North to Alaska - but first to Seattle

Seattle, Washington is a city and a cruise port I had never visited. So when we were planning out a pre-cruise hotel stay, we decided to extend our pre-cruise visit by an extra night. We flew in on the Sunday afternoon before our Oceania cruise began on Tuesday. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Seattle/Downtown for two nights so that we could do a Seattle city tour on Monday. The hotel included a self-serve buffet breakfast but their onsite eatery for lunch and dinner was closed. This hotel is a couple blocks away from the Space Needle and has a cool view of it from their front door. Tragically, on this first night of our visit, deadly gunfire erupted at the Bite of Seattle Food Festival being held at Seattle Center (the plaza surrounding the Space Needle) resulting in three bystander deaths and several others wounded. It was scary and surreal watching the throng of hotel guests come running back down the street all at once to seek safe shelter. I was thankful that we had pivoted from plans to walk over there this night.

On happier notes, here's some information about the hotel's provided cruise shuttle and the view of the Space Needle.

For our Seattle city tour, we booked a small group tour with Customized Tours via Viator. Our previous tour in Ponta Delgada booked through Viator gave me a credit for reviewing the tour so I used it toward the cost to book this one. In turn, I've now reviewed this tour on Viator as well and got another credit to use on a future trip. The tour we used was called The Best of Seattle City Highlights Tour. Visit the link to view the tour description on the company's website where they are currently offering a 10% discount code. Here is the tour information as found on Viator where they are currently offering the tour at the same price minus the code. However, Viator is available if you use a cash back click through site like Rakuten or RetailMeNot for your online purchases. Always comparison shop and save where you can so you can travel more! The comfortable shuttle bus had plenty of seats left for the handful of us who wanted to spread out. The shuttle bus picked up from various hotels in the area giving each group booked a specific staggered time to be outside ready for pickup. We were one of the last to be picked up so it was nice to have that unique time messaged by the tour company so we weren't sitting outside on this windy morning until we needed to. The last couple to be picked up had just gotten to their hotel after disembarking their Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean so it can also be a great way to spend time waiting for your hotel check in time if you're staying on post cruise.

There were a few steps to climb to get into the shuttle bus. No one on our tour had anything more than a cane but our guide was there ready to help everyone board and descend the steps safely. Water bottles were also plentiful and available for you to help yourself.

Our first stop on the tour inadvertently was to a really nice view of the Space Needle while the guide stopped for some guests who needed a restroom break. Originally, the plan was for this to only be a drive by viewing of the Space Needle.

And for all the FIFA World Cup fans:

Once we were back on the road, our next stop was a drive by of the building used for exterior shots in Grey's Anatomy. Fittingly, in reality, it's a TV studio. Unfortunately, no hot actors who play a doctor on TV were seen.

Next stop gave us a chance to stretch our legs and our selfie arms with a visit to the Kerry Park Viewpoint. Our guide pointed out various sites we'd just driven past, answered questions, and happily obliged anyone who wanted their photo taken in front of the view.

Note the flag flying above the Space Needle is at half staff honoring those who lost their lives the night before.

And for my fellow ship nerds - we got views of cruise ships in port while we continued on the drive. There was a much smaller ship docked on the other side of Anthem of the Seas.

Another overlook stop where our guide pointed out the channel that our cruise ship would be taking. We also stood around long enough to watch a couple seaplanes come in and land.

Our next stop took us to Fremont and some photo opportunities with the Fremont Troll. 

Looking back along the underside of the bridge

On our way out of the Fremont area, we passed by the 16 foot bronze sculpture of Vladimir Lenin. Sculptor Emil Venkov created this sculpture in Czechoslovakia in 1988 but it was toppled during the Velvet Revolution. An American teacher found the statue in a scrapyard and brought it to Washington state in 1993. The statue is still privately owned by the teacher's family and sits on privately owned land The hands of the statue are frequently painted red by protestors and locals symbolizing Lenin's violent legacy.

Our next stop was to the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial at the Fisherman's terminal. Some of our group chose to spend this stop picking up some nearby fish and chips or sandwiches recommended by our guide.

While several of us were admiring the many rows of boats docked here, our guide pointed out one of the more notable dock users - The Wizard - a 156 foot commercial crab fishing vessel featured on the Discovery Channel's reality series' Deadliest Catch. I guess you could say that I saw a TV star today after all!

We next visited the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks where we got an impromptu tour from the outside of the boat tour operator explaining their process to their own tour members as they progressed through the locks. We also got to do some air snorkeling as we watched the fish and the seals looking for their own fish and chips lunch in the open lock next to the tour boat. 

When our guide saw that I was more interested in watching the wildlife rather than the boat tour, he suggested we head down to the fish viewing room to watch them swim past the windows. We sat for a little while watching the windows but didn't see much activity. We met the rest of the group being led by our guide into the viewing room while we took our time walking back up to street level. Thankfully there were benches every so often and loads of time because it was a bit of a trek to walk back up. 

Our last stop was to Pike's Place and the Public Market Center. Unfortunately, this is the only stop that felt like we had way too little time to experience it fully. Our guide said his company had a reserved place to park the bus and had to gently encourage someone to move their car out of their spot at the top of the street. Once parked, our guide had us all chase after him as he turned the corner and walked the few blocks down to the bottom of the street where it dead ends in front of the famous Public Market Center sign. 

We stood in the middle of this seemingly pedestrian only square while our guide gave a long talk about the history of the place. He pointed out the stall known for throwing fish but said that now instead of timed presentations, they only do the fish throwing if they feel like it. Then he spent the next 10-15 minutes pointing out where certain recommended food stalls were located for us to seek and pay for our own lunch. By the time he finished talking, he announced that we now had 15 minutes to get that lunch. Someone in the group protested and our guide agreed to 30 minutes. A few times during the talk and while we scrambled to find food, cars legally and slowly made their way through the crowds of pedestrians. Why if cars could come down and drive through, was the shuttle bus not allowed to at least drop us off at the bottom before returning to the top to park?

Every spot our guide recommended had a line out the door and down the street. We eventually settled on a pop up stand that was selling grilled cheese. You would have thought I was a track star in a former life the way I fought past the throngs of people on the sidewalk until I found an ice cream shop that also sold drinks. In my speed walking I spotted the original Starbucks location but there was no time to stop for pictures.

Back to Dad where we poorly set up our grilled cheese picnic leaning against the back railing of another venue and wolfed down the sandwiches. I tried suggesting we take the sandwiches to go and work our way back to the bus. When Dad didn't seem to understand the rush, I shared my concern that our 30 minute time was dwindling. I must have been speaking a sort of martian language because Dad was still unphased. Once we'd eaten our fill and disposed of our trash, we did the best we could walking back up the multiblock hill with Dad having to stop and rest whenever there was a clear corner to lean on. By the time we turned the last corner and saw the bus, our guide was rushing over to hurry us back onto the bus. It turns out we were the last two to return. Once back on the bus, Dad was surprised to see that we were the last to return and insists he never knew we only had 30 minutes of free time here. 

Given that the facilities around the Seattle Center were locked and closed when we first started the tour, we decided it wasn't worth going back out after this tour just to see if the Space Needle was open to visitors. Instead we ordered in dinner from a restaurant we hadn't been back to since we moved and enjoyed a relaxing evening watching TV.

Oceania Riviera Penthouse Suite Cabin Tour (and Executive Lounge) (Part 3)

Phew, time for some fresh air and hopeful sea life spotting so let's head out on the balcony. Here's a representation of the amount of light that comes in and how clear a view you can have even with the doors closed.

If you have this cabin booked, I suggest you start bulking up on your arm strength now. Neither Dad nor I are strangers to working sliding glass doors leading out to cruise ship balconies. We both tried to open this door on day 1 and it wouldn't budge! We toggled the handle up and down thinking it was locked but it didn't move an inch with either handle setting. We asked our butler Akshay to show us this great magic trick to open the door. He walked over, confirmed that the handle was in the unlocked position as we had left it, then proceeded to slide it open with what seemed to be ease. He joked in response to our shocked faces that the doors do tend to stick sometimes and you need to give it a strong pull. For the rest of the cruise we had to brace ourselves and pull like we thought we'd surely end up breaking the door in order for it to slide open. 

There is a bit of a step over to move back and forth to and from the balcony. Don't be like me who watched out for the step, stepped high, and still tripped over it. Thankfully my cleavage hit the side of the door frame first giving me time to lean my head away from meeting the same fate. Pictures of the colorful bruise that followed will be up on OnlyFans. Have to pay for these cruises somehow! ;) Didn't ever think that having my own natural personal flotation devices would have saved me from headbutting the door frame. 

Due to being directly under the pool deck, our balcony had an overhang completely covering our balcony and then some. The balcony had a good amount of length and width so you could easily pass in front of the chairs and/or have a few people outside enjoying the view. The one time I tried to sit outside for a while I found that the chairs had become very damp. I was also really surprised to find that the balcony railing is solely the white bars across and the dark wood varnished bar along the top. There is no glass or other material stopping a child or drunk cabinmate from reaching through or slipping something between the rails.

Not too shabby of a view straight out though

Our balcony afforded a great view of when the crew operated the lifeboats as tenders in Juneau.

Time to reflect on how much you can see when looking back into the cabin from out on the balcony.

I loved the ingenuity in Oceania having balcony furniture with cushions that hook onto the base so that they don't go flying off in high winds. Did find out the hard (or cushiony) soft way that after one night of predicted rough weather, Lilanie started putting the cushions stacked up between the inside of the balcony glass and the thicker light blocking curtain at evening turndown. I'd walk up to the glass to peek out at any potential scenery and kicked my toes right into the cushion stack I couldn't see was there until I pulled back the curtain. We all know by now how talented I am in finding the hidden obstacle to run into or fall over onto. 

Oceania Cruises has two categories of cabins above a standard veranda cabin that comes with lounge use. The first level is called Concierge Cabins and they have access to a Concierge Lounge. Anyone with a Penthouse Suite or higher has access to what is called the Executive Lounge. This lounge was situated smack in the middle of the Deck 11 biggest block of Penthouse Suite cabins. You needed your cabin keycard to unlock the door but you could enter from either side. We soon learned to look for certain key decor to let us know what door to exit to be on our side of the ship. Both lounges featured a crew member working as a concierge for any help you needed but only during certain hours. There was a couple computers for passengers to use. Displays offered all sorts of forms and reading materials about Oceania's offerings so you could find things like shore excursion explanations, future cruise booking forms, and cooking/technology class schedules. Also tucked in a magazine style caddy in the back was the stack of onboard menus so you could pick out your choices ahead of time or see if the menu was interesting enough to warrant asking the concierge to make/amend a dining reservation.

Dining menu caddy

There was a larger table in the middle of the room with multiple chairs and we saw passengers working on their own devices or playing cards. For the most part, the seating was arranged like a living room around end tables and coffee tables that faced a TV. Only once did the concierge insist on turning on the TV for background noise, asking beforehand. Otherwise the remote was controlled by the passengers decisions on what to watch and most everyone was courteous to ask any other passengers in the room before changing the channel.

I snapped these pictures of the lounge thinking what great luck for stumbling upon a time when no one was inside the lounge. Ten seconds later, the concierge popped out of the back corner where her desk sits behind the paperwork display and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

I was a bit disappointed in the snack offerings. Just like Princess' Concierge Lounge, you can pick up certain little bites during the morning hours and different bites during the afternoon hours. By dinnertime on Oceania, the only options left were the remaining cookies that were always out. I love being able to grab fresh fruit or little breakfast bites on Princess when I don't want a full meal. The lounge was routinely cleaned but there was no bartender or waiter there in the evenings to make drinks and bring you snacks while you converse with fellow suite guests like on Princess. The menu was mostly the same but the little plaques sitting on top of the display didn't always seem to line up with what looked like the item's name. 

Typical afternoon offerings were one tray of circular flat cookies, one tray above it of ladyfinger/madeline style cookies, and a couple trays of slider size sandwiches.

Oceania did have a tall fridge that was mostly kept stocked with cans of soda and the refillable bottles of water. A carafe was routinely half full of orange juice so I could grab a glass of juice 24/7. A variety of tea bags, cream, milk, sugar (and its alternatives) as well as cinnamon was also always available to help concoct your beverage of choice from a visual touch button coffee machine screen. I was pleased to see that one of the canisters feeding into the machine was dedicated to hot chocolate mix so I could grab a mug whenever the damp chill inspired me. I discovered that this machine had a cold foam option so I created my own combination drink of hot chocolate, cold foam, and a couple dashes of cinnamon. Tasted just like cocoa with a hint of marshmallow and I had many people making their own cups with my recipe by cruise end. 

The Diet versions of these sodas always disappeared from the cooler the fastest. Passengers would come by, us included, and grab a handful of cans to take back to the cabin.

Thank you for reading to the end of this lengthy cabin photo walkthrough! More to come including our whale watching adventure, specialty versus main dining meals, and that time Oceania made me cook my own breakfast!

Until then, please enjoy these sunrise photos taken from our balcony:

Oceania Riviera Penthouse Suite Cabin Tour (Part 2)

Continuing on our walkthrough of the cabin - the rest of the cabin opens up like one big room with areas marked more by furniture than walls.

The sole thermostat to control the entire room was an old model dial that simply featured a varied blue line for cold/air conditioning and a varied red line for heat/warmth. The room varied throughout the voyage as to whether it felt too warm or too cold. It seemed that the extremes were felt more later in the afternoons and evenings. Some nights we slept on top of the covers where others were spent burrowed under them. We certainly could have called for it to be inspected but each time we'd be back in the cabin to experience it was when we wanted to crawl into bed and rest. 

First let's turn to the right along the wall shared by the walk in closet. The bulk of this wall was taken up by a desk/vanity/storage area. Ignore the combined clutter that is my tote bag worth of port shopping on the chair there. The farthest right is actually a cabinet where we kept extra cans of sodas for the mini fridge. The narrow drawer in front of the chair held lots of information about the ship and the cabin perks like the room service breakfast menu and the afternoon canape request form. You'll also find some business letter sized envelopes and stationery. We used that for leaving Lilanie notes and tips at the end of the cruise. Note the light up magnifying mirror for use plugged in at the vanity.

Vegetable Spring Rolls:

Basket of Crispy Corn Tortilla Chips with Homemade Guacamole and Mexican Salsa Cruda:

Akshay also brought us a tray of the chocolate dipped strawberries. I didn't get a picture of those but neither of us tried them. 

Breakfast Room Service Menu - We never actually ordered breakfast but we did order a few options for lunch one afternoon. The crew member who delivered them came with a white tablecloth ready to set up our dining table but we told him it wasn't necessary. One unique thing that was new in all of our other cruises is that just as we had finished eating, the crew member came knocking on our cabin door asking if we were done so that he could carry away the dishes. They must have a system for clocking food arrival so they know when 40 minutes to an hour have passed.

We tried three dishes from the All Day Room Service Menu -

Croque monsieur - Baked ham, emmental cheese, bechamel sauce, romaine lettuce. This was very dry and did not taste good at all.

Six pieces of Vegetable California Rolls - don't think I've ever had a California Roll with cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and asparagus tips inside. The fruit pieces were a little tough and having the mix of fruit juice sweet with savory filling was certainly a different taste sensation. Aside from the textures mixing, I did enjoy this dish.

Dad ordered the Black Angus Cheeseburger. A note under all the burgers states that they are "cooked to preference" but I guess they meant the chef's preference. His requested medium well to well done burger was severely undercooked and looked more like medium rare inside. Quite surprising since the slice of cheese was so melted on top of the patty that it looked painted on.

On top of the desk on day 1 was a nice branded Oceania Cruises pen continuing my tradition of bringing home a branded pen from each cruise. We overheard another cruiser talk about how he wished he could win a pen at the onboard games. Another passenger told him that there should be one left in everyone's cabin. He replied "I know, I want another one." Funny thing is, days later, we stopped by Guest Services to ask to borrow a pen so we could work on the Mensa Quiz while hanging out in the lobby. They happily handed me another pen identical to the ones in our cabins and would have gladly handed over more if I wanted. 

Now riddle me this - why does our cabin have two phones? Certainly not for our Alaskan whale calls. Is floating on water and calling underwater considered roaming? Dad suggested that the silver phone was some sort of direct line for calling the butler but couldn't figure out how to use it. He picked up the larger phone and called down to guest services to ask. The person that answered let Dad know that they'd page Akshay. When Akshay introduced himself late on day 1, we asked about how to use the silver phone. He told us to do exactly as Dad had earlier, call and ask that they page him. His beeper/phone will then go off with a cabin number. His procedure is then to call the cabin number and ask what is needed to see if it's something that can be handled over the phone or something for which he needs to come visit the cabin. So apparently this second phone is simply there to hold down the desk. 

Power outlets by the phones were limited to the one standard outlet but behind the water bottles you had more of a variety:

The mini fridge is the middle cabinet on the other side of the chair. It worked well for cooling Dad's medication, our sodas, plastic water bottles (bought in port), and the fudge I bought in port until we brought it home.The rest of the spaces under the desk were drawers of varying sizes so I kept my non hanging clothes here while Dad used the remaining drawers in the closet. That trash can became such a cat and mouse game because I'd push it against the desk so I wouldn't run into it but then Lilanie would put it back at the corner during cabin service so that it wouldn't block the cabinet door from opening. 

Inside the fridge - I did notice after several days that the cabinet and/or the desk space above it would feel warm to the touch. Our drinks still felt cold to the touch and that fudge stayed cold. We are also still working our way through those squares of Oceania Cruises branded dark chocolate that were left on our beds each night. Everytime we cruise on a line that still gives out turndown chocolates I know better than to try and enjoy any myself. Dad commandeers most all of them saving them in the fridge to enjoy post cruise. He's enjoying them so much that he's now forgotten he hated dark chocolate so much that he used to leave me to eat all the dark chocolate after he was done eating the other flavors in the Hershey's Miniatures variety pack. Or in my case, the not so variety pack. In this case, we make a good pair. He'd eat chocolate flavored chocolate if that were a thing and I usually have to give him any chocolate dish I get because I can't finish more than a couple bites.

Also in everyone's cabin is these reusable stainless steel water bottles with a fitted branded cozy. Dispensers are positioned throughout the ship for you to fill your bottles with still or sparkling water. You are encouraged to also use these on your excursions in port and take them home. I found it interesting with these left for everyone that they'd also be included as a prize for cashing in your "Big O" points. These however, don't fit so easily in your cabin fridge. 

One of the dispensers onboard where you can choose from chilled still water, chilled sparkling water, or room temperature water.

For routine drinking water in your cabin, aside from the classic fill your glass from the bathroom sink, Oceania chooses to go the reusable route and leave bottles of still and sparkling Vero water for filling your own glass in the cabin. Dad loves sparkling water and found that none of the bottles ever seemed to actually have sparkling water loaded into them. These bottles would be refilled each time the cabin was serviced. Lilanie was great about keeping our ice bucket full as well twice a day so I could down many glasses of ice water when I'd come back to the cabin. 

You could do many things on your cabin TV. There was a similar channel variety as on Celebrity Cruises with a Prime Movies and a Prime One TV channel where we watched a good amount of Superstore and NCIS reruns. Also your standard channel for the bridge cam, one for showing your voyage progress on a map, and one playing that day's morning show on repeat. Another channel was devoted to Culinary Programming a.k.a. Food Network shows. A small variety of TV shows and movies were also available to watch on demand versus catching a TV show on Prime One already halfway through when you decided to turn on the TV. 

I had hoped that the Entertainment and Enrichment section would feature recorded versions of onboard lectures but instead it was on demand educational and informational programming. We had a surprisingly little amount of onboard talks and lectures it seemed given the itinerary. Never saw a specific port talk unless you count the Tips & Tricks for insert port name here segment on the morning show. The most used features by us were to browse the Grand Dining Room & speciality menus and to check our onboard account. We did learn through tracking our account on the TV and confirming with Guest Services that our two passenger folio accounts do get merged by the end of the cruise, at least when they are both on the same credit card. It also gives a good specific breakdown on how much you have in non refundable versus refundable on board credit.

One other thing that happened in relation to our onboard account that we found unique was when we received a letter in our cabin near the end of the cruise. The letter informed us that we could either leave our refundable onboard credit on our account and wait around for a check to be sent to our home or we could visit Guest Services at any time before the end of the cruise and request the refundable credit be paid out in cash. We chose the latter. Keep in mind though that anything you charge to your onboard account after cashing out will now be a charge to your card on file. 

Finishing off this wall of the cabin is where we have a small dining table and two chairs. This is where I'd often park myself to do anything because it was the only comfortable spot unless you wanted to lay down and sleep. Most of the time it was a place to work on Mensa quizzes or to sort through my port stop backpack's contents, hence why it spent most of the time parked in the second seat as seen in this picture.

Onto the beds themselves. When we arrived on embarkation day, the two twin beds were put together as a single bed and the benches were pushed together to look like one longer bench in front of them. Not uncommon as that's the default and a quick mention to the steward would have them changed by bedtime the first night. At this point, we've made our own running joke about how often crew assume we are a married couple since most people travel with their spouse. We get addressed as Mr. & Mrs., we get correspondence in our cabin addressed to Mr. & Mrs., the list goes on. Then every once in a while, a letter or a crew member greeting us will go back to Mr. & Ms. and we joke to each other about how we finally got divorced from each other. Inevitably someone or something else will come along days later using Mr. & Mrs. and we joke about getting remarried. Hopefully by now, you dear reader, have picked up on my fluency in sarcasm and warped sense of humor. 

So this night when we made the request of separate beds to Lilanie the look of confusion on her face was priceless. You could just imagine the wheels turning in her mind trying to understand why Mr. & Mrs. would be asking for separate beds on day 1! When we returned to the cabin for bed, we found that her interpretation was to keep the beds physically together but make them up with separate sheets and blanket. This was also the first evening that I became thankful for double jointed flexibility and earned the rug burn marks on my elbows. Between the beds themselves moving at the slightest change in body position and the mattress topper sliding back and forth under the fitted sheet, I managed to fall out of bed twice over the cruise. 

This first time was when I ended up on the floor between the two beds as they were pushed together in the center. They were so pushed together that I couldn't move to get up from between them. My only recourse was to army crawl along on my elbows dragging the rest of my body forward until I got past the end of the beds. Then there was finally enough room to twist into a position where I could get up off the floor. The second time happened after we had asked to switch the nightstands together in the center and put the one bed up against the wall. Lilanie's interpretation of that was to put one nightstand between the beds so at least we now had room to shimmy out the next time my body wants to try defying gravity. The next time I ended up falling off the other side and crawled out from between the bed and wall. I woke up at one point in the middle of the night to find Dad having barely caught himself as he rolled out of bed. Another night, I woke up at the sound of him moving around and instinctively threw out my arm for him to grab just in time to stop him from falling off again. Our neighbors must have had some weird thoughts at how much the top of our beds would slam back into the wall whenever we tried to find a comfortable position to sleep. I got the greatest ab workout each night tightening my core every time I'd roll over and feel myself starting to tip over the side. Oceania is phasing out allowing children to cruise on their line but maybe we should have asked for some crib bumpers by voyage end!

The plug and light options by each "side" of the bed. Each set of light switches worked the same on the toggle system as the one by the main door. You had the option of turning off lights from the front door or waiting until you were "safely" in bed. Each set of bedside light switches also let you pick whether you wanted one over the bed lamp, both, or none turned on. Worked well for when one of us wanted to stay up a little longer. There is also a little book light right by the pillows if you really want as little light left on as possible.

The remainder of the inside of the cabin featured a small loveseat that Akshay said folded out into a bed. He then promptly advised us not to use it because it would take up the other half of the room. Dad used the couch and storage ottoman as more of a catchall than a place to relax. Note the silver champagne bucket that held a bottle of Prosecco when we first arrived. We also gave that bottle away and noticed that the champagne flutes left on the desk disappeared as well a couple days later. The champagne bucket remained for the whole cruise. I still remember when a Celebrity Cruises waiter put my Sprite can in the nearest chilling bucket they were using to keep the nearby table's wine bottle chilled. When I smiled in response, he announced that I deserve to have a cold drink too!

I was a little surprised at the design choice of this little secondary window with dual curtain beside the couch. Perhaps a way to let in a little more natural light on that half of the cabin? Both sections had a sheer curtain for some light muting and the thicker curtains to block out most all light. The thicker curtains were drawn during evening turndown service. 

How much light comes in when just the sheer curtain is pulled across:

Looking across the room with my back to the curtains:

Stay tuned for part 3 where we visit the balcony and take a trip down the hall to the Executive Lounge.