A Cruise To Be (Or Not To Be?) Eclipsed, Alaska August 15-22, 2017 Carnival vs Disney Cruise p. 7

[Wood Nymph]

It’s a good thing that the fog went away in time for the eclipse. Even though it wasn’t total coverage I bet it was still cool. We had a similar amount of coverage with clouds rolling over the sun during part of the eclipse. It was really fun, though.

Did any of the whales breech? We have seen the whales in Hawaii in the winter.

 

[natebenma]

How cool to watch the eclipse from a cruise ship! I watched it from my drive way

That sucks that the lecture you wanted to see wasn’t on time.

A whale is one animal I’ve never seen in person but would love to some day.

How was the eclipse at your house? Did it get noticeably darker? Did you have glasses?

We were really annoyed by the naturalist. In addition to being late for this lecture, we don't think he was that great notifying passengers when there were animals that could be seen from the ship.

We are very lucky here on the east coast. I live about 15 minutes from a whale watch tour company. We went on 2 whale watches locally this summer (Nate went on 3, part of his internship). It was also cool that we could see some whales from a nearby beach, but that was an anomaly. Definitely not a common occurrence.

 

[natebenma]

It’s a good thing that the fog went away in time for the eclipse. Even though it wasn’t total coverage I bet it was still cool. We had a similar amount of coverage with clouds rolling over the sun during part of the eclipse. It was really fun, though.

Did any of the whales breech? We have seen the whales in Hawaii in the winter.

We were so relieved. After all of the trouble we went through getting the glasses, I would have been very disappointed not to need them!

I believe there is an eclipse in about 7 years that will be very close to where we are currently living.

None of the whales we saw that afternoon breached. But earlier in the day, there were a lot of whales pretty far off in the distance that were very active and breaching quite a bit.

 

[rteetz]

How was the eclipse at your house? Did it get noticeably darker? Did you have glasses?

We were really annoyed by the naturalist. In addition to being late for this lecture, we don't think he was that great notifying passengers when there were animals that could be seen from the ship.

We are very lucky here on the east coast. I live about 15 minutes from a whale watch tour company. We went on 2 whale watches locally this summer (Nate went on 3, part of his internship). It was also cool that we could see some whales from a nearby beach, but that was an anomaly. Definitely not a common occurrence.

The eclipse was about 80% in Wisconsin. I did get glasses from Amazon. It wasn't much darker than a cloudy day.

 

[cindianne320]

Awesome that you got to see the bears so close! I could tell that the lady photographer was annoying from your post- but knowing that the pilot didn't let them know about the bathroom is hilarious!

So cool that you got to see the eclipse from the ship!

 

[natebenma]

The eclipse was about 80% in Wisconsin. I did get glasses from Amazon. It wasn't much darker than a cloudy day.

Did you have decent views through the glasses?

I am glad we were able to get them for the cruise, because it really made a difference in experiencing the eclipse.

There was a supermarket in Seattle we went to while staying at the Hampton Inn pre and post-cruise, and they had glasses for purchase both before AND after the eclipse!

Awesome that you got to see the bears so close! I could tell that the lady photographer was annoying from your post- but knowing that the pilot didn't let them know about the bathroom is hilarious!

So cool that you got to see the eclipse from the ship!

Watching the bears close-up was one of the coolest things I have ever done!

It really cracked me up about the pilot and the bathroom tip. He was so subtle my family didn't even notice what he had done until I came back and told them.

 

[natebenma]

Victoria, British Columbia
Cheers to Nate, Eh!


When our last supper was FINALLY over, we returned to our cabin to change and to watch our arrival into Victoria.

These birds must get fed a lot by cruise ship passengers because they flew right up to the balconies.

We were just in port for a few hours. There were night tours of Butchart Gardens (which is represented in the Canada pavilion in EPCOT), but that was not my boys’ thing. Our plan was to get off the ship and walk to a bar or restaurant so Nate could order a drink- he had turned 19 the previous month, and that is the legal age in British Columbia.

Is that the legal age in all of Canada? I don't know.


We got off the ship and were welcomed to Canada

There were signs indicating walking paths- we could go into town (right) or we could walk towards the waterfront to some shops and restaurants.



Most people chose the route into town, but we made a left towards Fisherman's Wharf. There was one other family we could see heading that way.


Along the path, we passed some legit Canada geese:

When we got to Fisherman’s Wharf, we found that most of the shops and dining places had either closed, or were just quick takeout places. Not what we were looking for.


We continued down the road, through a park, to a hotel that housed The Blue Crab Seafood House.

Blue Crab Seafood House


I don’t think I have a picture, but the dining room had beautiful views overlooking the harbor.


We took a seat in the bar and ordered a couple of appetizers and drinks.


We got fried calamari and Ben ordered the clam chowder, which was A-MAY-ZING! Being from New England, I have had my share of chowda, and this was either the best or second best I have sampled. YUM!


Nate’s first legal drink was an Old Fashioned:

Bourbon whiskey, Angostura® bitters, water, sugar, maraschino cherry and orange.

According to Esquire magazine: A mighty fine drink it is: strong, square-jawed, with just enough civilization to keep you from hollerin' like a mountain-jack.


Mark got a Local Gin & Tonic: Phillips stump forest gin with Phillips mint cucumber tonic & fresh lime

I was intrigued by the local soft drink used to make Mark's drink, a cucumber and mint tonic, but it actually was not very good.

It was pretty dark when we were done eating, and I was kind of concerned because there were not many people out on the roads on the way back to our ship. I know we were probably safe, but I would have felt better with more tourists around.

But before long, we were back at the fenced-in port and popped into the (VERY) crowded gift shop. You couldn’t even move around in there, so we didn’t stick around.

Upon our return, we retired for our last night on board.


Next up: Disembarkation/Seattle

 

[Wood Nymph]

I believe there is an eclipse in about 7 years that will be very close to where we are currently living.

I've kept our eclipse glasses for the next eclipse. We had 90% totality for this year's eclipse and should have 94% for the next eclipse. But I'm hoping to get into an area that has total coverage because that would be awesome to see.

I've never seen clam chowder served with clam shells. It looks delicious - and huge!

An Old Fashion used to be a popular drink for my parents' generation. Its funny to see drinks like Old Fashion and Manhattan come back into style again.

 

[natebenma]

I've kept our eclipse glasses for the next eclipse. We had 90% totality for this year's eclipse and should have 94% for the next eclipse. But I'm hoping to get into an area that has total coverage because that would be awesome to see.

I've never seen clam chowder served with clam shells. It looks delicious - and huge!

An Old Fashion used to be a popular drink for my parents' generation. Its funny to see drinks like Old Fashion and Manhattan come back into style again.

Just after the eclipse I read about a place you could recycle viewing glasses by sending them to South America for people to view a coming eclipse there.

The clam chowder was awesome and it was huge. More than it needed to be since we had a full dinner just a couple of hours before!

That is totally not the way we make or serve clam chowder here in New England and in fact, the clams being used are the "wrong" ones too. We use softshelled steamer clams for our chowder. But my other favorite chowder was a house-made chowder at the Captain's Grille/Yacht Club back in 2013. Also served with the whole little neck clams. So maybe there is something to that!




Same type of bowl, too!

 

[mickeystoontown]

How in the world did I miss this report? Probably because I've been as busy as a bear trying to catch a salmon swimming upstream. Okay, that was a bad bad joke, I know. But I'm here and I'm all caught up and ready for more!

 

[Dizly]

Enjoying reading about your trip.

 

[natebenma]

How in the world did I miss this report? Probably because I've been as busy as a bear trying to catch a salmon swimming upstream. Okay, that was a bad bad joke, I know. But I'm here and I'm all caught up and ready for more!

No worries, my friend! I know you are crazy busy, and I appreciate you relating your description to my update.

Enjoying reading about your trip.

to the DIS!

Thanks for joining in to my report.

 

[wdwnut61]

That’s great you were able to see the eclipse on your cruise.
Great pictures glad you had your glasses.
So cool you got to see some whales

 

[wdwnut61]

Love your pictures of Victoria so pretty.
Glad one of the birds didn’t fly into your stateroom lol.
I’m so hungry looking at that calamari and clam chowder YUM is right.

 

[natebenma]

That’s great you were able to see the eclipse on your cruise.
Great pictures glad you had your glasses.
So cool you got to see some whales

It really was a struggle to get the glasses. By the time we realized we needed to order them and receive them by Saturday August 12. Local places and Amazon were out of stock until after we left for Seattle, so we had to order from ebay and hope they would arrive in time!

It was fun being on deck looking for whales.

Love your pictures of Victoria so pretty.
Glad one of the birds didn’t fly into your stateroom lol.
I’m so hungry looking at that calamari and clam chowder YUM is right.

Thank you.

I wonder if the birds ever make it into a cabin. YIKES!

The food was really good. It is actually too bad we weren't hungrier.

 

[natebenma]

Wishing everybody love and peace and lots of Disney magic in the coming year!

 

[amazingact21]

That's high praise for clam chowder! Glad it was as delicious as you made it sound.

Hah, living over here in Europe, where the drinking age is 18, I forgot about the novelty of traveling somewhere where it's lower than 21 when you're that young. I'm sure your son appreciated the ability to indulge. (Makes me miss the days where I was carded.)

I would have thought, being summertime and all, there would have been more people out and about. But I guess with a lot of shops closed not many people ventured out.

 

[natebenma]

That's high praise for clam chowder! Glad it was as delicious as you made it sound.

Hah, living over here in Europe, where the drinking age is 18, I forgot about the novelty of traveling somewhere where it's lower than 21 when you're that young. I'm sure your son appreciated the ability to indulge. (Makes me miss the days where I was carded.)

I would have thought, being summertime and all, there would have been more people out and about. But I guess with a lot of shops closed not many people ventured out.

I only had a couple of bites of Ben's clam chowder, but it was REALLY good!

He mostly wanted the novelty of being able to order a drink legally.

When I was growing up, the legal drinking age was different state to state. Vermont was 18 and I believe it was 20 in NH where Mark and I lived. We were 20 and legal when the age changed to 21 throughout the country, so we were grandfathered for a few months until we turned 21.

I was uncomfortable walking around an unfamiliar place with nobody else around.

 

[natebenma]

Get Off the Boat!!! Disembarkation in Seattle


Last morning!


As usual, I woke early and went up on deck to fill my coffee cup.

The view of the Seattle skyline was beautiful!













As we were pulling into the dock, we all went up to get breakfast from the buffet. I just have a couple of picture of the pastry offerings.








We had decided the night before that we would carry off our own luggage so that we didn’t have to pack frantically the night before or hunt for our suitcases at the dock. After breakfast, we went back to our cabin to wait for the call over the intercom that it was our turn to disembark. I think they were doing it floor by floor.


This was the view from our balcony once we pulled into the pier.











There were a bunch of otters swimming and putting on a show just off this jetty. Even with my very telephoto lens, I didn’t get a great shot.





We had reserved a shuttle to bring us back to the Hampton Inn, downtown Seattle. We were staying another night so we could explore the city more and fly home the next morning.

We met the greeter for our shuttle, but it took quite a while, maybe up to an hour, before our ride arrived. There was a large family of around 12-15 people with accompanying luggage who did not have an advanced reservation who I think jacked our van from Seattle Shuttle. We had been waiting longer at the curb and they ended up getting out of there before we did. Good thing we weren’t in a rush to catch a flight!

We arrived at the hotel and checked in. I believe that there was a room ready for us, so we dumped off our stuff and got ready to head out for more sight-seeing.


Next Up: Sightseeing in Seattle Aug 14 and Aug 22

 

[Wood Nymph]

Your pictures of Seattle at sunrise are beautiful. The harbor looks jammed packed with boats. I guess it is a busy place.

We met the greeter for our shuttle, but it took quite a while, maybe up to an hour, before our ride arrived. There was a large family of around 12-15 people with accompanying luggage who did not have an advanced reservation who I think jacked our van from Seattle Shuttle. We had been waiting longer at the curb and they ended up getting out of there before we did. Good thing we weren’t in a rush to get to the airport!

I would be a little irked if that happened to us.