Photos associated with this recap can be found here.
Author’s Note: I’m writing this at around 10am on 6/28 (ship/Seattle time) from the Great Outdoors café (aft, deck 12, outside but covered) on the NCL Pearl, en route to Alaska. We are traveling at 21.8 knots. It is raining lightly, and the skies are mottled grey. The sea is described the captain as having “wavelets”. Seriously…wavelets. I thought I had made that term up on our last cruise, but it appears to be a true nautical description. We are just southwest of Bolla Bolla, Canada. The speed of the ship is resulting in some serious rocking action. The pool looks like a blast to be in right now…unintentional wave pool! DH had to take some dramamine this morning, and he’s currently in the room sleeping it off. I had breakfast out here, and now I’m sipping my current hot beverage of choice: coffee mixed with one hot cocoa packet. 
As you might infer, it’s chilly out here. I think it’s officially fifty degrees, but there’s a cold breeze and the rain. I’m in a t-shirt, jeans, and sandals, and I’m seriously wishing I’d brought my fuzzy jacket with me from the room.
Seattle:
DH and I were delayed getting to the Milwaukee airport due to traffic, but we still arrived at the airport in the specified hour in advance, with a few minutes to spare even. However, there was a giant line at AirTran to check bags, even if you had already paid and checked in online! We dutifully got in line and waited. Once we got far enough in the queue to be able to see the check-in kiosks, we quickly realized that the problem was that people in line seemed to be waiting for a person to call them over rather than using the kiosks to complete the bag check process. DH and I, as well as another person in line, tried to tell the people at the front of the line that they could just use the kiosks, but they ignored us. I don’t mean they just offered excuses or said they couldn’t use the kiosk. They outright ignored us. So, DH quickly stepped out of line and approached an AirTran rep who wasn’t busy. He tried to explain that the line wasn’t moving because people weren’t approaching the kiosks, and could they please announce to the line that they could use the kiosks to complete bag check? But, the woman was either confused by what he was saying or unhelpful…we’re not sure which. The net result of all of this is that we were checking our bags about 25 minutes before we were supposed to get on the plane. AirTran didn’t give us any grief over this–really, how could they?– but it sucked for us because it meant we were rushing to get to the plane. DH had eaten a small meal before leaving the house, but I had planned to eat dinner at the airport. Fortunately, the bank (which I had gone to like an ADULT) had been having a bake sale for charity, and I had bought and tucked into my purse four homemade cookies. Those cookies saved my sanity, I think. AirTran doesn’t even let you *buy* food onboard. Without those cookies, I would have been in some serious trouble.
To make matters more unpleasant, my seat was wrapped in a garbage bag. I don’t know why, and I didn’t want to ask. The plane was full, so I couldn’t switch to another seat. I was sliding around on a trash bag for four hours, and I was sweaty-butted as a result. It is a testament to the power of cookies, World of Goo, and Glee to bring me joy that I was in a good mood throughout the flight.
One of DH’s good friends from high school lives in Seattle now. (He was the Best Man on DH’s side at our wedding, so you might know him from there. ) We planned to come in early so we could spend some time with him and his long-time girlfriend. I got to see their house for the first time, and it was awesome. They have a bonus room, which immediately made me think of a bouncing star that would give me invincibility.
On Saturday, we helped them with the Microsoft Intern PuzzleDay beta test. Basically, we did the puzzles that the interns would be doing, in similar conditions, to check for any bugs or problems. We were in a group of 12 people, mostly Microsoft employees. The puzzles were incredibly fun, and it made me jealous of the Microsoft interns. I was glad to have gotten to do the event, and I was surprised at how useful I was. I’m not much of a puzzle person, but I am pretty good at cryptograms and crosswords, which came in handy. I’m also smarter than the average bear, and by the end of the day, I certainly felt that statement to be true. Puzzle Day beta went from 9:30am until 5:30pm, including a postmortem. I have to say that I credit all of the organizers of the event. It went almost without a hitch in the beta, and based on rallying experience, I know how much pre-work must have gone into it for it to run that cleanly.
After PuzzleDay, we went to one of their friend’s houses for game night. We played a game called Dixit, which was a much better version of Apples to Apples…it was actually playable and got rid of the “judge decides everything” element. Dixit, if entered in Mindgames, would be a clear winner. Then, we played Vegas Showdown. I should also note that I found the host of the game night to be so hot, I wanted to cry. Plus, he’s a cook, and he had made lamb for us, with the fixings for making soft tacos. It was delicious. I’m beginning to think that the ability to cook well immediately makes a guy hotter to me, in the same way that being a gamer and being smart immediately makes a guy hotter to me. DH would fault me if I didn’t also note that AlexFrog, of BGG fame, was there. AlexFrog wrote the definitive strategy guide for Puerto Rico.
We got back to the house around 1am and crashed promptly. The next morning, our hosts drove us over to Mercer Island for brunch. I had a warm apple granola mix in hot milk, with fresh fruit and apple sausage on the side. DH had super-thick french toast. They had the best grapefruit at this restaurant, no joke. They also provided agave syrup for sweetening tea and whatnot, which was a pleasant treat. Then, we proceeded to the docks, which are literally in downtown Seattle.
On the way to the doc ks, DH spotted the Flying Spaghetti Monster going down the street, and I identified that we were passing by the Seattle Pride Parade. In fact, the space needle had a gay pride flag on top of it.
Embarkation was a bunch of standing in lines…no trouble really, but we were just in lines over and over again until we were finally on the ship.
We got delayed about two hours outside of Seattle because one of the passengers had a heart attack. The ship stopped, and they lowered the man, who was in a stretcher, down to a waiting ferry boat. I felt very sorry for him. What a terrible way to start and end a vacation. Still, if you’re going to have a heart attack and be okay (he was moving his head and seemed alert), that’s an awesome adventure to talk about at home. The casino opened an hour and a half late because of the delay, and, presumably, that’s why we’re hauling butt today. We’re up to 22.5 knots now.
Oh my goodness…they just brought a person in a dolphin costume out here to take pictures with guests. That’s cool. He’s adorable. It’s raining really hard now. Though we’re not that far from land, we can’t see it. I’m getting chilly, so I’m going to head to the room to get my fuzzy and check on DH.
So far, I like the Pearl. The décor is very modern. Our room is smaller than on the Legend, but it’s still adequate; it’s more of a standard cruise ship size.
The colors are bright and cheery. We have run into a couple of problems. I found a kids’ sock in our room from the previous guests, tucked at the back of a shelf. We didn’t have bathrobes or swim towels in our room, and, having asked for them, we still haven’t gotten them. Freestyle dining is great, though. We ate in the “formal” dining room last night. (On an Alaska cruise on NCL, jeans and a polo shirt count as formal.) Then, we went bowling. I started well but finished weak. DH finished strong and ended up with nearly twice my score. The bowling place didn’t have enough shoes in my size, so I had to wait on someone to return a pair to have shoes. That’s what I get for having oddly small feet, I guess. It’s worth noting that my shoes had been used by an 8 year old boy before I used them. They disinfected them and whatnot…but still…I have the feet of an 8 year old boy!