It’s after 11pm and I’m sitting here trying to catch up on journaling while rocking back and forth at this desk. The captain announced earlier tonight that we were going to hit some rough weather – 35 knot winds and seas 15’-17’. Oh isn’t that fun? Our first night ever on a cruise and we’re rockin’ and rollin’ … baptism by fire I guess. Anyway …

Our morning started at 4:55 this morning. The train ride to Seward would’ve been much more entertaining had it been a pretty day but it was another low clouds, rainy day. That type of weather has it’s own beauty but I’d really been looking forward to the scenery on the part of the railroad. I took a few pics but not nearly what I would’ve taken on a sunny day.

We arrived in Seward a little after 11am and the Millennium was already docked. Between the train and the weather we were chilly. We went into Ray’s and ordered a bowl of black bean chili for lunch – it hit the spot! If the weather had been nice there were several things we had planned to choose from. Since it wasn’t we just walked to downtown Seward, went through a couple of shops and the Sea Life Museum. Bob bought a pair of gloves and I picked up a jacket I really liked. The museum was okay but nothing to write home about. It had started raining even harder so we caught the shuttle to a stop close to the Safeway and picked up a couple bottles of wine to take on the ship. By then it was around 4pm and we checked in.

There was a tour of the ship at 5pm so we unpacked just a little and hauled butt to meet for the tour. We figured it was the quickest and easiest way to figure things out. It’s a big ship but we’ll get it. Our chili from lunch was long gone so we came back to the room and freshened up for dinner then went looking for it. The buffet looked okay but since we’ve already paid for dinner in the restaurant (The Metropolitan), and we were given a pass on dressing up that ended up being our choice. And a good choice it was. It’s definitely a fine dining restaurant. We both ordered the grilled salmon and it was delicious! I saved room for Crème Brulee too. We sat next to a couple from New Zealand and they were a delight to talk with. They admitted being addicted to cruising and have been on quite a few cruises.

During dinner the captain came on to welcome us aboard and inform us about the mandatory safety drill at 8:15pm. That announcement was repeated about fifteen minutes later … with additional information. We were in for a rough night. There was a low pressure coming in and winds were expected to be blowing at 35 knots with 15’-17’ seas. Oh boy. Isn’t that special? He even told us ladies to only wear flats and hold on to the rails whenever using the stairs. I survived but I was a little concerned. I guess I figured if I survived that damn fishing boat on Tuesday I could survive this. We were scheduled to depart at 9pm. About 8:20 I looked out the window and we were already moving. I guess the captain was trying to get a head start on the front.

There was a meeting for first time cruisers at 9:30 and I dragged Bob to it. I just figured we’d learn some things a little quicker that would make the cruise easier. As we made our way down to the theater the winds had already picked up pretty good and this ship was rockin’ and rollin’. Bob does so much research on everything I don’t think we really learned anything new, but we did get put on a list to get an invitation to tour the Bridge. How exciting is that? No idea when that’ll happen but hey, I’ll take it.

Walking around in the room is quite a challenge. Feels like I’m drunk without even consuming the calories!