Seward, Alaska. Today, we leave on our cruise. We awoke to a light rain that persisted most of the day. We packed up and hung around the house we rented until check out time at 11:00. It was nice for everyone, I think, to get to relax, sleep in, and rest up - it had been a busy week!
At 11:00, we got a taxi which took us and our bags to the cruise ship terminal. The same taxi took all of us and our bags in two trips. The boys and the bags went first and checked in the bags, and the ladies took the next trip.
We were allowed to check in immediately, which was nice. Our cruise books said that we could not check in until 6:00 PM. Most of the research we had done said you could check in way earlier, but we always heard around 12 or 12:30. So we checked in and then got in line to get on the ship (we couldn't actually get on until noon, so we had about a ten minute wait...)
We went through security and were among the first onboard (I would say within the first 50.) We got our welcome aboard pic and headed on up to the Windjammer, which would begin serving lunch at 12:30. We tried to swing by the cabin, however, the fire doors were still closed. But they would be open by 1:00 so we could go right after lunch.
While we waited for the buffet to open, we explored the pool area and the beautiful Solarium...I must say, the ship (Radiance of the Seas) is very beautiful, and the Solarium is one of the most beautiful parts on any ship I've ever seen. The Solarium is an indoor pool with a retractable roof, so it can be open in warm destinations, but here in Alaska, is it closed and kept a comfortable temperature for swimming. Typically it is an adults only area, but since it is too cold to swim in the regular pool most of the time, they allow children to swim at certain times on this itinerary - but anyway - The solarium is decorated like an Indian jungle - there are lush tropical plants all over, a wooden bridge crosses the pool in front of a huge, floor to ceiling pair of sculpted elephants in front of a cascading waterfall. It is so neat there.
The whole ship, as I said, is beautiful - lots of glass and cascading waterfalls. Just amazing.
We had a quick lunch in the Windjammer buffet, and then went to our rooms. Donna and Gary are on deck 10, cabin #1094. They have a junior suite - a very nice room, but their balcony is right under a hump that juts out over there cabin, so it sort of restricts their views of the scenic vistas - you can see out but not necessarily up - say - to the top of the mountains.
Mom and Bobby's room is right underneath Donna and Gary's, in cabin number 9244. They have a great port side view, which is nice because most of the scenery is on that side.
Grant and I are in cabin 9258, which is on the back of the ship, towards the port side. We have a huge balcony, that holds two chairs and two recliners. Plenty of room out there!
After we dropped off our carry ons, Grant, Gary, Donna and I headed back into Seward to watch a movie at the Seward library on the Alaska Earthquake of 1964. Mom and Bobby stayed back to explore the ship. The movies were kind of, well, old school. It was an interesting experience....
Then we went to the chocolate shop before heading back to the ship.
Once on board, we checked to see where our table was, and then Grant and I went by the spa to check out their menu. We booked the Rasul treatment for Sunday at 11:45. Then we headed back to our cabin to unpack before dinner (another advantage to checking in so early - our bags were delivered by 4:00! We also met our cabin steward, Dennis, from the Philippines.
We had dinner at 6:00 in the Cascades Dining room. We are at a table of 8, which means its us 6 and another couple - they have been on a ton of cruises - 10 on Royal Caribbean!
I had a mushroom pastry, saigon chicken noodle soup, a spinach salad,
Grant had smoked fish talpenade, tuscan tomato soup, a spinach salad, ling cod, and
Mom had the smoked fish tapenade, saigon chicken soup, the cod, and a fruit salad for dessert.
Bobby had the smoked fish tapenade, spinach salad, the ling cod, and
Donna had the tuscan tomato soup, the spinach salad, and
Gary had
After dinner, we went to our cabin to get ready for the 8:15 muster drill. It went pretty quick and by 9:00 we were back in our cabin on the balcony watching the ship pull away from Seward.
We did some exploring and then went to the Welcome Aboard show. The comedian was hilarious - he could do some dead on hilarious impressions. My favorite was Don Knott -- he did both Mr. Furley and Andy Griffith.
The theater, by the way is set up very cool, more like a theater and less like a "club" with booth seats facing sideways, so more people could fit, and everyone faced forward. Also, the poles and such were positioned in a way that almost every seat was good and not blocked...
After dinner we did more exploring, deck by deck. It was freezing outside and super windy, so I wussed out and didn't go some places.
On our way back to our cabin, we stopped by to check on Bobby. W3e had promised him that he would barely feel the ship move and would be fine. Little did we know that the seas would be choppy and we would be going so fast - you could really feel the motion of the ocean! "See if I ever listen to you again..." Bobby says. But he felt fine so that was good.
Back in our room, we ordered some room service snackins and watched some tv.
I love this ship.
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