So, here’s my long entry about the trip that few knew about and even fewer cares about.
So, my parents and I took a week long vacation on a cruise to Alaska. From the Sunday of the week before to last Sunday, I was onboard the Norwegian Sun to the ports of Kechikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Wrangell, all around the inside passage of Alaska.
First of all, the entire cruise is tailor made for retired people that’s 60 and over – and the ship’s full of those people, left and right… the number of old folks on the ship alone may well exceed the amount of old folks I’d encounter for an entire year! Long story short, it’s pretty lonesome for the most part…
When the ship is at sea, there are plenty of activities available. The casino is open 24/7 (except when the ship docks), and so are the pools, the basketball court, the buffet, seven themed resturants, six different themed bars, and the usual observation deck/pool and jacuzzi that you see all the time on TV. There is a new show in the auditorium every night, from Boardway musicals to standup comedy. There’s also workshops, classes, game sessions (by game I mean bridge, and bridge exclusively), game show ripoffs, and other activities that you might also find at your local retirement castle.
The sad thing is, I don’t gamble (my father does though), I don’t drink (there’s a special mix of drink for every day, at every bar, for every meal, for every show… I’ve probably seen the title of around 50 different drink mixes while I’m onboard the ship), and all the bars onboard features oldies music from the 50s to the 70s, so there’s really nothing interesting for me to do except for the nightly shows, which were all professional quality material… and being able to sit on front row center to enjoy it makes it worth all the more.
Because of the freestyle cruising policy onboard, we also have the choice to eat at any of the 7 resturants at any time (although we never chose any resturant that requires additional cover cost, which means the number narrows down to 3). The food is alright, although it’s a really tedius exercise in decryption when it comes to ordering food from one of the fansier resturants. You got all these fancy shmancy foreign terms for all these foods when it still comes down to meat, potato, vegetables, and maybe a salad and some soup.
Finally, don’t get too excited about the destinations either. As far as the port themselves are concerned, I can probably walk a single loop around the boundry of any of the ports in 2 hours or less. What you’re out there to do is to look at nature – and nature is what you get. Glaciers are nice to look at, and the forest is pretty green, but that’s about it. I don’t know, I really thought I was the type who enjoys nature, but maybe it just isn’t fun without a group of friends.
In summary, the trip is pretty blah. It was ill planned on my part since this is the only trip where I didn’t do any prior research, and it really wasn’t meant for me anyways… so boy, am I glad to be back. 24/7 buffet is nothing compared to 24/7 internet gaming, and that’s that.