Today was at sea and a pretty lazy one for the last day of our Alaskan cruise. We were expected to arrive at Victoria, British Columbia at 7pm but that turned into 8:30p because the ship expected some type of technical issues.

Lunch was served in the Pinnacle Grill today and it was awesome! I went with the five onion soup, the 7 oz Pinnacle Burger and some type of chocolate brownie dessert. All very good. Lunch in the Pinnacle Grill does have a fee of $10 but very much worth the cost. Plus you get the one on one service and some of their awesome bread, that alone is worth it. Some of the folks had crab cakes, other had pasta – everyone seemed pleased.

We had a Q&A session with Captain Van der Loo and Hotel Director James Dearing. We learned some very cool behind-the-scenes info. Like I had no clue that there’s “whale avoidance procedures” in Alaska (and other parts of the world), coming into Ketchikan there was zero visibility because of the fog or  in order for room stewards to make towel animals on the Oosterdam they had to purchase $60,000 dollars in extra towels. Some pretty interesting stuff.

We had on and off showers today, areas of dense fog along with clear weather. It really was all over the map.

Someone asked me what a Holland America ship was like on a sea day, there’s a lot going on. With the Explore program, they had over 50 things to do today to keep you busy. Cooking and wine tasting looked like big hits while walking around the ship today. Folks were in the midship pool (solarium style) splashing around today too. No much activity in the aft pool because of the weather.

Dinner was in the Vista Dining Room. I had one last go and enjoyed French Onion Soup and Glazed Salmon. Both were really awesome.

We arrived in Victoria around 8:30p and the cruise line provided a free shuttle into the downtown area. Unfortunately because of the time getting into Victoria, I sat this one out. I walked the pier for about 30 minutes just got get off the ship, but that’s about all. There were two other ships in port with us – NCL and Princess Cruises. Both ships that started with us in Seattle and had to “touch” Vancouver before coming back to the US. The port was easy to get navigate, had double decker hop-on buses and a gift shops. Customs isn’t bad at all there.

Tomorrow is embarkation. I have Lime 3 (color tag), which means I disembark at 8am. We’ll see how flawless it goes. My last cruise was really quick – the heat is on Oosterdam!

Video of me having fun with another journalist:

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