Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Seattle to Juneau

Seattle to Juneau 

Settled into life on board as we tend to do. Met loads of people, a very diverse age group, mostly from the good old US of A and Asia.
The Ruby Princess is a beautiful ship. And her crew are outstanding! Best Princess crew yet. The layout has me totally confused. But hey what ship doesn't... 
Seattle sail away was stunning. 
Day two was a sea day. We had a late start.. this jet lag has got me big time now .. did a bit of a pub crawl and had a meet up with a couple of cruise critics folks in the Adagio lounge.. then formal night dinner ... 
Great day, starting to feel the chills settle in.

Juneau now! good morning beautiful Alaska, we watched the sail in from about 6.30 am. It was stunning! Great to have a balcony, sneak out and sneak back under the doona .. as we got closer I felt a bit under the weather and was worried our day out with my beautiful Alaskan friend Florence Kenny might not take place. 
I had another rest and rallied at the last hour... my fear is this flippin norovirus and sharing it around. Would hate to do that. 
Flo was at the tram stop in her beautiful trapper hat, we met her resplendent in our Hawaiian leis! The weather was damp but not so frreeeezing! 
Big hugs all around. She is a beautiful soul. We shared in a very special day, and saw some amazing sights the tourists never see! 
We were treated to a delicious Chinese lunch, a beautiful hostess who

 is a long time friend of Florence took great care of us. 
We then took a most scenic route to Mendenhall Glacier, oh so stunning. 
Onto so many other wonderful places, and a visit to Florences "IGLOO" Hahaha, a beautiful home.. so cosy and welcoming.
A fabulous day with a truly great ambassador for Alaska. 
I was sad to hug her goodbye, but we promise next time she should come to Australia, it's been her dream since she was 20. 
A hard life here in Alaska to be sure. 
Back home to the beautiful Ruby, surrounded by Celebrity Solstice, HAL Eurodam and Neiuw  Amsterdam, in good company today. 
We had a rest then trekked back to Downtown to once again check out the Red Dog Saloon...Way too busy , crowds hanging out the door, since we already ticked that off a few years back we moseyed on back to the ship. 
Dinner at the buffet. It's only ok. But lots of choices. Just not hot enough.
Much prefer the dining room, but couldn't be fagged getting tizzed up tonight.
Up to the nightclub for a roadie, that was fun. 

Tomorrow Skagway! Life is good indeed!! 

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Seattle Washington

September 15 Seattle Washington

Last night was a bummer with poor Wazza laid up with his crook hoof, we did what we could till the pain was too bad. 
We checked into the Crowne Plaza, a lovely high floor room (closed my eyes in the lift Colly!!) .. 
down to level two bar for a few night caps looked after by Joe, thrown out at 1 am local time.. yep,it happens! Been thrown out of better places..!! 
A shower and relax and fill Wazza with more meds than Schapelle had in her boogy board.. 6.40 am I looked at the clock for the last time. Sun woke me up at 11.11 and I wanted to get moving. Eventually we headed out at 12.20 ish.
An easy walk to AT&T and got sorted out with a mobile SIM card. And Downtown to Pike place for a wander. We felt the need for some food so shared a Reuben Sanger at a great bar overlooking all the  action at the market. 
Carry on and we walked up stairs down stairs around corners up,hills down hills up HUGE hills (I am sure Wazza was trying to do me in!) 
Had a couple of stops to recover (yep, you know the kind! ) the waterfront was soooo delightful today a perfect sunny day and a wonderful view of mount Saint Helens ?? ( Bucky is that correct?) only 80'days a year it's visible
.. lucky lucky us.
Just a fabulous day UNTIL we got to the space needle... do you know how high that stinker is???? HIGH higher than a pack of uni students on a field of grass.... 
ok I paid for tickets .. got seniors deal.. not sure if I was happy or pissed.. 65+  happy I guess cos I am a Scrooge!
Back over the road for a couple of heart starters then.... off we went!

OH MY GOSH... no really I am being a drama queen it wasn't that bad... 
the view was spectacular, I was hoping for the television crews to be there to interview me, nope, didn't happen. We wandered around a bit, could almost see a Brisvegas the view was so clear, then it was apparent there was no bar up here.. Wazza almost ran down the stairwell.... back to Pike  place the Irish Bar, met a great golden lab, and her family, then onto the Hard Rock Seattle,its  kind of what We like to,do .. and then made our way home up more stinking hills.. and past the pharmacy that sells alcohol.
There are a lot of homeless folk here, many live in tents on the side of major roads.. they have nothing except their mobile phones and bottles of alcohol! A few asked for money but nothing different to Australia.
I have just loved our day in Seattle.  Then again I just love all my days, cos we know life is good.
Back home a drink at the bar on level,two and a welcome shower cos I am sure we needed it.  Dinner was such a treat, a pack of dry bikkys with a dip that I chose that was jalapeño.., yeah go figure, I need that mate!!  But I snuck in a Hershey bar, and if my beloved keeps snoring I will eat his too..

An amazing day. 

Life is good.. and even better when your family send a photo of the fur kid! 


Onward and upward to Alaska tomorrow 

Friday, September 15, 2017

Off we go!

September 14 2017

After a  dodgy start with our flight from the Sunny Coast cancelled at 6am we arrived at Brisvegas thanks to Daniel and Nellie .. filled in a couple of hours having a wander around and the usual Bon Voyage cuppa (yeah not coffee!!) 

We paid for a "Lounge Buddy " pass at Sydney airport as we had so many hours to kill between our flights.. well we ended up having just on 2 hours so mates we had to drink like the proverbial to get our $$$$'s worth. Gotta do what you gotta do! 
We boarded Hawaiian airlines flight to Honolulu (must say the were below par this time around) a couple more drinks, the obligatory slop on my blouse stain and we 




woke up approaching Honolulu... is it now yesterday or tomorrow...?? Yep, You get the theme of this trip so far! 
The turn around at Honolulu was way too short.. we ran around jumping queues.. pushing in ...as you do.. all the while making new friends who were  off to different parts of the world. 
Now I look back it was fun. Not so yesterday or today or tomorrow or whatever! 

We ended up having time for a refreshment before we boarded our flight to Seattle, met a lovely Kiwi who has just finished  a Contiki tour after a stint at a summer camp, just as our friend Jimmy Bullimore does every year. 
Blow me down... last on that flight cos we kept chatting.. Wazza went to Get another drink.. I looked at my watch ... hahaha still on Brissy time... I suggested we should get a wriggle on. Glad one of us had a grey 




cell left!

This has to have been the LONGEST plane flight in the history of the world! 
Now don't get me wrong... I am at my happiest doing nothing....BUT doing nothing stuck in a big tin bird for 3 weeks and 87 days is NOT my idea of fun.


 Much better flight crew this leg, but You have to pay to pee almost.. not quite but it's like Jetstar wanna blankie it costs want ear plugs costs... 

That's Ok it's getting us where we need to be! 

Karen Martin, you will be dismayed to hear Wazza has just come down with the "FOOT" problem! 
I am NEVER leaving Aus till it's all sorted out. I feel dismayed and overwhelmed for him. It's intolerably painfully unfunny. He has had all the meds he can have and then some.

So, our day in Seattle is shot I am tipping... 
And no , I didn't give him any pineapple! 

Just looked at the map.. one hour and 5 minutes to go... 

Let's get this party on the road.... or on the cruise ship! 


Wednesday, September 13, 2017

And so begins another adventure

Let me start by saying this may be a very random blog, as I have no idea of the impact Irma has had on communications. Our hearts go out to all impacted by this catastrophic event.

Secondly, when we used to pack for our amazing adventures some time back, it was a packet of quickeze, a packet of Panadol,  (Bex) and some of that fizzy stuff  oh yeah Alka seltzer or Eno (see age ... this is the theme of this blog... ) Now we have more medication in our cases than you know who had in her boogy board...  I apologise right here and right now for my reference to "you know what I mean " you make up the words to suit the sentence!

We leave home tomorrow and leave our fur kid 😭😭😭 and home in the capable hands of Daniel. We arrive early into Sydney and wait out our time in a Lounge Buddy place till 9.45 pm.
We then depart for Seattle Washington via Honolulu for a one hour stop over.
Arrival into Seattle is about 10 pm, who knows what day.. but a very LONG day indeed.
2 nights in Seattle before we board the Ruby Princess for a 7 night cruise to Alaska!
 It's a wonderful itinerary... 3 different cruise ships. After we depart in Seattle we head by coach to Vancouver where we join the beautiful Coral Princess for a repo cruise to Fort Lauderdale.
I will fill you in on that later on.

Facebook will be a first contact when internet is sketchy, to be sure all is well at home, someone let us know who wins the footy.

Before I go on with too much more I will be sure this blog reaches our captive audience.. haha!page3image712

Cheers Wazza and Kris