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Vacation travel day is here!  We fly out tonight from Austin to Seattle direct on Alaska Airlines.  I paid a little extra for premium which is a little extra legroom, priority boarding, and free drinks.  The tickets were still very reasonable (Booked 6 months ago).  They have meals for purchase in advance that I also thought were reasonable.  This is my first time on Alaska.  I have heard good things. 
We arrive in Seattle at 9:15pm pacific and will taxi a taxi or Lyft to the hotel.  Hopefully the flights are on time.  We were able to get our packing to 2 checked bags and 1 carry-on - not too bad considering the warmer weather clothing required.

This will also be our first cruise on a Quantum class ship. We are booked in a balcony cabin on deck 13. 
Does anyone else think its weird that Ovation has a deck 13 but the Oasis class ships don't?  I'm not a "bad luck" person so I don't care but why leave them off one class and then have them on another?
We are doing MTD on this cruise although we are going to try Wonderland because my wife wants to.  I have low expectations based on what I have read but will give it a fair chance.

I spent today packing and making sure I have lots of layers and rain gear for Alaska.  It looks like temps between 40 and 60 degrees and wet on the long-range forecast.  We don't get a lot of those kind of days here in Texas so it will be an adjustment for us.  We are trying to pack light so that we can minimize the checked bags, but we will definitely need at least one for the bulkier clothing.
Unfortunately, a lot of my cruise casual clothing has a distinctly Carribean feel to them so I will need to do a little shopping before the trip.

This will be first Alaska cruise.  My wife and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary and this is our present to each other!  I am really looking forward to seeing an area of the country that I have never been to.
We are flying in 2 days early to Seattle and staying in the Marriot Waterfront and will have a whole day to explore.

I don't know the cost of a taxi, but I would highly recommend that you try to hike out to the falls.  We did the whale watch and did a short hike to the lake near Mendenhall glacier, but I was wishing we had done one that hiked out to those falls.  It looked really worth it.

I didn't find the pier to be too bad for Uber/Lyft, it's a short shuttle ride or walk.
LAX by far is the worst ride share experience.  Don't follow the signs for shared rides, that not ride-sharing.  Take the 35 minute shuttle bus that stops every 20 feet at every terminal to the ride-sharing pick up area.  Do not go to the share ride area.  What a cluster.  

We both ordered the short ribs and they were excellent. Our waiter brought us the branzino to try and it was good, but not great.
Our waiter also brought out all 3 desserts and I liked all of them. The world is one of my favorite desserts. It's a must for any chocolate lover. The other 2 were good as well and dessert may be a compelling reason to come back Wonderland in the future.

1.  I can't speak to Taxis, but Seattle has the worst Uber/Lyft pickup system I have ever seen.
2. There is a really great french pastry place called Le Panier at Pikes Place Market.  You will be up early with the 3 hour time change and it is not busy early.  All of the place at Pikes Place have long lines by lunch.  
3.  There are lots of hills in the Pikes Place area.  Plan accordingly if you are planning to walk.  The Market itself is way higher than the waterfront area.
4.  The aquarium is not that big, but it was well done and worth it in my opinion.
5.  You could consider checking your bags on the return flight and using the port check in available onboard the ship.  It may be worth the extra cost to check your bag - there is no extra cost beyond what the airline charges.  
 
If you haven't already, you may want to look at my live blog of our cruise from a month ago.
 

I try to pack light (when flying) and will often use the laundy service on a few shirts to get me through the week.  It works well and is not as expensive as checking an extra bag on the airline.

This!  All of the doors look the same.

I try to pack light (when flying) and will often use the laundy service on a few shirts to get me through the week.  It works well and is not as expensive as checking an extra bag on the airline.

It is usually cheaper to have one person get a plan for all your devices.  A 2 device plan is cheaper than 2 one device plans.

This!  All of the doors look the same.

This!  All of the doors look the same.

I like the Suite reserved seating at the pool.  The ability to order room service is also nice.  Free drinks in the suite lounge at happy hour.  Plus a really nice room.

I like the Suite reserved seating at the pool.  The ability to order room service is also nice.  Free drinks in the suite lounge at happy hour.  Plus a really nice room.

Definitely disappointing, but is unfortunately a possibility that all of us should understand can happen for many reasons.  In most cases, you get an extra day at sea, so I would say that any replacement port is better than none.

This!  All of the doors look the same.

Definitely disappointing, but is unfortunately a possibility that all of us should understand can happen for many reasons.  In most cases, you get an extra day at sea, so I would say that any replacement port is better than none.

It is a tough ask to compare an older ship to the newest in the fleet.  I'm sorry it didn't work out.
As a suggestion for any future cruise. I always bring a sound machine (or just use my phone these days) to use on the cruise.  There are any number of things that can create noise in a cabin when trying to sleep - most are not preventable and the ship will not have extra rooms available.

Vacation travel day is here!  We fly out tonight from Austin to Seattle direct on Alaska Airlines.  I paid a little extra for premium which is a little extra legroom, priority boarding, and free drinks.  The tickets were still very reasonable (Booked 6 months ago).  They have meals for purchase in advance that I also thought were reasonable.  This is my first time on Alaska.  I have heard good things. 
We arrive in Seattle at 9:15pm pacific and will taxi a taxi or Lyft to the hotel.  Hopefully the flights are on time.  We were able to get our packing to 2 checked bags and 1 carry-on - not too bad considering the warmer weather clothing required.

It is usually cheaper to have one person get a plan for all your devices.  A 2 device plan is cheaper than 2 one device plans.

It is usually cheaper to have one person get a plan for all your devices.  A 2 device plan is cheaper than 2 one device plans.

It is usually cheaper to have one person get a plan for all your devices.  A 2 device plan is cheaper than 2 one device plans.