We were back in the states for nearly three months and then last week, headed out for another long journey. I took a few-months break from blogging but now I am back at it.
Before I get to the current trip, let me wrap up the last bit of our last trip.
Cruise Tokyo to Whittier, Alaska
We took the Azamara Pursuit from Tokyo to Whittier Alaska and then stayed on for their next cruise through Alaska to Vancouver. We left Tokyo, May 9th. It was an amazing leg of the trip. We had one stop in Japan - Aomori - before hitting the high seas for about a week of sea days and setting foot on land again in Kodiak, Alaska.
Aomori is a beautiful town in Japan known for its apples. The ship picked up a bunch of apples and we had the most delicious apple pie for dessert that evening.
We spent our time in Kodiak looking for some cooler-weather clothing since we had none coming from southeast Asia. I spent more than I ever had on a coat/jacket - some expensive brand I had never heard of whose name escapes me right now. I chose it because it was warm enough for below-zero weather but light enough to easily pack, even better than a puffer coat. I have it with me now for when we hit colder weather later this year on this trip. I did, however, balance that pricey purchase with some jeans from the local Wal-Mart. Until that day, I had never purchased jeans from Wal-Mart but they fit well and it really was the only place in town to get jeans long enough to work for me.
Us in Kodiak after a day of walking and shopping. Wal-Mart was a long walk.
Adding the Follow-On Cruise
About a month before we were to set sail from Tokyo to Whittier, Alaska, we decided to purchase the follow-on cruise that went from Whittier, Alaska to Vancouver, Canada. I was finally going to get my Alaska cruise!
And so we went from Kodiak to Whittier where some passengers disembarked while others embarked and where we had to change cabins. We went from an inside cabin to a balcony. I swore I would never do another inside cabin since the very first cruise we took with the kids where we had inside cabins and I hated it. We chose the inside cable for several reasons and I was willing to try again since for most of the journey, there was little to see but sea. I did learn that I still hate the light deprivation but didn’t mind it so much that under the right circumstances I wouldn’t do it again. But it will not be the default.
Taking Immunity Levels Seriously
This cruise is the time in our travels where we decided that daily immunity boosting while traveling is a must. The last two or three months before we hopped on that cruise, we had started to do so on and off. “On” mostly before, during, and after plane travel. “Off” once we had been in a place for a while. I did like the little immunity shots (think shots in a bar, not shots at the hospital) they sell in convenience stores in Japan. They sell them like 5-hour energy is sold in the U.S. They were tasty and seemed to work. This method worked for us - we didn’t get sick for the last three months of that 8-month trip whereas the first five months we were plagued with various maladies, including the flu for me.
On the way from Japan to Whittier for those many days at sea, we noticed people hacking all over the place, including a person in the cabin next to us. We think it was the wife. She coughed the whole time we were in that cabin. We later met them at dinner one night. We called her husband disheveled Santa, for reasons obvious if you had seen him. They were from Australia as were the majority of the 600+ people on the ship. U.S. folks were in the minority on this one.
People were coughing all over the place. We overheard one man tell someone his wife was feeling so bad, they were administering IV fluids to her in their cabin because she was too weak to go to the infirmary.
Sooo, one of the things we made sure to purchase at Wal-Mart in Kodiak was a big bottle of Airbourne, which we have been taking ever since and not getting sick. We have found that every country has their version of immunity boosts and we will avail ourselves of them at each location from now on.
Twenty-Nine Years of Marriage
We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on May 17. They have a couple of specialty restaurants on the ship and we choose the steakhouse for the celebration dinner. It was a fantastic meal! I had the best lobster bisque I have ever tasted at that meal. The steak, the sides, the dessert - all of it perfect. It was so good, we returned to it on the Alaska leg of the back-to-back cruises.
Santas Abound
One last thing to mention before I talk about the Alaska part of the cruise is the number of “Santas” on the ship. After dubbing the cabin neighbor disheveled Santa, we noticed there were many men who fit the Santa description. Lots of jolly white-bearded men of varying sizes. Not sure why. It was an older crowd, as is expected on Azamara cruises, but why so many white beards?
Alaska Leg of Cruise
Cabin Change
Changing cabins in Whittier on May 21 was an interesting but easy process. We had to pack up all of our loose things from the drawers and around the cabin, but they moved all of our hanging clothes along with the packed sundries for us. We left the old cabin and a couple hours later, our stuff was waiting for us in our new balcony cabin with our clothes neatly hanging in the closet. It was a very smooth process. I noticed that I had forgotten to pack a phone charger so I called the new cabin steward and she said she was right outside our door with the charger in hand. How’s that for service!
Where Did We Go in Alaska?
Lots of great stops on the Alaska cruise: Valdiz, Haines, Icy Strait Point, Sitka, Ketchikan, Nanaimo, and Victoria, before stopping in Vancouver on June 1. Nanaimo and Victoria are both on Vancouver Island, Canada. We also had a day cruising near the Hubbard glacier which if you have never had the opportunity to do, you should absolutely do so if you get the chance. What an amazing cruise! I did post pictures of each place as we took the trip but will post a couple here as a reminder of the beauty.
Hubbard Glacier 
The scenery surrounding Hubbard Glacier is just as stunning!
I know I have said it before but Alaska is the Rome of natural beauty. In Rome you can walk and everywhere you turn is either some magnificent structure or some kind of reminder of all its incredible history. With Alaska, everywhere you turn is a breathtaking view. You can never forget as you walk along that there is a view behind you just as stunning as the one in front of you, if not more.
I am not sure I could select a favorite Alaska stop. Each was special for a different reason. I think Icy Strait Point was our least favorite though. The whole place was clearly built for cruise ships. It was still beautiful but extremely commercialized. Great for kids however. I would actually skip that stop next time.
Fish and Chips Tour
Before we got to Alaska, we decided to do a fish and chips tour where we ordered fish and chips at every stop to see who had the best. We limited this to the Alaska stops only but ended up getting fish and chips in Victoria and they turned out to be the best we had on the trip. When we took a Spain intensive cruise, I did a sangria tour trying to figure out who had the best Sangria. (Blaise doesn’t really drink so that one was just me).
We tried to get a picture of the outside of each fish and chips location, but I forgot to take the picture in Ketchikan. Maybe I forgot because it was our least favorite. Then as we were making our stops, we realized it was harder to rank them than we thought it would be because the tastiness of the fish and the tastiness of the chips were not always equivalent at each location. They were all good. I think Ketchikan is the only place we probably would not order them again.
The rankings are as follows:
Haines - The Bamboo Room
Sitka - Sitka Burger and Crab Shack
Icy Strait Point - The Cookhouse Restaurant (but these fries were the best of all five)
Valdez - The Fat Mermaid
Ketchikan - Timber and Tide (dry fish but the fries were up there with Icy Strait Point)
Our History with Azamara
This was the first time since the pandemic that we took a cruise on Azamara. I think that was in 2019 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Lisbon Portugal.
We took it then not just because we wanted to try Azamara and because we loved the itinerary but also because they were part of the Royal Caribbean group along with Celebrity. At the time, they were offering to give us Celebrity loyalty points for Azamara cruises so we took it. We were concerned that Azamara ships are so much smaller than what we are used to (2,000+ verses about 700 on Azamara) that we wouldn’t enjoy it. Turns out we did. So much so, we booked one for April 2020 from Dubai to Athens, hitting one of our bucket list places - Petra. Well, we all know what happened in March of 2020. Thus our cruise was canceled. We were so disappointed.
Then Royal Caribbean sold Azamara during the pandemic and that was that. But we enjoyed the product so much, we decided to try it again this time. We were not disappointed. We had heard the quality of everything had diminished since leaving Royal Caribbean. We did not experience that.
What is Azamara Like?
First, there is no casino. So if you cruise to gamble this is not the cruise for you.
The guests are older and well-traveled, many having gone all-in on Azamara, cruising them exclusively for many years. Some of the guests even knew crew members from past cruises and were greeted with hugs and inquiries about family from both sides. I am OK not having that degree of familiarity with the crew but it was nice to see.
The cost of the cruise is inclusive of alcoholic beverages including wine, specialty coffee, and gratuities so you don’t have people always asking you for your card every time you turn around. It was an upcharge if you wanted premium alcohol.
While the service is top-notch, even better than Celebrity, it is a casual environment. Daytime is just like any other cruise ship we have been on. They have no formal nights or varying levels of dress for the evenings. You just have to wear pants and a collared shirt for men and a dress/skirt/pants with a nice top for women to the main dining room and specialty restaurants. This level of dress works very well for the way we are currently traveling - months at a time with just a carry-on and a personal item. They do have a white night event one night on each cruise, but if you don’t wear white, nobody says anything.
Also included in the price of the cruise, if it’s not a transoceanic cruise, is what they call an Azamazing Evening. This is an event off the cruise ship where they transport every guest to the event location and provide drinks, heavy snacks, and entertainment. Ours was a campy log sport event. They even brought blankets for people when the sun went down and the chill set in. Since our last cruise with them was a transatlantic, we did not experience the Azamazing Evening. It was a lovely night.
I did discover that on the Azamara cruise that stops in Ephesus Turkey, their Azamazing Evening is a symphony concert in the ancient amphitheater in Ephesus. I now have to do that cruise just for that experience!
The Azamara cruises are more expensive than others but if you hunt, you can find some good deals on them if price is an issue. We always hunt for deals.
Now I am to the point to say why I told you the history with Azamara. Apparently, when Azamara was sold by Royal Caribbean, Azamara copied ALL of our Celebrity loyalty points. We are on the second to the highest tier for Celebrity and get lots of perks for that and that is why it is usually our go-to cruise line.
We did not know Azamara copied our loyalty points until we booked the Alaska part of the last cruise. This is important because the Alaska cruise took us to their second to the highest loyalty tier and that gave us 6 FREE nights on a cruise so long as we book that cruise within a year of reaching that tier. What a great bonus! We have already booked that cruise. It goes from Fort Lauderdale to London leaving June 10 next year with several stops up the east coast of the U.S. and Canada along with a couple stops in Ireland. As my mother-in-law would say if she were still with us - What a treat!
Wrapping it Up
As always, I remain so thankful to be able to live this life, see all the sites, experience all the things, and visit all the places. I’ve been thinking about that a great deal lately as we have just passed the tenth anniversary of my sister’s death. She said at one point while she was sick that she knew she would never get to travel so she would have to visit places through my eyes. I’ve never forgotten that and maybe that is a small part of why I blog and post so many pictures. Maybe someone else gets to see things they can’t see in person for whatever reason. Her death is also a major reason we retired early and are traveling like we are. You hear it all the time - we are not guaranteed tomorrow. We are also not guaranteed good health tomorrow. We can do everything we can to stay healthy and mobile but you have no idea what the future brings.
Until next time…
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