Off to Seattle

 Friday, April 29 - MSP to SEA

Our normal pre-cruise routine is to drive to Minneapolis the day before our flight and spend the night with one of our kids or at a hotel with a park and fly option. This time our flight wasn't until 4:00 pm so we were able to eliminate the extra night and leave from home this morning.

I took care of the last few items on my "things to do before a cruise" check list that I keep on my iPad. Some of the reminders are very basic, but checking them off one at a time keeps me focused. By 9 am, Bob was shutting off the water to the house and turning down the temperature on the water heater, the last of the tasks to get completed before we walk out the door.

Our drive to Minneapolis was uneventful although we did run through a short stretch of rain. We were a little too early to go to the airport so Bob made a stop at REI to get a few items he needed. I had made reservations to leave our car at Shepard Road Parking, an offsite airport parking lot. This was our first time to park here and we were supposed to scan a bar code from our confirmation email as we entered. I was trying to explain this to Bob as he pulled in and before I could stop him, he grabbed the ticket that the machine spit out. I wondered if this would affect the parking rate I had been quoted.

The airport shuttle van was circling around the lot and followed us to our parking spot. With the driver waiting, I felt a little rushed as we got our luggage out of our car and loaded into the van and hoped we didn't forget anything.

The only other passengers in the van were a lady holding a toddler. As the shuttle pulled away, she held a container up to the child's mouth who then began to vomit. The ride to Terminal 1 only took about 5 minutes, but the vomiting happened repeatedly. I can only hope the child was car sick, but in reality I doubt that was the case. This might be our first test to see how effective masks are in stopping germs.

Checking our bags and getting through security took a little over an hour! The security line snaked back and forth, the longest I have ever seen. I would estimate only 10 - 20% were wearing masks. 

The security line looking in one direction...

...and looking in another direction.

It was a long walk to get to our gate and by the time we got there we only had about an hour wait. So much for worrying about getting to the airport TOO early.

Our flight was booked with miles and I gambled and picked a window and an aisle seat hoping that the middle seat would remain empty. No such luck...the flight was full. The gal that had the middle seat was more than willing to swap with Bob so we could sit together. 

Bob settled in and started watching a movie before we even left the gate. After thoroughly wiping down every single surface with the provided wipe, I flipped through all of the options on the seat-back screen, but nothing looked interesting. 

Taking off from MSP

For me, the minutes seemed to drag on forever. The air flowing out of the ceiling vent was barely noticeable and with the KN95 mask, I felt claustrophobic. Delta (and T-Mobile) provide free texting on flights so I tried to distract myself by texting various people and playing games on my phone.

I see snow capped mountains below!

Our arrival time was adjusted during the flight and we arrived nearly 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. After a quick potty stop, our bags were already on the carousel when we arrived at baggage claim. 

Our approach into SEA

Once we got to Ground Transportation at SeaTac we called the SureStay Plus hotel and their shuttle arrived within 15 minutes. The hotel on 28th Avenue was new and extremely close to the airport. Our 4th floor king room had a view of the parking lot, but otherwise was great. I felt like I got a decent deal when I first booked our room, but a couple of weeks ago I noticed the price had dropped and made a new reservation to take advantage of the savings. 

With the two hour time change, we arrived at the hotel around 6 pm, but our tummy-time was 8 pm. Our hotel was nestled in amongst many other airport hotels, but no restaurants were close by. I had brought along some snacks in my backpack and we made do with those for a light supper. There will be plenty of opportunity to eat once we get on the ship.

I happened to see a post on a Holland America Facebook group that our port time in Ketchikan had been shortened. When I checked the Holland America Navigator app for our cruise it did show that all aboard time was now 11:30 instead of an hour later that we were expecting. This was a big problem because we had a 4-hour pre-paid independent tour booked that began at 8 am. I tried calling the tour company but just got their voicemail. I explained the problem and hoped we could get it figured out somehow.

While Bob watched TV, I began looking through the posts on the Cruise Critic forums online. Repeatedly I was reading about passengers who caught covid and were being isolated on the ship. Their stories sounded more like solitary confinement with very little food than being looked after and cared for while fighting a scary disease.

Instead of being excited about boarding the Eurodam tomorrow, I went to bed feeling anxious and worried...