Sept. 20, 2018 Dawes Glacier and Juneau

We arranged for a wake up call early this morning to be able to view our entry into Endicott Arm at 6:30a.m. I went for breakfast in the Lido or I should say the Garden Cafe as they don’t call it the Lido on this ship. Don’t know if that applies on all NCL ships or what. Most lines call the buffet the Lido but anyway, already this early there were no window seats available but you could still see a lot of scenery from any seat. I went out on deck and took pics from everywhere on the ship. I think I walked the entire ship twice and spent some time recovering from my arduous journey in Spinnikers Lounge. Unfortunately didn’t bring my IPad with me otherwise I might still be there as it’s such a nice place to relax in the forward of the ship and enjoy the views from the floor to ceiling windows. Eventually I returned to the cabin where I continued to take pics from our balcony on our way back down the arm. Big and little icebergs continued to pass by for a long time and many of them were shaped like ice fish. Eventually the scenery became just water, mountains and islands and we are now heading for Juneau, Alaska. I had purchased a ticket to go up on the Mt. Roberts tram at a certain time but our agenda has changed. I think I’ll still be able to go up on it whenever we get there because the ticket says my time is at 000
It’s another beautiful sunny day today and we are super lucky once again. There’s just a little chill in the air and it’s about 64º or 18º C.
Lunchtime already and I’m not really hungry. I ended up with a Greek salad once again as it’s so good and some slices of melons for dessert and then went to the Fyzz Lounge for the trivia contest. I sat with a nice couple from Victoria, B.C. who used to live in Delta so that was cool to find out and I had a good chat with Robert and his wife Roberta after trivia was over.

Later I went to the cabin and Annie was resting and so I sat with her and chatted while we watched 2000 passengers debark from our balcony. Most climbed aboard buses but lots of them walked to town. Finally the lineups disappeared and so we made our move to hit the town of Juneau. The ship was docked close to town but the route to walk there is at least a mile, with about half a mile being uphill. By the time we got outside of the ship there was no lineup left so we were able to board the next bus that arrived bringing passengers back already. When we got off the bus Annie went to town to find some free WiFi and I climbed aboard the Mt.Roberts tram for a very scenic ride to the top of the mountain. I had expected the tram ride to be a little scary but it wasn’t in the least so that was nice and as well I saw a nice big eagle sitting in a tree. At the tourist trap at the top I browsed the jewelry and books and clothes and only saw one thing I might have purchased. The one thing was a small silicone mat with a nice raised pattern that I thought would work great as a stamp for my Gelli printing. It was about $15. U.S. which I felt was a fair price. It didn’t have the size mentioned on it though so I had to try and guess if it was 6” sq. or 8” sq. I prefer 8” and I thought it was probably only 6” so I asked a fellow there what he thought and he also thought it was only 6” and his wife agreed so that cinched it and I didn’t buy. I was able to get on the next tram down the mountain and the next bus was waiting to go back to the ship so that worked out real well.

Annie wasn’t in the cabin when I got back so I didn’t know if she was still in Juneau or had already returned to the ship and was out and about. I rested awhile and then went to the stage show which was a hilarious ventriloquist with audience participation who had me doubled over laughing so much. I then went to Chin Chin which is a free Chinese food restaurant along with a sushi side which charges a fee. I decided to have fried rice and a shrimp and veggie dish along with an awesome seaweed salad and a Panda salad with coconut for dessert. Everything I ordered was delicious.

I thought I’d go to the casino afterwards but because we are still docked the casino is closed so I went to the computer place thinking I’d send my daughters an email. It wasn’t to be as the lady in charge there said I’d have to enter the same pw that I use on my home computer. What a stupid conundrum! I couldn’t remember that password as it’s been about 20 years since I’ve had to enter it. I kind of thought that she was mistaken in that request but no, that's the way they do it. So wth now. I can’t email my daughters? As well she asked if I had a device and I told her yes, my IPad and she insisted that I had to write the email on it and then copy/paste onto their computer for sending. I think that’s more complicated than what's necessary and because I don’t know how to copy/paste on iPad I quietly walked away. Hopefully tomorrow somebody else will be in charge there and we’ll figure out something else so I can let the family know I’m ok and enjoying my cruise.

Some simple little things are so complicated. Another example is a machine onboard that squashes a penny and engraves NCL on it. Those machines have been around since forever but the instructions are complicated and I’ve seen lots of people get fed up with it and they walk away. So I thought I’d try it but yeah, it doesn’t even begin to work, it just keeps on saying to swipe your ship card and then nothing happens, no squashed penny, no nothing. I swiped my card every which way and still didn’t get a squashed penny. If the dam machine is broken wth don’t they put an out of order sign on it? Bah humbug!

Ahh, the stupid little things in life eh.
So I thought I’d go to the casino but alas, it doesn’t open until after we’ve sailed for 15 - 20 minutes or so many miles away from land. So that left nothing for me to do so I sat around in the Cafe for awhile before retiring to the cabin.