Friday, July 29, 2011

Cruising, Day 2 - The Inside Passage and first formal night

Saturday was a cruising day, up the inside passage.  We were blessed with a gorgeous, sunny day!

Our cruise schedule for the day included a tour of the kitchen, and our first formal night for dinner.  Most cruises have one or two formal nights, which gives us girls a chance to get all dressed up, and which the guys endure!  Formal nights also contribute to the tons of luggage we had, but it was all worth it!

Since it was a cruise day, we had lots of time to relax on the back deck as we sailed the inside passage, and enjoy the beautiful weather and spectacular scenery.  We introduced Billie to Mai Tais, Jo and I got our pedicures, and we were all very relaxed as we enjoyed the day.

About 7:00 we all retired to our staterooms for the "beautification process", then met before dinner for a glass of wine and some photos.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I simply cannot pass up "event" pictures, and we came away with quite a collection of "cruise memories"!


This is Jesus - he won Chef of the Year for Celebrity cruise lines, and led our kitchen tour.

The Celebrity kitchen prepares about 9,000 meals a day!  The kitchens were HUGE and very busy at 10:00 am, as lunch preparation was underway

The master carver, creating amazing fruit and vegetable carvings, as we watched

Some of his creations

Pastry roses

This is the Olympic restaurant.  A 5-star restaurant that was an option to the dining room.  There was a per-person charge to eat there, and we made reservations to have dinner there on the last night of our cruise

Sailing up the inside passage - beautiful blue seas, skies and white clouds - life is good!

More gorgeous scenery

Up the inside passage, from the back of the ship.  Even though it was cloudy, it was still warm

Small islands in the inside passage

The inside passage from the top of the ship

Peter, at the back of the ship, enjoying the beautiful scenery

The wake from the ship, and the inside passage.  It was quite narrow in places!

A walk around the ship - note the red track - three times around the track was 1/2 mile - some of us (Bryan and Billie) walked it every morning!

Mai Tais on the Millennium!

Billie's first Mai Tai - and no, they weren't all hers!

Relaxing on the deck, enjoying the spectacular beauty of the inside passage

Lee, Bryan and Jo

First formal evening - John and Billie

Bryan and Peter

Peter and John

Bryan

Lee and Jo

Pat, Billie and Lee

Saturday night sunset!  What an amazing end to an amazing day!

We were all amazed by the amount of daylight we had as we moved north - the sun was up before 5:00 am, and didn't set till after 10:00!

Tomorrow we wake up in our first port of call - Ketchikan!!

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