Family Vacation to Alaska - Day 4

Sunday, 27 May 2007 – Juneau

This morning, we sent Rhys over to Mimi and Papa’s cabin while Seth and I headed to the gym. We arrived just before they opened at 6 am. Our clocks had been set back another hour last night. It was my long run day and I would be running 10 K on the treadmill – something I’d never done before as I’d always been able to run outside on Sundays. The seas were still a teensy bit rocky but nothing near what it had been like the day before. I finished my run in about 1 hour and 5 minutes – still need to shave about 5 minutes off my time before our race in October.

Seth and I then went to the Lido restaurant for breakfast which, for me, consisted of fat free cereal, skim milk, sliced bananas, fruit, orange juice, coffee, and some cold smoked salmon. Yes, I think I will eat salmon daily while on this cruise and have no problems with doing that. We headed back to the cabin where I showered and got ready for my appointment at the Greenhouse spa. I was scheduled for reflexology this morning at 9:15 am. I was directed to the “relaxation room” and filled out the questionnaire being careful to write at the bottom “No Sales please - thank you!”. I was greeted by my masseuse who took me back to a room where I took my shoes/socks off and opted to slip my jeans off too so that I could be more comfortable. The massage was great and included some acupressure which, at times, were ever so slightly uncomfortable which I attributed to my recent run. Afterwards, though, my feet felt great and when I stood up for the first time, there wasn’t the usual stiffness/heel pain that I frequently had after a long run.

I went back to the cabin and it was probably just around 10:30 am. We wouldn’t be docking in Juneau until 11 am and our excursion was not until 5:30 pm. We decided that we would eat lunch on the ship then debark and look around town. We definitely had to check out the Mendenhall glacier which I had already read online would be easy to do via bus that could be booked right on the pier. We had lunch in the Lido restaurant buffet which was pretty good and then headed back to the cabin to gather our things. Although the ramp to leave the ship was just around the corner from our cabin, we couldn’t access it directly as they had blocked it off. We had to go all the way around to the port side of the ship and around to reach the ramp.

We walked along downtown Juneau peeking in the shops and stopping to buy a Juneau magnet for our fridge.

We posed by the infamous Red Dog saloon which we later learned housed Wyatt Earp’s gun that he checked in but never returned to claim. This was the Saloon’s claim to fame.

I had called the American Airlines baggage service again to find out about our lost bag. Apparently, there was still confusion even on the number of bags that were missing. I went over the information once again. For reasons that were unclear to me, our case was “closed” according to the agent I spoke with but we obviously had not received our bag. The entire situation was very frustrating.

We headed over to the little booths by the ship and booked 6 round trips to Mendenhall Glacier which cost $6 each way. We waited about 20 minutes for the bright blue bus which ran every 30 minutes.

Our bus driver was a real character giving us his spiel which I’m sure he’s done hundreds of times – interesting factoids, observations, advice, and other random musings. We chuckled frequently at his banter.

The bus dropped us off just down the street from the Mendenhall Glacier National Park entrance.

We walked in the drizzling rain over to the observation areas to see the glacier which was just as awesome as the first time we had seen it about 4 years ago.

Blue and white ice with large chunks of ice floating in the water, the roar of the waterfall in the background.

We walked along the pathway snapping pictures along the way then headed back towards the visitor center wanting to find the trail to the waterfall.

We walked past the visitor center and found the trail head for the East Glacier loop and hiked for quite some time stopping a few times to take more pictures. It had started raining pretty briskly and the trail was pretty muddy but the views were just beautiful. We hiked for about a mile then turned around and went back – it took us about an hour total. We never did find the trail to the waterfall but were told that the walk was along the beach and wasn’t a real trail. We had overlooked it since there was no trail head.

We found Mimi and Papa at the bus station and boarded the same bus back to downtown Juneau then went back on board the ship to freshen up a bit before going for our scheduled excursion. We stopped at the Explorations Café and got coffee – we had purchased a coffee card earlier on the cruise – 10 coffees for $20 which probably saved about $5. You could get a grande specialty coffee but they wouldn’t refill HAL mugs using the coffee card. We each got a coffee and some pastries/cookies then headed down to the ramp to meet up for our excursion. As we approached the crew member who would scan our room keys, the crew informed us that we could not take food off the ship. Coffee was ok to take off, but not food. What a strange rule. We stood there finishing our cookies and pastries then got off the ship and met up with Mimi and Papa.

Our excursion met just at the pier and we were directed to a small van that would take us to the gold panning area. Our tour guide was “Mudslide” Mike who was pleasant and full of good information about Juneau. He drove about 10 of us out to the Gold River, demonstrated panning techniques then handed everyone a pan of dirt (laced with gold pieces, of course) and we set out to pan for gold.

The kids got a big kick out of this and each panned about 4 pans of dirt that Mike gave them. They saved their gold pieces in small plastic containers with lids that Mike provided sucking them up into little medicine droppers then dropping them into the small vials. We even remembered to pick up some Juneau dirt to take back to Rhys’ teacher, Mrs Phyllis.

We got on the bus again thankful to warm up slightly before the salmon bake. The day had been rainy and in the chilly low 50’s. We arrived at the salmon bake and were given a small steaming bowl of clam chowder which was very good.

We scouted out a few spots at a table under a warming lamp, finished our chowder, then went through the buffet line. The food was overall as delicious as what I remember when Seth and I were here 4 years ago. The cole slaw with raisins was one of my favorites. There was also corn bread, beans, salad with some kind of Caesar dressing, short ribs, chicken, and, of course, large pieces of salmon grilled over a large open grill which came with a ladle-full of salmon sauce which had an obvious brown sugar base.

They also provided water, tea, and hot chocolate. For dessert, there was blueberry cake which wasn’t as good as I remembered it to be. A woman was playing the guitar during our meal.

After dinner, the kids roasted about a ½ dozen marshmallows then we walked up the trail to see the waterfall. It was too early in the season to see salmon. When Seth and I had last walked this trail we could see the fish making their way up the stream and the base of the waterfall was teeming with fish. It really was too bad that the fish weren’t spawning yet – it was still a few weeks early for them to start.

We stopped by the gift shop where I bought a bag of the salmon sauce for $5 then boarded the bus back to ship. There was an elephant on Rhys' bed when we got back to the cabin.

After walking around in the mud and rain, the kids’ jeans were filthy so we rounded up some quarters and I did a load of laundry. The laundry facility was right around the corner on the starboard side of the ship but the washing machine was so small that I really couldn’t fit all of our laundry in it. A load cost $2 in quarters to run for just the washer which included soap that was dispensed directly from it. The dryer was free. I stuffed in what I could and ran the load then came back later (while watching “Pursuit of Happyness” on tv) to put it all in the dryer which was quite a bit bigger than the washer. I finished the laundry at around 10:30 pm and turned in the for the night.

Family Vacation to Alaska - Day 3

Saturday, 26 May, 2007 – At Sea

Still not adjusted to the time change, I awoke before 6 this am. Since it was so early and everyone else was asleep, I decided to go to the Fitness Center and do some running which I had been avoiding since last Sunday following the onset of my cold. I was still coughing but at least the nice yellow nasal drainage and sputum had stopped. 6:15 am is a good time to hit the gym. There were still a good number of treadmills available and I hopped on one intending to run for at least 30 minutes. I started intentionally at a slow pace since my cold was still bothering me. Given the gentle swaying of the ship, I had to hold on the to the treadmill’s bar with one hand to avoid going off the belt – or at least the feeling that I was going to go off of it. I then spent about ½ an hour lifting weights on the various machines. The gym was pretty nicely equpped with all the standard weight machines which I was very familiar with.

I returned to the cabin at around 7:30 and took a shower. Just after I got dressed and blew dry my hair, our room service order arrived. It was very interesting to see this dining steward maneuver a large tray filled with various dishes and baskets down the tiny hallway connecting the outside of our cabin with our teeny little sitting area. We decided that we didn’t need to tip him. Besides, he was out the door so quickly we never even had a chance to offer.

I set Rhys up on his bed with the small coffee table which was adjustable up and down. He thoroughly enjoyed his scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoe wedge declaring it the best breakfast he’d had in a while. I had Special K cereal with 2% milk, sliced bananas, orange juice, and coffee having decided that I wouldn’t waste my calories on a meal as unimportant to me as breakfast.

Today would be our first full day at sea. Mimi, papa, and Amina had also ordered breakfast in although Amina was complaining about her tummy hurting when she was eating breakfast. I took the kids upstairs to Club HAL and checked them in so they could meet the other children on the cruise (it was the “get to know you” session this morning. We wanted to attend the kitchen tour at 10:30 am but would return to pick up Amina who also wanted to go. Rhys wanted to stay in the club.

When I returned to pick Amina up, a child had vomited in the children’s playroom so they were over in the Loft – the teenagers’ room. I found Rhys seated at the table with the other children working on a craft but Amina was laying down complaining about a headache. It looked like she was having some signs of motion sickness. Rhys wanted to stay in the club so I took Amina with me to the kitchen tour but she just wasn’t feeing up to it so Mimi took her back to the stateroom while I went on the kitchen tour. There wasn’t any sense in both of us missing the tour. It was surprising to me that Amina was experiencing motion sickness. On our Disney cruise and on numerous trips to visit Mimi and Papa in Arkansas, Rhys had thrown up after experiencing motion sickness. Now, though, Rhys was feeling fine and Amina was not feeling well.

Turns out the tour guide was our very own Krish who recognized me right away and greeted me by name. The kitchen tour met in the downstairs dining room and there must have been at least 150 people waiting in the foyer for the tour. They took us in groups of about 25 and we were led into the kitchen observing the different areas. The kitchen was clean and shiny and we all marveled at how the crew maneuvered around the somewhat small kitchen areas.

I found the lists on the walls interesting showing how each dish was to be plated. I assume these were posted so the crew knew what each dish looked like that they would be serving.

There was also a list of which stewards were able to carry 10 entrees out to the dining room to serve tables of 10. The list was quite short as I’m sure there aren’t many who could lift 10 plates with lids on a tray. We met an executive chef and saw an ice sculpture to be used for dinner this evening. The baking room smelled wonderful from the freshly baked bread.

After the kitchen tour, I returned to the staterooms where Amina was laying down and Mimi had already picked up Rhys from the Club. One important note about Club HAL which I found both interesting and a bit annoying – the very limited hours: 9 am – 11 am, 2 pm – 4 pm, and 8 pm – 10 pm. Although this afforded us the ability to do some “adult” things, the hours weren’t really long enough to not find ourselves running up and down dropping off/picking up. It was nice, however, that the Club allowed you to check your child in at any time rather than only during the end/beginning of a session/activity as it had been on the Disney cruise. The security was fairly lax as doors were accessible by anyone and although we had chosen a “password” for check-out, we never used it.

We headed over to the dining room for lunch although Amina was still not feeling well. Her room steward, Tony, had given me some meclizine which I gave about 12.5 mg to (chewable and scored 25 mg tablet) her. She did eat some lunch and seemed to feel better but opted to hang out in the cabin rather than go to Club HAL. Lunch was ok, I had the mushroom/onion burger with fries which was good. Seth and I were signed up for the wine tasting while Papa was at a gemstone class so Mimi took Rhys to the Club to check him in and then took Amina back to the cabin to rest.

Seth and I arrived for the wine tasting which was held downstairs in the La Fontaine Dining room at 2 pm. There were a large number of tables set up and later the head wine steward remarked that there were over 100 people attending this afternoon’s wine tasting. I’m glad that HAL did not limit the number of people on the kitchen tour or the wine tasting.

We were offered 5 different types of wine – 3 whites and 2 reds along with small nibbles of different foods to try with the different wines. We started off with a Riesling which was pretty good. We discussed the usual characteristics of wine and the head wine steward was quite knowledgeable about the different wines being sampled today. Next we sampled the white bordeaux which neither of us cared for. The chardonnay was nice but we really liked the reds that were presented next. The steward told us about the premium wine tasting that would take place on Thursday which sounded great.

After the wine tasting, I checked in with Mimi and found that Amina was still sleeping so I found Papa at the art auction and registered to bid getting my raffle tickets for the drawing. Mimi would get Amina up at around 3:15 for the High Tea and I would meet them there. I had been to a lot of Park West art auctions before and was very familiar with them. The art auction lasted quite some time though and highlighted the usual Tarkays and Bellets but there were some newer artists that weren’t familiar to me. The auctioneer was rather boring compared to the previous auctions that I’d been to. He focused quite a bit on history and the artists and didn’t move as quickly through the pieces as at the previous auctions I’d been to. There was very little clapping between the pieces but he did manage to sell some. I left the auction briefly to pick Rhys up from the Club and found him in the Play Station room. He had not been taken over to the Club even though Mimi had checked him in. I couldn’t discern whether or not this was the fault of the Club HAL staff or whether Mimi just didn’t make sure Rhys went to the Club with the other children. At any rate, I was a little put out that nobody even seemed to realize that Rhys was signed in and NOT in the Club. I signed him out anyways.

We returned to the auction and saw a few more pieces auctioned off. Neither Papa nor I won anything this afternoon which included the drawing but we did receive our “free works of art” which were the Lee seriolithographs of a violin and guitar that Seth and I already had.

By this time, it was getting close to our dinnner seating and this was to be the first formal night - the Captains Gala Dinner. Rhys showered and was VERY excited to get into his new suit that I had purchased while I was out in Vegas. He looked SO cute. I checked on Amina who still wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to go with us to dinner. I gave her another 12.5 mg of meclizine and told her we’d check on her after our appetizers. I quickly changed into my long brown evening gown, spritzed my hair, and threw on some makeup. I also took 12.5 mg of meclizine because of the low grade headache I’d had for most of the day. The seas were “mild” only 1-4 foot waves but the boat was rocking enough to really throw your balance off. Seth and I didn’t remember so much motion on our previous inside passage cruise and came to the conclusion that the Inifinity sailed the inside passage both going north and coming down south. On HAL, we were cruising up outside the passage to the West on our way North to Juneau. There was definitely a difference in boat motion compared to our last cruise. Even Papa was not feeling 100% off and on all day much the same as I was.

We stopped off to have our formal portraits taken just outside the dining room. I’ve noticed that the scheduling on board seems a bit off to me. Many popular activities seemed to be scheduled all at the same time: the art auction, wine tasting, and cooking class were all scheduled for 2 pm today. The formal portraits were scheduled from 5:30 – 6:30, during our designated dinner seating. We had a few pictures taken and then headed to the dining room a little bit late.

Our menus were rolled into a scroll and included some wonderful choices.

I opted for the Pate de Fois Gras for an appetizer and the steamed Alaskan king crab legs for the entrée. I would also be having some of Rhys’ French onion soup. Seth ordered a Gewurtztraminer for our meal this evening as part of our Admiral’s wine package. The pate was quite good but I found myself spreading it on a roll since I wasn’t given any crackers or other biscuit to eat it with. The crab legs were a bit overcooked for my tastes but were still pretty good. Rhys’ French onion soup – a selection from the “available every meal” menu – was excellent. Not over salty for being a beef broth base. I couldn’t imagine not liking any of the appetizer choices on future menus but if I did, I would opt for the French onion soup.

As we were being served our appetizers, Seth suddenly declared that he wasn’t feeling well and disappeared. After finishing my pate, I went downstairs to check on Amina who said that Seth had stopped by and his way to the cabin. She was feeling better but still complained of being dizzy so I ordered her room service. I called them up and placed an order for a plain hamburger but the steward asked about cheese, ketchup, mustard, etc and I reiterated just a plain hamburger and explained that my daughter was not feeling well. “Ahhhh…..” he says and I add some jello to the order before hanging up. I tell Amina that I’ll check on her again before dessert.

As we were finishing up our entrée, I called Seth in the cabin who said that he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be returning for dinner. As we finished eating, Rhys suddenly declared that he wanted to go back to the cabin to rest and didn’t want to have dessert. What? Was he getting sea sick too? No, he said, he just needed to “rest up” because he was going to the carnival at Club HAL tonight and was going to be staying up late (10 pm) so he needed to take a rest. Whew, I though to myself, I was glad he wasn’t getting motion sick too. After dropped Rhys off in the cabin and changing him back into his regular clothes, I checked on Amina who answered the door dressed with her shoes on. I was surprised but she was feeling a lot better and wanted to join us for dessert. I had swapped out one child for another when we returned to the dining room. Amina was all smiles again – apparently the meclizine had kicked in.

After dessert, we went back down to the cabins and both kids wanted to go to the carnival at Club HAL. We changed into regular clothes and headed up to the 9th deck. We were a little early and hung out in the Play Station room for a little while.

At 8 pm, we headed over to the Club. There were probably a dozen kids there ranging in age from about 4 to 11 or 12. They had set up several “stations” where the kids could get faces painted, bowl, toss bean bags, guess the number of jelly beans, and enter a drawing contest. All in all it was very low tech but the kids really enjoyed it. I helped the kids calculate how many jelly beans were in the clear plastic jar. We played the bean bag toss but Amina started to feel queasy again within about 30 minutes so I took her back down to the cabin, gave her 25 mg of meclizine and put her in bed. I went back up to the Club and Rhys played the rest of the games winning the closest guess for the jelly bean contest (he guessed 750 with a little help and the actual number was 650). Both kids were awarded inflatable HAL play boats and we collected our prizes and headed down to the cabin calling it a night. There was a lobster on Rhys' bed when we got to the cabin.

Family Vacation to Alaska - Day 2

Friday, 25 May, 2007 - Boarding

We were up fairly early this morning considering the long day we had yesterday and called the American baggage center again – still no news on our missing bag. The computer generated report over the phone had five out of 8 bags claimed and had not even been updated to reflect that we had 7 of them. I threw in a load of laundry – the clothing we had worn the day before. Uncle Tony was busy downstairs cooking and we had a delicious breakfast of southwest burritos and bacon.

Rhys was in heaven – it had been a long time since he had last had bacon for breakfast.

After breakfast I called the American baggage center and waited for a live person to answer. She checked on our lost bag and it became obvious that the wrong bag claim number was entered in the system. She corrected the problem but could still not locate our bag. I had them change the destination of our bag to the Seattle cruise pier hoping that it would still be delivered in time for our cruise. Our back-up plan, though, was to head over to Walmart and pick up some new shoes, socks, and another bag.

Seth found a pair of George dress shoes, a pair of running shoes, some running socks, dress socks, and shoe polish. I found a pair of cheap (but definitely not comfy) brown casual shoes, a pair of running shoes, and shoe inserts. We also picked up some travel sized toothpaste, baby powder, laundry detergent, shaving cream, and found another rolling duffel bag.

We headed back to the house and packed up our remaining items then headed out to the pier but only after stopping and taking pictures of each of our suitcases and a picture of their contents as well. It took about an hour to reach the pier. We arrived at about 11:30 am and there were quite a few passengers already checking in for the cruise. We noted that the internet check-in line was quite a bit longer than the regular check-in line – at least at this time. So much for being prepared – we would have moved through the line faster if we had NOT checked-in online. We received our key cards and signed the appropriate documentation. I spoke with a supervisor who took down our information about the lost bag and suggested having the bag sent to Juneau if we did not receive it by the time we sailed. I have no idea how reliable American Airlines would be doing this.

We boarded the ship after stopping for our traditional boarding pictures.

We were immediately sent to the Lido restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was very crowded and we moved to the aft part of the deck and found an open table outside.

It was a little chilly but warmed up nicely as we ate lunch. While Mimi, Papa, and Amina went through the buffet line, I made my way downstairs to the front office to sign us up for the cooking class. I was redirected to the library where I found the lady taking reservations. She didn’t have a copy of the schedule yet but did take down my name and cabin number for the classes. I headed back up to the Lido restaurant and took Rhys with me to get into the buffet line.

Seth joined us a little later and I loaded up my plates with fresh fruit, salmon, pate, chicken, and mashed potatoes. The food was okay. For dessert, I had a slice of fruit pie which I liked. The kids enjoyed ice cream cones. Rhys was especially happy with 2 desserts.

After lunch, Mimi took Amina and Rhys to find the library. Seth, Papa, and I sat out on deck for a little while until just after 1:30 pm when they announced that the staterooms were ready for us. I was not expecting our staterooms to be ready until at least 3 pm so this came as a nice surprise. We took our things and headed down to deck 2. Our room numbers were 2553 (Seth, Rhys, and I) and next door, 2557 (Mimi, Papa, and Amina).

We unpacked the few things that we had with us and soon Hardy, our room steward, arrived to greet us. Soon after he introduced himself, our luggage started to arrive. The luggage arrived a couple pieces at a time giving us plenty of time to put things away and then stow the luggage under the bed. Surprisingly, all of our suitcases fit underneath the bed. Our stateroom is an outside cabin on the starboard side with a large round window over the queen sized bed. There’s a sofa that converts into a bed for Rhys. The tv monitor is up in the corner near the vanity/mirror. Not a very good arrangement as we can’t watch tv privately as Rhys sleeps. There’s plenty of closet space and hangers. A door leads to the bathroom with a sink, toilet, and shower/tub. Pretty standard cruiseship stateroom but I much prefer this tub/shower combo than just a shower.

I did run upstairs to the spa for a tour and turned in my entry for the free drawing. The spa is very nice and they offered traditional services like deep tissue massage, ionotherapie, hair/nail services, etc as well as acupuncture. I booked a reflexology session for Sunday morning intending to have this service done after my long (6 mile) run in the Fitness Center. We did not dock in Juneau until 11 am and our excursion was not scheduled until 5:30 pm so I figured there would be plenty of time.

I returned to the cabin to finish up unpacking, and we then go upstairs to the Lido deck for the sailing away party at the aft end of the ship. There’s a band playing and we go over to the bar to order the cocktail of the day: a hand shaken mojito – which was quite good. The band was so-so. There were crew members walking around deck with small appetizers – shrimp spring rolls, phyllo wrapped brie cheese, and one other round appetizer that I didn’t try. We sipped our drinks, ate a few appetizers and perused the tables set up by the pool which displayed different services available on board including the Greenhouse spa and the art gallery/art auction where you could guess the price of a Picasso painting. I guessed $180,000 which turned out to be way too high.

The mood on this ship was vastly different than the last cruise we had taken with the kids – a Disney cruise on the Magic where the sailing away party was absolutely fun and energetic with dancing and Disney characters culminating in the ship sailing away after a “count down” and the famous ship’s whistle playing the first few notes of the “When you wish upon a star” tune. After a few announcements by certain crew members, the ship’s horn sounded and we started moving. It was very anti-climactic. The kids were entertaining themselves playing ping pong.

We finished our drinks and headed down to our cabins to get our life jackets for the mandatory drill. I found it interesting that this was the first ship we’ve ever been on where the drill was performed after the ship had already left port.

We found 3 life jackets In the cabin – all adult sizes. We put them on and I tied one around Rhys but it was way too big and I had to double tie it around his waist. We made our way up to station 5 and joined the rest of the passengers.

The announcement made during the drill was quite long and detailed. The HAL took pride in going “above and beyond” the typical drill that we’ve ever participated in providing lots of detailed information. We did have to switch out both kids’ life jackets for “child” ones. We took the child jackets back to our cabins with us.

I changed into something nicer for dinner then went to the Fitness Center to attend the drawings. The fitness center staff introduced themselves and pitched their various services. I didn’t win anything from the drawings which ranged from 50% off teeth whitening service to a facial to a session in the Alpha capsule.

I met up with the rest of our party outside the La Fontaine dining room, upper level, deck 5 for our 5:30 pm early seating. This cruise there would be 4 seatings: early upper (5:30 pm), early lower (6 pm, main or late seating upper (7:45 pm) and main or late seating lower (8:15 pm). That seemed to work well as our servers were prompt, our food was delivered quickly, and the dining room never seemed overcrowded. They soon opened up the dining room and we were shown to our table which was upstairs and close to the windows. We had a nice view. We met our dining room steward, Krish, and his assistant, Agus. Our wine steward is Tony.

I tried the crab and avocado appetizer which was very good although a bit salty for my tastes (iow, not hard to be salty to me).

For the entrée, I opted for the halibut which was encrusted with Panko bread crumbs. The fish was cooked well – not too dry and overcooked.

We had pre-ordered the admiral’s wine package and Seth chose a Blackstone syrah for dinner this evening which worked well with what we were eating. I did order dessert as well but can’t quite remember what I had. The kids shared the salmon encrusted with almonds – both ordered off the adult menu rather than the childrens’ menu which I was quite proud of.

Tony, our wine steward, invited us to the wine tasting event scheduled for 2 pm the next day at sea. Seth and I signed up on the spot. After dinner, as we were exiting the dining room, a crew member in a red outfit similar to a bell hop’s uniform was stationed outside with a cart handing out either mints, dates, or dried apricots on a small napkin to each passenger. A nice touch.

We took the kids up to Club HAL for their 7:30 orientation. We filled out paperwork for the children and they gave us a tour then ended with a question/answer session. The Club had several rooms – one each for the 4-7 year olds, the 8-12 year olds, and the teens. They were all interconnected by short hallways. There was also a Play Station room where monitors on the walls each had 2 game controls and sported different games from Sonic to Cat in the Hat and Harry Potter to Basketball. Apparently, children in this area are not supervised or part of a Club HAL.

I inquired about finding a parent if there was a problem as Club HAL did not have a pager system as the Disney cruise had. I gues s the crew members come find you in whatever area you specify that you will be should something occur. They said that Amina and Rhys would be in different groups because Rhys was still about a month shy of turning 8 years old. In the end, though, they were in the same group each time I went back to pick them up. I can’t be sure this would also hold true if they were busier. The crew members said there were 90 children on board but there were only about 25 children at the orientation.

We headed back to our cabins, too tired to go to this evening’s show which was a comedian. We later heard that the entertainment was quite good. The phone rang and it was the woman in the library calling about our cooking class reservations. Apparently, the first cooking class was scheduled for 2 pm tomorrow. Unfortunately, Seth and I had already signed up for the wine wasting so I declined. We turned in for the evening and went to bed well before 10 pm after another exhausting day but only after setting out our breakfast order on the door of our cabin to have breakfast delivered the next morning to our cabin.

Family Vacation to Alaska - Day 1

Using our Disney Vacation Club points, I booked a 7 day cruise on Holland America Line through the inside passage to Alaska. We left for our trip on 24 May and got home on 2 June. Our cast:

Me, DH (Seth), 9DD (Amina), 7DS (Rhys), my MIL (Deb), and FIL (Ron).

Thursday, 24 May, 2007 – OKC/Seattle

The morning started off very early and little did we know what a long day lay ahead for us. The alarm went off at 5:30 am. We had been up pretty late the night before packing – it had easily taken over 4 hours to get everything sorted and stuffed into 5 suitcases of various sizes. My throat had been sore for a few days while we were in Las Vegas for a “girls’ weekend” celebrating Aunt Darcie’s 60th birthday. By Tuesday, there was a tickle in my trachea and by Wednesday evening, my cold was in full bloom with a runny/stuffy nose and cough. Ugh, that was only problem #1 this day.

We finish packing and have some breakfast. Suddenly, I hear a multitude of expletives from the bathroom and find out that Seth’s glasses had fallen apart and the teensy screw was missing. The screws in our eyeglass kit were all too big. Problem #2 today. Fortunately, he has an older pair of backup glasses. Never again will I complain about him having more than one pair of eyeglasses.

The kids are up pretty early – they’re very excited about our trip. Soon, Ron and Deb are over. Rene (our recent Au Pair) had spent the night and would be house sitting for us while we’re gone – feeding the animals, watering the plants, picking up the mail and paper, etc. We get the van packed up with our luggage and head out in 2 separate cars at around 7 am for our 10 am flight. Deb isn’t feeling well – she has an upset tummy. Problem #3 today.

The drive to OKC was pretty uneventful except that it’s raining. The rush hour traffic slows us down until we get past Northwest Expressway. We make it to the Sunpark valet and board the van for the airport with all of our luggage. A nice skycap helps us with all of our bags including 8 bags to check-in. We’ve done well with packing and none of our suitcases are over the weight limit. We get through the security line pretty easily except that my Carmex prompted a re-xray of my bag which held us up a little. I never gave it a second thought as security at the same airport the weekend before failed to bother with my Carmex after I forgot to remove it from my purse.

We arrive at our gate only to be directed to another gate – no mention is made on the video screen over the check-in desk. Seth complains again at how disorganized and discourteous American Airlines always seems to be. The kids are entertained by Seth's new phone that plays television.

Our flight leaves late and we are informed by the captain that a large thunderstorm stood in our way and that the plane would take a detour around to West Texas in order to reach Dallas. Our flight would be about double in length which was a real problem as a combination of a doubly long flight and leaving late put us in a bind with catching our connection – only an hour after our scheduled arrival.

As predicted, we finally arrive Dallas at almost 12:30 pm – our connnecting flight was scheduled to leave at 11:50 am. We didn’t make it. We were directed to another gate and was on stand-by for the 1:15 pm flight but there were only 3 open seats for this flight. We declined taking the seats opting instead to keep our group together. We are directed to yet another gate to catch the 2:20 pm flight to Seattle. We start boarding at about 2 pm and soon the captain is informing us of a large thunderstorm to the West that might delay our flight. We push back from the gate and hit the tarmac only to wait for about 4 hours before getting the signal to take off. The line of thunderstoms very obviously passes us by and when clear, dozens of planes take off from DFW. We finally take off from DFW at around 6:30 pm.

The flight to Seattle is almost 4 hours long. Thank goodness the plane is showing “Bridge to Terabithia” on board – the kids have been DYING to see this movie. I enjoyed the movie too and was very sad at the ending.

We finally arrive Seattle at about 7:30 pm and call Tony about our arrival. We head to the baggage claim area and wait for quite sometime. It becomes obvious that our luggage didn’t make the transfer as we did. We file a claim with American for all 8 of our bags and meet up with Tony outside the baggage claim area. We figured dinner was in order (especially since it is now about 8:30, or about 10:30 our local time). The kids are exhausted and hungry and so were we. We have dinner at Red Robin which was very surprsingly packed with people. I have the Whiskey River BBQ burger and split it with Deb which was very good. Turns out that hamburgers catch on as a recurring theme during our cruise too.

After dinner, we head back to the airport hoping that our luggage has arrived on the next flight from Dallas which was to arrive at 9 pm as the baggage claim clerk mentioned. We checked the monitors and find out that this flight was cancelled. We almost left at this time but it looked like another flight had gotten to Seattle just after our flight so we decide to walk over to carousel 2 to look for our luggage.

Thank goodness our bags had arrived. We collect 7 bags but have one still missing – our large red rolling duffel bag with all of our shoes and socks in it. We arrange to have it delivered to Uncle Tony’s house in Puyallup but the baggage claim clerk was not optimistic that we would receive our bag before 11 am the next day. We finally head home in the very large van that Uncle Tony had rented to pick us up in. The kids are fast asleep in the van when we load the bags. The drive to his house in Puyallup takes about an hour and a half. We quickly get the kids in bed and do a little rearranging in our luggage then get ready for bed. We call the American baggage center to find out if anything had been updated on our missing bag but there’s no news yet. We finally get to bed around 11:30 pm or about 1:30 am for us.