Embarkation

This Pacific Time zone is taking some getting used to. Heather woke up at 3:40 am and I was up at 5:30. We had breakfast at the hotel. and I posted some of the other photos that I shot yesterday. At 10 we checked out of the hotel and got a cab down to the pier.The check in process was fast and easy, a million times better than the carnival cruise where we waited for hours in line to get on the ship. This time we checked our baggage at the curb and was one of the first people to board the ship. Once on the ship they direct you to the buffet dining room for lunch while they finish turning around the state rooms from the last cruise. After lunch they announced that the state rooms were available and we found ours. Our stateroom wasn't too different from the one on our honeymoon cruise except for the glass door and balcony, the balcony that I hate to admit, is pretty nice, being able to go from your room directly outside. In fact I'm writing this blog entry from the balcony. I don't have Internet access here, and the Internet access is expensive, so I'm writing this offline and will log on just to post it. There are two wireless hotspots on the ship and they charge 75 cents a minute for Internet access. I'm not sure if I'll post photos yet, probably only a few of the best sights from Alaska.From 1 to 3 we had the mini-beer festival, our first beer event, beforehand I tried to control my expectations about what beer was going to be on the cruise and thought that best case there might be 10 beers at the festival. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had 14 brewers come on board and each of them brought several beers. At the festival the brewers were instructed to only bring out one beer for tasting, but a couple of them had 2 beers out, in total there were 21 beers so the beer festival was pretty nice.Here is a list of the beers the ones underlined are the ones that were available at the festival.Anacortes Brewery, Anacortes, WAMunich HellesVienna LagerFishtail Brewing Company, Olympia, WAOrganic Amber AleOld WoodyLaConner Brewing Company, LaConner, WAPilsnerIPAFar West Ireland Brewing Company, Redmond, WAIPAThree Threads PorterRedhook Ale Brewery, Woodinbille, WAESBSun Rye AleAlaskan Brewing Company, Juneau, AKESBSummer AleSmoked PorterStoutSilver Gulch Brewing Company, Fox, AKPilsnerFairbanks LagerGrand ReserveMidnight Sun Brewing Company, Anchorage, AKSockeye Red AleKodiak Brown AleLa Maitresse du MoinePike Brewing Company, Seattle, WAIPANaughty Nellie Amber AleSnoqualmie Falls Brewing Company, Snoqualmie, WACopperhead Pale AleSteam Train PorterBear Creek Brewing Company, Redmond, WAUnion Pale AlePorterHale's Ales, Seattle, WAMongoose IPARed Menace AleRussian Imperial StoutMaritime Pacific Brewing Company, Seattle, WAImperial Pale AleNightwatch AleGrant's/Yakima Brewing Company, Yakima, WAMarderin HefeweizenImperial StoutBoundry Bay Brewing Company, Bellingham, WAScotch AleESBDick's/Young's Brewing Company, Centralia, WAGrand CruBelgian-Style TripelNice Selection isn't it? There were 3 beers that left an impression with me, the Mongoose Porter was an excellent strong IPA, right up there with Ruination or Rogue I2PA. The Naughty Nellie Amber was a mild session beer but where sessions tend to have a bland flavor in the center of the tounge this one had a nice fruitiness, it was a very good beer in this style. Finally the most unique beer at the festival was the LaConner IPA, this thing uses Warrior as the bittering and Amerillo as the finishing hops and has a taste that is completely different from other high alpha IPA's. Instead of Piney or Citrusy, it more Herbal flavor.After the festival we had to do our life boat drill where we all have to wear our life jackets and line up for life boats, as if in the event that we needed to abandon ship, the process would look anything like this at all.At 5 we had the beer cruise welcome aboard party where we got to introduce our selves and meet others and enjoy more free beer, most of it was the same as the tasting with one notable exception, Alaska Smoked Porter. And for those of you curious, yes, it does stand up to the hype. It's amazing how much smoke they get into the beer. I actually think that it's too much flavor to drink a full beer, I split a bottle at the party, and I'll be looking to split any future bottles as well.Dinner was at 8:30, remember 11:30 to my body clock, so we were pretty tired, the rest of the people at our table were from the west so they were just laughing at us. Dinner was good, I had Tomato Bisque, Spinach Salad, Salmon Pasta which was all very good. We left before desert because we were about ready to pass out, and I was stuffed.