Good Day All! Here we go with Episode #2 in our latest Alaska adventure. 🙂 Last I left you, Chris and I had just stepped on board the beautiful Ruby Princess after taking our transfer from the Seattle Westin to Pier 91. I’ll start this little ditty with a wee video of us right after we boarded. At the end, you’ll see us greeting our dear friends Barb and Don–Boy oh boy was it ever good to see and hug them again!! We just love those two great people!

 

Let me show you the Princess Patter for embarkation day:

For those folks that might not be aware, Princess always has one Main Dining Room open for lunch from noon-1:30 on Embarkation day. Here was the menu for this day as you probably saw in the last page of the Patter above there next to the blue arrow, in the Da Vinci Dining Room:

Barb, Don, Chris, and myself were seated just about first. 🙂 We were sitting there chatting away and then I look up and see my friend and co/admin in the ALASKA CRUISES ON PRINCESS Facebook Group–the group for which we were hosting the Group Cruise. We had never met in person up to this point in time and as you will see in this little video, we were sure happy when we finally got to hug for the first time in person!! What an awesome, sweet moment this was!

Here is a pictures of Pam and myself along with Barbara and Jen…we were 4 happy ladies!! I’m sure the men were super happy too! 😉 Hahaha…

I lost my brain for a while after that sweet meeting, meaning that I didn’t take picture one of our scrumptious lunch, I was having too good of a time socializing. After lunch, we headed to our Stateroom, Mini Suite D506, here are some pictures of our room and I will give you a link to my Arlynn’s Travels narrated YouTube video tour of our stateroom after I show you the pictures:

The balcony is uncovered (didn’t bother us a bit):

Here I am standing out on our balcony, it was quite warm on this day, I’d estimate in the 70’s…hence my bare feet…trust me, those feet were well covered for the rest of the trip. 😉

Here is a link to my narrated video Stateroom Tour:

It was just about time to head off to the muster drill, you can always find where your muster station is located by looking at your cruise card or on the sign on the back of your stateroom door:

Here is a bit more paperwork that was sitting on our desk when we arrived to our stateroom:

We had also ordered a case of water before our cruise via our Cruise Personalizer…it was like $6.90 for 12 bottles of water…a deal. The water was waiting in our stateroom on arrival–important note here, you cannot order a case of water once on the ship, you must do it via your Cruise Personalizer before you board. They also were aware that I had purchased an “Unlimited Soda & More Package” which included fountain sodas, fresh fruit juices, hot chocolate and hand-crafted “zero-proof” mocktails. Also, Chris headed off to the International Cafe to purchase a Coffee Card. Note: Stickers are no longer placed on the cruise card for drink packages and one is not given a coffee card any longer. It all done electronically and when your cruise card is scanned they know what is what.

So I have no memory of the muster drill, other than I know that we no longer need to carry our life vests with us which is a fantastic new perk on Princess ships. YaY!

Our next stop, was our Group Cruise get-together. Pam and I had arranged for a meet-up at the aft pool directly after the muster drill. This is where we would meet all of the lovely folks who we’d been conversing with for months and months in our Facebook group. I was super excited! I had created these magnets to give out as gifts:

And Pam and I had pulled together and each of us provided some little gifts for door prizes…AND check out our sweet necklaces, that sweet lady between us hand made those for us…what a treasure!!

Here are some pictures of our meet up, it was a lovely time of fellowship, laughter, and many hugs!!

We had such a lovely time meeting everyone and putting sweet faces with the names…what a wonderful time we had!!

It was then time for sail-away, here are some pictures that Chris and I caught…Seattle offers up a lovely cityscape:

After we sailed away, we all dispersed and for us, we stopped by the ice cream place for a little cone. 🙂 And I took a few shots of the pool deck and the beautiful outdoor tv screen. 🙂

******BTW Side note****** I had been losing weight before this cruise…I had lost 30 pounds when we stepped onto the Ruby Princess…I have now lost 53 as I write this…I’m hoping to lose 40 more pounds. Seeing these pictures again, are giving me some incentive to continue on my new weight loss regimen. I am not doing anything special except that I have just changed my eating habits, taken my portion size down, I don’t eat a lot of carbs, and I follow that old adage…”Everything in moderation nothing to excess”. Here is a recent picture of me:

And now back to our regularly scheduled programing. 😉

Barb and Don and Chris and I had a lovely dinner together that evening and after that, Chris and I headed back to our room…I was one bushed lady!! The next day would be a sea day which would provide me a nice day to rest up and ready myself…for, I was once again well on my way to my very happiest of happy places, Alaska. I felt blessed and content as my head hit that lovely pillow that night. 🙂

Until Next Time…Y’all take good, good care!! ❤

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~Arlynn