Saturday, January 4, 2020; Disembarkation and return to Seattle.
We decided to keep our small carry on suitcases with us for check out, only putting out our large bag last night. We were able to enjoy one last sit down breakfast in the dining room before disembarking. We had heard complaints by other frequent travelers that the service and conditions on this particular cruise itinerary had taken a noticeable downturn. In all our prior cruises, we never had a problem with requesting eggs Benedict in the main dining room for breakfast, but this morning that was not possible. I can’t imagine the ship had somehow run out of hollandaise. But the ship was particularly full with this New Year’s Eve cruise crowd.
Janet and I have done a lot of cruises on Princess (16 on record, 205 days) and we prefer the longer itineraries. The demographics of those cruises tend to skew more mature and less crowded. On this short holiday itinerary, we encountered lots of first time cruisers- many being hosted by parents or grandparents- and a very much younger demographic. There were occasional crying infants, lots of newlyweds, and we even had to dodge dripping wet elementary school age kids in swim trunks racing down the ship’s corridors. That creates a particular kind of thundering sound you can even hear in staterooms on adjacent floors. This contributes to more opportunities for people watching, and reminiscing about our younger days, so it’s not all bad.
Getting off the ship was pretty seamless, requiring only a brief wait in the theater for our luggage to make it to the proper pick up area in the terminal. Once we were lead to the disembarkation ramp, we walked straight through to pick up our checked bag, and then got stuck in the US Customs and Immigration lines. These snaked back and forth like at Disneyland. It took us about a half hour to clear Customs and Immigrations. Then we boarded our Princess Airport transfer bus.
Traffic was uncharacteristically light for Los Angeles. We were able to get our checked bag dropped off and through TSA screening lines by 11am, so from the time we hit our disembarkation lounge appointment at 9:10am to the boarding gate at LAX was about 2 hours.
The terminal this flight was going out of (Terminal 6) seems newer than the last ones we were in for American Airlines flights. The bathrooms were still crowded and dirty, but at least they were larger and there wasn’t a line of 20 men outside the men’s room and 80 women outside the women’s room. There were also newer, but all expensive food venues. It was not possible to find a lunch for under $15 per person. We ended up splitting some Chicken Ciabatta sandwiches. John’s flight was in Terminal 7, a 15 minute walk from our Terminal, so the kids played a card game until it was time to board our flights. There is still a shortage of seating in this terminal and you have to search to find water and power outlets, but they are there if you search hard enough. LAX still ranks at the bottom of the list of International Airports we have encountered in our extensive travels. We hope they will continue to modernize and upgrade.
The flight from LAX to SEA is mercifully short- under 3 hours. There are no entertainment screens on Alaska Airlines seats, so you have to bring your tablet or smart phone if you want to stream entertainment. You still have to download and install the Gogo-in-Flight app to access the content before the flights. It’s funny they don’t cache it on servers on the plane so that passengers can download it during the flight. If you didn’t do that in advance or at the airport, you were out of luck.
The sun set rapidly and the ride was moderately bumpy because of weather systems all up and down the West Coast. We arrived in Seattle greeted by wind, rain and temperatures in the upper 40’s. That’s exactly why we like to travel during our winters to destinations in the south.
This was the first time we actually left our car at the off airport lot to drive ourselves home the 3 hours to Whidbey Island from the airport. It was comforting to have the car start right up, and the seats in our Volvo XC90 are soooo much more comfortable than the airline seats.
We, of course, stopped at Chiang’s Gourmet Chinese restaurant for dinner on the way north. It’s nice to be greeted like family there. They are our kitchen away from home. We know the waitstaff and they know us well. That makes the trip home a little less onerous.
My brothers did push ahead with booking this same cruise itinerary on the same ship to do with our Mother, so we will be returning in just 3 weeks to do this again. We will end up spending more time caring for Betty, so it’s good that we have already been ashore at all the ports of call, and can look forward to a quieter and slower paced experience.
