The album is available under ‘Photos’ or by clicking here. Enjoy!

Our first event was the “disembarkation” lecture / crew farewell at 10am. I have to say, the crew on this ship really has been remarkable. The service, as one would expect, has been very good. But, I think the crew really went above and beyond dealing with the (potential) health issues. We witnessed them constantly scrubbing, cleaning, and disinfecting the ship from bow to stern. We found the ship’s musicians serving salad in the Lido, and crew members from the spa dishing out breakfast in the morning. Up late at night (or early in the morning), you’d literally witness the crew disinfecting nearly every hard surface on the ship. So, despite the slight inconveniences to us, the ms Veendam deserves accolades for keeping us healthy!

At 11am, we attended the second culinary demonstration by the James Beard Award-winning guest chef, Donald Link. He made a couple of classic Cajun dishes, which we were finally able to sample. They were excellent. I’m going to make a point of ordering his book, Real Cajun. And, next time I’m in New Orleans, I plan to visit one of his establishments.

Here’s a photo of the Veendam’s impressive culinary arts center:

For lunch, we went to the Terrace Grill and enjoyed (for the first time) their Mexican buffet (closed to do “code red” previously). The food was pretty good (though certainly not great by standards), but it really hit the spot for us. Of course, I’ve pretty much never met a plate of tacos or nachos that I didn’t like at least well enough.

We spent the afternoon reading, relaxing, and watching the scenery go by… we actually saw a few killer whales today off the stern of the ship. I took a few pictures, but alas they’re less impressive than my mediocre humpback whale snapshots. The weather remained overcast and misty for much of the day, making the scenery a little more romantic and mysterious (though also more difficult to see).

Here’s a photo of the Inside Passage:

After working on packing, we ate dinner in the Lido, which was good in terms of quality and had the added benefit of being returned to more of a self-service establishment. We also stopped down to listen to Adagio Strings (the ship’s string quartet) play this evening… they’re some of the best entertainment we’ve ever experienced on a cruise. They play proper chamber music, and they play it well. Bravo!

Finally, we went to the ship’s show lounge tonight to see if this performance, Live from the Stardust Lounge: The Best of Classic Las Vegas, would be better than last evening’s (minor) train wreck. It turned it was. The male vocal leads on the Veendam were very strong; the female vocalists we less so. At least the performance was redemptive from last evening’s attempt.

This will probably be my last post until we return to Tampa. We fly out of Vancouver in the morning and will arrive in Tampa late Sunday night. Upon returning home, I will post a complete review of the cruise, related literature from the ship, and pictures.

We’ll be in Anchorage for just two nights before the cruise. We’ve made no firm plans yet on what we’ll do in Anchorage on Saturday yet. But, unlike Barcelona in March, I suspect it will not involve eating tapas.

On Sunday, we’ll head to Seward via the Alaska Railroad to embark on our 7-night Southern Glacier Bay Discovery cruise aboard Holland America’s Veendam. I’ve read that the train trip is very scenic and enjoyable.

This is a map of the ship’s route:

Southern Glacier Bay Discovery aboard HAL's Veendam

And, here’s the planned itinerary:

The itinerary looked pretty good as it’s not overly port intensive. Normally, this would be seen as a negative by us. We mainly cruise as an expedient and economical way to get to a lot of places in a brief amount of time. But, Libby—being pregnant—wanted to do something relaxing (indeed, sans forthcoming baby, we would have likely gone to Asia this summer).

Given that we’re rather experienced travelers, we usually explore destinations (including cruise ports) on our own. I’m not sure what we’ll do in these ports this year, and we might even opt for “easy” activity tours organized by the cruise line.

At the end of our cruise, we’ll leave the ship and head to the airport in Vancouver. We’re a little bummed about not getting to see more of Vancouver, but at least we’ll be able to add Canada to the list of countries visited.

We return home on August 9, which happens to be our 12th wedding anniversary.