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Welcome to my travel log and pictures of a 14-day Alaskan
cruise aboard the Universe Explorer. This cruise is
for people who want to know more about Alaska and its people, history,
flowers, animals, and glaciers. |
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Cruise itinerary 6/12/02 AM At sea
Good morning. It's about 6:00am. I suppose the combination of 9am body
time and unusual noises and bed haven't let me sleep for an hour or more,
so ..... it's internet time.
This ship (Universe Explorer) is a university ship the rest of the year,
so it has a large library, a computer room with about 25 computers, and an
internet room with 10 computers.
It's foggy at this time, so I don't know what the land look like.
Our flights out here (Monday) were good. We sat on the tarmac in Chicago
for 2 1/2 hours because of storms. Tuesday morning we took a mini-bus tour
of Vancouver. The tour was great. We saw Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth
Park and conservatory, Granville Island and Public Market (Lot of food),
and several other areas. The tide is 15ft. The tour ended at Canada Place,
a very nice pier that the cruise ships use. Part of the top of the
building on the pier is like the top of the Denver airport terminal. There
are ten peaks in the fabric top, for the ten providences of Canada.
There are numerous snow-capped mountains in view from Vancouver.
We boarded the ship at about 2:00pm. There was a hot lunch. The ship, so
far :-), has very little motion. When we were eating dinner last evening
we couldn't feel any motion. After dinner we sat at the stern of the ship
and watch the scenery, including a bald eagle. It was warm (shorts and
short sleeves) in Vancouver. That changed to cool as we were leaving the
dock and getting out into the bay, then to cold (needed pants, sweat shirt
and jacket) as we sailed out toward the ocean. The ship's speed, with the
tide coming in, as we sailed out, was 17 knots.
6/12/02 PM At sea
Today was a beautiful day. Great weather. We sat on the stern deck much of
the morning. About noon we passed Bella Bella (a small town) and saw
several eagles. In the afternoon we went to lectures on anthropology,
biology, geology, and history. Great speakers (professors).
At dinner we were invited by the social director to sit at the ass't
captain's table (total of ten people). At the end of the dinner about
fifteen dining room staff sang Happy Anniversary to us, gave us a nice
card and a cake. The cake was cut and shared with the people at the table.
This cruise is to celebrate our 35th anniversary.
We sailed all last night and all day today. We will sail all night tonight
and will arrive at the first port, Wrangle, at 11:00am. We are renting
bikes (from a couple (concession) on board the ship, and will ride around
the town
Continued on the next page. |
