An adventure and a cruise...

My DW and I live in the Pacific Northwest. Living here allows us to partake in NCL's short repositioning cruises. We love this becuase it allows us a taste of the cruising life we love, without the time commitment of a longer cruise. This is a pictorial review of our recent "adventure" and cruise on the NCL Jewel.

Lets get started...

The DW and I live in an agricultural area which wheat fields outnumber people. We saw this short May cruise and told some friends of ours about it. They decided they wanted to try a short cruise to see if they like it and decided to come along wit us.

We left our home in North Central Washington and started heading to the Seattle area. Due to rock blasting, we decided to take US 2 Stevens Pass over the Cascade Mountains.

The scenery was just stunning as we headed over.

Waterfalls lined both sides of the highway. The setting sun provided an excellent subjet as we went down the Mountain.

As we headed along Highway 2 it often follows the BNSF Mainline.

We finally arrived into Bellevue, WA, just east of Seattle. We took our friend out to Chick-fil-a. We just recently had Chick-fil-a arrve in Washington State, so its a treatwhen we go over to Seattle area. Plus our friends had never been to one, so we had to take them!

My DW and our friend Becky.

Dan and James!

Grilled Chicken nuggets, one of my faves!

After having Dinner, we finished our trip to Seatac and our Hotel for the evening, the Best Western Airport Executel.

Dan, Becky, and James had a 2 Queen room.

.

A clean relaxing room.

The DW and I had a King room.

A view of the lobby from a visit in April.

Breakfast area

The front desk is immediately to the right (out of view) of this picture.

Both my DW and I love the convenience of this hotel and its closeness to the airport and light rail to go to Downtown Seattle.

Once we were settled for the evening, we crashed in our beds not knowing what tomorrow held.

(I will pick this up in the morning, its getting late!)

We all wake up at 4am on the day of the cruise. The cruise is departing from Vancouver BC and we have to finish getting there. The DW and I are taking the train and our friends are taking the Bolt bus, due to not being able to buy train tickets before the train sold out.

We leave the hotel at 5am. Our shuttle driver was great and took a picture of our group before leaving.

As you can see we are all ready to go and fully awake, not!

We took the shuttle to the light rail terminal just outside Seatac International Airport. We boarded the train to go downtown. Fares are $3 roughly to go from Downtown to the airport or vice-versa.

The rest of our group on the escalator to the light rail platform.

Liink light rail train arriving. We rde the train to the South end of downtown Seattle, getting off at th International District station (closest to Bolt bus and Amtrak).

The arch was located on 5 avenue S an S King Street, outside the light rail station. You normally catch Bolt bus on this block, but due to construction, our friends had to catch it up a block towards 6th ave S and S King st. Once our friends were in the right spot and were comfortable, we headed towards Seattle's Amtrak station, King Street Station.

I'm hooked on this review just reading the journey to the ship!!

I am curious to know what happened to your car and why you had to go from the car to a train. (I can't help it, I am just a bit too nosey).

Enjoying so far, thanks for sharing!

I'm hooked on this review just reading the journey to the ship!!

 

I am curious to know what happened to your car and why you had to go from the car to a train. (I can't help it, I am just a bit too nosey).

I am just getting to the adventure part, but its the train in which the problem occurs. We drove over to Seattle and parked there, because the ship was sailing back to Seattle from Vancouver.

Enjoying so far, thanks for sharing!

Thank you, I am glad to share!

Sorry the DW and I had to run some errands. Back to the journey...

The DW and I arrive at the train station. Since we were taking a cruise that ends back in Seattle, we left our car in Seattle at the hotel.

Centurylink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders, is next to King Street Station.

Downtown Seattle, looking the other way.

Inside King Street Staion waiting for Amtrak train 510 North to Vancouver BC.

King Street has been restored within the last decade, and is a beautiful station once again.

Finally they call Train 510 to board.

Boarding train 510

The DW and I taking a selfie on the train.

Then being silly!

The train left Seattle on its way.

Crossing the raiseable train bridge over the Lake Washington Ship Canal and enterance to the Ballard Locks.

The Hiram M Chittenden Locks (Ballard Locks) operated by the US Army Corp of Engineers.

Washington State Ferry with the Olympic Mountains in the background, taken from the train.

Stopped in Everett loading passengers.

Skagit Valley

Mount Baker

Tidal Flats near Bellingham, WA.

Alaska State Ferry getting ready to depart Bellingham later in the day.

You rock! Following..

The trip was going uneventfully pulling out of Bellingham. Then at 10:25, we pulled into a siding and stopped. Amtrak let us know there was a problem on the rails ahead and we would be delayed.

About this time, we got word from our friends that they were in the train depot in Vancouver waiting for us, having already arrived on the Bolt Bus. We message them letting them know we were delayed and to wait. Amtrak came through the train asking who was trying to make a cruise that day. We were near the end of the train and saw nearly 40 other people were trying to make the same cruise as us.

45 minutes later still sitting in the same spot, we let our friends know to head to the ship and we would meet them there. That was the last message we sent or received to or from them.

At 12:30 Amtrak lets us know they will not be able to continue north to Vancouver, and we will be going back to Bellingham. We had three options: 1. Wait for buses to take us to Vancouver. 2. be on our own from Bellingham. 3. Go back to the original departure point we started from. The DW and I looked at each other and said we have to try to make the ship. Not doing so would be giving up. A Canadian National train lost its load on the Frasier River bridge going into Vancouver. At about 1pm we started back to Bellingham, with Amtrak saying Buses would meet us in Bellingham.

Meanwhile, our friends headed to the cruise terminal and got there about noon, after doing some light souvenir shopping. Everyone needs Maple syrup, right? They enter the terminal, and since they don’t have bags to check, are directed to a Convention Hall and are given boarding group 45.

Hey, Didn't we already see this ship?

We arrive back into Bellingham at about 145pm. They disembark the train and we are all standing on the platform. We meet up the several other people sailing on the Jewel, and vow to stick together.

In Vancouver, our friends finally have their boarding group called after 2 to 2.5 hours of waiting, and proceed to Security. They slowly meander through the line through Security, then into the line to get into US Customs, only to have to wait another 1.5 to 2 hours in Customs. Finally clearing customs, they checked in to NCL, and boarding the Jewel at approximately 4pm.

We are standing on the platform waiting for the buses to arrive, and the station attendants are letting us know that two buses will go straight to the cruise terminal and the other 3 will go to the train station. We find one of the other passengers, Jeff, has friends also boarding the ship, who are in boarding group 80 in the convention hall. They keep sending messages to Jeff letting him know the progress. As the boarding groups are going very slowly, we know we might have a chance to make it.

A BNSF train passing by the Bellingham station.

Finally at 330pm, the buses arrive and we get on the first bus. First bus to leave means first bus to the Canadian border. On our bus are two other NCL passengers with their 5 1/2 year old son, Elliot. Elliot is a trouper and staying strong in the face of a long day. Jeff, my DW, and I are entertaining Elliot to give his parents a small break. The conductors on the train gave Elliot a cool conductor hat and boy is he proud of it. We finally pull out, the lead bus, at about 345pm.

Our driver is awesome, funny, but a fast driver. When we get to the border, He goes in and explains what has happened and what we are trying to do. He comes back on the bus, and tells us they are going to do expedited Security, and bring only our Id's and customs declartions. Our bus is back on the road in 5 minutes tops.

We drive to vancouver, and when we get near Canada Place we see a ship. We don't know which one, but its still in port. We arrive at Canada Place at 535pm. Keep in mind ships were suppossed to sail at 5pm.

We are met by ship personnel who tell us all ships are still in port, and are waiting for us. We get off the bus, proceed to Security, and join the line into Customs. At about 6pm, we enter the Customs area and see a full room still. We let out a big sigh of relief having made it. We spend about 45 minutes in the room before clearing US Customs, and finally checking into NCL. We are one of the final 5 couples to board the Jewel that day.

As we are boarding, we notice the ships photographers ar no longer doing boarding photos, which is a disappointment for us. We always buy the photo, so we can document each cruise!

Once we scan into the boat, we proceed to te atrium to find out if our friends made it. The DW calls their room, and they answer on the third ring. We tell them we are aboard and will meet them at the stateroom. Meanwile, I talk to a photographer doing Atrium shots, and asked if they could do a boarding photo. The photographerfound his Manager, who gladly got the green screen out to do our boardng photo. Here it is:

We then headed down to the stateroom to meet up with our friends.

A quick shot of the atrium.

Our oceanview stateroom.

Our bed already for the night.

We met up with our friends and headed up to watch sailaway.

Awesome stairway picture, deck 5 forward.

Pool Deck

Telling of our day's adventures to our friends.

The DW with her beverage of choice after our stressful day.

Our friends from the train, Elliot and his parents, came out onto the pool deck for a swim.

Elliot climbing in the pool.

We climbed up a deck to get some great pictures sailing under the Lions Gate Bridge.

Canada Place and Vancouver

Looking at the Pool Deck and midship.

North Vancouver

I'm so glad you made it!! I would be a nervous wreck. This was a great reminder for me to purchase trip insurance ;)

I'm looking forward to the rest!

Best shot I got of Canada Place and Vancouver at Sailaway.

As the Lions Gate Bridge faded into the background, the nervousness of the day disapated and hunger set in. So we decided it was time to go to dinner.

Photo gallery on the way to the MDR.

Appetizers

Entrees

Tsars Palace

Wild Lump Crab Cakes

Garden Sprng Lettuce Mix

Caesar Salad

All of us at dinner!

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Beef Lasagna Al Forno

Poached Atlantic Cod

Whole Roasted Striploin

Sugar Free Brownie with Ice Cream - DW said brownie was very dry, but Ice Cream was good.

Cheesecake with Dark Chocolate

Molten Lava Cake

Pistachio Creme Brulee