Our first morning on board the Oasis of the Sea was not spectacular. After a pleasant dinner shortly after we boarded, everything took a turn for the worse.
The Tale of the Missing Luggage
When my best friend and I returned to our rooms, our luggage still hadn’t arrived. It was around 8 pm, and we were exhausted and ready for bed. We had no toothbrushes, no PJs, nothing. My family had received their luggage even though one of my brother’s bags ended up with our father. ( See more about that here.)
My bestie and I were one floor above the rest of the family, so we thought there was just a delay. But as the night wore on, we became concerned. We had been looking forward to unpacking and getting a good night’s sleep after our land tour adventures, but no such luck. After several attempts at locating the luggage, including going to the service desk, we still had nothing at 11:00 pm.
Long Night Leads to Glacial Morning
So we did the only thing we could and started walking the halls looking for it. We did eventually find it at the front of the ship, nowhere near our aft room. To make matters worse, we had a few issues with the room that were quickly resolved. However, this meant we did not get to bed until around 1:00 am.
Needless to say, we were not the most pleasant companions during our breakfast the following morning. Thankfully, we were at sea for the day, so we had plenty of time to rest.
Our Chances of Seeing a Glacier are Dwindling
After breakfast and before we started exploring the ship, we went to the shore excursion desk. We booked a 12-hour tour in Juneau to see Dawes Glacier. I was concerned about the tour length, but extremely excited to see a glacier up close. I was also concerned about the meal on the tour since both my best friend and I are vegetarians. They encouraged us to head down first thing in the morning to inform the shore excursion desk of our dietary restrictions so they could alert the tour operator.
We learned that the organizers canceled the tour, too few people had signed up. They sorted everything out, and we were obviously disappointed. Especially since we were headed to Hubbard Glacier that afternoon and could have taken a similar boat excursion; we had passed on this option because of cost, but I would have taken it if it was our only option. The Hubbard Glacier Tour was already at capacity, so we were out of luck and stuck figuring out what to do in Juneau the next day.
It didn’t help later in the day when the captain kept making announcements as we approached Hubbard Glacier, saying we would not be able to get close to the glacier. On our last Alaskan cruise, we missed Endicott Arm because of ice. It happens; that’s nature, but we were nervous about missing it again. But more on that later.
What Luck, You Found a Duck
So our first full day aboard allowed us to explore the ship and place our rubber duckies that were actually eagles around the ship for people to find. If you’ve never cruised before, let me explain. People often engage in a passenger-led game of finding hidden ducks around the cruise ship. You add information about the ship, sailing, and hashtags for social media. I decided on eagles since it was the country’s 250th birthday, and took an opportunity to get Gal Reinventing out in the world. I am not sure if it worked, but I enjoyed the experience, and found a few ducks myself.
Now That’s a Glacier
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon resting and occasionally stuffing food in our mouths until we arrived at the glacier. We did, in fact, get to see it at the exact distance that I thought we would. We were very happy. The ship headed toward the glacier and made several 360° turns so that everyone on board could experience the beauty and breathtaking views. I can’t really describe it, so I hope you will enjoy the images instead. These photos can not truly capture the beauty, but I tried my best 😀
A Little Fine Dining
After leaving Hubbard Glacier, we had our first fine dining experience. Food was definitely not an issue on this cruise like our last one. In fact, I probably will not share a ton of dining photos from this cruise on the blog, but I will upload some pictures to Google Photos and share a link in a future post.
That being said, I do have to share this fine dining experience. We originally had reservations at another restaurant, but after a ship refurbishment, it closed, and a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant took its place.
My family had Teppanyaki on our last Alaskan cruise and didn’t enjoy it, so we decided to try the Italian restaurant. The food was some of the best Italian I have ever eaten. It must have been spectacular because my brother, who dislikes Italian, enjoyed it so much that we booked another meal there for later in the cruise. It was worth every penny.
After dinner, we went to bed, so we had plenty of energy for exploring our first port, Juneau.
Join me next week for more Nauti Adventures in Alaska.
