Day 4 - Juneau Part 1

Today we woke up bright and early because we were docked in Juneau for the whole day. After the "long dock disaster" in Icy Straight Point, Ross, Sweet Pea and I left the ship early to scout out the path to our excursion in
Juneau.




The path looked very short so we had some time to look around. We remembered this glacier shalt soap
shop from our last visit.



These is a fun sign that shows how far various cities are from Juneau.



A panoramic view of the street:




A statue of miners.



The flowers here are in full bloom. They aren't all dead from the heat like in Kansas City! :)



I was fascinated by this little shop that sold all types of meat sausage.









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Day 3 - Dinner at Blue

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Blue's dinner menu tonight so
I don't remember exactly what we ate.

Ross and Sweet Pea had this for their appetizer, which was a crab martini. It was okay.



I had prosciutto, which was really good. Flavorful and salty. I wanted more of it. :)



Grandma Trudy ordered creme brûlée again.



For our next course, Sweet Pea had sweet pea soup. This was a thin watery soup, not what you would normally think of as pea soup. Blue has done a very good job of distilling the essence of a vegetable into the soups here. This really tasted just like fresh sweet peas.



Ross got a really fantastic citrus salad. He raved about it.



I think I got this soup, but it was clearly forgettable as I don't remember what it was. Lol.



For the main corse, Sweet Pea ordered pasta.



I had duck breast which had a fantastic flavor. The skin wasn't crispy, but it was very good. I would order this again for sure




Ross ordered rack of lamb again. It was very good.




Grandma Trudy ordered the ribeye and was a unhappy with the gravy covering it. She didn't like that she couldn't see where the fatty parts were on the steak.




After our main course, Sweet Pea wanted to skip dessert so she could head straight to the kids club.



Here is the dessert menu:






Grandma Trudy had creme brûlée again.



Ross ordered the tiramisu, which was great.



I ordered the cheese plate and was disappointed. I had expected a more traditional cheese plate, but received mostly sliced deli cheese. The cheese had hardened around the edges and the crackers were stale. Everything had clearly been sliced and arranged days before and stored in the refrigerator. It was by far the worst thing I got in Blue during the whole cruise. Something so unappetizing had no business being on their menu.

After dinner we went to the always fun "Newlywed Game" with Grandma Trudy and some of our trivia buddies.



Grandma Trudy really wanted us to be one of the couples who actually participated in the show, but we were very happy to watch from audience. It is always a really funny show and the activities director (Mark?) was an especially excellent host.


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Day 3 - Kids Club Carnival

After the glacier viewing, we had lunch at the Aqua Spa cafe which offer some healthier alternatives to the normal buffet.

Ross and I loved the fruit and vegetable salads offered here, along with the miso poached salmon, but Grandma Trudy couldn't find anything she wanted so Ross had to take her back to the other buffet area to get pizza.

We were happy to see that they were serving some Alaskan beer on this cruise.



Sweet Pea ordered a mint lemonade.





After lunch, the kid's club held a special carnival for families. Grandma Trudy headed back to the can't for a nap while we went up to the Constellation lounge for the carnival.




They had video games on a large screen and remote controlled cars.



There was hoola hooping, bingo, face painting and fake tattoos.

In an ode to "Divergent", I got a spider tattoo.



Sweet Pea it a butterfly.



There was an ice carving demonstration, which was really fun to watch. An ice craver carved a fish out of a block of ice in about 10 minutes.



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Day 3 - Hubbard Glacier

Grandma Trudy slept through breakfast. The rest of us headed to Blue.




Sweet Pea had a sliced meat and cheese plate.



We like the fruit plates for breakfast every morning too.



Ross and I both had omelets. We have been super happy with the breakfasts here.



Today we are sailing to Hubbard Glacier. The day is perfect; clear and fairly warm. We spent a lot of time on our balcony as we approached the glacier.



We woke up Grandma Trudy so
She could enjoy the glacier with us.




We went up on deck for a bit so
we could get a better view.






This is a panoramic view.




It is hard to describe how large this glacier is. My photos doesn't do a good job of showing the scale. Hubbard Glacier is over 6 miles across and 22 stories high. So two cruise ships stacked on top of each other would fit in the space between my fingers.




We lost Grandma Trudy for a bit so we went up to the helipad to look around. Normally this area is restricted but they open it up for viewing the glaciers.




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Day 2 - Sushi Dinner

It was very late by the time we got back to the ship. Grandma Trudy was exhausted from our adventures and went straight to bed.

Blue was already closed for the night, but this would have been out menu:




Instead we went to the (additional charge ala cart) sushi restaurant. It was delicious, but the prices were sort of outrageous considering we had technically already paid for a meal (in the cruise price) that we didn't eat that night. It was not a "nominal charge" but the same price as a land based restaurant. That being said, the sushi was delicious. Also, the service was fantastic. A special shout-out goes to the maitre'd (Jun?) who seated us literally right at closing time.

We started with some beautifully prepared chicken dumplings.





We had a really great shrimp tempura roll. This was probably my favorite roll.



We also had some great sashimi
And a tasty eel-avocado roll.




I don't have a picture, but I also had my favorite drink of the cruise here. It was a spicy mango cocktail(?) and it was spectacular. It was both sweet and spicy with a very smooth puréed mango texture and flavor.



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Day 2 - Icy Straight Point

In the afternoon, we docked at Icy Straight Point. This port is very new and was created in with conjunction the local Native American tribe and the cruise lines. It is definitely a designed for tourists, but there are no ticky-tacky tourist shops












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Day 2 - Lunch

Blue is only open for breakfast and dinner so we have to eat elsewhere on the ship for lunch. Guest who are in suites however get to eat lunch in their special restaurant, Luminae, on sea days. This is a lunch menu from Luminae. I think Luminae guest may also ordering of the main dining room menu.




Here is the lunch menu from Theron dining room, called Trellis, on the Infinity.




I forgot to take pictures of our appetizers but sweet Pea and I had the creamy mushroom soup which was a little too salty, but okay. Ross had the beef and chicken satay which were excellent. They were really spicy and flavorful.

Grandma Trudy ordered creme brûlée again.



For the entree, Sweet Pea ordered spaghetti bolognese which was surprisingly good. I don't usually like to order spaghetti because it gets overlooked, but this was excellent.



In the other hand, I ordered the "Brik" and it was in fact a brick. It was a strange thin pancake filled with flavorless tiny shrimp and scrambled eggs. It was so bland. Terrible.



Ross had the barbecue chicken which was pretty tasty.



For dessert, Sweet Pea ordered the cinnamon ice cream. She thought it was delicious! I thought it was good too, but the ice cream on The Reflection was definitely better. It really was some of the creamiest and most delicious ice cream I've ever eaten, while the texture of all the ice cream this trip seems a little bit icy.



I had an amazing chocolate mousse for dessert. It was fluffy and light with a rich chocolate flavor. Amazing.



Ross had a no sugar added pear tart, which was not great. The flavor of the filling was fine, but the crust was soggy and under baked. I suspect that they used a sugar substitute which just didn't bake as well as sugar would have.



Grandma Trudy ordered creme brûlée for dessert too. :)








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