Day 18 May 7th Seattle to the Zaandam

 

shoreline with mountain

Today is the day we say

top of space needle with repairs

goodbye to Seattle and join our cruise around Alaska. We had a leisurely morning – we breakfasted in the hotel, packed and organised ourselves for the ship hopefully not forgetting anything in our room. It was again a bright sunny day and the weather was warm with little wind. Seattle has been a good place to stay with a good atmosphere, friendly people and lots of good open spaces. We completed the packing, organised the luggage to be brought to the lobby and arranged for a taxi to take us to Pier 91 where the Zaandam would be waiting for us to check in.

sports ground in Seattle

The taxi duly arrived and it took approx. 20 minutes through light traffic to get to the harbour area where the ship was. The process of embarkation was smooth as we had completed most of the formalities online and had printed boarding passes. We were welcomed, given pass keys for our cabin etc. and then made our way upstairs to the cabin which has a nice verandah. Some of our luggage had arrived at the cabin and so we decided to have some lunch while the rest arrived. By this time it 1330 and we had a first time aboard introduction at 1400. Then we had safety instructions before a muster at 1515 which went through the emergency process – boring but necessary. We returned to the cabin and unpacked.

We sailed at 1600 and we were invited to the stern of the

a holiday maker on deck

top deck to mark this occasion. It was warm and sunny and we enjoyed a drink as the boat slipped her mooring ropes. We stayed for some time and she turned to head up the sound towards the open sea. You can hardly feel any movement at the moment as we travel up the Puget Sound but the Danish captain has told us it is likely to be a little bit fresher tomorrow. Our dinner time is set for 1945 and so we shall relax, look out of the window and get ready for that in due course.

A video from our balcony whilst in dock.  I have decided to purchase an on-board wifi plan and so hope to be able to post each day. It is quite expensive (a bit of a con) but I think worthwhile to continue the project.