Emily Ellet

We’re currently pulling out of dry dock in Victoria, British Columbia, where we’ve been docked for ten days.  Several people have asked me what dry dock is, so I’ll give you the world’s shortest, least informed primer… Look, a giant crane! We had two! Dry dock is a special kind of dock where they can drain out all the water, enabling contractors and crew to repair, repaint, and refurbish the ship.  How they drain out that water, I’m not exactly sure – it’s on my list of “docu

I feel perpetually behind on blogging right now!  Mostly because our last weeks in Alaska were kind of a blur, due to Mike sailing with me and then the Alaska end-of-season clearance sales.  As a quick update, we’re actually in Vancouver today (my first time here), getting a feel for the city and heavy amounts of Starbucks WiFi before we sail today for Los Angeles and the second “half” of our cruise life: Mexico and Hawaii! I won’t be blogging about my last week in Alaska, be

Well, this post was supposed to be published last Sunday, but I got distracted by the arrival of my husband, Mike, and the coolest Star Wars costume exhibit ever.  (Thanks for understanding, and I’ll share pictures later this week.)  Anyway, buckle your seatbelts, because I’ve got plenty of adventure to report from two weeks ago. On Tuesday, I got up with the sun (that’s the sound of me crying into my breakfast) for an absolutely gorgeous day in Ketchikan.  Then I jumped on a

I’m back!  My apologies for the extended break,  but I have been dealing with quite a cold, and between medical isolation and embarrassing amounts of books, movies and sleep, there really hadn’t been anything worth sharing. Fortunately, I didn’t have to miss any performances, despite that surprise medical isolation period (very zealous, they are!).   And even better, this week I was feeling well enough to take several excursions, so I finally have things to write about.  Read

After two rather rainy days at sea, I was delighted to get off the ship yesterday and to be greeted by this: We had a fantastic driver/tour guide named Carl, who had a wry sense of humor and an astonishing knowledge of Victoria’s history, politics, and real estate prices (the latter being particularly interesting to me).  We saw ritzy Oak Bay, the super fancy Uplands estates, the hotel and promenade that Rudyard Kipling frequented, and the University of Victoria, to name a fe

Well, hello again!  I hope you’ll forgive my absence this week.  As I mentioned, I had friends come cruising with me (they were official passengers and everything!), and so the time I usually spend blogging was spent talking with my husband – because the time usually spent talking with him was spent hanging out with them!  Not that I minded too much – it was wonderful to see friends and to share Alaska with them. So, in lieu of the couple of posts I would have written this we

The good news: I didn’t burst out laughing during either performance of “Colors of the World” on Friday.  The bad news: I did choke on a strand of wig hair in the middle of a number (down my throat, people!!!) and had to leave it in my mouth for another five minutes before exiting the stage.  That might literally be a nightmare of mine come true. However, Handover is now complete!!!  We have officially set all the shows we will be doing for the next two and a half to three mo

Good morning. What a whirlwind the last two days have been!  (At times, literally – quite the weather we had this morning.)  I am currently sailing up the Canadian coast towards Alaska, but let’s start with yesterday… Seattle greeted us Sunday morning with warm, bright, and slightly overcast skies.  It was gorgeous, in other words.  Despite having visited Sea-Tac airport numerous times, I was taken aback to find that there was a whole section of the airport I didn’t know abou