Cruising the Inside Passage - Whittier
Highlights
What a laugh. Our letter had advised that we needed to check in with "Customs and Immigration" at 6:45. That was never going to happen. We had been up all night checking the sky hoping for a break on the weather to catch those elusive lights. To be honest, even without that, there’s no way @Mac was going to be a willing participant at that time of day.
Ignored the designated call to Customs and presented for a light breakfast before reporting at 9.45 am.
The interesting part of the conversation was that @Mac insisted we didn’t have a designated time. The letter detailing our timeslot had arrived with the Customs Declaration form and for some reason I hadn’t actually sighted the info. But having great faith in @Mac I assumed his constant declaration of “We haven’t been given a time” was accurate. We had engaged in discussion with quite a few groups over the last two days who were not happy with their early timeslot. We kept reassuring them it must be because they were disembarking or they had an excursion. Anyway .. didn’t really matter …
Perhaps the most welcoming reception we’ve ever had to America - a smiling, quietly spoken border official who made small talk and invited us to enjoy our time in the US. Very refreshing.
Of course, there were the usual stragglers for checkin and we had to endure (with loads of laughter) the hour long progression of announcements and calls for the guests who hadn’t completed the procedure.
#Whittier- hmmm, what can I say. Maybe "miserable" is the first word that springs to mind. Our view, from the warmth of the ship was no more inspiring in the light of day than it had been at night. You would think after all these days at sea, we would be busting to get ashore. Nothing was further from the truth. I literally wrapped myself up in a cocoon of a blanket and hoped @Mac wouldn’t find me. I am thinking maybe the red and black check blanket was a dead give away — maybe it was the #Medallion. It was pouring rain and blowing a gale and all we could see outside was a tin shed, a glass domed train and a marina.
Opted instead to fortify ourselves with comfort food and tried #Alfredo’s for the first time. A speciality pizza place - we were able to tuck into a three course offering of soup, salad and pizza. Mind you @Mac opted to skip the salad and substituted a tiramisu which he proclaimed the "best of the trip so far."
While munching our way slowly through this combo (and BTW this was our first encounter of a shared dining room with the background noise of children who were "not happy") - we acknowledged that we really did need to make the effort to go ashore. The saddest thing was that staff, both from the ship and from Port security had to be out in the miserable conditions all day - they were set up and suffering - we needed to support them. I am not sure there was any spot you could pull up in, out of the wind and rain. The weather report was reading "4 degrees - feels like minus 1!" There were plenty of staff to attest to the minus 1 bit and one staff member informed us this was unseasonally cold for this time of year. How lucky are we ... NOT.
Anyway, our little attack of the guilts had us suited up and out and ready to have a look. My little red poppy umbrella didn’t pass the muster - it turned inside out as soon as we left the protective tunnel and hit the wind. I had been concerned because we didn’t have any US $ in cash - a wasted worry - all the "sensible" locals were somewhere else. All I can say is that we saw the train up close. Saw the boats in the marina up closer. Visited the hotel - which was closed because of water damage and were reassured by some signage it would be reopening soon. Visited the one souvenir store in town - it had a sign on it that indicated the owner had gone fishing and displayed a phone number on it if we really needed something.
The reason we were anchored here was because it was near #Anchorage - 100 kms I think.
Anyway, this was the turnaround point for the cruise. Passengers leave the ship here as the end of the #Pacific Crossing leg of the itinerary and new passengers join the ship for the #Alaska to #Vancouver leg. All that tooing and froing of passengers is accomplished by accessing a 4 km tunnel - the only way in and out of town. The tunnel operates on a 30 minute window of access - it is a single lane tunnel - so traffic enters at one end for 15 minutes ... then it is blocked off while those vehicles make their way through. Not the place to get caught on the "other side" with a ship boarding deadline time to meet.
No risk of that for us - we lasted a whole insufferable 30 minutes ashore and were unanimous in our vote to return "home." We were cold, wet and miserable and were motivated to sprint to security because we saw the line of tour buses emerging from the tunnel. We were determined to beat the crowd - no doubt - they were the newbies about to board.
Needed the luxury of the never ending hot shower to warm up and then headed to tonight’s show which featured another #Vegas entertainer covering one of the greats. This time, it was @Jassen Allan and his "All Night Long" tribute show to #Lionel Ritchie. An enthusiastic performer - and yes, he too could really sing- who loved audience participation in his "party" and he wanted everyone up and out of their seats and dancing along. We did our best but wouldn’t rate us as headliners for his party atmosphere - definitely describe ourselves as minimalists.
Left @Jassen to do his second show and made our way to the dining room. We are usually 6 pm dinner people at home but have easily made the adjustment to our regular appearance for a late dinner - I guess it makes a difference that we are not cooking or cleaning up! The wait staff are always so welcoming - the menu choices hit the spot every night. And it doesn’t seem late, because it is perpetually light! Sunset is still happening after 10 pm.
Again, hyped for the call out for the Northern Lights but have been told we can relax and sleep tonight - the @Captain’s got it covered and will announce it from the bridge. We have checked every weather site possible and have decided to can "preparing the clothes" - we have predicted NO chance of a call out ... it is rain, rain and rain with 100% chance of cloud cover as we continue to make our way further south. Hope @Gary is snapping thousands of photos at home that we can enjoy!
PS Mother's Day at home and sending love, gratitude and admiration to all the ladies in our lives who fill that role. Lucky we were in port today and had reasonable reception so we could attempt to make some important calls. Thanks for keeping the home fires burning.
Weather: 4 degrees maximum, feels like minus 1
Steps: 8 543 - begrudging wet steps!
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