Planning your Alaska Cruise

     We are in the waning hours of preparation for boarding the Star Princess heading to Alaska on a 7 day voyage.  Many of our friends are asking questions like, "can I use my WiFi Hotspot?" or "Is WiFi available on the ship" or "How much does it cost to make a phone call?"

     Getting on a cruise ship allows you to leave your cares behind or stay in control of all your business.  Technology has grown so fast that we don't have to be completely out of contact when sailing on the high seas.  It is important for you to discover the details of your two sources of communication. Your wireless provider and your cruise ship.

     Princess cruises, who we are sailing on to Alaska on Sunday, has done a good job of having WiFi available in almost all the guest staterooms and public areas.  But WiFi is not free.  All cruise lines charge to have access to their WiFi network, so contemplate how many minutes of connection time you might need, and purchase it when you get on board. Then have fun surfing away, though don't expect fast throughput speeds.  It is satellite based, ya know!

     All the cruise lines have agreements with the major cell phone carriers, which allow you to make phone calls on your cell phone and receive emails on your smart phone device.  But, again, the carriers usually charge international rates when on the cruise ship.  The same goes with sending and receiving emails or browsing the Internet on your smart phone or tablet (Including the HotSpot), except that deals with "Data".  Talk to your wireless carrier on international data roaming.  We don't want you to be surprised with a several hundred dollar bill when you get home, because your smart phone works on the ship.  The ship may not block you and your carrier may not warn you.

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Seattle - The Arrival

     We always recommend that those departing on a cruise, should arrive in your port city early.  For us, and departing on July 8th (The 4th being a Wednesday), and also having family that lives in the Seattle area, it was a great excuse to come in 5 days early!  I was most excited to get away from the state of Utah being on fire...Literally!  We have not had rain for more than 38 days, and the average temperature has been somewhere around "Welcome to Hell". With consistent south winds, and people who do not even listen or watch the news for 5 seconds each day, the fires burning in Utah continue to be mostly human caused. How sad is that?  But I slightly digress!

     As I said, I am excited to get away from the fires, the heat, the lack of rain, and the lack of green, to head somewhere where green abounds. The reason for that green is of course...RAIN!  Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey. Whiskey makes my baby, just a little frisky".  We arrived at SeaTac airport at 11am, with lots of clouds and the temperature right around 60 degrees! AHHH!  I love walking down the concourse with different fish imprinted in the floor. Salmon is most noticeable.  I have to say, being in the pacific northwest, I am really pumped about consuming a lot of fish.  My cousin picked us up in her truck (there are 5 of us), and getting out of the airport was a breeze.  We quickly moved to I5 and headed south to where my cousin lives.

     Similar feeling of visiting the Washington D.C. Area came to me, because of the tall trees and vines growing everywhere.  I feel like breathing deeply when ever I visit here..and I do!  Heading through the Tacoma area, my cousin told us about the Brown-Haley Almond Roca Outlet Store here.  WHAT?  Oh my, we have to visit.  People are excited about the 4th of July tomorrow, and fireworks are going off sporadically around us here in Olympia.  Unlike Utah, fireworks are not banned here because of the threat of a wild fire.  Tall old growth forests, ferns that seem like they are still growing from the Jurassic period, Moss growing on roofs.  I love it here!

We Are Here For You.