Good morning from Seattle! I slept really good last night. This room has been super quiet all week. There has been no screaming, banging, or door slamming. No ship noises. Nothing. If I got warm I would adjust where my head is at the foot of the bed. That puts me directly under the vent. I did that a couple times, including last night, and I had to switch back because I was freezing in the middle of the night.

These channels are mostly standard but I did notice they don’t have the two movie channels Glory had.

I was up at 7. I wanted to be out of the room at 7:30. It was more like 7:40.

I think they start shutting down dining room service around 8. I got in at 7:47.

 

French Toast.

Broken egg sandwich.

There’s no line at the JavaBlue.

I’m getting one last mocha on Cheers.

I’m just going to sit by the Alchemy Bar and drink my mocha until I get off of the ship.

They called muster station A with all of their luggage at 7:05. Muster station B followed at 7:25. Muster stations C&D (all stations) were at 7:45.

Luggage tags 1-12 were called at 8:10. This is why it wasn’t worth waiting in line for luggage tag 7 when you could’ve grabbed 9 after breakfast with no wait. At 8:25 All luggage tags were called.

I’m not in a hurry because I’m on the 9:30 airport transfer. I’m going to go down in about 5 minutes which gives me an hour. That should put me at the airport at 10:30. My flight is at 1pm.

I am heading down.

There isn’t a backed up line. That’s good.

 

I had no problem getting off of the ship.

 

 

 

 

They scared me with the luggage because the numbered rows skip from 1 to 5. I found two 3 rows in there. Neither had my bags. I finally found my bags at the end of the 2 row.

Out of the five ports I’ve been to since the restart, this is the first one that doesn’t have facial recognition. I had to pull out the old passport at customs.

No indication of where the transfer shuttle is other than the shuttles lane.

There is no sign or anything indicating that this is it. But this is it. Nobody checked my transfer ticket.

 

There’s plenty of room on here now.

My ticket was for 9:30. I think I’m on the 9am bus because we just pulled out at 9:05.

 I’m good with being on the earlier bus. I’d rather have an extra 30 minutes in the airport than standing out in front of the port. I don’t think it really matters. There are a dozen open seats back here so I didn’t take anyone’s spot. It’s nice to know that there is some potential flexibility. This is my first time not taking an Uber/Lyft to the airport.

We have arrived at the airport.

I’m not very happy with the shuttle bus driver. He was very insistent that nobody touch the bags. He had to unload all of the bags. Everyone stand back while he unloads the bags. He unloaded my bags by crawling into the back of the luggage compartment and tossing my bags out onto the pavement.

I know where I am now. I came through the other way going to link when I first got here.

Elevator to 4, across the crosswalk, and another elevator up to ticketing. They have a bunch of bag drop kiosks. There is no line.

There’s no line for bag drop. They had plenty of of lanes open with no waiting.

Security had a bit of a line. It took 15 minutes.

Once I got through security I thought gate N1 would be right there. No. I had to go down two escalators. Take a train. Then go up one escalator.

This is the train to the N gates.

Now I’m where I need to be.

It’s probably too early for my plane to be here. I’m going to recheck the board but it said N1 before I went through security.

N18 now. Good thing I checked. It wouldn’t be good to get liquored up before a flight and stumble over here at boarding time and say “where is my plane?” Or “why is there a southwest plane in my plane’s spot?” Not that that’s ever happened before…

I checked with these guys they say it should be this gate after the LA one. But I should double check.

Let’s get to why I didn’t mind getting here early. With my first class ticket I get into the Alaska lounge. American it has to be an international but Alaska it just has to be a full price ticket. And this is Alaska’s HQ. I’ve sneeked peeked it so I have an idea of what I’m about to get into.

This is the Alaska Lounge entrance.

Food is to the right.

I’m going to have to get closer pictures of the seating over there they have recliners and almost clamshell things lining the windows. Mostly full with people or at least with people’s belongings. But it has a sweet view of the runway.

Bar is on the other side of the food.

I’m going to try some local beers I haven’t had yet.

First I had a Black Raven then a Mac & Jacks.

You can watch planes take off from the bar or move over  by the window for a really good view.

I was able to get my phone charged to 100. They have charging plugs everywhere. They have wifi in here. The whole place overlooks the runway and is lined with windows. It’s pretty sweet.

This is a Manny’s.

My gate is N13 now. I never would’ve thought I’d get sun on an Alaskan cruise. I look just like I do when I come back from the Caribbean. My face has a pinkish hue. A rosy glow.

Let’s take a look around the lounge before I head to my gate.

This lounge is literally over all of the Alaska Airlines gates.

It’s good to see they have the Tabasco out.

These seats right by the window are the tough ones to get.

This would be a good spot to work on your computer.

Recliners are also difficult to get.

 

Back to the food.

This is the coffee station. They screens with all of the flight information around the lounge.

Pastries.

 

I made it down to my gate which is just below the Alaska Lounge. Frist Class is now boarding. That’s me.

 

I’m in this first row all the way over to the left.

Plenty of leg room.

We have outlets and USB plugs.

I just had a good idea of what I can do with that pocket.

The downside to the front row is you have to store your carryon in the overhead compartment. I just grabbed my surface out of my carryon and I’ll keep it in that compartment.

It looks like we’re running 20 minutes late. They’re changing a tire. In the meantime only one of the two AC systems is working so it’s a bit warm. I understand it’s much warmer in coach.

The AC thing is temporary. They have it off because it would be blowing hot air on the people changing the tire.

Now that the tire change is complete, we’re ready to go.

I believe we’re over Colorado here.

 

We had an inflight snack.

Then a meal. I forgot to order mine ahead of time so I had to wait until the pre-ordered meals were passed out. I got chicken which is what I would’ve picked. 

My neighbor gave her chocolate chip cookie back to the flight attendant because it was too messy. I bet she was kicking herself when she saw me eating mine with a fork.

They had about 400 movies/TV shows you could watch for free.

There are a lot of windmills just south of Wichita Falls.

Texas motor speedway. This is where they have NASCAR races.

I got off of the plane and I’m just waiting on my luggage now.

I got on the shuttle and I’m heading back to my car.

 

• Seattle
• Splendor