justhappy

I don’t remember if the Starbucks had pumpkin spice but when I go back today I’ll ask. The scalloped potatoes were really good, very creamy and cheesy, in fact all the sides were much better than my last meal in Cagneys. The creamed spinach was much better. I remember complaining about the fact they were not as good as before due to lack of cream and no seasoning and these definitely had more, plus I could taste the nutmeg which makes the dish pop! I’ll be raising a glass of water and drinking a toast you you my H2O buddy. And completely agree on the hash brown rounds. I’ll cry if they ever take those away!

A MASSIVE TWO STORY FIRE ON THE ECORE!!!! 😂😂

Our current conditions are foggy but not too cold outside. A Carnival ship is passing us.

After the show I wanted to check out the casino but it didn’t open till 9:30 and it was only 8:30. We decided to head in for the night and that work out well for us as we got a good nights sleep and were awake at 5 am. After a quick shower we headed first to Starbucks for a hot caramel macchiato for me and a a red eye for DH. No line at 6:10 am. No lines anywhere! By 6:15 we were seated in the Local for breakfast.

After dinner we went to see The Beatles in the main theater. They kept it real because Ringo could not sing. I’m wondering if the guy sang off on purpose to truly play the part😂 The show was well attended and good if you’re a Beatles fan. I was 10 in 1967 so a little young to be a screaming teen fan but I had two older sisters who were, and they played those 45s nonstop. We had a cat named George, can you guess who was their favorite 😉

We met for dinner at Cagneys at 5:30. We asked if they were seating outside and the hostess said we could have a window table. A few minutes later they seated a couple outside.🤷‍♂️ What the ? We stopped the restaurant manager and asked what’s up and she was very apologetic and said they try to discourage outdoor dining on the first day as the ship is sailing very fast and it gets very windy and very cold fast. She later brought by a bottle of wine for us to take back with us and we told her just let us know if they saw any wildlife 😉 She came by often to make sure we were happy. Other that a filet being ordered medium rare and being delivered rare, all the food was excellent and I don’t think I’ve ever had better grilled asparagus than what I had last night. Heres some food porn~

After we spent an hour hanging out on the Waterfront we gave our friends a short tour of the ship. We explored the racetrack and laser tag areas, walked past the pools and slides. They were in high demand due to the high temperature. It looked the the pool deck of a Caribbean cruise. We cruised through the buffet and stopped to get a soft serve cone to go. I think they have a good feel for the layout now. We headed back to our respective rooms to unpack luggage, but our luggage didn’t arrive until 4pm. Deck 11 had luggage by 1pm. It makes me think they may have started delivering by floor, which makes sense to me. Our stateroom attendant delivered the luggage and introduced himself, then asked if we needed anything. Since we are just a few doors down from the observation lounge and have the P+ package we didn’t feel the need for a coffee maker. The stateroom itself is in very good condition and I love a club balcony suite for the shower.

Current Officers on the Encore 8/27/2023

After lunch we headed to the Cruisenext desk to sign up for the behind the scenes tour and buy some more cruisenext certificates, since we are down to one and have cruises planned for next year. Trey at the cruisenext desk helped us book our entertainment for the cruise and offered up the dining with the officers and Wine tasting but we declined those two. Ive got to say he’s a funny and friendly guy. Bonus of no lines anywhere. We then headed right next door to Starbucks and we both got Mocha mint Frappuccino concoctions that were very yummy. We went and sat out on the Waterfront and waited for our friends to join us.

After a very quick trip through security, we had another very short wait to check in and then headed to the waiting area. At 11am they called for special assistance boarding, then Priority Boarding and Latitudes boarding. They then immediately called for Casinos at Sea and we were on the ship by 11:05am. We were eating in the Local at 11:15! Cobb salad for me and and pretzel rolls and a Rueben for DH.

@NW Pacific An update for you, I wasn’t able to get a photo but just inside the entrance there is a large banner for the Haven, and they were directing Haven guests to the right and everyone else to the left. It’s very easy to follow. Everything is very different in the terminal from last year, but last year was still under Covid protocols.

Thank you for the kind words!

Some jellyfish floating around and a seagull found a snack.

Turn around day is organized chaos. we geeked out watching the ship being loaded with supplies and luggage being offloaded. Crew members were getting off to shop in the crew store while a group of new crew members were waiting to board the ship.

@NW Pacific This is all the signage outside the terminal this morning. No special Haven signage but I’ll look when we check in later today.

Cruise day! The Encore was docked before 6 am this morning. Even though I woke up at 4 am 😬 I missed seeing it actually pull into port. We are about to head out to the street to get some photos. From the room-

A short walk back to the hotel and after a few drinks from the hotel bar we decided that we were still full from our lunch and skipped dinner. Tired from our adventures and 6 miles walked I headed back to our room to update this trip report and semi pack for in the morning. I’m sure the guys are still hanging out in the bar debating the merits of scotch vs whiskey. My hope is I’ll be up early again to go out and see the Encore around sunrise. Tomorrow is the day!

After an hour and a half at the museum we decided to Uber back to Pike Place for lunch at the Old Stove Brewery. Great beer and great food was enjoyed by all. I had a stout that I don’t remember the name of, while DH had a stout that is aged in bourbon barrels. We both enjoyed these. We enjoyed the old beer commercials that were showing on the screens. I do remember some of the commercials from the 70’s! We split the Green chili chicken sandwich and the Clam chowder which was surprisingly spicy, but good. Pretzel bites and Shrimp cocktail were shared among all of us. Fat and happy we rolled out and made our way back to Pier 66 to take in the Bliss again from the observation deck.

We then spent an hour browsing the stalls and booths at the Market. Saw fish thrown. Smelled beautiful flowers. Admired the fresh produce. We shopped in our favorite store full of movie and tv memorabilia. Got grossed out by the gum wall 🤢 It started getting crowded by 10:30am so we headed back to the hotel, dropped off a few purchases and then walked down to the pick point for the free Seattle Waterfront shuttle by Pier 69 for a ride to the Chihuly Museum and Gardens. By 11:30 we were in the museum. This is a don’t miss in my opinion and our friends agreed.

We had a great time in Seattle today. I left it up to my friends to decide what they wanted to do since we’ve been to Seattle many times. I did suggest that if they wanted to go to Pike Place we go early as I knew it gets very crowded as the day goes by. We were at the Market by 8am. We took the elevator at Lenora Street to get up to the market. Our first stop was at Le Panier for breakfast goodies and we took them to the outside seating at the Market overlooking Elliott Bay.

There weren’t any signs outside of the building for the Haven that I could see this morning, but I’ll double check to confirm tomorrow.

As soon as we got back to the hotel we all crashed, we are dealing with a 2 hour time difference and our friends a 3 hour difference. I woke up this Saturday morning feeling much better but still woke up at 5 am. After a shower and cup of coffe, we looked out the window to see the Bliss docked outside. We walked across the street to the port and walked up to the observation deck that’s on top of the port building and got some great photos of the Bliss and the Seattle skyline. It feels so freaking good outside at about 61 degrees. There is a heat advisory today as the high is supposed to be in the upper 80s. I can deal with that! Alaskan Way is currently closed off for several blocks to through traffic in front of the hotel and pier. I noticed buses this morning were having to drop off down the street near the Edgewater Hotel. Some photos from this morning

After arriving at the hotel and putting away our luggage we met our friends at the bar and drank so….much….. WATER! We were so dehydrated after nearly 6 hours on a plane, despite constantly drinking water. I scored my personal best aft lavatory visit record on the flight from DFW to SEA. I have several new friends that were sitting in the last row😂 We recouped and made our way down Alaskan Way towards Ivar’s. The sky here is so smoky due to the wildfires that everything was hazy. It’s still hazy this morning. I’m hoping tomorrow we will be able to see Mt Rainer. The food was good but the service was horrible so we chalked it up to travel day demons. Everyone had a salad of one type or another and cups of clam chowder. I just drank more water while DH had a Rainer beer. Because Walt Lomgmire drinks Rainer beer 😉 The walk back to the hotel was lovely in part due to the smoke giving the sky a reddish hue. I can’t I tell you how glorious the lower temps and humidity feel to these southerners!

Travel day: Like fight club let’s not talk about travel day shall we? Through a series of misadventures and airline fueling operations, we still managed to make it to Seattle. To me flying is a necessary evil, like colonoscopies. I feel much the same after both. We texted our friends and told them to just get themselves to the hotel and we met them there a few hours later. While we didn’t get the great room with a view we got last year, this is my current view