Debarkation Day

We opted to sign up for the free luggage valet program offered by the port of Seattle.  Our bags were directly transferred from the ship to our Alaska Airline flight, which meant we would not see our luggage (after being left outside the stateroom the night before debarkation) until we arrived in LAX.  This program is to encourage tourists to go into town (and spend some money) as opposed to waiting in the airport.

With no packs to carry, we were free to roam the Pike Place public market for a couple of hours.

Wall street has the bull, Pike Market has the pig…

Check out that line out the door of the original Starbucks…

Here’s the famous fish toss…

 

Embarkation Day

We flew into Seattle the night before embarkation, just to make sure that we wouldn’t miss the ship in case of any flight delays.  Checked into the Paramount Hotel, which I would consider a boutique hotel, close to midnight.  This is a very basic accommodation, and good enough for an overnight stay (although I must say that they have the MOST COMFORTABLE sheets I’ve ever slept in).  It’s a couple blocks away from the Link Station and the monorail making it a convenient location.

Since we had a few hours to kill the next morning before embarkation, we decided to take the monorail to the Chihuly Glass & Garden located right next to the Seattle Space Needle.

Entry fee into the exhibit is normally $29 per person, but it’s $10 off per ticket before 10AM, so we made sure we got there early.  The exhibit is pretty amazing, and the man is talented.

Here are some of his indoor pieces…

This one is my personal favorite…

Before the Alaska trip I opted to purchase a wide angle lens thinking that I would need one for the expansive Alaskan scenery.  However, several cruise critic members stated that it wasn’t necessary, and that a zoom lens was what was needed.  I still brought my wide angle lens, because it is the perfect lens for indoor close up shots (like the one above) to get everything into the frame.  I later found out that a wide angle lens is still needed while in Alaska, as all my tour guides told me that so many people have difficulty fitting everything into their shots.

Here are the glass pieces in the garden…

We saw a few pieces in the gift shop we were tempted to purchase, but alas we didn’t…

We got back to the hotel to check out, and hailed a cab to Pier 91.  I had wanted to get to the pier at 1PM to avoid the crowd, but ended up getting there an hour earlier.  It took us about 45 minutes from curbside to topside, and we soon settled in in the Ocean View Café for lunch.