This morning started off with a little guy with a cold and a mom with a migraine. Tough luck, but it happens sometimes. Making the best of it, we ordered room service for breakfast instead of heading up to the buffet and enjoyed some morning cartoons on the Disney Channel. We were happy once again with our various pastries and, of course, Fruit Loops again for the kids. 🙂 We relaxed a bit in the room, then had a somewhat early lunch before heading off ship and into Skagway.
Now, Skagway is a tiny town. Because this was a very last minute cruise for us, I hadn’t booked any shore excursions ahead of time. Take it from me: for Skagway, book an excursion.We walked the downtown area in about 20 minutes and were done! We did happen upon a cool little playground, so the kids played for about half an hour before we headed back to the ship.
While this port had the longest time allotted, we did the least here. However, we did stop by the historic Gold Rush building run by the national parks system. The kids participated in 6 activities and then were awarded their very own Junior Ranger badges. They had fun with that!
Once back on board, we grabbed some hot chocolate (and I grabbed some coffee) and then I ducked into the Cove Cafe (for adults only) and took some of the free treats they have on offer. Yummmm. You don’t have to buy your coffee there to be allowed to take the treats, either, so don’t feel bad about grabbing a few! I did buy a coffee here once or twice. It was fine…better than the regular coffee…but still not great. Honestly, coffee lovers, the cruise coffee will not live up to your standards. Best trick I can offer: when you go to the self-service drink kiosk, fill about 1/3 of your cup with hot chocolate, splash some half and half in, and the rest of it with coffee. It tastes somewhat like a mocha and hides some of the not so tasty coffee flavor. Some people are fine with the coffee, but I really didn’t like it!
At this point, the kids wanted to swim. Swim?!?! It was cold and cloudy, but the pool seems to call out to children. There were quite a few other kids in the pools, so I gave in and let them go. They tried Goofy’s pool this time, the family pool. They said it was warm, like a bath. They also tried out the hot tubs. Meanwhile, I wrapped myself in one of the blankets they offer on deck and read my book. Comfy!
Once we were all back and showered and dressed, Sierra went to the kids club while Aspen watched some TV. Look who we ran into on the way!
Soon enough it was time for dinner – and this was the dinner I was most looking forward to: Animator’s Palate! I’d heard many great thing about this place, and it lived up to its reputation. It is so well done, all in black and white when you first enter, but with the drawings coming into full color over the course of your meal. Even the server’s outfits start black and white and later change! And at the end, there is a little show and parade – fantastic! This was absolutely my favorite dining experience of the trip.
After that, we were all super tired, so we headed up to the room and went to sleep, knowing we’d be docked in Juneau when we woke up.
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