Tuesday, September 16 – Ketchikan, AK

Tuesday was our first day in port. It was a foggy day in Ketchikan, a city that measures rain fall in feet, but we did not have any rain. Which is very rare for a September day. Here are some pictures as we are approaching Ketchikan. We planned a zip lining excursion for our adventure in Ketchikan and we were scheduled to go at 8:30 am. Getting off the ship was no problem – other then the fog the weather was fine – temps were in the mid to high 50’s which is the best you can ask for in Alaska in September. Here is the Star docked. It is not a blurry picture, just the fog. Here Shannon and I are at the Ketchikan welcome center. To get from the pier to the Zipline we had to take a bus. The bus was a classic – I think it was from the 60’s or 70’s. We had to get a picture taken by that too. The bus driver served as a tour guide as we drove, he pointed out salmon in the river and taught us the five types of salmon- chum, sockeye, king, silver and pink and we passed a bald eagle perched in a tree. The driver also told us about the history of Ketchikan and that they average over 250 days of rain a year. With all the focus on Sarah Palin the driver also gave us his opinion on her. It was interesting to hear about the impact her nomination had on the state of Alaska. For me this trip could not have come at a better time.

We arrived at the Alaska Canopy Adventure and we were so excited for this crazy adventure. The zip line course consisted of 8 lines and three bridges through the rain forest canopy about 150 feet in the air.

Here I am in front of the sign.
Here is Shannon.
In order to get up the Mountain to start the zip line we had to ride in this contraption…
Before we left we both ran to the bathroom – a port a potty – which is so ironic after avoiding the bike tour port a potty for the entire tour, it is on my vacation that I have to use one. Shan and I were the last people to get on the vehicle and our “seats” where literally a seat on a wooden crate.

Shan was not sure what to think of it all.
I was just happy to finally be on our way.
As I mentioned before it was pretty foggy - here is the rainforest on the way up.
Here is a tree that has fallen down – they were so tall!!
These are the trees as we got at the starting point.
When we got to the start we needed to get all the gear on. Here Jacob is helping me make sure everything is secure. He also had me put my hair back – the last thing we wanted was my hair to get tangled in the lines. This is Bob and Candace – they were part of cruise critic group who had decided to go zip lining with us before the beginning of the cruise. Here they are all ready to go, while one of the guides is passing around a trash can for anyone who had gum to spit is out – it can be a choking hazard when you first take off and gasp from the sensation. Here Shannon is ready to go.

So am I –
At last I have all the gear. Once we were all set they went over the mechanics of zip lining – where to put each hand, how to keep your legs, how to lean back, how to break, how not to break, how to make sure you make it to the platform, how to land…. Basically 15 minutes of what to do and what not to do - so much to remember. I became a nervous wreck – not from fear of falling or the height, but from being afraid I would not remembering everything. The first line was a short practice one. Shannon was the first of the whole group to go.
Ready to go
Waiting for the signal.
I was the second to go and I totally forgot to break at the end. When I got to the platform I was told I needed to break or I would fall off the platforms. Which made me even more nervous. The second line was a bit longer but still not too long – this time I did everything right, but was still nervous. Here I am getting ready to go on the third line.
At this point we had slip into smaller groups and we had Christopher and Jacob as our guides. Christopher is the one who pushed us off and Jacob is the one who caught us at the end. I was standing on the platform getting ready to go on the third line an Christopher asked me how I was doing – I said I was okay – he said just okay? You need to be doing better then that. So Christopher get me on the line, hanging off the platform ready to go when he stopped me. He then swung out next to me and started swinging me all around. I just started laughing and totally loosened up. He obviously knew I needed to stop thinking so much and relax. That totally did it and from that point on I had a riot.

Here I am in the middle of the third line.
Remembered how I mentioned it was foggy – here is one the lines – we could not see the where it ended, but I was not scared, the line was still up it had to end somewhere over there.
Here is Shannon coming on one of the lines – can you see her way out there?
Here she is getting closer
And closer
This was one of the bridges we walked across. Shannon again was the first to go and I asked Christopher if we all went at once (when we zipped we went one at a time) He said yes and so I followed along and so did the people behind me. Once we got a few feet onto the bridge, Christopher said stop – only one at a time and Shannon said the look on my face was priceless – I along with those behind me rushed to get back to the platform when Christopher said I am just kidding. It was too funny – he got us good!! As we were crossing the bridge we saw a black bear eating salmon from the stream.

He is really down there – just not the greatest picture, but we were 150 feet above him.
This was when I learned that salmon die after they spawn – it is kind of sad.

After the bridges we had a few more lines to go. Here is Shannon on one of the lines
Here I am.
At the end we got a medal for our work and here we are with Jacob and Christopher.
Here is the company’s sign if you are every in Ketchikan I would highly recommend this adventure.

Shan walked over to get a picture of this caribou

We also got a picture with the totem poles out front.

Monday Night

We had decided to keep our more formal dresses for the second formal night, so I pulled out my $25 TJ Maxx outfit for this one. I also decided to throw my hair up – sometimes it is just easier that way. It took us a while to get ready, but I so enjoy getting dressed up and I have not had too many opportunities to do it recently. Shannon was not sure how she felt about her hair, so she took a self portrait to see how it looked.
One we were ready we headed down to the main atrium where the Captain’s Gala Welcome Cocktail Party was taking place. During this time the Captain speaks and introduces some of his key staff including the cruise director. After that we went to the dining room. We sat on the same side of the dinning room as the night before. The other people at our table were three ladies who all worked together in a post office in California and a couple. It was another fun dinner time – I think I had pasta and some yummy dessert.

In the evenings there are photographers set up in the lobby where you can get your pictures taken. On the formal nights there are a ton of different backgrounds to choose from, Shan and I took a few different pictures. Then we decided to take some our self.

Here we are together

One of our self portraits
Shannon by the wall

Me by the same wall
After we took some pictures we wondered around the ship for a while and ended up in the Casino – we both played and lost $10 on the penny slots. Then we decided to check out the Princess Pop Star competition – this is Princess’ take on American Idol – as a karaoke contest. At first no one wanted to sign so Meg, from New Zeeland one of the cruise director’s staff started signing New York, New York with audience participation. Then this girl from Texas got up to sing Sweet Dreams (are made of these) by the Eurythmics – she did a good job, but she had such a strong accent it sounded a bit different. The funniest thing about her performance was a lady in the audience who was way too into the song, she was chair dancing and shaking her head all over the place – which earned her the nick name of crazy Eurythmic lady from Shan and I. Next a guy got up and wanted to sing Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, but the only version the had was the Limp Bizkit version, which the man had never even heard. I am pretty sure Shan and I were the only people in the audience who had heard that version (or on the ship for that matter). He did okay considering the circumstances, but we did laugh a bit. Then Judy got up and sang something, I forget what, but she was really good singer. Then a younger guy sang Sweet Caroline – which I enjoyed, as did most of the audience.

After the Pop Idol Shannon and I made our way over to the Theater for the big show of the evening. The show was “Cinematastic” which was a movie themed show. The shows were one of times you could tell Princess caters to an older crowd – the newest movies they used the music from were Ghost and Titanic. During the show one of the funniest moments from the cruise occurred. At one point the show does a three song tribute to Mary Poppins. During the first song I could tell Shannon was agitated about something. I was thinking she was sea sick or not feeling well from dinner, I was slightly concerned when she turns to me and says “I ride the bus everyday with Mary Poppins, that is no Mary Poppins.” I laughed so hard, I still laugh when I think about it. We both thought the show was pretty good and we enjoyed it. I was happy when near the end of the show JJ walked by me to go up on stage as the MC.

After the show ended we decided to go up to Skywalkers to see how things were up in the disco. There was a small crowd of people up there. We went and sat down in an area where we had the great view the day before. Soon after we arrived the DJ Tony came up to us and said hi. We didn’t think too much of it at first, but soon Tony was spending more time talking to us then he was being a DJ. One funny thing that happened was that Tony had turned on some new fog machines and despite telling the bridge he was going to do it, they were all in a panic thinking Skywalkers was on fire. Seeing as the star has had a fire or two on board – one causing a lot of damage, I can imagine the bridge is overly cautious. I danced a bit, but Shannon doesn’t like to dance (who knew?) so she and Tony chatted. Crazy Eurythmic lady was up there and I actually danced with her a song or two. Then there was jeans girl (a girl wearing tight jeans) who starting freaking me and I decided I didn’t need to dance anymore. Plus it was getting pretty late so Shannon and I decided to leave. We probably stopped at Horizens food court to grab some food – it became a nightly tradition.

The next day we were headed to Ketchikan and our first excursion – Zip lining!

Monday, September 15 - Day at sea

Monday morning we woke up pretty early – with the 3 hour time difference we were still living some where between the ship’s/Alaska time and the time back home. When we woke up we discovered that the Cruise Director did a morning show every day that went over the details of the day and gave other pertinent information. We watched JJ every morning and often referred to the information he gave. After the crazy year and half that I had it was so great to have someone tell me what to do, where to go and not to have to make any decisions. I think the most difficult decision each day was what time to go to dinner.I had ordered breakfast the night before to arrive around 8:30 so I could eat before the massage, but woke up early enough to run upstairs to the horizon court – which is the 24 hour buffet. They had a big pot of oatmeal, and that is what I ended up eating every morning for breakfast with brown sugar and raisins of course. On Monday I brought it back to the room so that I could get continue to get ready. We then went upstairs to the Lotus Spa. They led us into the nice waiting room where we filled out a bunch of information. Long story, but two week prior to this I flew home from New York City after the conclusion of the bike tour. For some reason, which I still do not know why, after I got home my right ankle and foot started swelling quite badly. On the Saturday between the trips, I went into the doctor’s to get it checked out was immediately sent to the hospital to have an ultra sound to make sure I did not have blood clots. Thankfully I did not, so they put me on water pills and the swelling went down. The first day of the cruise I noticed my leg beginning to swell a bit again, so I put that on the form. My masseuse was Wandi and she was from South Africa. She was very nice and we chatted a bit. Our cruise was the last one before the boat went on dry dock so the majority of the staff had 3 weeks off after us, including Wandi who was going home for the time. She was both excited and nervous. Wandi did a good job giving me a massage, and I have had no trouble with my foot since then. Of course as with all the other massages I have had I was left with some bruises. It is crazy how easily I bruise. After our massages, Shan and I went back to our room to get ready for the first of our Cruise Critic gatherings.

Cruise Critic is a website I found at some point early in my cruise planning/research. On the site you can join a roll call for your cruise and get to know people online before you leave. I really enjoyed getting to know this group in the weeks and months prior to the trip and was looking forward to meeting them in person. We met up in Skywalkers and walking in was reminiscent of my summer on the tour. I walked in and said Hi I am Erinn and the whole group was like "Hi Erinn – so good to meet you." I so touched when one of the couples from St. Catharine’s brought me some news paper clipping from when the tour went through. We sat down to chat for a while, but it was pretty rocky up there and Shannon was really feeling it. She went back to the cabin to lie down and I stay up there. I think I was there for over 2 hours. It was so great to have a group of people that I ‘knew” on the ship for the week. After the cruise critic gathering I went back to the room to see how Shan was doing and then grab a bit of lunch before our Pilates class. Now neither one of us had done Pilates before, and Shan had never even done Yoga. I had at least done that before and knew not to go too crazy or else I would be very sore. Shan on the other hand gave it her all. Now for those of you who have not done Pilates, there is a far amount of balance involved. It is not such a great idea to try to learn these positions on a rocking boat. I spent half the time laughing at myself and was not taking it at all serious. I think Shannon was trying to impress the cute instructor. After word Shannon needed to take a nap. Here she is recovering from Pilates.



Next we needed to get ready for the 1st formal night.

The rest of Sunday September 14

After we sailed away Shannon and I went off to explore the ship.

This is Skywalkers – the night club/disco what ever you want to call it. Some one was thinking when they designed the ship. Skywalkers is on a deck of it’s own suspended a floor above the top deck of the ship. It has a walkway leading up to it with a people moving up the middle. I enjoyed taking that up. Shan preferred to walk. The only flaw in the design is that there are no bathrooms up there, you have to go back down to the deck below.

Skywalkers offered great views and during the day it was often empty. We went up there during the sail away to watch for awhile. Shannon decided to take this picture of me relaxing. Just as I am saying don’t get my feet in there. We also sat and relaxed by the indoor pool for a while. Sadly it was too cool to spend much time by the outdoor pools.
At some point during the afternoon we finished unpacking and getting our room set for the week. Around 5 pm we headed up to the Lotus Spa where they were giving tours of the spa and at 5:30 raffling off certificates for services. We figured we could sit through the sales pitch if it meant winning something. Sadly we did not win anything, but we did decide to sign up for pilates on Monday our first sea day and spinning on Friday our second sea day. Neither one of us had ever tried pilates or spinning, but that was our mantra for the cruise – lets try new things! Of course it helped that one of the fitness instructor was pretty cute – just ask Shan about him. After the giveaways we deiced to schedule massages. That was one thing we had both talked about doing on the cruise, but had not fully decided on. Unfortunately there were not too many open spots left, but we were able to get appointments on Monday at 9:00 am.

After we left the spa we decide to go get some dinner. We had anytime dinning which meant we could eat in one of two dinning rooms anytime between 5:30 – 9:30 pm. We went to the Portofino dinning room – not sure why, I think it was the first one we found and there was not a wait. Once we were seated Shan let the waiter know that she has a shellfish allergy. He went to get the headwaiter; Andrew who put Shan on his list of food allergies and told her to ask for him as soon as we came in each time and he would make sure her food was prepared separately. I have to say I was impressed with Princesses handling of food allergies, my nephew has a peanut allergy, so I have seen restaurants handle it both good and bad. I would not hesitate to recommend Princess to anyone with dietary concerns. Here are Shannon and I at dinner.
We sat with three other couples that night. I think two of them were from Seattle or had lived in Seattle and the third was from Portland. They were very nice and the conversation never lagged. I had some sort of pasta that night – I don’t remember exactly what kind it was. The food was good and so was the service. No complaints. After dinner we wondered around the ship a bit, stopped in at the different lounges to hear the music, looked around the casino and then went to the 10:15 Welcome Aboard Show. It was at the show we found out the person who had walked by during the muster drill was the Cruise Director JJ. Over the week, JJ became a source of entertainment for us, the inside joke, the diversion, and our source of amusement. Anyone who knows me well knows I often find my comic relief in this fashion. The Welcome Aboard Show was good, it had a sampling of the shows to come, including the comedian Steve Moris who made me laugh a lot at his musical parodies. I will never sign little bunny foo foo the same again. (Yes I do often sign this song, I know lots of 2-3 year olds).

After the show we headed up to bed for the night.

Getting on the Star!!

The Star Princess was docked at terminal 30 and we had to go through the whole boarding process. Here is our first view of the ship.

We got into line and dropped off the majority of our luggage. Then we proceeded into the building to fill out some paper work ensuring we had not been sick recently. Then we waited in line until we could check in. The line kept moving, and we really did not wait that long, it just felt like it since we were so excited to be there. Once we checked in we moved toward security with a quick stop to get our first of many professional pictures taken. I was carrying our large bouquet of flowers and they were included in the picture. As we entered the ship they took our picture, a mug shot, as we swiped our card for the first time, this was for security reasons. We were finally on the Ship!! We decided to go to our room first and drop off our carry on luggage and get a vase for the flowers. When we booked the cruise we book a guarantee cabin – which as the name suggests, we were guaranteed a cabin on the boat. We joked about how we were sure we were going to be on the lowest deck, under water, in the crew quarters, but we were pleasantly surprised with out assigned cabin. We were in Baja 416 – which is on the 11th deck. The 11th deck was mid way between the Lido, deck 14, where the food court, pools and decks were located and the Promenade, deck 7, where the theaters, lounges, and shops were located. Our cabin was mid-ship, port side, basically in the middle of the ship down the left hallway. We were just around the corner from a set of elevators and a staircase. It was a great location, and if we had booked it originally, it would have cost us both several hundred dollars more.

When we entered our room, we met our room steward, whose name escapes me. He introduced himself and asked if we needed anything. We asked for a vase and he quickly returned with one for our gorgeous flowers.
Look at how pretty they are.
Only $10.
I enlarged this picture to hang up in my house.
We then wondered around the ship for a short while. The passenger muster drill was at 3:30 pm and we had to be in our rooms to get our life jackets. When we got back to the room our luggage was there and we started to unpack while we were waiting for the drill to start. Princess handles the muster drill nicer then some other cruises, they just have you go up to your muster station, not out on the deck by the life boats. They also have the room stewards go through the rooms to make sure everyone is there instead of doing a roll call. They also only have you put on your life jacket and then take it off, not stand around in them. Our muster station was in the hall by the picture gallery and Wheelhouse Bar. When the announcement was made, we headed down there and waited for the instructions. While we were standing there, the cruise director, walked by. It was the first time we saw him and I have to admit I thought he was pretty cute. We did not know at the time who he was, but soon found out.

After the muster drill we went up on the deck for the sail away. It was such a beautiful day, near 80 degrees and sunny. Here are Shannon and I on the deck.
Here are some pictures of the skyline of Seattle as we sailed away.
This is the building we went through to check in, and go through security.
At the time of Sail away the Seattle Seahawks were playing the San Francisco 49ers. As we went by we could hear the roar of the crowd. More pictures of the skyline.

Notice how short the space needle is?