Ketchikan, Alaska

Monday, 27 Aug 2018 – Since we felt that we had seen the most interesting things in Ketchikan on a previous cruise in 2008, we didn’t sign up for excursions here.  After breakfast, we went to swim in the indoor pool.  Although Sally had felt the water the previous day and it seemed to be somewhat warm, today it felt cold – at least colder than the YMCA pool back home.  Jesse was unhappy because it was a little too deep – 9 feet at one end.  We did sit in the hot tub, but it was only lukewarm.

The Rock Monument

After showers, we went out into Ketchikan, where we walked along the street parallel to the ship.  Another large ship was parked in front of ours in the place where our ship had docked 10 years ago.  Although we thought we would see a statue that we remembered being right in front of the ship previously, we didn’t find the statue, and everything else looked unfamiliar.  We looked at a map later and saw that we had not walked quite far enough to see the familiar statue. 

As one reward for signing up for this cruise, we had received a coupon for a free dinner at the Bayou Restaurant.  This is a luxury restaurant on the Coral Princess.  All cruise ships have these, and they all (except on Oceania ships) cost extra money to eat there.  Because they cost extra, and we believe that the food served in the regular dining room is fine, we had never eaten in one before tonight.  As we soon discovered, the normal cost of eating in this particular restaurant would have been $29 each!  At any rate, we ordered lobster and other normally expensive items.

Since we had sat down here at 5:30 PM, we thought we would have plenty of time before our second engagement of the evening, which was scheduled for 7:30 PM.  However, we waited so long between courses that Jesse finally had to tell the server that we needed our dessert so that we could leave.

We practically ran (except for stopping at a restroom) to our next meeting and we were still 10 minutes late.  This was a cocktail party given for the top 40 Princess cruisers on this cruise.  Now on most cruises, we would not have been anywhere close to having cruised as many days on Princess ships as many other people (some have taken 100 or more Princess cruises).  However, this episode made us realize that Alaska is probably one of people’s first destinations, after the Caribbean.  (Even we had been to Alaska twice previously, though only as far north as Juneau.)

Anyway, we entered a small room with a few people seated at tables and several people standing around.  In fact, since we were late, someone had been trying to contact us by calling our cabin.  We were seated at a table alone, and servers kept coming to us every minute or two, wishing to provide us with a choice of hors d’oeuvres and wines.  Obviously, we were not hungry and we don’t drink very much, so that soon we were turning away servers.  One of the ship’s officers (not the captain) stood with us for a photo (which was presented to us before we left).  Finally, after we each consumed two rum punches and a little food, we decided we had stayed long enough and departed!  (Many other passengers had already left.)

From there, we walked to the Wheelhouse Bar, where we met up with Val and Ed.  After a bit, the Argentine band started to play, and we danced until 8:45 PM when they were taking their break.  Our friends think Jesse is a non-stop dancer!  When they get tired, they sit down; however, Jesse likes to dance all night – which works out to be until Sally is exhausted!