Alaska - Day 1

I’m baaaaccckkk!

The trip was fantastic with many highlights. As not to have a ridiculous blog detailing the whole trip, I’ll do separate entries and keep it light!

Day 1- Traveling to Vancouver
The ship was to leave from Vancouver and sail north through Alaska to our final stop, Seward. I picked Jim up from work around 4:30 and we went to the airport to head to Seattle where we had a 14 hour lay-over. For the umpteenth time I over-packed our suitcases and had to do the annoying task of switching items back and forth between suitcases in order to avoid the $25 fee for having luggage weighing more than 50lbs.

We flew out after a 1 hour delay and spent the night in a horrible h(m)otel that was so bad it didn’t even have an alarm clock. This prompted J and my agreement that we will no longer stay at low-budget places and will always go the Marriott or equivalent route even for the briefest stays. Even I'll agree that my efforts to save money went way overboard in this case.

We left at 9:30am and arrived in Vancouver around 10:30am. We boarded the Radiance of the Seas around 12:30. The boat was 13 decks and had an indoor and an outdoor pool, rock climbing wall, restaurants, a dozen bars, a dance club, casino, movie theatre and a large auditorium. Our group met us around 4:30 and we sailed around 5:30.

On the trip were the following folks:
Dave – friend of Jim’s from P&G/softball
Rachel- Dave’s fiancée and kindergarten teacher
My parents and brothers
Lindsay- my brother Mike’s girlfriend
My Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary & cousins Bryan and Jonathan
Chuck- friend of Karen’s
Kristi- Chuck’s wife
Dale- one of Jim’s groomsmen (P&G friend)
Jim & I

We had dinner together and had a funny and talkative waiter, Juan from Chile, taking care of us. I don’t remember what we did besides hang out that night and detox from a long day of traveling but I’m sure we had fun doing it. :)

Our cabin was on the inside of the ship so we didn’t have a window (like Chuck/Kristi) or a balcony (like Dave/Rachel). Made sleeping very easy in the pitch black. The room was about 10X12 and had a king-sized bed, desk couch and a little bathroom at the front of the room. Strangely, there was, in my opinion, lots of storage area to unpack and keep stuff. My immediate family, Dale, Chuck and Kristi all stayed on the 3rd floor which was very convenient because the dining room was only 1 flight upstairs and the main lounge we hung out in as well as the theatre/casino were all on the 6th floor – not a big deal to walk downstairs from. Buffet dining was on floor 11, as was the pool. I'll tell you more about the ship as I go through our days!

Up next- sailing the coast of Canada!