Cruisin' Alaska - Part Seven
Seven days on a cruise is a long time. After leaving Skagway on the 5th day (Thursday) at 5pm, we would be out of touch with family, and our Fitbits would be stuck in the wrong timezone until Sunday morning when we reached Seattle. On our last official day at sea, boredom had kicked in even though there was plenty to do. By this time I was tired of the so so paid for coffee, and though it was delicious everyday, I was tired of pizza and french fries as well. On this day we would arrive in Victoria, Canada but not until 7pm in the evening.
In all the fun I've been writing about, I neglected to mention that we made our own fun and I was really glad that it wasn't just me and Papa Bear. It was nice to have our friends as company.
We were in the minority in more ways than one, which makes it a little harder to make stranger friends. We skipped the Bingo and Trivia Night's, and all the movies playing in the theatre were either documentaries or kids movies.
Disco Night
Our EXTRA-extrovert friend made friends with everyone from teenagers traveling with their parents, all the way to dancing with little old ladies on disco night.
Imagine this place is packed!
We did go to one show which was really awful. I mean really awful. The MC or whoever said that our group was the first audience of four shows, but I really don't think there was much they could do to get it right. For starters I think it was promoted wrong. It was promoted as a magic show. But it was a magic show musical. If we lasted 20 minutes, I can tell you that we weren't the only ones walking out, and it was packed! Poor musical people.
We are sorry you're weren't good.
Throughout the cruise we had our favorite spots for relaxing and indoor views. If you're cruising on the Princess Emerald, our prime spot for sitting around, primarily after breakfast, was on Deck 18 in the Skywalkers Nightclub & Bar. It was 5:00 somewhere.
All throughout the cruise, when we returned to the room in the evening, there was paperwork left for us that included an itinerary for the next day and anything important that we needed to complete was left in plain sight on our turned down bed.
The itinerary for each day was also in an easily accessible phone app so we didn't have to carry the paper around.
About three days prior to our last day, we had paperwork that told us about disembarking. At the time we didn't have a plan. All we knew is that our flight out of Seattle, back to the east coast was a red eye. We had ALL DAY to hang out in Seattle and we didn't know what we would do with our luggage.
Airport Valet
Who knew? We signed up for Airport Valet days prior. For some unknown reason we had to be approved and we wouldn't find out what's what until Saturday night.
So we went to dinner on Saturday night and said goodbye to our wait staff, changed over and got off the ship to take a quick tour of Victoria, Canada for the photo op.
Tired, freezing, grinning & bearing it for the photo op.
When we arrived back to our room, we found out that we had been approved for Airport Valet. We packed and sat our luggage outside of the door by midnight, said goodnight and hoped for the best, seeing our luggage on the other side.
Tips
If you go to a show, get there early, get an end seat just in case you have to escape
Dance with little old ladies, like nobody's watching
Eat pizza even if you're tired of it
Try a Key Lime Pie Martini at least once
Apply for Airport Valet and have a Plan B for if you don't get approved
Since your luggage has to be outside of the room by midnight, sleep in a little as possible - hint hint
Make sure your carry-on bag is something easy to carry for the next twelve hours and you have something to charge your phone with.
This concludes the series on Cruisin' Alaska. My next post will be about our day in Seattle. If I had it to do over, I'd spend the night in downtown Seattle and leave on Monday.