Cruise — Day 01 — Leaving Seattle 



Ship's time 22:06 Friday, June 9, 2006.
Ship's Position 48° 25.48' N, 124° 22.56' (Juan du Fuca Straight, between Washington's Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island).

Pictures for this blog are available here.

The Town Car picked us up a bit before 11 PDT from the hotel and drove us to Pier 30. The pier is south of downtown a bit below Safeco Field and Seahawk Stadium in an area that seems to handle a lot of shipping containers. There were three cruise ships in port today, a Princess Cruise Line ship docked next to ours, Holland American's Zaandam and closer to downtown, a Celebrity Cruise line ship that was in the news this morning; the Captain was dismissed last Friday before she sailed for showing up drunk, and coming back into port with a boatload of sick passengers. Holland America processed us through in about 40 minutes and we were soon on the ship headed up to the Lido Deck (8) for lunch. The Lido Resaturant is a cafeteria style restaurant amidship that puts the ones back home to shame. Lynda opted for the cafeteria, while I just hit the burger/taco/pizza bar (Lido Bar) by the pool and we grabbed a table in the open area near the pool.

After lunch, we took the laptop down to Deck 5 (Upper Promenade) and the Explorations Café to set up our internet access and to check our email. Not cheap (100 minutes for $40) and not fast (802.11b rather than 802.11g and a slow satellite connection), so we will post pictures when we get home (or at least when we get back to Seattle and hope the Renaissance has free internet access). We also entered a raffle to win 50 minutes of internet access. They have greatly expanded and improved the Explorations Café with more Internet terminals (if you are traveling without a laptop) and more shelf space for the library, but they did loose the nice marble table with all the inlay work. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this is our second sailing on the Zaandam; we consider her our ship.

We wandered to our suite about 3 and unpacked the bags — or rather Lynda unpacked and I found hiding places for the suitcases. We next had to go to the Concierge Desk in the Atrium on Deck 4 to find out why my tux is not in the room (they said it will still be delivered, but still not here yet). Exchanged our two bottles of complimentary wine (and good Australian wine at that) for for something else; we got diet coke and bottled water for the room — yes, we managed to to turn wine into water. We then sidestepped to the Shore Excursion Counter to trade our Tongass Forest Nature Hike for the "Captain's Choice" Wildlife Quest & Beach Trek as Lynda didn't think her ankle could take the 4 mile hike through the forest. Finally, we went to the Pinnacle Grill to make our reservation for Monday Night (Glacier Bay).

Lynda then headed up to the Greenhouse Spa up on the Lido Deck to turn in an entry for free spa services and make appointments for some treatments for herself, while I went around the upper decks shooting pictures of Seattle and the Sound as we slipped anchor and sailed at 4 PM. Seattle has changed a lot since I was last here in 1980, many more skyscrapers and it seems like it has spread out more. the city is certainly busier, both on land and in the Sound.

I had to rush back down before 4:45 and grab my life jacket for the mandatory Lifeboat Drill. Thankfully, the photographer didn't take a picture of me in the bulky, ugly thing, but he did catch Lynda — who closed her eyes in the photo, so we didn't buy that one. We all stood, lined up under our lifeboat (boat 3) for about 15 minutes while the photographer snapped pictures and the crew did a roll call to make sure we were all there. We had one slightly inebriated fellow passenger next to us who provided us with some degree of entertainment. Things happen quickly onboard, so it was back to the cabin to ditch the life jacket and head aft to the Rotterdam Dining Room. Now our cabin is pretty far forward and the dining room takes up the whole stern of the ship on Decks 4 and 5, so it is almost a 2 football fields walk back and one deck down to eat. Hopefully, the added exercise will help prevent excessive weight gain better than the last cruise when we were pretty far aft and an easy stroll from the dining room.

I started off with a Fresh Fruit Medley with a minty lemon yogurt while Lynda had the Artichoke, Tomato and Crab salad for her appetizer, while I had a cold soup made of blueberries blended with creme fraiche and champagne and Lynda had a Caesar Salad. All these dishes were excellent. My entrée was the Pepper-crusted New York Sirloin Steak, with fire-roasted squash and a twice-baked potato, but the first one came out cooked only to a medium doneness, so I had to send it back and they brought me one cooked to well. Lynda tried the Lingcod and she seemed to be really enjoying it. I don't remember what Lynda had for dessert, but I had no sugar added Black Forest Cake, that if no one told you, you wouldn't know it was no sugar added. The whole meal experience was superb with plenty of excellent food and impeccable service.

The evening's entertainment was a show by some of the ship's crew in a musical review that strived to be like a show from the Vegas Strip, but was more Borsht Belt (think of the farewell show in the movie Dirty Dancing). There were two of the singers that were quite good; a young lady from Oklahoma and a guy from San Francisco who could really belt them out. We had an hour of flash and jiggle and then we watched the art auctioneer get rid of $10,000 worth of stuff in 10 minutes.

Well, it has been a long day and we are back up in the cabin preparing for bed. So far the cruise has been smooth with the water being very gentle. Tomorrow is a day at sea between Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Island and we have a full slate of things to do. See y'all later.
 

Posted: Sat - June 10, 2006 at 01:46 AM          

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