Ockey Family Adventures: Alaska Day 1: The Ship

Grandpa Daniels scheduled an Alaskan Cruise for the last week of September. We weren’t sure how we were going to make this happen with Dad’s work and Mark’s AP classes, but the boys’ teachers were good to work with, and Dad has a pretty reliable substitute teacher. We decided that we could take a week off.

Our flight for Seattle left on Friday night. We got in late and didn’t arrive at the hotel until after 11. There really wasn’t much to do except go to bed. Of course, as hotels and cruises are designed around 4 people, we had to make some adjustments, with Seth and Raymond staying with their grandparents for the night.

The Ferlans were on our same flight.

We spent a lot of time with James.

The boys love flying!

Our room connected with Melanie, so we hung out together in the morning.

After breakfast in the hotel, the sisters went out for some last minute shopping. As soon as they got back, we caught the shuttle to the harbor. Everyone was so nice as we checked in and boarded. We had our photo taken, ate free cookies, and had our bags taken directly to our room. Then we started to check out the ship.

Off we go on our adventure!

Getting ready to check in.

We had to wait for Grandpa for a long time and everyone got antsy.

This is the cruise ship where we lived for a week!

This entire day was onboard, and we were still working out room assignments. We sent Mark and Dax to the “teen room” and adopted Ray for the week. This put all the cousins in adjacent rooms on the same deck together, while Grandma and Grandpa and Brittany ended up across the ship. Because there is no Internet, we worked out messaging on our phones through the ship app. While we were taking care of all this, the kids found some fun things.

They enjoyed swimming in the pool on the top deck. There were a few hot tubs to soak in, and lots of deck chairs. The found the Kids Hub, where small kids go for art projects, junior ranger booklets, and other fun activities. Next door to that was the Teen Hangout, which had Skee-ball, Air Hockey, video games, pinball machines, and a few other fun games. They also found plenty of places to look out off the ship, as well as a few fun places to play board games.

We loved exploring the ship.

It was rainy off and on the first day.

Seth would swim all day if we let him.

Dad loved relaxing on the ship.

The Crows Nest was a big game room.

We always rode in the outside elevators so we could see out.

We spent countless hours hanging out in the game room!

Of course, the boys found the food, too. Deck 9 is a massive restaurant. There is more food than you could taste in a month. There are separate places for pizza and hamburgers where you can order, or you can eat anything you can imagine from the buffet. Breakfast is our favorite because of the variety of things you can get. Dax is in heaven with the unlimited ice cream. And all the boys have tried things like duck, sushi, scallops, and turnips. It’s been pretty exciting. They also have a sit down restaurant where you order. It’s fine dining, so we have to dress up, but our waiter brings us whatever we want, including two entrees for Mom when she couldn’t decide which one she wanted.

The meals were very fancy!

We all take turns holding James during meals.

Mom always chose the chocolate desserts.

One night, all the girls got charm bracelets.

The sunset was so nice our first night on the boat and Mom's hair was nice, too!

Such a nice cruise!

Finally, there are some really cool shows. We watched information shows about Alaska and wildlife, live piano music, singing quartets, and even an amazing blues band that only Dad wanted to see.

Around all that, we did plenty of whale watching, too. There wasn’t much to see with the rough water, and the swaying of the boat on the open ocean was a bit unsettling, but no one got too sick, and we all slept pretty well.