Alaskan Splendor: Victoria
Good morning. It is Memorial Day on the ship. Before I say anything else I want to say I’m thankful for all those who sacrificed their lives so that I can cruise today. I will never forget you.
Here is today’s schedule of events.
I was excited about the Victoria stop because it presented an opportunity for me to right an injustice that was forced upon me over a decade ago when the girl in the McDonald’s window stuck me with three Canadian quarters. But now that we’re here…I just wonder if I’m going to want to get off of the ship at 8pm on the last night. I guess I’ll just go with the flow.
The issue with the shower setting of the smoke detector if you leave the bathroom door open in the 4J cabins on Vista is not an issue here. It actually helps because it fogs up the window if you forgot to close the curtains as I did this morning.
No secret deck this morning? They must’ve just locked it down because Joe Schmo walked by my window twice when I was in bed about 30 minutes ago.
It doesn’t look like anything is going on out there
Wait. We have action.
He’s pulling out the bench.
For some reason I heard in my head “watchew doin out there?” In like a New York accent when I saw use guys out there.
I’m going for coffee. There’s no line at Juice & Java.
There’s a little line at Java blue.
The guy up there is giving them a hard time because they charged him $3 for freshly brewed instead of $2.50. They explained they don’t have the machine for freshly brewed on this ship (They really should). “Well show me where this is on the menu. I just see freshly brewed for $2.50. It shouldn’t be on the menu if you don’t have it.”
His wife had to come over and pull him away.
The guy really should talk to a food & beverage supervisor or put the suggestion on his survey. There is nothing the front line employees can do about that.
There’s a hidden elevator behind that door that a lot of crew use to go to and from work/breaks. If you sit here at the right time you’ll see a ton of crew members coming in and out of the arcade.
The morning show is happening in the main lounge.
Andy sees me taking this picture and says “You on the second floor taking your pictures of how crowded it is in here.”
He gave me a hard time for taking pictures in the comedy club when he was comedy club host on Mardi Gras last year.
He also asked what I thought of his comedy show last night. I said it was good. He definitely says things you wouldn’t expect to hear from a CD in it.
Apparently he also jumped on the piano in the piano bar, took his shirt off, and made $63 in tips.
We have a fly on magician tonight. Kermit Sky. I’ll definitely check that out.
Here is a quick look at the library.
This is a popular place to play board games.
Music trivia is happening in the atrium.
I stopped by the atrium bar for a screwdriver.
There is quite a line for luggage tags. As a platinum cruiser they’ll drop tags off in my room. But I’ll stop back by after breakfast to see what is left for those who have to pick up their own tags but don’t want to stand in this line.
I needed another screwdriver to take to breakfast but the casino bar isn’t open so I had to go all the way back to the atrium.
That’s unfortunate. They assigned me a big shared table and I had to ask for my own. Sorry I’m just not a big social breakfast person with people I don’t know. They gave me my own table but it’s right next to the big table I rejected. It’s just a little awkward.
I got the skillet cake and a side of bacon and hash browns.
There’s no line for tags now. It looks like the earliest zone that was available when everyone was in the big long line was 7. You can still get 8 but it may be limited. There are plenty of 9-20 zone tags. Is it worth standing in that long line for zone 7 instead of 8 or 9? Not to me.
Speaking of luggage tags, I got Zone 3.
Last day guest services line.
I went to the wrong place. I was trying to check out a whale lecture. I caught the end of the debarkation presentation.
The whale thing is in the comedy club.
I think this is maybe a mislabeled lecture. It’s more like glaciers I think.
What’s with the naked angel bowler at the casino bar?
I got a bloody mary.
The 2 for $25 shirt sale is happening in the fun shops.
I remember when John Heald released these and said they’d sellout in 15 minutes. That was a couple months ago.
It’s weird with the chairs facing this way I feel like I’m taking the stage.
You go to the buffet get to crab legs and lobster. Then realize you’re at the seafood shack.
I tried the Indian place again.
The chicken legs caught my eye but it’s just as burnt and hard as it looks on the outside. I got maybe three good bites of chicken on the inside. I did like the two little fried things
A good look at the Serenity deck.
I’m going to grab some Mac N Cheese from the BBQ place.
On most ships the BBQ place is served by employees. Here it’s totally buffet. I don’t understand why. It doesn’t save employees. They’re still standing behind the buffet watching everyone serve themselves.
Not good. It’s cold!
Here’s an aerial view of the cakes. Maybe I’ll stop by there in a little bit.
Groove for St. Jude is happening on lido deck.
They also have a Mongolian wok which stays packed.
I got my cake.
Then I went for a beer at the rum bar.
The secret deck is back open.
In the main lounge they have a question & answer session with Cruise Director Andy and a few members of the Playlist cast.
Apparently Andy got promoted to CD before covid. He didn’t want to come out as a new CD on one of the first ships to return after the shutdown so he requested to come back on as comedy host then got re-promoted to take the last ship returning to service.
More detail on the piano bar he also sang Friends in Low Places.
More detail on the Icy Strait Duck Point beach. They were celebrating Matt’s (playlist guy on the right) birthday. Andy was encouraging as many crew members as possible to do the polar bear challenge.
Senior officer cabins are through that door.
Andy said he first applied for Cruise Director on Royal. He got to the last interview and was told he needed experience.
Then he applied for comedy club manager with Carnival and got the job since he already had experience as a comedian.
We had an internet snafu and when it came back up my Hub app went a little haywire.
I wonder if I have two activities starting soon.
Games are going on in the atrium.
I ordered a fun ship but it should be more red than this.
Sports trivia is happening in the atrium.
They’re having a Memorial Day moment of silence.
This time I got the bartender that’s been making my drinks in the morning and my fun ship looks right.
This is a new game basically like a name that tune with two teams competing.
I got most of my packing done and headed to the alchemy for opening.
4pm luggage tag update.
We’re paying Seattle taxes on our drinks now.
This is where we are.
This is a vanilla banana drink from FJ. She’s going to add chocolate for someone else and call it a banana split
FJ’s banana split drink.
FJ’s Toblerone
That is definitely one of FJ’s best. She has been great. Here are some of her highlights from the week.
They’re doing the casino drop. You can see all of the cash boxes out on the machines.
The cash boxes will go in that cart and down to their count room.
The string trio is in the atrium.
I am doing an early dinner. There’s a magician on at 7 and 9. I decided to try to at least get off of the ship to sample some Canadian beers in the pub. I need to be at the 7pm show.
It’s a little more crowded tonight. I guess because I’ve been eating later.
I thought they forgot my dessert. They did forget my cobb salad. It was really good on Glory so that was disappointing. Finally the dessert did come.
We are getting closer to land but it looks like we still have time.
This is the Ken Sky magic show. I didn’t think it was great or impressive. I guess it was supposed to be a comedy/magic mix. It wasn’t anything to write home about in my opinion.
Welcome to Victoria!
It looks like the crew are ready to hit the town.
We’re parked next to NCL Sun
The guitar duo is in the atrium now.
Before heading out I’m going to check out the PJ Walsh comedy show.
That’s right. Take the shoes off. Make yourself at home.
The Red Frog Pub is all karaoke all the time.
The gangway is on deck 1 this time.
Excursions are to the left.
This is the shuttle to town which is what I’m going to do.
I guess this is in case you lose your ticket.
They have outlets if you need to plug anything in.
They handed us maps I won’t have time to use.
This is where you meet the shuttle. It runs every 15 minutes.
Just down the street from the drop off spot is the Irish Times which is all we really know is open. I saw a McDonalds. Maybe a subway along the way.
It’s packed as you would imagine. There’s comedy going on.
I found a seat in the back of the bar.
I asked for a local stout. Couldn’t hear what he said it was.
Then I asked for the most popular local beer.
he said this was Blue Bucks. At least I think he said bucks.
They’re doing kilts and everything in here.
Bathrooms are down stairs.
Hold the shuttle!
Maybe it’s an hygiene check. If we can still read it go back and wash your hands.
Burger King used to be the city cemetery.
Legislative building
Pretty sure this is the boat he was saying takes you to Vancouver.
The driver gave commentary on the way back. He said tell people if you liked it. I don’t know if this is a good way to tell but he drove the regular bus. Not the double decker.
Gift shop.
NCL Sun is leaving. They probably got here when things were open.
Gangways were 1 forward and 2 aft.
Luggage had to be out by 11. Mine is out at 10:58.
People getting that last little bit out of cheers. I’m hungry.
Pizza line.
This guy is drunk as heck. He’s walking around telling people in the line that he’s taking orders for the pizza place.
This pizza guy is killing it.
After I returned with my pizza I noticed all of the luggage on my hallway was taken except for mine. I grabbed my suitcases and took them down to where they were loading luggage into the elevator. They thought I was crazy. I think I had reason to be concerned when my bags were the only ones left.
The pizza was good. Good night! Tomorrow is debarkation day.
