Cruising Begins!

Todd and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in September but being a teacher makes it hard to have vacations in September so here we are in June planning a big cruise with our three girls and their life partners. To say that we feel lucky to have found each other is an understatement. I often tell Todd thank you for marrying me, and he returns the sentiment. We are truly blessed ❤️ 

So off we go! We set sail today on a 7 day one way, northbound cruise to Anchorage, Alaska. We are sailing on Princess Cruise Line and we haven’t been on a cruise since our honeymoon in the Caribbean. 

We started the morning with eating all the food from our AirBnB fridge and finally learning how to use the single use Keurig coffee maker. Day 3 and we finally figured it out!

We grabbed an Uber to the port which was a short 20 minute ride and woah. There were A LOT of people downtown. The cruise ship docked at 8 in the morning and those 2,000 got off, while us and another 2,000 were getting on starting at 11am. Needless to say, the port area was packed. There were also three ships in the port all taking off for Alaska. 

We spent some time just walking around the boat. Trying to find things, learn the layout. Get our wifi working, learning how to use the group chat function on the Princess app. We finally sat down and had the lunch buffet. We won’t often eat at a buffet but for today, the lunch was a good choice. I opted for a charcuterie type lunch while others had a burger, roast beef and mashed potatoes, and even so veggies!

We checked into our rooms and began unpacking. Some of us napped - I mean vacationing can be exhausting, am I right? We took a tour of the spa and crossed our fingers on winning a raffle but in the end we walked away annoyed and not really that happy for the dudes who did win. 

Some of us grabbed drinks before dinner and sat with a water view of the ocean waves. It’s surprising how fast we seem to be moving through the water! I might have had the best margarita ever.

The 8 of us were ready for dinner which seems a bit unbelievable because I swear we just ate lunch, but here we were! Walking into the Coral Dining Room for an early bird dinner at 5:50pm. This early bird thing was smart because as we walked out over an hour later, there was a line of people waiting to get in. 

Our server was wonderful and we feasted on caesar salad, French onion soup, salmon, shrimp, and the evening’s winner for best taste was the short ribs and polenta. We ordered a medley of desserts but honestly, I should have just asked for the risotto. Yes, they will just bring you more food even though I’m sure you can guess that I certainly didn’t need any more food. 

And afterward we found a lovely little lounge that was having trivia. We got 20 questions all about food, like what nut is used to make marzipan. We got 11/20 which is a solid F. We also toyed with the app and learned how to have hot chocolates and other beverages delivered right to us anywhere on the ship. We wear these medallions which must have gps in them so this is a pretty handy feature!

And then it was 9:15pm and the sun was setting. And it was gorgeous. It wasn’t even cold on the deck and the views were stunning. We sure do feel like we are incredibly lucky people. 

While we tried to do another trivia lounge, we were also feeling a bit tired, so we began retreating to our cabins and making plans for tomorrow’s day at sea. Until then!