Sea Day #4 - Part 1

We started with breakfast at the Lido Buffet again today. Below is a picture of the congee station.






And I had a bowl of it again with tofu, seaweed, crisp shallots and sesame seeds. It was very tasty and I know I will remember it fondly when I am back home eating my usual toast and peanut butter for breakfast.







We had two really outstanding servers at the Lido, Jonathan and Suresh. Below is a picture of Suresh, who always gave us spectacular service in the Lido and occasionally in the main dining room. As an example, he noticed that we always sought out a table by the window at breakfast. During the Grand Gala Buffet, when Suresh saw us walk into the dining room, he stepped forward, took both of our plates and rushed them to the last remaining window seat.




After breakfast, we went to our last bridge lesson and then searched for the pictures that the onboard photographers had taken of us. Below is a picture of the hallway where all of the pictures were displayed.




The pictures were pricy so we only got 2 of them. This one is my favorite:




We also played team trivia again, but didn't fare as well today with only 6 out of 15 answers correct. Your sample question for the day:

Q. In the cockney rhyming dialect what does, "I can't Adam and Eve it!" mean?

After the trivia game, we spent quite a while trying to check in an print our boarding passes for our flight home. Crystal offered a free 20 minutes of Internet time to all passengers for this today, but with the ultra slow connection, that wasn't enough time for us. We eventually decided to just log off and try again later when there would be less people using the bandwidth.




The picture below is of the amazing computer lab they have set up for computer classes. We didn't take any of those classes, but were impressed by the huge monitors.




We ate in the main dining room for lunch. I started with an avocado and palm heart "cocktail" that was very good. All the avocados have been really delicious.




Ross ordered a jumbo shrimp cocktail, which was good, although I don't like my shrimp drowned in cocktail sauce the way it was presented here.




For the main course, Ross had a shrimp salad that was good.





I ordered a pan fried white fish over paella and it was fantastic. I am so sorry to say that I forgot to take a picture. There was a lot of seafood in the paella and it had a very well seasoned and slightly spicy flavor. It was one of my favorite lunch items for the entire cruise.

A. "I can't believe it!"


To be continued in Sea Day #4 - Part 2


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Ketchikan, Alaska

We were a little late getting to Ketchikan, AK this morning. We didn't arrive until almost 10:30am because of rough seas last night.

We went to the Bistro for breakfast this morning. The Bistro serves a much smaller selection of breakfast offerings than our usual Lido buffet, mostly just pastries, some sliced meat and fruit. We both had smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel (Ross) or toast (Shannon), along with fruit and a cappuccino.

After breakfast, we took a tender to Ketchikan. When we left the Symphony, it was cloudy, but not really raining.

Fifteen minutes later, when we arrived in Ketchikan, it was pouring rain. I estimate about 1/3 of the people on the tender didn't even get off. They just stayed on and went back to the Symphony. Of course, we didn't let the rain stop us.

There was an interesting statue of an eagle near the dock that many people were taking pictures of.

The main drag looked almost exactly like the other Alaskan towns we have been to, full of jewelry and trinket stores.


We stopped at a post office and I wrote and mailed several post cards.

This beautiful totem pole was in the center of town.

We made our way to Creek Street, which is a historic part of Ketchikan. The entire street is a wooden boardwalk that was built above the creek. It used to be the red light district, but now is full of historical buildings, local art and curio shops. We thought it was one of the most interesting places and the best shopping location for the entire trip. In the picture below, Ross was standing on a regular street, and you creek street is across the creek and behind him.

I am standing under the entrance sign to Creek Street.

Ross is standing in front of the infamous Dolly Arthur's house. Dolly referred to herself as a "sporting woman", but I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine what sport she was playing.

We thought this fish bench was adorable and I was about to take a picture of Ross in front of it when nice couple we had met at our wine tasting walked by and offered to take the picture of both us.

There is a hidden trail in the woods leading from one of the main roads in Ketchikan to Creek Street. It was aptly named "Married Man's Trail" because the single men were able to use the public way. :)

At one point the creek turned into more of a rushing waterfall. I wish I had a better picture, but behind Ross is a "salmon ladder" that many of the salmon use to make their way up the stream instead of the rapids. The creek was so flooded, running high and fast that we only saw a couple of salmon trying to get up it though.

After viewing the salmon ladder, we headed back to the ship. We made it back in time for afternoon tea again.

I mentioned the scone's right? And the fresh whipped cream and strawberries? Oh my, these were good.

As the Symphony prepared to sail away from Ketchikan, I desperately tried to post my blog and send some emails before I lost contact with the Internet again. I took one last picture of Alaska before we headed back towards San Francisco.

We lounged around, reading, until it almost dinner time. Ross snapped this picture of me getting ready.

It was another casual night (as all port days are), but dinner on this ship is never a blue jeans and t-shirt sort of casual.

We ended up being invited to eat dinner with our friends again this evening so I wasn't able to snap any photos of our food. We had a wonderful time talking with some of the members of the Cruise Critic message boards I read, along with 2 lovely couples we met from Australia.

After dinner we went to see Dale Goneyea, who is a comedy pianist. Ross and I both thought he was wonderfully entertaining. The highlight was a very funny song about our cruise set to a montage of the Les Miserables sound track. (Something like: "At the end of the cruise, you're another size bigger! And that's all you can say for the life aboard...") I was very glad we went to his show, and I would recommend seeing his show if you get the chance.

Only 2 days left of our cruise! Tomorrow and the next day will both be sea days as we head back to San Francisco.

Sea Day #3

Today was our 3rd sea day. There was nothing but clouds and ocean when we looked out our window this morning.









We started our day with breakfast at the Lido again.



After breakfast, we went to our bridge class, which was not as fun as the first couple of lessons. Our instructor lectured most of the time and it was difficult to comprehend the rules without actually playing. She talked about scoring for example, but we didn't get to practice it, so what she said is already an unclear memory.




After bridge, we had a fantastic cappuccino at the Bistro.




Last night we were invited to play team trivia today so we met our teammates in the Starlight lounge at noon. Most of this quiz was about Alaska, which our teammates explained was unusual because the quiz is usually a mix of general knowledge questions.





Here is one sample question for you (answer to be revealed at the end of this post):

Q. How many lakes are in Alaska?

Our team did very well. We tied 2 other teams with 10 out of 15 correct answers and then won the tie breaker. A photo of our winning team:






After trivia, we went to the main dining room for lunch. On the recommendation of a man sitting at the next table, we both ordered the calamari salad and were disappointed with it. The calamari was under seasoned and too chewy, almost as if it had been sitting too long before we were served.




We didn't order anything else partly because the special Mozart Tea was being given this afternoon and we wanted to be at least a little hungry for it. :)

We spent some time in our room, reading and blogging.




We attended another wine tasting with James Cluer. This one focused on the wines in Napa, California and Bordeaux, France.




We tasted 2 wines from Napa and 2 from Bordeaux. My favorite was the 2007 Shafer Valley Merlot. Most of the other passengers also preferred the Napa wines, but James Cluer mentioned that a French palate would probably prefer the slightly less sweet Bordeaux varieties.







I got a kick out of James Cluer description of the Bordeaux wines as having a "barnyard" flavor.





After the wine tasting we went up to Palm Court for the once-a-cruise Mozart Tea. There were many other people at tea today and we actually had to wander around Palm Court for a bit before we found an empty table.

When we sat down we were presented with this menu. I chose the Celebration tea and Ross had the special Hot Chocolate "Amadeus" which was hot chocolate with dark rum topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Very yummy!





There was a lavish buffet of tea sandwiches and pastries. All of the servers dressed in period costume and you can see one of them behind the buffet table at the top of the picture below.



The Ginger Quartet played during the tea.



One of my favorite pieces of pastry was the Linzer slice, which had a crumbly texture and a nutty flavor with a thin layer of tart fruity jam in the center.




After the tea we read and napped until it was time to get ready for dinner.

Tonight was our second formal night so we got to really dress up again.




To start I ordered caviar accompanied by cooked and grated egg yolk. It was served with warm blinis which were so tasty, they overshadowed the caviar.



Ross ordered Oysters Rockefeller which was creamy and delicious.




I had the cream of asparagus soup which was wonderful.




Ross had the Captain's salad which he felt was very plain.




I ordered a veal medallion for my entrée and thought it was good, but not spectacular.




Ross's Beef Wellington entrée was the star of the night. The meat was tender and seasoned perfectly. It was one of the best dishes we have had on the ship, and that is saying something.

I should also mention that one of the other entrées was a lobster tail so Ross ordered one of those on the side, too. It was sweet and tender.




For dessert, we both ordered Baked Alaska which we had never had before. It was overly sweet with no complexity and the ice cream was bland. I was disappointed, but I don't know if I don't like Baked Alaska or if just didn't like this one.





Luckily, one of our friends had special ordered a St. Honoré cake for a Birthday celebration and we were lucky enough to be able to sample it. I thought it was very good and a wonderful treat.




After dinner, we spent about an hour packing. What a sad task.



Tomorrow is our last day. :(

A. 3 million lakes. I couldn't believe it!

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Location:Lamar Ave,Prairie Village,United States