This is a bus - not a luxury motorcoach

The McKinley Chalet Resort (owned by the cruise-line!)
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This morning we had to be ready by 6am, then to breakfast and the lobby for our scheduled 7:30am departure. By 7:45 all the other people in the lobby had left except for our tour group which left us wondering. News then came through that our bus had broken down and that they had to find another bus for us. This eventually turned up at 8:45 and we were off by about 9am. Our luggage had to be moved from the original bus to the new one. There were a lot of complaints from the Americans about the replacement bus, as it was not a luxury motorcoach (with an on board loo) like all the others got, but a standard bus. We climbed aboard, being told that a replacement bus would be waiting for us at Wasilla. We didn't know where this was, but waited in anticipation. I found this bus very cold and cramped and was looking forward to a more comfortable ride.

At Wasilla, our lunch stop, we were provided sandwiches, cookies, soda and coffee for lunch, before all congregating out the front of the "old" bus. Here we were given the news that there would be no replacement bus until Anchorage, and it was back onto the same bus again for another 45min. At Anchorage we did change buses, but this took time for the luggage on the bus to be moved across. A hot coffee would have been nice at this point, but time only for a bathroom break, before getting on the bus for the final 3hr journey to Seward. A brief bathroom break and a soluble panadol or two for me got me through the next section of the trip, along with my Nintendo DS and playing puzzle games.

The driver is more annoyed than we are - something to do with having to move all the luggage - 3 times!!

We finally arrived in Seward and it was raining. The check-in process was fairly smooth, and we were on board before we knew it and in our cabin. The first thing on our minds was food, then sleep. We wandered up to the restaurant, and after finding that we were in the wrong place, ended up at the buffet on the Lido deck. We were having dinner as the ship disembarked which was nice. When we reached the gulf of Alaska, the ship started to sway, and I started to look a little green around the gills. I took some travel sickness tablets, put on the acupressure wrist bands and hoped this would settle my queasy-ness. I went to bed and concentrated on keeping my dinner in my stomach and hoped for a good long night of sleep.