Day Eight in Alaska

Friday, August 08, 2008
Day Eight

Today was our last day of the cruise. We originally thought this would be a sleep-in day, but when we realized how much we wanted to get done, we knew we had to get up at a reasonable time. We woke up at a seemingly late 7:30, but after the late-night party and the time change (we lost an hour overnight as we crossed back into the Pacific Time zone), we felt pretty tired. It didn’t help matters when we ate breakfast with two older couples – one was from India and spoke very little English, while the other was very elderly and couldn’t hear anything we said. We quickly downed our eggs benedict and headed upstairs for a yoga (Ginny) and jogging (Tim) workout.

At 10:30, we headed to the theater for the much-hyped cooking show. Basically, it is a time for the cooking staff to let loose and show their humor and talent for the cruisers. It was funny at first, but the humor was lost on us as the show went on. We got bored and decided to leave. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the galleys, but it sounds like it is just an oversized kitchen anyway. Maybe we’ll do that tour on the next cruise.

Instead of the show, we went to look at our pictures. We were disappointed in our second formal shots. We also noticed when we compared the two sets (the first formal and second formal shots), that we had gained a noticeable amount of weight! Oops! Guess we have our work cut out for us when we get home. We ended up finding two photos from the week that we really liked and bought them.

After buying the photos we headed over to lunch. Once again, we got the short end of the stick on people we sat with. At first, the other two couples talked a bit, but I kept having to initiate everything. After awhile, things got uncomfortably quiet. It didn’t help that the food took a long time to come out, not usual for the cruise. We all tried to down our food quickly and get away from the table as soon as possible.

It was the last BINGO session of the cruise. Tim and I were sure that this had to be the moment we would finally win. The jackpot was up to 2200 dollars, and we felt the lucky streak running in us. We had fun, especially when we started getting a lot of the numbers in the final round, but unfortunately, we’ll just have to stick to the free cruise for our winnings! No BINGO wins for us.

At that time, we just wanted to hangout in our room and relax. But before doing that, we ran up to the buffet and grabbed desserts and snacks to bring back to our room. When we got back, Tim reminded me that we still had a bottle of champagne to drink. I did jump in a pool to get it, so we couldn’t put it to waste! We didn’t use glasses and just drank from the bottle as we downed the many sweets and goodies we got from the buffet, including a leftover cinnamon roll and pumpkin cookie from Skagway. The rest of what happened need not be mentioned.

When we came to our senses, it was late in the afternoon, and we needed to pack our bags. It was a sad time because that officially meant that our cruise was coming to an end. Unlike previous vacations we have done, we were not ready to go. Yes, conversations in the dining room were getting harder, and little things were beginning to bug us, but we really enjoyed cruising and hitting the different ports. So sadly, we packed and got creative with fitting our gifts and goodies in our bags.

We still weren’t hungry when we were finished packing, so we walked around the ship and hung out on the deck. While enjoying the breeze on deck, we saw a ship labeled “Pilot” head directly at our cruise ship. We were curious, so we watched what it did. It pulled right up along our ship, and we watched as our new pilot climbed up a ladder on the side of the ship and entered the boat. Okay, so we are easily entertained, but we thought it was really cool to catch an unexpected moment like that.

Still excited from our moment of entertainment, we headed towards the dining room to try to eat something. The Bernini was full, so we went to the Donatello. That was full, but we followed a host over to the traditional seating dining room. We were with a group of 6 people and another group of 2 as we walked over to the dining room. We ended up sitting with the other couple we were with, and what a treat! They were a couple from New Hampshire with very intelligent children. Their daughter is studying at CMU, and their son worked as a mathematician in Germany before coming back to the states and studying music at Brown. They obviously had money because they took the helicopter tour in Juneau and a horse riding tour in Skagway. Both were very expensive! It’s fun to hear how rich people live. They were so easy to talk to, and we found ourselves wanting to stay to talk with them. But we had to head to the atrium to disembark the ship for Victoria.

The atrium was packed with people. Princess did not have a good system for herding us, and it was one big cluster F that filled the 6th and 7th floors. We got nervous because we had a reservation at 8pm at the Empress for tea, and we didn’t want to be late. Luckily, we made it out quickly. The shuttles to town were pricey, so we decided to walk to town. I’m so glad we did. Not only did we save a few dollars, but we got to experience more of Victoria AND we walked off a few of the calories from gorging earlier in the day.

The houses in Victoria reminded us of Cape Cod. They were quaint, unique, and often Victorian in style. Perhaps that is how they got the name for that style of house, being in Victoria and all. We walked past the massive legislation building. It had a beautiful fountain and flowers on the front lawn, so of course we snapped a couple of pictures before moving on.

We reached the Empress and found the tea room. Our server, Pritam, was such a delightful lady. We were the only ones in that area of the tea room for the moment, so she engaged us in conversation. She told us about how she had almost gone on a cruise in January, but her plane had dropped 5000 feet on the way due to the autopilot malfunctioning, and she got injured. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt because she had just returned from the restroom, so she banged around in the airplane as it dropped. How scary! Luckily, the plane did not crash, and she survived. The kicker? The cruise line did not refund them for the cruise! She said that she tried to fly on a short trip since then, but it was too much for her, and she won’t fly now.
We enjoyed our tea, strawberries, mini sandwiches, truffles (Tim had those because I can’t eat chocolate), cookies, and scones. The tea was so delicious! They gave us some tea bags to take home with us, but I loved it so much that I had to buy more. I have never had such great tea! Tim even enjoyed it and made a funny video that I’m going to put on Facebook.

After tea, we walked around the Empress Hotel, took pictures in their library, and scared a couple in the hallway. We were following them because we wanted to see what one of the rooms looked like, so we followed them awhile. The hallway they were going down was a dead end, and they scurried into their room and closed the door before we could get a good look. I feel bad for scaring them!

We left the hotel and walked around the downtown area. A street performer was showing off his skills with diablos and putting on quite the entertaining show. Dozens of tourists surrounded him and clapped often as he performed his many stunts. We visited a little street market and then shopped at the stores downtown. We found a t-shirt at one of the stores that had a saying that fit Tim to a T: “Let’s save time and just admit that I’m always right.” We tried to find his size, but they only had smalls and mediums. Boo! There was a Scholastic book that was titled “The Encyclopedia of Immaturity.” I want to find it when I get home because I think the sixth graders will really like it. It has all sorts of ideas of interesting little tricks to do that are silly or immature.

The store that we enjoyed the most was a natural body products store. They had a display of bath bombs. We asked the sales associate what they were, and he demonstrated it for us. He popped one of them in a bowl of water, and it literally made the water bubble as it exploded. The water was silky and smelled amazing! We ended up buying a couple for gifts, and I got one for myself. We had to leave the shop quickly because there were too many amazing things there, and we wanted to buy too many of them!

It was time to head back, and just as we started, we felt rain drops. But Tim didn’t have a rain coat! We didn’t have enough cash for the shuttle, so we booked it back home. It was really dark in some spots, and we got nervous! I kept relying on the fact that the server at the tea room told us Victoria is extremely safe. Anytime we saw anyone that looked even the slightest bit suspicious we picked up the pace and nearly ran. Better safe than sorry! The good thing was that the rain drizzles seem to have stopped. As we neared the pier, we looked at our ship and our hearts raced. It was lit up all over the outside of it and looked breathtaking! We tried to take pictures, but they just didn’t do the sight of it justice. Just as we reached the pier, the rain started to come down, and it wasn’t just in drizzles anymore! We had timed our walk perfectly and made it to the inside of the ship just in time.

We checked into the boat for the last time and headed to our room. After getting ready for bed, we stuffed the last few items in our bags and set them outside of our room, hoping that we wouldn’t have too much trouble finding them at the port tomorrow.

Victoria is a lovely city. I only wish we had more time to explore it. I can see why people say that they want to return to it once they have been there. Our visit there was a perfect ending to a perfect cruise.