Fun day at sea. Well, that’s how the cruise daily newsletter described Wednesday 9th May.

Sometime during the night we hit rough seas, with the ship being forced sideways and then dipping nose down into the sea. Is went on all night and when we awoke next morning it was still shake, rattle and rolling. We got up and showered, struggling to stay within the confines of the shower cubicle as the sea continued its game of toss with us. After dressing we were going to breakfast when we both felt a little ill and unsteady on our little legs. We went back to bed. Woke again at 11.30 headed to breakfast but by the time we got their my stomach was lurching in the opposite direction to the ship and I couldn’t eat. Ty felt the same but, being a diabetic, he needed to eat, so he struggled on but I went back to the cabin. When he came down a little later, I was already lying on the bed, he joined me and that’s where we stayed till 4pm!!!!! When we woke at 4 the sea was calm again and we were starving….off we went to the restaurant area and had breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea…..in the form of a sandwich. Then we went shopping because that helps revitalise the spirit, well, mine anyway.

Hmm, they have blue diamonds (quite like blue diamonds) in the jewellery shop so I had to try on several rings, very pretty rings, unfortunately, or fortunately for Ty, the ones I liked were a little small for my finger. What a shame but probably a good thing as my budget for this trip is limited. Remember this sentence if you read further blogs based on the Alaskan cruise.

As I said above I resisted the diamond rings but not so the Guess handbag and the Chanel atomiser with 3 vials. Well, let’s face it Guess handbags are a little expensive in Australia so $88 was a good price and the perfume @ $69 was considerably cheaper than $134 at Sydney airport – what’s a girl to do? Snap it up for the cheaper price of course!!!! However, I’m not at all impressed without tax free shopping in Aus as I purchased one of these at Sydney airport in the tax free as we left for the trip. So, how can the price for the same product be so much dearer supposedly tax free at home? Does anyone have an explanation …. love to be enlightened.

After the shopping experience it was time for coffee, there were 2 coffee shops on board, one on deck 9 and the other on deck 2. Deck 2 coffee shop also serves monster slices of cake. As we sat sharing a very large slice of strawberry cheesecake it felt like the middle of the day, even though we hadn’t risen until 4pm, it was hard to comprehend it was now 7.30pm and so light outside.

Later that evening we wandered into the casino and found they still have smoking areas on the ship. Even though there was one section deemed non smoking it didn’t make much difference as it’s hard to keep cigarette smoke confined to one area in a large room. There was also a smoking area at the back of the Deck 9 eating area. I’ve got so used to being in non smoking environments that it surprised me to have smoking areas inside on the ship.

I had planned to take advantage of a day at sea and do lots of things like paint my nails, huh, didn’t get round to that today, check out some of the happenings around the theatres, didn’t get round to that either!! We did sit on deck for an hour or so….until our noses turned red from cold and our fingers froze (yes, we had gloves on). The pool wasn’t seeing any action however the spa had a couple of people in it but unless you were an eskimo rugged up was the order of the day. The water slides were closed and the entry gates locked although I have no idea why, did they think someone would be brave enough in these icy conditions to go for a water slide???

We took a walk around the ship eventually pulling up a stool at the Piano Bar. The pianist, Keith, was playing and singing 60’s tunes so we sat for an hour, had a drink and sang along. After which we headed to an adults only comedy hour. Doug Williams was the comedian. We sat next to a couple of ladies one from Seattle and one from LA. We chatted for awhile before, after and during the show.

Time now to say goodnight…….ship started its dance routine again although not as violent as last night. As I drift off I imagine the ship to be a paper boat floating in the bathtub with a large hand thumping the water every so often to make the little paper boat tip every which way.

Tomorrow we reach Tracy Arm Fjord a place I’m very much looking forward to.

The photos below are of our cabin and the water slides on the very top of the ship.