I almost called this “Sleepless in Seattle” but decided that might be tempting fate and even though I’m pretty good at sleeping after our covid interrupted Florida trip we don’t need any bad vibes!
We booked this trip last year on board having taken our 1st cruise with Royal Caribbean (not our first ever cruise) to the glamorous destinations of Belfast and Liverpool.
We initially got a price of £2887.28 for the cruise in a Junior Suite guarantee but when we returned home there was an offer on the website and we managed to get a further reduction in the price to £2236.28 which I was pretty happy with!
Our itinerary when we booked was as follows:
We had to sort out flights and hotels for the Seattle element of our trip and found that flights were a similar price through the cruise line so we added them on a couple of months ago.
We are flying out on a Friday in Sept having stayed the night before at the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow (not the one attached to T2). We stayed here in February and it’s cheaper on Hilton points than the T2 one (always looking for a bargain).
We have booked the long stay parking and will drop the car off on the Friday morning before heading to T3 for our flight. We are back in economy so have booked the No1 lounge as we really enjoyed the quieter environment in June.
Our flight out is with Virgin, I am tempted to bid for an upgrade to Economy Delight – it’s not Upper Class but would be more comfortable
On arrival in Seattle we are staying at Homewood Suites by Hilton Seattle Convention Center Pike Street for 3 nights in a 1-bedroom suite where we apparently get drinks and snacks included!
I have no plan at this point for Seattle, I see there are lots of attractions but need to work out if I should buy us a ‘city pass’ type deal before we go.
Our cruise starts on Monday (covid permitting), we still have to do a pre-cruise test at the moment so will use Qured or similar again as they would have been fine last time (if we had both been negative).
We are due to board at 1130, so will sort out and Uber or Lyft to get there.
We have unfortunately had a change of itinerary due to an engine issue that Quantum of the Seas is experiencing. We are apparently getting some onboard credit as compensation.
Our new itinerary is here:
Day 3 we are at Ketchikan and I have booked an excursion called Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles. We would like a little wander around the town too if we have time.
Day 4 is Skagway where I have booked us the train. We will again try and visit the town here too!
Day 5 is Juneau, where I was hoping to do Whale Watching but our timings have changed and the tour I wanted to do (with a local operator) no longer works.
We also lost the glacier from earlier in our itinerary so as a result I have now booked us the Mendenhall Glacier and Salmon Hatchery excursion. I suspect it will be less impressive than the one we had hoped to see but hopefully we will still get some good photos.
Day 6 we are at sea again, I might see if I can book us a speciality restaurant.
Day 7 we visit Victoria, we will do a wander around on our own as I think this is much more of a city type port.
Before we know it, we will be back at Seattle where we have another couple of days planned. We are returning to the same hotel (unless it is dreadful on our first stay) and will continue sightseeing depending on what we got through in the first couple of days.
Our flight home is with Delta and we are due to arrive back to Heathrow on a Thursday at around 1315.
We have decided not to try driving home after an overnight flight and 8 hour time difference so will collect the car and head back to the Hilton Garden Inn (again booked with points).
We will try and get back to something like UK time in the safety of a hotel room before driving home the next day.
