Dream Vacation, Day 1

We woke up early - 3:30 am - to catch our flight out of Boston. I was grateful I had made a list of last-minute things to do the night before, because my brain doesn't work at that time of day. The taxi picked us up at 4, and we made it to the airport in plenty of time. Pay the cab driver, online check-in at the kiosk, bag drop, and security - it all went smoothly considering we weren't quite awake. (I did discover I don't calculate tips - or do any other kind of math - that early in the morning...)

There was time to spare when we got to the gate, so I wandered over to Dunkin Donuts and picked up some breakfast for later. As I sat at the gate, I realized my boarding pass didn't have a seat assignment on it. For a few minutes, I wondered what would happen if I wasn't able to get on this flight ... but eventually my name showed up on the "cleared list" and the desk agent provided my seat assignments for both legs of the journey. Phew.

Once on the plane, I went back to sleep, basically coherent only for the mid-flight juice handout. When we landed, we had just enough time to walk to our next gate before boarding the second leg of our flight. Breakfast, another nap, and a magazine, and we were in Seattle.

After we claimed our luggage, we checked in with our cruise line, gave them our bags, and boarded a bus for the pier. After I got on the bus, I realized the cruise documents I should have kept with me were in the bag I checked. Oops. (See brain not working part above.) We arrived at Pier 66 around 12:15. For the next hour, it was like waiting in a Disneyland line, only with a longer ride at the end.

The sign: Pier 66 Jul/21/12 12:25 pm

Once inside, we waited in yet another line, went through security (again; fortunately they didn't look really closely at anything but the passport) and up an escalator to a third line, and finally were checked in (they were able to look me up by name, so it was OK that I didn't have my paperwork after all. Phew again.). Then we waited in line (again) - this time to have our picture taken (because everyone wants a picture of what they look like after having gotten up at 3:30 am!) before we boarded the ship.

We had lunch in the all-you-can-eat buffet, and oriented ourselves to the small city we would be enjoying for the coming week. Fourteen decks, ten of them accessible to cruise patrons. For scale, walking 2 2/3 times around the promenade on deck 7 is one mile. The ship is 965 feet long and can hold over 2,300 passengers.

By mid-afternoon, we set sail, leaving Seattle behind. The party started in full force, including a sail-away BBQ on deck 12. Swimming, food, sunshine and gorgeous views; what more does one need?

The view from deck 14 at the start of our cruise

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the view, and going to mandatory emergency training, wherein they demonstrated how to put on a life vest in the unlikely event we would need one (we didn't).

The view

The view about half an hour later

The view a little while later.
Check out the colorful sailboat.

We went to dinner at one of the sit-down restaurants that didn't have a cover charge (there were three of these and about 13 others that did), and discovered it was a 3-course meal with different specials each evening - starter, entree, and dessert. And all the rolls you want. Mmm...

Dinner's entree: salmon with spinach and potatoes

The main difference between eating here and eating inland was that the portion sizes were actually reasonable here. And since one of three main activities on a cruise is eating, that was good.

Considering I had been up for longer than was reasonably normal by the time we finished dinner, I called it a day pretty early and went to bed at 9 pm. We cruised all night at about 25 knots.

The stateroom: three of us shared an inside stateroom. It was approximately 143 square feet. The bathroom was tiny but very functional, all things considered. The shower was about 3x5 feet (that might be a generous assessment), and two people could stand (but not move) in front of the mirror. There were enough cubbies and places to hide things that we stowed our luggage fairly effectively. Considering we didn't spend a whole lot of time in the room while we were awake, it worked. Inside rooms have no windows, so when we wanted it to be night, we just turned off the lights. That has its advantages during the summer in Alaska.