vacation day 3 - the inside passage

I woke up early on Saturday morning and went outside, expecting to see the wonders of the Inside Passage. I was disappointed to find, however, that it had been raining and the ship was making its way through heavy fog. I couldn’t see more than 40 yards or so in front of me, so there were no photo opportunities to be had. I eventually made my way to a lounge at the front of the ship and read a book whilst listening to tunes. Ultimately, this was a very good way to start the morning.

When I finally went back to our room, I was surprised to find that Becca was not there. I figured she’d be in the gym or on the jogging track, and sure enough, she was on the latter, jogging around the ship. I decided to walk for a while, and then she joined me. It was extremely windy, so we only walked laps for about 20 minutes and then headed inside for breakfast.

After breakfast, our first activity was a geography quiz. The questions were really hard, and even though I thought I bombed, I ending up winning the activity. Becca and I were awarded portable hand sanitizer bottles with the Celebrity Cruises logo on them. Hmmm…

We wandered around for a bit and then decided to play Pictionary with some other guests. We stayed as long as we could, and then went to the reception that was held for people on their honeymoon or that were celebrating their anniversary. We took a glass of orange juice, had a piece of cake, and then listened to the cruise director banter with the honeymooners and the couples that were celebrating their 50th anniversary (there were four couples on board who were celebrating their 50th).

Becca insisted on eating in the main dining room for lunch, and we were seated at a table with a family from Georgia. I was surprised when the parents told me the first thing they had done that morning was attend mass, and even more surprised when they all stopped to say grace and make the cross symbol before eating. One of their daughters later told us that she went to Catholic school and often attended mass every morning. Anyway, the food was pretty good, but since I prefer to not socialize over meals, I insisted that we not eat in the main dining room for lunch again. We didn’t.

After lunch, we decided to take a nap. Even though I had slept surprisingly well the night before, I ended up sleeping three hours. That was OK, though, as that’s what vacations are all about. Better still, when we went outside, the fog and clouds were almost completely gone, and we could see the pines and mountains of the Inside Passage on both sides of us. It was definitely one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.









That night was the first formal night of the cruise, so I put on a tuxedo and Becca put on a dress, and we headed out to the main dining room for dinner. Our dinner choices were a bit more adventurous than the night before, but that didn’t necessarily pay off. For an appetizer, I had herbed cream cheese wrapped with smoked salmon and accompanied by an amber-colored caviar (gross), while Becca had frog legs. I sampled them, and they were OK, but nothing to write home about (despite what I’m doing right now). I ordered a fish bisque for my soup, and it was so nasty that I took a couple bites and then asked the waiter to bring me some French onion. Becca ordered a vegetable consommé, but was disappointed when she got her bowl as I think she got “consommé” mixed up with something else. Our main courses were far better than our appetizer selections. Becca had quail with white and black truffle stuffing, and I had rack of lamb with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli. Dessert for me was an open-faced apple pie kind of thingy with ice cream. Becca had a chocolate cake of some kind. The waiter also brought us the other dessert that was being offered, cherries jubilee + vanilla ice cream or something like that. The cherries had been doused in some kind of alcohol and thus didn’t taste very good.



Frog legs:


Salmon + caviar:


Quail:


After dinner, we walked around the ship a bit, changed our clothes, then walked around some more and hung out in lounges that were near doors so that I could go outside and take pictures if something looked cool. This turned out to be a pretty good move.