It was an early wake up today. Alarm went off at 6:30am this morning. The girls were a little harder than usual to wrangle up after our full day of activities yesterday. We had a 7:45am meet at the pier for our excursion this morning.
*Let me take a pause here to write about the biggest change that has occurred in sailing since we were last on a ship. The Navigator app and the television in your room are far more necessary than ever before. It is your muster instructional video upon boarding, it is you movie library (no more going to guest services for DVD’s), it is your menus for the main dining room, you can use it to contact your room steward for more towels, blankets, laundry pick up, etc, it is how you view the menu for room service, and the app and/or your room key is your excursion ticket. No more printed excursion tickets given to you on your first day on the ship. I am really going to miss having those as souvenirs of the things we have done and the places we have seen. You don’t even meet on the ship any longer, you go off the ship, meet the excursion company on the dock, they scan your app/room key with a phone or iPad and off you go. Not sure how that will work on the WC with some of the third world countries we will visit but I have no doubt they will figure it out.
So off we went on a horseback riding adventure. We were picked up by our bus with 6 other passengers and driven to the horse corrals. It wasn’t long before the long, windy, narrow, rough road remind me I had been here before. In 2016, the girls and I were on this very road riding to a mushers camp here in Skagway. Once we arrived at the stables today, we were each given a helmet and sent over to have our horsemanship experience evaluated before they assigned us our steeds. Now, I have to say that in 2016 was also the last time I rode a horse on the beach in Washington. I was assigned their one an only, massive Clydesdale then, and wouldn’t you know it, it happened again today. He was a massive, beautiful, and stubborn horse named Angus. He needed constant attention to keep him on task but we bonded quickly and he kept me safe all afternoon. Valerie was assigned the gentle lead horse named Peaches that just walked along and seemed to enjoy the scenery as much as we did. Megan rode behind me on a horse named Willow. He has a snacking problem, meaning anything green along the trail was fair game. He kept Megan on her toes. So between Megan and I, we had an amazing upper body workout today. We were on the trail for about 90 minutes. We rode out to a beautiful meadow where the horses were allowed to snack right near the previously mentioned mushers camp parking lot. Once we arrive back to the corral we were treated to a light snack, some drinks and another off road experience back to the Zuiderdam. We were back on the ship by noon. We had our first meal at the Dive In of this trip. The food was not quite as pleasurable as I remembered it. They no longer have the self service area set up outside the Dive In and they currently are not serving my beloved sweet potato fries. This is also the only restaurant you can currently order your food virtually through the app. After lunch was our first opportunity to put on our bathing suits and enjoy some pool time. Yes, it felt as surreal as it is to read it. We were in ALASKA, in bathing suits, sun tanning at the pool. A couple of blended Painkillers (a delightful tropical cocktail) for me and some virgin drinks for the girls and it was time to head back to the cabin to dress for dinner. Throughout today we ran into several people who are beginning to inquire how it is that two such young ladies (Valerie and Megan) are four star mariners already. We are having a lot of fun sharing our tales of the 2020 WC as well as sharing our excitement and anticipation for the 2023 WC. At this point I would like to request compensation from Holland America for the walking, talking billboards my daughters and I represent. There are many first time cruisers on this trip and I have been told so many times that a WC is on their bucket list. Being a young widow and having survived the pandemic I tell them that we all know that life is short and that they shouldn’t wait any longer. Make their deposit now before the trip is booked full. At 7:30 pm Megan went off to hang out with the other teens and Valerie and I attended the dance companies performance titled In Tandem. Fantastic and challenging dance steps, lifts and music. Then it was back to the room for me to get caught up on two days of my blog for you all. I hope to have a few new followers, as I was able to share my blog with several passengers today. Tomorrow, we are heading into our scenic sailing portion of this cruise. The Rangers and Naturalist board the ship at 5:45 am tomorrow and begin their presentation at 8:00am. They will open up the bow and we will have an opportunity to go out onto the front of ship. Something we haven’t done since Antartica. But all that is for tomorrow….sweet dreams to all my friends and family, new and old that are following along on our adventures. Enjoy the pictures.
Live Vicariously Through Debra 