June 30, 2026 Vancouver BC

Our driver fetched us just before 11:00 am and delivered us to CanadaPlace…the Vancouver cruise port. Drop off is underground…porters were ready to take our bags and we went upstairs expecting…

…expecting what? See …that’s how I get into trouble…. having expectations…I thought we’d be ushered into a waiting room – with chairs. Not exactly. We were told by port personnel to wait outside until noon …then to come back inside the terminal to begin the embarkation process. So okay …chilly wind not withstanding we stepped outside…I snapped a few pics of symphony and went back inside…

There was a short line of Crystal guests forming at the entrance to “Hall C”, I joined the line and Timmy waited outside on a nice bench. After a while I turned around and yikes! …quite a line behind me…anyway eventually the line began moving …I sent Tim a text, he joined me and the shoreside Crystal embarkation process went pretty smoothly. As did getting through security with 10,000 Princess cruise guests. Whatever.

Forty minutes after joining the line we were on board..enjoying lunch in Marketplace.

After lunch we found a few old friends …spent a few minutes catching up and eventually made our way to our suite.

We are in a Sapphire suite on deck 10, it was refreshed in November’s dry dock. It’s fine, I just prefer the decor and shower in the 2023 Sapphires. IYKYK. Anyway we unpacked…settled in…ate a few chocolate covered strawberries and before we knew it- it was time for a mirror selfie and a drink in Palm Court during sail away…which was lovely.

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Dinner in Beef Bar…we continued to enjoy sailing away from port…towards Alaska…Dmytro and Yigit took the best care of us.

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After dinner, we listened to the Flair Duo in the Cove, then headed to the Galaxy Lounge for Crystal in Motion

We were so delighted to see Alexandre on guitar.

We ended our wonderful first day in the Avenue Saloon enjoying Dan Davies on piano. Thanks for following along.