Prom Day at the Coral Princess, aka "I'm off, like a prom dress"

Prom Day at the Coral Princess

As I have blogged before, Peter Morris, the Shore Ex from the Coral Princess likes to pick a theme week for the Inside Passage. This week's theme was "The Prom."

Peter is from New Zealand and they don't have a Prom. He says he is intrigued with the whole idea. So he challenged everyone from Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway to come to the dock in their best "Bib & Tucker", as he called it.

I have to admit, I wasn't going to participate, but changed my mind at the last minute. The Coral was due in on Monday the 18th, so on Sunday the 17th, when I finished for the day, and with just 30 minutes before the Thrift Store was closing, I "went Prom dress shopping."

I walked into the store and said to the young girl behind the counter, "I need to get a Prom dress!" "Yeah, you and 5 other ladies today," she replied in a rather bored tone. "We're all sold out except for the one in the window." Well, I'm no size 4, so I had to take a pass on that one. But surely they might have something suitable on the rack. I started sifting through the "rounder" and, Ah Ha! There it was (AND, in my size, I might add). It was perfect and only $7. SOLD! I bought my Ketchikan Prom Dress in under 5 minutes. Plus, it went well with my red elbow length gloves and pink tiara and boots. Look out girls, there's a new prom queen in town.

Monday morning I drove over to Dock 4, a little nervous in my finest prom dress over my long johns and sweats and blue jeans. It wasn't prom night jitters, I was nervous because as I pulled into the parking lot, I was the only one there! Was I an over-achiever, being the first one there? Or was I abandoned, alone to face all the Princess passengers by myself.

Then Wanda pulled into the parking lot, then someone else, then another. Turns out I am the over-achiever. Everyone was there in their prom day finest.

Peter came off the ship just rolling with laughter. He knew we usually got into the spirit of the "Theme Week," but he never thought we'd do it up so well. As usual, the passengers looked at us all rather suspiciously. Ketchikan was their first stop. I told them all, "Welcome to Prom Day in Ketchikan. You will be seeing Prom Day all the way up to Skagway." They were great sports with it all. I was luckier than some of the other KTN prom goers as I didn't have to do the "Dock Dance" between different ships. I was able to stay at the Coral for all my bundled tours before I had to "dance" over to another ship/dock. I can only imagine what the other ships' passengers thought.

It was also Peter's birthday, so Candi and I got him some frosted brownie bites. He was very touched that we remembered.

Here's Wanda helping Peter with his birthday brownie bites.




By the way, if you are wondering about the title of this blog, I used that phrase "I'm off, like a prom dress" when I left (after settlement) to go to another ship for my tours. It must have made quite an impression on Peter, as he kept using that in his email postings of the prom.

Lindsey and Bianca

Lindsey decided to go a whole different route with the theme. She put a pillow under her jacket, donned a tiara, and told Peter that this was the reason she wasn't going to the prom this year! Peter told her she better get the name of the guy..........

It was a fun day and the weather held off for most of the day. It was chilly, but at least it didn't rain.

Here are some pictures of our Prom attendees.

Fred & Emily

Emily, Fred, me and Lindsey

Candi told Peter she was mad at him for not getting her a corsage!

Me and Shelley

Emily, Joyce, Bianca and moi

Lumber Jill

These are the daughters of the owners of the Aleutian Ballad (can't remember their names)

Well, I can not WAIT until Peter tells us what the next "Theme Week" is!  And as Peter says, "Kia Ora" (you will have to Google it..............)

I'm off..........like a Prom dress!