Good morning. Today we are heading to Hubbard Glacier. I was torn on whether or not to book the Glacier Explorer tour for today. In the videos I’ve seen of Hubbard, it looks like the ships are able to get pretty close to it. And the cost of that excursion was significantly more than what I paid for Tracy Arm Fjord last year. But I ended up booking it. I look at this as a once in a lifetime deal. While I think I’m going to come back to Alaska, I may never go back to Hubbard glacier and I don’t want to miss anything. 

Let’s talk about the room. I like the TV stations. I like the outlets. I like the shower with the door. I like that they have liquid hand soap. If you like mirrors you’ll love that room. It’s got the big one behind the bed. The big one over the desk. And a tall thin one between the TV and bathroom. You can really see yourself from all angles at all times. It’s enough to satisfy one of those gym guys.

I really like this open closet.  

One difference between Carnival and NCL is NCL actually has a Starbucks. The name isn’t a big deal to me. What I do like is the size of this cup. That’s my coffee size. On Carnival I have to go back for a second coffee. That won’t be a problem here. And there’s no line for coffee. I don’t know if it’s just too early on the first morning or what, but no coffee line is pretty rare on Carnival. Its a quarter after 8 right now. That doesn’t seem too early to me.

Let’s step outside for a look.

Here is today’s schedule of events.

I’m hitting Tsar’s Palace for breakfast. 

It looks like they have table cloths for all meals on this ship. It doesn’t bother me either way but I know some people are obsessed with them.

So far the dining rooms are small but nice. I haven’t had any problem getting seated right away. Nobody has tried to seat me with a bunch of strangers. I’m not having to fight crowds of people hanging outside the dining room. We’ll see if that changes but it’s low stress so far.

It’s very possible that I just ate late last night and early this morning but we’ll see.

Biscuit and gravy.

Cinnamon raisin French toast

Crispy bacon

I really liked that French toast. What I ordered was biscuit and gravy, breakfast potatoes, French toast, and bacon.

The waiter brought me eggs Benedict and breakfast potatoes. He quickly fixed that with the biscuit and gravy. I never got the breakfast potatoes. I don’t know if those sausages come with the biscuit and gravy or if that was a mix up but I’m not a breakfast sausage guy.

This is a look at the dining room. It’s feels smaller than Carnival dining rooms but it’s very nice.

I headed up to O’Sheehans for drinks. They serve breakfast up here as well but it’s pretty empty right now.

I’m really getting used to being able to order two drinks at a time. Two screwdrivers for me.

I got a tip that I can access a PDF version of the Freestyle Daily in the Norwegian app but so far it doesn’t open.

After the screwdrivers I ordered bloody marys.

It took about 10 minutes to load the app but this is very much like the Carnival hub.

They’re setting up for fruit and vegetable carving.

I moved to the theater. This is your shore excursion sales presentation but it has a lot of good videos on Alaska.

This seat is better than what I had last night. It doesn’t feel as low. It doesn’t have the bar digging into me. There isn’t a ton of leg and arm room. It’s like the old Broadway theaters.

I think that front row is good for legroom and if you want to charge a device. But I don’t think they can see the entire stage if it’s a production show.

They have a Q&A starting up. I’m used to this being at the end of Carnival cruises. The Cruise Director is talking about crew member contracts. They go anywhere from 10 weeks to 8 months but 4 months seems to be the norm.

I saw a seriously entitled person down in the Q&A. I’m sitting patiently with my card out while bartender makes other drinks. I don’t shout out orders or anything. This lady walks up and expects immediate service. The next thing I know a white shirt grabs the bartender and points to her. The bartender takes her order but points at me and says “he’s been waiting longer.” He made my drinks first and that lady went back over and talked to the white shirt.

If they mix in some different things like this it could make up for the lack of comedy. 

The Spinnaker Lounge is great for views.

They have a Thriller dance class going on.

This presentation is called Mega Cruise Ships. It’s really just sales pitch. Carnival used to do this. 

Now they’re talking about Cruise Next deposits.

After that presentation I stopped by the veterans gathering.

Afterward I noticed the Cruise Director went around and talked to everyone.

When they have entertainment happening in the atrium they rope off the steps up to O’Sheehans. All that means is you have to walk around the corner to use the main stairwell or elevators but this is pretty convenient when it’s open.

I’m walking through the shops on my way to lunch.

I’m back at Tsar’s Palace for lunch. Again I was seated immediately.

Cobb salad

Corn hush puppies

Turkey cottage pie

Chocolate mousse

After lunch I had to get ready for my excursion. The steward has been in my room.

I’m heading down to the meeting point. Right after I took this picture I shouted out “does anyone know where you go for the glacier excursion?” It turns out one of my table mates from the train is down there and calls me out. We took a few minutes to catch up on the events of the past 24 hours.

For full coverage of my excursion, please visit Hubbard Glacier Explorer. I’m going to skip ahead to after the excursion now.

I was torn on whether or not to go on that excursion. I’m glad did that because it’s 5:15, this ship is nowhere near the glacier, and I’m not sure it’s going to get there.

I was really torn on booking that excursion. I saw so many videos on YouTube of the ship getting almost as close to the glacier as the excursion boats. But I guess they don’t post videos of times that it’s too foggy for the ship to get in there. That’s what happened yesterday. I’d be surprised if the people on the ship got to see the glacier at all.

Those clothes are probably going to be hanging for the rest of the cruise.

I’ve only had this happen a few times. This is another area where the cordless battery pack I bought came in handy. I couldn’t plug in to charge but I could use the pack. I kept it on through dinner and it got me up from 5% to 83%.

This explains why I don’t have a do not disturb sign in the room.

I’m heading to the Spinnaker Lounge to see if I can see the glacier at all.

The glacier is nowhere in sight. I don’t think the people on the ship got to see it at all. Always book the excursion.

It’s 6:30pm. I haven’t made dinner plans any of the nights. I do have a few specialty dinners to use up so I decided to walk up to Cagney’s. I had no problem getting right in.

Someone is having a birthday.

Here is a look at the menu.

Bread

Oysters Rockefeller 

Lobster bisque

Potatoes au gratin

Risotto

Ribeye

7 layer cake

That was good. I don’t think it’s as good as the Carnival steakhouse. But the price is right having one of those included in my cruise price and two more included in my internet/beverage upgrade.

“Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou.”  A band is playing Hank Williams’ Jambalaya in the Spinnaker Lounge.

I grabbed a couple beers and took a seat.

The perfect couple show was next. I thought this was going to be like the Love & Marriage show on Carnival.

But it wasn’t…

Let’s look one of the spacious bathrooms.

I headed to the main lounge for Rock You Tonight. I went for a front row seat with legroom. I call this the Chicago seat.

The Cruise Director hosting Rock You Tonight. 

They said no pictures during the show. I tried to take one just before they started but I missed it.

My thoughts on the first production show is it’s basically the same thing Carnival does. I would bet every song tonight is in one of the carnival shows. They did have a band. Carnival has that for some shows but not all. Not sure if they’re going to have the band for the other two or not. We’ll see.

They have these paintings in the stairwells. I like the Carnival stuff better. But who knows these could be Picassos.

A lot of mirrors. I think they’re using the trick where mirrors make areas look bigger than they are.

So far each night I’ve had a voicemail. Last night it was about my excursion time changing. Fine. But tonight it was junk voice mail from the Cruise Next desk. I hope it’s not going to be an every night thing because I have to listen to it to delete it. I have to delete it to stop the blinking. And I have to stop the blinking to go to sleep.

Grumpy Old Men on the Comedy Movies channel.

I’m off to bed. Good night!