We are getting ready to leave for a 30 day trip centered around cruises onboard both the Quantum of the Seas and the Ovation of the Seas. I plan to post about the trip as often as possible, and as close to live as possible. Spotty Internet coverage may limit how often I can post, but I’ll try. No promises that I won’t disappear for a few days.
I am Bob and my wife is Micheline. We are retired and live on Amelia Island in NE Florida, near Jacksonville. We’ve been on 13 cruises before so we’re not newbies, but also not the multiple cruises a year types either. We’re Diamond on Royal and will turn D+ after our first cruise on this trip. That will be important for both drinks and laundry on the second cruise. More to come on that. We travel from Jacksonville to Seattle tomorrow...Delta via Atlanta (of course).
We’ll spend a couple of days in Seattle, staying at the Mayflower Park Hotel and doing many of the typical touristy things. I've been there a few times on business trips but it will be Micheline's first visit. We’ll then board Quantum of the Seas on September 19 for a 7-night Alaska cruise. This will be our first Alaska cruise and I’ve yet to meet ANYONE who’s done an Alaska cruise before and didn’t have great things to say. It will also be our first cruise on a Quantum Class ship.
The itinerary originally included a stop at Icy Strait Point and an early morning cruise up Endicott Arm to see Dawes Glacier. Because of current problems with Quantum’s engines that limits her speed, ISP was replaced with Ketchikan and Endicott Arm/Dawes Glacier was dropped. No problem, we’ll have a great cruise anyway. When the ship returns to Seattle, we’ll make our way up to Vancouver.
We’ll spend 4 days in Vancouver. We’ll stay at the Pan Pacific Hotel right above the cruise port. Lots to see and do in Vancouver. I've also been to Vancouver on business and again, first time for Micheline. We board Ovation on September 30 for the first half of her reposition from Alaska to Australia, stopping in Hawaii.
This will be our first ocean crossing with so many days at sea. I'm not sure if we will be totally relaxed or bored to tears. I'm guessing the former. We'll find out.
We’ll disembark in Hawaii after 9 nights and head to Kauai. We’ll spend 5 nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa.
We love Maui and Oahu but have never been to Kauai before. We'll spend 5 short days on Kauai and pack in as much as we can...beaches, waterfalls, canyons, boats, helicopters. After 5 nights, we’ll reluctantly board a Delta flight from Honolulu back to Jacksonville.
I’ll talk more about our specific plans at each location as we get closer to actually being there. Covid testing you ask? Yeah, that’s still a thing for us because…Canada (hello to my Canadian friends 😊). We’ll be doing eMed testing in Seattle and in Vancouver before boarding the ships. My worst nightmare is getting Covid during our Alaska cruise and testing positive in Vancouver such that we can’t board Ovation to Hawaii. That would REALLY suck. Insurance would cover the costs but missing out on the rest of this trip would be extremely depressing. Let’s hope for the power of positive thinking, and social distancing where possible.
More to come...
Looks like another beautiful day in Seattle today. Sail away should be 72 and sunny. We’ll leave for the pier at 10:30. Dinner last night was at Umi Sake House. The food was very good. Sorry, forgot to take pictures. It wasn’t really our vibe though. It’s in the Belltown area of Seattle which is a hip part of town. The restaurant was young and hip. I don’t think there was anyone else there older than 40. Lots of talking and laughing means a high energy place but also very loud. I see why it gets such good reviews…just not our style.
