It was Embarkation Day on our Princess Cruise Lines 17-Day Ultimate Alaska Cruise! We were truly excited, as this was our first cruise ever, and were looking forward to experiencing as much of Alaska as we could. We woke up early in our Seattle Hotel room, packed our bags, and made our way downstairs to breakfast in the dining room.
While we ate, we studied the Deck Plan of the Grand Princess, our home for the foreseeable future. I previously downloaded it onto our phones from cruisedeckplans.com. For this trip, we chose to get an interior stateroom, located amidships, as Vicki was prone to motion sickness. We figured that the rolling motion would be least noticeable in that location. If we wanted a view we’d go up on deck. We rightly reasoned that staterooms were for sleeping, not sightseeing. Of course, we were only in our sixties, youngsters compared to many of our fellow passengers, and spry enough to do all of that extra walking. The ship was over 950 feet long! It was the largest cruise ship on the planet when it was launched in 1998. That entails a LOT of walking, which was fine by me, the author of hikingtales.com! However, I could understand upgrading to a balcony stateroom if one were claustrophobic, or older with less mobility.
After eating, we headed downstairs to the taxi stand. Soon enough, we were blasting toward Seattle’s Princess Cruise Ship Terminal. The cabbie dropped us off, and we immediately had no idea what to do. Luckily, cruising is all about Service (with a capital S), and the helpful dock employees got us into the correct line. They even took our bags, as we previously printed out luggage bar code tags. After that, we were free to walk into the main terminal with our small backpacks and join the Embarkation Line. I was expecting an interminable wait. Getting over 2000 passengers onto a ship sounded like a Logistical Nightmare. And it would have been, if they hadn’t figured out a way to convert it into a Good Dream, instead. They were pros. Within a half hour, we were heading for the gangway and boarding the ship.
We had bluetooth Medallions that we were supposed to have with us at all times. The crew used them to scan us onto the ship. We also learned how to use the Princess App on our phones. The ship was configured with sensors and an IT System that could locate us via our medallions! I know it sounds kinda creepy, but we soon got used to it. The app let us (as a couple) see where our partners were, and even had a mode which would route you there on foot. It was especially useful for ordering drinks or food, as the staff could bring your order to you no matter where you were. The room stewards liked it because they knew when it was safe to service the staterooms. The Creep Factor was thoroughly overshadowed by the Convenience Factor.
Once we boarded (we were nearly six hours early for final departure from the dock) Vicki wanted to find our chosen Dining Room. Food is very important to some of us. So we took elevators (there were three banks of them, forward, amidships, and aft) and found the restaurant. Then we headed upstairs to Deck 11, the Baja Deck, and made our way to the port side and our stateroom. Our luggage wasn’t there yet, and the steward was busily getting all the nearby rooms ready for the guests, so we weren’t allowed inside. But we peeked anyway.
Luckily for us, the weather was perfect. A sunny day in Seattle is rare enough in early May, so we took advantage of it, by lounging around up on the Sun Deck. In the sun! We got margaritas at the cantina, snagged a bit of food from one of the many bars and grills, and checked out the views of Seattle and the surrounding harbor.
The sun was so intense that we couldn’t hang out there very long. Plus, we wanted to check out the entire ship! So we started exploring. The first thing we discovered were four swimming pools! The main one was under the movie screen, another was indoor/roofed, a small lap pool was forward near the sports center, and there was a small one near the stern. Each pool had two hot tubs associated with them. Wow! I was impressed.
We went to the Horizons Court Buffet and ate lunch. Quite a variety of food was to be had. Then we both felt our phones buzz. It was a Notification from the Princess App. Our stateroom was ready! This was what we’d been waiting for. We took the elevator down to deck eleven and headed to our room. Our luggage was sitting there, right outside the door. Our medallions unlocked the door using the nearby screen, and we went inside, dragging our luggage behind us. The room was small but functional, with a queen bed, a desk, a TV up above it, a mini-fridge, a clothes closet, and a small bathroom. We spent the next half hour unpacking everything. We were going to be staying here for over two weeks, and on a ship, everything needs to be stowed properly.
We turned on the TV and checked out what they had to offer. Mostly it was content from their onboard servers. They had a slew of movies available and plenty of info about our cruise. The door to the stateroom had a “Muster Station” notice, letting us know where to go if we hit an iceberg and had to abandon ship. Somehow, I wasn’t all that worried. I got out my laptop and set it up on the desk. We each purchased a data plan so we could make phone calls, surf the internet, and check email. The bandwidth was fairly decent, but not tremendous. Later on, I noticed that the ship had numerous StarLink antennas on the upper deck. We would be sailing out in the middle of nowhere, so this was excellent.
The stateroom quickly became boring. We headed out exploring some more. We found the exercise room, which I would use later, as I needed my daily aerobic workout on an incline treadmill (to simulate hiking in the mountains, of course). Meanwhile, Vicki had already booked herself a massage at the ship’s Spa. She said it was great!
When the hour drew near to leave port, we heard the ship’s engines start up. Woo hoo! Then the captain came on the horn and explained to us that we might be leaving a bit late, as the ship was still loading supplies as fast as the dockworkers could do it. The ship had just come out of dry dock, and we had seventeen days of supplies to load! He said to relax, and that we’d easily make up the time over the next two days of steaming toward Ketchikan, our first port of call in Alaska. I wandered over to the rail and looked down. Forklifts were busy loading pallets of food on board. With 2000 passengers and 1000 crew, we were a hungry crowd indeed.
Soon enough, we were on our way. The ship left the dock so smoothly that most people didn’t even notice. Under the gentlest of accelerations, we picked up speed, heading north out of the harbor, heading for the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, the gateway to both Seattle and Vancouver. We dropped off the harbor pilot near Port Angeles, and after that we were free to roam the planet, 100% under our own power.
Vicki and I ate dinner in our pre-chosen restaurant (there were many choices on board) and met some of our fellow passengers. The tables sat eight, so we were joined by three other couples. They were nice, and most of them were perennial cruisers. They were surprised that we took a 17-day cruise as our first voyage. Weren’t we worried that we might not like it? No, I told them. The two of us would be exploring the world together, as usual. It’s what we’ve been doing for over forty years, after all.
“Bon Voyage!” we said to Seattle, as we headed for parts unknown.
For a topographic map of the cruise see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the voyage see my Flickr Page
<< Back to Day 0 Onward to Day 2 >> 
hikingtales.com 