It included Seattle accommodation, a flight to Juneau, a seven-night cruise on the 458-passenger Seabourn Quest, featuring balcony suites, all wine and liquor included and gourmet dining, two nights in Vancouver with meals and tours, and transportation back to Seattle.
As Oceania cruisers of long standing, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to try out one of the ultra-luxury cruise lines just once. We’ll compare cruise experiences on the two lines at some future point, but for now we’ll just highlight the first enjoyable couple of days.
We met our group, and Alan Schiller himself, at a Courtyard by Marriott near the Seattle Airport. The next morning we boarded our bus at the painful time of 5 AM (we’re lucky as the first group departed at 4:15 AM) for the short ride to the airport.
Our group of about 80 was flying to Juneau, and we managed fly in F, thanks to a couple of phone calls and additional help at the Alaska Lounge.
Once landed at JNU, we boarded a bus for a drive around Juneau, described by the humorous driver as a “killing time tour.”
We were in port at the same time as three large ships, including Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, but the Quest was the only one docked. The Quest is on the left below and the Queen Elizabeth is on the right.
We admit to feeling smug walking past the QE passengers queued for tender service as we boarded quickly.
Our suite is spacious and comfortable..,
The welcoming bottle of Champagne was a nice touch.
Our first lunch in the buffet was as crowded and hectic as we were led to believe it would be, and we exited as soon as we could.
After an afternoon nap to revive us, we tried out the sushi bar. Not bad!
Our first dinner was in the main dining room, aptly named The Restaurant.
We slept long and hard. We awakened to find ourselves in Endicott Arm, a glorious Alaskan fjord nestling us close to Dawes Glacier for several hours. Glorious!
An on-deck restaurant called Earth & Ocean beckoned us with 16-ounce ribeye steaks, and we braved the mid-40s temperature to partake.
First, a little bit of caviar, and then a big steak…
It’s Sunday morning as we post this, and we’ve just docked at the city of Wrangell, located on Wrangell Island at the heart of the Tongass National Rain Forest.
It stays green with an annual rainfall of 80 inches. We’ll definitely carry umbrellas ashore today.
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