Standing in the longest checkin line of our lives wasn’t part of the plan, but we got through it and set sail.

Today was the big day, the day we got on the cruise ship.

We had plenty of time to sleep in, so of course we both woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, which was much better than yesterday at Cheers (but much more expensive, too). Packed afterwards, which didn’t take very long and so we found ourselves with nothing to do at 9:45, and the earliest we were supposed to show up at the pier was noon. So we took the bus back to Grouse Mountain and tried again to see the wolves. At first only one was visible, and it just looked like a light patch of fur. We were just about to leave when another showed up – he didn’t get very close, but we watched him sniff around, pick a nap spot, and turn around before laying down just like our dogs do.

I went into the gift shop and bought a stuffed wolf toy which is *extremely* cute, and we headed back to the hotel. They called us a cab, and we headed out about 20 minutes to twelve. We thought we ware in good shape, but this was where the day went slightly off the rails.

First of all, the driver had never heard of Ballantyne Pier. It’s not the main pier used by the cruise lines, it’s an overflow spot when too many ships need to dock at once. We knew where it was, roughly, because we could see the ship from our hotel window, but had no idea how to get there. He kept consulting his map and acting nervous. Wayne had to get his phone back on the Internet so he could get the street address, but that didn’t help much. Fortunately we did end up going pretty much straight there. But then we ended up in a long line of taxis, all with their meters running; the security people running the lot would not allow any of them to stop and drop us off. We figured it added about $10 to our bill; I talked to another woman who said that her bill should have been $7 and ended up being over $30.

Once out of the taxi, someone from the cruise line took our bags, and we got in line. We snaked through a very large room full of people, then another… finally we went through a magnometer – those machines at the airport that check for metal on your body. There were only three of these machines to check in over 2000 people, so no wonder there was a delay! Once through that, yet another full room and we finally got checked in and were issued our onboard “charge” cards, which double as our cabin door keys. We thought we were home free at that point but no, we had to wait *again* to have a US Customs agent scan and stamp our passports. *sigh*

At Customs we found out that the problem was that there were three boats docked at the main cruise ship pier, so ours got shunted off to temporary quarters. I don’t know if this was their first time at Ballantyne Pier, or what things would have been like had we been in the main terminal, but the agent said that this was the cause of the problem.

The last thing they did before sending us onto the ship was force everyone to have their picture taken, which they are now selling in the photo gallery for the low, low price of $24.95. Good grief.

We walked onto the ship into a blast of loud music, people hawking little umbrella drinks in souvenir glasses, and a general sense of chaos. The area you first walk into has a very Vegas casino look – lots of lights and cheap chrome. The effect of all this, combined with two hours of standing in line, left me feeling dazed and confused, unsure of what to do next. Fortunately Wayne had studied the ship maps online and knew which way to go to get to our cabin.

Remind you of Las Vegas a little?

I was a bit surprised at their choice of music – we walked onto the ship to (very loud) Lady Gaga, and the rest of their playlist was similar type dance music. Given that there was a forest of gray hair on this boat, this seemed like a poor choice. As we were heading to our room, I began to wonder if we’d made a mistake…

Our cabin turned out to be small but quite nice. The bathroom is tiny, but there is plenty of room for everything. We have a balcony on the starboard (right) side of the boat, which faces land as we head North. The balconies are sheltered from the wind, so you can be outside without being frozen through.

All our luggage had to be put through a scanner, one piece at a time, before it was brought on board. This meant that it was significantly late in arriving.

Normally luggage is delivered to your cabin before you arrive there yourself, but that was not the case this time. We got tired of waiting and headed to lunch.

The only thing that was open for lunch was the Market Cafe buffet. We didn’t have high expectations for the food, but it was even worse than we had expected. We both had prime rib and it was awful; everything else was over salted and over cooked.

Went back to our room to check for our luggage; it still hadn’t arrived so we hung around waiting for it. They kept making announcements for a lifeboat drill that was going to happen at 3:30, but

that time came and went and no drill. This was probably due to the fact that there was still a steady stream of people getting on the ship, even though we were all supposed to have been on board by 2:00 pm. The announcements sounded pre-recorded and I think they probably happened at a scheduled time, ready or not. We finally had the drill at about 4:15, which was 15 minutes after we were supposed to have set sail.

After the drill was over, the crew came out in full force trying to entertain the people who were milling around everywhere. A band played on the pool deck, and we had a real lunch at the outdoor grill (hamburgers and hotdogs). The band was a bit more in tune with the crowd, playing things like the Eagles.

We ended up sitting at the Beir Garten, a quasi-German beer garden that doesn’t serve a single German beer:

until I suddenly noticed that we were quietly moving away from the dock, right at 6:00 pm (two hours late). Most of the cruise ships play their horn loudly before backing up, but for some reason ours didn’t. It just went. I walked up to the bow and watched as we travelled under the bridge between downtown and North Vancouver. Because of the bumper crop of cruise ships in the area, we were in the middle between two other ships.

We went back to the cabin and collected our luggage, which was lined up in the hallway, and unpacked. At first it looked like we had way too much stuff but we actually found space for it all with room to spare. The only problem was the suitcases themselves, but we managed to cram them into the closet (and then noticed afterwards that they could also fit under the bed).

I knew Wayne had brought my birthday present, and that he wanted me to open it early in case there was an opportunity to use it on the ship. He handed me the box as we were unpacking, so I opened it. It’s a beautiful purple and gold pashmina wrap. He thought it would be nice over my dancing dress, on nights when I don’t want to bother with a coat. Great idea, sweetie!

After eating two lunches we weren’t all that hungry, but we went off to dinner anyway. There are a couple of ‘full service” restaurants that you can eat at for free, and then a bunch more that cost extra to eat at. We went to Aqua, one of the free ones, and it was quite good. The only thing we had to pay for was a bottle of wine, and they let us take the unfinished bottle back to the room with us. The service at Aqua was mostly quite good as well; the only low point was the girl who seated us. She was supposed to lay our napkins over our laps but she nearly threw them at us, and then she took our seating ticket and shoved it hard into our waiter’s shirt pocket. I have a feeling she won’t be working on the ship for very long…

We got out of dinner just in time to go to the Stardust Theater and watch a show that was a preview of the next night’s big show. Juggling and magic tricks; some pretty impressive stuff.

By this point I was pretty tired, but there was one more event to take in – 80s dancing at the Spinnaker Lounge! :) We didn’t stay long, maybe 30 minutes, but it was fun. I was hot and still feeling stuffed from dinner, so we took a walk around this ship. That took care of the being hot part, believe me! We could really see the ship behind us; they were pretty close and very brightly lit. It looked like they had either a giant projection screen or a stage with lights on the top deck – something with very bright moving lights. For the most part you could not feel that the ship was moving; now and then it was barely detectable, like a very small earthquake.

Finally, back to collapse into bed. The mattress is a bit hard, but much larger than I was expecting. We like to have a bit of space between us when we sleep, and had no trouble managing that. The movement of the ship was a bit more noticeable once laying down, but didn’t keep either of us awake.

So far service has been quite good. Our cabin steward seems to be very attentive; our bathroom trash can was emptied several times during the evening. It’s a little weird knowing they are in there all the time, but you get used to it quickly. I kind of feel sorry for them after hearing one of them tell a passenger (in response to a question) that she doesn’t get a single day off until after her 8 month contract is fulfilled. I’m sure that’s legal in the country the ship is registered in, but it shouldn’t be.