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Saturday, June 14. Arrival time at the airport 1:20PM. Departure time for the cruise ship 4:30PM.

All proper cruises through the Inside Passage of Alaska and British Columbia begin from Vancouver, and this one was no exception. No actual photos of Alaska yet. There are also no photos of the cruise ship from the outside at this point either, since I'd packed our camera in our luggage and didn't get it in my grubby little hands until we were already aboard. Anyway....

We arrived at the airport in Vancouver and were rushed through customs as soon as we deplaned. Since we were going straight to the cruise ship and not actually staying in Canada proper, there's a special arrangement that's been worked out between cruise lines and various governments. Passengers just going on the cruise are given a cursory run through customs, although we still had to fill out the Canada customs form just like everyone else, and escorted aboard a motorcoach. A member of the local country's government seals the coach from the outside with a digital seal and the coach then drives through town to the port, which was cool because we got a quick guided tour of the city (as well as a run through Chinatown). Upon reaching the port, the coach makes a stop at the normal security checkpoint and the seal is verified. The coach then proceeds to the boarding area, our paperwork is processed, and we're escorted aboard the ship after receiving our cruise cards. It's a pretty short and simple process, much preferred over actually going through customs normally and answering all the fun questions.

For those who have never cruised before or never read up on the subject, the single greatest technical invention to make cruising such a bad ass experience is the cruise card. Settling your shipboard account at the end used to be the most annoying and time consuming part of cruising, but it hasn't been for years. After your paperwork is validated at the check-in desk(travel forms, ID, etc etc), the last thing you sign before boarding is a payment contract. You've already paid for the cruise itself at this point, but you still need to arrange payment for anything you do aboard ship that costs extra. Basically you give the cruise line one of your credit cards and they attach that card to your shipboard account. Then they issue you what works, for all intents and purposes, like a credit card while you're onboard the ship. Your cruise card has your name and stateroom number on it, and swipes just like a credit card. You can use it to buy drinks, ice cream, jewelry, photos, time in the onboard Internet cafe... anything and everything that costs extra except for the casino (The casino is cash only, and the only way to get new cash is to use an ATM or credit card. They limit how much you can charge or withdraw in the casino on a daily basis). Before disembarking at the end of the cruise, they give you a printout of all your shipboard charges. The lump sum is then billed to your credit card. It's extremely convenient.

Anyway, while aboard ship your cruise card is also your ID and stateroom door key. You also swipe it every time you leave or return to the ship while in port, so that they always know who is and isn't aboard. If you're taking a shore excursion prebooked through the cruise line or scheduled with the tour desk while aboard ship, the ship will NEVER leave if the excursion is late. All excursions booked through the cruise line are tracked in case of delays due to weather, accidents, or whatever. If you do your own thing, like just leaving to shop or planning your own excursion, then you'd better be back aboard by the departure time. Otherwise you're on your own

Our last cruise was in the Western Caribbean, and we had an interior stateroom. This time around it was all about the scenery so we splurged on a balcony stateroom. Here's the port in Vancouver from the balcony:







And here's the stateroom:





Notice the life vests on the bed. Before the cruise begins, everyone has to go to their muster station for a brief rundown on the disaster policy of the cruise line. There are several throughout the ship, and the location of your stateroom determines which station you head to in case of an emergency. Ours was Station E, the Internet cafe. There's an example of the emergency alert signal, a brief demonstration on how to put on the life vest, and what to do in case various things happen (such as someone falling overboard).

Once the ship departed, we went up on one of the upper decks to wave goodbye to Vancouver and get some neat commentary on the city and area. One of the draws for Alaska cruises is the intellectual aspect. When you cruise the Caribbean it's all about partying and having a rocking good time. For Alaska it's about seeing the scenery and learning stuff. There were regular commentaries about the places we were cruising through, especially Glaciery Bay and College Fjord. And here's Vancouver as we were leaving:







A bridge we sailed under:



Back of the ship on the port side, facing starboard:



One last shot of Vancouver:



Then it was time for dinner and some fun stuff. We went to the "Welcome Aboard" show by the Cruise Director and his entertainment staff. Singing, dancing, and general introductions of various people we'd be hearing from over the next week. The two biggies were the naturalist who did most of the narration for the "scenic" parts of the cruise and the port shopping guide who was a sales pimp for various stores in the ports. My wife was more interested in the latter than I was, needless to say

Last comment today, cruise food. One of the more common things you may hear about cruises is that you board as passengers but are offloaded as cargo. The reason for that is, unlike a traditional vacation, basic meals are included in the cost of the cruise. And it's all you can eat. Literally. The cruise line for this cruise was Princess, and the ship the Sapphire Princess. For our Caribbean cruise we were on the Grand Princess. Different ships but extremely similar layouts and amenities. There's a 24 hour buffet. There are five restaurants for dinner (and the International Restaurant serves breakfast) that take reservations, with a maitre d' and wait staff in tuxedos that serve you an appetizer, soup, salad, main course, and dessert. There's a specialty restaurant that serves a 20 course Italian feast (3-4 hour meal, extra charge for this). There are pizza/hot dog/burger cafeteria-like areas around the two main swimming pools. There's an ice cream stand (extra charge for this). And of course a plethora of bars where you can get your drink on (drinks always cost of course). A standard offer by Princess, and possibly other cruise lines as well, is you can pay $25 or so at the start of the cruise to get an authorization on your cruise card for unlimited soft drinks. Otherwise you have to pay for each one. I declined since I usually just drink water or lemonade, but my wife makes good use of that each time we cruise.

More to come as I dig through the photos. Sunday, June 15 was a sea day, and we docked at Ketchikan early Monday morning.