Muster Point 6: July 1, 2019

Today my friend Julia and I headed out of Sacramento on an early flight to Seattle to catch our cruise – heading to Alaska!!

Our day started early – we grabbed a LYFT around 4am. Once we had checked our bags at the airport, we breezed through TSA with plenty of time to wait at the gate. It was a very easy morning. Could this be the calm before the storm? Or will this trip really be a breeze?

Once in Seattle we grabbed our luggage and headed to the LYFT pick up spot in the parking garage.

Our LYFT picked us up and we headed to the city to have breakfast. I had looked up places on the way to Pier 91 where our boat was launching from. I settle on a place called 5 Spot. Their menu looked pretty good.

Turns out they are an ethical restaurant who does good things! Some of their menu items have a donation that go with them: Order plate A and 5 Spot will donate $1 to a charity.

We both settled on an egg dish, but then of course had to have the sweets: beniets and  cinnamon rolls!! The beniets were so good!! The cinnamon roll was not. I sent it back, and even the second time it wasn’t good. Hard as a rock. I love cinnamon rolls – they hold a special place in my heart from when I was young going to Saturday breakfast with my dad and grandma at the Fryin Pan in Fargo, ND.

After our breakfast we headed to safeway about 5 blocks away to get some candy!! From there we snagged another LYFT and headed to the boat early.

Our cruise is on the Holland America’s ms Amsterdam, however the whole boat was taken over by about 1,300 LESBIANS through the Olivia Travel company. We arrived before boarding so we checked in and hung out in the check-in building. About 30 minutes in I realized many of the people on the boat would be older than Julia and myself. I was actually really excited about that – the older groups tend to be ones I can relate to more.

After about an hour we boarded, found our room, got settled in and were hanging out in the room to take a nap! After nap time, it was time to Muster!! this is when you have to go to your life boat station (normally with your life vest) so you know where to go in an emergency. Unlucky for me, I only took Instagram videos that disappear after an hour, so I have no shots for this….So Im stealing….

We headed out to the Lido deck for a sail away party.  The moment the boat took off from the pier I got queasy. Like, seconds. Luckily I had my patches and ginger snaps (thank you Mark!!) to get me through. I was super prepared for all the sea sickness I was expecting. I brought eastern medicine patches and Dramamine as well!! I really don’t want to get sick on this trip.

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After the party, no actually I started feeling queasy, Julia and I headed down to the room to nap. (I know, party poopers, but we were so tired). When we woke up from our nap it was time to go to the Solos introduction meeting. The Solos are a group of people who are single OR traveling single. It lets everyone be part of a group – even if you came along. The first two people we met were Lori and Julie – how crazy right? Lori was sitting across from me and Julie was sitting across from Julia!! We also met Becca right around the same time. Little did we know, these would become our people.

After that Julia and I headed to the Spa because they were going to be raffling off gift certificates. The lady in charge says she loved us so much she offered us even more!! I volunteered to pick a ticket – and guess what?? I picked Julia’s!! Not many people figured out that I had picked hers – later on I think they did. (Sadly this gift certificate never got used – it was only usable during dock time, but we didnt realize that until it was too late).

Julia and I went to find food before going to a comedy show with Vicki Shaw. We discovered the Lido deck and it has pools, hot tubs and a buffet line. Most of the day the buffet line is open – things to note when traveling on a cruise ship! I ended up having pretty bland food to avoid upsetting my stomach (mash potatoes and mac n chz!!).

After dinner we headed to the show and sat in the Solos section. I found Vicki very funny, she managed to make a terrible horrible disease (Alzheimer’s) have some humor. It was a great fire night option. We were both really tired after and headed to bed early. I slept so well I could have kept sleeping – for much longer than I did!