Explorer Alaska 6/22/18 - 7 Nights RCLBlog Group Cruise!

[twangster]

T minus 2 days.

Bags packed.  Boarding pass printed.  SetSail pass printed.  Luggage tags ready.  Check, check, check and check.  I think I'm ready. 

Amazingly I don't feel like I forgotten anything, which means in about 10 hours at 35,000' I will remember exactly what I forgot.  Such is cruising.

For the flight to Seattle tomorrow I have a 6am departure.  I had plenty of choices of flight times all day but I chose 6am so I could visit something in Seattle I've always wanted but haven't been able to yet.  The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the base of the Space Needle.  I'm a sucker for blown glass so I'm looking forward to this as a pre-cruise excursion.

I'm flying with Delta, my favorite airline since I am heavily vested in it's frequent flier program.  At 13,500 Skymiles this may be the cheapest round trip flight I've booked using frequent flier miles.  A direct flight was available departing later and arriving at nearly the same time but at several thousand more miles so I chose a connection in Salt Lake City given the early time of day plus day before cruise booking.  Connections don't bother me since I've flown a bunch.  Loyalty pays - I've been upgraded to first class on both segments.  Not bad for an 'award' ticket.

My son is joining me on this cruise flying in from the East coast.  With a Friday to Friday cruise itinerary it meant an extra day of vacation for him so another day on top of that to fly in the day before was a problem.  He doesn't get that much time off at this point in his career.  He elected to fly in the day off the cruise, something I tend to avoid.  Flying from the East coast the time change is working in his favor.  Fingers crossed.

I booked my cruise through MEI Travel and added the official hotel for the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise when it was offered oh so long ago.  Time flies, it's almost cruise day!   Shout out to Jacki York at MEI Travel for proactively checking each and every sale over several months to verify I had the best price.

Our cabin on this cruise is an interior with virtual balcony.  A full balcony cabin was nearly twice the price, per person of course.  I did an Alaskan cruise last year on Celebrity with a balcony.  One Alaska lesson I learned last year was that good excursions can be pricey.  Alaska excursions are well worth the price in my opinion to experience Alaska however adding up the total cost of a vacation experience on my second Alaska cruise I chose to spend money favoring excursions that were my second choice from last year over the cabin so interior virtual balcony it is.  Basically by booking an interior cabin we got our excursions 'included' compared to the cost of booking a balcony.  

Excursions this time around:

Juneau

Skagway

(The description read much better when I booked it!)

Victoria

Booked during various sales it definitely pays to book excursions early and watch sales.  Most of them have increased in price over the months since booking.  I booked our excursions with enough time for us to self explore before or after as weather permits.  Alaska here we come!

With that it's time to close my laptop and pack it, else I might forget it in the morning at oh-dark-early when my ride arrives to carry me to the airport.

[KathyC]

Can't wait to follow along with you again!! Have an amazing trip! 

[HeWhoWaits]

You'll love Chihuly Gardens. We happened upon it as a "that looks interesting, let's check it out" activity when visiting the Space Needle. Turned out to be a real highlight of our trip.

[Todd W]

following along!   can't wait to see some of your photos from Alaska

[JLMoran]

Following! More photos to drool over and virtual experiences to enjoy while I'm stuck in drydock!

[Joe01]

Bon voyage all on the Group Cruise! I wish that I could join you as Alaska is on my list. If Ovation wasn't replacing Explorer, I would consider it for next year. 

Look forward to following along.

[Matt]

10 hours ago, twangster said:

Amazingly I don't feel like I forgotten anything, which means in about 10 hours at 35,000' I will remember exactly what I forgot. 

With this itinerary where we are primarily in the USA (and Canada), I feel like the risk of not being able to get something you forgot is mitigated when compared to a typical Caribbean cruise where you are headed to ports that do not offer a lot of the conveniences of the USA.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Can't wait for what will become a blog full of amazing pics!!!!

Have a great time with everyone!  Have I mentioned how jealous I am?!! (well, not about the cold part but cruising with everyone...)

[hayley_bopp]

Following - can't wait to see your pics and read your posts as always. Happy cruising!

[twangster]

I booked a tight connection in Salt Lake and for the first time ever my arrival gate was literally right beside my connecting departure gate.  Connection made, the flight up to Seattle was uneventful. 

We arrived at our gate at 9:38am.  After waiting for my checked bag and hailing a Lyft ($39.95) I got to the hotel at 10:45am. 

Ride sharing apps use an area of the parking garage to operate from.  After baggage claim you have to proceed up one level and across a skybridge into the garage to row "i" where there were dozens of folks waiting for their drivers.

At the hotel apparently I was the first to check in from the group and they had one room ready on the 2nd floor so I took it despite not really having a view of any sort. 

Bag dropped in my room I headed out for the 10 minute walk to the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass.

[twangster]

Chihuly Garden and Glass

I booked this as a combo with the Space Needle online the day before.  It had me select a time for the Space Needle but Chihuly was available to walk in anytime.  During the purchasing process it appeared Chihuly by itself was sold out but it was available to book as a combo for $44 plus tax. 

The two are located right next to each other.

I had printed my ticket at home and it was a simple matter of following the signs and going straight to have it scanned without needing to stop at any ticket office.

I took a lot of photos and it's been hard to narrow it down.  It's getting late and I'm tired so I just going to dump the photos in this post and give it more thought another day.

Ticket scanned you are quickly presented with your first exhibit.

There are eight interior areas and then the outdoor gardens. 

This next section is the "Sea Room".

There is the main piece in the center with smaller pieces around the outside of the room, each with intricate details.

This leads to a whimsical corridor with a number of glass pieces overhead.  There were hundreds of pieces each with intricate detail.

The next room was incredible. 

What struck me was the detail in all aspects of every piece.

This leads to the boat room with two boats filled with more pieces.

Next up is the Chandelier Room.

Following this is the Macchia Forest.

Through the indoor sections it was time to move outdoors.

There is a "Glass House" that was closed on this day for a private event.

It's been hard to narrow down the 200 photos to these which is already more than I should have added.  It's just hard to capture and present it trying to do it justice without going overboard with photos.

[twangster]

With my 2pm Space Needle reservation I had time to explore some of greater "Seattle Center" area, including the monorail station.

[Skid]

You are amazing! Pictures aren't too shabby either! Have a fabulous trip. What a great way to spend time with your son. Lifetime memories about to be made!

[twangster]

I grabbed some lunch and headed back for my turn at the Space Needle.  It was about an hour in line snaking slowly up towards the elevator for the rise top the top.  There is a security checkpoint you have to walk through but I had no issues with anything I had with me. 

This is the area near the elevators where I finally made it to after crawling along, inch by inch waiting for the one elevator to carry guests up and down to the top.

Just prior to this point is a photo station.  The photo is free to download.  They take your picture against a gray background and later, in the gift shop you can choose one of six backdrops and have a link emailed to you to access your photo.  This is included at no additional charge.

Built in 1961 the building and elevator appear to be set in this era.  It took just 400 days to building the Space Needle.  They are renovating the upper observation deck, replacing wire 'cage' with glass panels for a better view.  It's under construction now but mostly complete.

Here is the elevator ride up and down.

They have set up a display to compare the old caged feel versus the new glass panels they are installing.  There used to be a knee wall where now the glass extends down to the floor for a much more open feeling with great views.

The inside is being renovated as well. This is the line waiting to go back down. Not nearly as long a wait as it was going up.

I'm very glad I did both Chihuly Glass and the Space Needle but I would choose an earlier reservation next time.  The crowds seemed to be growing bigger as the afternoon progressed.

[twangster]

After walking back to the hotel I had just under an hour to prepare for the first Royal Caribbean Blog Alaska Group Cruise event - a 5pm meet up that included pizza.

Here I met several familiar online names and avatars but was able to put real names and faces to them.  

[CraftyCat05]

Enjoy the group cruise! Hope the gold rush tour is still as good as it sounded when you booked it. Definitely following.

[KLA]

Enjoy the group cruise! Following along here but really wish I could have joined in. One of these days my plans to attend an RC Blog GC will actually work out! 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Loving the blog, pics, and scopes so far!  Keep them coming!  Enjoy this time with everyone and especially your son 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Wow !  Those flowers looked so real.  You'd never think they were glass.

[Boston Babe]

Following and I hope you have a fantastic time!!

[twangster]

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!!

Visions of going out last night to take some night photos around Seattle had briefly danced in my head but the sleep deficit from getting up for a 6am flight had other plans and to bed I went.

I've been assigned to bus#2 leaving the hotel at 10:00am for the transfer arranged with the group cruise.    I just checked my son's flight and they are projecting an hour early arrival.  He might actually beat me to the port!

With nearly 3 hours to kill I've already had a bite at the hotel breakfast and re-packed my bags.  Tick, tock, tick, tock.

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, KLAconQueso said:

Enjoy the group cruise! Following along here but really wish I could have joined in. One of these days my plans to attend an RC Blog GC will actually work out! 

I thought you were planning to go on the Anthem GC?  One of these days I need to go on one too!  They look like so much fun!

[HeWhoWaits]

The Chihuly photos brought back some great memories. A couple reminded me of pictures I took (like the reflection of the Space Needle in the glass orb).

[KLA]

27 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I thought you were planning to go on the Anthem GC?  One of these days I need to go on one too!  They look like so much fun!

I was dead set on booking it and going - and then life happened. 

Actually the same story with the B2B Mariner GC in March, too. I have a family event over the 3 nighter, and I'm not totally sure I can pull off the 4 nighter but it's unlikely.

[cruiselife]

9 hours ago, twangster said:

It's been hard to narrow down the 200 photos to these which is already more than I should have added.  It's just hard to capture and present it trying to do it justice without going overboard with photos.

There is no such thing as too many @twangster live blog photos...

[JLMoran]

Absolutely gorgeous photos of the glass museum, @twangster! Really wishing I could be on that trip with all of you, or any GC that's coming up, but as with @KLAconQueso I've got life getting in my way for the foreseeable future. Maybe in 2020, if I don't have something else booked by the time Matt announces the group cruises for that year...

[Traveler]

Enjoy the cruise , as always will follow 

[crzycatldy5]

Chihuly is my favorite artist. I look forward to going there after the cruise.

[crzycatldy5]

And I can confirm that Twangster is not a robot. He is a nice human.

[WAAAYTOOO]

43 minutes ago, crzycatldy5 said:

And I can confirm that Twangster is not a robot. He is a nice human.

You must be an evil bot, too.  They always stick up for each other !

[twangster]

Embarkation was pretty painless and quick.  Brief wait before boarding started.  All in all pretty smooth.   Pics and details to come.  

[mom2mybugs]

Enjoying the pics.  The glass museum was my favorite thing i did in seattle after the traveling muppet exhibit at the pop museum.   The lighting on ther glass was just beautiful.   Thanks for taking me back!  Jane

[iluvwineandtravel]

On 6/21/2018 at 1:00 AM, twangster said:

T minus 2 days.

Bags packed.  Boarding pass printed.  SetSail pass printed.  Luggage tags ready.  Check, check, check and check.  I think I'm ready. 

Amazingly I don't feel like I forgotten anything, which means in about 10 hours at 35,000' I will remember exactly what I forgot.  Such is cruising.

For the flight to Seattle tomorrow I have a 6am departure.  I had plenty of choices of flight times all day but I chose 6am so I could visit something in Seattle I've always wanted but haven't been able to yet.  The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the base of the Space Needle.  I'm a sucker for blown glass so I'm looking forward to this as a pre-cruise excursion.

I'm flying with Delta, my favorite airline since I am heavily vested in it's frequent flier program.  At 13,500 Skymiles this may be the cheapest round trip flight I've booked using frequent flier miles.  A direct flight was available departing later and arriving at nearly the same time but at several thousand more miles so I chose a connection in Salt Lake City given the early time of day plus day before cruise booking.  Connections don't bother me since I've flown a bunch.  Loyalty pays - I've been upgraded to first class on both segments.  Not bad for an 'award' ticket.

My son is joining me on this cruise flying in from the East coast.  With a Friday to Friday cruise itinerary it meant an extra day of vacation for him so another day on top of that to fly in the day before was a problem.  He doesn't get that much time off at this point in his career.  He elected to fly in the day off the cruise, something I tend to avoid.  Flying from the East coast the time change is working in his favor.  Fingers crossed.

I booked my cruise through MEI Travel and added the official hotel for the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise when it was offered oh so long ago.  Time flies, it's almost cruise day!   Shout out to Jacki York at MEI Travel for proactively checking each and every sale over several months to verify I had the best price.

Our cabin on this cruise is an interior with virtual balcony.  A full balcony cabin was nearly twice the price, per person of course.  I did an Alaskan cruise last year on Celebrity with a balcony.  One Alaska lesson I learned last year was that good excursions can be pricey.  Alaska excursions are well worth the price in my opinion to experience Alaska however adding up the total cost of a vacation experience on my second Alaska cruise I chose to spend money favoring excursions that were my second choice from last year over the cabin so interior virtual balcony it is.  Basically by booking an interior cabin we got our excursions 'included' compared to the cost of booking a balcony.  

Excursions this time around:

Juneau

Skagway

(The description read much better when I booked it!)

Victoria

Booked during various sales it definitely pays to book excursions early and watch sales.  Most of them have increased in price over the months since booking.  I booked our excursions with enough time for us to self explore before or after as weather permits.  Alaska here we come!

With that it's time to close my laptop and pack it, else I might forget it in the morning at oh-dark-early when my ride arrives to carry me to the airport.

You will love the photo safari.  I did it in 2012, and it is one of my favorite excursions ever! 

[twangster]

Day 1 - Seattle

In the "things that make you go hmmm..." department, I noted the hotel ironing board was behind the cross bar to hang clothes on.  You can't stand in front of it pass it under the bar (it hits your feet).  It can't go over the bar (it hits the ceiling).  Hmmm.

Finally it's time to head down to the shuttle arranged by MEI Travel for the Group Cruise.  On my way down the hotel hallway I passed a room and saw some luggage in the hallway with ship tags on them.  Mind you this is the hotel before the cruise. 

I hope those people didn't leave thinking that just like on the last night aboard you put your luggage out in the hall and it is magically collected for you.

[Lovetocruise2002]

7 minutes ago, twangster said:

Day 1 - Seattle

I hope those people didn't leave thinking that just like on the last night aboard you put your luggage out in the hall and it is magically collected for you.

 

That or they have the wrong cruise line.  DCL actually does do that for you if you stay at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando Airport (but you leave your luggage inside the room).

[twangster]

Port of Seattle

We arrived with quite a few other cars at 10:15am.  It was pretty busy with two ships worth of passengers arriving.  The terminal is used for both ships, Explorer on the left, Celebrity Solstice on the right. 

Typical boarding day routine.  Show your passport and SetSail pass, go through security, show them again, find your line and check in.  Suites/Pinnacle had a clearly marked entrance.  Despite the passengers streaming in it was all very fast and efficient.  No time to take any pictures before checking in.  No line, walked right up to an awaiting agent who took my photo and gave me my SeaPass card. 

The typical medical questionnaire was done verbally.  Have you been sick, had a fever, etc.    Check in complete in record time it was off to the waiting area.  There was no separate waiting areas based on C&A levels.

This area is shared with the other ship and it was cozy.

Typical stands set up to punch your card and sell you a lanyard.

Fortunately they soon opened the doors to the ship and off we went.  Boarding started around 10:40am.

Best of all I beat @Matt !  (I had an unfair advantage, no kids with me)

[twangster]

My son had landed while I was still at the hotel with his flight arriving early.  He pulled into the port just after boarding started and he reported no lines, no people, never stopping, just a super easy check in and walk out to the ship.  I had done a quick scope and just made it up to the pool deck when he boarded. 

To put the pier area in perspective, here is Seattle and the Space Needle from the ship.

Celebrity Solstice beside us.  At 1pm when I took this photo the cars in the arrival area where minimal.  The gray building is the terminal.  The corner closest is where Explorer guests entered and the corner furthest is where Solstice guests entered.  The drop area is shared so have your luggage tags on and make sure to ask the porter which ship their cart is for.

All in all a very easy embarkation.

[twangster]

Cabin Tour!

Interior Virtual Balcony, Cabin 9601

[twangster]

Group Cruise Lava Flow Meet Up!

Viking Crown Lounge

Here is Matt scoping as the bartender prepares one of many batches of Kraken Lava Flows.

This would be our second and third lava flow having introduced my son to them shortly after he arrived.  Yum.

[twangster]

Muster complete sail away with the Solstice starting first and soon after we followed. 

Great views of downtown in the distance as we pulled out and turned into the harbor.

Matt was... scoping of course!  That's him at the railing with his iPad surrounded by several members of the Royal Caribbean Blog team.

Some fellow blog readers approached me with an issue they were having with their travel router.  They invited me back to their cabin to take a quick look.  The deck 12 panorama suite tour they offered was too good to pass up.

What an incredible view forward!

That complete my son and I decided to do the Windjammer for dinner.  It was empty and we had our choice of aft view seating.

 

I decided we should check out the Peak-a-boo bridge where you can look down into the bridge.

Just off Port Angeles we started a distinct turn back in the direction we had come from.  I thought maybe there was a medical situation but it turns out our harbor pilot was getting off the ship.  They turned the ship to give the pilot boat shelter from the wind to make it safer to approach and pick up the pilot.  By this point we had overtaken the Solstice as we have further to go and were running faster to get there.  If you look close you see the pilot boat waiting for the Solstice to approach and drop off her pilot as well.