The Alaska Trip

The Alaska trip was scheduled to celebrate our daughter's graduation from college. We had never been on a cruise and had tossed around the idea when Christine was home at Christmastime. Initially we looked into taking a cruise in the Caribbean, but we were up for anything interesting. Finally ended up settling on Alaska. We'd all wanted to go at some point in the past and as a bonus, I have a nephew who lives in Seattle and I figured we could stay with him and his wife before the cruise and then spend a few days with them after

I booked the trip through Vacations To Go - an online discounter for cruises - and Air Tran. Got great rates (I love a bargain!), and the waiting began. I had scheduled the trip for the weekend after graduation, going through Memorial Day weekend plus those couple of days for visiting the nephew and his beautiful bride.

We had an uneventful trip to Seattle...got to know the Atlanta airport really well...and my nephew picked us up at SeaTac. We had a nice visit with him, his wife, brother-in-law and an old Army buddy. The following day, the nephew was good enough to drop us at the cruise terminal. Don't know if this place was there when we lived in Seattle back in '90 - '92, but if it was we TOTALLY missed this biga$$ cruise pier with ginormous ships. Way to pay attention. (I was a sleep deprived mother of a four-to-six year old. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

We cruised with Princess lines and those folks are very professional. They had everything down to a science. We snaked our way through some rather short lines, showed our credentials, and got our first (of many) pictures taken by cruise staff. We made our way on board the ship and let the fun begin.

The first thing we did was notice that there were some rather seasoned veterans on board. We had no sooner set foot on board ship than I saw a gentleman in his bathing suit with a bucket of beer headed for a hot tub. Now THERE'S an example to set. We strolled stem to stern looking at views of Seattle and reminiscing about our altogether too short time there, noticing the changes in the skyline, new arenas and stadiums and such. The day was gorgeous. I was expecting 50 degrees and rain and it was about 75 degrees and sunny. You could even see the snow capped Olympic mountains. If you've never toured Seattle, you should go. You should go after the fourth of July because that's when summer officially starts. Any good weather prior to that date is a fluke. You have a short window...generally until Labor Day and the Bumbershoots Festival at Seattle Center before the clouds roll in again. It is one of the most breathtaking cities in the U.S., though. Come over on a ferry from the Olympic Peninsula at night and watch the city all dressed in its fancy lights as you approach. Nothing like it...especially when the couple next to you in the ferry dining room is in tails and a formal dress. But I digress. Back to the cruise.

Our first "event" was to take a tour of the ship. We lucked out and ended up on the tour with the BEST, bar none, cruise ship host (don't know his real title) Fernando. Fernando was from Mexico and was tall, dark and handsome and best of all had an absolutely fabulous sense of humor. A little sarcastic, a little wry and very amusing. He made what could have been a dull tour a comedy show. We looked for Fernando thereafter and he never failed to amuse.

The first official duty you have as a cruise ship patron is to attend the mandatory safety session WITH YOUR LIFE VEST ON. These sessions are held in your designated duty station. Since we were traveling on the cheap, picture us in the Leonardo Di Caprio (aka Jack) cheap seats on the ship...not the chic Kate Winslet (aka Rose) fancy schmancy seats. Yep...if we hit an iceberg, the three of us were going down with the ship. I never remembered to count lifeboats even. Hmmmm....major oversight on my part.

As we pulled out of Seattle at exactly 4:00 p.m. (designated departure time...these guys run a tight ship), we settled in the starlight lounge on the 18th deck (seriously, this thing is a floating city), cocktails in hand and watched Seattle recede into the distance. Beauteous! Next up: Day one at sea, formal dining and more.