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September 8, 2007 – We arrived almost at the same time in Seattle – 8:30am. Diane’s flight was 30 minutes early, so we met up at the baggage claim. Once we got checked in with the (high-school age) Holland America crew, we boarded a bus that took us to the processing center. It’s almost like Disneyland in that every step is coordinated like clockwork. You’re processed quickly in small groups and boarded with a minimum of delay. In fact, almost every step happened about 15 minutes earlier than they told us to expect. That kept the guests in a good mood.

We boarded about 11:30 and went immediately to the Lido Deck for lunch, which was buffet style. We had a slice of pizza and a salad, and I had two little bite-size desserts while we sat at a table overlooking the harbor and the passing boats. It was like being in a nice hotel on the riverfront.

But they must be incredibly conscious of germs here on board. Whenever you enter a restaurant or go down the buffet lines, there’s someone offering a squirt of anti-bacterial gel to clean your hands. In fact, we got squirted twice even before boarding the ship! There was no getting by these guys, who were hired to ensure that no diseases came along for the trip.

At about 1pm, we got into our room – on the Navigation Deck, eight decks up with a private balcony and floor-to ceiling glass doors. It’s come in handy for watching the ocean scenery without going outdoors. Let us tell you – the wind was like standing behind a jet engine. As we sailed out of Seattle, the skyline slipped elegantly by us while we were on the bow trying to take pictures without flying off. Our shirts kept blowing up, exposing our bras (probably to the delight of the guys in the exercise room right behind us). One older man walked by with his clothes flapping loudly in the wind, and we said to him, “You sound just like a flag!” He paused a minute and said, “Oh, I thought you said I sound like a fag.” We laughed and said, “Not that there’s anything wrong with it,” quoting the famous Seinfeld line.

We stayed on the bow only about 15 minutes, which was all we could take of the headwind. It literally was blowing us around, as we were not wearing rubber-soled shoes. (Reminder: Do not wear heels on deck, no matter how fashionable they look…)

After unpacking and stowing our luggage under the beds, we took off to explore the ship. I can’t believe how cheap everything is in the gift shop! Think of big chunky colorful earring and necklace sets for just $10 a set. I bought a beautiful aqua pashima-style shawl, also for $10. And no sales taxes. They said the prices are good because this is the end of the Alaska season, and the ship will be going to Mexico in October. So the Alaska-themed and cold weather clothing is on sale

Our lifeboat drill was comical, with everyone wearing huge orange Mae West jackets that made us look pregnant. Instead of being filled with kapok or other soft material, they’re made of big blocks of Styrofoam. We all kept bumping into each other every time we so much as twitched. And of course, the ship photographer had to be taking individual photos of each of us, all decked out (no pun intended) in our orange finery.

We were happy to find that women and children are boarded into the lifeboats first. So this is one time when sex discrimination is played to our advantage! One guy tried to get at the head of the line, and we said just because he had a ponytail, it didn’t qualify him to get in with the females. Off to the back of the line he went!

Dinner was in an elegant restaurant, where Diane and I caught up on a lot of family talk – men, kids, men, parents, men, travel, men…. We know the ears of a lot of ex-boyfriends were burning last night.

Afterwards we tried to find a club to go dancing, but it looked like everyone was as exhausted as we were. There wasn’t a lively crowd to be found anywhere. Of course, a lot of that is due to the fact that she and I are the skinniest and/or youngest-looking women on board. I kid you not. Now that summer is over, most of the younger people are back to work, so we’re sailing with the older retired crowd. And even though we’re in that age group ourselves, we are the best-looking women on the entire ship. I’m amazed that there are so many out-of-shape people here, along with those who have no idea how to dress for a vacation. Many people today are just slobs or they wear strictly utilitarian clothes – everything is chosen for comfort and durability rather than including even the smallest bit of style.

We did enter the elevator last night and found one solitary older man in there. As the door shut, we said, “Okay, now we have him alone for the long ride down!” He looked comically aghast and said, “What will you do with me?” We said, “What can you put up with?” And he said, “Not much at my age. I’m a lot older than you two.”

We challenged him to reveal his age, and he said, “I’m 68.” Diane and I laughed and told him we were 62 and 63. He widened his eyes and said, “I thought you two were in your 40s!!” I think he was disappointed that the elevator door opened just then and he had to get out. Haha!!

More later. We have to get to our exercise class and then off to the gift shop to see if we won the jewelry raffle. Tomorrow we should be in Juneau, where we’ve booked a helicopter ride to the Mendenhall Glacier.