Saturday 14th September 2019
Another early wake up (gotta get used to these this week) and this time the rain isn’t coming down much at all. When we went to bed on Friday night it was coming down. So we decided to walk down to Canada Place via the waterfront and get in a few photos of our ship, as it pulled in early this morning. We took some photos, checked out the other ships in port and walked back to the hotel for breakfast.
After cleaning up, getting our bags sorted, we tagged our bags with the cruise line tags and headed out of the hotel. We checked out and said goodbye to the fantastic staff before they drove us off to the cruise terminal. We left the hotel around 1035am. This is important because when we went it was super early. Check out from the hotel is 12pm and our cruise check in was meant to be 1230pm. This is good timing you might think right? Well there was 3 ships in port today, all with check in at the same time. Yeah… nah!
So when we were dropped off at the cruise terminal, someone took our bags immediately and pointed us in the right direction. Essentially.. Follow the signs and the staff and you will make it perfectly. Ok then. Carrying my backpack and camera bag, along with our duffle filled with 2 dozen bottles of water, we headed off following the signs and the different stages we needed. Having a Neptune Suite helped as at each stage we pretty much went straight forward to someone waiting. At check in it was super easy and then at immigration and customs (you preclear into the USA) we jumped the line due to our Nexus Cards. Life is great! We had our photos taken and by the time we walked onboard it was 11:25am. Less than an hour from start to finish, a great experience. The only downside was our rooms were not ready yet, so we sat with everyone else on the lido deck and waited (they all started lunch early, we didn’t).
Once the rooms were available to us, we headed downstairs and took some time getting what small stuff we had situated. Our bags were not there yet, but we took what we had and got it sorted. Soon enough they would arrive, but first came the rain. After exploring the ship for a bit, we had some lunch in the lido market and then returned to the cabin to get ourselves sorted. Our cabin steward, Jas, came by and introduced himself and we asked him for a few things and he delivered our bags when they showed up. Unpacking of bags happened and we went off in search of other things throughout the afternoon. Stopping by the neptune lounge to check it out, getting a tour of the spa and fitness area and just looking around the ship in general.
We did our safety muster drill as required and then went off for the sail away party. It was here that they mentioned how the weather was going to be that night. The expected winds were meant to be 25 knots overnight so when we hit some open water the next day, there was going to be motion. Once I heard that, the panic set in a little. If you know anything about me it is that I just don’t like boats on open ocean. I have massive panic attacks. I don’t really get sea sickness, but my stomach turns knots due to anxiety. I had a lot of anxiety for the rest of the night. I was a little withdrawn but Heidi did what she could to keep me ok.
We had dinner the first night in our first complimentary speciality dinner at Caneletto. It is the italian restaurant on the Lido deck. It was pretty good, slightly family style but not. It was a good free dinner, but for me, it was a big hit of garlic that the only way to avoid would be to make a fuss. I just decided to eat what I could, take the hit from the allergy in the morning and the meds would keep me going. We had our dinner, went to the welcome reception at the Neptune lounge and then saw the first of many of the talks/shows they put on for Alaska. It was a good easy night that was not to full on. Fell asleep watching a movie in the room and all in all a good day onboard.