Alaska, 2006
(or Northern Exposure)
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June 18, 2006 (Sunday)
The two of us woke up at 7:00 this morning. Although I've been this far west before (San Francisco in 2000), I've never been in the Pacific Northwest region of the country. Seattle seems like a nice enough town. It was founded in 1851 when settlers landed at Alki Point and named after the Native American chieftain who befriended the settlers. Chief Seattle's tribal alliance later handed over Puget Sound to the U.S. government in the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. The town had grown to a little over 3,000 people by 1880; a population boom saw the town swell to more than 230,000 after the turn of the century. Part of that growth was the Port of Seattle, which in the early 20th century was second only to New York City among the nation's busiest ports. The current port is still among the 20 largest container ports in the world and is the leading U.S. port in container tonnage exports to Asia.
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It turns out that the Holiday Inn we were staying at was less than a mile from the Space Needle. We met Cindi, Joel, and Mollie for breakfast at the Emerald Grill, and then we all decided to head into downtown Seattle since we had the morning to kill until we left for the cruise ship. The Seattle Center is actually a collection of attractions; the Space Needle is simply the most visible part of it. Nearby, we found the Museum of Science Fiction, the Children's Museum, the Pacific Science Center, Fun Forest Amusement Park, and a bunch of souvenir shops (I bought an obligatory shot glass to join the unofficial collection at home). Joel and Mollie wanted to go up top on the Space Needle. Helene and Cindi aren't particularly keen on heights, and I didn't feel like spending $14 to get in line for an elevator, so we all hung out around the park and the Needle's gift shop while we waited for them to return.
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Once Joel and Mollie had come back down, Helene and I parted with the Christiansens to take a walk along the water. We stopped by the P-Patch, which is a garden plot co-op there in the city where individuals tend to plots of different plants. On the way back to the hotel, I discovered that Seattle has a gradient slope on par with San Francisco in this area. The walk up Wall Street for the first three blocks was by no means a trivial incline, and walking uphill took a bit more effort than I cared to exert for a Sunday morning. We made it back to the Holiday Inn at 10:30 and commenced repacking and regrouping. We're just waiting now for the Shuttle Express to swing by and get us.
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The shuttle van got us at 11:40. By 12:05, we arrived at the Port of Seattle, where the Sun Princess jutted up 14 stories from the water. She's nearly three football fields long and weighs over 77 tons. And as we pulled up, there was a line of people nearly as long as the ship winding around the terminal building. We humped our luggage train to the back and waited our turn. We've just made it into the check-in line; we're in the lane marked "Express Check-In," which has to qualify as some cruel kind of joke. Have to fill out some forms now, so I'm temporarily turning off the journaling.
Aboard Ship
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We managed to survive the check-in process and security. We were assigned stateroom D617 on Deck 8; Dan was a little miffed because the travel agent apparently misled him regarding the availability of cabin upgrades. The stateroom is cozy, and like every ship, it's a minor miracle of space conservation and maximized storage. I discovered on the way in that we were lodged insidiously near the casino (more on that throughout this journal). We also discovered a lovely view of the aft starboard lifeboat just beyond our window. At least we could see out of half the window; both Dan and June's cabin and Judi and Steve's were completely blocked by the lifeboats. The Princess Cruises website makes mention of obstructed viewing, but I'm not sure the travel agent did....
We had the first buffet lunch of many once we had seen our stateroom. The family met for lunch at the Horizon Cafe on Deck 14. Before leaving port, all passengers had to do an emergency muster at 3:15, where we were introduced to our friend, the lifejacket. No mention of body suits. Our entertainment director, Lliam, ran the safety drill presentation. It is simply amazing how big this ship is and what it takes to operate it. The ship has 900 crew members, and its roster is overwhelmingly international. I don't think I've heard the same accent twice since getting on board, surprising for such a thoroughly American cruise.
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We went topside around 4:00 or so to watch from the deck as the ship left the harbor. The boat slipped its moorings and began pulling away at approximately 4:20. Helene, June, and I stood by the ship's bow rail as she came about and steamed into the Puget Sound. Along the way, I snapped shots of Helene and June; the Seattle skyline; two Coast Guard icebreakers, the Healy (WAGB-20) and the Polar Star (WAGB-10); and the Holland America liner Westerdam as it passed us by. As the Sun Princess picked up steam and headed away from land, the increased breeze across the upper decks changed our minds about staying outside.
Helene and I decided instead to check out the atrium shops on Deck 6, Latitudes (duty-free) and Reflections (jewelry). While in Latitudes, I arrived at two conclusions:
- My wife will not be appeased until I buy some form of [expletive deleted] jacket for myself. I left the windbreaker I'd planned to bring back in Glenview and hadn't realized it until we fully unpacked today.
- There's a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label in here with my name on it for the duty-free price of $130.95. Regular price: between $180 and $240 U.S. retail.
We sat with the Goodes in Verdi's, the upscale pizzeria amidships, where I sampled a delicious Raspberry Fizz. From there, Helene and I went back to the stateroom to change for the 7:00 show at the Princess Theatre and dinner at 8:00 p.m. At the moment, I'm sitting in the theatre a few minutes before showtime beside my wife and sipping a well-made Bombay Sapphire martini while thinking about a nice game of Blackjack or Caribbean Stud—in other words, life is pretty good. Oops, the house lights are going down now, so more later....
Well, the show started out bad but finished strong. I wasn't terribly impressed with the initial vocalist, but the band was tight and the featured performer, a musician/comedian by the name of Duncan Tuck, was quite funny. He ended his performance with a great Malagueña rendition. We went from there to the Regency dining room for our 8:00 seating. Our waitress for the voyage was Lilliana. I had a ham with cranberry gravy that was delicious; the portions at dinner are more European, for which I'm thankful when eating this late.
Helene and I left the family after dinner and took a walk along the deck. For the uninitiated, the definition of "brisk" is adding a gentle 10 mph breeze to the headwind generated from steaming straight into it at a 20-knot clip. We ducked inside after encountering gale-force brisk on the Promenade deck. At that point, we headed into the casino, where I purchased $200 in chips. Then I found a seat at the Blackjack table beside a nice Taiwanese man and set to work. Helene got bored after a few hands and retired for the night. That left me locked in with a group of friendlies, at which point I promptly went about losing my $200.
I'd like to point out for the first time (but unfortunately not the last) that desperation is still the worst possible motive for betting $25 chips at a $5 table. After losing $50 on a split that bit me squarely on the ass, I found myself down to my last $30 in chips. I went conservative after that, battling back to a point where I could comfortably start playing the 1-3-2-6 betting system again. By 12:50 a.m., not only had I made back my bankroll, I was up $195. Much of that, admittedly, had to do with my last hand. Everyone else had left, I was already up, and I took all my remaining $5 and $2.50 chips and slapped them down on the table (it came to a $57.50 bet). I got dealt an 18, and the dealer drew to 22.
I cashed in my chips feeling less lucky than good and got back to the stateroom by 1:00 a.m. to fall asleep. The rocking of the waves was gentle; the occasional clatter of the lifeboat against its davits was the only detraction.
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