North to Alaska!

North to Alaska!

Alaska is one of my favorite cruise destinations each year and my recent trip with Card Player Cruises was awesome once again. The trip got off to a good start with our welcome aboard party held in the skating rink of Royal Caribbean’s newly renovated Explorer of the Seas. (I think perhaps some of our guests showed up hoping to see me fall on the ice.)
Photography by Diana Gepner

The poker room was busy throughout the 7-night voyage with live cash games that included $1-$3 and $2-$5 no-limit hold’em, $2-$4, $3-$6 and $4-$8 limit hold’em, $4-$8 Omaha/8, and seven-card stud high-low split. There were lots of tournaments ranging from $65 up, as well as a $230 Senior Poker Tour main event. Congratulations to my good friend and frequent cruiser Howard Kimmel for taking home the title!

I took a large number of our poker playing passengers on private excursions in each port. In Juneau, we went whale watching and then to a salmon bake. We had the perfect weather that day, which resulted in us being able to see both orca and humpback whales. To the right, is a picture of some of our passengers at the waterfall at the salmon bake.

We were able to get up very close to the glacier this year. Photography by Diana Gepner

In Skagway, we took two private shuttle buses up the scenic Yukon Highway, stopping along the way to see beautiful waterfalls and lakes. We had lunch at Caribou Crossing and got to play with some cute sled dog puppies.

Our last stop was in Victoria. I hired a private bus exclusively for Card Player Cruises guests so we could see the city highlights together.

There was a lot to do on the Explorer of the Seas in addition to playing poker. The nightly entertainment was top notch. Our guests played trivia, went to enrichment lectures, enjoyed the full-service casino, got pampered at the spa, raced up the rock climbing wall, and even went to the gym/spa.

Our next cruise on this ship will sail roundtrip from Seattle on Sept. 16 with stops at Astoria, San Francisco (overnight stop), and Victoria. We will be hosting a stop of the Card Player Poker Tour on this sailing. To book your cruise or to see a list of upcoming itineraries, please check out www.cardplayercruises.com or call my office at 888-999-4880. I personally escort every cruise and look forward to spending time with you on the vacation of a lifetime!

Linda Johnson
Card Player Cruises