Sunday, May 20, 2012

Our very first cruise starts today. And to Alaska. Sandhya and I are very very exited and looking forward to it. Anyone who has gone on a cruise has always had positive comments.

The thing about cruises is that everything is relaxed. We were given an approximate time to get to the pier where the ship was docked. We were supposed to get in around 10:30 to 11:00 AM or so. Given our only travelling experience with airlines, we were anxious and booked Shuttle Express to get to Pier 91 in Seattle. This is a brand new pier in Seattle.

I think we were one of the eager beavers. There were not many passengers in yet. So we relaxed for a bit.
A Happy Sandhya!
A Happy Me! Some say this does not look like a happy guy. But trust me, I am happy
This was just before boarding.
Pugent Sound from the Cruise Ship Terminal

Check in was a breeze. It took us less than 5 minutes. They had a very large number of check in counters with friendly staff. They snapped a photo of each of us for the record (they use this photo to check that it is really us when we get back from shore excursions) and handed us our keycards that also doubled as boarding passes. Conveniently they linked the key card to our credit card and all expenses on board were to be done with the key card. A great way to spend money in blissful ignorance of the damages we would discover to our wallets at the end of the trip.


On the way to embarkation, the view of the ship was breathtaking. It looked massive!
View of the Ship before embarkation


We went up to our state room. Compact and clean with a verandah view. The first thing I did (and so did Sandhya) was to have a couple of drinks before lunch. And then off to lunch--which was fabulous. We anticipated that the week would be geared towards eating and drinking. 
Our Stateroom
Departing Seattle
Dusk
Predinner Drink
Dinner








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