Day 4 (Wednesday, May 24, 2006)
6:00 AM: Our instructions from Holland America are explicit. We MUST check in at the Holland America desk in the Sheraton before 9 AM in order to be on the ONE bus which will leave the hotel for Vancouver between 10:30 and 11:30. We have an early breakfast, and are waiting in the lobby near the Holland America desk by 8 AM. It appears that we are the only people in the hotel who are going to Vancouver to catch the ship, when we are joined by two semi-elderly ladies who stayed at another hotel, but are also scheduled to take the bus to Vancouver.
9 AM: No one has shown up at the Holland America desk. At 9:10, we decide that we'd better break out the cellphones and start calling Holland America numbers. By 10 AM, someone shows up saying that "there was a little confusion this morning." We will be on the bus which is collecting people from the Seattle Airport, and it will pick us up at noon for the 3-hour trip to Vancouver. To be fair, this was the only time during the entire trip when Holland America dropped the ball.
3:30 PM: Arrive at the Canada Place Convention Center and Cruise Terminal in Vancouver. Boarding is expedited by the fact that we completed the various forms online before leaving Buffalo, and have copies with us. They register our credit card for shipboard purchases, take our pictures, and issue us our electronic room keys. We're in our room by 3:50, just in time to find our life jackets and head to the mandatory 4:15 lifeboat drill. (They're serious about this, and attendance is taken. If you didn't show up, you are required to attend a special drill the following day.)
Because we will be cruising the Inside Passage--where you are almost always passing between islands rather than in the open ocean--we opted for a verandah suite, which gave us our own balcony from which to view the passing scenery. Wouldn't bother with this on a cruise when a lot of time is at sea, but an Inside Passage cruise is 24/7 spectacular scenery, and you're often only a few hundred yards from shore.
Additional views of our cabin:
6 PM: Time for dinner. We had our choice of 4 dinner seatings: 5:30, 6:00, 7:30, and 8:00. The dining room is on two floors with a large spiral staircase connecting the two sections. The 5:30 and 7:30 seatings are in the upper section, while the other two seatings are in the lower section. We chose the 6 PM seating. We were at an 8-person table, and would eat at the same table each evening. (Breakfast and lunch were open-seating.)
After dinner, we explored the ship. Among the things we discovered were rugs giving the correct day of the week in each elevator. We found this wonderful practice for nursing home living!
We ended the day in the Crow's Nest lounge, which is a wrap-around lounge directly above the bridge. Lots of nice comfortable reclining chairs with great views. We ordered Spanish coffee from the bar menu, and were a bit taken aback when the waiter said that it would be about 5 minutes, because he had to go to another deck to get coffee. Oh, well, we've got lots of time. Spanish coffee looks a lot like Irish coffee, topped with whipped cream and the glass is rimmed with sugar. Upon tasting, it seemed strange...almost like...salt! Was this a strange variation on the Margarita? We discussed it, and the waiter overheard, then came running over to reclaim our glasses. Seems the bar had a bowl of sugar and another of salt. Well, anyone can make a mistake. We finally got our sugar-rimmed Spanish coffee, when another passenger sat down next to us and thought our drinks looked great, so she ordered one. Same drill...she got salt the first time!
Alcohol and soft drinks were the only things not included on the cruise. Any purchases on the ship are "cashless." Just give you room number, and it's added to your credit card bill (along with 15% for bar purchases). To handle tipping, they add $10/person/day to your credit card bill. If you wish, you can adjust this up or down at the end of the cruise. Tips are split 100% among the crew. We thought it was a great system! Certainly beats putting cash into envelopes at the end of the cruise.
Barb discovered that if you purchase a bottle of wine in the restaurant (or, in our case, received one as a gift from friends) the wine steward will pour you a glass, and re-cork the bottle, bringing it back to the dinner table each night until the bottle is empty. Sure beats buying wine by the glass!
Got to bed reasonably early--it was long day!
return to Alaska Trip home page