One month in Alaska 2015: August 16, 2015-Breakfast at Hooper Bay Cafe, Coach to Seward, Kenai Fjords National Park 6 hour cruise, HAL Zaandam boarding, dinner buffet Lido

ZAANDAM

Our bags are tagged and to be left inside our room for transfer to our cruise ship Zaandam. We are scheduled for the Anchorage to Seward coach at 7:45 am. We will grab breakfast at Hooper Bay Cafe which is located in the hotel lobby It starts serving breakfast at 6:00 am. It is 7:00 am now so we do have time to eat. I order my usual boring breakfast of 1 egg over easy, toast, and coffee. Richard orders 1 egg over easy but with a bagel. Bill $33 tip included. There is a marathon race being held this morning in Anchorage. You can see the runners on the street. Also a moose. By the time I grab my camera the moose has moved out of sight. Drat! We joke that he/she was a marathon participant.

My breakfast

Richard's breakfast.

Marathon runners

Leaving Anchorage

Our coach has no seat assignments so I grab a window seat with Richard sitting next to me. I don't take many pictures as we have traveled along Turnagain Arm before on our way to Homer at the beginning of our trip. It's a dismal day, not conducive to good picture taking. Our driver has to circle through the town of Seward as there are other large coaches and he has nowhere to stop to let us off for the Kenai Fjords tour. He does let Richard off so he can go over to the Breeze Inn to retrieve his left behind clothing. As we circle back around there's an opening for him to stop this large coach/bus. There's Richard with his clothes!! We get off and all of us walk over the short distance to where our boat awaits. We have tickets for the Callisto Voyager of Kenai Fjords Tours. After this we will have cruised through the waters of the Kenai Fjords with 3 different companies-Major Marine, Saltwater Lodge, and Kenai Fjords Tours. We will enjoy them all but I really prefer the smaller boats. Our wildlife sightings are more or less the same. Each provides a deli style lunch. I would do them all again.

Everyone trying to take this picture

We have arrived in Seward

We board the Callisto and start to head out of the Seward small boat harbor into Resurrection Bay. Our captain is Terry. We pass a pair of bald eagles, more eagles sitting on equipment, then otters. I will get my best pictures of otters on this trip. I love them!! A bird rookery with tons of sea birds. Sea lions, puffins. A mountain goat. We do see the backs of whales gliding through the water but no fin slapping or tail action. Our captain is the best narrator of the 3 trips. He tries very hard to spot us some whale action but is unlucky. The weather is dreary-rainy and cold. Low visibility. We see some hearty kayakers and other tour boats. We don't see any orcas. Our lunch is a turkey or chicken wrap, a small bag of chips, protein bar, chocolate chip cookie. Not bad. We spend about 30 minutes in front of Aialik Glacier-few small but no major calvings.

Our cruise ship Zaandam is waiting

Small boat harbor-Seward

View of Breeze Inn and to the right-Ray's Waterfront restaurant

Leaving the harbor

Otters

Kittiwakes

Sleepyheads

Horned puffin and common murre

Mountain goat

Whale

Another whale

Kayakers

Another tour boat-Glacier Express??

Chocolate chip cookies were yummy

Lunch by the Ailik Glacier

The sandwich wrap was good

Poor visibility Aialik Glacier

Not good weather for cameras!

Love the blue

Ice floe

Back to the harbor and back on a waiting coach to take us over to where we will board our cruise ship. We follow the signs and enter a huge building. Stand in line and when it's your turn after relaying your identity via passport you get your picture taken and are issued your pass key/guest ID card for your cabin and which you will use every time to get on and off the ship. Of course there's a photographer that takes your welcome onboard picture. All during this cruise pictures will be taken-at the formal dinner evenings, at the ports, during our time in Glacier Bay......... All available for purchase. We find our way to board the ship with a line of ship employees standing to greet you. We find our cabin #6166 on the Verandah Deck. Our luggage is inside. There's a brochure on the bed which details all the events occurring on the ship for today. The cabin is much larger than I expected. The bathroom even has a tub/shower combo. The tub has whirl jets!! There are 2 single beds which can be pushed together. A nice seating area with a couch (converts to sofa bed) table, TV. Sliding door gives access to a small verandah. It has a chair, small table, and a lounger type chair. Very nice. I'm happy with our cabin. A short walk to the elevators. On our cabin key is also the information as to what your lifeboat muster station is. Ours is #8. There will be a drill tonight before we leave port. If you don't show up/participate you run the risk of being told to leave the ship. We also meet the 2 young men who are our stateroom stewards-Koko and Agus. Big smiles, very friendly telling us to only ask and they will provide. The ship's crew is Indonesian and well chosen as all the staff will be welcoming/warm/smiling.

Boarding the coach that will take us to where we will board our cruise ship

This is the building we enter to begin our boarding process

Follow the signs

Jets in the tub!!

Brochure for 8/16

We decide to remain in our cabin as it appears per loudspeaker that our drill will be around 7:00 pm. We unpack. Then we hear the Captain over the sound system. We wait to hear the general emergency alarm. First are the alarms for the ship's crew. We don't take anything with us except outer warm clothing and our ID card. Not even my camera is with me. We find our muster station. Check in with the crew member there and then wait. Everyone is checked off for our station except for 1 cabin. Oh, oh. We wait while other stations get dismissed and leave. Finally we can leave but the missing cabin occupants never appear to my knowledge. We learn later via gossip that they were found in their cabin but didn't get thrown off the ship. Maybe they didn't understand the alarm?? It was in English and maybe they don't know/understand English?? Not my problem to speculate.

Time to seek out dinner. We choose the LIDO buffet. I get chicken, roasted potatoes, several kinds of veggies, a salad. Dessert is cake with strawberry filling and a scoop of strawberry ice cream. I don't remember what Richard got but I know he had a big salad. The buffet has a huge amount of choices. You can really pig out if you want. So many dessert choices too. We have soda cards as part of our cruise but opt for coffee which is free. We do some exploring of the ship to get our bearings. The Lido Deck pool and hot tubs are empty/closed. Dive In where you can order hot dogs, hamburgers by the pool is closed. We retire to our cabin hopeful of a good night's sleep. But first I have to try out that jetted tub. OMG, when I press the button to activate the jets the water starts to splash out of the tub all over the bathroom floor! I quickly push the button to stop and I won't try this feature again during our cruise. Who knew they would be so powerful? What a letdown. Maybe I did something wrong?? The beds are comfortable but not very wide or long. Richard is 6'2" and his feet dangle over the edge of the bed!! There is a brochure on the bed for tomorrow which details all planned events occurring on the ship. As you open it to read you can find highlights of the day, what's going on with music & the lounges, dining information, etc.