Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Departing Vancouver

Alright guys, I will totally acknowledge that I have been slacking in the blog department for the last few days.  Fear not, however, I have excellent excuses: 1) Vacation is buuuuusy, 2) the scenic Alaskan vistas are far nicer than the background on my desktop, and 3) $.79 per minute for internet, man.  There we go.  Excuses dispensed, and I will assume that I am forgiven.

On Sunday, we got up and read by the pool at our hotel for a few hours, since we couldn’t board the ship until 11:30.  We had no problems navigating public transportation to get us to the Waterfront, where, after a single “whoops, this is totally the delivery entrance to the cruise ship terminal,” we were able to enter the shuffle-stand-wait-move line to check in and board the ship.  At one point, we got to skip a whole bunch, because we had American passports, and it was like getting TSA pre-check.  The line was actually not bad at all (you did move a bunch), and you drop off your luggage at the beginning, so it’s not like you’re dragging stuff with you.  We probably completed the whole thing in 30-45 minutes.

Once on board, we found lunch, reacquainted ourselves with the mass of humanity found only at the cruise ship buffet, and snagged some lounge chairs on the deck.  The weather was sunny and around 70, so we didn’t even move when they announced that all of the staterooms were ready.  When we finally made it down to the room, we were surprised at how much larger the room seems with a window (I mean, it may also just be larger than the one we had on our last cruise, but this seems positively spacious).

We cast off at 4:00, and had a “Sizzle Party” on deck (live music, dancers from the shows, general entertainment).  One visit to the thalassotherapy pool later, we were back on deck and watching the scenery change.  The Pacific Northwest is just beautiful.

We weren’t able to get flexible seating for this cruise, so we’ve been paired with another couple, from the UK (and two empty seats… haven’t met them yet).  There was a fair bit of silence the first night, but the meals have gotten progressively more pleasant.  They’re just coming off a two-week train ride around Canada.

Tomorrow is our first day at sea.  We’re looking forward to trivia, eating all the food, and the part that I’m super excited about is that this cruise does art lessons.  There’s a watercolor artist on board, who teaches classes (hopefully) every day.  I’ve never done much with painting, but I’m really looking forward to it.  Also, let’s be real, Troy’s been thinking about hockey ~60% of his waking time.  So, Go Hawks!

More later!


Catherine

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