Alaska Cruise 2018 Seattle and First Day at Sea

We took this picture when we finally got on the plane from Salt Lake To Seattle. I think our thoughts were, "WE FINALLY MADE IT!" We had seriously been saving for this trip for 3 years. It all started when Cory and I were discussing if we could go anywhere in the entire world, money wasn't an issue, where would we go. After Cory's first response of Zions National Park, I said, "lets pack up right now and go, because that we can do right this second and then all your dreams have come true." Maybe he had never really thought about traveling, I'm not sure, but after some more prodding he let me know that he'd always wondered about Alaska. So... that is how the dream started. 

After planning the trip with multiple different people and them having to back out for whatever reasons, it ended up just being the two of us. I think we were nervous about this at first, you know... first time travelers over here. But I think that it was such a blessing for us to go do this vacation together. We were SO excited in this picture! And so ready for our adventure to begin. 

From our airplane window we got to see Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens. It was pretty cool!

One of the many things we were excited for was the all you can eat food, and the seafood. The first night was super fun. We made sure to call and get reservations every night so that we could go to the nicer restaurants and "fine dine". Cory got crawdads the first night. I wanted so badly to be daring and try it, but it was NOT my favorite that's for sure. 

We also loved getting the pamphlet every night that gave you the next days itinerary. The ship offered so much! I don't know what we were doing in the picture above, it might have been a game show that involved the guests on the cruise. 

 Our 2nd day was a day at sea. A lot of people told us that we would need to upgrade our room to a balcony to really enjoy a cruise. We decided to forego that and use any extra money we had on experiences. To be honest, and maybe its because we don't know any better, I loved having a room in the middle of the boat. Our room was so dark at any time of the day with the lights off. So our day at sea we got to spend a lot of time catching up on some much needed sleep after 3 kids! The one thing we realized is that each day they only played the same movies over and over again. So we'd turn on the TV and it'd be half way through a movie. We learned to just start watching it, and if you were really interested, you could keep watching it once it was finished to watch the first part of the movie.

We woke up when we wanted and went up to have breakfast. We ate out on the balcony and it was FRIGID! I knew from the beginning that this wasn't going to be a warm cruise, but I'm glad I over prepared, because it was COLD for this small boned gal. While eating our breakfast Cory kept saying that he could see some weird water spouts out in the distance. I couldn't really see what he was seeing because of my eyes. But later we found out that the spouting was whates and we would be seeing a lot more of it! How incredible is that?

 One of the activities this day was out by the pool. A guy came out and carved a huge block of ice into koi fish with only a chisel. It was seriously so impressive. Another thing that was impressive was how much the boat was rocking, and it didn't even really feel like it. But the swimming pool was seriously just waving back and forth. It was insane!

 The beauty and color of this amazing part of the world was so unexpected for me. When its cold in Utah it almost seems like the world has died. But up here, it was gorgeous blue, and everything was so ALIVE. We saw so many whales and sea lions just off the side of the boat. Don't let that picture fool you though, it was FREEZING!

The cruise does a great job of showcasing different things for the part of the world that we were going to. This lunch was a super fun atmosphere, but by far my least favorite food. But luckily, its all you can eat and see we could just go to the pizza bar, or the cheeseburger bar and eat again! So much fun!

We also went to show where they would teach us to juggle. I was all in. Luckily in college I had tried to learn a little bit so I already had the jist of it, but I had a blast. Ol Sourdough (Cory) wouldn't do it. But he stood there laughing and playing all the while. 

 This was also the first formal night. We were by far the least dressed up people there! It was crazy how ALL OUT some of the people went. But, I would have felt so uncomfortable, so Sunday dress was great for me. This night we lucked out and got a window seat. One thing that I want to remember for my next cruise is that I regret buying the drink card. It gave me unlimited soda, but to be honest, the soda wasn't great and the non-alcoholic drinks weren't great either.

A funny story. They would bring out these dinner rolls every night. They were the hard kind of rolls. They were delicious and we were always starving when they'd bring them out before the meal. Well, every time I would use a knife and try and cut it open. And every time the waiter would come, only to me, with this little brush to brush off my party of the table. He would never do this for anyone else. The last night, I finally asked Cory why this kept happening. He told me that the first night he watched everyone else and they gently ripped the roll apart with their hands. I asked him why he didn't tell me and he let me know he was too busy judging me along with everyone else as the waiter had to clean up after me. HA HA HA!!! I guess you always gotta look out for number one! (he was of course joking)