NORTH TO THE FUTURE!

Our first cruise to Alaska was also our first cruise: seven days on the Dawn Princess from Seward to Vancouver in 1998. Remember when seven days seemed like a long cruise? Seventeen years later, in 2015, we cruised for seven days from Seward to Vancouver on the Oosterdam.

We look forward to boarding the Westerdam in Seattle for the 28-day Legendary Alaska cruise tomorrow. This will be our first cruise from Seattle. The last time I left Seattle on a ship was in 1991 on the USS Midway heading to San Diego. I definitely had an inside cabin on that “cruise.”

You can find a detailed itinerary and cruise map HERE and HERE

LEGENDARY VOYAGE

This is our first Legendary Voyage. Legendary Voyages last 25-59 days and are generally round trip from a USA port. They offer more activities and enrichment events than a standard cruise.

Here is the flyer we received for the Legendary Alaska. I think this is the standard Legendary Voyage flyer, not specific to our cruise.

SAN DIEGO TO SEATTLE

Flying to Seattle from San Diego takes 3 hours. When we head to Fort Lauderdale, we usually end up on the redeye and a case of jet lag, so a flight with an early afternoon departure in the same time zone was a treat. Our cruise leaves Sunday, and we arrived Friday evening, giving us a full day to settle and with some buffer for contingencies.

PRE CRUISE HOTEL

We stayed at the Doubletree Suites Southcenter, near the airport. There is also a Doubletree by Hilton that is closer to the airport. While waiting for the hotel shuttle, ensure you don’t get on the wrong Doubletree bus.

Our shuttle bus was dispatched on demand – so be sure to call and don’t assume the bus will appear automatically.

This hotel is in a good location if you don’t plan to sightsee in the city before the cruise as it’s twelve miles to downtown. The large Westfield Mall Southcenter is across the street, with dozens of restaurants and shops. McDonald’s, Starbucks and Target are nearby. There is also an Amazon Locker around the corner at The Dollar Tree if you forget anything that you want to get before the cruise.

The hotel offers a buffet breakfast, which was OK and included in our room rate. Room service and fast Wi-Fi are also available.

WESTFIELD MALL

This afternoon we explored the Westfield Mall. We rarely go to malls anymore so exploring the latest retail shops was interesting. Duke’s Seafood was very nice for dinner, and I highly recommend it.

We checked out the movie theater and realized that we couldn’t name a single movie playing. Years ago, we would have known them all.

Here is the current movie list – how many could you name?

• Bad Boys: Ride or Die
  The Watchers
  The Garfield Movie
  IF
  Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
  Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
  The Strangers: Chapter 1
  The Fall Guy
  Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle
  In a Violent Nature
  Ezra
  Challengers
  The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  The Secret World of Arrietty
  Young Woman and the Sea
  Babes
  I Saw the TV Glow
  Manamey
  Hovering Blade

TOMORROWS FORECAST

We reserved a pickup using the Seattle Express, and they will pick us up at 10:30 am tomorrow, June 9th, and take us to Pier 91.  Check-in is advertised as starting at Noon, with our departure scheduled for 3 pm. Per the regulations, everyone has to be checked in by 90 minutes before departure, or 1:30 pm. That means they will process and board 1900 guests in 90 minutes – Good Luck! I think a 3 pm departure is pretty optimistic – we’ll see. I’ll take the OVER on this one, as they say in Vegas.