LIVE - Legendary Alaska - 28 days with The Inside Cabin - Westerdam

[The-Inside-Cabin]

LEGENDARY ALASKA – 28 DAYS IN THE LAST FRONTIER – NORTH TO THE FUTURE!

JUNE 9, 2024

Click "Show More Posts" to show all the links to the other posts for the 2024 Legendary Alaska

We board the ms Westerdam in Seattle, heading for Alaska and the Arctic Circle.

NORTH TO THE FUTURE!

Our first cruise to Alaska was also our first cruise: seven days on the Dawn Princess from Seward to Vancouver in 1998. Remember when seven days seemed like a long cruise? Seventeen years later, in 2015, we cruised for seven days from Seward to Vancouver on the Oosterdam.

We look forward to boarding the Westerdam in Seattle tomorrow for the 28-day Legendary Alaska cruise. This will be our first cruise from Seattle. The last time I left Seattle on a ship was in 1991 on the USS Midway, heading to San Diego. I definitely had an inside cabin on that “cruise.”

You can find a detailed itinerary and cruise map HERE and HERE

LEGENDARY VOYAGE

This is our first Legendary Voyage. Legendary Voyages last 25-59 days and are generally round trip from a USA port. They offer more activities and enrichment events than a standard cruise.

Here is the flyer we received for the Legendary Alaska. This is the standard Legendary Voyage flyer, not specific to our cruise.

SAN DIEGO TO SEATTLE

Flying to Seattle from San Diego takes 3 hours. When we head to Fort Lauderdale, we usually end up on the redeye and a case of jet lag, so a flight with an early afternoon departure in the same time zone was a treat. Our cruise leaves Sunday, and we arrived Friday evening, giving us a full day to settle and with some buffer for contingencies.

Mt Rainier from the SEATAC taxiway Packing light – natch. Six checked bags with two carryons. Down from the 13 we took on the World Cruise

 

PRE CRUISE HOTEL

We stayed at the Doubletree Suites Southcenter, near the airport. There is also a Doubletree by Hilton that is closer to the airport. While waiting for the hotel shuttle, ensure you don’t get on the wrong Doubletree bus.

Our shuttle bus was dispatched on demand – so be sure to call and don’t assume the bus will appear automatically.

This is the Doubletree Southcenter shuttle – there was a small sign in the window with the hotel’s name.

 

This hotel is in a good location if you don’t plan to sightsee in the city before the cruise as it’s twelve miles to downtown. The large Westfield Mall Southcenter is across the street, with dozens of restaurants and shops. McDonald’s, Starbucks and Target are nearby. There is also an Amazon Locker around the corner at The Dollar Tree if you forget anything that you want to get before the cruise.

The hotel offers a buffer breakfast, which was OK and included in our room rate. Room service and fast Wi-Fi are also available.

The Doubletree is known for Chocolate Chip cookies – they will give you warmed cookies when you check-in.

 

WESTFIELD MALL

This afternoon we explored the Westfield Mall. We rarely go to malls anymore so exploring the latest retail shops was interesting. Duke’s Seafood was very nice for dinner, and I highly recommend it.

We checked out the movie theater and realized that we couldn’t name a single movie playing. Years ago, we would have known them all.

Here is the current movie list – how many could you name?

• Bad Boys: Ride or Die
  The Watchers
  The Garfield Movie
  IF
  Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
  Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
  The Strangers: Chapter 1
  The Fall Guy
  Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle
  In a Violent Nature
  Ezra
  Challengers
  The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  The Secret World of Arrietty
  Young Woman and the Sea
  Babes
  I Saw the TV Glow
  Manamey
  Hovering Blade

Outside the food court was the MOUNT RAINIER VIEWPOINT – Check it out! The view was a little better if you went way off to the left There were 50 people in line for Jollibee – you will remember seeing these on your travels to the Philippines. Known for its burgers, fried chicken, spaghetti & Filipino dishes.

 

TOMORROWS FORECAST

We reserved a pickup using the Seattle Express, and they will pick us up at 10:30 am tomorrow, June 9th, and take us to Pier 91.  Check-in is advertised as starting at Noon, with our departure scheduled for 3 pm. Per the regulations, everyone has to be on board 90 minutes before departure or 1:30 pm. That means they will process and board 1900 guests in 90 minutes – Good Luck! I think a 3 pm departure is pretty optimistic – we’ll see. I’ll take the OVER on this one, as they say in Vegas.

[cunnorl]

Thanks for taking us along again! I am looking forward to following along on this amazing journey. 
  Be safe and enjoy! 

[1ANGELCAT]

Bon Voyage, this sounds like an amazing voyage. Have fun with @RuthCand @scluvsrain.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Have a great cruise..

[Sea Viewer]

Looking forward to following you on this cruise. Probably won't need to use Google translate this trip.

M

 

[Travelexpert35]

Have a great cruise. I’m looking forward to following along. A friend of mine from Victoria is on this voyage as well. 

[dchip]

BON Voyage!!! This should be a great cruise.
 

In 2019, we took the Maasdam from San Francisco to Alaska. It was a 21 day cruise and we stopped at many of the ports you will be visiting. It was our favorite Alaskan cruise out of 6.
 

Enjoy we will be following along. 
Denise and Howie, too

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Nice summary of the cruise HERE     H/T to @Roger-VW

[Hogladyrider]

So glad you are doing this Pete!  You provide such amazing and helpful information!

 

Have a FANTASTIC time, I know you will!  

 

Your wrap up on the World Cruise was spot on!

[travelnap]

Looking forward to following along with you again.

[SDARCH]

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences.  We booked two upcoming cruises without knowing they are "Legendary".  June 2025 Arctic Circle RT out of Rotterdam and 2026 Hawaii/Tahiti RT out of San Diego.

Not at all interested in the dress up/party events, but the other enhancements sound awesome.

The longest cruise we have taken was 17 days...so a 28 and 35 cruise is an exciting next step for us.

[Cruising-along]

I am so glad you're doing this!  We're booked on the '25 Alaska 28 days and I can't wait to see your thoughts and updates! 

[SilvertoGold]

Phenomenal post, Pete.

 Paring down the luggage must have been fun?  This could be the start of a trend! 

 Have a wonderful time and thanks for taking the time to post for this cruise!

Edited June 9 by SilvertoGold

[The-Inside-Cabin]

1 hour ago, SDARCH said:

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences.  We booked two upcoming cruises without knowing they are "Legendary".  June 2025 Arctic Circle RT out of Rotterdam and 2026 Hawaii/Tahiti RT out of San Diego.

Not at all interested in the dress up/party events, but the other enhancements sound awesome.

The longest cruise we have taken was 17 days...so a 28 and 35 cruise is an exciting next step for us.

Your first 4 week cruise seems crazy long.      After a world we now think - only 28 days!

Edited June 9 by The-Inside-Cabin

[The-Inside-Cabin]

24 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

Phenomenal post, Pete.

 Paring down the luggage must have been fun?  This could be the start of a trend! 

 Have a wonderful time and thanks for taking the time to post for this cruise!

50pct drop cruise to cruise!!!!

[The-Inside-Cabin]

On our way to Pier 91.  Seattle express arrived in a bus branded Beeline Tours.   Bus arrived hotel 10:39.   We left at 10:54.    Scheduled departure time was 10:45. 
 

 

 

Edited June 9 by The-Inside-Cabin

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Looking forward to following along, I will be checking your menus daily in the Navigator App to see how different they will be from what has been the normal 7 day cruise. So far tonight's evening meal looks the same  with maybe just 2 items different and Lido lunch has a different Carvery Board but they still have the Peanut Butter Silk Pie 😁

Bon Voyage!! Wishing you a great cruise.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Once again Tach luggage makes it a snap to move a lot of bags! 
 

no affiliation with tach luggage.  Just a happy customer. 
 

https://www.tachluggage.com💼 

 

 

[TiogaCruiser]

Thank you for taking us along!

 

I’m wondering what your “special souvenir” will be from this trip.

[BetsyS.]

Bon Voyage! 😊🥂

[NextOne]

Booked for the 2025 voyage, so will be following your reports with great interest. Thanks for doing this!

[SilvertoGold]

3 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

50pct drop cruise to cruise!!!!

I know!!! How great is that??? We would have jumped on that offer, glad you did.

[Toad]

Followed you round the world and will continue to follow on this journey.

I cant believe you are back on so soon.  How much could you have gotten done in the last month?… watered the plants, gifted numerous knitted items, bought more yarn and cleaned the house!  Anyway, wishing you safe and especially exciting times.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

2 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Thank you for taking us along!

 

I’m wondering what your “special souvenir” will be from this trip.

Probably the Effy charm we found in our cabin 

[luvteaching]

@The-Inside-Cabin. Pete and Judy - what a great picture of the two of you! I've followed you on the world cruise the last few years and will definitely be checking this thread out daily. It's a wonderful itinerary. I'm thinking about it for 2025 or later. Meanwhile I'll be boarding the Westerdam, along with a friend, the day you return so leave her in good shape for us please. 

Karen