A Princess Coronation- Discovery Princess to Alaska

Andrew Ford · June 1, 2022

After being exclusively Royal Caribbean for a few years we've been spreading our wings recently. We were able to get a really great deal on a brand new ship, on an itinerary we've never been on, and during a time that worked great for both of us at work, and with my daughter's school schedule. So what's not to like..... It means we had to give princess a try. We had originally booked a late July sailing on Quantum of the Seas, but when this opportunity came up, we decided to take the FCC and apply that to next year's Odyssey sailing.

The specifics

Sailing with- This sailing will just be me, my wife, and daughter (12)

Ship- Discovery Princess. The newest ship in the fleet and the last ship in the Royal Class from Princess. It looks like a ship made for big ship Alaska cruises. So while we don't get to visit the small places, I'm firmly in camp Big Ships are Best.

Room- we booked a mini suite on the Riviera Deck, Deck 14 roughly midship. One other great feature is that it's on the hump which means a slightly larger balcony. The mini suites also have a full size shower/tub and some separation between the sofa bed where my daughter will sleep and the main sleeping area. Also, not that it matters with limited content, but there's also two TV's in the room. One thing we made sure of is to only have rooms above and below, meaning no public decks above nor below your room. It dramatically cuts down on noise.

Itinerary-

We'll be flying from Orlando up to Seattle on 6/10, luckily there's a non-stop out so it should be fairly painless for a six hour flight

Hotel- I'm a Hyatt loyalist, and had some expiring certificates, so we'll be staying at the Hyatt Regency Seattle. I was able to apply a suite upgrade certificate which gives us a bit more room to spread out. It's also right down the street from one of my favorite Dumpling spots, Ding Tai Fung.

6/12- Depart Seattle

6/13- Sea Day

6/14- Ketchikan 6:30am-3pm

6/15- Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier 5am-9am

6/16 Skagway 6am-5pm

6/17 Sea Day

6/18 The obligatory Canada Stop in Victoria 7pm-Midnight

6/19 Debark Seattle, and noon flight back to Orlando with a stop in Atlanta.

Andrew Ford · June 10, 2022

Today's flight day. Going to be a long flight out west, but luckily it's a non-stop flight so less to worry about with luggage, etc..

All three Covid tests today came back negative as planned. For anyone who hasn't done it, the EMED proctored test are well worth the costs. No waiting in line, rushing to schedule appointments, just a quick 15-20 minutes on the app where I can work while waiting and we were all done.

Andrew Ford · June 12, 2022

Day 0 Seattle

After arriving a little after 11 last night (2am Eastern for us) we settled into our room at the Hyatt Regency Seattle. I was able to use points and apply a globalist suite upgrade and was able to confirm an Executive Suite a couple of months ago. We were assigned a room on the 44th floor with 180 degree views of downtown Seattle and the water. Unfortunately there’s a building between us and the terminal so we can’t see the ships.

The room itself is great with a separate bedroom, two full bathrooms, and my daughters favorite part, a giant bath tub. There’s plenty of space to spread out and if we were staying long the big dining table would definitely be handy.

After grabbing some breakfast at the Hotel’s restaurant (the regency club is open but only for snacks and drinks) we decided to check out the touristy sites of Seattle. First up was the Space Needle which was easiest to get to by using the monorail. The Seattle Monorail only has two stops, one right down from our hotel and one right near the Space Needle. Rides are 1.50 each way.

The Space Needle was cool, however having a room on the 44th floor means we’re already almost at eye level (476 feet for our room verse 520 feet for the observation deck) but the cool part is definitely the see-through floor and the quick ride up to the top. It was while waiting we figured out that everyone was in Seattle today and a trend that continued was too many people right on top of each other.

Once our time up top was complete my wife wanted to check out the Chihuly Gardens and Glass right next door. They thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the displays throughout the exhibit. So many cool colors and shapes from a world-class glassmaker.

Anyone who’s seen an NFL, MLB, NHL, or back when the Sonics were here NBA game based in Seattle has seen the Pike Place market and certainly the fish market where they throw fish for show. The market is a good mix of local vendors peddling their wares, but between the Good Weather, cruise ships coming and going, and being a Saturday the place was mobbed. It’s also the home of the Original Starbucks for anyone who likes Burnt Coffee.

We weren’t about to wait about an hour in line for a Starbucks so decided to head to Cutter’s Crabhouse for a light lunch. Service was slow but Friendly and the Cheese Curds made with local Beecher’s cheese were delicious.

We made our way back to the room for a little bit of a recharge, for both ourselves and our phones and grabbed some drinks from the Hotel Lounge. Dinner tonight took us to Ding Tai Fung which is a favorite of mine after discovering the one they put in Aria Vegas a few years back. It’s a classic Taiwanese dumpling shop (they have other food too but I’ve never gotten past the dumplings) that does almost everything to perfection.

A staple of any meal there is the XLB (Xiao Long Bao) which are sumptuous Kurbota Pork soup dumplings that I could probably eat two dozen with if left to my own devices. As it was my wife and daughters first time we mixed in some other kinds as well to varying degrees of success. Some like the Spicy Wontons were big hits, while the Pork and Kimchi dumplings didn’t work. The surprise winner was the Chocolate Mochi Xiao Long Bai which is a little pocket of warm chocolate.