Embarkation Day

When we woke up this morning, a Holland America cruise ship was parked next to our hotel. It was interesting to see the retractable roof over their pool.


Our ship, the Anthem of the Seas, proved to be docked on the opposite side of the hotel, where we saw the French ship yesterday.  

We enjoyed our last breakfast in the Pacific Club, then finished packing up our things. The bellman collected our bags about 8:30 -- very convenient!  

About 10:45 we left our room and went down to the ground floor, where we were directed into the hall for cruise passengers.  The check-in process was quick and uncrowded, then we went through Security and finally Customs before being ushered right onto the ship, well before our assigned noon boarding time. Our junior suite was ready immediately, so that was handy. Here was the view from our balcony at that point.  




While in line for lunch at Jamie's Italian, some people in front of us (one wearing a Tennessee sweatshirt) were asked where in Tennessee they were from, and they said Dickson! I told them my son-in-law was from there, and they recognized his last name.  Small world, indeed!  Also at Jamie's, we again saw the couple we met at lunch yesterday, so that was nice.

We had a very good lunch, though we felt for the servers. By Canadian law, only one bar can be open per deck while the ship is docked, so they had to run to the Schooner Bar at the opposite end of the ship for all the drinks. We enjoyed the always-delicious garlic buns to start.


Then we each had arugula salads, followed by vodka penne arrabbiata for me and salmon with couscous and broccolini for Charlie.




Today is the prettiest day we've had in Vancouver, with blue skies and sunshine. We've continued to enjoy watching all the floatplanes taking off and landing, as well as the departure of the Holland America ship.

It's almost 4:30 now, and our bags have yet to arrive. Usually, we're all unpacked and settled by now!  Fingers crossed that our bags DO arrive, or I'm going to get really tired of today's outfit.  

Shortly after I wrote that, our bags arrived, thank goodness! We're unpacked and mostly settled.

We went to the Suite Lounge before dinner, and while waiting for our drinks, a father with THREE little boys under age five came in. They immediately began climbing and jumping on the couches, trying to scale up the backs of the really tall ones, while their dad was looking over the appetizers. The teacher/mom in me could hardly stand not snatching them bald-headed.  Sigh. I suspect they will be there EVERY night.

We moved away from them, and we had a nice visit with a couple from Missouri who just finished the Alaska cruise on this ship. They had to get off in Seattle and fly to Vancouver!  

Then we had dinner in Coastal Kitchen, which had incredible views as we left the Vancouver area. We weren't able to get good photos of that, unfortunately.  We both chose the lobster salad to start, followed by the filet mignon. Both were delicious, and the filet was almost fork-tender. 

Lobster salad


I'm sorry to report that we both forgot to take a photo of the dessert, the chocolate-praline tart. It was also really good! I feel sure we'll get it again sometime in the next 26 days, so stay tuned.

When we returned to our cabin, the moon over the water was really something! This photo doesn't really do it justice, but here it is.


Tomorrow we dock in Seattle, and we have brunch scheduled at a place we like. More after that!

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