But we still had a ship to disembark, and I love the way Holland America does this. Guests are welcome to wait in their cabin until their time to walk off. We sat in the buffet until about 9am, returned to our cabin and then just a few minutes after that, our color luggage tag (the last one) was called. It was nice not to have to haul our carry ons around the ship with us until we were leaving. Along the way from the buffet until we walked off the ship, every crew member -every one!- made of point of stopping to thank us for cruising with them, wishing us a safe onward journey and telling us they hoped to see us again soon. It was more like leaving a friend’s house than leaving a cruise ship. We were deeply touched.
Dragon fruit, sweet cherries and persimmon
Fruit plate, Holland America style
Our luggage was part of just a handful left in the terminal, and we set out to walk to the Uber and Lyft pickup point, which is bit of a walk (I heard there was a shuttle, but we didn’t see it). We waited just a few minutes for a Lyft and were at out hotel for the night, The Mediterranean Inn in the Queen Anne neighborhood just ten minutes later. We booked this pretty fast when we booked the Nieuw Amsterdam cruise at the last minute, and it is entirely suitable for a pre-cruise stay, much cheaper than the Westin. I’ve stayed at the Westin a lot over the years, but only when I traveled on business. On my own dime, it’s The Mediterranean Inn. We stored our luggage and walked to the Safeway behind the hotel, where G got some Mountain Dew (and the world heaved a sigh of relief). We were lucky; we were in our top floor room with a view of Puget Sound by 1:30pm. With a safe to lock up our valuables, we took a Lyft over to the Pike Place Market just to walk around. We’d both be there several times before, but not for a few years. And although it was only about 1.5 miles from our hotel, we wanted to avoid the homeless encampment around there and used a ride service.
On the way back, we picked up some dinner and ate it on the rooftop terrace at the hotel, with several other people leaving on the Majestic Princess tomorrow and watching-well, it wasn’t exactly a sunset- while darkness fell over the city.
Rooftop terrace, Mediterranean Inn
We are taking a shuttle tomorrow back to Pier 91 and our rendezvous with the Majestic Princess. We hope that it feels like home to us in a way the Nieuw Amsterdam didn’t. The weather forecast for the entire week is for heavy rain -oh boy- and we do have a couple of excursions planned, but we also have purchased Princess Plus with the unlimited drink package, and I will not be disappointed if we just eat, drink, and be merry.
I don’t like the sound of that!