We are currently at sea on our way to Victoria, arriving tomorrow morning and spending the day in the city, which will include a visit to Butchart Gardens for high tea. Today we were treated to two behind-the-scenes tours to learn more about the operations of our Royal Caribbean vessel, Rhapsody of the Seas.

I think a large part of any experience is recognizing what it takes to make it happen on the other end, all the hard work and planning and organization that go on in order to ensure the end product satisfies the consumer. This afternoon we took a walk through the galley with the head chef and were invited up to the navigational bridge to meet the captain.

A few things I learned about Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas:

Approximately 15,000 meals are served each day on board, and the head chef has 97 other chefs working under him. While the first number is certainly surprising considering there are 2,000-3,000 passengers on board, the fact that there are 97 chefs is rather remarkable. I suppose when you have that many meals to serve, you can never have too many cooks in the kitchen.

Captains work 10 weeks on, 10 weeks off - one day at home for every day at sea. Although the captain admittedly does not sail the ship much while in open waters, he does take control during both the arrival and departure phases of docking (although it is still only 30% of the time - he mostly directs, gives orders, and oversees the training of his officers). On this specific route, he is also highly involved when navigating the small arms and fjords(channels).

While on the bridge I had the opportunity to meet the captain directly, and he did a quick Q and A with the group of writers. I asked him about the docking aspect of the ship: How the hell do you park this thing when you cannot even see the stern from the bridge?

He said it takes a team to complete the task, including lookouts to report distances on both the bow and the stern. There is also a "bridge wing" off either side that extends beyond the normal width of the ship, allowing the captain the backwards vision he needs to dock (there is a full set of controls on each wing).

As the session wound down, I asked the captain for his thoughts on the infamous saying, the captain goes down with the ship. Frankly, he doesn't buy it. While he believes he should be the last one off the ship, he said there's no reason to remain onboard otherwise.

I bet there are a lot of traditional, old-school captains who would disagree.

This morning when I woke up and looked out the porthole, the first thing I saw was a waterfall streaming down a slate rockface. It was speckled with patches of small brush and pine trees, some only two or three feet tall.

I’m starting to feel relaxed and at home on the ship now – I will admit that the first day or two was a bit of a struggle for me. It had nothing to do with anything other than the fact that I’m always anxious to tackle a destination, and there was nothing to do but wait. The days are longer up here – the sun rises between four and five and doesn’t set until after ten (last night’s sunset was at 10:44 p.m.). The waiter was pouring the table an after-dinner glass of champagne at around ten, and when I looked out the window I could still see the snow on the tops of the mountains.

The anticipation that had built up during the days at sea was finally fulfilled when we arrived in Juneau on Sunday and then Skagway on Monday. We had two jam-packed days – a seaplane ride in Juneau and a scenic train ride in Skagway. I'd recommend both, stories to come shortly.

I’m currently sitting in a lounge that’s located on the top deck of the Rhapsody, writing from a table that sits in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. We’re directly in front of Dawes Glacier, slowly spinning in a circle (we’ve been here for about 20 minutes now). This is the second arm, or channel, that we’ve sailed down today. The ship has consistently been about 100 yards from the shore on both the port and starboard sides, and the mountains, glaciers, pines, snow, waterfalls and low-hanging clouds have filled the windows since Sunday morning.

Locations and temperatures aside, one thing that really separates an Alaskan cruise from other popular routes departing from the United States (such as a trek across the Caribbean) is the scenery during the days spent at sea. Aside from the first day when we saw nothing but water, we have always sailed well within sight of land, usually on both sides and always worthy of your attention, constantly changing and evolving (as you’ll see when I tell you about Skagway, the conditions in Alaska can go from whiteout snow to lush spring-like green colors in a matter of miles).

The Internet has been going in and out due to the remote locations of our travels, and uploading photos has been a bit tedious through the blog. I will eventually upload them when I can.

We are currently on our way to Victoria, BC, arriving on Thursday.