Like most Alaska Cruises, our 17 Day Ultimate Alaska Cruise (Princess Cruise Lines) began in Seattle, Washington. Since we live in San Diego, that necessitated some flight and hotel logistics on either end of the voyage. We decided to spend an extra day in Seattle in the beginning, when we were fresh, and simply head direct to the airport and blast home on our final, disembarkation day. This worked well for us.
The weather even worked in our favor. It was drizzly and blah that morning in San Diego, rare for May, and it turned out to be sunny and warm in Seattle, which was even rarer! We considered this a good omen for this, our very first voyage on a cruise ship.
Two years ago, in 2024, Vicki planned to go on an Alaska Cruise with her cousin, thereby leaving me to go solo backpacking instead. We liked this idea, as cruising is somewhat pricey. But then her cousin had a serious medical issue, and the attempt was aborted. Vicki regrouped and asked her sister if she would go with her in 2025. That stayed viable for a few months, but then her brother in law developed a major medical issue. Vicki was seriously bummed out, and not only for herself. This whole plan seemed cursed. That’s when I decided to step up and bite the bullet. We could both go! Vicki was happy after that. I researched cruises on the internet, and showed her the 17-Day “Ultimate” Cruise. This one ticked almost all of the boxes regarding Alaska. After that, Vicki spent a LOT of time booking the cruise, figuring out which shore excursions we would take, and getting the flights and hotel together. She carried the ball all the way to a touchdown. Hooray! I was merely along for the ride, silently praying that I could avoid and/or nullify that curse.
The months went by, and we spent a lot of thought on what to pack. Then, suddenly, it was early May, and we made a final rush to get it all together. Our son dropped us off at the airport in the morning, and away we flew!
We arrived in Seattle, and decided to take an expensive cab to the hotel, rather than drag our luggage on city buses. We were on vacation, and, since we were ultra-fancy Cruisers, money was No Object! At least it felt that way. I’ve had a lot of vacations like that, where my typically-frugal self relents to the pressure and opens the relief valve which rapidly drains my wallet, thus preventing dangerous overpressure. The cab ride was merely a drop in the bucket at this point. We checked into the hotel right away, and went up to the room. It felt exhilarating to be heading into the unknown, with so many experiences awaiting us. We wanted to see it all!
We headed down the elevator and out into the city streets of Seattle. It was a lovely day, warm in the sun and cool in the shade. I got out google maps on my phone, and we headed north. No need for buses or cabs now. Instead, we enjoyed a fine walk to the famous Space Needle. I visited this as a child back in 1968! And it hadn’t changed much at all. We paid our entrance fee and took the elevator up the to circular glass-enclosed walkway at the top. We were treated to fine views of downtown and the surrounding harbor. I took a lot of photos and videos, as usual, but only show two of them here. Needless to say, we stayed up there for quite a while.
We checked out a few displays from the original World’s Fair Exposition of 1962 near the Space Needle, then took a sixties-era “futuristic” elevated monorail ride back to our hotel. Very cool.
We quickly got bored with the motel room so we headed back out for dinner on foot. Vicki wanted to go to a nearby place called Xi An Noodles, while I got a Subway sandwich along the way. Nothing fancy. And not too much of it! We knew that there would be megatons of food on the ship tomorrow, where we were likely to put on several pounds of weight over the next seventeen days.
We were really excited to be started on our first multi-night voyage on a Cruise Ship, and it wasn’t all that easy to get to sleep. The beginning of a big vacation can do that to you. But at least we had fine views of the lights of downtown Seattle from our room.
For a topographic map of the cruise see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the voyage see my Flickr Page
Onward to Day 1 >> 
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