Morning broke in Seattle and put on my walking shoes for a 4 mile walk around the area. I didn't have an agenda in mind when I left the room, but by the time I hit the street I had decided to head to the Space Needle (about a mile and a half from the hotel).
The early morning empty lobby of the W
Made it. I took a couple of photos then continued on my way.
Next I decided to head down to the pier. When I got there I saw there was a path along the water's edge that would take me all the way to our dock if I wanted to go that far, which I didn't. But I did walk about halfway there before turning back. I got some pictures of our docked ship then went back along the water to Pike Place, back up the umpteen steps, past the fish mongers, then back to our hotel. It was a good walk.
There it is. Our ship, on the right, is just waiting for us to arrive and board.
Here's another look with a very picturesque picnic table
I stopped at the Starbucks across from our hotel and got a venti decaf non-fat vanilla latte (yeah, I know how that sounds; maybe I'll just call it "a coffee" from now on) and a blueberry scone for me and an almond croissant for Todd. We cleaned up then relaxed in the room until checking out at noon. Down in the lobby we borrowed a stapler and attached our ship's stateroom luggage tags to our bags. A short Lyft ride later and we arrived at the pier.
Love this building seen from our room
The curved-in base is amazing
Once we got out of the car the scene on the pier was organized chaos and long line after long line after long line. We knew it was going to be a long process with a lot of standing, so had arranged in advance for mobility assistance to help John during the boarding. We checked in at the stand outside the terminal and had a short wait for an available wheelchair and runner/pusher. While waiting we were able to drop our luggage off with the porters, so at least we didn't have to deal with that anymore.
A wheelchair and pusher became available and off we went. We bypassed a lot of lines and people to go through security, then bypassed a lot more lines and people (an embarrassing amount) to get to the check in area. We didn't know this would be an unintended benefit of needing the mobility assistance, but were grateful all the same. At the check in station they transferred John to a chair to wait.
We had another short wait at the check-in area, then got checked in and received our Sea Pass cards: credit card-like cards that served as our room key, ID, and charge card while on the ship. After that it was another short wait for an available wheelchair then up the ramp and onto the ship where they unceremoniously dumped us at the bar. It was around 2:30pm.
We found John and Norma's room on the 8th level first, then left them to get settled while we went to our room on the 9th. The hallways were lined with suitcases and the porters were still bringing more out. We weren't sure what to do so we eventually just grabbed ours and put them in our room. We took a moment to unpack (finding a bra stuck behind a drawer that wouldn't close all the way. Into the trash it went (can't help but wonder what our room attendant thought of that)) then walked around the ship a little.
I actually forgot to take pictures of the stateroom until the next day, but I'll include them here:
Closet on the left, bathroom on the right
Ahhhhhh!
Looking down from our balcony
One end of the main promenade
"Just call me angel, of the mooring, angel..."
Apologies to Juice Newton
We went back to the room and heard the announcement for the 3:30 muster drill. This drill must be held before the ship can depart. When the bells sound, all passengers must go to the station number designated on their Sea Pass card and wait there until dismissed. The announcement told us we would not be required to wear the life preservers that were in the bottom of our closet.
The bells rang, we went to our station in the main dining room on level 4, we waited about 15 minutes then were dismissed. Not too bad. After that it was back up on deck to watch the departure. Todd and I walked around the top deck and were unfortunate enough to unknowingly be right in front of the ship's horns when they were blown before pulling out of the dock. Scared the shit out of me; I'm surprised some of the older folks didn't have heart attacks on the spot.
There was another ship in dock and the two vessels traded horn blasts before we pulled out just after 4pm. I made a video, but only captured the other ship's horn. It pulled out of dock a little while after us.
The view while docked
The...thingy
We're on our way
Farewell Seattle
"Stare into the sun while I take a picture"
The view from our room
I think I need to live near water
The view from our dining table at dinner
When we purchased our cruise tickets we selected a "My Time" dining time of 5:30pm every night, partly because that was one of the few time slots available. Two weeks before the cruise I called to confirm it, and the week before I called to confirm it again. Apparently that meant nothing to Royal Caribbean. As we boarded the ship there were staff stationed outside the main dining room to answer questions, so after we got situated I asked them to confirm our dining information. After looking on the computer they said we didn't have a reserved time and we could eat at 7:30 or 8:30 that night. After advising the crew member that we made the reservation months in advance and confirmed it by phone twice within the last 2 weeks, I was told that didn't matter and reservations had to be re-made once on board the ship on a first come first served basis. They again said they only had 7:30 or 8:30 left for that night but could seat us at 5:30 for the rest of the cruise. After giving them an earful of my opinion we set dinner for 7:30, then 5:30 every night after. What a joke - dining turned out one of the few hassles of an otherwise great trip.
So instead of dinner we explored the ship a bit then returned to the room to rest. We met John and Norma at their room at 6:30 and socialized with them until it was time to go to the dining room.
Dinner consisted of fruit salad starter with kiwi, strawberry, orange and watermelon, then an entree of a grilled pork chop with broccoli and roasted vegetables with a glass of Estancia pinot noir. For dessert I had a "moist" almond chocolate cake with cherries and raspberry coulis. The food was good enough, but certainly not fine dining quality. However we did have a good seat near the window. Our waiters Jaison and Yogosh were very schmoozy and said we could request the same table at the same time for every night, so after dinner that's what we did - changed the reservation to 7:30 every night at that table. That was a mistake that just led to more headaches as you'll see later.
After dinner we parted ways and Todd and I walked around to explore more. We found a soft-serve machine (score!) on deck 10 and had a cone of strawberry ice cream. We later stopped in the Cafe Promenade on deck 5 and I got a decaf coffee from the self-serve coffee station. We walked around more before turning in around midnight.
Ice rink
Looking up from level 5
A different angle. If M.C. Escher had drawn cruise ships I think it would have looked like this.
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