Alaska Cruise Boarding Day
The excitement certainly hasn’t worn off yet. I’m still getting up early. A 5:30 am wake up call by my own brain wasn’t something I expected being as tired as I was last night. We checked out of the Sleeping Lady Resort at 6:00AM and hit the road to get back to Seattle. I know it’s an early start but missing the ship because of something stupid wasn’t on my agenda. We made a small pit stop at Deception Pass Falls for a quick look around and a break from riding in the car. It was really similar to some of the waterfalls in New Hampshire we see.
The rest of our drive into Seattle was uneventful, but beautiful nonetheless. When we got into Seattle we were still quite early for our boarding time and made the choice to try dropping our bags off early. I’ve never done that before, on the rest of our cruises we’ve boarded at the same time we dropped off our bags with the port valet. This go around was super easy. We parked in the drop off lane quickly at Port 66 and left our bags with the port valet and took back off into the city.We backtracked a little bit through Seattle to see the Fremont Troll, then headed to turn our car back in. The downtown location for Enterprise was not what I was expecting. It was a parking garage and check in kiosk that seemed too easy to be true. The rest of the morning is dedicated to a self walking tour of Seattle until we need to board.
The goal is to see Pike’s Place Market, Post Alley, The Great Wheel and grab some food before we board at noon. Pike’s Place is a beautiful, very crowded market. I was so excited to see the fish throwing, flower stalls and view from the deck. Beecher’s Mac’ n’ Cheese was everything I thought it would be. We got in line for Piroshky Piroshky (that was really long) for a couple minutes before deciding to bypass it.
Getting into the cruise terminal was incredibly easy. I’ve been wondering if that was just because it’s not the Miami terminal. We were the only people in line going through security and began to see more people at the check in lobby. After checking in we were given a boarding group number and were sent to sit in the terminal area. It was about a twenty minute wait before we were called to board. The entire process from start to finish only took about 45 minutes. Immediately after boarding we went to our “virtual muster station” which was actually just a few feet from where we boarded. This took a couple minutes and we were free to explore the ship.
The ship isn’t very big and exploring the currently open areas didn’t take very long. They were funneling people through the Windjammer Bar, photo gallery, through the main lobby and up to the top deck. The rest of the areas were still closed for cleaning. It may be a cruising no-no but we went for the buffet right away anyway, I wanted to see what the food was going to be like. Instead of grabbing plates I just peaked and kept going, the lines were extraordinary, as I expected. We did end up snagging a couple of loungers by the pool and ordering drinks. They must have just refilled the pool because she was super cold. The weather was beginning to heat up in the mid afternoon so we headed for the AC in the lounge. There weren’t many other people so it was nice to sit and play cards with Ben. The ship isn’t scheduled to leave port until 5:30, and the only thing we have to do before that is get into our room. Several hands of rummy later our floor number was called and we were able to get into our room around 3:30. When I booked the cruise we had a room with a window, and I went through the bidding process to get a balcony room. Our bid was accepted and we were placed in room 8624 on the 8th floor. In another stroke of luck we saw our bags in the hallway on our way to our room and grabbed them.
The balcony suites are spacious and have so much storage. This is our first time getting a balcony room. We splurged this time because I had read so much about people regretting not getting one on an Alaskan cruise. Our balcony has enough space for two chairs and a small table, that will be useful on our Glacier Bay cruising day. We unpacked and relaxed until it was time to do the sail away party and watch Seattle fade into the sun. Because we ate lunch so late we opted to try the hot tub while everyone else was at dinner. This is most likely where we will be for most of our cruising days. There are only four small jacuzzis on this ship and I’m interested to see if we will have a hard time getting in throughout the trip.
We hit the proverbial wall quite early in the evening. After our hot tubbing adventure we did a few laps around the jogging track on deck 6, and had a couple snacks at the Great Outdoors Cafe. I was determined to keep my eye out for whales all afternoon but gave up the fight as I got ready for bed. The sunset was incredible on the horizon. Ben went up to the top deck to take some pictures and watch it set while I stayed back in the room. Ben wasn’t gone long and was brushing his teeth on the balcony when he spotted a whale. I was able to catch it after it had already done its thing but it was still really cool. We were both asleep before 9:30.
