Today was the boring day at sea. There isn’t much to see along the Inland Passage - much of the day was water to the horizon, with a few hilly islands off to starboard. We saw other ships following the same route; I assume one was the Diamond Princess. I don’t remember much of what we did in the morning…I got breakfast in the Lido. Oh, and I bought a $10 sport watch - unfortunately the alarm is very quiet so it may not be much help! The battery of the first one died as I was setting the time, so I brought it back and they let me exchange it. I also got an Oosterdam shotglass, and later in the day I got a couple of boxes of kahlua-filled chocolates. I suppose it would be friendly to share a box with the other terps, but I’m saving them for family.

Oh! Before I forget again! First, this ship’s stabilizers suck. It’s a much more tippy ride than the Galaxy, where we barely felt any movement. Second, the elevators keep making me laugh. When the doors open, a voice announces the deck number and name. Every time we stop at Deck 6, the Upper Verandah deck, it sounds like it says “a burger on the deck!” It makes me laugh.

At 2:00 we went to a party hosted by someone from Cruise Critic. I felt a bit silly being so young but everybody was really nice. The cabin - 4185 - was really astonishing! The host gave me the fake fur stole he’d brought for me to wear with my dress, and someone else had brought “Lickalottapuss” t-shirts from Spencer Gifts for J and I. At 3:00 I interpreted the first session of bingo, which was a lot of fun! The prizes were huge - one guy got $800!

Afterward I got ready for dinner, which meant putting on my dress. I actually felt like I looked pretty good. The other two terps were late to the captain’s champagne reception, heh. So I started, which was fine with me. We went to dinner but the other two terps decided they didn’t want to eat (and would rather go smoke) so I sat with a nice older deaf couple. The fruit cup was boring, the raspberry soup was really good, the main dish (asparagus something) was good, and the cheesecake - supposedly low-fat - was fine but not superb.

Gosh, I can’t remember what happened next - I am pretty tired. I did go to the black and white party (btw, the ship is overwhelmingly Caucasian) and I even danced. I got my picture taken (by one of the professional photographers) with a group of deaf people, so I might get that. If my formal picture came out okay, I’ll buy that too. Tomorrow is Juneau and I am kayaking, yay!

Oh yeah, I also broke my room key! At first I was accusing my roommate of locking the door, but it turned out that having the key card next to my magnetic RSVP nametag broke it. I apologized to my roommate and she was understanding; I got a new card at the front desk. I have warned a few other RSVP staff to be careful with their cards and nametags!