Cruising Alaska: Royal Princess in Juneau

I've been struggling about how to begin today's post. I didn't sleep well last night as my mind was wandering quite a bit in regards to the deaths on our ship. I'm guessing my feelings are similar to others aboard here. We haven't received any new updates from the Captain and I expect we won't as it's now all over the news. I'm purposely avoiding reading or watching anything about it. We have plenty of passengers talking about it and I'm trying to avoid listening to those conversations as well. I don't think predicting or speculating serves any purpose so I won't be wading into those weeds. I've said this before, but I'm a just the facts ma'am kind of ma'am so I'm sticking to the experiences happening onboard. (If you didn't see it, I did publish a timeline of what we as passengers were told. You can find my Royal Princess Accident Update here.)

Since today is a new day on an Alaskan cruise and we have plenty of folks sailing on the Royal this summer who are interested in knowing about the experience, I feel like I need to press forward.

It never ceases to amaze me just how lucky I am to live this life when I'm on a cruise ship with snowy mountains nearby.

We were at Franklin Dock today and passengers were allowed to disembark close to 10:30 am. We were originally scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am but because of yesterday's delay we weren't able to make it. I wasn't sure if our dock would change from the original schedule because of our late arrival but we were scheduled for Franklin, and Franklin it was. If you are sailing to Alaska and you want to see where you are docked or how many other ships in any Alaskan port, my go-to website is claalaska.com. Just click on 2019 schedules.

I had considered going whale watching today, but I'm just not in the mood. We'll be back next week so if I feel like it then, I will. So today we just decided to stay onboard and take it easy today. We've walked 10 miles in the last four days and while that may not seem like much, hubby's cerebral palsy body, my rheumatoid arthritis joints, and our minds and souls need a bit of a break. 

Today's view from the Horizon Terrace, our favorite spot on the ship.

If you want to see things available in Juneau, as well as information on other ports, I do have an entire section of the blog dedicated to cruising Alaska. Check out my Cruising Alaska resources here.

Tracy's King Crab Shack foods were back onboard today. Today they had seafood chowder. While hubby is a clam chowder fan he isn't a seafood chowder one. And I definitely don't do chowder. I guess we'll have to see what type of food we have from Tracy's tomorrow.

I want to mention something I forgot to share the other day. On the Royal Princess you will find almost every crew member telling you hello, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. Like every single one. From cabin stewards to deck attendants, waiters to maintenance crew, and everyone else in between. I do believe this is the friendliest crew at sea.

And speaking of friendly...shout out to cruise director Matt O'. If you've read my blog for a while you know I drop those Encouraging Words Project notes everywhere. Like really everywhere - multiple years worth of leaving encouraging words and money behind. And you also know I've complained again and again about cruise directors not "getting it" when I drop them in the Wake Show box. Well, no more.

Check out a clip of today's Wake Show with Matt.

Hubby says I need to go give Matt a hug for helping send those positive vibes out into the world. Personally, I think hubby really wants to give him the hug - I think hubby has a man crush on him.

See you tomorrow from Skagway.