2022-05-14: Sailing the Inside Passage

We woke up at about 7:15am this morning which is earlier that we would have liked. The ships clocks moved back an hour to Alaska Daylight Time so we have gone through two time changes in two days. Today is a sea day while we sail through the Inside Passage. We enjoyed the view from our veranda and took it easy for a bit before getting cleaned up and dressed for the day. We saw some whales spouting in the distance but they were too far away to really see. We could just see the water spouts. We headed up to grab some breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe before wandering around the ship for a bit.

We stopped at the shops to check out their daily sale. They are also giving away some charms and such throughout the cruise so Amanda picked up today’s freebies. We participated in a paper airplane competition. They gave us a sheet of paper to build an airplane and we launched them from the second story of the foyer through a hula hoop they hung in the air. Unfortunately, neither of our planes felt the need to traverse the hoop which eliminated us from the competition. The second round was a distance test to see which plane would travel the farthest. It was a fun activity.

Our next activity was colouring some pictures in Cellar Masters to the music of a live band. It was a nice way to pass half an hour or so before we headed back to the Oceanview Cafe for some lunch. We returned to our room after lunch and relaxed for the afternoon while we sailed by Haida Gwaii. Our cabin steward brought us a tray of canapes to enjoy in the room at 3:00pm. Darrell had a nap while Amanda read her book for a while.

Once Darrell woke up, we decided to go for a dip in the hot tub. We headed to the pool deck. We walked through the Solarium and noticed that there were a few people in the pool and hot tubs there. We decided we’re Canadians and used sitting in a hot tub in cooler outside air so would check out the tubs by the outdoor pool. We were a little surprised to see that no one was in the four hot tubs by the outdoor pool. We stepped into one of the tubs and quickly discovered why no one was in them. It was cold! We quickly got out and headed to the Solarium hot tubs instead. We noticed a commotion in the Solarium as we walked in and people were standing by the windows. We looked out and saw whales! There were a lot of them putting on a bit of a show for us. We watched them for a bit until the whale action slowed down, then hopped into hot tub in the Solarium which was actually warm. When we were nicely cooked in the hot tub, we hopped out and watched the whales for a few more minutes before returning to our room.

Tonight was an “evening chic” night so we had to dress up a little fancier. We got ourselves cleaned up and dressed in our evening attire. We headed out hoping to get a few pictures taken before dinner. Surprisingly, the photographers weren’t taking any photos until later in the evening. So, we made our way to the dining room for dinner. Amanda had a crab cake, french onion soup, steak diane, and a phylo pastry with cream and fruit for dinner. Darrell had a tomato and watermelon salad, corn soup, rack of lamb, and warm apple crumble a la mode. The food was very tasty. A couple of ladies from Orlando by the names of Laura and Lauren were seated at the table beside us and we had a lovely conversation with them throughout dinner.

After dinner, we headed to the evening show. Tonight’s performance was “Boogie Wonderland” by the ship’s singers and dancers. It was a musical performance set in the 70s. We really enjoyed the show. Our cruise director was dressed in a yellow suit and made a comment about being sponsored by Colonel Mustard. After the show, we found the photographers and had a few pictures taken. The same band that was playing in Cellar Masters while we were colouring earlier was playing in the Grand Foyer. The group’s name is “Supernova Duo”. They play covers of other songs but in their own style. We quite enjoy their music so we stuck around and listened to them play for about half an hour until they finished their set. You can really tell how empty the ship is. There were only a handful of people in the foyer enjoying the music which is not normal. We went up to the pool deck and did one last loop outside before returning to our room for the night. We saw what looked to be another ship sailing behind us. Darrell looked it up and it’s the Celebrity Solstice. Both ships will be in Ketchikan for the day tomorrow. Once we returned to our stateroom, we called it a night.