A nice laid back cruise, burned almost all our two weeks of OBC in specialty restraints (five nights and sushi) this week. I had a good time, even without the daytime music. The staff overall were exceptional, enjoyed loafing in the Crow;s Nest reading and playing some dominoes with the wife.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
This was the second leg of a B2B, the checking was so simple I have no memories of it, but returning to the ship was fairly easy after wandering the town.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We were disappointed in the main dining room on this leg, maybe because we went from 30% to 70% occupancy. Service was not very good and the food was only ok. Only ate here once on first day. That would be a three rating, but the other venues brought the rating to at least 4.5.
LOTS of OBC now so we ate in the Tamarind (Asian $25 pp) twice, Rudi's (very expensive seafood about $100 pp with tip) once, Pinnacle once (steak and seafood) $35 pp), and Canaletto's (Italian, $15 pp) twice. I had lunch at the Nami Shushi twice. The best service was at the Tamarind, Pinnacle, and Canaletto’s. The folks there were outstanding and super friendly. Food was very good too, except for one dish in the Tamarind that did not work with my tastes and they exchanged it with no fuss.
As stated in my last post, pizza was very good, buffet overall was very good (salad bar ho-hum, Asian section great, Mexican very good. Bars were still good, especially the pool bar and the bar in the Crow's Nest.
Lido Market
5 out of 5
I ate mostly at the Mexican and Asian venues for lunch, ignored the salad bar since it was not good from the previous week, and the Ice Cream venue. Also grabbed a tasty sticky roll (with nuts!) a few times from the breakfast setting. Very friendly staff over 98% of the time.
Pinnacle Grill
5 out of 5
Good food, good waiter, good Maitre'd, what else can you say? Would have eaten here twice, but ran out of OBC and time.
Tamarind
5 out of 5
Best staff of the three (best being a very objective and relative term), good food, and the one 'bad' dish I ordered they replaced without a fuss or extra charges.
New York Pizza
4 out of 5
Liked the staff, most of them were fun. The pizza was above average plus you could custom order it if you did not like the stock menu and it made a good snack.
Nami Sushi
5 out of 5
Not as outgoing folks as the other food venues, but it looked like they knew what they were doing and the result was tasty. Some (about 10) Japanese students were seen there several times.
Canaletto Restaurant
5 out of 5
Great food, the best Italian on the three lines I have been on. Great staff that really talked to you.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
As last time, there were some things in the daytime but nothing that really interested us, missed daytime music.
Guest Services / Excursions
5 out of 5
After last week's initial rocky start, Guest Services was very helpful in all the few issues we had (like our prepaid laundry charging us several times) and giving us some free internet time to do the ArriveCan garbage for returning to Vancouver. Turned out to be friendly folks.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
We liked the Bill Board the best and Christie's talks (plus the other history and nature talks), but shows were not really shows, Lincoln center ho hum, BB King was still rocking though, and still full.
Crow's Nest
5 out of 5
Except for glacier days, a nice quiet place to read, watch the scenery go by, play some board games, and snack a bit from the bar. The bar had some great folks, and some that just did the job.
Children's Programs
no kids
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Outside of the MDR, a great crew. Since this was our second leg many of the staff greeted us more, did little things like open the Asian section of the buffet a bit early when I was sitting there, and had a number of folks that I chatted with, especially from the specialty restaurants.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Looked good to me, and I saw cleaners a lot.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Aft balcony, a bit longer room due to location so we had some empty spots to easily store our bags, comfortable, balcony was nice to sit on when the sun was right (warmth). I would do this room again, wife prefers a more central room. Bathroom was fairly standard. only issue was once the toilet jammed open, and once it would not drain, but we figured that was the "maintenance" issue that caused us problems on boarding last week. Maintenance was quick to fix the problems.
This was our turn around point on our B2B. Walked out and around in the "town" and came back down the creek. Lazy day as we waited for the folks flying into Fairbanks(?) or on the trains from the cruisetours.
Since we tested positive at the airport (thought we had a mild cold from the chilly air watching the glaciers), we spent two nights waiting for a seat on the bus (all the buses were full for two days) to Seattle. Just another big city but some friendly folks there.
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