Northbound Alaska Cruise

Flying to Seattle this evening.  Found out it is cheaper for us than flying into Victoria.   We will spend the night here.  We are booked at the Cedarbrook Lodge.  It looks really nice online, plus lots of great reviews.  I understand they have free hagen daaz ice cream bars, bottled waters, yogurt, and string cheese, along with a variety of malted milk balls.  So my guess is we'll be checking that out for our midnight snack! 

Trying to reserve a town car service for transport to the Clipper ferry in the morning.  We are using Already There Towncar Service, hopefully.  The hotel has a free continental breakfast starting at 6:00am.  We may have to grab a muffin and go. 

We hope to be on the 7:30 am ferry.  Should be a scenic ride.  Arrival at Victoria at 10:30. 

Edited to add:  We were told that during traffic in the AM, it can take up to an hour to get from an airport hotel to the pier area downtown...so switching lodging to Pan Pacific located not too far from the pier area. 
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WE'RE BACK!!  So I'm going to try to edit this plan to add a few more comments.

First of all, Royal Caribbean moved our trip from May to end of June because they were taking the ship into drydock.  This worked to our favor.  They covered our change air fees, plus gave us some shipboard credit, plus it was nicer weather in June. 

Okay, we flew Southwest to Seattle.  I debated on whether to pay their early bird check in.  I did not.  However, I wish we had.  We checked in 24 hours before our flight and ended up in the B loading group.  So we were in the back of the plane and therefore we were off last.  Other than that, the flight was fine.

We arrived to Seattle and called "Already There Towncar" to tell them we were waiting on the curb.   In about 5 minutes, a nice looking towncar pulled up and asked if I was Cheryl.  Seattle airport pickup area was crazy.  People were double parked everywhere.  We got in the town car.  Our driver was silent the entire ride.  My husband thinks he might have been Russian.  So I was a bit disappointed that he wasn't chatty or telling us a bit about Seattle.  The traffic was terrible on the interstate and it was just a Wednesday afternoon.  The cost of the town car service was 45 plus 5 for using their booster seat, plus tip.  I thought the fee for using the booster seat was a little over the top. 

We arrived at the Pan Pacific.  Very nice hotel!  We were impressed.  We had a king room with a sofa bed for our son.  We went a few steps to the left of the door and into Tutta Bella Neopolitan Pizza.  I had printed a coupon for a free pizza with the purchase of a pizza.  So my husband and I each ordered a personal size (8 inch) pizza and we got the free pizza for our son.   It was happy hour so the 8 inch pizzas were about 6 dollars if I remember correctly.  It was an early dinner hour, but we are about 3 hours ahead of Seattle so it was time for us to eat! 

Then we took a cab to the aquarium.  The aquarium was only open for 1 more hour and the cost for the three of us to get in was 50 dollars.  That was a bit steep, but we paid it and we enjoyed it.  Then we walked from that pier 59 up to the Clipper pier 69.  We walked in there to get our boarding passes for the next morning.  This proved to be a great move.  More on that later. 

The man at the Clipper called a cab for us.   Outside a man in a towncar offered to take us back to our hotel, but we didn't know him and didn't see any markings on his vehicle so we declined.  It was a nice car though and it sure beat the stinky cab we got in to go back to the Pan Pacific. 

Back at the hotel, we took the outdoor elevator down one level and we were right in inside the Whole Foods grocery.  We went to the deli area and got a dish of gelato for me and one for my son.  Also got a loaf of bread for the cruise.  (our son loves PB sandwiches). 

Then we went back up and into the hotel to our room.  Loved the soaking tub.  The room was perfectly clean and the bed was great.  We had a knock on the door and they delivered two chilled bottles of water.  We used the wine glasses and toasted to our vacation with our son!  (he's 6). 

One of the bellman gave our son a gift bag with a coloring book, crayons, and a stuffed panda bear. 

In addition to the pizza place and Whole Foods, there's also a Starbucks right there.    We could see the Space Needle, but we did not go there.