TP1 Days 2 and 3: At sea

There will be a lot of these “at sea” days to start the TP1, thanks to the storm in the Gulf of Alaska that prompted Carnival to cancel our Alaska ports.. As Alaska is the only state that I have never set foot in, the loss of those ports was deeply disappointing. But I am less distressed than the woman that I overheard during check-in who had sent items to Ketchikan to be taken with her on the cruise. I hope it wasn’t anything vital, like medicine.

Almost immediately after boarding I started to develop a scratchy throat. I didn’t sleep well that first night so after breakfast I fell sound asleep, waking around 1pm, totally disoriented. I thought it was morning and couldn’t understand why I had slept fully clothed on top of the bedspread. I figured it out, then went to lunch. I spent the afternoon reading and listening to music at the pool (but not IN the pool). Marlene and I spent a little time in the casino (down $40), had dinner (formal attire), danced a bit (the ship’s band is quite good) then watched the production of Flick in the theater. This was a revue of movie tunes, with some first-rate singing and dancing. I went straight to bed after the show.

There was a medical emergency the morning of Day 2 which resulted in a rescue via Coast Guard helicopter. It was amazing to watch this real-life drama play out. It is sad that someone’s 30-day cruise ended on Day 2, but it was probably a good thing as we were still close enough to shore to permit a helicopter evacuation.

On Day 3 my scratchy throat turned into sniffles and I wore my hoodie all day, to stay warm (it was a cloudy, cool day). The wind had whipped up some 5-to-7 foot swells and the ship got rocking pretty good. We had breakfast and lunch, of course, and I attended a military appreciation event by accident (I was trying to get to a sports trivia event but was off by an hour due to us setting to clocks back). I did ok, not great, on the sports trivia. I spent a few minutes in the casino in the afternoon (broke even so still down $40), Marlene and I took some ballroom dance lessons and we played some cards with Dottie and Maureen. Dinner was casual and I went straight to the room after dinner while Marlene listened to music with Dottie and Maureen. I bought 24 hours of internet and started working on this post.