Alaska Cruise – June 2023
Just tooooo much to tell for one post – so y’all buckle up and get ready for several over the next little bit.
June 11, 2023 – Sunday – flying to Seattle with “plenty” of time…
Of course, the excitement starts with arrival at the Montrose airport on Sunday afternoon. Smooth check in and I really appreciated the United gate agent who checked us in an gave us much better seats – together. Then, getting through security went well (I LOVE pre-check!) and here we are waiting to board from Montrose to Denver.
I was thinking – “Great! We are early, no rushing, mom can take her time walking to the plane so she doesn’t aggravate her knee…” Well just as we line up to start the boarding process, two flight attendants (who were already supposed to be on our plane to Denver) were lollygagging around the waiting area. The gate agent chastised them to “get their butts on the plane – very unprofessional!” (paraphrased - you’ll forgive me. It’s my blog after all) The flight attendants then proceeded to educate the gate agent (along with the rest of us) that all flights to Denver were grounded for two hours due to weather.
WELL F&%K. That means we will miss our flight to Seattle. Which means we won’t get to Seattle in time to arrive at the dock by 10:30 the next morning. (insert more curse words running around my head HERE)
Well thank God and the Baby Jesus in heaven that the pilot must have had some similar words running in his head because he managed to scheme a way with air traffic and the storm gods to allow us to leave only an hour and fifteen minutes late. Still a tight window to make our plane in Denver but do-able. Thank God – we made it to DIA – bumpy but we made it.
AND – travesty! No wheelchair for mom…. “It’s coming they say… it’s coming.” Well we managed to find, beg and cajole a very nice man to take mom even though she wasn’t on his little tablet (the ruler of all things wheelchair for United). Just FYI, for anyone who might ever need to know, it is 0.9 mile from gate B10 to gate B67 at DIA. While that’s not horrible, mom probably would not have made it. As it was – with the little, skinny Indian man huffing and puffing as fast as he could (me too) we had about 3 minutes to spare getting to our gate.
Thankfully – made it on with an uneventful flight to Seattle and making it to our hotel about 11pm. WHEW. (Welcome to flying with Tor… man- I’m getting tired of it!)
June 12, 2023 – Get ourselves to and ON the ship!
Nice enough hotel (near the airport) had a decent, hot breakfast included. Free airport shuttle but no free cruise dock shuttle. No worries – we will Uber. Not a problem getting one and he was a great driver, nice man and got us there with no issues. Except for one – we were about (literally) two blocks from the dock and had to stop and wait for a train crossing. A COAL train. (jaw drop here) Yes, we were in Washington, Seattle, Washington. Mom and I were both quite shocked – we figured for sure those folks forbid that “evil black stuff” like Colorado is trying their best to do. Warmed our hearts just a bit.
Now to the dock – great baggage guy grabbed our bags at the curb and sure enough they were waiting for us when we FINALLY got to our cabin - near the cabin in the hall – but close enough.
We had to wait before we could enter our cabin on the ship so we did – by the pool – in the sun – having a couple drinks. (best weather all trip) Got lunch from the buffet around the corner and just looked over some of the “things to do” while we were waiting. I came across the Kayak Excursion offered in Ketchikan. I looked at mom - dead serious - and said we should do THAT. I swear to God I wish I had a picture of the look on her face! Suffice it to say that it communicated, “You fkg idiot - are you INSANE?!?!” I got a good chuckle out of that one.
Now we are waiting, and have been since about 11am, to get in our cabin. By about 2:30, mom was getting a little impatient and asked me to go see if we could get there. Nope, doors to the cabin halls are still closed. They continued to call over the speaker system which decks could go to their cabin. Right about 3pm they announced that decks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 were now ready. WE were on deck 9. I laughed out loud and mom just had that disgusted look again.
The adventure begins…. soon!
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect your price or product –so please click the Amazon link. Thank you for your support!!!!
Just tooooo much to tell for one post – so y’all buckle up and get ready for several over the next little bit.
June 11, 2023 – Sunday – flying to Seattle with “plenty” of time…
Of course, the excitement starts with arrival at the Montrose airport on Sunday afternoon. Smooth check in and I really appreciated the United gate agent who checked us in an gave us much better seats – together. Then, getting through security went well (I LOVE pre-check!) and here we are waiting to board from Montrose to Denver.
I was thinking – “Great! We are early, no rushing, mom can take her time walking to the plane so she doesn’t aggravate her knee…” Well just as we line up to start the boarding process, two flight attendants (who were already supposed to be on our plane to Denver) were lollygagging around the waiting area. The gate agent chastised them to “get their butts on the plane – very unprofessional!” (paraphrased - you’ll forgive me. It’s my blog after all) The flight attendants then proceeded to educate the gate agent (along with the rest of us) that all flights to Denver were grounded for two hours due to weather.
WELL F&%K. That means we will miss our flight to Seattle. Which means we won’t get to Seattle in time to arrive at the dock by 10:30 the next morning. (insert more curse words running around my head HERE)
Well thank God and the Baby Jesus in heaven that the pilot must have had some similar words running in his head because he managed to scheme a way with air traffic and the storm gods to allow us to leave only an hour and fifteen minutes late. Still a tight window to make our plane in Denver but do-able. Thank God – we made it to DIA – bumpy but we made it.
AND – travesty! No wheelchair for mom…. “It’s coming they say… it’s coming.” Well we managed to find, beg and cajole a very nice man to take mom even though she wasn’t on his little tablet (the ruler of all things wheelchair for United). Just FYI, for anyone who might ever need to know, it is 0.9 mile from gate B10 to gate B67 at DIA. While that’s not horrible, mom probably would not have made it. As it was – with the little, skinny Indian man huffing and puffing as fast as he could (me too) we had about 3 minutes to spare getting to our gate.
Thankfully – made it on with an uneventful flight to Seattle and making it to our hotel about 11pm. WHEW. (Welcome to flying with Tor… man- I’m getting tired of it!)
June 12, 2023 – Get ourselves to and ON the ship!
Nice enough hotel (near the airport) had a decent, hot breakfast included. Free airport shuttle but no free cruise dock shuttle. No worries – we will Uber. Not a problem getting one and he was a great driver, nice man and got us there with no issues. Except for one – we were about (literally) two blocks from the dock and had to stop and wait for a train crossing. A COAL train. (jaw drop here) Yes, we were in Washington, Seattle, Washington. Mom and I were both quite shocked – we figured for sure those folks forbid that “evil black stuff” like Colorado is trying their best to do. Warmed our hearts just a bit.
Now to the dock – great baggage guy grabbed our bags at the curb and sure enough they were waiting for us when we FINALLY got to our cabin - near the cabin in the hall – but close enough.
We had to wait before we could enter our cabin on the ship so we did – by the pool – in the sun – having a couple drinks. (best weather all trip) Got lunch from the buffet around the corner and just looked over some of the “things to do” while we were waiting. I came across the Kayak Excursion offered in Ketchikan. I looked at mom - dead serious - and said we should do THAT. I swear to God I wish I had a picture of the look on her face! Suffice it to say that it communicated, “You fkg idiot - are you INSANE?!?!” I got a good chuckle out of that one.
Now we are waiting, and have been since about 11am, to get in our cabin. By about 2:30, mom was getting a little impatient and asked me to go see if we could get there. Nope, doors to the cabin halls are still closed. They continued to call over the speaker system which decks could go to their cabin. Right about 3pm they announced that decks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 were now ready. WE were on deck 9. I laughed out loud and mom just had that disgusted look again.
The adventure begins…. soon!
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect your price or product –so please click the Amazon link. Thank you for your support!!!!
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