Alaska Adventures: Setting Sail

After receiving the tragic news of Bethany’s brother Rocky, we decided after a lot of discussion and consideration that Rocky would have wanted us to continue this adventure, so we moved forward with our cruise.  We departed our Seattle apartment and took a cab out to pier 91, housing our cruise ship: the Star Princess.  This ship has 16 decks and carriers 2900 guests + a staff and crew of 1,400.

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This is actually my second cruise. I did take one with my school band back in high school, but that was a three-day trip on a smaller cruise ship. This is my first time out at sea for a week, as well as my first time spending time on the Pacific Ocean (although we’re spending most of our time on the Inside Passage of Alaska, which has more sea-like calm waters for most of the way.  Before setting sail, I was pretty nervous about spending this much time on the water.  Back during our honeymoon, we went on a dinner cruise where I spent the majority of the time avoiding sea sickness.  I even managed to feel queasy when I went sea kayaking on the weekend of Rachel & Ken’s wedding.  However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised about the smoothness of this journey, and how good I’ve felt without taking any kind of medicine.

We departed at 4pm on Sunday, the third ship to leave port at approximately the same time.  I got a cool shot of the other ships pulling out of the harbor while we waited.

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We were treated to some great views of the Seattle skyline as we departed, and you can see the Space Needle over Bethany and her dad, Jim as we were embarking on our journey.

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As we were heading out of Seattle, the ship sailed alongside many sail boats out for some fun.  It was neat seeing the steady stream of boats sail by as we headed northward.

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Sunday and Monday were spent at sea, where we spent much of our team eating, exploring the ship, relaxing, sharing stories and sitting in the hot tub (I did also manage to get a work out in).  Trust me – it’s better that there aren’t a lot of pictures of me doing those activities.   There weren’t a lot of photographic opportunities in our first days on the boat, but we were treated to our first “formal night” on the cruise on Monday – where people are asked to wear tuxes, suits or formal dresses (I guess a pants suit was acceptable).  During the course of the evening, we were treated to a champagne waterfall on the promenade.

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Bethany also celebrated a birthday on July 29th, so the cruise staff treated her to a cake and a song during our formal dinner.

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We wrapped up our first night trying to watch Man on the Ledge “Under the Stars” up on the open deck, but grew too tired and turned in – thus concluding our first full day at sea.

Next Up: Arriving in “Alaska’s first city”.