Raining, again or still

Since our visit to the Hubbard Glacier the sea has been mostly calm but there have been a few noticeable swells. As we sail south toward Juneau the sky is becoming less clear  and if the overcast develops the chance of aurora diminishes. However, there are reports that aurora was seen briefly late on Sept 19. Since then there has been no possibility because of the overcast.

We did get off the ship and wander the streets of Juneau. The vast majority of shops along the street are jewelry stores with great prices if one is in the market. The remaining shops offered souvenirs ranging from trinkets to t-shirts to art work. By noon the rain had begun. By evening passengers were returning to the ship completely drenched. By departure time, 8:30 pm the rain was very heavy. This morning weather services were reporting the possibility of serious flooding.

Today, Thursday, September 21, we are in Skagway berthed beside a pier that we cannot use. There are four shuttles operating to take passengers ashore. There was an interesting announcement about the use of the ship’s small craft. On past cruises tendering has been done by the ship’s survival craft. Today we were advised that not all of the survival craft could be used as shuttles because they were certified only as survival craft. I find this strange. It creates many unanswerable questions beyond the simple “why?” It seems to me that any craft suitable for emergency rescue should be more than capable of short distance passenger shuttle service in calm seas. Oh, well.

Since tendering is being done from the port side we are sitting looking out windows on the starboard side. It is an almost vertical rock face displaying a great deal of graffiti. Its location suggests there have been some very imaginative graffiti authors. It is this rock face which is the problem. Beginning with a 2017 earthquake a rock slide did major damage to the port. Subsequent smaller slides and concerns for a possible monster slide has kept a section of the port closed. Click this link for more information about the slides.

I think it’s time for a major complaint to Princess. Their technology is discriminatory. The doors to our stateroom are controlled by devices called Medallions that we carry with us. The door to our stateroom unlocks for Gail a couple of metres before she reaches the door. It refuses to respond to my Medallion until I bang it against the sensor panel. I call that discrimination. Don’t you? Actually, the technology is working reasonably well for onboard navigation, which I don’t need personally, but many find it works well. Through a smartphone app many other things are supposedly doable. The room TVs are also controlled through a parallel system. All I can say, as can many with whom I have spoken, the user interface SUCKS. The list is way too long to mention here except to say that responses are generally too slow and that navigation through the app or TV interface is inconsistent and unpredictable.  It claims to be version 4.13.2. Perhaps by version 10 everything will work? I hate to think how bad version 1 must have been.