The Plan

We took a swift Uber ride down to the meeting point for our trip, riding right past Fisherman’s Terminal where our ship was moored. Seemed like we should just pull in there since the ship was in sight, but we went on downtown to meet our fellow passengers and get properly registered.

When we checked in, we discovered the bad news that our ship, the Wilderness Explorer, had an issue that was delaying its departure. The good news, however, was that the Wilderness Discoverer was also departing today for the San Juan Islands and they would be able to accommodate all of us on their ship for the first few days and then meet up with the Explorer on Tuesday to transfer passengers and send us on our way. Turns out the Discoverer is on a one week beer-themed cruise, so we felt like we were getting in on two different cruises. Our original itinerary was to include a stop in the San Juans, so we still get to enjoy that area and get in on some good beers, too!

Boarding ship.alt

After a coach ride back to Fisherman’s Terminal, nearly where we started, we were soon walking up the gangplank and greeted with a warm “welcome aboard” and a glass of bubbly. We met the staff and several of our fellow passengers who were seated near us, including one couple from South Africa. We decided that they must have travelled the farthest and we had travelled the shortest distance. As we expected after our previous Uncruise, everyone we’ve met so far has been so nice and very interesting.

Waving goodbye to the office

Keenan greeting us at the locks

Saying bye to Keenan

Our future crew

After our life boat drill we finally cast off and we were able to let Keenan know that we would finally be on our way. He had walked down to the locks so he could see us off. And there he was to greet the ship as we entered the locks! He brought his camera and took quite a few pictures that will be fun to see when we return. Our future crew from the Explorer was also there at the locks to greet the ship. It was fun to compare the experience of going through the Ballard locks with our last trip through the Panama Canal on our previous Uncruise trip.

Transiting the locks – a bit smaller than Panama

Soon enough the ship was below the wall and we were ready to head out to our adventure. Dinner had already been announced but in a shocking development, Mike and Tami opted to stay on deck to experience going through our familiar locks from a different viewpoint from usual. Finally, though, we said good bye to Keenan as he headed back home and we at last made our way to the dining room for a delicious salmon dinner with an orange creme brûlée dessert.

After dinner we heard about the next day’s options, chose tomorrow’s activity (we chose kayaking), and headed to our cabin. A benefit of being a last minute addition to this ship is that we got upgraded to one of the biggest cabins for this portion of the trip. Sweet!

Checking out our room – we got upgraded to the BIG one