Admiralty Dream - Embarkation Day

Photos

Saturday, August 31, 2013

We were up at 6:45am again. It seems to be our natural wake up time here. We slept with the windows open again last night and we could hear it raining steadily for hours. It looks pretty well socked in and rainy as far as we can see. So this is probably more typical weather than we had our first day here. We don’t mind it getting colder, a little cooler would suit us just fine, but we‘d really like to see the mountains in the distance a little more with higher or fewer clouds and lighter rain if possible. Not to be a complainer, but just sayin’.

We could see the National Geographic Sea Lion docked by the Petro Marine this morning. There are people here in our hotel who I overheard telling they were getting on today to sail to Seattle. It’s really small and I hope they have some way to get there without entering open ocean. I wouldn’t want to be doing it.

I could see part of another small ship under the bridge at the Visitor’s Dock maybe that I think was our Admiralty Dream. It was gone when I got out of the shower and when we came downstairs the room off the foyer labeled Alaskan Dream Cruises was filled with people sitting around surrounded by luggage. They were still in there when we came back from our morning walk, they were waiting to check in to Totem Square Inn and just don’t want to get wet. Some of the people were National Geographic/Lindblad's and some were Alaskan Dream's.

We went out this morning after our in room breakfast for about an hour. We walked up Castle Hill, down to check the Yarn Shop which was once again closed and then we went over and up to check out the reproduction Russian Block House, which was only signage and visible from the outside. Then we came back to the room to get dried out for a while before we join our Alaskan Dream group downstairs and turn over our bags.

Before we go back down to meet up and turn over our bags here is the day’s schedule. 10:30am meet for the walk over to the Hospitality Room at Centennial Hall for a brief orientation talk on Sitka. Then the Expedition Leader will offer a guided walking tour from 11am to 2:30pm that includes the Russian Bishop’s House, St. Michael’s Cathedral, an open hour to get lunch, and Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Dancers. At 2:30pm at the Totem Square Dock we board a sightseeing boat for the Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest tour (lunch provided on the boat?). This boat will serve as our transfer to Admiralty Dream. So signing off now to go begin!

We met Jon, one of our expedition leaders downstairs in the Alaskan Dream Cruises room off the hotel entry. He walked us half way across Sitka to Centennial Hall where we were offered drinks and pastries. We were there about 8 minutes where provided some incorrect information about where to meet the tour boat and then corrected himself when another passenger pointed it out. Then back out into the rain for about a 5 minute walk to the Russian Bishop’s House. We were there about an hour and watched a video and had a guided tour. ADC paid our $5 pp admission. Then back out into the rain where we walked about 5 minutes to St. Michaels Cathedral with a pair of bald eagles perched atop the cross on the dome. ADC again paid our $5pp admission. Then we had a free hour to have lunch or do what we wanted. We had crepes. I had ham and cheese and Clay had Alaskan which had salmon and cream cheese with tomatoes and other things, as well as kelp pickles. Then we shared a banana and Nutella crepe. We used the restrooms there. It was kind of like a food court in a building called Homeport Eatery. From there we browsed shops and went to the soda fountain at Harry Race Pharmacy. Clay had chocolate ice cream and I had a marshmallow milk shake. We walked on to the dancers where we watched a diverse age group sing and drum and dance for about 20 minutes. Finally we walked across the street and boarded Allen marine’s St. Ad-something boat for our Sea Otter & Wildlife Quest tour and transfer provided by ADC.

Well it was a 2.5 hr. or so fairly calm transit from Sitka to Peril Strait to meet our ship, but it was only a comfortable and quick transit. There was no sightseeing or animal viewing so that was a pretty big disappointment. There were definitely a lot of otters that we only saw briefly as we were flying by. We were told that our ship can only sail through Peril Strait twice a day and to make it to Glacier Bay on time tomorrow morning that it had to get through in the afternoon, so it left Sitka without us and we caught up later. That was fine, they just shouldn’t have advertised it as an included excursion of touring to see wildlife since that is clearly not what it was. We have to hope that will be our only disappointment. We traveled quickly through Olga and Neva Straits to get to Peril Strait.

Anyway the terrible heavy rain continues and within minutes on the sightseeing boat you could not see out the fogged up windows. They served wrap sandwiches, chips, pasta salad, and hot and cold drinks as well as sold t-shirts and other souvenirs. The t-shirts were great with an otter on the back and at $15 each we each got one. I mean we did see the otters even if we didn't slow down to get photos.

We tied up alongside the Admiralty Dream and transferred over one at a time and were all seated in the lounge. We departed quickly and then they escorted each cabin-full to their cabins. Ours is 202, the first one aft and port side from the lounge. There are only 4 cabins on deck 2 between the lounge and restaurant and they are some of the only ones with interior doors. There are some windowless cabins one deck below us, but I wouldn't like that! So far it seems like a good choice. The life vests had Spirit of Columbia written on them, so I guess this used to be a Cruise West ship. Also they have the “no knock knots” and no key doors as Cruise West did.

Our cabin, 202, at 93 square feet is not the smallest we’ve ever had, but it is the 2^nd to smallest. The bathroom setup is definitely the weirdest and most cramped. It has a “showerlet”. A toilet and shower inside the same plastic lined enclosure with the sink outside beside my bed. It actually wouldn’t be that bad if the water held a consistent temp, but it fluctuates wildly from scalding hot to freezing cold and you can’t get out of it because there is no space. There is a toggle switch on the shower head to turn the water on and off, but it never completely shuts off the flow. The toiletries are from Wintersong Soap Company in Sitka. There is a bath gel and a herbal shampoo made for ADC with no ingredients listed so I didn’t use them. They also provided the Rainforest Mist Soap Gel for washing hands at the sink and it listed aloe but it was all they provide so I used it with no ill effects, so there couldn’t have been much aloe. Anyway, we walked past the Wintersong Soap shop on Lincoln Street several times and noticed some cool totem art tea towels and coffee cups, but we never went in. Clay had no comments about the bath gel and shampoo he used, but then he generally wouldn’t.

The other really weird thing is the light switches on the ceiling over the sink and the only 2 electrical outlets in the room are there in the ceiling over the sink as well. That meant that to recharge things you had the cords dangling in the room and over the sink. It also meant we had to use a flashlight as a nightlight in the toilet/shower enclosure.

There was a shelf at the foot of our beds that held an ice bucket that you could get filled at the bar anytime someone was behind it. Also, a leather notebook with ship information, stationery, postcards and 2 very handy Cruise Map & Field Guides. I love maps and this way we could draw ours to follow the electronic screen in the lounge as well as the big hand drawn one they were keeping up on the wall just inside the lounge.

We had the abandon ship drill right after seeing our cabins. Everyone mustered outside on the aft of deck 4. Once everyone had answered when their name was called,  we put away the vests and reconvened in the lounge until dinner at 7pm. Dinner was noisy as I expect all the meals will be. All the chairs except 4 at 2 round tables in the back are facing sideways and just those 4 face forward. One of those tables is where I sat. Dinner was fine. Clay got an Alaskan Ale and salmon finally. There was cream of mushroom tarragon soup followed by a goat cheese and roasted tomatoes on wild greens salad followed by a choice of salmon or beef tenderloin. Dessert was ice cream or strawberry shortcake. There is always available sirloin steak, chicken breast, baked potato and salad. We thought our food was very good. The beef tenderloin was extremely tender and tasty.

There was another presentation with introductions in the lounge where they told us to expect a sheet delivered to our cabins every evening giving us the plan for the next day. The menus should be posted at the bar each evening. After 9pm, they finally stopped and we fell into bed, after Clay had a shower.

So, it turns out that about half of our ship is an Orbridge charter and most of them came from a disastrous (according to at least one) few days of pre-cruise to Denali. Jon, one of our expedition leaders, told me they are the reason for the altered cruise schedule that we were informed of after final payment. He also said they were the reason that we did not have the wildlife quest tour yesterday when I asked about the difference between the letter and the reality. He said I had gotten the ADC letter and Orbridge has a different itinerary and I should have gotten theirs. It is fine and I suppose this must have happened after we booked, so I guess it would have been too late to offer us a cabin on a sailing with the itinerary we actually booked, but I still think it would have been proper for ADC to have informed us of the changes prior to after final payment. But, the information came in the post-final payment cruise documents with no explanation at all. There was no announcement of the itinerary change,  just the new itinerary that if you compared with the original one you would see had dropped the 2 ports of Kake and Petersburg.

Clay slept fine. Me not so much. I am next to the window and Clay is facing the window. We slept with the window and curtains open again. No stars because the clouds are too low.

We did not receive a sheet with tomorrow’s program in our cabin.

Photos