Embarkation Day

 Our home for the next week is the Ovation of the Seas.  Our embarkation time was for 12:30 and we debated riding the train most of the way to the port then catching a cheap, short Uber/Lyft or just catching a long/expensive Uber/Lyft the whole way!  Due to the rain, our trip became even more ridiculous!  

How we got to port -

1.    Ride the hotel shuttle to the airport terminal

2.    Walk through the covered walkway back across the street to the light-rail station

3.    Ride the train into Seattle.

4.    Find a small overhang to hide from the rain while waiting for a Lyft.

5.    Ride a Lyft to the port.  Apparently Lyft corporate sent a decent percentage of the drivers these shields to help with COVID precautions.  Of course we were all masked too.

We first stepped onto the boat at 12:28, 2 minutes before our embarkation appointment after showing our negative COVID test from 2 days prior, our passports, and our vaccination cards to several people.  

Our goals upon embarkation -

1.    Join the wait list for a Glacier Trek - Wifey had called and stalked various websites trying to get signed up for this excursion in the weeks leading up to the cruise without success.  The best RCI could suggest was to ask onboard and join a waitlist. 

2.    Make reservations for various on-board activities such as IFly and NorthStar. - The sooner we made our reservations, the more likely we could get a spot!  

3.    Lunch - our first included meal of the cruise! 

4.    FlowRider - with an itinerary heading increasingly north and cold during our cruise, we figured day one was the best chance for not freezing while surfing/knee boarding.

We were successful in all of these!!  

We had lunch in Two70 Cafe.  We would not end up returning there to eat again during the cruise.  

Wifey ended up skipping Two70s desert options and instead sought out the soft-serve machine her first of many many ice cream cones!

We were able to participate in the very first session of IFly at 2:00pm before the boat even disembarked! IFly is a simulated sky-diving adventure.  We weren't allowed to bring our phones/cameras to the actual activity despite going at successive times.  So there's no footage/pics of us flying.  In retrospect, we'd book our appointments 15 minute apart or so so we could wait outside and watch/film the other.

After IFly, we made a quick trip to our now open state-room, changed into our swimwear and headed back to also knock out some FlowRider.  Luckily, we had carried on our swimwear and cameras (but forgot our flip flops in our checked luggage which wouldn't be delivered for several hours.)

Of course we paused for a quick picture on our way to FlowRider!!

FlowRider:  

After FlowRider we cleaned up for dinner and stopped by the photo set-ups .... 

Dinner was yummy!

During Dinner, a photographer came by, so we smiled :) 

Dinner was followed by a comedy show, killing time at Karaoke to ensure we stayed awake until a second comedy show. 

Wifey was in a good mood, so she signed up to actually SING at Karaoke.  Sadly for the success of this event she can neither sing well, nor has a workable knowledge of mainstream music.  Flipping through the book of options, two songs stood out:  (1) Battle of New Orleans and (2) North to Alaska by Johnny Horton.  She chose Battle of New Orleans as it is much faster pace and relies far less on actual singing skill.  

Seattle WA - Hilton

 We headed to the airport dark and early on Thursday morning with a collection of luggage that reminded me of our early-marriage travels!  (Not clearly visible - our stuffed backpacks)

After landing in Seattle via Chicago about 12 hours later, we walked to our airport hotel ... which was a depressinging long walk.  In reality it wasn't THAT bad, but considering expectations of it being on-site it wasn't great. Wifey was 'over-it' so the pictures below also aren't great.  

Due to the new Hilton policy, instead of receiving free breakfast due to our Diamond status, we received two food/drink credits.  We had left-over quesadillas we brought from home that satiated our hunger and were able to use the credit for fancy coffee, candy bars, a one breakfast sandwich, and a fruit, granola, and yogurt parfait.  All-in-all a win!

Sadly, just as we prepared to walk back to the airport to catch our train to downtown it began raining.  Instead, we took the hotel's shuttle back to the airport (saving us a few hundred yards in the rain, and probably doubling our commute).  

Seattle WA Tourism

After checking into our hotel in Seattle, it was around 3:00 pm, and we headed back out to make the most of our brief stay!  

We caught the lightrail which was across the street from our hotel and rode for about 45 minutes until we reached Seattle proper.

We headed first to the Pike Place Market to visit the original Starbucks and a yogurt shop called Ellenos that Wifey had found on Instagram.  

Key Lime Pie Yogurt

Apparently this Starbucks location services almost exclusively tourists and always has a line.  We waited patiently, the weather was beautiful and the people friendly.  

Once inside, the store is divided into two sections.  One where you can pursue souvenir merchandise and then the opposite where you can place your order for coffee.  Hubby tried the Pike Place Market exclusive Chocolate Covered Strawberry Nitro drink.  Wifey got a creme frap ... (still off the caffeine).

After knocking out both of these 'must-see' destinations, we were hungry and started scanning the area for a promising restaurant.  Apparently most places around the market close pretty early.  As we walked back toward the train station and later the Space Needle (our other 'must-see' destination in the city); we saw a Chinese restaurant called Mee Sum Pastry with Sesame balls in the window.  GIANT Sesame balls!  Now to understand the significance of this, you must understand that wifey loves sesame balls.  Since we were ordering these, we also ordered a couple of hum bao (pork and chicken curry) and called it dinner!  

Leaving Park Place Market, we walked about a mile to the Space Needle and bought our tickets to ride to the top!  

We were outdoors!  Mask free life! 

Leaving the Space Needle much later we power-walked back to catch the light-rail/train to our hotel.  

Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site

Heiau means temple and this is the site of an ... ancient temple.  

Go first thing in the morning.  The majority of this site has no shade so you are walking about in the sun.  Like all national parks etc .... talk to the Park Rangers.  They know their stuff and will enrich your visit so much!