She Wants To Be A Ship When She Grows Up – Day 12

After the initial disappointment of not being able to play with husky puppies, I was actually quite excited about getting the chance to explore Haines. However, the weather forecast was abysmal. We decided to play things by ear. We were in no rush that morning as due to the tide we had to tender for the first couple of hours. Afterwards, it would be possible to walk off. We had decided the day before that we would not bother with tendering. Haines is hardly a sprawling metropolis, and we would have plenty of time to explore even if we waited until the gangway was down.

We had a lie in of sorts and did not get up until 08:00. We got up and ready. Then we headed up to the Windjammer for some breakfast. Graham had his usual fruit and oatmeal. I had strawberry yogurt with granola and a waffle with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. We both had some coffee.

 

When we came out of the Windjammer, it was raining so heavily that we could not actually see the town. That made that decision. When we took an excursion out of Haines in 2022, we thought this was a pretty town surrounded by spectacular scenery. We figured that this would be worth coming back to in order to explore. It is definitely a wandering type of place. The main attractions are William H. Seward Fort, the hammer museum, the cannery museum and the natural history museum. The natural history museum showcases around 180 pieces of taxidermy from what I managed to find out. This is not really our scene, and I find it downright creepy. The only plus point is that the natural history museum is operated by the American Raptor Foundation and next to the museum is a boardwalk area  that is home to ten raptor ambassadors including four bald eagles. If the weather had been nicer, we may well have checked it out. However, it was not worth getting soaked for, essentially considering that we had seen bald eagles at an amazing facility in Sitka only the previous day. We figured Haines would wait for another trip.

We quickly headed down to deck two to get our port photo done. Then we headed up to the Schooner Bar stopping at Cafe Lattetudes for some proper coffee on the way. Graham had his usual Americano, and I had a caramel macchiato. 

 

The Schooner Bar was surprisingly busy when we got there. We were definitely not the only people who figured that as charming as Haines is, it was not worth drowning for. We did not get a table by the window, but there was a comfortable sofa. We just relaxed until it was time for morning trivia. 

Morning trivia was pretty tough that day. We scored 9 out of 15 and the winning score was 11. After morning trivia, the Schooner Bar emptied out quite considerably. We relocated to a table by the window.  I had not done a great deal of reading since we got on the ship. I decided to head up to the cabin to get my iPad. The rain had eased up quite a bit. I still was not tempted to head out. However, the town was now clearly visible, and I managed to get a photo from the window by the panoramic lifts. I also took a couple of photos of the glass and marble panels on that landing. When I got back to the Schooner Bar, I settled down to read.

 

When it was lunchtime, Graham asked if I fancied some hot dogs. I was up for this. On most of their ships they have an outlet serving a variety of hotdogs. When we first started cruising on Royal Caribbean, I was crazy about the hotdogs, but I had not had any for quite a few cruises. I think the last time I had one was before cruising shut down for the pandemic. I liked the sound of this. He headed up to the pool deck and came back with two hotdogs each. One was a classic hotdog and the other was chorizo. Both came with caramelised onions. I preferred the classic hot dog, but both of them were nice.

 

After lunch, we headed over to the Colony Club as they had a number of visual trivias this afternoon. The first was Flags of the World Trivia and the host went through the slides at the rate of knots. Normally we do better on this, but this time we only scored  18 out of 35. The winning score was an amazing 29. Shortly afterwards, it was Broadway Musical Trivia. I tend to do OK with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Disney musicals and this is something I really enjoy. This trivia was geared more towards the classical musicals, but we still scored  11 out of 20. The winning score was 18.

 We had a bit of a gap until afternoon trivia and decided it was time to get some fresh air. We took a wander around the promenade deck. Ironically it had brightened up and it had stopped raining. It was just a shame that it nearly was all aboard time. It is a shame that the weather had not improved a bit earlier. I did manage to take some photos.

 

We headed back to the Schooner Bar, and I took some more photos as we were sailing away from Haines. Graham had another Irish Coffee, and I had a dessert pear margarita. We stayed for afternoon trivia. We scored 8 out of 15. The winning score was 13.

 

After afternoon trivia, we moved on. The string duo was about to do a set, and we were not about to hang around for this. We headed up to the Crown Lounge for a bit. I had a Passion Spritz and Graham had a glass of Chardonnay. Once we had finished our drinks, we headed back to the cabin for some downtime. We had a towel animal waiting for us.

 

We had a bit of a nap before getting showered and changed. Then we headed downstairs. Graham took some photos of my outfit in front of one of the glass panels I loved so much. We then stopped for some photos on the way to the dining room.

 

Dinner that night was Royal Night, which is better known as lobster night. However, we both passed on this pleasure. For our starter we both had the vegan bright citrus and avocado salad. This consisted of cantaloupe melon, avocado, orange segments, and figs in maple-lime dressing. This was topped with toasted pine nuts. I had this on Symphony last year and really liked it. Graham also enjoyed this. For his main course, Graham went with the lemon-butter baked cod with  sautéed spinach, citrus rice and a lemon-butter sauce. I had the Chicken Marsala with garlicky mashed potatoes, sautéed asparagus and tomatoes. For dessert, Graham had strawberry shortcake, and I had the red velvet cake. We had a couple of glasses of Chateau St. Michelle Riesling with our dinner.

 

After dinner, we checked out the artwork on decks 10 and 9. There were some beautiful watercolours, some mixed media art and a lot of handmade paper. I took a few photos. Once we had completed the two decks, we went back to our cabin and got ready for bed.