 Previous Day |
Second Stop: Seattle, Washington |
 Next Day |
Ahoy, maties!
My vet buddy, Jackie, invited me to join her on a one-week cruise through the Inside Passage of southern Alaska with stops at both Glacier Bay National Park and the second unit of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park! We met up at the pier in Seattle, and together, we boarded the mighty Norwegian Pearl!
 |
Unlike my last trip aboard a ship, this one promised to make seasickness a thing of the past! At 964.98 feet in length and over 93 tons in weight, this colossus was definitely not going to rock as wildly as the Ortelius! Plus, there were a bunch of restaurant options, most of them included in the cruise fare, as well as a pool, theater, shopping center, spa, and rock climbing wall!
This kind of cruise is called a freestyle cruise, which the Norwegian line invented! Freestyle cruising means you get to decide when and where you eat, and what activities you participate in! The trickiest part of the whole experience would be making those decisions!
 |
So Jackie and I got our passports checked out and received our ship ID cards. We filed with the other passengers into the central lobby of the ship, called the Atrium, checked in, then made our way up the stairs to find our cabin.
 |
There are over a thousand cabins, or staterooms, aboard the Pearl, and ours was #8066! Luckily, ours was not too far from the Atrium, but we still had to wind through a labyrinth of other staterooms to get there!
 |
Room 8066 was a little cheaper than others because the window was blocked by one of the 150-person lifeboats! That was okay, though, because there was so much to do outside the cabin that we only really went back to sleep! We got assigned a room steward named Marcel, who was from St. Lucia, and he was super, duper attentive! Over the course of the cruise, we could hardly leave or come back to the room without him materializing to ask us how our days were going!
 |
As the Washington coast slipped away into the distance, we had a whole new lifestyle to pick up! Mornings started with a trip to the Garden Café for buffet-style breakfast, and a reminder from the door greeters to “Washy Washy” with hand sanitizer! Then, there were dance classes to take, trivia games, shuffleboard to attempt, and rock walls to climb! There were thirteen whole decks of activities, so no matter how rainy and cold it got outside, there was really no excuse to be bored on board!
 |
There were also plenty of great places to relax and enjoy a piña colada or hot chocolate (depending on the weather), like the back deck, which was out of the wind and had a great 180º view of everything behind us! There was also a library on board with a couch and huge windows for glancing between books and the coastline!
 |
When I wasn’t taking a class or watching a show, I really enjoyed floating around in the hot tub on Deck 12. From there, I could kick back and see the coastal mountains get more rugged the further north we got. It was also a fun spot to look for whales!
 |
After a full day at sea, with lots of dancing and lots of gobbling down tasty food, I couldn’t wait for our first docking, though I suspected things were about to get a lot wetter! Good thing I have lots of experience with the rain!
See you ashore!
Previous Day |
Second Stop: Seattle, Washington |
Next Day |