Day 6 - Another Day At Sea aboard Discovery Princess
Apologies for the delay in posting our daily cruise blogs. The WiFi/Internet in Alaska is virtually non-existent, so it is taking much longer than usual.
My morning starts a little earlier than Rickee’s. While she is in the stateroom getting ready for the morning, I am at Salty Dog Gastropub working on our blog and organizing our photos and videos from the previous day’s activities.
My morning workstation at SDG
Salty Dog Gastropub is the perfect work space in the morning since it is virtually empty and it is right across from International Cafe, so coffee refills are very easy to obtain.
Posting daily blogs and videos from this ship on this sailing has been quite challenging since the Internet is virtually non-existent. It is not uncommon to click “Send” or “Save”, wait a few minutes then be greeted with the following message:
Prepare for Internet and WiFi issues on an Alaska cruise
The WiFi/Internet issues are something I plan to talk about in my upcoming review video, which also ties into my review of the Medallion Net system used onboard, so watch for my review coming soon to our YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/cruisereport).
We have already started receiving disembarkation information. Princess is offering a new service on this sailing, or at least new to us, called Port Valet. This service is offered to anyone flying home from the Seattle airport. Basically, once you sign up for this free service, your checked luggage is collected from outside your stateroom the evening before disembarkation, just like it normally is. Your luggage is checked-in with your airline and you do not see it again until you arrive at your destination airport. This is a great service and we hope it works! If so, it would be great to see this offered at other port city airports around the country.
After we enjoy another relaxing breakfast at Sabatini’s, we use the sunshine this morning to get some great outdoor photos and video of Discovery Princess.
Sunshine has been rare on this trip, so when it shows up, many guests head to the outer decks. We chose to take a few laps around the walking/jogging track on Deck 18 aft. The track requires seven laps for a full mile and wraps around the aft end of the ship.
At 1pm, we once again head to The Sanctuary for an afternoon of relaxation in the super comfortable loungers. This is the best place to spend a morning or an afternoon on a Princess ship, in our opinion. The Sanctuary is well worth the $20 per person (half day) for the extra space, the peace and quiet and the great service offered.
Chillin’ at The Sanctuary
This evening is another formal night (there are two on this cruise) and the Gala Dinner is being offered in each of the three main dining rooms. What better night to give MDR a try? We have reserved a table for two at Ketchikan Dining Room on Deck 6 aft. My main course choice tonight was the Beef Wellington. For a full review of our main dining experience, watch for our video review of Discovery Princess Dining coming soon to our YouTube channel.
Beef Wellington at Gala Dinner
After dinner, we head to the casino to tempt fate one last time only to find the slots have gone cold. We decide to cash in what we have banked in our accounts and call it quits in the casino. All-in-all, we are only down about $100 and we got to play a LOT during this cruise, so we are pretty pleased with our casino experience. On Celebrity Apex, we were busted out in about 15 minutes of slot play!
The ship’s photographers are out in force tonight since it is a formal night which can make moving around the ship a challenge, especially in the elevator lobbies. We decide to take a couple of parting shots of our own.
We had to make a tough choice this evening between going to Rock Opera, the second production show, or going to a comedy show in the Vista Lounge. Since we have seen Rock Opera recently, we decided to check out the comedy show by Orlando Baxter.
The Vista Lounge was packed for tonight’s show and the comedy was excellent.
Vista Lounge
The show did end at 9:30, which is when Rock Opera is scheduled to begin, but we figured we would never find a decent seat in the theater, so we opted to turn in early.
Tomorrow is mostly a day at sea until Discovery Princess arrives at Victoria, Canada, for our final port before sailing back to Seattle. Tomorrow we pack!
