I’ve waited 17 months for this day. And I wasn’t just waiting. For much of that time I was living in lockdown in Seattle near the first confirmed Covid case in the United States. One of the very first outbreaks of the virus was at the Starbucks in my building! Long days in a small apartment in a downtown high rise with Mr. Cruise, my 8 year-old, and my elderly dog. No yard to scoot them out into, no tinkering opportunities in a garage, no school, no work, no visits to the dog park or play dates. But more challenging than all of that? NO CRUISE SHIPS!
Five years ago I retired as a college professor and moved to Seattle to become a full time cruiser (and cruise blogger). And we chose our apartment because it was within walking distance and has an unobstructed view of both Seattle cruise piers. Every year from April to September I’m either on a cruise ship departing from Seattle (or nearby Vancouver) or I’m gazing out at the ships from my living room windows. But not last year. Not a single ship docked in Seattle in 2020 and my last cruise was on NCL’s Pride of America in Hawaii in February 2020.
But Seattle is back! Cruising is back! Carnival is back! And today, I’m finally back!
Many of you have been following along as I prepare for this first post-covid cruise (thank you!). If you’re just joining us, you can get caught up here. I’ll be live-blogging throughout my cruise starting with embarkation, then with my onboard experience, and ending with debarkation. I’ll use three different links (which I’ll be adding to regularly, so keep checking back) to minimize scrolling for everyone. I’ll try to answer all the questions I’ve received so far, but feel free to keep asking questions in the comments. I’ll get to as many of them as I can. I also encourage everyone to follow me on Instagram (@profcruise) if you have it. I’ll be posting many more photos and updates there.
So, here we go!
Who else can’t sleep on the night before a cruise? I always set an alarm clock for 12:01am with the idea that I’ll peel my eyes open just long enough to quiet the loud beeps and smack Mr. Cruise while hoarsely proclaiming, “it’s cruise day!” before falling back into blissful slumber to awaken refreshed and ready to go. But that’s never how it happens.
Instead, I’m tossing and turning and not sleeping as I go over my packing list trying to figure out what I forgot (90% of the time it’s deodorant, which is one of the reasons I sail solo so often). Then a bit before midnight I decide to preemptively turn off the alarm and just get up and do what I always do: sink a spoon into a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and spend the wee hours the day of embarkation watching youtube video tours of my ship and studying deck plans, finalizing my route from the embarkation door to the buffet.
This morning was pretty similar with one notable exception. Instead of mapping out my route to the buffet, I was mapping out my route to the Blue Iguana Cantina, the fast casual Mexican joint onboard the Miracle. Why? Because it’s my favorite spot on Carnival ships AND because it was just added to the Miracle during her recent dry dock and I’m determined to be the first EVER guest to order a burrito from there. Stay tuned to see if I succeed.
As it was approaching 6am I refilled my favorite mug with coffee and watched the sun rise over 3 cruise ships docked in Elliott Bay, including MINE! Gazing at my ship from my apartment, knowing that in just a few hours I’ll walk over to board her is a dream come true. And it’s even sweeter this time around (absence and the heart and all that).
But first they have to walk to Pier 91. So with my documents (boarding pass, passport, and vaccination card) in hand…
I’m off!
I arrived to the terminal at 9:50am and this was my first glimpse at the Carnival Miracle:
I immediately dropped my bag off with a porter wearing an orange vest with a luggage cart.
I tipped him and headed for the terminal doors.
At the terminal doors, there were two signs, one for guests within their confirmed boarding time and who had their documents and vaccination cards ready. The other sign read “Welcome All Others” and led to a snaking line. Since I arrived early to the terminal, everyone was directed to the same line. There were about 20 people ahead of me and the line started to move immediately.
I was inside in under five minutes. The first line inside was for the health check. I reached the front of the line in under two minutes. I showed my boarding pass, my passport, and my vaccine card.
My name was compared on each document to make sure it matched and I was asked to confirm that nothing in my online health questionnaire had changed. My boarding pass was stamped and I was given the okay to proceed up the elevators.
The next stop was security where I put my carry-on bag and phone on the belt to be scanned and proceeded through a metal detector. This whole process took under 5 minutes.
At the top of the elevators was the check-in area where there were two lines, one for suite guests and one for all others. I was immediately directed to the desk where my passport and boarding pass were scanned and I my boarding pass was stamped again. No photo was taken (I assume they used the one from my passport and that it would also be used for facial recognition). I was told I would receive my ship card on my cabin door. The entire check-in process took under 5 minutes. My fastest check-in ever!
I found a seat in the waiting area a few feet from where boarding would begin. This proved to be lucky as at 10:30am, the Cruise Director, the Hotel Manager, and the Captain came out into the waiting area and gave those of us sitting there fist bumps and posed for a bunch of photos.
I felt like a VIP, even though I’m only Gold status in Carnival’s loyalty program.
At 10:45am, our Cruise Director and Captain gave brief speeches welcoming everyone back to Carnival and to the Miracle and there was a ribbon cutting ceremony. My early arrivel at the terminal granted me a front row seat to all of it!
At 11:00am boarding began with suite guests first followed by A1, A2, A3, and A4. Yay, that’s ME! My boarding pass was scanned one more time and I headed out of the terminal, up the ramp, and onto the ship by 11:15am for my first cruise since February 2021.
The embarkation process was seamless and exciting and now I’m sprinting to see if I can be the first ever guest to order a burrito from the Blue Iguana Cantina (newly added during the Miracle’s recent dry dock. Check back soon to see if I did it!
Those who have been following along as I prepared for my cruise know that my mission after boarding was to be the first guest to ever order a burrito from the new Blue Iguana Cantina. I studied deck plans in advance and made sure I checked in and arrived at the terminal ASAP so I’d be one of the first to board. All was going according to plan until I encountered an unexpected temptation just as I was closing in…
Cake! I speed walked by, avoiding eye contact with the cake servers while chanting, “not today Satan, not today!”
As I rounded the corner to the Blue Iguana Cantina, I saw a bunch of crew gathered. I sprinted up to the counter and, out of breath, asked, “am I your first customer?” They confirmed that I was and all started clapping for me. I felt like an Olympic gold medalist, except that I was huffing and puffing! But better, because I was about to eat one if my favorite Carnival cruise foods!
Even before we started boarding, there were regular announcements stating that our cabins would not be ready until 1:30pm. This surprised me as we were the first post-Covid cruise on the Miracle, so the crew wouldn’t have to turn any cabins from the prior sailing. But the guy on the loudspeaker also kept telling us that lunch would be served at the buffet on Lido deck 4. The buffet is on deck 9, so I figured maybe someone gave him all the wrong information to read as a prank.
As it turned out, all rooms were ready and guests had immediate access as soon as we boarded. This will not be the case for future sailings though. So assume your stateroom will be ready around the usual time, 1:30pm.
Ship cards were in an envelope outside each stateroom instead of handed out during check-in at the terminal (I’ve experienced this on other lines, but this was a first on Carnival for me).
My luggage was delivered promptly. It was waiting outside my door when I returned to my cabin around 1pm.
As soon as he first spotted me, my warm and friendly cabin steward introduced himself, asked my name and if anyone else would be joining me, and inquired as to whether I’d like my cabin cleaned in the morning or the evening. Carnival has stated that they are only cleaning cabins once per day right now as an additional safety precaution to minimize contact between guests and cabin stewards.
I’ll be providing a full review of my stateroom in a future post, but for now know that it’s a fairly typical cabin for an older Carnival ship. My only complaints are there is no television signal and the wifi doesn’t work at all in the room. No biggie on the TV, I didn’t plan to watch much anyway. But the wifi issue will make updating the blog much more difficult. You’re probably all cheering right now thinking, “maybe she’ll just get to the point for once!”
You’ve no doubt heard about Carnival’s new muster procedure by now. But it was even easier than I’d hoped! I simply logged onto the HubApp and followed the directions to my muster station.
Once there, there was one crew member holding up a sign confirming which muster station it was, a different crew member with a scanner to scan my card, verifying that I’d completed the drill, and a third crew member who quickly showed me how to properly wear a life vest.
The whole thing took under a minute. There were also two short videos to watch on the HubApp (they may have also been on the television, but I have no signal, so I don’t know). Our cruise director also reviewed a few brief safety procedures over the speaker system just prior to sail away.
Sail away began right at 4pm and it was magical. Right as we started backing away from the pier, some random dude with a white beard pulled up to the end of the terminal a ratty old black SUV and started playing the saxophone. It was VERY Seattle.
And instead of gazing out at Elliott Bay from my apartment, I was gazing out at my apartment and the city I love from a ship sailing out into the Bay. Finally! I took a moment to reflect on these past 15 months. The fear, the struggles, the setbacks, the moments of hope and relief and now…joy. We are back! And headed for beautiful Alaska!
That concludes this installment. I’ll be posting a new link here shortly that will cover the rest of my onboard experience. So be sure to check back! In the meantime, get caught up with all my pre-cruise preparations (including all my communications from Carnival) here. And be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram for additional photos and updates.
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