Cruising Alaska: Royal Princess in Glacier Bay

When I teach my Cruising Alaska classes I always save the Glacier Bay part of the presentation until the end. Like I've said before here on the blog as well, Glacier Bay day is always special. And always spectacular. Rain or fog or sun, there is nothing like it. It is what I consider pretty much the best day of any Alaskan cruise.

How can it not be when you turn on the ship's bridge cam on the TV first thing in the morning and see this?

Pinch me now.

Before I show off Glacier Bay, there are some things you need to know about the day:

• Park rangers join the ship for the day. 
• Since it’s a National Park you'll receive a map in your cabin, just like the maps you receive when you drive to a National Park.
• They have makeshift ranger station set up onboard. You can get your questions answered, buy National Park items, and get a National Park passport stamp. They also have a Junior Ranger program for the kiddos.

Here's today's Park schedule.

• There is a limit on how many ships can be in Glacier Bay on the same day. Today we had Norwegian Bliss leaving as we were heading in.

It may not be our ship, but it makes for a pretty picture.

• Shops are closed for most of the day and the casino is closed until after the rangers leave the ship.
• Limited activities are happening around the ship during the day – the focus is on the park.
• No paper cups, straws, or napkins are allowed in any of the venues.
• The ship sends out a smaller boat to take photos.

Just like almost every single day I've ever been in Glacier Bay National Park, the day didn't disappoint. I'll just leave you with pictures of the beauty surrounding us today. There are just not enough words to describe it.

Want to know more about Glacier Bay and more scenic cruising? You can search using key words and come up with a slew of posts, but you can also check out my Cruising Alaska resources section here where you'll find the most recent posts.

Tomorrow we're off to a semi-sea day as we have some sea day time and some scenic cruising time in College Fjord.

May 16 Royal Princess Accident Update

I thought I'd update you on what's been happening on the Royal Princess these last few days since the tragic float plane accident in Ketchikan. If you missed my previous update, you can find it here.

• We've now finished all three ports of Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. We have Glacier Bay coming up today, College Fjord tomorrow, and then the cruise will end in Whittier on Saturday.
• Most guests have now returned to enjoying their time aboard and ashore. The mood of the ship has lightened as people are going about their vacation. 
• This incident has made many stop and think about the fragility of life. For the first day or two we overheard comments reflecting those internal struggles. As our cruise has progressed, those types of conversations have diminished. As passengers continue to learn more about the latest crash findings we're finding more people shifting their conversations to highly speculative talk about the details of the accident itself.
• I continue to avoid the news, read anything online about the accident, or engage anyone in any conversation about it. We've had to pick up and leave an area more than once to distance ourselves from inappropriate comments. I understand people grieve in different ways, but in some cases I'm seeing it as more gossip and less grieving. One of the Encouraging Words Project notes I left yesterday said spread love everywhere you go. I found those words to be difficult to live by when a lady in the elevator shared some unsolicited and insensitive comments with me about the victims. While we no longer have family members of the victims onboard, I still find some of these comments and conversations to be disrespectful to them.
• I have received many emails from people around the world expressing kind and supportive words. I do so appreciate them. I've also heard from people who have flown with the pilots and planes involved in the accidents. While they might not be currently aboard the ship, there are many people out there whose hearts are breaking over this incident.
• So you know, I have been contacted by the media about the accident after they discovered my blog updates. I certainly don't want to be part of any perceived hysteria or drama over another cruise ship "disaster" so I told them all basically the same thing -  I'd be more than happy to answer any questions they may have via email and they were welcome to share blog update information for their reporting, but I was not interested in being on TV or having my voice part of a newscast. That ended any interest they had in my participation. While I'm more than happy to share a factual account, if they want someone looking for their 15 minutes of fame they are looking in the wrong place.
• And most important of all...Personnel on this ship have gone above and beyond to make guests feel safe, validated, and supported. It has been extremely difficult for ship personnel. They too are wrestling with fragility of life thoughts, yet every day they put on a brave face to make sure guest needs are met first. Kudos to their professionalism, words of wisdom, and authenticity. Please keep them in your thoughts, too. While passengers will go home and resume their regular lives, this incident will imprint on the souls of the cruise staff. 

On a side note, thank you for allowing me to share my experiences with the tragic events aboard the Royal Princess. I will continue to blog throughout my trips, but hope I won't ever have to report on something so devastating again. I do apologize for getting a bit more opinionated in this update. As much as I like to be encouraging and supportive and think you should spread love everywhere you go, I sometimes find it hard when some of those around me seem to be doing quite the opposite. 

Stay safe, stay healthy, and take care of yourselves and each other,

Deb

Cruising Alaska: Royal Princess in Skagway

Welcome to Skagway, Alaska, one of our favorite towns in Alaska. We love the old west kind of feel and we love that we feel like a local when we're here.

Part of the reason we feel like a local is because many of our visits are spent at one of two places: 

1. Starfire.

I've mentioned Starfire on this blog more than once over the years for being the best Thai food in Alaska. It's a place where the crew hang out and a place that does a quick job of take out. It even made onto my Top 5 Things to do in Skagway list. We frequent the place, well, frequently. Today we made a run to grab some food to bring back to the ship for crew. I gotta tell ya, the smell of the food on the trip back made me want to break open the containers and take a couple bites before turning it over to crew. (Don't worry, I didn't. But when the fried rice box popped open when I got off the shuttle I was close. I could smell it even more and had a visual on it. Restrain yourself, Deb, restrain yourself.)

2. Sweet Tooth Cafe.

I've also mentioned Sweet Tooth on the blog before as having the best patty melt in the world. It also made my Top 5 Things to do in Skagway list. I had another patty melt today and yep, it still is number one. I mean, just look at all those onions on it.

Being able to say, See you next week! or See you next year! to the folks working in those places and knowing we really will see them gives us a nice, comfortable, warm and fuzzy feeling.

Multiple times in the last couple years I've told hubby we need to cut Alaska loose. After next week's cruise we will have been on 17 Alaskan cruises with Princess. Kind of excessive. But here's the problem with saying no more Alaska...I come out of our inside cabin and out onto the Lido deck on my way to wherever and see all this magnificent beauty around me. Water and trees and mountains and clouds and sun and snow and it just takes my breath away every single time. And then I second guess that decision to stop coming to Alaska. 

Our first cruise ever was to Alaska 15 years ago for our 20th wedding anniversary trip. Now here we are, about ready to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary, and I think I might want to do it in Alaska again. We were considering a cruise to Greenland to celebrate (now that's an expensive trip), but we both agree if we can make it work we want to come back - on this ship even - for a month long Alaskan adventure. Crazy, right? We'll see how it works out but we're both liking the idea.

Now speaking of ideas, Skagway has done something good in theory but dangerous in practice. They've lined up these metal shipping containers along the dock for passengers to walk through as they are leaving the port area. On a rainy day it's nice to have a covered area to walk through. 

It also helps keep the line leaving separated from the line coming back onboard.

But here's the problem. The floor looks to be be painted plywood pieces.

With the rain we're having here, those floors are slippery. For someone with mobility problems like hubby (and so many others on the ship) it is pretty darn dangerous. It's a slow walk for sure. And here is where hubby ran into another problem. When he's walking slowly, trying not to slip and fall, he wants to make sure there is something nearby he can grab if he starts to go down. Naturally it makes sense since he can only use the left side of his body for him to walk close to the left side of the walkway so he could grab the wall if needed. 

But check out the walls with all the windows cut into them. Windows with a caution sign attached to them. 

While hubby made it with no falls (and no cuts from sharp edges) I am a bit worried if we have rain here again next week. For someone without a disability it probably wouldn't be a problem - an able bodied person might not even notice how slick it is - but for us, something like that becomes an anxiety-producing situation. If it's rainy next week we're going to have to talk to the security staff guarding the walkway and tell them our concerns and see if they will let us walk around it. If they don't do something about the slickness of the floor, it's an accident waiting to happen. 

Some other things about today:

*We have Puppies in the Piazza at 5 today.

*Tracy's King Crab Shack didn't have any offerings at the Trident Grill.

*Crab Shack is tonight. (Maybe Tracy's is there? Have not a clue.)

*To celebrate 50 years in Alaska, Princess has now introduced McKinley "Mac" the Moose. You can purchase him in the shops (like Stanley the Bear) and today you could have your picture taken with Mac as you were getting off the ship.

*I left an Encouraging Words Project note and dollar in town at the Sweet Tooth Cafe and another one went into the Wake Show box. Matt has been reading them every day. THANK YOU MATT!!! I'll be coming to find you.

Want to know more about Skagway and other Alaskan ports? You can search using key words and come up with a slew of posts, but you can also check out my Cruising Alaska resources section here where you'll find the most recent posts.

Goodbye from Skagway. Tomorrow we are in magnificent Glacier Bay! 

Make a Cruise Ship No-Sew Magnetic Mailbox - Tutorial Tuesday

For today's Tutorial Tuesday we are making a no-sew magnetic mailbox for a cruise ship cabin door. I've made a magnetic cruise ship cabin door mailbox before that requires some sewing, but I've had requests for a no-sew version. So glue it is!

Looking for more sewing and crafting projects? 

Click here to see all my tutorials!

For today's project you will need:

• 12” x 12” backing fabric
• 10” x 10” front fabric
• 11"x 14" pocket fabric
• 3 pieces of Heat 'n Bond UltraHold Iron-On Adhesive (paper-backed)  – 10" x 10", 10" x 10", 11" x 14"
• Long strip magnets or four round magnets
• Fabric glue or hot glue
• One piece of cardboard measuring 10" x 10"
• Iron

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

You can find the step by step how-to video for making a magnetic cruise ship cabin door mail box with no sewing involved right here:

Prefer a sewable one? I have the sewable homemade cruise ship cabin door magnetic mailbox right here!

Cruising Alaska: Royal Princess in Juneau

I've been struggling about how to begin today's post. I didn't sleep well last night as my mind was wandering quite a bit in regards to the deaths on our ship. I'm guessing my feelings are similar to others aboard here. We haven't received any new updates from the Captain and I expect we won't as it's now all over the news. I'm purposely avoiding reading or watching anything about it. We have plenty of passengers talking about it and I'm trying to avoid listening to those conversations as well. I don't think predicting or speculating serves any purpose so I won't be wading into those weeds. I've said this before, but I'm a just the facts ma'am kind of ma'am so I'm sticking to the experiences happening onboard. (If you didn't see it, I did publish a timeline of what we as passengers were told. You can find my Royal Princess Accident Update here.)

Since today is a new day on an Alaskan cruise and we have plenty of folks sailing on the Royal this summer who are interested in knowing about the experience, I feel like I need to press forward.

It never ceases to amaze me just how lucky I am to live this life when I'm on a cruise ship with snowy mountains nearby.

We were at Franklin Dock today and passengers were allowed to disembark close to 10:30 am. We were originally scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am but because of yesterday's delay we weren't able to make it. I wasn't sure if our dock would change from the original schedule because of our late arrival but we were scheduled for Franklin, and Franklin it was. If you are sailing to Alaska and you want to see where you are docked or how many other ships in any Alaskan port, my go-to website is claalaska.com. Just click on 2019 schedules.

I had considered going whale watching today, but I'm just not in the mood. We'll be back next week so if I feel like it then, I will. So today we just decided to stay onboard and take it easy today. We've walked 10 miles in the last four days and while that may not seem like much, hubby's cerebral palsy body, my rheumatoid arthritis joints, and our minds and souls need a bit of a break. 

Today's view from the Horizon Terrace, our favorite spot on the ship.

If you want to see things available in Juneau, as well as information on other ports, I do have an entire section of the blog dedicated to cruising Alaska. Check out my Cruising Alaska resources here.

Tracy's King Crab Shack foods were back onboard today. Today they had seafood chowder. While hubby is a clam chowder fan he isn't a seafood chowder one. And I definitely don't do chowder. I guess we'll have to see what type of food we have from Tracy's tomorrow.

I want to mention something I forgot to share the other day. On the Royal Princess you will find almost every crew member telling you hello, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. Like every single one. From cabin stewards to deck attendants, waiters to maintenance crew, and everyone else in between. I do believe this is the friendliest crew at sea.

And speaking of friendly...shout out to cruise director Matt O'. If you've read my blog for a while you know I drop those Encouraging Words Project notes everywhere. Like really everywhere - multiple years worth of leaving encouraging words and money behind. And you also know I've complained again and again about cruise directors not "getting it" when I drop them in the Wake Show box. Well, no more.

Check out a clip of today's Wake Show with Matt.

Hubby says I need to go give Matt a hug for helping send those positive vibes out into the world. Personally, I think hubby really wants to give him the hug - I think hubby has a man crush on him.

See you tomorrow from Skagway.

Royal Princess Accident Update

As people are looking for more information about what is happening on the Royal Princess in regards to yesterday's plane crash in Ketchikan, Alaska, I thought I'd update you on what we know so far.

• Monday afternoon after our all-aboard time, an announcement came over the speakers in our cabin. We assumed it would be the standard passenger services desk call looking for those passengers not yet onboard. But it was the Captain with the sad news that one of Royal Princess' float plane excursions to Misty Fjords had been involved in an accident and that a second plane on an independent tour also had Royal Princess guests on it. He said there was a collision of the planes and the condition of the passengers was unknown. We were all asked to contact family and friends to let them know we were okay and that a care team was available onboard for those who would like to use it. We also learned at that time that our planned 3:15 pm departure from Ketchikan would be delayed.
• Around 6:00 pm we saw passengers and crew with luggage being disembarked and driven away in vans. We later learned the crew members were going with the families to provide support while ashore. 
• After the last of the families left, the Captain provided an updated announcement. When he came over the loudspeaker, the entire ship froze in their tracks. We were on the Lido deck and every single person stopped what they were doing and listened intently.
• The Captain announced that nine passengers from our ship on the Princess excursion were rescued but one was still missing. He said on the other plane, four Princess passengers from our ship as well as the pilot had died. Counselors are available for passengers and crew. He also said the ship will arrive in Juneau at 10 am instead of the scheduled 8 am. Princess excursions are being rearranged, and if passengers were booked on any flightseeing excursions during the rest of the voyage they can ask for for a full refund if they wish to cancel. 
• We attended the Most Traveled Guest gathering Monday evening. The Captain understandably was absent from the gathering. Considering the solemn mood of the ship, several passengers scheduled to attended opted out. We held a moment of silence during the gathering. 
• Sometime Monday night/early Tuesday morning we received a letter in our cabin:

• For the most part, passengers have been amazing in their level of respect being shown during this time. This ship, full of thousands of people, has a subdued tone. Lowered voices, slower pace. We did overhear some inappropriate speculative conversations last night. We just had to removes ourselves from the area. And already a this has kind of ruined my trip has come up. But otherwise we all have heavy hearts.
• Our Internet has been spotty the last 12 hours or so. If you have friends or family you are concerned about, we will be in Juneau from approximately 10 am - 9 pm so I would recommend calling them on their cell phones during that time.

I'll continue to provide updates here on the blog as they become available. I don't do social media - no Facebook, Twitter, etc - but I have heard from others there is quite a bit of misinformation out there. I can't worry about that, but I can report straight from the ship. Let me know if you need anything from me. I'm more than happy to help if I can.

Tuesday afternoon:
We haven't received any new updates from the Captain and I expect we won't as it's now all over the news. I'm purposely avoiding reading or watching anything about it. We have plenty of passengers talking about it and I'm trying to avoid listening to those conversations as well. I don't think predicting or speculating serves any purpose so I won't be wading into those weeds. I've said this before, but I'm a just the facts ma'am kind of ma'am so I'm sticking to the experiences happening onboard.

Cruising Alaska: Royal Princess in Ketchikan

Here we go with another early morning surprise. Instead of taking the more scenic view red route, the ship took the less-scenic brown route.

While it was super early as we were heading into Ketchikan and most people weren't outside to see it, we did have a beautiful morning even without the scenic route. I tried to watch the bridge cam on the way in but they had the TV system shut down.

I had to resort to Ketchikan's web cams to watch the two tugs helping us navigate into port at 5:30 in the morning. So beautiful. 

What a spectacular day. You know it's going to be a great one when you are sitting on a cruise ship in Ketchikan, Alaska, having breakfast in the sunshine.

We were planning on taking our crew member friend out to lunch today but she had IPM (in port manning) and couldn't leave the ship. Hubby and I headed to Burger Queen to grab lunch for her and her crew member husband. Burger Queen in Ketchikan is a fast good restaurant close to the port, very small, and is super-busy. Today we arrived to a long line out the door and an even longer wait. When I say long, I mean loooooong. From the time we actually placed our order to the time it was handed to us was over an hour. Yes, an hour for takeout cheeseburgers and fries at a fast food restaurant. They do forewarn you when you place your order about the wait time so you know what you're in for. I tootled back to port with my backpack stuffed full of food for four people.

When I arrived back at the ship is when another long wait began. Take a look at this line down the gangway:

Now imagine that line wrapping around the corner, coming back down another area of the port (where I took the picture from), and then wrapping around one more time. The moment I took the picture I was in the middle of the line. Several hundred people all rushing to get back onto the ship at the same time. It was slow going.  I wasn't sure all that time and energy just to go get cheeseburgers was going to be worth it. But I can report they were absolutely delicious. Bordering on the best I've ever had. Yes, totally worth it.

If we hadn't already had our plans to venture out, we would have stayed onboard and had crab cakes. Today the hamburger/hot dog place was featuring crab cakes from Tracy's King Crab Shack (the place in Juneau). For free! I peeked over the edge of the counter and they looked amazing. I'll try and get a pic of them next week.

We have the Most Traveled Guest Cocktail Party tonight. Not sure I'll be ready to eat much, but I'll get my drink on!

I didn't get to see if the Encouraging Words Project was read on the air. When we went to watch the Wake Show on TV we got this screen. I don't know what happened, but I guess I'll be watching tomorrow instead.

Until tomorrow...maybe...

We just had some sad news. The Captain just now announced one of our float plane excursions has been involved in an accident. A second float plane carrying additional Royal Princess passengers was also involved. Our departure from Ketchikan has been delayed. I'll update here as we know more, but the Captain said it was a collision and to let family and friends know we are okay. That makes me think it was pretty bad. Please keep those folks in your thoughts today. A care team is available onboard for anyone who needs it.

I have a very sad update. The Captain has announced that nine passengers from our ship on the Princess excursion were rescued but one is still missing. On the other plane, four Princess passengers from our ship as well as the pilot have died.

We are leaving port now and will arrive late in Juneau. Excursions are being rearranged, and if passengers are booked on any flightseeing excursions during the rest of the voyage they can ask for for a full refund if they wish to cancel.

Counselors are available for passengers and crew. We have a very sad ship right now. Please keep the families in your thoughts and prayers.

An additional update: I learned at the Most Traveled Guest party that Princess also disembarked some staff members tasked to provide support to the families involved. Kudos to Princess.

Cruising Alaska: Royal Princess Sea Day

Well, that was unexpected.

I woke up this morning expecting to see land on both sides. Beautiful scenery. Trees and mountains and maybe a whale or two. Yet none of it was there. What the heck? We've done this itinerary multiple times and this is usually one of the days full of natural beauty. I turned on the ship's location screen on the TV to get my bearings on what was going on and saw this:

That might not look like anything that important, but usually when we leave from Vancouver and head north to Alaska we take the beautiful scenic route I've marked in red below. Believe me, the difference between those two routes is huge.

I was a bit sad. I was looking forward to grabbing my computer, sitting near a window and typing, and looking at the beauty all around. But it was not to be. I don't know if this will always be the path the Royal takes (maybe because of its larger size?) but it was a surprise, and not in a good way. By mid-afternoon we were back on course. 

It was a good day. We were able to visit with our dear crew member we came to visit and even ran into one of the gals who used to work in International Cafe that took such good care of hubby in the past. She's on to a junior waiter position too so no more IC for hubby. However, he never worries about the quality of coffee when we're on the Royal. They have real ground coffee for free in the buffet. (Unlike most Princess ships that have coffee made from a concentrate. He can't stand that stuff.)  

I had to make a stop at the Internet Cafe today to get my free minutes straightened out. We applied hubby's free minutes to the unlimited plan but I decided to keep my minutes to use. It showed I had 250 minutes instead of the 150 I should have for a seven day cruise. They had automatically given me 250 for the 14 days we are on. But we are technically on two seven day cruises so I actually should have had 300 minutes to use. The manager said he couldn't (or maybe wouldn't?) do anything about it until the second leg of our cruise. So I'm using hubby's unlimited when he's not online and will deal with mine later. I'm sure there will be a time when we both will want to be on at the same time so I'll hold my minutes for that. (By the way, the MedallionNet internet speed on the Royal is so much better than last week's Ruby Princess sucky MedallionNet.)

I also had to stop by the Captain's Circle desk today. She was the first person this whole cruise (I know it's only been 24 hours) who greeted me by name by using the Medallion. (Well, after she called me by another lady's name who was in the same area. I'm guessing the system still needs some work?) I'm celebrating a milestone on the ship this week but hadn't received anything in my cabin about it so I wanted to see if my days from Ruby Princess had caught up with me. They hadn't. It's straightened out now and since we're on next week as well we will be celebrating the milestone then. What milestone? 500 days sailing on Princess. Woo hoo! 750 here I come. (Maybe?) While I was there she also gave me the invitation to the Most Traveled Guest party for tomorrow night. When I told hubby about the party he panicked a bit - he had sent out his only pair of dress pants to the laundry last night. He scrambled to get our cabin steward to chase them down and expedite the cleaning. They got on it and he is good to go. Whew. 

I put the Encouraging Words Project note and dollar in a sugar container in the buffet and also in the Wake Show Box. I'll be doing that each day again this trip. I'm always excited to see how the cruise director responds to the one in the Wake Show box. Some get the purpose of the encouraging words (I do a little write up and explain it to them) and some don't. Hubby watched the CD (Matt O is his name) in action today at different activities and was very impressed. He is authentic, engaging, high-energy, and loves what he's doing. He's definitely the best we've ever seen. And we've been on lots of cruises with Princess (like 500 days worth!) so we should know. 

We had breakfast and a mini-lunch at the buffet today. I've said this before, but the buffet here is just plain amazing. Multiple lines, multiple choices, good food and plenty of space to move about.

Here it is at 8 pm and I just realized tonight is formal night. Oops. While we could have headed back to the buffet for dinner, our cabin is at the very, very front of the ship, so it just didn't seem like it was worth the effort to put our shoes on to head to the very back of the ship. Room service it is.

We set our clocks back an hour tonight and arrive in Ketchikan at 6:30 in the morning tomorrow. Not sure what the day will hold yet. 

Until tomorrow...maybe...

North to Alaska: Royal Princess Embarkation Day

I really hadn't planned on doing a "live from" this go 'round - and I'm still not (I think) but I just can't seem to not to. There's so much to talk about on this particular embarkation day I guess I will do it. Just for today. Or maybe tomorrow too?

We started our pre-cruise night after our Ruby Princess trip (that cruise wrap-up can be found here) at the Pan Pacific. We originally had reservations at another hotel, but I had been watching rates at the Pan Pacific and they dropped significantly just a couple weeks back. Wound up being just a few dollars more than our other reservations, even. So Pan Pacific it was. 

It's so close to the cruise port. Like, it's right there. See the tall building next to the Ruby? Yep, that's the hotel.

One of the nice things about the Pan Pacific is they take your luggage to the cruise port for you. Press a button on the phone, the bellman comes up a few minutes later, and off it goes. You don't have to touch it again until it shows up at your cabin. Just awesome.

One of the other nice things about the day was our breakfast. We met up with Vickie and Bernie who were just disembarking the Royal after having been at sea for OVER FOUR MONTHS. Vickie and Bernie were passengers for part of the time and then Vickie was also the Destination Expert for the Royal's South American voyage. If you want to know about South America (actually, for a lot of other places, too), she's your gal. She's also a blogger. While she didn't blog while working for Princess, she does have a plethora of info at vickieandbernietravel. She also has a Facebook page. (I don't do Facebook, but she does have the link on her blog.) It was great to see them and hear about their adventures. 

Once off they went, off we went. We were so very excited we would get to use our Medallions to check in. We had filled out our order and had them mailed to the house ahead of time, took our pictures, uploaded the other pictures required, and scanned our passports into their system. We had the Medallion boarding pass ready on our phone. We also printed off the new Medallion boarding passes just in case, and also printed the old-type boarding passing as a double just in case. And that was a good thing we did the extra printing. They didn't allow the electronic pass. They wouldn't take the new printed pass. All these folks in their Medallion shirts at check in and we had to use our old standard printed boarding passes. It was a bit disappointing.

After check-in, in Vancouver you are funneled into the same security line and US Customs and Border Protection as the other ships in port. It was a two-ship day so the lines were long all the way through.

We couldn't figure what was the hold up when we got near the gangway. Only after we saw a frustrated couple turn around and stomp off, then overheard some arguing, and saw another port employee come over and talk to the gal checking documentation did we hear what was happening. The gal, who typically would check cruise cards to be sure you were authorized to be on that particular ship, was still asking for cruise cards. Cruise cards the Royal Princess passengers were no longer being issued. Only after the angry passengers were told to go back and get cards and after other passengers tried to tell her they didn't have cruise cards, did that other port employee show up and explain to her we only had Medallions. 

This was Vancouver's first experience with Medallions and it was a bit sloppy. I'm sure they'll get up to date soon. I do know they had a two hour training, and not all employees attended. In fact, I had someone who works at the port (who didn't attend the training) looking up videos on the internet to get up to speed. He came across my Medallion video from last year and used it as his training.

Looking for more information on the Medallion? I'm working on some new videos. I'll let ya know when I get them posted.

Once on the ship, I was thinking someone would pull up their tablet and call me by name. Nope. Lots of people in Medallions dress and Welcome Aboard dress with tablets talking to each other and smiling at guests, but no recognition. It's not like I care if anyone knows who I am, but I kind of thought that was part of the purpose of the Medallion.

There was a Medallion info session in the theater at 2:00. I was surprised to see not many people in attendance. If you weren't able to make it, there are several videos on the TV that are pretty similar to the videos in the presentation.

Something super-important to know about the Medallion... Your muster station information is not printed on it. You have to go to your cabin and look at the back of your door to get that information. When muster drill came around there were many wanderers and people in the wrong place. However, those who were in the right place were able to be scanned quickly. Just tap, wait until it turns green, and walk in.

We have to sit close to the top at muster because hubby has problems with the stairs. Can I just say people are pigs? Look what we found by our seats in the theater. A sideways cup that looked like it might have had a breakfast smoothie in it. And nearby a half eaten bowl of watermelon. Just gross.

We spent sailaway on the super-secret deck outside Facets. It's not that super-secret, but most people don't know about the doors that lead out there.

We also spent some time outside in the back of Horizon Court. We eventually called it quits around dinner time. And went straight back to the cabin. No dinner, no dessert, no midnight snack. 

Want to know the pricing for the Internet? Right here:

As Elite members we could keep our free minutes or apply them towards the package for another 25% off. Since it's baseball season and hubby just can't miss a game, we signed him up for the unlimited package. We're on for 14 days so it defaulted to the 14 day price. It's super fast and super worth it.

I'm not sure how frequently I'll be blogging from this trip. Guess when I have something to say, I will and when I don't, I won't.