We flew into Seattle the night before embarkation and stayed at the Hampton Inn downtown. We reserved a van connected to the hotel for $10 a person to pick us up at the airport. The Hampton is located one block from a 24 hour QFC grocery store which we used to get sandwiches, drinks and fried chicken from the deli area. The hotel let us use the microwave in the complimentary breakfast area to heat up the chicken and had outstanding front office staff and real comfy beds.

The hotel is only a few blocks from Seattle Center, which has the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, Key Arena, and the Sci-Fi and Music Building as its main attractions. There is also a monorail station there, which half of our group took the following morning to Pike Place Market downtown, about a 5 block walk from the downtown monorail station. The monorail costs $2 one way or $1 for seniors. The other half of us took the Duck Tour which is also only about 3 blocks from the Hampton. That was a lot of fun.

Then about noon the hotel called 2 taxis for us and we went to Pier 91. The cost was $11 for each taxi, plus tip. Embarkation was quick and we were soon eating the buffet in the Lido restaurant. We liked the variety of food, especially the reuben sandwiches, and didn't miss having trays. Sometimes it was hard to find a table, but we always managed. Most of us usually ate breakfast there, although some of our group had room service for breakfast and enjoyed that. Most of the food at the buffet was served to you, after you told them which of the many choices you wanted. There were quite a few stations, so we didn't find many long lines. There was also a different type of outdoor barbeque each day and a late night snack buffet. Read more