Friday, May 23, 2014

Alaska Day 1: We're here! Bon Voyage

We arrived at the San Francisco port at about 1 pm, checked in, boarded the Star Princess and went up to our rooms. This is the first time I departed from this port. Normally we would board on the main dock into the main atrium but at this port we boarded on the lower docks which are typically used for access to the ship's tenders. After dropping off our stuff in our rooms we headed out to the buffet. The buffet wasn't spectacular but it was good. I was not impressed. After we ate we explored this ship.

This ship is very similar to the last cruise ship we cruised on to Mexico, the Sapphire Princess. We started out at the top deck, where we got ice cream and shared a hot dog. That right folks! After the buffet we went to get more food! This could be the beginning of a very slippery slope. We went to the back of the ship to The Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a quiet zen-like area for adults to get away from everything for a while. This area cost $15 a day to hang out in. After we explored the numerous amounts of pools on the top deck we made our way to the art gallery. The art gallery had a lot of nice art work in it. I thought it was cool that they had cards out on a table that you could place on any art work that you thought should be made available for purchase at the next auction.

After the art gallery we went to the Skywalkers Nightclub, where I spent most of my time on my last cruise. The Skywalkers Nightclub has a trendy lounge vibe and a bar, dance floor and cocktail tables. There wasn't much going on at the time because it was still early in the evening. After we went up to the Sail Away Deck Party. The band played "Hey Baby!" which reminded me of my college marching band days. There was a dance competition and they gave out free bottles of champagne to the winners.
We left in the middle of the deck party and we went to a putting green behind the jumbotron and putted around for a bit. There wasn't enough time to do much before dinner so we went to my parents room for a few drinks before dinner where we explored the idea of a trip to Europe.

At dinner I ordered a beef broth type soupy thingie with tortellini, a cold pineapple coconut soup infused with rum which was bacically a pina colada. It was even served in a glass, with a straw, but it had barely any liquor. Dissappointing! I thought I had found a cheap way to get my liquor fix on this cruise. My dad said I would get fat before I got drunk drinking those things. For my main course I ordered prime rib and I chose a honeydew sorbet. The honeydew sorbet was amazing!
We attended the send off show after dinner. It started out with a Vegas style opening then they introduced us to the cruise staff, gave us a little intro to what's going on and what's going to be happening. The show closed with a comedian. He was pretty funny. He talked a lot about food. We went back to the Skywalkers Nightclub afterwards. This time everything was up and running but there wasn't a lot of people there. It wasn't "poppin'" so to say but it was only the first day. The dj's on this ship are a lot better than the ones on our last cruise. We went back to the staterooms, watched "Saving Mr. Banks," ordered room service and retired for the night.

No comments:

Post a Comment