Today we boarded our Alaska cruise. My first and Scott’s fourth! We were booked on the Norwegian Encore on a 7-night itinerary, embarking and disembarking in Seattle.
Readers of my prior cruise blogging might remember me as quite disenfranchised with the vacation method. But with some more careful planning, strategic upgrades, and taking advantage of Scott’s new loyalty tier perks I had high hopes this would be a different experience.
One thing I decided I wanted to duplicate from our last cruise experience was to walk to the port. In Reykjavik that distance was a hair under 2 miles, and granted this would be a bit longer. Maybe it would help me justify just a bit of the calories I would be consuming over the next week.
We set out by 9:00 am, and were rewarded very quickly into our route by the best wildlife viewing at The Ballard Locks I have ever had. Osprey being chased by seagulls, seals AND sea lions, heron, and a very full salmon ladder.
If you’re curious, my t-shirt says, “Sorry. Can’t. Hockey. Bye.”. It’s one of my most favorite Goodwill finds, ever. GOOOOO KRAKEN!!!
We crossed thru Magnolia to join the Elliott Bay Trail down through Myrtle Edwards Park to get to the waterfront.
The weather was perfect and we live in a very pretty place. I had to sit for a few minutes rest in Myrtle Edwards due to a pain down my leg. I think my IT band was being irritated from my pack putting pressure on my left hip? Overall the trip was a flat 5.5 miles and took us about around 2.5 hours, just in time for our scheduled 11:30 am boarding time.
I tried the Relive app… so fun!
Check-in was super smooth and efficient. I think Scott’s priority boarding status only saved us 5-10 minutes.
Once onboard we did our super fast muster station check-in and then headed to The Local for lunch. It’s one of NCL’s included food venues that’s open 24 hours (or maybe just nearly 24 hours?). It’s a great option for people like me that aren’t buffet fans but want something less fussy than a big dining room. I quickly noted that the food quality of our lunch was better than what we had on our Iceland/Greenland cruise last year – I’m thinking it’s probably more difficult for them to source in Reykjavik?
After lunch we wandered the boat (don’t bother correcting me to say “ship”, because that is a ridiculous thing to correct someone about). We got a tour of the thermal suite and made sure we didn’t overpay for our pass by purchasing in advance (I’ll write more about this place later). We also checked out the casino and got the info on how to accrue points for possible rewards (um, you just put your room key in the machine… duh). We ended up on the “Waterfront” for awhile, which is outside along deck 8, drinking at the Cavern Club and chatting with Republicans (which was easier to do back in August).
When they made the announcement that rooms were accessible we went to check ours out. Very happy with our splurge on the balcony room! Super comfy and spacious for us, and our deck was oddly longer due to our cabin location – the last starboard cabin before the cabins switch to aft-facing. Cabin 9916!
When your man has Platinum status you even get to find chocolate covered strawberries in your room!
A little bit before the scheduled sail away time we went up to the top deck for views of our amazing city and to check out the aptly-named sail away party. It was the most well-attended and energetic sail away party that I’ve been to… the people watching was great, especially since I was a few well-poured cocktails and beers in at this point.
Our bags came pretty late, maybe around 4-5pm, but still in plenty of time to change for our 8 pm dinner reservation at Los Lobos, the Mexican-inspired specialty dining restaurant. The reviews we found of this place online and on YouTube leading up to the cruise were right – this was some very enjoyable Mexican-ish food!
I didn’t last much past dinner and enjoyed our comfy bed immensely.
Kjar-ied Away 