Wednesday 19 June 2013 Leaving Vancouver

We actually arrived in Vancouver on Sunday the 16^th and stayed at Darren’s for a few days, enjoying the company of Darren’s family. On departure day, Cameron went for a play date while Sue and Justin accompanied us on train to the cruise terminal. From there, Sue was going shopping with Justin. We toured the dock and viewed the ship. Justin did his best Carla imitation when we tried to take some pictures.

We arrived at the passenger intake about 1 pm and got through US customs & immigration and on board soon after 1:30. We grabbed a light snack and took in a trip overview presentation in the theatre at 2:30. We did some exploring and sat down for some tea in the buffet restaurant. There we met a couple from London who were experienced cruisers and had previously done a cruise to Antarctica. They had a day to kill after the cruise and they were wondering whether they should go to Victoria or tour in Vancouver. One thing the lady wanted to see was a statue of a poodle mounted on a pole (they were poodle fanciers). They had asked at their hotel, but no one knew what they were talking about. By coincidence, we had seen it on Sunday just a few blocks from Darren’s place during Sunday’s street fair. We all shook our heads and wondered, “What the hell is that doing there?” But, I guess there is a reason, whatever it is.

We sailed at 4:30, half an hour early. Apparently the current is dangerous in one of the channels if the tide is running in or out, so you have to go through near high or low tide. If we missed our window, we would be delayed six hours waiting for the next tide and would therefore be late getting to Juneau.

A Sail Away party at began at 5. We each had a drink and a meal of grilled steak and salmon with ribs, grilled vegetables, and other goodies.

The movie Silver Linings Playbook was playing in the movie theatre at 6. We had heard good things and it was well reviewed, so we took it in, missing the first few minutes. It was pretty good overall, but I thought it was just a little bit too clever and too contrived, and the characters were a little too over the top.

From the movie theatre we rushed to the 8 pm live theatre show, featuring all the entertainers from all the venues on board. I thought the performers were a notch below those on our last cruise. This is a smaller, older ship. I suppose the best work their way up to the bigger and newer ships.

After the show, we did some more exploring, including the shops. As it got dark at about 9:30, we entered the narrow channel of the inside passage. I was looking forward to the scenery on this part of the trip, but we won’t see it in the dark. On the way back we should enter the other end at about 4 pm, so let’s hope for good weather then. We had a late night snack at 11 and went to bed.

Weather: Mostly high broken to overcast cloud with some sunny breaks, temperature in the high teens.