20261020-1021 Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to Wednesday, October 21, 2026; Heading to Spain and Portugal

20261020-1021 Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to Wednesday, October 21, 2026; Heading to Spain and Portugal

We are heading off on another adventure.  This time, we are heading to Spain and Portugal to do a Viking River Cruise on Portugal’s River of Gold, the Douro River.  This runs through the Iberian Peninsula from North Central Spain to Portugal’s Atlantic coast.  We will bookend the river cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Madrid, and post-cruise extension to Santiago de Compostela.  

The getting to and from these destinations is always the least enjoyable part of any trip, but at least we had beautiful fall weather for the start of this trip.  We have a red-eye flight from Seattle to Madrid, changing flights in London’s Heathrow airport after an overnight flight.  To get to the airport in time for the 8:20 p.m. departure from Seattle, we actually have to leave Coupeville at 2:15 p.m.  The airport shuttle only runs every 2 hours, but since we are flying business class, we got to relax in the British Airways lounge before the flight and got an early dinner, drinks, and snacks. 

The British Airways lounge in the South Satellite is adjacent to the SEA Lounge shared by several other airlines, but the British Airways lounge was much less crowded and much nicer.  We had used the SEA Lounge on our last international flight, and it was crowded, run down, and the food was not good.  

We had Viking Air arrange our flights.  We were booked on British Airways via American Airlines, and when we tried to check on seat assignments, we were unpleasantly surprised to see that British Airways was asking for $160 per person for advanced seat assignments even in business class. After contacting Viking Air, Viking Air did get us seat assignments for the Seattle to London flight segment at no extra cost to us, but we had to wait until this morning to get seat assignments for the London to Madrid flight.  We did not get a choice of seats, but at least we got seated together.  This was the first time we have ever had any issue with getting seat assignments for flights.  This appears to be unique to British Airways.  On our return flights, which will be on American Airlines, we were able to get seat assignments in advance for free.  

The flight from Seattle to London passed over Canada and Greenland overnight.  The business class was only about half full in the 777-300 jet.  This worked out for the better because Ben’s seat 16F was broken and would not recline flat.  Fortunately, both the pods in front and behind him were unoccupied, so when the time came to sleep, he just scooted back one seat.  The flight had a full dinner service shortly after takeoff, and a breakfast service about 90 minutes before landing.  Ben watched Disclosure Day, while Janet worked her way through the Lord of the Rings series.  

The flight was fairly smooth, and our seats were situated over the wing box— near the center of gravity and strongest part of the plane.  Even with lie-flat seats, it is hard to really sleep well on planes due to the noise, and Ben checked his O2 saturation with his Apple watch, and it read only 92%, and the watch had recognized the reading was taken at high altitude.  

The 777 must not pressurize the cabin as much as the 787 Dreamliner, so passengers are essentially being subjected to high altitude.  Based on the O2 saturation, it was close to what we had encountered in Tibet.  While Ben had laid in the bed “sleeping” for 5 hours, his Apple watch only gave him credit for 2 hours of actual sleep and gave him a LOW sleep score.  But for a 9-hour flight, we were comfortable, well-fed, and entertained, and didn’t have to hobble off the plane stiff and in pain.  

Although the flight was routed through London, we were able to avoid having to pay for the UK’s new electronic Travel Visa because we did not have to go through UK immigration with our single-ticket travel, but we did have to have our passports and faces scanned as we passed from our arrival gate to our continuing flight gate.  
We had a couple of hours to kill, but fortunately, we had access to the British Airways lounge, where we had lunch.  This lounge was a little more crowded and busy than the one in Seattle, but still well appointed and with good food and beverages.  

The flight from London to Madrid was on an A320 that was basically configured as a single cabin, so business class was just the first 12 rows where the middle seats were blocked out.  We unfortunately got assigned seats in front of the exit row that did not recline, and the passenger in front of Ben shoved his seat back as soon after takeoff as he could, and left it reclined for the duration of the flight.  It was fortunate that it was only a 2-1/2-hour flight.

We arrived in Madrid after dark, so we didn’t get to see much on the drive in from the airport.  We were greeted by a driver holding a Viking placard and had a private transfer to the Hyatt Regency Hespira in downtown Madrid.  As we approached the hotel, the entrance was blocked by police vehicles and security.  

We had to get dropped off on the corner and wait for a dignitary to exit the hotel and be on his way in his motorcade.  One of the officers said it was the President.  When we checked into the hotel minutes later, the staff said they were not allowed to disclose who the dignitary was.  We arrived after 9 p.m., so had missed the Madrid walking tour and talk that was scheduled by Viking from 4:30-5:30 p.m.  

We checked into our room (103), which was nicely appointed but a small room, typical for downtown metropolitan hotels and not much larger than our cruise ship veranda staterooms.  

Breakfast is included, and tomorrow we will have a “Panoramic Madrid” tour during the day and a Flamenco Dinner experience in the evening.  But for tonight, we’re just going to sleep like logs in the comfortable hotel bed after a hot shower.  

20260916 Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Disembarkation and Onward Home

20260916 Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Disembarkation and Onward Home

Princess has a new program for passengers who have TSA PreCheck or Global Entry status, which allows them to skip going through Canadian customs and immigration in the cruise ship terminal.  So-called “Direct to Airport” passengers were gathered together in the Explorer’s Lounge, where they were given excursion stickers matching their luggage group, and then dispatched in batches to load buses and head to the airport.  

Vancouver Convention Center next to Canada Place from our window.

The ship docked at the Canada Place wharf, which is conveniently situated on the waterfront, but because street traffic in Vancouver is bad, it took nearly an hour to get from the ship to the airport.  Instead of getting dropped off at the curb, we entered by some loading docks and then walked into a large holding area where our luggage was segregated by luggage group tags.  We had no trouble finding and collecting our bags before then heading off to the airline check-in counters.

Although we skipped customs and immigration in the cruise ship terminal, we still had to go through US Customs and Immigration to get to our Seattle-bound flight.  Fortunately, there was a Nexus/Global Entry lane which was empty, so we pretty much walked straight through.  All we had to do was stop briefly and look into a camera on an automated kiosk, and then on to an agent who asked if we had anything to declare.  We got waved through after simply saying “no”.  

We were at the boarding gate before 11am where we ran into a pair of women we had been seated with during the one dinner we had with reservations during the cruise.  They were heading to Arizona via Seattle, but were on the flight departing before ours.  We were surprised to see our flight was departing just one hour after theirs, so Alaska Airlines must be running these flights very frequently during the week shuttling passengers between YVR and SEA. 

The excellent weather has been following us all the way from Alaska as we arrived in Vancouver with beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the 60s.  

The flight from Vancouver headed west over Vancouver Island and then turned south over the Olympic Peninsula, which isn’t as familiar to us as the terrain over the I-5 Corridor and Cascade foothills.  Hood Canal and all the inlets and waterways of southern Puget Sound create quite a complex web, but we were able to recognize the twin spans of the Tacoma Narrows bridges and the huge and glorious Mt. Rainier as the jet began its turn to the north for its approach into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Unlike Denali, Mt. Rainier was completely visible with nothing but blue skies all around.  

Since we had cleared US Customs and Immigration in Vancouver, we were able to walk off the plane and collect our bags without delay and actually were able to catch an earlier Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle, getting us home 90 minutes earlier.  It’s quite unusual for us to be able to make it home during daylight hours and in time for dinner.  After all the expensive meals in Alaska, it was comforting to be able to grab dinner at Sonic for just $7 each.  It’s good to be home.  

20260915 Tuesday, September 15, 2026; At Sea

20260915 Tuesday, September 15, 2026; At Sea

The ship’s clocks turned forward an hour from Alaska time to Pacific time, although our smartphones had automatically made that change in the late evening because we had left the cellular on instead of keeping our phones on airplane mode.  

Morning trivia yielded a tie between us and Bob’s team. We each had perfect scores of 20/20.  The tie breaker was how many cruise ships are there in the world.  Ben asked the host if that included river cruise ships and he said ALL cruise ships.  We guessed way high at 2000 thinking there were lots of small river and local cruise ships besides the major ocean-going cruise ships, but the answer he was looking for was 350, which is the number of major ocean-going cruise ships.  Viking Cruises alone operates 89 river cruise ships, and according to Google, there are more than 1000 currently operating river cruise ships including regional small operators.  But we only missed out on eyeglass pouches.  

After trivia, we had a leisurely late breakfast/brunch in the buffet.  

Ben got in one last fitness center run so we could pack up everything in our suitcases once again.  

Instead of lunch, we enjoyed the one afternoon tea that was offered during this itinerary.  We were surprised that there wasn’t that big of a turnout for the tea, but the service and scones were very good.  

We participated in the 4 p.m. afternoon trivia, which was won again by Bob and Neil with 19/20 and a tie breaker of what was the shortest completion time for the NYC Marathon.  They got it to within one minute with the actual time being 2 hrs, 4 minutes and 59 seconds.  

The ship has experienced remarkable sunny and calm weather as it cruises down the Queen Charlotte Strait and Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and the Mainland.  There have been a few whale spottings, including one just before the afternoon trivia.  It was very scenic sailing past uncountable small islands and rocky outcroppings to either side of the ship.  The Holland America Zaandam followed us and behind her was the Coral Princess a couple miles behind. 

Zaandam stalking us through Queen Charlotte Strait.

Remote island in Queen Charlotte Strait

Inside Passage between Alaska and Washington

One significant difference in the scenery between Alaska and these waters between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland is evidence of logging and forestry management.  There are clearly areas that have been previously clear-cut and replanted, delineated by geographic patches with different maturity of trees evident.  There are also sites on the edge of the water where logs are skidded from the hillsides and rafted up on the water for transport to distant mills.  

Zaandam and Coral Princess

Night fell as the ship got past Campbell River, and we had dinner, which featured prime rib and shrimp-crusted Alaskan coho salmon.  Janet also gave the French onion soup a second try, and this time it was piping hot and to her satisfaction.  And of course, they had to have baked Alaska for dessert tonight.  

After brushing our teeth one last time with our electric toothbrushes, we put our suitcases out for collection.

There was an evening music trivia that we participated in where the host again played the songs without editing out lyrics that give away the song titles, but it was still challenging enough.  We bombed on any songs that are from after the 1980s, and there were quite a few from the  2000s and 2010s that threw us.  The team that won pretty much got a perfect score.  There are clearly pop music savants on board.  

The Princess Theater showtime featured something called the Princess World Orchestra.  This is a program where the music director has gathered all the musicians from around the ship onto the stage so in addition to the production show band, there are the club singers and instrumentalists that perform in the lounges and atrium.  They did a medley of music supposedly from around the world including Spain, Brazil, Cuba, and Ireland.  The lounge singer who was the lead vocal was heavy on Gloria Estefan’s songs, but she had trouble stirring up the audience participation she wanted with the theater being sparcely occupied.  We were at the 9:30 p.m. show, which was probably past a lot of people’s bedtimes.  

After the show, we popped up to the buffet to grab a snack.  The buffet closed down at 10 p.m., so all that is available between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. are some small sandwiches, tortilla chips with bland salsa and guacamole, and small cups with a selection of cheeses and dried fruit.  We miss not having an International Cafe on this ship.  

On the way back to the room, we dropped in on the comedian AJ Jamal, and enjoyed the last half of his act, which was the adults-only version of his act.  He was funny and really connected well with the audience in the packed Explorer’s Lounge.  

Zaandam and Coral Princess stuck with us through the night.

Tomorrow we disembark at 9 a.m. and head home.  This has been a short cruise for us.  Although this is our fifth Alaska cruise, we have found each one unique.  We were particularly lucky with the weather at this end-of-the-season cruise.  It has been unseasonably warm and sunny, and the crew has been constantly remarking how unusual this has been.  We were also pleasantly surprised by how scenic the sea day turned out with the ship entering into the Queen Charlotte Strait and narrow Johnstone Strait during the daylight hours.  Cruising into Vancouver through the Inside Passage is vastly more interesting than cruises based in Seattle, which stay as much as 20 miles off the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland as soon as they exit the Strait of Juan de Fuca and leave Puget Sound.

There was minimal adjustment to cruising without the Plus or Premier package drinks, and the ocean-view stateroom worked out fine, except for the Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier days when it would have been nice to be on our own balcony for those days, but because we had nice rain-free weather for both of those days, everything worked out fine.  And Janet really liked the convenience of being so close to the aft elevator lobby, fitness center, public bathrooms, and Explorer’s Lounge.  All were just steps from our doorway.  

Having most recently completed a Viking Ocean cruise from Norway to Iceland, we would have to say the food on Viking is definitely better overall.  While the majority of the meals we had on this cruise were OK to decent, there was really nothing that wowed us.  We really missed the quality cookies and gelato from the Viking cruise, but that was also a much more expensive cruise per day.  As an alternative to a business class return flight from Anchorage to Seattle, this cruise was an excellent value and enjoyable.  

We especially were impressed by the Captain’s Circle and Most Sailed Passengers receptions, which were very nice, especially after being so terribly disappointed with our experiences on the Sun Princess last Christmas.  These smaller Panamax ships still in the Princess fleet do have their advantages when it comes to service and a more personal touch.  

We do have another Princess cruise already booked for Christmas 2027 in the Mexican Riviera, but also made a future cruise deposit on this cruise which is fully refundable and good for on-board spending credit of up to $150 per person.  We’re sure another Princess cruise itinerary will pop up that will lure us back within the year.  We hope they will expand their Africa itineraries, although the Iran war and other conflicts in the Middle East do certainly limit what can be done there.  

20260914 Monday, September 14, 2026; Ketchikan

The ship was sailing through the narrow Ketchikan Inlet when we pulled the curtains back. The ship was scheduled to dock at 10 a.m. We had no booked excursion in Ketchikan, so we had a relaxed morning with a sit-down breakfast.  Ben discovered the avocado toast with smoked salmon and poached egg is a pretty good coastal Alaskan breakfast.

We did the morning trivia and lost by 2 points.  We didn’t know that Las Vegas is the city with the most and largest hotels in the world, but that makes sense and of course Bob knew that.  We also didn’t realize that the Asian city with the largest Metro system is Seoul, South Korea.  While we were in Seoul last year, we were not exposed to the subway system there, but were quite impressed by their infrastructure.

After trivia, we got off the ship and headed towards Creek Street to check out the salmon.  On the way, we came across the US Forest Service Discovery Center, which is a very nice museum.  Janet’s America the Beautiful National Parks pass was good for admission.  

There are great exhibits on the natural history, flora, and fauna of SE Alaska and the Tongass National Park and Forest, as well as exhibits on the various uses of the natural resources found in SE Alaska.

US Forest Service Discovery Center, Ketchikan

Did you know Seals and Walrus are the closest relatives to Bears?

The head ranger there did an excellent talk about the history of SE Alaska in a nutshell, starting with the first encounters between native tribes and the Russian explorers and traders, continuing through to the present day.  She did a great job explaining the forces that led to Russia’s Tsar selling Alaska to the USA, while pointing out that the treaty that the USA signed granted sovereignty and responsibility for control and protection of the described territories, but did not explicitly grant ownership of the actual land.  When the trans-Alaska pipeline was being planned and developed, the rights of native Alaskans became an issue as the pipeline would severely and adversely affect them.  They banded together and through legal maneuvering, were able to get legislation passed on both state and federal levels that granted property rights and ownership rights for native tribal organizations based largely on that loophole in the original treaty between Russia and the USA.  

The museum had a nice theater which screened several short movies on the Tongass National Park and Forest, Ketchikan, and the people who depend on SE Alaska’s resources.  

It is a great museum, and we found it hard to believe we had not stumbled on it or had it recommended on any of our previous Ketchikan visits.  

There is a small fire department museum display very near by, as well as the logger rodeo show.  The crowds inside were making quite a bit of noise cheering and laughing, so it must be a pretty good show.  

The tide had come up as we visited Ketchikan.  There were salmon in the creek in various states of existence, but most appeared pretty beat up, and there were lots of dead salmon in various stages of decomposition in and around the creek.  

We returned to the ship in the early afternoon and had lunch on the pool deck at the poolside grill.  The weather was ideal for our visit.  Although there were more clouds in the sky, there was sunshine more often than not, and the temperature was comfortable in the mid-50s with only a light wind.  The forecast had been for it to be mostly cloudy, but it was mostly sunny.  

We did stop by the lost and found, but our missing trivia clipboard has not been turned in.  

We did participate in the afternoon trivia, but got beat by one point.  And it was Bob and Neal again.  This time, Neal knew the Stonewall Inn was the birthplace of the LGBTQ movement in NYC.  

Janet participated in a Guess the Weight of a Ruby within an EFFY pendant contest.  She ended up with the closest guess and won a bag full of EFFY bling to take home for souvenirs. 

Dinner featured surf and turf with the steak and lobster tail included in the main fare without extra charge.  Over the last few years, Princess had been offering Lobster and Filet Mignon every night for a significant upcharge in the main dining room.  The lobster was a bit overcooked, but decent with drawn butter while the steak cut had a bit of liver flavor, which apparently can be from muscles that are high in myoglobin from too much exercise.  I guess that’s why Kobe beef cows live such pampered lives.  

After dinner, we had a special reception for “Most Traveled Guests”.  This is the first time we have received an invitation to such an event.  We learned that we were among the top 40 most traveled passengers on the ship.  It was a very nice, fancy reception with the ship’s officers in the library with free select cocktails.  The sun was setting through the library’s windows and we had perfect seats to enjoy the sunset with drinks in hand.  

After the reception, we went to the Princess Theater Showtime, which was the production show “On the Bayou”.  This was a show based on New Orleans culture and songs with the singers and dancers.  It was a very entertaining show with great singing and dancing, as well as very fancy costumes and production values.  At the end of the show, the ship’s officers and crew paraded up on stage, including our room steward Jocelyn, for recognition and applause.  

On The Bayou

We wound up the evening with a 50’s and 60’s music trivia.  The host played the songs without editing them to cut out lyrics that gave away the song titles, but even with that, it proved to be a reasonably challenging trivia.  We managed to finish in the top 3 teams, but we ended up 4 points behind the winners who scored 53/55.  We also finished up a Michael Jackson biographical movie on the on-demand video in our stateroom.

Janet has really liked our stateroom location.  F702 is the very first room in the corridor leading to the aft of the ship, and as such, the TV is mounted on a wall that is adjacent to a public bathroom.  This means that we can play the TV at full volume and not worry about it bothering the guests on the other side of the wall.  

This also means that we have a second bathroom just steps from our room, which has come in handy several times when we were having to get ready to go somewhere because there is so little maneuvering space around the stateroom bathroom and toilet.  These bathrooms are kind of hidden behind a wall from the aft elevator lobby and rear exit from the Explorer’s lounge, so they rarely get used. The fitness center, aft elevator lobby, and back entrance to the Explorer’s lounge are also just steps away.  Janet has not been able to hear any of the noise from the Explorer’s lounge, but sometimes it is audible from our stateroom, especially if you stand near the door, but it has not been a problem with sleeping because programs wrap up by 11 p.m. for the most part.  

Our clocks return to Pacific time overnight. Tomorrow is a day at sea as we head towards Vancouver.  We will have to pack up our luggage and prepare for disembarkation.  Our luggage tags and disembarkation instructions actually arrived yesterday.  Having a day at sea is a good way to wrap up an otherwise very busy and enjoyable cruise.