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I'm sure no one wants to read a six page post on What I Did on My Summer Vacation, but here's a couple little snippets of our Alaska trip:
Actually, it wasn't that cold. Needed winter coats, but wasn't freezing.
Things that were expectedly awesome about Alaska:
1) Seeing Seattle folks before getting on the boat (and cinnamon bun French toast, which has got to be the best invention ever).
2) Seeing tons of wildlife - humpback whales, grizzly bears (from very, very far away), black bears, bald eagles, seals, and a fox.
3) Seeing glaciers and tons of waterfalls.
4) OMG seafood - we had the most amazing lunch with all kinds of fish prepared eight or nine different ways, all of it astonishingly delicious. And I don't even like fish.
5) Horseback riding in the Yukon.
6) Chocolate buffet.
Things that were unexpectedly awesome about Alaska:
1) The Nylons were on our boat! Yay obscure a cappella group we actually have heard of and like! We saw them perform three times.
2) The weather was unexpectedly good. They were forecasting rain when we left. We actually got sunshine in both Juneau and Ketchikan (where the sun never shines), and although it rained in Skagway, when we drove over the pass, it was sunny in the Yukon.
3) Sitting in the hot tub watching snow capped mountains go by.
Things that were not-so-awesome:
1) The four hours on the tarmac in Newark and the three hours of sitting in the airport with no information in Seattle. Stupid thunderstorms.
2) The weird light conditions playing havoc with sleep schedules.
3) Vague sea-sickness.
Things that were just amusingly random:
1) We were disinfected within an inch of our lives. They're really quite concerned about GI infections on cruise boats, so there were disinfectant dispensers every fifteen feet. If you got on the boat, they spritzed you. If you entered a restaurant, they spritzed you. If you sat still long enough, I'm pretty sure they'd spritz you. Fortunately, the disinfectant left hands soft and minty-fresh, as advertised.
2) Do the same six jewelry companies have a deal with the cruise lines? I swear, the same ones in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan were also in Hawaii and Aruba, always on the block the ship dumps out on. I got really sick of seeing Tanzanite International.
3) Alaska is very, very big. We were in a National Monument the size of Connecticut, which was surrounded by a National Forest waaaay bigger than that.
In short - planes, bad. Boats, good. Alaska, awesome!
Actually, it wasn't that cold. Needed winter coats, but wasn't freezing.
Things that were expectedly awesome about Alaska:
1) Seeing Seattle folks before getting on the boat (and cinnamon bun French toast, which has got to be the best invention ever).
2) Seeing tons of wildlife - humpback whales, grizzly bears (from very, very far away), black bears, bald eagles, seals, and a fox.
3) Seeing glaciers and tons of waterfalls.
4) OMG seafood - we had the most amazing lunch with all kinds of fish prepared eight or nine different ways, all of it astonishingly delicious. And I don't even like fish.
5) Horseback riding in the Yukon.
6) Chocolate buffet.
Things that were unexpectedly awesome about Alaska:
1) The Nylons were on our boat! Yay obscure a cappella group we actually have heard of and like! We saw them perform three times.
2) The weather was unexpectedly good. They were forecasting rain when we left. We actually got sunshine in both Juneau and Ketchikan (where the sun never shines), and although it rained in Skagway, when we drove over the pass, it was sunny in the Yukon.
3) Sitting in the hot tub watching snow capped mountains go by.
Things that were not-so-awesome:
1) The four hours on the tarmac in Newark and the three hours of sitting in the airport with no information in Seattle. Stupid thunderstorms.
2) The weird light conditions playing havoc with sleep schedules.
3) Vague sea-sickness.
Things that were just amusingly random:
1) We were disinfected within an inch of our lives. They're really quite concerned about GI infections on cruise boats, so there were disinfectant dispensers every fifteen feet. If you got on the boat, they spritzed you. If you entered a restaurant, they spritzed you. If you sat still long enough, I'm pretty sure they'd spritz you. Fortunately, the disinfectant left hands soft and minty-fresh, as advertised.
2) Do the same six jewelry companies have a deal with the cruise lines? I swear, the same ones in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan were also in Hawaii and Aruba, always on the block the ship dumps out on. I got really sick of seeing Tanzanite International.
3) Alaska is very, very big. We were in a National Monument the size of Connecticut, which was surrounded by a National Forest waaaay bigger than that.
In short - planes, bad. Boats, good. Alaska, awesome!
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Date: 2008-06-25 08:59 pm (UTC)From:Was there an outbreak on a cruise ship or something?
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Date: 2008-06-25 09:09 pm (UTC)From:Our ship was very transparent about the reasoning. They made announcements at the beginning, and had signs in all the bathrooms and on the back of your stateroom door listing the symptoms of noroviruses and saying that if you had nausea or diarrhea to stay in your stateroom and call them, and they would send a doctor to your room to do a complimentary, private examination to make sure you didn't have anything. Seriously, every bathroom. They weren't mean or scary about it, just very matter-of-fact.