Inside Passage - 13th August

We had a great sleep. The water is flat calm and the ship glides along with no sense of motion. We found breakfast and avoided the temptation to eat more than necessary. We feel that we, more or less, know our way around now and the stairs are proving good exercise.

We spent a few hours reading our books before lunch.

There are lots of lunch options – we choose the German lunch on the large outdoors area near the stern. Like most meals, it was a buffet, so you could choose that suited you. For us, excellent roast pork and a good salad, with some NZ sav blanc. We sat at a small table by the starboard side and watched the world slip by. Here the ship travels through very narrow channels with islands on both

An orca waves its fin at us

sides, often only 50m or so away. The land is rugged and thickly forested with fir trees down to the waterline. You see fish jumping in the water. We watched groups of whales (orcas, we think) pass by the ship, with spouts blowing and occasional fins flapping or tails displayed.

After a while we went back to our cabin and had a coffee sitting on the balcony and watching the shoreline and the whales go by. It’s certainly very beautiful and very relaxing.

Following pre-dinner drinks at a couple of bars, we headed for dinner in the main dining room. We found bars that were empty – there is no sense of the number of people that are on the ship. For dinner, we were seated with an American couple and a Canadian couple, all of whom seemed to have been on multiple cruises around the globe. Both couples had joined this cruise at the last minute, apparently at substantial discounts. This seemed to be the way both couples approached cruising.

The main dining room was disappointing. A limited a la carte looked fine but the food was pretty poor and the service worse. We won’t bother with this dining room again.