Alaska Cruise - Day One

 Turns out that when you buy cruise tickets only a couple of weeks in advance and don't have to fly to your departure port, you can do it pretty cheaply. So for my 50th, we got an "obstructed view" balcony stateroom on board Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas to Ketchikan, Alaska. One of the few places we didn't go when we were in Alaska. 

It also turns out that the Port of Seattle SUCKS! 

We arrived just after noon for our 1:00 boarding time only to wait in eight different lines for nearly 5 hours before we stepped foot on the ship. Everyone assured us that this was not normal. It was not a pleasant experience (a woman actually passed out onto the concrete while waiting and the police and paramedics had to be called) but we did get to pass the time waiting with some very sweet people. We met couples from Lynden, Ferndale, Blaine, Boring (she trains puppies for the seeing eye dog school in Sandy) and as far away as Oklahoma City. It's a small world! 

Our luggage was waiting right outside our door when we got to our stateroom. Our initial thought was that it was much bigger than we expected. And nicer!

Such a great shower! Lots of instantly hot water with tons of good pressure!

Our room was also very safe thanks to a lifeboat being parked right outside

Our "obstructed view" of Seattle was very nice!

But there was not much time to explore or unpack as we had to hurry and change for our dinner reservation. We barely made it but had a very nice dinner of crab cakes, escargot, prime rib, warm chocolate hazelnut cake and creme brulee. The couple at the table next to us was from Canby, Oregon. 

You know you're in the fancy dining room when you don't even know what all the silverware is for... LOL

Turns out my simple gray dress from the Resource Center where I volunteer with the necklace/earrings from the consignment store next to the Dollar Tree in Ferndale was my favorite outfit of the week! So we snapped a few pics while we're explored a bit of this giant ship! 

The view of the Grand Esplande from the top of the spiral staircase

The giant chair outside of the Music Hall

But the chair at the Wonderland restaurant matched my dress better :) 

the 12-story elevator shaft was filled with butterflies

This was my favorite of all the old pinball machines they had in the Seaplex

The Quantum of the Seas was christened in 2014 and has a capacity of nearly 5,000 passengers! Thankfully for her first voyage of the season (and first back in the US since Covid after two years in Singapore and a 21-day trip back), she was only about half full. :)  But she can really move when she has to make up setting off nearly 4 hours late! 

We went to the Boleros bar/lounge enjoyed the live band, had a couple of cocktails, played Welcome Aboard trivia, did a free Cheers Around the World liquor tasting, visited the art gallery for an art scavenger hunt, and saw a very funny (and clean) stand-up comedian. 

the comedy show at the Royal Theater even had a live opening band 

Then we went back to unpack (we were shocked by how much really great storage we had!), set back our clocks and head to bed...