Cruise to Alaska with our kids, Day 1 and 2

Friday, August 30^th

After staying overnight at Kristi and Jason’s we were on the road by 7am to pick Kristi up at the hospital and head to the ferry. The had extra sailings on because of the long weekend and we managed to get on the 7:40 am instead of the 8:45 am. Once on the other side we headed for Canada Place where I had prepaid parking for Kristi’s vehicle for the week.

At the cruise terminal you follow the signs and drop off your luggage to a bellman and they take it to customs for clearance. They sure have everything running pretty smoothly. There were 3 cruise ships off-loading and reloading passengers all at the same time. We met up with Garrett and Kat before customs and we all went through together at around 11 am. Within 10 minutes we were all cleared and moved into a “holding area” to wait until everyone one previously on the ship had been cleared by Canadian Customs. We were allowed to board by 11:45 am to enjoy the ship. Unfortunately there was a lady sitting next to Jason who was coughing a lot ... I got that cold 3 days later.

Just a little excited!

Here we go!

Cruising Day 1 – At Sea

First up was serving everyone lunch in the Lido Market. A huge buffet style restaurant with various stations. While at lunch an announcement came that all of the cabins were ready for the guests … so all 6 of us proceeded to check out our staterooms. 

Up we go in the glass elevator

Our luggage trickled in, being delivered to our staterooms for the rest of the afternoon until 4pm. Our room is fabulous and the kids balcony suites not too shabby either.

Once we all found our rooms it was time to explore the ship.

Here are some views from the ship. There are 3 other cruise ships in port today.

Seaview Pool and Bar

Lido Pool and Bar

At 4pm they had a drill for mustering to the lifeboats that was mandatory for everyone, even took roll call. I.e. scanning your room cards, which holds all of your identification and everything “extra” is charged to. Took a bit to get 2100 people down by stairs to deck 3 for their stations. Within ½ an hour we were all released to carry on our day. We all congregated on our balcony at 4:30 for setting sail, toasting with champagne. A fabulous weather day.

Here we go under the Lions Gate Bridge

All the people at Stanley Park watching the cruise ships set sail.

Capilano River

Garrett and me

Jason

Don't they clean up good! Jason, Kristi, Kat and Garrett

We all split up at 5 to meet for dinner at 5:30 in the dining room. A great feast.

After dinner Ray and I did our tour of the ship’s areas and the kids did their own thing attending the BB King Lounge until quite late.

Cruising the Inside Passage

Coming back to the room it was all tidied ready for bed with a scorpion. Every night we were greeted by a new creation.

Scorpion

Ray and I were in bed asleep by 10. Lol The kids tell us we have to go tomorrow evening as the acts were so good.

Cruising Day 2 – At Sea

Ray and I were up early, Ray more so than me. He was wandering the ship at 5:30 am and only saw 4 other people he said. It was really foggy out and I had woken up at 3:30 am and kept hearing the ships horn going off in warning with the fog.

Nothing much open then as most things did not open until 7. I was up about 6 myself and had my Bailey’s and coffee. Room service arrived at 6:15 am with our morning muffins. I also went up to the Neptune Lounge and picked up a fruit bowl and some smoked salmon for Ray. Kristi and Garrett had used the onboard gym and at 8:30 Kristi and Jason arrived to join us for breakfast down at the Lido Market. 

We did not see Garrett or Kat …. Apparently, Garrett’s neck was pretty sore as he did not bring his neck pillow and tried to sort himself out at the gym but ended up back to bed after his workout. Kat caught up with us for breakfast as Jason and Kristi were heading off. She ended taking breakfast back to the room for Garrett. Ray and I decided to take our tour of the ship to get more familiar with the various areas. While we were doing that, apparently the boys went down to the Lido pool for a hot tub. Kristi caught up with us to let us know so Ray could join them. All that hot tubbing made them hungry, so lunch was procured, and beer consumed. Lots of laughs were had.

Jason, Ray and Garrett

Kristi and Kat walking the promenade for exercise.

Kristi doing her best impression of the "grandpa look" lol

Yesterday we had booked for the six of us Alaskan Beer Tasting at 2 pm so that is what we did next … yumm more beer. Lol

Cheers!

We had just enough time when that was over to make it to the “High Tea” being held in the dining room. Hard to believe more food ….

It is now 3:30 pm .... We all went our separate ways for a couple of hours … to rest up from all the drinks, before our first Gala Evening. Dinner was at 5:30 pm so everyone met at our stateroom in their finest dress as pictures would be taken.

Pictures were taken after dinner as Kristi had a wardrobe malfunction … she had her liquid makeup explode all over her designer dress and had to change into something else while soaking her expensive dress in the bathtub.  Hopefully the cruise staff can clean her dress. (They did not manage to get it cleaned ... her dress is ruined.) Dinner was pretty good and again great company with the kids with lots of laughs. After pictures we all went our separate ways, Ray and I to the Crow’s Nest for a after dinner cocktail, Jason met up with us, Kristi dealt with the staff with her dress and Garrett and Kat went to the magic show. We saw a bunch of whales out the window.

Ray and I came back to our room around 8:30 pm and all the kids went back to BB Kings for the entertainment. Tonight, we gained an hour as the clocks changed at 2 am for Alaska time. Ray had a horrible night with too much back pain. Way too much walking today. Time for him to take his dreaded medication so no sleep for him, but at least his back felt better.

We docked at Juneau at 10:30 am the next morning.