DAY 3--KETCHIKAN, ALASKA

BACKGROUND INFO:

        Ketchikan is the southernmost city in Alaska, located on the southern part of its panhandle, and has a population of 8,000.  Oddly enough this makes it the 6^th largest city in Alaska.  When you include the borough, the population is 13,000.  The city is known as “the Salmon Capital of the World” and Ketchikan Creek flows right through downtown where you can see plenty of salmon swimming upstream.
        Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island was established in 1885.  It is surrounded by the Tongrass National Forest, 700 miles north of Seattle and 235 miles south of Juneau.  Air service and ferries are the  only way to get here.  As you might suspect cruise ship passengers fill the small town during the summer months.  Ketchikan’s economy is based on government services, tourism, and commercial fishing.  Their lumber industry was basically shut down by the Clinton Administration in 1996.  Is that Federal government getting involved in a State’s rights??  Ok, off my soapbox.  More trivia for you:  Ketchikan has the world’s largest collection of standing totem poles.     

        Our position today from 7am to 5pm is docked in Ketchikan, Alaska.  It is know as the rain capital of the world as they get 13 1/2 feet of rain annually.  Yes, it is raining this morning as folks are heading out for their tours.  It is 58 degrees here today.

        

When we opened our balcony curtains this morning this was our view.  It is just about 50 feet from us on other side of the pier.  There is a tv just above the life boats showing a tennis match for us to watch.

  

It is the NCL Encore next to us.  4000 passengers and 1735 crew members.  There are only 600 passengers on our ship and 460 crew.

        Not sure if someone needed this ambulance parked next to our gangway this morning.

LAST NIGHT:

Here are some photos I took last evening at dinner and the show.  To enjoy them more, click on them to enlarge.

This is Benji who is the head waiter in charge of room service.  He assured us our eggs would be nice and hot for breakfast from now on.  Sure enough today, our eggs were hot.  In fact he called us to say our order was on the way and about 10 seconds later they arrived.  We have known Benji from previous cruises and he was also on our world cruise earlier this year.  Note the pigs in a blanket that we have a standing order for every other day,

This is Grace who is the acting head sommelier bringing our La Crema chardonnay.  We have known Grace for several years and is a dear friend of ours.

Another sweetheart of ours is Dara.  She was working up in La Veranda buffet during the day and later in Sette Mari (Italian) during evenings.  We became good friends also.  This cruise she works at the pool grill for lunch and in Compass Rose evenings.  Both Grace and Dara are from the Philippines and best friends.

                                                 Maurice from Goa was assisting Dara.

We both chose the roasted duck with plum sauce as our entree after starting with some cream of asparagus soup.  I also had a side of asparagus risotto.  Of course I had dessert--molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

Andy, our cruise director, is introducing the production show "Divos & Divas".  Here are a few photos I took during it.

        We are disappointed with this production cast.  The dancing was great as was the two female singers, BUT the two male singers were very weak.  Also the audio technicians had their mikes turned down making it hard to hear them and we were sitting on the front row, center.  I left before the show was over but Rebecca stayed to the end.  I told Andy as I left the theater that I was disappointed with the male singers and he agreed.

On our bed when I returned to the suite were these:  my laundry that I sent out the first night on right.

   In the box with a bow were these 4 coasters with Regent's 30 year anniversary logo on them.

 Also on the bed was this book about Alaska's inside passage written by Terry Breen.  Terry is our favorite lecturer and a walking encyclopedia on Alaska and South America.  Unfortunately, she is not on this cruise.

TODAY:

This is Perdiansyah.  I never knew his real name until looking at his name tag this morning.  We call him "Skinny" and have known him for years also.  Super nice guy.  He brought our room service breakfast yesterday and again today.

This is this evening's Compass Rose menu.  We can see the menus on our suite tv.  Several of our favorite's on tonight's menu.  YUMMY!

       The 1 liter bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon that I requested showed up last night.

                      They download, print, and deliver the Dallas newspaper for us daily.

        We headed down to the fitness center at 9:30 for our usual 1 hour on the treadmills.  We were surprised that there were several people working out this morning.  At 10:15 the ship had a crew emergency drill that lasted just over a half hour.  They hold these drill once a week.  After showering I thought I might run off the ship to the terminal but it is still raining so not going anywhere off the ship today.  We cancelled the "St George Inlet and Crab Feast" scheduled for here.  We have done this tour several times as this is our 7th Alaska cruise.

Dennis was our waiter at lunch in Compass Rose.  We have known him for many years.  He has been with Regent for over 20 years now.  Definitely one of our favorite waiters.

                                                           I started with this empanada.

Then some panko & sesame coated sole with parsley potatoes and green beans.  Of course Rebecca had her Atkins meal bar.

        Just after returning to our suite after lunch the huge NCL ship departed so this is now our view after it left.  We were hoping that the tv news channels would be available again.  I called reception and asked but they said not until we sail at 5pm.

        This afternoon we had a visit from Ulanda, the housekeeping supervisor for this part of the ship.  She asked if we were happy and did we need anything to make our suite better.  She is from South Africa so I told her we would be there on next year's world cruise.  Of course she knew the WC was going around Africa already.

        This evening at 6pm there will be a Regent tradition called "Block Party".  Since 2019 there has been none due to the covid pandemic.  Corporate has just approved the block parties to return on all Regent ships effective 3 days ago.  Ok, so at 6pm a bell will ring over the PA signaling for everyone to come out of their suites to meet their neighbors.  Our stewards & stewardesses will be serving wine and canapes while we visit.  Then the Captain, General Manager, and Cruise Director races down all the hallways saying hi.  As I said this is unique to Regent cruises.

        After this we will head down to the Mariner Lounge again for drinks.  Followed by dinner in Compass Rose at 7pm.  Tonight's show in the theater at 9:30 is featuring a comedian, Ritch Shydner.

We will sit in the back in case he is not so good and we can make a hasty escape.

        Tomorrow we will be docked in Juneau from 11am to 8pm.  That's about it for today.