I know many folks who have been on cruises. Mom and Dad have made it an annual tradition, racking up some impressive stats on number of countries visited and number of international friends made. I don’t think anyone has ever told me they didn’t enjoy their cruise experience, but for one reason or another I never seemed to get around to doing it.
Well, we offered Kyra a “graduation gift” of a trip, and she chose Hawai’i. Naturally we had to make the same offer to Alex and Kaitlyn as they finished their time in school. They quickly decided an Alaskan cruise would be a proper celebration. After talking about it, they said it would most likely need to happen “sometime next year” (meaning 2024) because Alex was going to start a summer internship and then move on to a full-time job, and both of those things bring a lot of unknowns. They weren’t sure when they’d be able to block out a full week for a cruise. We agreed, and figured we’d take some time to plan it later this year.
Then Kaitlyn called to tell us she’d found a good deal on a cruise in three weeks and asked if we could jump on it. The timing was actually perfect: she and Alex would have graduated, but his internship wouldn’t start for another couple of weeks. We made the arrangements, and went on a hastily-planned adventure. (Which is pretty much how our Hawai’i trip went too…)
We flew to Seattle yesterday and had a grand time exploring the city and hanging out with Julian. Today it was time to get on the big boat.
And I mean big. Holy cow these cruise ships are mammoth. When we arrived at the dock, my camera couldn’t even capture the full size of the ship once we were in line. You can just see deck upon deck of staterooms.
Kaitlyn, who’s been on many cruises over the years (It’s the way her family travels), informed us that the Royal Princess is a “medium-sized ship”. It carries about 3,700 passengers and 1,300 crew. Talk about a floating city!
Once we embarked (look at me, using the cruise lingo) we dropped our stuff in our stateroom and explored. The top deck was littered with pools, hot tubs, deck chairs, tables, and of course eating spots.
After our 3,700 co-cruisers had all boarded, we slowly backed out of the port. Yes, backed out. That was interesting to see. Here we are on the top deck, with the Seattle skyline behind us:
We watched the ship navigate the inlet for a while, but the excitement wore off pretty quickly and we decided it was time to eat. If there’s one common thread in all the comments I’ve heard about cruise ships, it’s how the food is amazing. And indeed it was. We snapped a few pictures at the fancy restaurant as we tucked into our dinner.
After a leisurely meal and some more exploring, we went to hang out in their cabin. We’d bought a mini-suite for the two of them, because we knew we’d be spending time together and wanted some space. It had a king-sized bed, couch, desk, small table, full bath and shower, and a massive balcony looking fore. Super swanky.
Compare that with our interior stateroom. No windows, a queen bed with narrow walking areas on each side, and a bathroom whose shower was barely larger than me.
I’m not complaining, because all we did in our stateroom was sleep and shower. It wasn’t necessary to spend the coin on something bigger; we just hung out in their room.
So we’re off to bed and ready for a “fun day at sea” (as the cruise lines say) tomorrow…