Whales & Waves

By: Samie

Travel Dates: July 13th-25th, 2025

Day 1

(Sea Day, First Formal Dinner)

We experienced the most eventful kickoff to our adventure we could have possibly imagined during the first night of our cruise while out at sea.

Just after midnight, we were awoken by the sound of a blaring alarm. Speakers are built directly into the headboards of the beds to minimize the chance of you missing an announcement or code. We had met our expectations from the previous day in watching the safety video playing on our screens and finding our muster stations. We had learned that 7 short blasts followed by one long blast signals an emergency and the need to prepare to abandon ship.

Since we were awoken by the sound, we were unable to accurately count the blares since we didn’t know how many had sounded before we were yanked into consciousness. Immediate panic set in because we didn’t know if we needed to begin making our way to our muster station to evacuate or don a life jacket. We started by looking through our peephole to see if we could glimpse what fellow passengers that may be more seasoned or informed than us were doing. We couldn’t see anyone in the hallway, so we decided to sit tight and act as information was gathered.

The code that was being announced was Code Bravo. After we sat anxiously for a relatively short amount of time, the captain came on to announce that there had been a small electrical fire and that it had been swiftly and efficiently handled. So on our very first night of our very first ever cruise, we got to learn first-hand that Code Bravo means there is a fire on board.

Despite the heart-racing whirlwind that had peeled us from slumber, we were fortunately able to slow our heart beats to a normal, human rate and fall back into a relatively restful sleep.

Luke woke up to make his way to the Lido Deck to enjoy a breakfast, while I opted to sleep in and relax in my pajamas out on our balcony instead. It was another sunny day, but where land had been just yesterday, there was only a large expanse of water. Large waves capped by the white froth from the motion of our massive ship surrounded us on all sides. I think I honestly would have been content to just sit and watch the miles and miles of blue splash past all day. However, it wouldn’t be a good way to take full advantage of all the available cruise activities.

The very first ship activity we decided to participate in was a presentation on The Iditarod at 11:00am on the World Stage, one of the largest spaces of the ship and spans 3 decks.

In preparation for our time at sea, all of us had gotten our own sea sick patches. I had asked for them at my most recent doctor appointment in May, and my doctor gave me enough that I would be able to share with Luke. All the other Bergjords had stuck theirs on in the spot behind their ear already. I, however, was still feeling pretty good and hadn’t slapped one on yet.

During the presentation on the World Stage, the gentle motion of the ship mixed we the strain of me attempting to read or view the screens without my glasses ended up being too much. The motion sickness I hadn’t been feeling before began to set in.

I’ve always been fascinated by The Iditarod and even wrote a report on it for fun one summer when I was younger. Gary Paulsen became one of my favorite authors as I aged due to his experience racing and being out in the frigid terrain of where there races take place. So while I was beginning to feel more and more nauseous, I still very much enjoyed the presentation and getting to hear and learn more about the training and work that goes into all aspects of the Iditarod Race.

When the hour was up, we made our way to the Crow’s Nest, the top level of the ship to buy some until the next presentation we wanted to catch on the World Stage at 1:00pm. The Crow’s Nest has the best views due to its height and panel of glass windows around the circumference of the room.

The rest of the family snagged a game from one of the shelves, but due to my worsening motion sickness, I opted to sit out and just watch. The Crow’s Nest is also home to the coffee shop where you can purchase other caffeinated beverages besides the black coffee served on the Lido Deck. I went and got a blended latte in hopes that it would assist in easing my rising body temperature from being flushed.

The time passed by quickly, and we started the trek from the top of the ship all the way back down to the bottom decks of the ship so that we could catch A Spectacular Day in Glacier Bay, where we could learn all about the best ways to spend our time in a few days when our cruise ship floated through the elusive National Park, only accessible by ship, hiking about 10 miles from the nearest visitor center, or by plane.

However, just before the presentation was about to start, the same alarm and code that had ripped us from sleep that night blared across the ships PA system once again. The presenter informed us that they would not be able to start until given the all-clear, so we all sat tight for maybe 10 minutes until the captain once again came on to tell us the fire had been swiftly attended to.

This made the 2nd fire within the first 24 hours of being on this ship. Many of the seasoned cruise ship passengers continuously remarked how rare any type of unordinary phenomenon was, much less a fire. We were lucky enough to experience two! So we have already heard more emergency alarms than most cruisers do their entire life. We should’ve purchased a lottery ticket.

After the presentation, we headed back down to our cabins, where I quickly located and adhered a sea sick patch for myself and then laid down to take a short nap in the dark to ease the accompanying side affects while the patch kicked in.

I awoke from my nap feeling much better as both the patch and closed eyes in the dark had eased my powerful symptoms. I was glad to be feeling better because the next activity on our itinerary was one I didn’t want to miss. We were going to be making our way to Royal Dutch Tea in the Dining Room!

Ever since visiting the Japanese Tea Gardens during our trip to San Francisco, I had developed a great fondness for tea. Granted, not as much as coffee, but I still enjoyed it from time to time. The idea of being served an actual sitting tea was a big draw for me. Plus, they would have little snacks, cakes, and finger foods, which are right up my alley!

It was clearly a popular activity, as there was already a line by the time we got there, and we hard arrived about 15 minutes early. They opened the room and began seating everyone. We were already seated by 2:53, but fortunately, everyone that came was able to get a table in the end. Some were seated in a second sitting after tables began to leave, but I’m still glad to arrive and be seated right away.

The tables were beautifully decorated and even had small flag of the Netherlands set at each table to make it official. A tea cup, saucer, and small dessert plate were already set in each spot. We were brought a tray of milk and sugar as well as a tiered tray of the sweets for us to split and share.

The bottom tier had 4 kinds of finger sandwiches; bay shrimp on brioche with a Dutch cocktail sauce, egg salad and cress on white bread with mayonnaise and mustard, smoked salmon and dill with cream cheese on whole wheat bread, and coronation chicken on whole wheat with curry, yogurt, dried apricots, and cilantro.

The middle tier had a couple different pastries; raisin and plain scones with assorted jams and whipped cream as well as mini gugelhupf.

The top tier was composed of my favorite delectables, the sweets. There were chocoladebol (Dutch Cream puff) with whipped cream and mandarin, Maple Stroopwafel Napoleon with cream and fresh berries, Boterkoek (Dutch Butter Cake) with an almond slice, Devulde Koeken (Dutch Cookies) made with marzipan, and Appeltaart (Mini Dutch Apple Tartlets) with a cookie base, cinnamon, and raisins.

While we sank our teeth into the provided goodies, servers would come around and keep our tea cups filled with as much tea as we desired. We added milk and sugar to our own personal taste, and everything was simply perfection. Two more teas would be served on board, and I made a mental note that I would be attending them all, even if I went alone.

After tea, we once again returned to our cabins to enjoy some relaxation, balcony, and reading time before it would already be time to get ready for dinner, our first of two formal dining nights on the cruise ship.

At around 4:30, we began to gussy ourselves up and get ready for dinner. Before setting sail, you choose the time slot for your dining room table, and our travel agent that had booked our cruise had picked the 5:00 time, the earlier time. We took some photos of us looking all fancy on our big cruise ship. Some were just outside our cabins in the very unfancy cabin hallways, but the ship had many more backdrop options we made our way to as we headed out as well.

We sat at our assigned table, table 54, and began looking over the menu options for that night. We would have the same waiters for the duration of the trip, and our table was being attended to by Hilmi and Asep. Our table was comprised of the 5 of us, as well as our travel agent and her husband occasionally. Sometimes they would pop over to other tables that had booked with them as well, but on this particular night, they dined with us.

The way the dining room works is that you are handed a menu with all the options for that evening. You get to choose one starter, one main, and one dessert. Drinks are available for additional purchase. The three-course meal is included in your ship travel!

Our options for starters this night were prosciutto ham, orange-jumbo shrimp cocktail, escargot bourguignon, salad of arugula and frisee, creamed artichoke and heritage carrot soup, French onion soup, or classic Caesar salad.

Our options for mains were Rotelle with Oxtail, cracked pepper tenderloin with grilled shrimp, rack of lamb/cannellini beans/garlic pearls, yellow fin sole fillet, vegan cauliflower steak, New York Strip Loin, garlic-herb roasted chicken, and dried-cherry and thyme coated salmon.

Finally, our dessert options were a caramel lava cake, creme brulee, black forest cake, hot fudge sundae, and strawberry romanoff.

My choices were the prosciutto ham, New York Strip Loin, and caramel lava cake. Luke chose the French onion soup, garlic-her roasted chicken, and hot fudge sundae.

We enjoyed scarfing down our starters and were all very happy with our choices. One small hiccup occurred when our mains arrived when what I ordered was brought to Sue, our travel agent companion sitting across the table. I didn’t think much of it as I didn’t hear what she ordered, and she very well could have ordered the same main as I did. She started cutting and eating while I waited for my plate to arrive. However, when it did, it was not what I had picked and instead what Sue had actually ordered. I, however, said something instead of just eating someone else’s food because I had picked it for a reason and was very much looking forward to it. She laughed it off and said she didn’t think it was right but that it still looked good. They brought the plate over to her, took my plate that she had already started eating away, and brought me a new plate, so I just had to wait a little longer than everyone else.

We closed out with our desserts, and once again, we were all tickled with our own picks. We had eaten supper at the Lido Deck the night before because we hadn’t been ready at our meal time, but it became very clear that eating in the dining room was the correct option from now on. We would get our lunch from the Lido, but supper was clearly best eaten here.

We ended our still young evening by making our way to the Billboard area where 70’s Music Trivia was starting at 7:00. Luke and I both ordered some alcoholic beverages, and I mostly listened as they played the 70’s music snippets as I didn’t have a lot to offer in that wheelhouse. It was still a lot of fun, the vibes were good, the drinks were strong, and we all looked great! As the sun began to sink below the horizon, we spent the final hours of our evening soaking up the golden sunset before calling it a day. It was a successful first full day at sea.