Day 1 of our Holland America Cruise

We woke up early in the morning to do the Premier 3 Hour Seattle City Tour. The tour guide picked us up directly from our hotel. We stayed in a private bus with about 8 other people. We got an opportunity to see Pike Market, the Space Needle, Waterfall Garden Park, Pioneer Square, and learn about the history of Seattle. This was a great way to see the city. However, we only got off the bus a few times. I enjoy the Hop On Hop Off tour buses in other cities because you can explore each site that you visit. Sometimes, I just want to go out and smell, feel, and taste the environment.

Seattle is a very interesting city. There are so many stories about discovery and entrepreneurship. Some of the biggest companies in the US started in Seattle.

After the tour, we had some lunch at Palomino. It’s an Italian restaurant near our hotel. I had the almond crusted salmon and my husband had the curry char. The food was okay, but it wasn’t a must see/eat in Seattle.

Then, we got our bags and headed to our cruise! The cruise was set to disembark at 4:00 pm. We arrived at 2:00 pm. Everybody told us that we had perfect timing because we missed the rush. Most people boarded the cruise from 12:00 - 2:00 pm, so we didn’t have to wait in long lines. We were practically done with checking in within 20 minutes. As you can see, I was excited to get onboard.

We walked on the ship, ready for adventure! We went straight to our room, cabin 5050. The room is a standard verandah. When we walked in, there was plenty of storage space to the left, a standard cruise bathroom (with a tub) to the right, and the bedroom straight ahead. The bedroom consistedof a double bed, flat screen television, and a desk. The verandah has two chairs and a small table. The room is very traditional and matches the pictures provided online.

The cruise starts off with a drill on the third floor to make sure that everyone knows what to do in case of an emergency. This drill lasted for about twenty minutes.

One of the cool aspects of the Holland America cruise line is their app. The app allowed us to have the ship itinerary, map, information, bill, and communication ability among other cruise members. Gone are the days of walking around with a schedule in our hand. It even allowed is to make a personalized itinerary to follow the items on the schedule that met our interest. It even had my booked excursions embedded in my schedule.

After relaxing in our cabin for a few hours, we went to dinner in the main dining room. At dinner, we ordered the clam chowder soup for our appetizer. My husband ordered the char with potatoes and I ordered the roasted eggplant. We weren’t too crazy about our soup, but we both liked our dinner entrees. Our servers noticed that we didn’t eat our seat, and they quickly offered to change our appetizers to meet our needs. There were several people taking care of us, so nothing goes unnoticed.

The night entertainment included music from B.B. Kings, an Avengers movie on a large screen, and a Pop Music show.

When we got back to our room, we had a nice surprise of animals made out of towels, chocolate, and the next days itinerary.

Due to the time difference, we didn’t make it pass 10:30pm. The light rocking of the ship put us to bed like a mother rocking her newborn to sleep.

Day 1 Tips:

1. Don’t board until 2 hours before the ship is going to disembark

2. Download the Holland of America App. It is such a great feature!

3. Make some new friends during the drill. This ship has so many friendly people. A smile goes a long way.

4. The Alaskan waters may be choppy. It is the choppiest during the September sailings. You can get Dramamine at guest services for free. You may also want to consider purchasing a motion sickness patch (prior to arrival) to avoid feeling sea sick.