Getting to the Ship.....

The Flight to Anchorage quite possibly takes the cake in terms of being the “most uncomfortable flight” I have yet experienced. For what reasons you may ask? First of all, flights to Anchorage (both times I’ve flown) have been completely full. Scrunched as sardines, we all had to sit there for about 3 hours of flight time. Delta charges extra for food and for earphones used for movie watching/hearing. In addition to the cramped environment, the air temperature felt very hot. I’m guessing it was at least 78 degrees which feels good to some, but not to most. Usually planes seem to be cooler rather than warmer, so I wore a sweatshirt and a jacket! Big mistake. The two people sitting on each side of me enjoyed my endeavor to remove these extra layers......maybe not.

Things improved drastically after getting to Anchorage. The company set me up at the Millennium Hotel. Since I had been a “last minute hire,” I had no official room when I walked up to the desk. This meant that nobody else had been assigned to my room with me(usually we have a roommate). I enjoyed the huge room all to myself, including a luxury television, Halibut dinner, and reserves of conditioner which I took for use onboard the ship. In the lobby of this hotel were stuffed Alaskan animals including a huge polar bear! As big as it seemed to be, the lady at the desk assured that polar bears get much much bigger than that one.

For breakfast, I enjoyed strawberry waffles with coffee compliments of the food vouchers allotted to me by Norwegian Cruise Line. After a wonderful breakfast, I went outside and boarded the bus.

The bus would take us to Whittier, Alaska where the ship awaited our embarkation. The ride took about one hour, but the view made the time pass quickly. About three miles from the port in Whittier, we had to wait at a one-way tunnel. This tunnel could only be used for a fifteen minute interval of time each hour. Then there would be a fifteen minute period of nobody using it followed by a fifteen minute interval for the “other way” to use it followed by fifteen minutes of nothing. This meant that if you did not arrive on time, you might potentially have to sit at the tunnel for forty-five minutes before being able to go. This happened to us. Instead of waiting inside the bus, we all got out and scouted the immediate area while gazing at the wonder of Alaskan wilderness. Good times.