May 14 — Whither

May 14, 2022

“Mountains are the beginning and end of all natural scenery.” – John Ruskin

We emerged from the tunnel and there she was — the 3600-passenger Majestic Princess. She dwarfed the glacier tour boat that was docked nearby. But the Majestic herself was DWARFED by the glorious mountains of Whittier and Passage Canal. (Spoiler alert: it’s not a canal.) The sun was out and everything sparkled - the water, the mountains, the snow, and even the sky.

We drove right up to the baggage drop-off and quickly got rid of our bags. Ken and I said goodbye and thanks for the ride to Libby, and walked over to the terminal. Before we knew it, we were boarding the ship that would be our home for the next two weeks.

We spent the afternoon unpacking and settling in. We learned that there will are 2,047 passengers sailing with us. A lot of empty cabins. It’s still early in the season.

As usual, I forgot to take pictures of our cabin in its pristine condition. But here’s a picture of our sitting area, with a bit of our balcony in the background. You can also see the hors d’oeuvres that were just delivered.

We tried out the Chinese specialty restaurant for dinner. It’s called Harmony. You get to pick a 5-course dinner from a number of options. Courses 1 and 2 (appetizer and soup) were excellent. Both of our main courses were so-so at best. The fried rice (course 4) was tasty - good, but not excellent. The dessert (course 5) was also good, but not excellent. 

After dinner we saw a comedian named AJ Jamal. He was mostly okay, but I didn’t like his notions about “whipping”/spanking kids. The audience was very sparse. 

Here is the view from our aft balcony as we sailed away from Whittier around 8:30 pm. You can see almost all of Whittier (pop. 255) here. Most of the residents of Whittier live in the large building in the center of the photo.

As we sailed out of Passage Canal and through Prince William Sound, we were stunned by the beauty of our wild and wonderful Alaska. No matter how many times we see it, it never loses its magic.