Alaska Cruise Day 1

Hearing about the long lines at the US/Canada boarder, we decided to get an early start this morning on our drive to Vancouver, BC to board ship. When we arrived at the crossing, surprise, there were only three cars ahead of us, so getting into Canada was a breeze.

We arrived at the parking lot where we were leaving the truck around 8:30 am - early. But no problem, they let us park and offered a shuttle to town so we could get some breakfast - how nice! So far this day has been great.

The shuttle dropped us off in front of Canada Place and told us where we could catch it back to the lot when we were ready to return. We took off in search of breakfast - since we left so early we hadn't had anything to eat. Crossing the street I spotted a nice looking restaurant with big windows looking out toward Canada Place and the harbor - looked good to me so in we went.

After about a 5 min. wait we were seated at a table right by the window where we could watch the entertainment of all the buses, taxi's etc. picking up cruise passengers, tour buses picking up for city tours, trucks picking up luggage bound for the airport and the normal mix of local traffic thrown in, all on a street no wider than three lanes!

Looking at the menu, we survived the initial sticker shock and decided to go for the buffet. Only a mere 23 Canadian dollars - PER PERSON! The food was good, but we felt like we should sit there until lunch just to get our monies worth - the bill totaled $60.00 with tip added. This certainly was the most expensive breakfast we have ever had.

After eating our "gold" plated breakfast we went into Canada Place to explore and get some local information. This is a really pretty place, but there is a lot of construction going on so it restricted the views. We decided to get the shuttle and head to the ship via the parking lot.

We arrived at Ballentyne Terminal around 11 am and figured we would have to wait an hour or so to board ship as boarding usually doesn't start until noon at the earliest. We checked in with out SeaPass (Royal Caribbean's on-line boarding pass) and were told we could go on board ship immediately - another pleasant surprise to a great day.

We couldn't get to our cabin until 1 pm so for the next hour + we roamed the ship, becoming familiar with our new home for a week. We ended up at a nice table in the Windjammer Cafe watching the sea planes, helicopters, and boats taking off, going by, etc. Around 12:30 they announced that the buffet was open. Well, dummy me, after 35+ cruises, you would think that I would remember the welcome aboard buffet. If I had, we certainly would not have had our "gold" plated breakfast! Neither of us were hungry, but after awhile I couldn't take it any longer and had to go look and see what they had. I found the pizza and had a slice and was immediately reminded how good Royal Caribbean's pizza is - yummy. Thus began seven days of non-stop food!

At 5 pm we set sail for Alaska. There were other ships in port and we were the second to leave. Ahead of us was Holland America's Zuiderdam and following us was Princess' Sapphire Princess. We sailed under the Lion Gate Bridge (I think that was the name) and past Stanley Park, a very large park in Vancouver. To the north of us where lots of snow capped mountains and North & West Vancouver. A beautiful sight as we sailed away.

At 6 pm we went to the dinning room for our first dinner. Our table mates were from Chicago, IL and New York, NY. They were fascinated about us being full time RV'ers. We spent dinner answering lots and lots of questions.

After dinner we strolled through the shops, stopped by the casino where I came out $4.00 ahead and ended up in the Schooner Bar where I had a BBC and Dean had a Bloody Mary. Since it had been a long day, we passed on the evening show in the lounge and headed for our cabin and bed sure of a good nights sleep.