It was a lazy morning, with nothing on the docket for me until a backstage production tour of the Princess Theater at 11:15. After that I grabbed lunch, then sat around for a while. As we approached College Fjord in the early evening I went topside to observe the scenery and take pictures. I got cold after being out there for a couple of hours, so I took a quick break to go pack up my suitcase and leave it out to be transferred. I made it back outside right as we were passing Bryn Mawr Glacier. I ran into Christine, Eric, Stacy, Ryan, and Nell, and hung with them while the ship made its way to Harvard Glacier and did a couple of twirls. As the ship reversed course the Zemke crew invited me to dinner once again, as their 7:30 seating was fast approaching – I was happy to accept. Mama Zemke (unfortunately, I don't recall her name) was well enough to join this time, so we had a full table of 8 (they added 1 for me). After dinner the young’ns and I walked over to the Explorers Lounge to see if Ryan and Nell would win anything in the drink package raffle – they didn’t. After that I bid them farewell and retired to my room to get some sleep before an early morning.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Alaska 2016 - Day 6 (8/25/2016) - Glacier Bay
This morning was one of the most anticipated events for me for the trip – cruising in Glacier Bay. I was dressed around 9:30 as the ship approached Russell Island. I went up to the Promenade Deck (7) to view the couple of glaciers (Lamplugh Glacier and Reid Glacier) that were visible from our initial stake-out spot. I then grabbed a bit of breakfast while the ship sailed into the Tarr Inlet toward the Margerie Glacier. I briefly met up with Christine in the buffet as we approached Margerie, but left to go take pictures on the top decks while she had breakfast. I ran into Eric and Stacy while the ship was twirling in front of the awe-inspiring glacier, and hung with them for most of the hour or so that the ship spent there. We luckily got to witness a couple of fairly large shards calving from the glacier while our side was facing it. There were park rangers on board during our time in the bay, and they provided some interesting information over the PA system during some of the viewing time. One nice tidbit I picked up was that it was (to the day) the 100th birthday/anniversary of the National Park Service – Glacier Bay is a national park.
After the ship left Margerie around noon I grabbed a veggie burger from the grill and took it back to my room to lunch on. I wandered around the ship for a while, grabbed a soft-serve cone from the ice cream bar, and unsuccessfully tried to find a good spot to look out for ocean wildlife. Later on I met up with Christine to try to spot some of the dolphins, sea otters, and whales that she had been seeing from her balcony. Unfortunately, the fog set in as soon as I went over there, so I didn’t get to see anything. We went to afternoon trivia at 4:30 and teamed up with Helen again. Our respectable 19 points (out of a possible 29) put us just one behind the co-leaders so we didn’t get to participate in the tiebreaker. After trivia Christine and I met up with Eric and Tracy at the Wheelhouse Bar, where we killed some time before dinner.
Dinner was a formal affair. I crashed the Zemke table in the Provence dining room, where there was assigned seating at an assigned time (7:30 in their case) – they arranged to add an extra seat for me to join Christine, Eric, Stacy, Eric’s brother Ryan, Ryan’s wife Nell, Eric’s dad Bob, and Eric’s mom. In the end, though, Eric’s mom was a no-show due to sea-sickness so I essentially took her place. Speaking of sea-sickness, the ship had encountered some fairly rough (but not alarmingly so) waters by this point, so her absence was understandable. The rolling of the ship would continue throughout the night and into the next day. Thankfully this didn’t affect me. After dinner I swung by the Universe Lounge to catch the end of the Marriage Match Gameshow (their take on the Newlywed Show) before retiring to my room.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
After the ship left Margerie around noon I grabbed a veggie burger from the grill and took it back to my room to lunch on. I wandered around the ship for a while, grabbed a soft-serve cone from the ice cream bar, and unsuccessfully tried to find a good spot to look out for ocean wildlife. Later on I met up with Christine to try to spot some of the dolphins, sea otters, and whales that she had been seeing from her balcony. Unfortunately, the fog set in as soon as I went over there, so I didn’t get to see anything. We went to afternoon trivia at 4:30 and teamed up with Helen again. Our respectable 19 points (out of a possible 29) put us just one behind the co-leaders so we didn’t get to participate in the tiebreaker. After trivia Christine and I met up with Eric and Tracy at the Wheelhouse Bar, where we killed some time before dinner.
Dinner was a formal affair. I crashed the Zemke table in the Provence dining room, where there was assigned seating at an assigned time (7:30 in their case) – they arranged to add an extra seat for me to join Christine, Eric, Stacy, Eric’s brother Ryan, Ryan’s wife Nell, Eric’s dad Bob, and Eric’s mom. In the end, though, Eric’s mom was a no-show due to sea-sickness so I essentially took her place. Speaking of sea-sickness, the ship had encountered some fairly rough (but not alarmingly so) waters by this point, so her absence was understandable. The rolling of the ship would continue throughout the night and into the next day. Thankfully this didn’t affect me. After dinner I swung by the Universe Lounge to catch the end of the Marriage Match Gameshow (their take on the Newlywed Show) before retiring to my room.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
Alaska 2016 - Day 5 (8/24/2016) - Skagway
I slept in this morning and skipped breakfast entirely. I made it to the Horizon Court Buffet right about as lunch service began around 11:30. The vegetarian options were actually a little lacking at the buffet today, but that was probably not a bad thing for my waistline; I still got enough to eat. After lunch I went ashore to try to make the 12:40 departure of the White Pass Scenic Railway. I ran into Christine, Eric, and Stacy just as I was preparing to board the train, and Christine warned me that the views were not great because of the clouds and fog (they had just done a train ride). I decided to cancel my booking and instead joined them for a trip into Skagway.
We took a “Smart Bus” the mile or so to the far end of the downtown area, where the brew house was. We braved the half hour wait and then had lunch there – or at least the others had lunch, as I had recently eaten. We then slowly made our way back to the pier, stopping at many of the shops. At some point Eric and Stacy left to head back to the boat to pick up something to mail at the post office. Christine and I browsed through more shops that caught her eye, and also made a stop for ice cream, and another for mini donuts. We made it back to the ship around 5 PM.
I met back up with Christine later in the evening to watch the movie "Money Monster" in the Princess Theater – I knew nothing about it beforehand besides that it starred George Clooney and Julia Roberts, but it turned out to be pretty decent. Afterward, we had a late dinner at the buffet.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
We took a “Smart Bus” the mile or so to the far end of the downtown area, where the brew house was. We braved the half hour wait and then had lunch there – or at least the others had lunch, as I had recently eaten. We then slowly made our way back to the pier, stopping at many of the shops. At some point Eric and Stacy left to head back to the boat to pick up something to mail at the post office. Christine and I browsed through more shops that caught her eye, and also made a stop for ice cream, and another for mini donuts. We made it back to the ship around 5 PM.
I met back up with Christine later in the evening to watch the movie "Money Monster" in the Princess Theater – I knew nothing about it beforehand besides that it starred George Clooney and Julia Roberts, but it turned out to be pretty decent. Afterward, we had a late dinner at the buffet.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
Alaska 2016 - Day 4 (8/23/2016) - Juneau
It was another relatively early morning today, as I was dressed by 8 AM. I met up with Christine for breakfast in one of the dining rooms before she departed for her late morning walking and food sampling tour. I took it easy (did some writing and coding) for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon.
I met up with Christine around 1:30 to go ashore and walk about a bit. There was some intermittent rain, but it was brief and very light. After a while I left her to continue shopping while I went over to take the tram up to the top of Mount Roberts, where I was able to get a nice view in between the fog rolling in and out. After that I headed back to the ship to relax for a bit before hitting up the buffet for dinner. As there weren’t any appealing shows or events that evening, I stayed in my room and watched “All The Way” (with Brian Cranston as LBJ) – which I ended up liking more than I expected.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
I met up with Christine around 1:30 to go ashore and walk about a bit. There was some intermittent rain, but it was brief and very light. After a while I left her to continue shopping while I went over to take the tram up to the top of Mount Roberts, where I was able to get a nice view in between the fog rolling in and out. After that I headed back to the ship to relax for a bit before hitting up the buffet for dinner. As there weren’t any appealing shows or events that evening, I stayed in my room and watched “All The Way” (with Brian Cranston as LBJ) – which I ended up liking more than I expected.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
Alaska 2016 - Day 3 (8/22/2016) - Ketchikan
The ship changed time zones back one hour to Alaskan time in the middle of the night (2 AM). We dropped anchor at Ketchikan early in the morning. I was also up relatively early – 7ish – partially due to the time change. After the breakfast buffet I decided to take a tender boat to shore and walk around town for a bit. While on the boat I met a woman named Christine who was cruising solo-ish – she had friends on the cruise, but was rooming alone. During the course of conversation I found out that she was an OB/GYN surgeon from Oklahoma City, and we decided to explore Ketchikan together.
After reaching the dock, we scored a map from the tourist information center that guided a walking tour of “downtown” Ketchikan. We followed the directions for the first few points of interest, but pretty soon abandoned it and began wandering about to various shops. We eventually sat down at a coffee shop, where I had a sub-par mango smoothie. Then we checked out a bar named Annabelle’s down the street where Christine bought a t-shirt and sampled a flight, while I gorged on a slice of peanut butter pie. After a quick stop at Orca Corn to buy some kettle corn, we made it back to the dock to take a boat back to the ship before the 1:30 cast-off.
Back on the ship, we caught a screening of part 2 of Spirit of Alaska and grabbed a late afternoon snack from the buffet. For dinner, I had my first dining room experience – we went to the anytime dining room (which is what I had selected pre-trip, while she had chosen the assigned dining room) and shared a table with 7 other people. The cruise dining experience is pretty nice – you get to choose whatever you want (including multiple of each) from a menu of a few starters, salads, soups, mains, entrees, and desserts, all while being served by a pair of attentive wait staff. After dinner we went to the show by vocal impressionist Travis Turpin – he does pretty good impressions of old timey singers (e.g., Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Neil Diamond).
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
After reaching the dock, we scored a map from the tourist information center that guided a walking tour of “downtown” Ketchikan. We followed the directions for the first few points of interest, but pretty soon abandoned it and began wandering about to various shops. We eventually sat down at a coffee shop, where I had a sub-par mango smoothie. Then we checked out a bar named Annabelle’s down the street where Christine bought a t-shirt and sampled a flight, while I gorged on a slice of peanut butter pie. After a quick stop at Orca Corn to buy some kettle corn, we made it back to the dock to take a boat back to the ship before the 1:30 cast-off.
Back on the ship, we caught a screening of part 2 of Spirit of Alaska and grabbed a late afternoon snack from the buffet. For dinner, I had my first dining room experience – we went to the anytime dining room (which is what I had selected pre-trip, while she had chosen the assigned dining room) and shared a table with 7 other people. The cruise dining experience is pretty nice – you get to choose whatever you want (including multiple of each) from a menu of a few starters, salads, soups, mains, entrees, and desserts, all while being served by a pair of attentive wait staff. After dinner we went to the show by vocal impressionist Travis Turpin – he does pretty good impressions of old timey singers (e.g., Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Neil Diamond).
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
Alaska 2016 - Day 2 (8/21/2016) - At Sea
I slept in for a long time this morning, making up for what I didn’t get while packing the night before. I first got up around 9, but then decided that I didn’t really want to be up just yet. I got back up after 11 – something that I can’t remember doing for a while. As I prepared for the day, I noticed that the boat would rock a bit from time to time, in contrast to the virtually peaceful sailing from the day before when we had Vancouver Island to shield us from the ocean. Apparently the open waters past the island were a tad rougher.
After getting dressed I went up to the buffet for lunch. They had an Asian theme going, and once again I didn’t have trouble finding stuff to eat. My next activity was a talk at 2 PM about whales, given by the ship’s naturalist in one of the theaters. Later on at 4 PM I attended a trivia event at one of the lounges. I arrived a bit late and ended up partnering with another solo cruiser named Helen – we managed an almost respectable 11 out of 20 correct. We chatted a bit afterward, and I found out that she was a retired nurse from Australia. At one point she asked if I was on the cruise or part of the staff – she seemed surprised that a person “my age” would be cruising with all the “old people”. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt that it didn’t also have to do with race. All in all, it was a pleasant conversation. And she gave me a tip that they seem to do a decent job of setting solo travelers up at a table with similarl demographics in the dining room. I decided to pass on that for the day, since it was a formal night, but I considered dining there subsequent evenings.
The rest of the evening included dinner once again at the buffet and then watching comedian Derrick Cameron in the Universe Lounge. His full set was better than the abbreviated one from the night before. Interestingly, he keeps it clean and doesn’t curse or do dirty jokes; I guess that’s cruise friendly. He does make racial jokes, though, which is particularly humorous to me since we were probably the only 2 black guys in the room.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
After getting dressed I went up to the buffet for lunch. They had an Asian theme going, and once again I didn’t have trouble finding stuff to eat. My next activity was a talk at 2 PM about whales, given by the ship’s naturalist in one of the theaters. Later on at 4 PM I attended a trivia event at one of the lounges. I arrived a bit late and ended up partnering with another solo cruiser named Helen – we managed an almost respectable 11 out of 20 correct. We chatted a bit afterward, and I found out that she was a retired nurse from Australia. At one point she asked if I was on the cruise or part of the staff – she seemed surprised that a person “my age” would be cruising with all the “old people”. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt that it didn’t also have to do with race. All in all, it was a pleasant conversation. And she gave me a tip that they seem to do a decent job of setting solo travelers up at a table with similarl demographics in the dining room. I decided to pass on that for the day, since it was a formal night, but I considered dining there subsequent evenings.
The rest of the evening included dinner once again at the buffet and then watching comedian Derrick Cameron in the Universe Lounge. His full set was better than the abbreviated one from the night before. Interestingly, he keeps it clean and doesn’t curse or do dirty jokes; I guess that’s cruise friendly. He does make racial jokes, though, which is particularly humorous to me since we were probably the only 2 black guys in the room.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
Alaska 2016 - Day 1 (8/20/2016) - Embark
Alaska has been on my list of places to travel for a while. After hearing of my coworker Dave Long’s enjoyable cruisetour to there last year, I decided that I wanted to do something similar. And since I was now living in Seattle (for a while at least), I figured that this was the time to do it since I was as close as I could reasonably get. The only company that I saw in my brief search that did cruisetours (part cruise, part land tour) was Princess Cruises. They had some Alaska cruises that left from Seattle, but the cruisetours all seemed to start or end in Vancouver. After a couple of false starts with potential companions for the trip, I ended up booking solo. I selected a 13-day “Off The Beaten Path” cruisetour, which included a 7-day “Voyage of the Glaciers” cruise.
This would be my first cruise, so I didn’t know what to expect. Since the Down Under trip in 2007/2008, I’ve travelled with just a big backpack and usually done laundry in the middle of my big trips. But I also haven’t done any organized tours since then. While glancing through the tour itinerary, I noticed that the cruise portion included 2 “formal” nights and 5 “smart casual” ones. A bit of Internet research revealed that a tuxedo, suit, or dinner jacket was expected for men for the formal nights in the dining rooms. What I stupidly didn’t realize at the time, though, was that there would be other places to eat besides the dining rooms. So I figured that I had to pack some nice clothes (I didn’t have a tie with me in Seattle, though), and that necessitated bringing a suitcase (and not just a backpack). Of course I went overboard (pun intended) and over-packed since I was wanted to bring enough for all 13 days and wasn’t sure what the weather mix was going to be. And being one who doesn’t pack until the night before (or morning of) my trips, this ended up causing a very late night – I didn’t get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning.
Another thing had me worried prior to the trip. A few days earlier I had picked up some sort of injury to my left ankle/Achilles area. This had come at the end of a couple of weeks of increased soccer playing, and it marred my streak of not having any serious injuries (i.e., enough to miss a game) since moving to Seattle. I don’t even know how I got the injury, but I vaguely remember it waking me up during my sleep the night after my Monday game (I think...). In any case, I was set to miss games on Wednesday and Thursday due to a separate thigh/groin injury, but then this ankle one seemed to get worse and worse. It wasn’t anything structural, since it didn’t hurt at rest and I had most of my range of motion. However, I did feel pain when I pointed my toes or planted on that foot (e.g., just to walk). This was usually the worst in the morning after waking up, but would get well enough after shuffling around for a bit that it was almost unnoticeable for most of the day if I was just walking slowly. Running or pivoting on it were still not doable. I hoped (and expected) that it would subside by the time that I left for the trip on Saturday, and didn’t do anything to treat it. It was no better by Saturday morning, though, and it was only then that I noticed how bruised (yes, I guess my dark skin can bruise after all) and swollen the back of my ankle was.
So I departed for Vancouver a little worried, but nevertheless undeterred. I took an Uber to the airport, checked in and dropped of my suitcase, and then eventually boarded the Air Canada turbo-prop for the short hop up the coast. I was mildly looking forward to the flight (originally scheduled for 11:40, but delayed ~25 minutes), as I had only ridden on passenger jets - I jumped out of the only other propeller plane that I can recall riding in. The flight was fairly uneventful, though I didn’t like having to remove my earbuds for take-off and landing - something I haven't had to do on a flight for a long time. We were above 10,000 feet so briefly that the flight attendants only got through half of the plane (I would estimate there were 80 or 90 seats) for beverage service. I was in the back, so I didn’t get a drink, but that’s not even worth thinking of sweating over (first world problems).
After landing and going through immigration, I found the Princess staff and handed off my luggage for transfer to the ship. This was very convenient. I didn’t think that I had made it onto their transfer roster per the status on my account on their website, but it looked like they didn’t care as long as you were booked on the ship. They also provided a shuttle bus transfer to the pier, so I didn’t have to worry about making my way down there myself. It was while getting on the shuttle that it struck me what most of the demographic for the cruise would be - lots of…let’s say..."experienced" people. And no color (though there was a tiny bit more later on the ship). Neither of which was a surprise - I just didn’t think about it much beforehand.
The shuttle got us to the pier sometime around 3 PM, a good 45 minutes before boarding was to end. With the wait for the shuttle, the stop to pick up other passengers, and the questionable route through side streets, I probably could have gotten there a little faster via SkyTrain; but the convenience was pretty tough to beat. The cruise check-in process involved a bunch of walking about (luckily with staff pointing you in the right direction), but it was pretty smooth. After I received my room key card (which also served as my on-board ID and payment), I went through security and then US immigration. So I guess I was back in US territory after boarding the ship, even though I was still in Vancouver?
The name of the ship was the Coral Princess. After finding my Oceanview room (i.e., it had a picture window, but no balcony), I took a few minutes to get acquainted with the amenities. I found it to be pretty comfortable for the size. Soon after an announcement was made for the required safety drill at 4 PM. When the general alarm was sounded (unfortunately, right as the Brazil v Germany Olympic soccer final was going to PKs) I grabbed a life vest from the closet as directed and left to find the Muster Station. I find out at this time when I went to leave that my suitcase had been delivered and was waiting outside my door. After taking it into the room, I walked up to Muster Station E. There we went through the exercise (the assistant tour director for our station tried to make it somewhat fun, but I found her to be overly enthusiastic) and then were released.
Back in the room, I unpacked my suitcase and continued going through the introductory documents that had been left in the room. I also registered my on-board Princess@Sea account, and purchased an Internet access plan. After a while, and a bit of a nap, I left to go explore the ship. Among the 10 or so passenger decks, there were various bars and lounges, a couple of theaters, a casino, a spa, a couple of pools, a half basketball court, a couple of shuffleboard stations, a fitness center, two dining rooms, a buffet, an ice cream bar, an outdoor movie screen on one of the decks, and much more. I grabbed a slice of pizza at the pizzeria before realizing that the buffet was close by. I ate the slice and then went into the buffet to finish out the meal. The buffet had plenty of vegetarian options in addition to the many for carnivores. They also had complimentary lemonade and iced tea – these are my drinks of choice, so I found an additional beverage plan unnecessary.
My activities for the remainder of the evening included attending the second welcome show at 9:45. I didn’t realize beforehand that they would have a music and dance intro as well as an intro from the tour director and his deputies – I was only there for the comedian. It ended up being not so bad, though - I got a bit of useful information from it. The comedian (Derrick Cameron) was decent enough that I would consider going to his full show on the next night. Prior to that I tried to go to a meet and greet for solo travelers, but I didn’t see anybody at the bar that looked like they were running it.
This is probably going to be by far the longest post of this travelogue because of how new the experience was for me. The rest will probably just be little more than listings of the activities that I did.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
This would be my first cruise, so I didn’t know what to expect. Since the Down Under trip in 2007/2008, I’ve travelled with just a big backpack and usually done laundry in the middle of my big trips. But I also haven’t done any organized tours since then. While glancing through the tour itinerary, I noticed that the cruise portion included 2 “formal” nights and 5 “smart casual” ones. A bit of Internet research revealed that a tuxedo, suit, or dinner jacket was expected for men for the formal nights in the dining rooms. What I stupidly didn’t realize at the time, though, was that there would be other places to eat besides the dining rooms. So I figured that I had to pack some nice clothes (I didn’t have a tie with me in Seattle, though), and that necessitated bringing a suitcase (and not just a backpack). Of course I went overboard (pun intended) and over-packed since I was wanted to bring enough for all 13 days and wasn’t sure what the weather mix was going to be. And being one who doesn’t pack until the night before (or morning of) my trips, this ended up causing a very late night – I didn’t get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning.
Another thing had me worried prior to the trip. A few days earlier I had picked up some sort of injury to my left ankle/Achilles area. This had come at the end of a couple of weeks of increased soccer playing, and it marred my streak of not having any serious injuries (i.e., enough to miss a game) since moving to Seattle. I don’t even know how I got the injury, but I vaguely remember it waking me up during my sleep the night after my Monday game (I think...). In any case, I was set to miss games on Wednesday and Thursday due to a separate thigh/groin injury, but then this ankle one seemed to get worse and worse. It wasn’t anything structural, since it didn’t hurt at rest and I had most of my range of motion. However, I did feel pain when I pointed my toes or planted on that foot (e.g., just to walk). This was usually the worst in the morning after waking up, but would get well enough after shuffling around for a bit that it was almost unnoticeable for most of the day if I was just walking slowly. Running or pivoting on it were still not doable. I hoped (and expected) that it would subside by the time that I left for the trip on Saturday, and didn’t do anything to treat it. It was no better by Saturday morning, though, and it was only then that I noticed how bruised (yes, I guess my dark skin can bruise after all) and swollen the back of my ankle was.
So I departed for Vancouver a little worried, but nevertheless undeterred. I took an Uber to the airport, checked in and dropped of my suitcase, and then eventually boarded the Air Canada turbo-prop for the short hop up the coast. I was mildly looking forward to the flight (originally scheduled for 11:40, but delayed ~25 minutes), as I had only ridden on passenger jets - I jumped out of the only other propeller plane that I can recall riding in. The flight was fairly uneventful, though I didn’t like having to remove my earbuds for take-off and landing - something I haven't had to do on a flight for a long time. We were above 10,000 feet so briefly that the flight attendants only got through half of the plane (I would estimate there were 80 or 90 seats) for beverage service. I was in the back, so I didn’t get a drink, but that’s not even worth thinking of sweating over (first world problems).
After landing and going through immigration, I found the Princess staff and handed off my luggage for transfer to the ship. This was very convenient. I didn’t think that I had made it onto their transfer roster per the status on my account on their website, but it looked like they didn’t care as long as you were booked on the ship. They also provided a shuttle bus transfer to the pier, so I didn’t have to worry about making my way down there myself. It was while getting on the shuttle that it struck me what most of the demographic for the cruise would be - lots of…let’s say..."experienced" people. And no color (though there was a tiny bit more later on the ship). Neither of which was a surprise - I just didn’t think about it much beforehand.
The shuttle got us to the pier sometime around 3 PM, a good 45 minutes before boarding was to end. With the wait for the shuttle, the stop to pick up other passengers, and the questionable route through side streets, I probably could have gotten there a little faster via SkyTrain; but the convenience was pretty tough to beat. The cruise check-in process involved a bunch of walking about (luckily with staff pointing you in the right direction), but it was pretty smooth. After I received my room key card (which also served as my on-board ID and payment), I went through security and then US immigration. So I guess I was back in US territory after boarding the ship, even though I was still in Vancouver?
The name of the ship was the Coral Princess. After finding my Oceanview room (i.e., it had a picture window, but no balcony), I took a few minutes to get acquainted with the amenities. I found it to be pretty comfortable for the size. Soon after an announcement was made for the required safety drill at 4 PM. When the general alarm was sounded (unfortunately, right as the Brazil v Germany Olympic soccer final was going to PKs) I grabbed a life vest from the closet as directed and left to find the Muster Station. I find out at this time when I went to leave that my suitcase had been delivered and was waiting outside my door. After taking it into the room, I walked up to Muster Station E. There we went through the exercise (the assistant tour director for our station tried to make it somewhat fun, but I found her to be overly enthusiastic) and then were released.
Back in the room, I unpacked my suitcase and continued going through the introductory documents that had been left in the room. I also registered my on-board Princess@Sea account, and purchased an Internet access plan. After a while, and a bit of a nap, I left to go explore the ship. Among the 10 or so passenger decks, there were various bars and lounges, a couple of theaters, a casino, a spa, a couple of pools, a half basketball court, a couple of shuffleboard stations, a fitness center, two dining rooms, a buffet, an ice cream bar, an outdoor movie screen on one of the decks, and much more. I grabbed a slice of pizza at the pizzeria before realizing that the buffet was close by. I ate the slice and then went into the buffet to finish out the meal. The buffet had plenty of vegetarian options in addition to the many for carnivores. They also had complimentary lemonade and iced tea – these are my drinks of choice, so I found an additional beverage plan unnecessary.
My activities for the remainder of the evening included attending the second welcome show at 9:45. I didn’t realize beforehand that they would have a music and dance intro as well as an intro from the tour director and his deputies – I was only there for the comedian. It ended up being not so bad, though - I got a bit of useful information from it. The comedian (Derrick Cameron) was decent enough that I would consider going to his full show on the next night. Prior to that I tried to go to a meet and greet for solo travelers, but I didn’t see anybody at the bar that looked like they were running it.
This is probably going to be by far the longest post of this travelogue because of how new the experience was for me. The rest will probably just be little more than listings of the activities that I did.
---
My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA
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