Alaskan cruise trip report - Day 4 - At Sea

At Sea

I slept very well, waking up at around 6:30, but I was still up before everyone else so I donned my running clothes and made my way to deck 4 for a 30 minute run. I have a love/hate relationship with deck 4. It’s sort of like a track because you just run around in circles and that’s boring, but it’s a third of a mile so it’s a longer loop than a track and also, it’s on a cruise ship, so that’s nice. But it’s also odd running at sea with the motion of the ship and 30 minutes is about my max with all those conditions factored in.

Initially, I was cold and I was glad I had worn a long sleeve running shirt with my shorts, but then I warmed up and got a little warmer than I wanted. It wasn’t bad, but I figured it was about 60 degrees. It was breezy and misty and very foggy. About every 1-2 minutes, the fog horn would sound, which was surreal because it was otherwise very quiet out there. There were a handful of other walkers and runners out there with me as the ship swayed through the fog. About eight footfalls the ship would sway and push up, hard into each step. Then for the next eight steps, I would feel the ship pulling away from me, like I was weightless, barely hitting the ground. It’s a strange way to run. After my run, I went back to the room and got myself toweled off a bit and dressed for our character breakfast at 8:00 in Animator’s Palate. We had a nice breakfast and then went back to the room around 9:00 where I showered while Emmaline and Roger started the “Anna’s Chocolate Chase” scavenger hunt. After I was done showering, we all went and delivered some of our Fish Extender gifts (a gift exchange we participated in with nine other cabins, using a little pocket that one brings to hang on the little metal fish outside the stateroom door used for staff to deliver information to the room - thus extending the fish).




After handing out the gifts, Emmaline went to the Oceaneer Club, while I went to a cooking demo (Wild Mushroom Risotto) and Roger went for a run on deck four. Emmaline messaged me partway through the cooking demo that she didn’t want to be in the club any more (it had only been about 20 minutes!) so I gave her the go ahead to go back there. Roger finished his run and went back to the room to shower and I finished the demo. After that, while Roger was showering, Emmaline wanted to deliver the rest of the fish extender gifts so we did that. The last room on our list was a friend she met at the meet and greet. Just as we were about to deliver the gifts, they opened the door on the way to lunch. We also needed to eat, so we arranged to all meet up together in Triton’s and have lunch.



After lunch, we went back to the room to relax for a little while. Then, at 2:00, we all attended the naturalist talk in the Walt Disney Theatre about some of the marine mammals we might be seeing while on the cruise. She had some good information, but I felt like the pace was a little slow and she was a little dry. After the talk, Emmaline went back to the club so that Roger and I could go to the Art of the Theme Show tour at 3 PM that we’ve been wanting to take. It was a nice tour of the ship that focused on the theming, design and decoration of the ship. Disney is all about the details and it was fun to hear about the thoughts behind some of the details onboard.



We went back to the room at 3:45 and Emmaline was still in the club so we ordered room service: All Hands On Deck platter (cheese and crackers), fruit bowl, and two orders of hot chocolate chip cookies. It arrived about 30 minutes later, but Emmaline was still playing in the club so we let her play until 4:45 when Roger went and grabbed her. She ate and we started to get ready for formal night.

At 5:15 we went down to the lobby atrium to take some formal photos before our dinner at 5:45 in Parrot Cay. Dinner was actually quite good. I was a little worried about this menu, but throughout the cruise, each menu was bolstered by the addition of “regional inspirations.” Initially, I was a little bummed that we wouldn’t have the “Taste of Alaska” menu like they had done in years past, but I found I actually preferred having a few additional regional items each night.



After dinner, before the show we took some additional pictures before changing out of our formal wear and heading into the theatre for “The Golden Mickeys.” We had seen it before, on our cruise on the Dream two years ago, but it was fun so we decided to see it again. Evidently there was a new section, but I didn’t remember the original show well enough to know what it was. It was a lot of fun, though, better than I remember it being, actually.




We got back to the room and set our clocks back an hour. Tomorrow we would be in Alaska!

Click here for Day 5.