Thursday, June 19, 2014

Alaska Journal #7: Dressing for Dinner, Dining With Friends and Dessert

All of the cruisers on our journey were asked to dress formally for two dinners and in smart-casual dress for the other five evening meals.  Obviously, Lon and I are dressed for a formal dinner.  Funny thing, it didn't kill us!  (Lon's sport coat did take up valuable room in his luggage, but you do want you gotta do).     

Black was the color of choice for Alice, Lynnette and me.  We were dressed and hungry.  Our destination for dinner was the Rotterdam Dining Room located on the seventh and eighth decks.

We all gathered outside our adjacent staterooms and then proceeded to the dining room.

This is the entrance to the Rotterdam Dining Room.  Cool doors. 


Here we have a convenient area to meet friends before going to the dinner tables.

The lower dining area is visible here.  We dined on the upper deck at tables beside windows that looked out at the waters behind the ship.

Meet Twink, Mary, Sherry and... 

...Laura, wonderful members of our traveling group, who all became our good friends.  

Here are Charlotte, Rae,...

Debbie and Donna, more new friends who shared the adventures of our cruise with us.  In no time, Lon and I felt as though we had known everyone for years.  Everyone was upbeat, positive and just plain fun to be with.  Lynnette and Alice have a great bunch of people that they have come to know over the years in Ohio.  
From our tables, we looked down at the ship's wake, that is during those rare moments, when we weren't eating, laughing and totally immersed in enjoying each other's company.
I was too hungry to take pictures of our appetizers, soups, salads and entrees, but I paused momentarily to photograph dessert, BAKED ALASKA.  Of course!  What else?
Forgive me, but I have to post this picture again, because, what could be more perfect than BAKED ALASKA for dessert on an Alaskan cruise.


We returned to our stateroom after dinner to find this walrus towel creation greeting us from our bed.  In addition, we found a chocolate for each of us, a schedule of the next day's activities and warm lights turned on.

A bouquet of flowers on the table topped off a perfect day, Monday, the second day of our cruise.

After today's day of scenic cruising the Inside Passage, we were scheduled to arrive at our first port stop in Ketchikan at 7:00am tomorrow morning, Tuesday, June 3rd.

So far, you've seen the best of the first 208 photos on my Sony camera and the best of the first 46 photos taken on my Nikon.

Tomorrow, I'll post pictures I took off the balcony this evening.

Are we having fun yet?


6 comments:

Cap said...

TOO FUNNY .. I just finished methodically going down your posts #6 to #1 and reading your reply comments responding back to me and .. I hit F5 (refresh) on our computer and WOWIE .. there you are with #7 on this amazing journey. So I am 'IN' within a minute or two of your posting #7 here.

How fun .. all of you dressed up to-the-nines for several meals. I had to do a semi-dressup here because I was speaking to a group and had to go to the local Thrift Store to purchase an $8 jacket .. we in Alaska don't DO DRESSY very often. You all LOOK GREAT.

What splendor the ship seems to present in your photos! Following along here with you (an outside visitor) allows me to really 'zone in' when I meet other tourists visiting up here and I can get excited with them since I have a feeling of the trip they are on thanks to your (and others) web site. Such Joy .. Cap and Patti ..

Cheryl Peters said...

CAP: You got my latest post hot off the press!!! We don't do dressy very often either, in fact, we groaned when we read that we would be asked to dress up for two dinners. Like I wrote, it didn't kill us but...

Buying an $8 jacket makes good sense when you won't be using it regularly. What the heck? Lon just happened to have one although it was several years old. It worked, so what?

I'm glad you're enjoying my photos. I sure am!!!!

Cap said...

I AM LOVING THE ANIMAL-TOWEL-CREATIONS! The Walrus in this above post. STUNNING the beautiful appointments of the ship. I had forgotten to comment on them when I wrote the above post. Those members of management at-the-top of the cruise ship line are really paying close attention to their visiting passengers. Smiles .. Cap and Patti

Jackie said...

Can't wait to read and see your pictures. I have not had time to write anything yet...hope to get something out there soon. I love how you have pictures of so many different parts of the cruise.
Jackie

Linda McMann said...

It looks stunning and you and Lon look very happy and very elegant. Makes me want to sign up! Love the walrus towel,too. Once again, thanks for taking me along.

Cheryl Peters said...

JACKIE: Thank you so much for commenting. I can't wait to see your photos. I just can't get enough of Alaska. I hope you're feeling better.

LINDA: Thanks for coming along!! We did have tons of fun and "looking elegant," although a bit out of our comfort zone, was fun as well. Come back often. I love having you onboard!!