Royal Princess in Juneau, Alaska: August 28

This morning was another one where my alarm sounded like a foghorn. No wonder when I stepped outside and saw this.

Juneau is out there somewhere.

And we weren't the only Princess ship with a foghorn alarm this morning. I heard the Grand Princess from miles away on her approach into Juneau.

But by the time the Seabourn Sojourn showed up no foghorn was needed.

The Grand Princess wound up docking so close to us it kept automatically logging me into their WiFi all day. Guess it kept the information from our cruise on her four months ago.

After the fog burned off the sun was shining and it was a beauty of a day.

 We ate outside on the Horizon Court Terrace and watched seaplanes take off and land.

We spent quite a bit of time out on our balcony where we were tucked out of the wind in the warm sunshine. But I couldn't lollygag all day as I had work to do. While my videos didn't get filmed like I planned, I did take loads of pictures to turn into videos. I caught up on emails, did some travel agent work with a client, and started on a couple rough drafts in response to some reporter's questions.

Tonight is formal night again and the Captain's Circle party. We'll be skipping both. Since we are staying in, we'll be ordering room service - from our TV! It's a new feature on the MedallionClass ships and I'll be filming it for you to see.

Today's everything-isn't-always-perfect-in-the-cruising-world PSA is most likely coming from the Ocean Navigator team onboard the ship. I made no fewer than three additional trips to OceanFront last night to try and rectify my Medallion issue. While I no longer have to press body parts up against the wall to get into my cabin, the door is still not automatically opening even with the new clip and a new replacement Medallion. Hubby can be three cabins away and the door unlocks for him. Me? I have to stand right at the door, count to seven, and then it unlocks.

My frustration with it was bordering on disgust as I was ready to throw the d*** thing across the room last night. I think the Navigator team is so over my problem, and it doesn't help that they've spent the Alaska season with new cruisers asking questions like, "What app do I download?", "How do I get my travel companion on my phone", and "How much is the wristband?" Then I not only show up with my ongoing non-working Medallion issues but also have questions they are unable to answer like, "Will you adjust the range on mine?" and "Where can I find the menus that I read were available?" If I wasn't so desperate to make it work (and get those videos filmed) it would almost be comical.

Tomorrow we're off to Ketchikan and we've got a busy day. I have a/an:
*Morning phone call with our daughter
*Obligatory stop at the Arctic Bar with a lunch time delivery from Burger Queen
*Earlier-than-expected departure because of the tides and Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge
*Afternoon conference call
*Evening Most Traveled Guest Cocktail Party

Whew.

Want to find out more about what to do in Juneau and other Alaskan ports?
Check out my Cruising Alaska resources:

Royal Princess in Skagway, Alaska August 27

Hello from Skagway!

We had a pretty rainy night last night and it lasted into this morning. We hit a fog bank early as we were just approaching Ketchikan and the horn blowing multiples times was enough to wake me up. I'm glad it did as I made it outside in time to watch the ship pull alongside the dock. While it was still rainy, it was beautiful in the pre-dawn light.

We had others ships in town with us today. We had the Celebrity Solstice docking behind us at the Railroad Dock...

and the Ruby Princess and Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam were over at the Ore and Broadway docks.

Between those four ships we had over 10,000 passengers in port today. The town was packed with people and it was probably the most crowded we've ever seen it. Thank goodness we weren't staying long! Today's priority in Skagway for us was getting to the Sweet Tooth Cafe for the best patty melt in the world. Just look at the meat and grilled onions and melted cheese and grilled rye bread all blending together. Just awesome.

Since we never made it to the bank before we left on the trip, after lunch we made an ATM run to the Wells Fargo down at the end of town. We also needed to get a stack of one dollar bills for the Encouraging Words Project as I already ran out dollars. Now I'm good to drop off the notes for the rest of the trip.

If you want to find out more about what to do in Skagway and other Alaskan ports, check out my Cruising Alaska resources:

We headed back to the ship after lunch and by that time the sun was popping in and out of the clouds. Still a bit cool, but then again it is almost September in Alaska. When we got back to the cabin we were reminded how much we absolutely love this cabin. It's big like a hotel room, not a cruise cabin. And for hubby to be able to easily take a shower in this bathroom requiring no steps? Just flippin' awesome.

Something else flippin' awesome? My Medallion clip issue is being addressed. Thank you J and V for your help, and K for delivering it! I imagine all the folks waiting for my first-hand passenger Medallion videos thank you ten times over as well.

More awesome is Matt O'. We watched the Wake Show taping again last night in the Princess Live studio. I gotta tell ya, that guy is good! I'm hoping to get to interview him in the next couple weeks and post it on here. I've got some great questions and I'm sure he's going to have to great answers. There are people who are just naturals at what they do, and he is certainly one of them.

Now for the frustration of the day. I've been adding these frustrating notes each day to remind everyone that cruising is not perfect and that there will always be something not going the way you'd like. I guess you could call them my own little Public Service Announcements.

Today's everything-isn't-always-perfect-in-the-cruising-world PSA comes courtesy of the tidal shifts in and around Vancouver. While it doesn't matter much to us, there are some other passengers grumbling about finding out we are cutting our port stop in Ketchikan short. According to the letter we all received,

"The port authority has advised us that due to tidal constraints around Vancouver, we must sail under the Lions Gate Bridge earlier than anticipated for our arrival on Saturday."

I also received word from someone on next week's sailing (and confirmed here on board today) that the next cruise will be leaving Vancouver super-late because of the same issue. Like, super, super, super late, and it too will change our arrival and departure times in subsequent ports. Flexibility has to be part of any vacation but I do understand their frustration, particularly when it's their first and possibly only visit to Alaska. But yep, everything isn't always perfect in the cruising world.

I had a request to post the Alfredo's Menu, so if you're interested, here it is:

Tomorrow we are off to Juneau and I'm planning on spending the entire day filming Ocean Medallion videos onboard.