sherry saw but we didn't. Well, we had seen a couple of whales earlier, briefly.
The waiters in the Horizon Court were fascinated by Mark's palmtop. Every time we were up there and he was writing on it, they would stop and look at it. (I was even typing on mine outside, with gloves on!)
For dinner I had Caviar, Roasted Garlic Bisque, Alaskan King Crab Legs, anniversary cake, Raspberry and Coconut Semifreddo, and coffee. There were actually two cakes, one for our twentieth-fifth anniversary and one for Susan and David L's twentieth-fifth anniversary, so we ate one and asked the waiter to save the other until lunch tomorrow.
At 11:15 PM there was a 'Champagne Waterfall' and crepes suzettes in the atrium. Now, the whole attraction of a champagne waterfall is the precision of it all: the glasses are stacked in a pyramid and champagne is poured continuously into the top one, cascading down into all the others without spilling onto the surface below. It's like watching a domino fall. But what Princess does is have passengers come up and pour a bit into glasses on the side for a photo opportunity. Whether they ever filled all the glasses I don't know, but the uneven filling of the lower levels would have destroyed the effect in any case. I guess I'm a mathematician, not a photographer.
August 1 (61N, 146W, sunrise 5:29 ADT, sunset 22:27 ADT): Today we cruised to College Fjord, so the morning was rather low-key.
Arriving about 3 PM, we cruised up the fjord, so named because the glaciers are named after colleges: women's colleges on the left, men's colleges on the right. (Although as Mark points out, the men's colleges are co-ed now, and the women's colleges are not.) Actually, the fjord was probably named at the same time as the glaciers in it were.
The two largest glaciers in the fjord are Harvard and Yale. (I wonder if this was mere coincidence.) We saw some sea otters as we sailed up the fjord, but as we approached Harvard Glacier, we starting seeing fewer otters and more harbor seals. Binoculars are an absolute necessity; the otters were invisible without them, and the seals pretty much so, as they would slip off the ice floes into the water as the ship approached.
We saw a lot of calving off Harvard Glacier. First we would hear a loud 'crack!' like a thunderclap. Then we would quickly scan across the width of the glacier (several hundred feet), looking for chunks of ice sliding off and falling into the sea. Sometimes we would see this, but often we saw nothing, and the cracking had been further back on the glacier. People kept hoping that the whole front of the glacier would break off, but this didn't happen, nor is it likely.
We stayed in College Fjord until dinner time (another reason why the second seating would have been better). Luckily, since this was the last night on board, it was casual rather than formal.
For dinner, I had Avocado Boat with Seafood in a Lime-Cilantro Dressing, Steamed Maine Lobster, Baked Alaska, and coffee. As far as food went on this cruise, the food on the Princess was plentiful and interestingly prepared and presented, but not great-tasting. The Maine lobster, for example, was very small and covered with some sort of crumb mixture which no self-respecting New Englander would put up with. (Or if you prefer, some sort of crumb mixture up with which no self-respecting New Englander would put.) (I lived in Maine for five years and Massachusetts for eight; I know something about lobster.) They had salmon available every night, but Mark says he thinks the salmon we get at home (from CostCo, no less) is better than the salmon we got on the Princess. I personally think that my Moroccan Salmon is better than what they served. (Mix 5 minced cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons cumin, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons dried cilantro, and 4 tablespoons lemon juice. Spread over one pound of fish fillets. Cover and bake at 350 degrees until done [about 25 min]. More lemon juice can be added if you want more liquid.) My main objection to the salmon served here was that it seemed dried out. When we were filling out the questionnaire at the end, Mark asked if the food was 'the best of any of your trips.' I said just two words: 'Southeast Asia.' 'Okay,' Mark said, 'I'll mark it 'better than most of your trips.''
At 10 PM Sherry called and suggested we all meet in the Horizon Court for a farewell snack. No one was really hungry but we did get beverages. On the top deck you could definitely feel the ship's movement, and although it was still light out you couldn't see very far as we were in a fog bank.
Dad naturally brought his camera and took yet more pictures of us sitting and eating. Certainly based on pictures that people took, you would think we were eating all the time. Every meal seemed to involved three or four people taking pictures of the table, and that doesn't count when the cruise photographer came over.
We found out that David G and Sherry got a 'Log of the Cruise' delivered to their cabin, a four-page summary of what our schedule had been and the vital statistics of the ship. No one in our hallway got one (and we didn't get our turn-down chocolates either, indicating that after the tipping is over, some of the service may drop off a bit).
August 2 (61N, 159.6W, sunrise 5:35 ADT, sunset 10:33 ADT): We got up early to say goodbye to David L, Susan, Sara, and Jack, but by the time we got to breakfast (6:15 AM), only David L was still there. They had a 6:45 AM debarkation. We had an 8 AM debarkation; Mom, Dad, Sherry, and David G had a 8:15 AM one. We had a small breakfast (they didn't have any real elaborate dishes, because they were busy getting ready for the next cruise starting in the afternoon). Friday night and Saturday are the hardest times for the staff. The boutiques have to get all their stock straightened up and their sale prices removed. The food staff has to serve breakfast earlier than usual and dinner later. The one break they get is that there's no formal lunch, just the buffet. The cabin stewards are busy getting the cabins ready, meaning putting in new bathrobes while making sure the old ones are still available until you leave, and so on.
We said our farewells and boarded the bus for Anchorage. The scenery between Seward and Anchorage is beautiful, except for the construction zones where the earth-moving equipment detracts a bit from the natural surroundings. (Well, I suppose the highway and cars on it do also.)
After making a stop at the airport for two people who had missed their bus group (we debarked based on departure times or destinations in Anchorage), Princess dropped us at the Egan Hospitality Center where we picked up our luggage and walked the six blocks to the Days Inn where we had reservations. The final announcement heard from Princess was that there were no courtesy vans, but they could help you get a taxi. This is not a big deal to us, but I can't help but feel that it may leave a bad final impression with some people.
The bus driver had pointed out the Saturday Market to us, so we walked over there (nothing is very far away in downtown Anchorage). It had a lot of tourist souvenirs, but also produce and used books, so it had a mix of tourists and locals. They also had a karaoke stage with some very good singers, and some very bad ones. We had lunch there. I had a combination plate of Philippine noodles and adobo chicken; Mark had a barbecued turkey leg.
We left the market and started walking around and who should we meet but Sherry and David G? Their flight wasn't until 8:40 PM, so they had taken a Princess courtesy van back into town from the airport to spend some time in Anchorage.
We went back to the market with them. Sherry got a sweatshirt, and David G got a cap. I looked at a CD by the Alaska Klezmer Band, but they didn't have it on cassette and I didn't want to pay CD prices. (Anchorage has two synagogues, or at least two congregations, one Reform and one Lubavitch.) I had previously bought a T-shirt for my brother from the 'Far from Fenway Fan Club,' a Red Sox fan club that meets in a bar here. |
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