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@TPgal

We ended up pushing our cruise as far out as possible to avoid losing our $1400 deposit.  I’m waiting for cruises to open up that actually fit into my work schedule.  So... May 2023.  We used some of our money and spent 15 days at Universal Orlando and Disney World instead. We just got back. It was fabulous!

My husband and I have booked our first cruise on DCL. A little about us - we are early 30's and have taken 2 NCL cruises previously.  This is a 4 night Bahamas Cruise, and we are lucky enough to be booking Concierge- another first for us. The idea is, since we don't plan on having children, we don't know that we can afford Disney's high prices repeatedly. Booking Concierge allows us to get the early booking slot for activities so we should be able to get a very full experience of Disney. Here's my questions. 

We will get the early booking opportunity that most first time cruisers do not.  What things can I book early through Concierge for a 4-night Bahamas Cruise?

We aren't interested in character meet and greets or the makeovers.

We know we want a cabana on the adult beach. Which ones provide the most privacy?

What different tastings do they offer?

I've heard snippets about specialty restaurant special events, like chocolate experience and different breakfast buffets?

I appreciate the help from any DCL experts out there!  Even if you tried an experience and didn't like it, I'd love to hear about it and why you liked or didn't like it so I can decide for us. 

Cruise Critic has been instrumental in planning my first two cruises. You are all amazing!

It's our last day in Seattle! [emoji26]

We got up very early today, since we have to get up early tomorrow too. I'm kind of glad we did, because when we walked down to the original Starbucks at 7am it only had a handful of people inside along with a small group doing some kind of tasting.

At 7am, none of the small vendors are set up. Technically the market doesn't open until 9am, but we found that most people weren't set up until closer to 10.

While we waited we took our Starbucks down past the fish market and took a seat overlooking the Bay. Once we finished out drink we headed up the market to a little restaurant called Lowell's. Sean is a big fan of eggs Benedict, and there menu boasts both a salmon version and a dungeoness crab version. He got the combo of the two while I had french toast, cheesy eggs, and ham.

We wandered the market after breakfast and bought and sampled many things. Seeing the cheese get made at Beechers was very cool. By late morning Sean was tired to we headed back to the hotel and did a little packing.

We had Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Sean had never been to one. I did not expect to be impressed. I ate at one in New York when I was in high school and wasn't thrilled with my experience. This was probably the juiciest burger I've had in a long time. We also split a brownie sundae.

More walking, more packing, a nap, and even more walking later... We had dinner reservations at the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. The food here was amazing! I had lobster Mac and cheese and creme brulee and Sean had halibut and apple crisp. Just a note: this restaurant charges a 20% gratuity on all tables. This did not bother us, because we felt we got great service, which we would tip 20% for at home.

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Today was our day in the Seattle City Center.

We got up early and walked down for breakfast at the Cafe Lieto site for Biscuit Bitch. This little cafe was great. The atmosphere was very cool. I ordered my sandwich without remoulade and they wrote 'no bitchin'' on the wrapper. [emoji23] Everything on their menu is a bitch. Bitchwiches are breakfast sandwiches. The homemade biscuits are huge and delicious!

We walked back up and took the monorail to the city center. It was only $2.50 per person each way, it came ever 10 minutes, and the ride was only 3 minutes.

By the time we got to the Space Needle it was a bit after 8am. We bought tickets for 8:30 and since there was no line and it was not full up top, they let us go up early. In the afternoon when we were headed back to the monorail the line was ridiculously long, so I suggest getting there early if you want to ride up to the top. They are still remodeling, but parts of it are finished. The new benches slant backwards towards the glass walls. The walls also slant outward, so when you sit down, you feel like you are hanging over the edge. It is cool and in Sean's words, "A little terrifying."

After the Needle we headed to the Dale Chulily Garden of Glass. So beautiful!!!! I've never seen glass sculptures quite like this.

Our next stop was the Museum of Pop Culture. The exhibits we had time for were Nirvana, Indie Video Games, Jimi Hendrix, Marvel and we did the Virtual Reality Holosphere. This was by far the coolest thing we've done so far. If I had known how cool this was and how much there was to see, we would have skipped the Space Needle and Chulily and got straight here. We missed parts of this museum I wish we hadn't. We ate lunch at the museum cafe, Culture Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck. We we're a little disappointed. It was good, don't get me wrong, but with Wolfgang Puck's name on it I expected more.

After riding the monorail back and the short walk to our hotel, we got changed into nicer clothes for dinner at The Pink Door. This little Italian restaurant is nestled in Post Alley and has no sign. The only way to know you are in the right place is that the door is pink. I got us reservations at the right time to see the first performance of their aerialist. They do not allow pictures[emoji26], but it was a very good performance. The food was delicious, too! I had the amazing lasagna and we shared a Cabaret cake for dessert.

I took what feels like a billion pictures today, but I'm just gonna post the highlights.

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Great review, thank you. Question about your room key, do they still pass it thru a scanner every time you disembark or did they upgrade to the scan gun?

 

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They have both. The key they gave me was bent a little and only liked being swiped some of the time. They used the gun a lot for mine. I never had a problem using it to open the room door though.

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After a quick and kind of sad breakfast in the Garden Cafe, we disembarked. The rest of our group all went separate was, most going bhome today or tomorrow. I arranged a shuttle with Shuttle Express. This is a different company than the one who brought us in. I found out they mostly do airport transfers. After being told we would have to wait quite a while since everyone else was going to the airport, one of the drivers called dispatch and offered to drop us off at the Sheraton downtown before heading to the airport. In retrospect I wish I would not have booked this transfer. A cab would have cost about the same and we wouldn't have had to stand on the side of the road for a half hour waiting.

At the Sheraton at 9:30am we were pleasantly surprised to find our room ready. After heading up to the 25th floor, we headed out to see the city.

I had allotted today as waterfront day. We rode the great wheel first and saw the sights. It was a novelty. Realatively cheap and fun. It would be more exciting for kids. After we walked through the Pier 57 building. There's a carousel, an arcade, a gift shop, and several restaurants.

We ate lunch at The Crab Potin pier 57. There signature item is their seafeasts. The table next to us ordered one and we're brought the wooden boards and mallets. We ordered shrimp in the Shell as an app and Sean had the salmon and I had their fried seafood platter. It was all great. I had never had deep fried salmon (who's even heard of that?) but it was pricey. After lunch we wandered down for homemade ice cream, also in pier 57.

After lunch we had reservations for a Chittenden Locks cruise through Argosy Cruises. They were just down on pier 55. Neither of us had been through locks before so that was quite the experience. After the drop off in Lake Union there was a bus to take us back. It drove right past the MoPop and the Space Needle.

After that we wandered down to the ferry terminal and took the Bainbridge ferry round trip, because... Grey's Anatomy!!!!

Dinner tonight was a wonderful little pizzeria hidden along the gum wall in the market. The Alibi Room is pretty small, but it packs the flavor! The dungeoness crab dip is phenomenal, and the pizza was great too!

More tomorrow!!!

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In Victoria we did the horse-drawn trolley ride through town. A lot if the ride was historically protected houses. We did get a very good view of the parliament building. We passed the Empress Hotel from afar and a couple of totems. Plus we got to ride all the way to the end of the Trans-Canadaian Highway and see mile marker 0.

Tomorrow will be a sad day. We are getting off reasonably early to head to our after cruise hotel. The trip isn't over yet. We don't go home until Wednesday. Stay tuned for Seattle sight-seeing!

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Freestyle Daily Day 7 and Disembarkation flyer.

We ate breakfast and lunch in summer place today. Between the two we took a nap, and after lunch we packed. Arrival in Victoria wasn't until 6 so we had a slow, lazy day.

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Dinner last night was Cagney's again. My parents got all 11 of us together for another dinner since the 9th is my birthday. It's the big 30! [emoji50] We got another free cake.

After dinner the younger group of us went to the White Hot Party in Spinnaker for dancing and shots.

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In Ketchikan we went to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack show. Funny and well worth your time and money.

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Day 6 Freestyle Daily

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Dinner tonight was Le Bistro. Everything was delicious as usual. I did not get pictures of our appetizers (we were so hungry!) since we had a comparatively late dinner after being up at 530 to see us enter into the bay. I had the scallops, four mushroom soup, duck duo and creme brulee. Sean had asparagus, four mushroom soup, lamb, and chocolate neopolitan.

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Day 5 Freestyle Daily

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Glacier Bay day! We ordered room service. The food came hot and delicious and right on time. Our ship saw several glaciers. We did not go all the way down to John Hopkins glacier, but Margerie calved while we were there. Having our own balcony was great! While the ship was turning we could go back in our cabin and keep warm.

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Dinner last night was Teppanyaki. We enjoyed it. The show is always worth seeing. They do try to aggressively sell you a photo, which I thought was tactless.

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About the tour. Leg room was tight, but we were at the very back of the bus. We loved this tour. Our driver was funny, she stopped for all the things were wanted to see and more. Unfortunately no one else in my family did a tour in Skagway. They just walked into town and went to a saloon.

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We ended up in a balcony stateroom. Here are the photos. 10634

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After a quick breakfast we got a bus for our first excursion. We chose the Yukon Territory Scenic Drive, mostly because I wanted to see emerald lake. We were on a little bus that seated 29 passengers. There were only 27 of us. Sitting on the right side of the bus was a good idea. We got tired on the way back and I closed my eyes involuntarily for about 20 minutes on the way back. We saw Lake Tutshi, Carcross, the Carcross Dessert, Emerald Lake, and many other places along the highway whose names escape me. We even saw a black bear on our way back. Lunch was 3 types of sandwiches, two types of soup, fresh fruit, banana bread, and apple pie.

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Day 4 Freestyle Daily

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La Cucina was great for dinner. I was too busy chatting to take pictures. I had the shrimp risotto, which may have been a tad undercooked for my personal liking but the flavors were awesome regardless. I also had the ribeye with the polenta, both of which were great.[ATTACH]423392[/ATTACH]

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This morning we had breakfast very early in Garden Cafe. The early risers menu consists of fresh fruit, cereal and milk, assorted pastries and juices.

After showers we had second breakfast at O'Sheehan's. I forgot a menu picture [emoji19]

After more getting ready and a glass of wine from my Mother (to stop me pacing around the stateroom) it was time for the dress.

We attended the port shopping talk yesterday afternoon and through Linda (who gave the talk) we got signed up for a priority tender. Because of the Bliss being in Port, the ship didn't actually get to dock until around 3. At 1 they started tendering for people who wanted to get off before that.

A quick cab up to pick up our marriage license, an Uber back, and some shopping later we were meeting family at the tramway for the wedding.

The ride up to Mt. Roberts was painless and beautiful. The hike up was a little taxing, but we all made it. Our officiant was from Alaska Weddings and did a good job with our ceremony.

The shuttle back to the ship was right there by the tram. Easy to find. Now we are back on board for dinner in La Cucina.

Wedding photos!!!

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Freestyle Daily Day 3

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So... Cagney's. Before I start my review let me just say this: we went to Cagney's on New year's Eve aboard Pride of America. It was pretty much the worst experience ever. We waited at the bar 2 1/2 hours longer than our reservation time. My steak was overcooked and Sean's was undercooked.

This trip to Cagney's could not have been more different. Both of our steaks were cooked beautifully. All the food was amazing. Stand outs for me were the Mac and Cheese, the Brownie and of course the Filet Mignon.

I'm also including tonight's MDR menu even though we didn't eat there.

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The next time our steward makes up our cabin I will get photos for ya'll. [emoji16]

After lunch we had a nap and at 3:30 we had spa appointments for facials.

I have never had a facial. I didn't really know what to expect. I had hopes it would help clear out the blackheads on my nose. That doesn't seem to be the case. It was very relaxing. Everything she used smelled very good. Overall I'm happy with it. If I had known it wasn't going to clear up my blackheads though, I don't think I would've done it.

Dinner tonight is in Cagney's. So I'll be back with menus. Maybe this time I will remember food photos [emoji23]

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Lunch today was in the buffet. There was no seating and we ended up sitting in the great outdoors. Too cold! We rushed through our food. [emoji23]

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