Saturday, June 28th, 0500.
The Hilton’s shuttle was prompt and we got to Sacramento Airport in plenty of time to go through security at 3 different places, and be at our gate with a few minutes to spare. The TSA were efficient, even if your boarding pass was not marked as ‘TSA pre-check’. Being searched was very thorough and so was the inspection of my bag of meds. Hubby stood in pre-check with me, but his boarding pass was not marked, so he had to start over in the long line. Even so, he made it through before I did.
I noticed that the x-ray operators did not like the people who could not be x-rayed. I got snapped at, and evil-eyed at each security point. The ‘friskers’ were not hostile at all and they were professional and speedy. Finally, we found a Princess Cruises rep., and he guided us to where we turned in our luggage to transfer to the ship. The line for the shuttle to Pier 91, had 5 people, including us.

 Our bus driver was really fun and she gave us a ‘tour’ of Seattle during our 45-minute ride out to the docks. The building with the colorful flag is the Starbucks Headquarters.  She also  pointed out Safeco field (home of those #$%&*! Seahawk’s).

After getting to the first cruise check point at the pier, we were guided into a large maze that wound back and forth, countless times. Exactly like cattle. To put it into perspective, Disneyland never has lines.We met some fun people during that 2.5 hour wait. Expecting another thorough pat-down, I was surprised at how brisk the frisk was to get onto the walkways to board the ship. My bag was rifled through, but not totally unpacked and repacked like in the airport. After going through two different winding snake lines to embark the ship, we were once again x-rayed, patted down, and we finally stepped onto our ship, and escorted to our cabin. It was now 1:45pm.

Once the passengers began boarding, our luggage began coming aboard. We did not have to worry about picking it up – it would be delivered to our door. Very nice touch 🙂

After the Golden Princess (our ship) left port, I began to feel hot and nauseous. I took my motion sickness medication, however, they let me down on the high-seas. I’ve been cruise ships, but going towards the equator. The Northern Pacific seas are much rougher.
Now I know why the corridors are so narrow.

So you can walk down them with your arms outstretched and palms flat against the walls preventing a terrible fall. We should have had those kind of corridors in college – but I digress…
In order to get around, you needed to hang on to something. Still, you swayed and stumbled like a drunken sailor.
After such a busy day, our feet were ready to lie down in our cabin and rest. That was not to be. We were ravenous! So all six of us ate at one of the restaurants, while we worked on getting a table for six in the Donatello Room. The maître d’ and his wait staff will do everything they can to grant your wish. I could really get used to this!

It’s sort of like being a princess. Without the tiara.

Until tomorrow…