The great inside passage

Tuesday had us passing another day on the ship, but this was no normal day at sea. We were going to enter the Inside Passage to see some of the remaining freshwater glaciers in the world.

We entered the passage at about 2:30 pm and we spent the rest of the day out on the balcony - oohing and ahhing about the beauty to what we were seeing. Never in my wildest dreams would something so massive and destructive be so awesome and beautiful.

We went down the channel at a leisurely pace, stopping the boat and rotating a full 360 degrees so that all sides of the boat could see the majesty of what was in front of us.

I was prepared to catch some awesome photos, which I did, but the ultimate never happened - we did not see any large calving of the glacier. We saw some little chunks - with a little sound, but nothing massive.

We got cold, but were able to warm up by going inside the cabin between big glaciers. Lots of pretty pictures will follow.

As a treat to ourselves we arranged to go to a "Wellness Spa" as much as we want for the rest of the trip so we did that for a bit. Afterwards, S wasn't feeling 100% so she stayed in the room and I hit the casino, little blackjack, little slots, nothing hardcore but made a little.

Wednesday was the first day that we actually had to haul out of bed early... we had booked a whale watching excursion in Juneau with an independent tour guide that only takes 6 people out at a time so it was very nice to not be crammed into a double-decker boat with 150 other people to see the sights.

We had some fabulous whale experience with a momma and baby playing and carrying on about feeding time from what the guide said. There was a male that joined in the fun but alas, it was brought to our attention that he probably wasn't the "baby daddy".

After spending 3 hours at sea watching the whales and sea otters and what not we headed back to the boat, took a little rest and went back down into town to see what novelties we couldn't live without...trust me, there were 100 pieces of "sittin' pretty's" for every one cool, useful item. We played a little blackjack and didn't do good but didn't do bad either I guess...I think it's all relative.

Thursday started of leisurely with resting a little longer in the morning then took a little boat over to Sitka to see the sites. It is a cute little town but not too much to do and see for that matter. We had Alaskan crab legs, clam chowder and fish and chips for lunch. We are about go to the spa and rest for awhile before dinner.

Sundays are meant for resting

We got up Sunday morning and did exactly nothing of importance. We packed up the remaining bits of luggage and headed downstairs in the hotel to check in with the Holland America rep and make plans for our transfer to the ship.

We then proceeded to have a very relaxing continental breakfast at the hotels restaurant. We took the extra time before we left to make sure all of our internet needs had been taken care of before we left, as we did not know when we would be able to be online again.

We let the porters take all of our bags, just leaving us with the 2 bags of wine and flowers to carry on the ship. It took approximately 2.5 minutes for us to become tired of the wine and flowers. Check in was fast and efficient, and we were on the boat by about 12:45, an hour after leaving the hotel. The bad thing is that they would not let us access our room until 1:30.

So, us and the rest of humanity that had boarded the ship all went to the lido deck. We were able to “coat check” the wine and flowers, so unburdened by all of that, we picked a deck chair to wait for everyone else to finish their lunch.

W found a lady she had talked to on the transfer from the airport and was able to visit with her for awhile before our room was ready. At 1:30 we trundled down to the 8^th floor to see what was going on.

To say the least, our room is fantastic. I think I will be spoiled forever. The room is at least twice as big as a room that I have ever had on a ship, and the balcony is about 3 times larger that anyone else’s.

We spent the time before we left port sitting on the balcony, listening to music and looking at all of the sailboats going by. We both got sunburned.

Muster drill took about 15 times longer than it should have.

By the time dinner rolled around, we weren’t hungry. Someone had a good idea to take a nap, since we were moving and the ship was rolling about. The nap lasted until about 7:30. We were hungry, so we ordered room service. We ate dinner and then decided to go to bed, since we were so tired (I can’t image why?)

We propped the door on the balcony open during the night, the waves crashing on the boat, the foggy air, was just perfect. We didn’t get up for another 12 hours.

We could get used to this!

Saturday in the Park

Saturday ended up being our day to do touristy stuff.

We found out that the hotel had a car at the ready to take people where they needed to go, and would pick us up with a phone call, so that was our primary source of transportation for the day.

Since we did not really allow for much time to explore the market on Friday, we headed back bright and early on Saturday morning. There were gobs of people like us, but it was a really fun experience. We ended up buying a few things - flowers, cherries, some tea. We stopped at a crepe place for brunch and ended up having two huge crepes that were delicious. Although I have a great farmers market at my disposal in LR, I would have loved to buy some stuff here to whip up a great dinner. Maybe someday...

We went back to the room and relaxed just a little and then decided to head out to the space needle area. Since the space needle was built for a worlds fair, they have retained the theme park rides and stuff that went with the fair in the area. Lots and lots of people around. It had been overcast in the morning, but by noonish or so, the sun had come out. There were large crowds in the area, but it took about an hour to go up and come back down the needle. The views were great.

Also in the area was the new Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project. They are essentially in the same building, designed by Frank Ghery. In my opinion, the outside of the building was the most impressive part... the actual "museum" was just a homage to the things this guy won at auction.

We went back to the hotel to rest up for the Mariners game we had planned that night. It was a beautiful evening, great seats and our team won. What more could you ask for. Because of the time change, it seemed like a really long night, but it was so enjoyable I really didn't realize how tired I was until we got back to the room.

We finished up a little packing and we are ready to board the boat on Sunday.

Internet will probably be spotty, but I will do my best.

We have arrived

The Friday travel session went well... nothing exciting happened in the airports or on the plane. We left Little Rock a little before 8 am and arrived in Seattle around 2 pm. All of our flights uneventful and our transfer to the hotel was quick and efficient.

Our hotel is the Fairmont Olympic - it is downtown. It reminds me of a mamaw hotel. The drapes are flowery, the decor flowery and yellow with tiffany blue accents. Nothing sleek and chic about it, but they have treated us well.

After we got in, W got into her head that she was going to call Holland America to see if she could get our room number on the ship. I really didn't care where we were staying, but it was important to her. They still didn't have a room for us, but she asked if we could purchase an upgrade. So, long story short, we have an upgraded room, on the back corner of the boat that has the concierge privileges that we were hoping to get as an upgrade. It cost $120 more per person, but in the long run, it was a bargain.

We decided to head out to the Pike Place Market to do some touristy stuff. Somehow in my mind, I thought the place was just a fish market. Was I wrong. It was more like a huge flea market/food market/fruit and veggie market/flower market. We didn't allow for nearly enough time to look at everything. The vendors start closing about 5, so we didn't have alot of time.

We found the wine shop that W had talked to, and bought our wine for the trip. They were super helpful and we chose all Washington State wines, something that is just not available in Arkansas.

We asked them for a recommendation for dinner, and walked a half a block down the road to a great restaurant named Ellas which overlooked the harbor. Dinner was great - W had a crab salad and crab cakes, and I had halibut. Mine was fantastic, and I'm not really a huge fan of fish.

We caught a cab and headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted and decided to call it a night. We were up too early to catch the plane and with the time difference, we were just ready to chill out.

All ready to go...

So we leave in the morning. No news of a room assignment on the boat, so hopefully chances of a good upgrade are getting better by the day.

W found a place to buy wine to bring on the boat - which was of great importance to her.

We will more than likely visit the pike place market and space needle on Friday. Hopefully transportation/walking will be easy with our hotel location.

We are staying at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel - an old Four Seasons downtown that we got a free room thru the cruise line - supposedly downtown and convient to all of the sights.

Tickets to Saturdays Mariners game have been bought... W is excited to see a MLB game. Hopefully it will be a pretty night.

An early morning awaits......

T minus 7 days and counting....

So we leave to go to Seattle next Friday. We have booked on the ship what is called a guarantee room. It is basically us paying for the room type we want, but giving the cruise line the go ahead to move us if they need to, based on the type of rooms that were not sold. The hope is that we will be placed in a better room.

We booked a "mini" suite - a big room with a large balcony. The worst case scenario is that we will get the type of room that we paid for. The best case scenario is that we get bumped into a full blown suite - larger, but with access to a large concierge lounge with some perks.

I have been checking our online check-in at least twice a day - I have read that the room assignments usually happen about 10-7 days before sailing. We are within that window. I read a cruise messageboard, and many people sailing with us have already gotten their assignments, and they have all been upgrades.

So, I will be crossing my fingers hoping the upgrade fairy visits us soon.

No murders today

Well, kinda got to a slow start with the repacking today. The good news is that all of the clothes, shoes, and toiletries were packed into 2 suitcases with 5 lbs to spare in each bag. The only thing left is to find an appropriate sized carry on for the electronics. I am hoping that I have one up in the attic with 4 spinners that will not be too big. I am too tired to crawl up there tonight... the last time I was up there around midnight, a hole was put into the ceiling, so I like to do my attic digging during daylight hours.

I would like to have a little of extra room in at least one suitcase to bring some stuff back. And there is always the UPS store who will ship anything to you... as long as its not alcohol. Our last trip we ended up tossing stuff into several boxes and shipping them home. It beats paying overage charges.