Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 7

7/12/17 - A day at sea.

There was no scheduled port of call for this day as we sailed toward Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

5:09am

20 minutes later

Another shot

We crossed a time zone overnight and lost an hour.  I took a 2 mile walk around deck 4 at 6:30am then had breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe at 7:00 - there was no practically no one there.

I had an omelet with onion, spinach, green pepper and cheese, breakfast potatoes,  bacon, watermelon, pineapple coffee, Raisin bran cereal and a chocolate donut hole.  Then I went back to the room.  I think I went back to bed but don't rightly remember.

Deck 9 passageway

Here we are (were).  Room 9646.

We went back to Windjammer for lunch where I had a chicken burger, fries, mudslide cookie, and a (bad) red velvet cupcake.  They also were serving pieces from a large sheet cake to celebrate a milestone I don't remember.  I tried a piece and it had whipped cream icing - disappointing.

After lunch I did another 2 mile walk, this time with Todd, then we relaxed in the room all afternoon.  We met John and Norma at 6:30 in the Palace Theater to see the ship's stage production show: "Fast Forward".  If only that had been an option.

Palace Theater curtain - the best part of the show

The view from our seats

Theater view

The ice skating show we saw the night before had a talented cast performing well with bad material, choreography, props, etc.  Replace "well" in that sentence with "poorly" and you have the Fast Forward show.  The performers were clearly just going through the motions as they were continually sloppy and out of sync in their moves, and frequently off-pitch and overwrought/over-emoting to compensate with their singing.

Aside from the performances, the selection for the music was terrible and so, so dated.  Instead of Fast Forward it should have been called "Fast (Back to the Past Then) Forward (but Only to 1987 Then Stop)", or "I was Dirty Dancing After I had a Saturday Night Fever and Flashdanced all Over Myself."  Here's the setlist:

Fame, Out Here On My Own from the movie Fame (1980)
Footloose and Almost Paradise and I Need A Hero from the movie Footloose (1984)
(I've Had) The Time Of My Life, Be My Baby, Stay, You Don't Own Me, Love is Strange, Do You Love Me from the movie Dirty Dancing (1987, but most of the songs are from the 1960's)
Boogie Shoes, Night Fever, Tragedy, You Should Be Dancing, Disco Inferno, How Deep Is Your Love from the movie Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Flashdance (What a Feeling), Maniac, Manhunt, He's A Dream from the movie Flashdance (1983)

Below the pictures below I've posted a YouTube video of the show from 2014.  Imagine the same tired show 3 years later and get the idea.  As a bonus they had incorporated a former championship ballroom dance couple into most of the numbers, usually just sort of doing their own thing mish-mashed in with the other dancers.  In hindsight, even though we were isolated on a ship with nothing else scheduled I wish we had skipped this show.

Fast!...Forward!

Kick!  Punch down!  Flap those arms!

Everyone do your own thing!  Flash the audience!

Aaand here's where he dropped her.
Just kidding.  After spinning her around spread-eagled he put her down in the normal way.
The ballroom dancers were good, they just didn't fit in this show at all, like the afterthought they were.

It was time for dinner after the show.  We waited 15 minutes because neither "our table" nor any surrounding tables in that area were available.  After arguing with the hostess about the whole reservation/expectation (that they set and failed to deliver on night after night)/dining experience (and getting no answers other than "It'll be just a few minutes while they finish eating" and "they're on dessert now") we said screw this and told them to seat us anywhere that was available.  We got seated immediately and had an excellent waiter who was attentive and courteous throughout the meal.  Again in hindsight, we should have been doing that all week.  Oh well, next time.

My dinner started with cold (on purpose - I'm not just complaining more) pineapple lychee soup with a curry roll followed by rosemary lamb shank with mashed potatoes, green beans and pearl onions.  As on prior nights I had a Rekorderlig pear cider with the meal.  For dessert I had key lime pie.  It was the best meal on the ship so far (but not as good as the lamb on Amtrak when we took the train to Chicago - surprisingly nothing has topped that yet!)

After dinner I dragged Todd down to the Promenade Cafe on deck 4 for decaf coffee then we went back to the room for the night.  The ship was southeast of Nootka Island, British Columbia and from our balcony we saw the backs of a few killer whales (orcas) just breach the water (see video below).

The dining room staff entertained the guests after dinner

Towel bear

9:01pm

The next day's port of call would be Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Craigdarroch Castle and the amazing Butchart Gardens.  Until then.