Review of Golden Princess Cruise to Inside Passage-Alaska, May, 2013

[southpawsdakota]

Great information, thanks for taking the time to do the review.

[cdngrl]

someday I hope you come back to Victoria. hey, i'll show you around in the daylight! I see by your pictures that you found the rocky mountain chocolate factory. mmmmm the best chocolate caramel apples!

[lovelearnteach]

Great information, thanks for taking the time to do the review.

Thank-you for the support :)!

[lovelearnteach]

someday I hope you come back to Victoria. hey, i'll show you around in the daylight! I see by your pictures that you found the rocky mountain chocolate factory. mmmmm the best chocolate caramel apples!

Girl my gifts are many, never been to this city in my life, but I knew to make a B-line for this place. It's a good thing I had already had dinner and it was the last night, or I would have gone crazy there. OMG I could fall in love with that place. I hope to return someday, especially now that I have my own personal guide :eek:;):D:).

[lovelearnteach]

Sun. May 19th, today we are back in Seattle. We leave the ship today and have the day to spend exploring Seattle. The plan is to head to the hotel, The Silver Cloud Inn-Lake Union, who hopefully will let us check in early. We get up about 7a.m. and head to breakfast. I get J.B's. French Toast, bacon, hash browns and seasonal melon, all very yummy.

[lovelearnteach]

Goodbye Golden Princess, thank-you for the luxury ride to Alaska :). Hello Seattle looking forward to our day with you :).

[lovelearnteach]

So as I was being dragged off, I figured that would be a good time to reflect :eek::rolleyes::p:D:). In all seriousness seeing a glacier for the first time was an unforgettable experience. Winning enough money to pay for my cruise, plus some, was a blessing. I'm so truly grateful for such an outstanding overall experience. So as I'm thrown into a taxi and I hear the locks click I know I want to come back.

[lovelearnteach]

We head to the hotel and what luck they can check us in early. After settling into the room I go to the business center to check email and social media's. We just chillax for a little at the hotel then decide to head downtown to walk around a bit before our tour. We have to meet at the Market Theater at 1:40p.m.

[cdngrl]

Girl my gifts are many, never been to this city in my life, but I knew to make a B-line for this place. It's a good thing I had already had dinner and it was the last night, or I would have gone crazy there. OMG I could fall in love with that place. I hope to return someday, especially now that I have my own personal guide :eek:;):D:).

and i'm a cheap guide too!

[lovelearnteach]

I saw this place with the cutest shoes, sniff sniff none in my size. I got an Iced Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks. You have to get something from there since this is where it all started. We then head to the Market Theater rumored to be the inspiration for "Who's Line is it Anyway?". We meet our guide Morgan, who seems very friendly. We get lucky yet again in that there are only 6 in our group. Everyone is present and accounted for on time, and off we go. First stop right outside the theater, the Gum Wall. The famous pink umbrella so we don't get separated. The next stop is Daily Dozen for some fresh hot donuts, very yummy. We kept passing the bag around until they were gone. There are some tiles you can buy and put whatever you would like on them. The next stop was Market Spice for some black tea, very spicy, on a patio.

[sherryf]

LOVE Market Spice tea. Now you've got me craving it, and I don't have any here at work. :eek:

[christinelee]

By the way I did take pix of the menus if anyone wants those :).

Could we get the menus please

chris100200#yahoo.com

Thank you

[lovelearnteach]

and i'm a cheap guide too!

Say a, chocolate covered caramel apple cheap, ;):D:).

[lovelearnteach]

LOVE Market Spice tea. Now you've got me craving it, and I don't have any here at work. :eek:

We didn't get any time to shop on the tour, and we never made it back, :(. But I did get some Cherry Blossom Green Tea from Chukar Cherries, which is simply divine!

[lovelearnteach]

Could we get the menus please

chris100200#yahoo.com

Thank you

I've posted all the ships menus I have, if you want any/or all the off ship restaurant menu's were we ate I'll gladly post those for you :).

[lovelearnteach]

Next stop Pike Place Fish Co., where we get 3 samples, but I only took one pic. We tried a plain smoked salmon, not bad considering I generally don't like things smoked. Next is a brown sugar and cayenne pepper smoked salmon, surprisingly really good and my favorite out of the 3. The 3rd is a salmon jerky, not bad, but not for me. If you want to see them throw a fish you need to get there early in morning when they are setting up, or be on a Savor Seattle Tour. They threw a fish just for us. More tiles you can buy, these gold pig's feet are even more expensive. A street performer, acting like a bronze statue. The fruit stand where we tried some fresh fruit. The nectarines were so sweet and juicy, when he said someone finish them off, I snatched them before anyone else :p:D. We then went to a meat market, the guy who owns this is a very interesting fellow. All the meat is house made, we got to try a piece of summer sausage, prosciutto, pepperoni and hard salami, all very good. Then it was off to Pike Place Chowder House for some award winning clam chowder and seafood bisque. I hate clam chowder with a passion, this chowder completely changed my mind, OMG both the chowder and the bisque were phenomenal!

[lovelearnteach]

Next stop the famous Beecher Cheese, one of Oprah Winfrey's 100 favorite things. We start with a hunk of cheese on a cracker and then get to try some of the world famous mac 'n cheese, both bowl licking delicious. The infamous "1st" Starbucks, which is not the first. Line out the door and down the sidewalk the whole time we were in the area. Next stop Pear, for a turkey with arugula, goat cheese and a cranberry and red onion chutney. Very yummy, then we get a salted caramel very good. We are given some time to shop and look around. I get a Blood Orange Soda, which is very good. Last stop on the tour is Etta's for their famous crabcakes, which are so good!

[lovelearnteach]

We enjoyed our guided tour of Pike Place Market. Man that place is huge. so much to see and eat. We never would have gotten to see or try things that we did without being on the tour. The line at Beecher's Cheese was so long, it was so nice to walk up, butt the line, and get ours right away. I would highly recommend them and I see why they get consistent good reviews on Tripadvisor. So it was around 4p.m. when we finished and we want to eat dinner in the area so we decide to keep looking around Pike Place for another hour and half or so. It seems silly to go back to the hotel and then back here. Besides I have to get some Chukar Cherries, I didn't get any on the ship knowing I would be able to get some directly from the source. I get my pic with the famous pig statue, and don't I just look so happy about it to. The one fault with Pike Place is no seating, no benches anywhere, and any chairs were for customers of the store or restaurant it was near only. We walked and shopped and walked and shopped and walked and shopped and walked and shopped :eek::D. I got my Chukar Cherries and got 20% off you get 10% if you buy 3 or more items and I got another 10% from my Savor Seattle V.I.P. card. We finally can't walk and shop anymore and decide to eat at a restaurant where we can use our SS V.I.P. card to get 10% off. We decide on a Mexican place called El Borracho Mexican Cantina. We both get 2 Taco de Chorizo Con Papas, rice and beans and we split an order of guacamole, all so very good.

[lovelearnteach]

After dinner we head back to the hotel shuttle drop-of/pick-up spot which is right in front of the ice cream and cupcake place I posted a pic of earlier. I call the hotel to let them know we are ready for pick-up. I then get an ice cream cone, Royal Banana, which I was told was like a fancy banana split in an ice cream, it was good. It was so nice to sit outside and people watch, licking a yummy ice cream cone while waiting for the shuttle. We get back to the hotel and after changing I make a B-line for the hot tub. OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH, thank all that is good for hot tubs! I have the whole pool area to myself, so after I can't stand the heat of the hot tub any longer I cool off with a dip in the pool. This really just melted all the stress away and I feel wonderful. So glad I did it, I almost just laid down in the bed and went to sleep when we got back, so glad I pushed myself to go down for a dip. So we just relax and watch some tv and reminisce about our Alaskan Vacation. We have to leave the hotel at 6:30a.m. to head to the airport tomorrow morning.

[lovelearnteach]

Mon. May 20th, today we head home, it's the last day of our Alaskan Vacation. I get up about 5:45a.m. get ready and pack last minute stuff. At 6:20a.m. we head down to the lobby and ask them to call a cab. We made it home safely and soundly, all is well in the Kingdom while we have been gone :D. I just made one good pick after another, the Golden, The Silver Cloud Inn-Lake Union, the itinerary, we just got so lucky with weather and people. Loved our vacation and all the awesome sights, smells and tastes, really couldn't have asked for more.

 

Yes I finished, ha to all you nay sayers who said I wouldn't :p. Now would be the time to vote for your feeling's on my review of my vacation.

 

If anyone has any comments, questions, needs verification, or concerns please feel free to do so now.

 

Thank-you to everyone who took the time to read it, no mater whether if you loved it or hated it, I appreciate it. If it helped just one person it was worth it to me to write this :).

[Luvsprincess]

Fantastic reading!!! Now can you show us the patters.

[monkeyluis]

Thanks for this. We are going in 2 weeks.

[cdngrl]

Say a, chocolate covered caramel apple cheap, ;):D:).

yup. and we can go shoe shopping. :)

 

thank you for taking us all along on your holiday.

[lovelearnteach]

Fantastic reading!!! Now can you show us the patters.

If ya give me a hot little min. :D:).

[lovelearnteach]

Thanks for this. We are going in 2 weeks.

Thank-you have an awesome cruise :)!