First Day of the Cruise

Today we started our 7 day Alaskan cruise.  We arrived at Canada Place at around 10:30am along with about 5,000 other people who were getting on board our ship and another cruise boat from Princess.  We are staying on the Holland America Liner – ms Zuiderdam.

All things considered, the embarkation went very smoothly.  With Wendy in her wheelchair, Wendy, Marg and Marg’s dad were able to breeze through American customs and check-in.  Because I had to return the van to Budget, I had to go through the process on my own and it took about an hour to complete.

We spent most of the afternoon walking around, getting use to the layout of the boat.  After we had the mandatory fire drill, we were joined back at our room by Rocky, Joan, John and Ellen to have a drink and some cheese.  Marg likes to refer to this as having some can of peas.

John and Ellen from Australia, who we met last year on the European River cruise, have been touring BC for the last couple of weeks. They have a wonderful sense of humour and they kept us all laughing for most of the night.  We toasted our missing comrades from the European River cruise, Sue and Dave from London Ont., wishing that they could have been here.

I had to explain to John that Dave was responsible for the welcome sign on our door.  It read

Leaving Vancouver and heading north, you are surrounding by lush forests and high mountains on either side of the boat.  It water was very serene and the scenery was spectacularly beautiful.  At this time of the year the sun doesn’t set until about 9:45pm.  I now know that the Mayans are right about the end of world being this year.  There was a giant bright orb in the sky when we left.  It kind of looked like the sun, but we know from experience that never happens in Vancouver.

We found out that Internet service is very expensive on board.  If you are willing to spend $200 it works out to about $.25 / minute otherwise it costs about $.75 / minute and the speed is about ¼ of the speed of the slowest land based providers.  So there will be delays in publishing this blog and pictures will be added later.

There was one sour note from today.  When I returned the van they found some cosmetic damage to the underside of rear bumper.  I know it wasn’t hit while we were in the van and I suspect it was already there when we got the van, we just didn’t see it.  They charged $700 on my credit card and will refund it if they decide not to go ahead and process a claim.  This is the same firm that shafted Marg’s brother-in-law, Bob, several years ago for damages that were missed at pickup.