In early 2011, we heard that our former neighbors in Oakton Nancy and Harry Fiske had decided to give each other a boat trip. When we heard about it, we suggested that the go to Alaska with us. The Fiskes had been our next door neighbors for 20 years until we left for Europe in 1993. Our kids grew up together and we even invested in our first pony with them when our kids started to ride. We have stayed in touch with them through all these years. Harry retired from the US Navy as a two star admiral. He had not been back to sea since he had retired.
You can see the pictures we all took on this trip at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/AlaskaMay2011?feat=directlink
After doing some research, we found a 10 day trip in Alaska our of Seattle on the Infinity of the Celebrity Cruise line. It is a 100, 000 ton ship able to take 2000 passengers. Most Alaska trips are only 7 days so the longer trip caught our interest. At the time of booking this trip, Brigitte was not able to walk very much so we decided to get a wheel chair adapted cabin just in case she would need to use it to get around. We then contacted a former colleague and friend, Erna Turner who was still an active travel agent. Erna made our bookings for the flight out, the hotel we would need on day before embarking and the actual cruise tickets. Given Brigitte's health situation, I took out travel insurance as the cost of the trip came to a substantial amount. Luckily we did not need to claim under the travel insurance.
On May 19th we flew to Seattle and checked into a very nice little hotel called Inn at the Harbor Steps. It was just down the road from Pike Market and across the street from the Seattle Art Museum. Interestingly, the Art Museum has a huge iron sculpture (60 feet in size) called "The Hammering Man". This same statue stood in front of my office in Frankfurt Germany in the Messe-Turm. It made me feel at home.
That evening we had a very nice fish dinner at a restaurant near the hotel and we turned in early after a fairly long day.
The next morning, we headed down to the pier 67 to board the ship. We arrived at the pier and were sent to stand in line to check in our bags. There were hundreds of passengers and only one X-Ray machine. Actually, there were two machines but only one was being used so it took quite some time to get the bags checked. We were then directed to stand in an other line to check ourselves into the ship. The line was obviously trying to save money by not hiring enough people at the check in counters. The result was that the check in took almost 3 hours. This was the worst check-in I have ever seen in my years of cruising. It was hard on people like Brigitte and Harry who are physically challenged and certainly soured many passengers who had never cruised before.
We finally made it to our cabins. Luckily Brigitte was walking well so we had not need a wheel chair. The cabin was a bit bigger than other cabins as it was wheel-chair prepared. This meant a few feet more of cabin and a larger bathroom. We had decided that since we were going to see the scenery of Alaska we would splurge and get cabins with balconies. This is a great asset although the cold weather meant that it was not used as much as one would use a balcony in tropical weather. Still with the big sliding doors, the view from inside the cabin was far better than any cabin we had had in the past. After having settled the cabin, we went exploring our new home. This is a large ship with 11 decks so there are a lot of things to see and places to go. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria and then prepared for departure. The weather was sunny and warm. Even Mount Rainier came out in the distance behind Seattle. We slipped away up the Puget Sound at 5pm. It was a magnificent sight with land on both sides all the way up the Puget Sound.
You can see a map of Puget Sound and the Juan de Fuca as well as all the places we visited at:
http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1C1_____enUS412US412&q=Seattle+map&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x5490102c93e83355:0x102565466944d59a,Seattle,+WA&gl=us&ei=FMThTaS4I8TFgAeko_nFBg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ8gEwAA
By left holding down your left mouse button you can move the map to all the places we visit and that I will mention in this blog as we go along. By using your mouse wheel, you can zoom into any place you want to look at more closely.
As we headed west in the Juan de Fuca strait, it was time to head for the dining room. We had booked for the first sitting at 6 PM and we had a lovely table for 4 at a window. Our waiter Michael was from the Philipines and his assistant was from Indonesia. One really has to thank all these people who work on these ships as their low wages allow the cruise lines to keep the passage fees at levels which are still very reasonable. These people who crew on these ships are breadwinners for their families back home to whom they send most of their salary. It is a lonely life for them, as they are away from their families for long periods but they do it cheerfully.
The food turned out to be fair but nothing particular. We had trouble with long waits until we were served and on some evenings we were served food we turned away. We did complain with the result that the maitre of the restaurant came around often to make sure we were happy.
After dinner, we walked a bit around the ship which was heading west in the strait to take route going up the west coast of Vancouver Island with Ketchican as our first port of call.
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