Whereas this marked the end of the cruise for most people, we were staying on for another week. We got up at 07:00, got ready and then headed down to Chic to check in for our second cruise. I had heard that around 500 people were staying on. I expected things to be quite busy, but there was hardly anybody there. We had to hand in our old Seapass cards, were given new ones and then we were good to go. We were able to request to get the old Seapass cards back and they turned up on our bed a couple of days later.
We headed up to the Windjammer for some breakfast. Graham had different breads, scrambled egg and bacon. I had congee with chicken, sesame oil, and soy sauce and a chocolate donut. Then we headed to the solarium. I had fancied my chances of getting a round lounger, but this did not work out. We sat on some chairs outside the Solarium Bistro for a while in the hope that a round lounger would become available, but we were out of luck.
At some stage, we decided to head downstairs. We decided to get some fresh air on deck 5. We checked out the views, which were pretty impressive. It was however freezing and wet. We headed back inside. I took a few photos around deck 5. Then we headed to the Two70. The Cafe Two70 was still open, and we both got a coffee. Then we found some seats with a view.
Being at a loose end in the Two70 has always been dangerous. The Next Cruise desk is quite close to the Two70. I decided to check out what ship is in Singapore in 2027. It turned out that it is Quantum. Even better, there is a cruise leaving on my birthday that goes to Penang and then has an overnight stay in Phuket and a sea day before returning to Singapore. I shared this with Graham, and he was up for this. The next thing I knew, I headed to the Next Cruise desk to book this cruise. I managed to snag the same cabin that we had on Ovation. I ended up with a bottle of sparkling wine for booking on the first day of the cruise.
I headed over to Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen to see if somebody was at the podium. I was in luck. I managed to book all of our lunches ahead of the cruise as well as the dinners at Izumi and Chops Grill. However, dinners at Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen and the Teppanyaki were not available for the unlimited dining plan on either the app or the website. I wanted to see if I could get them sorted. I was in luck. I managed to get all the reservations I wanted.
I spotted that the photographers were setting up for embarkation photos near Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen. This made things easy. I headed back to join Graham in the Two70 were I chilled for a bit. About 15 minutes before our lunch reservation, we headed over to Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen. I had hoped that we would be able to get the muster drill done before lunch as our muster station was right next to Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen. However, they had not set up yet. Instead, we got the embarkation photos done. Then we headed for lunch.
We had a different server again even though we had the same table we had for our first lunch on the ship. We had a glass of Moscato each. We got the garlic butter knots with marinara sauce and the mixed olives again. Graham had the truffle & eggs pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, bacon, eggs, Pecorino, and white truffle oil. I had the spaghetti carbonara with pancetta, eggs, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. We both had the pistachio panna cotta for dessert. Lunch was lovely.
After lunch, we got the muster drill taken care of. Then we headed for the Schooner Bar for a drink. Graham had a glass of Sauvignon blanc, and I had a desert pear margarita. I wanted to make sure that the one I had the previous cruise was not a happy accident. It was not. This was just as good as the first one. Then we headed up to the solarium. This time we were in luck and managed to get a round lounger. We settled down and enjoyed the view.
I got my times mixed up and we ended up heading down to Sound Cellar too early for the Welcome On Board Trivia. They had a first-time cruiser induction going on. Even though we are season cruisers and very familiar with this ship, it was still quite interesting. Everybody got a keychain for attending. I gave our keychains away. After this, it was really time for the Welcome On Board Trivia. We scored 14 out of 15, which happened to be the winning score. The prize were keychains, which I declined. Our trivia host had a look in her bag and gave me a stress ball instead. I was delighted with this.
After the trivia, we headed back up to the solarium to enjoy the view. We saw all kinds of interesting birds. We stayed in the solarium for a while and then we headed down to the cabin to get changed. We had told our stateroom host not to bother making up our cabin that day as we knew that he had a very busy day ahead of him. When he saw us, he asked if we wanted him to make up the cabin that evening. We told him we were OK and that we were only too happy about him just coming at the usual time that day.
I quickly got changed and then we headed downstairs to get some photos. Then we headed to Izumi for some dinner. Graham had a class of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, and I had a She’s A Geisha cocktail. I had this on a number of different ships, and it had always been delicious. This time round, it was disappointing. Graham started with the shrimp and vegetable tempura with tentsuyu bonito stock. He said that this tasted a little anaemic. I had the shrimp and pork wonton soup, which was a clear chicken soup, with shiitake mushrooms, spring onions, and shrimp and pork wontons. This was tasty. Graham had the tonkotsu ramen for his main course. This consisted of egg ramen noodles, tonkotsu pork broth, seasoned chicken, menma bamboo shoots, boiled egg, and seaweed nori. He liked the flavour of this, but apparently it was hard work, and he did not finish it. I went with sushi. I had the spicy crispy shrimp roll, which consisted of shrimp tempura, avocado, tempura flakes, unagi sauce, and togarashi. I also had the champagne lobster roll with blanched lobster, avocado, daikon sprouts, soy wrap, champagne sauce, and chili thread. This was so delicate and delicious. For his dessert, Graham had strawberry and mango mochi ice cream. I had the green tea ice cream.
Izumi was very quiet that evening. There were three tables occupied in the corridor, but inside the restaurant were only the two of us and one solo traveller. We got talking. He was a very interesting guy. Initially I thought that he was just incredibly well-travelled, but with some of the comments he made, I came to realise that he either used to work or still worked for Royal Caribbean. Apparently, we had a lot of Royal Caribbean management on this cruise. If all had gone according to plan, this day would have marked the official opening of the new port in Seward, so this made sense.
After dinner, we headed to Pesky Parrot for our after-dinner drink. Graham had his usual Monkey Business, and I had a Pretty Bird, which consisted of Captain Morgan spiced Rum, Campari, pineapple & lime juices, and strawberry purée. This was delicious.
Once we had finished our drinks, we headed up to the solarium to watch the sail away. We were running a little bit late, but that was OK. The captain made an announcement just before we left and gave us the details for the next day. He gave us the timings for Hubbard Glacier the next day and told us that the weather forecast for the next day was very promising. I had to smile. Some piece of work from the cruise the week before had joined the Facebook group for this cruise with the sole intention of winding people up. He was not even on this cruise. He had been posting all day that our glacier day been cancelled. Once the captain had made his announcement there were a number of people who told him where to go.
We found a round lounger and settled down. The sail out from Whittier is very pretty. We stayed and enjoyed out view until the light faded. Then we headed to our cabin to get ready for bed. I read for a while before setting down for the night.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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