sprez33

Hello! First time cruiser here going to Alaska on the Encore. Have been very much looking forward to this cruise. First time cruiser but very experienced traveler. I've used TripAdvisor extensively and find the trip reports and reviews and very helpful and enjoyable so will do my best to give the day by day reports. Hopefully this will be helpful to first timers (and experienced cruisers as well). Feel free to forward questions and I'll do my best to answer. Some background. Father-son cruise with my 20 y/o. He's also a first time cruiser also. We're staying in the Haven. It will be interesting to balance our interests. I'm a total foodie (gourmet food, good wine, craft beer, third wave coffee) and he's a 'pizza and burgers' kinda guy and a teetotaller. We have plans for a glacier helitour, Skagway train ride and a float plane into the fjords. Day -1 Got our act together in terms of completing the ArriveCAN app and printing copies of all of the important documents. We both took the rapid antigen test using the eMed system. I'd used this a couple of times before to return from overseas and found it simple and efficient. I took the test and my son observed. He took it when I was done. Both went quickly and efficiently. Ready to go from a test and documents perspective. Yay! Day 0 Flew from San Diego to Seattle on Alaska Airlines. I had some credit from a cancelled flight and was able to convert it to two really cheap tickets to get both of us to Seattle. Flight was about 20 minutes late but otherwise uneventful. Easy to Uber from the airport to the hotel on a Saturday evening, no traffic. Chose to stay at the Seattle Waterfront Marriott. I have quite a bit of points in Marriott Bonvoy and was able to get a room with points (50,000) fairly easily. This is likely the most convenient hotel one could stay in for an NCL cruise as the cruise terminal is just across the street from the hotel. The hotel itself is fairly nice. Modern with spacious rooms. If you have the privilege, the M Club lounge is very nice. Overlooks the cruise ship just across the street. Tip: The area surrounding Marriott and cruise port has a lot of good restaurants. It's a very popular area and we found it essentially impossible to get a reservation at a restaurant close by at the last minute. If you want to get a good meal, make a reservation ahead of time. We wound up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was not bad. Of course, there will be no shortage of good food over the next week, lol.