A day of logistics begins.
We got an early start packing our 50 million bags of luggage. Catherine stopped by to see us off and 
after
a nice morning with both her and Kathleen, we said goodbye to them and Vancouver
and headed for the Island Princess. We
could see from Kathleen’s that the ship was already docked in the harbor. Tony and I had scouted out the luggage drop
off the day we walked around Stanley Park and the Vancouver waterfront. Why we were dreading all the logistics? The entire process went like clockwork: drop
off the luggage with preprinted tags at the terminal, drop the car off at the
airport, take the sky train from the airport to the waterfront and started the
embarking process for the cruise.
However, I was having immediate regrets almost as soon as I
went through the door. We couldn’t tell
prior to boarding that there were two ships in port, both boarding at the same
time; ours-the Island Princess and the Disney Wonder. What am I doing not going on a Disney
Cruise! They had people there with their
Mickey Mouse white gloves waving to us, they were playing “Be My Guest” as
welcome music behind the entrance curtains and I know Mickey and Minnie were
there somewhere greeting people and posing for their embarkation photo! I was so jealous!!!! Instead of getting on the boat where dream always
do come true, I’m boating the love boat.
For our welcome we had a very pleasant young lady welcoming us, some old
Frank Sinatra song playing in the background and a plastic backdrop with a mountain
on it for our embarkation photo.
However, we wanted the Glacier Bay experience and the Island Princess is
one of the few ships that can enter, so my Disney Cruise just was not to
be.
I was just trying to get over the “I’m missing a Disney
cruise thing” when we were checking in and then found out that our room had
been changed. We had booked an inside
room and Tony went to great lengths to make sure we were a little lower and in
the middle of the boat so we wouldn’t feel the rocking, especially since we
don’t do boats! To find out at check in
that we had been moved without being asked we were a little concerned. However at that point, we just went with the
flow. As we made our way to our room, we
opened the door and found that instead of a tiny, dark, inside cabin, we had been
upgraded to a huge room with a balcony! We
would be able to see daylight both day and night!! We realized after we entered that it was
technically a handicapped room so it was a huge room to account for the 5’ ADA
turning radius of a wheel chair. (see what you learn when you design office
spaces at work!). The room was beautiful
and after being in it the first day, I will never ever book an inside room if
we take a cruise ever again. It is
really nice!!!
 |
| Disney Wonder going under the Lion's Gate Bridge, haunting me until the inside passage! |
We briefly dropped our things, grabbed one of my cameras and
set out to explore the ship. It was a
beautiful ships with gorgeous pools and nice dining rooms and theatres. I have to say, it takes a while to figure out
where you are, where you are going, where’s the front and where’s the back, what
side is port and starboard, where do you eat and where can I get a diet
coke! However I putting priorities in
order, I figured out the diet coke thing immediately getting an unlimited soft
drink package which served me well the entire cruise. 
The afternoon was gloriously sunny and warm and it was a
perfect 
ending to a week in Vancouver and the beginning of our cruise. Up on deck we watched as the boat set sail
and set off down through the harbor I waved goodbye to our Canadian friends. Our cruise went past the Point Atkinson Lighthouse that
Tony, Kathleen and I had hiked to earlier in the week. We had a beautiful view from the water. 
We sailed off towards Vancouver Island and we set off into
the inside passage. Once we sailed off
into the open waters we set out to explore the inside of the boat a little
more. Being first time cruisers, it took
us a couple days to figure out that you had to read the Princess Patter every
day. That has the schedule of events for
the entire day. Every night you received
a new one for the following days. It
took until the end of the second day to catch onto that trick and finally
figured out what the entertainment was, where to eat, lectures and shopping
specials. Since I am more into demand
food, we found that the Horizon dining area was perfect for us, it was a buffet
that was open 18 hours a day, coffee, tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and
surrounded by windows with a view of the waters off the bow of the ship. That was my favorite view, we could see where
we were going and if there was something great to take picture of, I could jump
up and run out the door to get the shot.
Unfortunately, there was way too much food and somehow our portion
control and low fat eating suffered badly as they had soo many good things to
eat and we didn’t have to cook it!
Tony and I both had GREAT reservations about being on a
cruise. While we felt the movement of
the boat, the waves were never any higher than 2 feet. Only once or twice after the first day did it
bother us, so it was a very enjoyable way to see lots of beautiful sights that
we couldn’t get to by car.
After a great dinner, beautiful sunset pictures and a
beautiful evening, we retired to dream about the warm, sunny days for the
remainder of our trip.
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