Alaska – Making the Best Out of Bad News

It’s inevitable when you travel that you’re going to face bad news at some point. At times, the news is truly crushing, but often, it just opens up new doors and exciting opportunities. You all know the expression: “When life gives you lemon meringue, make Baked Alaska.”

We had flown from Florida to Alaska for a week long cruise. After nine exhausting hours in the air, we arrived in Anchorage, and spent a few days touring the Northwest part of the 49th state. From there, we took a train to Seward for a night, where we stayed at venerable old Hotel Seward. And, the next morning we boarded our cruise to Vancouver – the anticipated highlight of our trip. The weather was amazing – the clearest, warmest day of the trip. We were on the pool deck enjoying a cocktail when the Captain made an announcement that kind of threw us for a loop. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to announce that this cruise has been canceled. More information will be coming.”

He didn’t say delayed or modified, he said canceled. Damn. We grabbed another drink and awaited further instructions as we headed downstairs to the pool table.

“We are happy to share that all of our guests are welcome to spend tonight and tomorrow onboard. All of our meals and entertainment will go on as planned, and the bar will be complimentary for the next two days.” Additionally, they were going to refund our cruise price, bus us back to Anchorage, pay for airfare change costs, and give us credit for a future cruise – in our case about $1,000 each. Fair.

Some people left immediately, many people stayed onboard. That night, we remained in Seward instead of sailing out of port. We decided to make the most of these two days on what Jackie poignantly coined “our stationary cruise.” We’d figure out how to get home later.

So, we drank some more, and made the most of our first night. We participated in every event on board, my team even won the “Finish the Lyrics” game show, and we ended the day dancing late into the night. At 1:00 AM, something special happened. Normally, we’d have been in bed by then, and our ship would have been many miles away. But, when we stepped outside, a small group on the rails called us over and pointed out a cool little phenomena. The Northern Lights! This was a bucket list item for both of us, and something that never would have happened if things had gone as originally planned. It was the only night and place they were invisible of the nineteen days we were in Alaska.

The next day, we woke up and Jackie searched for any other cruise options in the area in the near future. She found one. It was a little more expensive than ours, and the only room available was a balcony. I called to see if any other rooms were available. The guy who answered the phone For Celebrity was awesome. There truly was only one room left. We grabbed it. We shared our plight while we chatted and he added in a nice onboard credit. During the conversation, he discovered that our anniversary took place while onboard, and then he threw in a bottle of champagne. It was all coming together nicely.

The downside? another week in Seward. We enjoyed our last day on the Stationary cruise and disembarked, heading back to the Hotel Seward.

As we walked to the shuttle, we noticed the shuttle driver from our first night’s stay at Hotel Seward. Boruk was incredibly friendly and accommodating during our first stay, and he immediately greeted us with a confused smile. We explained our situation and he was bummed out for us but happy we were coming back to his property. As we unloaded our bags, he gave us coupons for their breakfast buffet the next day. Nice start to Seward part two.

Boruk was kind to us all week, and we learned a lot about life in Seward from him. He took exceptional care of us, went out of his way to help us and surprisingly discounted our last night’s dinner at their excellent onsite restaurant. We were better off for having met him.

We were challenged to fill our days in Seward without spending too much money, as we suddenly found ourselves way over budget. But, we found something every day. We hiked all over the beautiful seaside town and basically hit every bar and restaurant. Jackie was also a bit under the weather. Much better to recuperate in a comfortable hotel bed, then hustling around a bustling cruise ship.

We did book a trip to Exit Glacier, something that wasn’t even on our radar. It was spectacular. Beautiful, educational and eye-opening. When we returned home, we discovered it is Top 5 in every list of great glaciers in Alaska.

On our last day, we had nice weather, and decided to splurge on a $250 (each) boat ride out of the marina, as we had come to realize that good weather in Alaska is never guaranteed. The trip was a combo wildlife/glacier trip that lasted six hours. An hour into our trip, I noticed we were not on our advertised course. Fifteen minutes later we learned why. The Captain had heard that there was a visiting pod of Orcas close by. Orcas! About ten of them… and they stuck around for 45 minutes. Wow!

After that surprise, we saw puffins, sea lions, harbor seals and a black bear – wildlife on overdrive. Ultimately we ended up at Aialek Glacier, where we got up close to the tidewater glacier. It was amazing. This ultimately turned out to be even more important to us, as bad weather later canceled our planned trip to the Hubbard Glacier. Fate was on our side.

Finally, we ended up on our new cruise aboard the Celebrity Millennium. We loved it and truly appreciated that it actually moved. As it turns out, it’s the nicest ship we’ve ever been on, with the best food. All because our first trip was canceled and we rolled with the flow.

As a nice little bonus, our first stop onboard was at the martini bar, where we met two awesome ladies. They were travel agents, aboard with a small group of their clients. During our conversation, one of us mentioned that we were celebrating our anniversary the following night. On that night, the staff surprised us with a nice bottle of champagne from our new friends at the martini bar. We hit it off with them throughout the rest of our cruise. Nice people! One of those women, Shelly is our new travel agent. We’ve already booked two more trips through her company Travel by That Girl. We’ve never used a travel agent before, but so far, it’s been a great experience. Highly recommended by Sunshine Vagabonds.

Bottom line – lots of silver linings to our unexpected hiccup that helped make the trip memorable for us.

Making Baked Alaska…

Bob and Jackie
Sunshine Vagabonds

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