I have made a disastrous discovery! I have brought my knitting needles and my sweater that I am currently knitting but forgotten the wool at home that I meant to bring with me to knit another cardigan while on the cruise ship! What a nightmare! First thing, thank goodness there is a yarn store in Pike Place market which is near by, is for me to get some yarn for my planned project! Now that I have scoped out the location (it is currently about 4am when I came to this realization) I can go back to sleep and dream of yarn and knitting until it is time to get up, get breakfast and go for a walk!
Again, a great breakfast at the Plow restaurant at the Marriott Hotel – a tiny bit disappointed that they only have gluten free bread on offer and no muffins or bagels however I am happy with my omelette, fruit, yogurt and piece of bread! Next, Google Maps (notice I am using it today) tells us the wheelchair accessible route to Pike Place Market is basically a LONG Zed of a switch back down the waterfront street and back up a long side walk climbing up a hill and then cross the street and switch back to climb a gradual hill to Pike Place Market. If I were able bodied we could just walk along the waterfront and take the stairs up. I am not doing that option today as I need my energy to get onto the Noordam later! So off we go on our journey!
We walked along about 6 city blocks and switched back up the hill. Got to the top of the hill where the light was, basically at the top of the Marriott Hotel, where we had began (but 8 floors up) and low and behold people are walking towards us with suitcases along a pedestrian overpass from an elevator that they took from the street level (yes another Norwegian Cruise Ship had docked) next to the Marriott Hotel! This “shortcut” from street leads right to the street to Pike Place Market! Thanks Google Maps for the workout and the switchback of a kilometer to get to this point! Going down will be easier!
Now we walked along a much less steep street to the Pike Place Market. We checked out the Pike Place Market viewpoint and saw the waterfront below us which included our hotel, the Norwegian Ship, the harbour and the football and baseball stadiums to the south. Nice couple enjoying the view and smoking some local greenery too, first thing on a Sunday morning!
We got into Pike Place Market, where I have been before, avoided the flying fish (if you do not know what I am referencing check out this) link: https://youtube.com/shorts/RGZQHgSnHNY?si=6chBnQ-5u0D3ladx and made our way to the elevator to get to the Yarn Dragon store. This is one of two Yarn Dragon stores – never been to either of them however I chose this one as it was the easiest to get to. The other one was their factory outlet which was a couple more blocks away and I was concerned about getting enough skeins of the same colour lot for my projects due to it being a factory outlet.
WOW – what a really cool store! While Andrew patiently waited, I power shopped for some wool and had lots of fun! Yarn Dragon makes and dyes their own wool and I got two types – one of DK yarn for a sweater set and then some thinner yarn for a different sweater project – just in case! They will be revealed later in the cruise as I got to finish what is on my needles first!
Now that power shopping was done, it was time to get back to the hotel, via the elevator that we found, to finish closing up our suitcases and wait for the shuttle to pick us up to take us to the Noordam ship, which was berthed at Pier 91 (the Marriott Hotel was across from Pier 66). It was going to be about a 15 minute drive to north Seattle along the waterfront. I did have time though to chat with my friend Tanya, who I met when she worked part time for my friend Karen. Tanya helped me after Karen passed away by staying in Karen’s house until it was sold and assisted with all the things that we needed to find new homes for during COVID – what an experience that was! It was wonderful to be able to catch up with her!
The shuttle soon picked us up and we were off to join the Noordam and our cruise to Australia, via Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu Islands. It was really surreal for me when we got to Pier 91 as it is also the same Pier where the ships that travel up to Alaska for the Pollock and King crab fishing depart from. There was a beautifully designed building which houses those businesses, which are seasonal and mostly run out of Seattle. There also is a ferry and barge system that has scheduled round trip service out of Seattle that makes stops in the Aleutian Islands (I worked on the Island of Unalaska back in my software installation days) to supply food and other items and they also stop in Anchorage before returning to Seattle. It was interesting to see where all this takes place after spending the time in Alaska working and seeing how the people living up there depend on the shipments coming by sea from Seattle. Some of the ships seen on the TLC show “Deadliest Catch”, sail out of Dutch Harbour, on the Island of Unalaska, which is where I went to install the Parks and Recreation software a few decades back.
Here are the pictures of us approaching Pier 91, the Alaskan fishing building, the Noordam and getting on board the ship!
Boarding a cruise ship sure has gotten easier from the last time we did it! I remember in Fort Lauderdale when we were going Trans-Atlantic on the Nieuw Statendam the double COVID testing that had to be done, the waiting for test results and then we were allowed to board. Today was TOTALLY smooth other than the security lady who insisted on wanting to pat me down as she thought I could not walk through the metal detector! I went through the metal detector just fine. They scan your passport, take your picture and voila! You are allowed to get onto the ship! We soon got to our stateroom and like on the Nieuw Statendam, we are in the bow, but on the port side this time! We have a bow window, along with a balcony off the port side where I will be spending some quality time in the deck chair – if not on the Promenade deck! Here is a tour of our stateroom!
Now, onto more important things! Food! I met with the special diets coordinator about 3pm and ordered dinner, which on cruise ships is always appreciated especially for the first night’s dinner so they are not scrambling to find something safe for you to eat. I do register in advance on the Special Services form that I have Celiac Disease which is passed onto the ship for provisioning purposes. I found out how important that was when we were on a cruise in the Caribbean where there were about 10 people with Celiac Disease onboard, and about 200 people “choosing” to eat gluten free, out of the 2000 people on board. On that 14 day cruise, the ship actually started running out of gluten free products and had to start rationing and providing the gluten free items (Kinnickinnik and Udi’s for example) to only those who had pre-registered and indicated Celiac Disease as a medical requirement for the cruise. I was told to always fill out the form, which I now also do as part of my other medical conditions when traveling on a cruise ships to qualify for the accessible stateroom.
I was really impressed with the way that Holland America is handling the allergen and Celiac meals for this cruise! Normally I go to the maitre’d and have a chat with them. This time there was a separate person at a table for me to talk with instead – so I did not have to line up with all the people wanting to change their dining table arrangements – much faster! She took my dinner order for tonight, along with my breakfast order, as I like to have a standing breakfast order that Room Service delivers each morning along with whatever Andrew decides he wants to eat. This system works well I find! We then went up to the Lido deck and talked to the chef up there to find out about their gluten free options and it was the same as when we were on the Nieuw Statendam – the Italian section is still where the gluten free food is stocked! Kind of ironic – Italians have such a gluten based diet however one of the most Celiac friendly countries to travel to is Italy!
Now it was All Aboard Time – 4pm! The Captain announced that we would be backing into the Seattle Harbour and then “swinging the compass” which is normally done at either the beginning of a series of cruises, such as when a ship re-positions to say Vancouver going to Alaska for the summer, or such as we are on, a trans-Pacific cruise (happened on our trans-Atlantic cruise too) or a cruise with a lot of sea days such as Vancouver to the Hawaiian Islands return that my parents, Andrew and I did. It was kind of strange backing into the Seattle Harbour! On top of that, the Norwegian Ship was leaving at the same time, and just before we started our two x 360 degree pirouettes, they passed by us with lots of room to spare. The Norwegian ship looks so top heavy on its way back to Alaska for the last run! We continued our slow but steady, two turns in the Seattle harbour while the Coast Guard dutifully watched us!
Now, lets get some food into our bodies! Off to the Dining Room we go – to the other end of the ship! That is about 1200 steps for me if anyone is counting…. 🙂 The pedometer on my watch does keep track of my steps, however when you use a walker, the steps are not always recorded correctly so sometimes I put my watch on my ankle to get an accurate reading for a certain distance that I need to walk on a routine basis. Now I know how long the ship is in steps for me! Next up will be a lap on the deck.
We have a really nice table for 2 on the upper floor of the dining room. Our waiters are Ade (male) and April Joy (female). They are both VERY nice! Ade is from Indonesia and April Joy is Thai. It is great seeing a female waitress again in such a male dominated industry on the cruise ships. The dinner was very good tonight – I had a salad, Mahi Mahi and was going to have ice cream however switched at the last minute to the Pavlova which is the national dessert of Australia! Andrew consumed beef like he normally does when we do not have to share a meal…
Now the Noordam is starting to get some movement as it heads into open water between the Olympic peninsula and the bottom tip of Vancouver Island – looks like we are going to be rocked to sleep tonight! See you tomorrow!