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Waterworld
Oct. 25th, 2023 04:22 amGarrett sent me some info about a short cruise a few months ago, wondering if I was interested. A short cruise? Absolutely. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise and one of the main things keeping me from trying one was the possibility of getting on one, not really caring for it, and being stuck on it for a week. Sometimes a cruise line needs to move a ship from one port to another, and it's a big waste of money to do that while it's empty. In this case, it was Seattle to Vancouver BC, a distance a ship like that can easily do in a day. But to make money instead of wasting it, they can fill it with people, take it out to sea, and then stop in Victoria on the way to Vancouver.
I agreed to it with no hesitation. By far the most annoying part is just getting on the boat. While we had a manageable amount of luggage that we could carry, the bus just wasn't a great option. We'd have to get an Uber to the bus station, ride a very full bus with morning commuters, then get another Uber to the pier once we got to Seattle. And we learned that could have all turned out more expensive than our towncar (actually a very nice, huge SUV) because the pickup and dropoff areas as the terminal are one and the same. We waited forever in line to get out of the SUV and I'm really glad no meter was running at the time.
Boarding was terrible, too. I was glad we had a reusable shopping bag full of snacks with us when we got to security because there was just one plastic tub for putting your metal objects in, and it had splashes of brown cola in it. I threw my belt and wallet in with the snacks and struggled to hold my shorts up. Post-security waiting to board was terrible because we were forced to wait in rows of chairs that faced each other without enough room between them. Picture sitting across from someone with maybe four inches between your knees and theirs, and then you all have luggage. Not fun.
At least when you finally get on the boat and have a crappy buffet lunch while you wait for the ship to head out, you get a very unique view of Seattle.
( Cut for length... )
I agreed to it with no hesitation. By far the most annoying part is just getting on the boat. While we had a manageable amount of luggage that we could carry, the bus just wasn't a great option. We'd have to get an Uber to the bus station, ride a very full bus with morning commuters, then get another Uber to the pier once we got to Seattle. And we learned that could have all turned out more expensive than our towncar (actually a very nice, huge SUV) because the pickup and dropoff areas as the terminal are one and the same. We waited forever in line to get out of the SUV and I'm really glad no meter was running at the time.
Boarding was terrible, too. I was glad we had a reusable shopping bag full of snacks with us when we got to security because there was just one plastic tub for putting your metal objects in, and it had splashes of brown cola in it. I threw my belt and wallet in with the snacks and struggled to hold my shorts up. Post-security waiting to board was terrible because we were forced to wait in rows of chairs that faced each other without enough room between them. Picture sitting across from someone with maybe four inches between your knees and theirs, and then you all have luggage. Not fun.
At least when you finally get on the boat and have a crappy buffet lunch while you wait for the ship to head out, you get a very unique view of Seattle.
( Cut for length... )
