The last day of the cruise was very low-key. The weather was beautiful so we spent a lot of time on the upper deck reading and enjoying the view. We also got to watch an ice carving.
After dinner, we cruised through the College Fjords and got to view several more glaciers, all named after American colleges.
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| This picture was taken before we went to bed at 11:30 pm. There was 20 hours of daylight on this day! |
One thing I haven't written about much was the food on the cruise. The food was excellent and in great abundance. You could seriously eat all day, every day if you wanted! We always ate breakfast in the Horizon Café which offered a buffet of every breakfast food you could imagine (eggs, bacon, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, waffles, pastries, muffins, omelets, breads, and lots of fresh fruit). For lunch, we usually grabbed a pizza or hamburger at the grill. And for dinner, we went to the dining room for a nice dinner with a different menu each night. We chose traditional dining which meant we ate at 5:30 and sat at the same table with the same waiters every night. Our waiters were Edwin and Jaqueline and they were two of the nicest people I've ever met. We enjoyed getting to know them throughout the week and I have so much respect for both of them. They are both from the Philippines and work 10 straight months on the cruise ship with no time off. The thing that amazed me is that they both have children/families back in the Philippines that they only see two months out of the year. In their country, working on a cruise ship is one of the best ways to provide for their families and the majority of the crew members were from there. I just can't imagine being away from my kids for 10 months at a time... 9 days was hard enough for me!
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| Dessert on the last night was Baked Alaska! |
We arrived in Anchorage in the middle of the night and disembarked around 9am. Our plane didn't leave until 8:30 that night so we had all day to spend in Anchorage. Fortunately, the cruise line had a room at the convention center in the middle of town that stored our luggage for us and had a shuttle that would take us to the airport. It was so nice to be able to walk around Anchorage all day rather than being stuck sitting in the airport for 8-10 hours. The first thing we did was walk to the Mexican restaurant! The one type of food that the cruise ship didn't serve was Mexican food and we were craving it!
We somehow lucked out when we were booking our plane tickets and were able to upgrade to first class at no extra charge for our flight home. We had never flown first class before and it was quite a treat, especially since the flight was overnight. I did discover that sleeping on a plane is just as uncomfortable in first class as is it in economy, but at least I got to enjoy a cheese/fruit tray and a glass of wine before I tried to fall asleep!
We only slept a few hours on the flight but the excitement I had about getting to finally hug my munchkins after nine long days was greater than my need for sleep. We had a wonderful trip and made so many incredible memories, but I was so glad to be back home and have them in my arms again. I'm so thankful to everyone who helped take care of them while we were gone and so grateful that we had a chance to celebrate our anniversary in such a special way! It's definitely a trip that I will never forget!
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