We just got back from the Sun Princess on a cruise through the inside passage. This was our second sailing aboard this ship and was quite a different experience than our first time. 8/6/06-8/13/06
Seattle: We flew into Seattle the day before the cruise arriving about 1pm in the afternoon. We took a limo from the airport which was $40 for the four of us. You can pick one up on the third floor of the parking garage. We stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites on Aurora Blvd. There were four of us (my wife and I and our two sons). The room was a King suite with the king room separate from the room with the two queen beds. The room was clean and relatively close to both the Pike Market and the Space Needle. We spent about $190 on the room and it was well worth it. It had a full kitchen with microwave, stove, refrigerator and dish washer as well as all the glasses and silverware you could want. We walked to Pike Market and must admit we were not very impressed. The market was very crowded and filled with tattooed, body pierced, twenty year old vendors left over from the grunge period (that and 40 year olds trying to act like twenty year olds). Not being into the pseudo-intellectual art crowd we decided to return to our room to rest up. That evening we went past the Space needle in search of a liquor store, which by the way seem to be a rarity in the Seattle area (I guess they are too busy smoking clove cigarettes and drinking coffee). The Space needle was a lot smaller than I thought it would be and was nestled in the center of a loud and obnoxious amusement park. Needless to say we didn't linger.
Embarkation: Welcome to the cattle line. Probably one of the worst embarkation experiences we have had yet. Oh they got through your paperwork fast enough, but then they line you up in a winding cattle line awaiting customs (sans chairs by the way so I hope you don't mind standing for 45 minutes). We had arrived at 10:15 am and didn't get on the boat until Noon.