Cruising - Day One

 25 July, 2026

"Orca Song"

As is my custom, I was up and about for coffee fairly early (putting my new insulated cup to good use) and met my sister and brother-in-law on the Royal Esplanade. Jeff has a similar cup that he procured on his last trip to Vancouver. Same style of artwork, created by indigenous PNW artists, but a different theme and color motif. I was drawn to the color and theme of my mug when I saw it on the shelf, and couldn't resist the temptation. I'm picky when it comes to drinking vessels (an expression of my neurodivergence) so this was a gamble for me. I've got a cabinet full of rarely-used cups and mugs, and didn't want to add to the collection. This has now become my "daily drinker" for coffee when I'm not at work. (Work mugs tend to take a beating, and I prefer a handle for more rugged conditions, so this is decidedly not "ambulance appropriate" by my standards.) I don't know that I was aware that an entire genre of art existed beyond the totem, but I'm happy to have discovered it.

Sea-Day Brunch provides ample flexibility, so we took our time getting to the dining room where I continued my Eggs Benedict project. I'm happy to report that Royal Caribbean continues their streak of poached-egg perfection (and I won't keep you in suspense, I had poached eggs of some sort every morning, and was joined by others several times, and of over 20 poached eggs only two didn't hit the mark of "perfect" - and those two were still quite good.)

Sailing up the coast is a constant stream of "look at that" moments, punctuated with "look, a whale" (generally just a spout, as the area you're scanning is so vast the odds of seeing a hump or a fin on the surface are incredibly small.) The last time we saw scenery like this was sailing the Strait of Magellan on Mariner of The Seas when we went around Cape Horn. There are no bad seats, as long as they have view of the outside.  Two70 on the Quantum-class ships is an excellent place to hang out if you want to enjoy the scenery without chasing every possible view.

Humpback

And on cruises such as this, you have the addition of enrichment lectures while you make your way up the coast. On this day we enjoyed an excellent lecture on whales. Growing up on the mid-Atlantic coast (not well known for whale activity) whales have always been one of the marine elements that didn't get much thought, like sea lions, penguins, and kelp beds. We see plenty of shark, dolphin/porpoise, turtles, and large gamefish, but whales are generally just "somewhere out there" or relegated to television specials from National Geographic or Jacques Cousteau.

But on this day, things changed. I don't know exactly why, but it was likely due to the geography of the situation. It was entirely plausible for the lecturer to mention something about humpbacks one minute and have one pop up next to the ship the next - which is a situation you don't often find yourself in.

I became enamored with whales. Not to the point of infatuation, but definitely fascination. The prospect of seeing the giants of the ocean (relatively) up-close was exhilarating, to say the least. Now it was a matter of the whales cooperating and allowing us a glimpse. Would we see humpbacks? Orca? Beluga? Or would we get skunked and only have the memory of spouts on a distant horizon?

Following the whale lecture, a retired RCMP Mountie shared the history of the RCMP as well as the path to becoming a Mountie and his personal experience serving. It was entertaining as well as educational, providing insight revealing a level of flexibility and adaptation not seen in U.S. law enforcement. Imagine the FBI serving at every level from County to Federal in the United States and you have a good idea of what the RCMP handles across Canada.

For dinner we visited Chops and had a wonderful time. The service was exceptional, even when compared to the already elevated experience that Chops usually provides. This is the first time we've dined in this venue as a party of four, and the distribution of side items was much more reasonable - a greater assortment with less waste, and an opportunity to try just a taste of something without feeling guilty for leaving a nearly-full dish on the table. 

All-in-all a fantastic day cruising North, to Alaska!

Vancouver - Boarding Day

We started the morning by packing up last minute items before taking a walk around the corner to Ciclo for one last amazing coffee.

Jeff is practically on a first-name basis with the baristas at this point, and they don't even need to ask for his order. Our arrival time at the port is 12:30 and our checkout time for the Air BnB is 11:00, so our goal is to push our departure to the absolute last moment and just arrive at the port early. The worst case scenario is that we end up waiting for boarding – but that's never been the case, especially since electronic boarding documents were implemented.

We lingered over our coffees and enjoyed some incredibly well-made pastries, enjoying our last few hours in Vancouver and anticipating the start of the "real" vacation, despite already having enjoyed some of the best food we've ever had in restaurants, anywhere. We returned to the AirBnB, put on the finishing touches, and shuttled our suitcases down to the lobby. 

Our challenge was going to be finding an Uber that would accommodate four passengers and all of our luggage. We requested an XL and a large Kia SUV arrived, which just fit everything. We had the good fortune of a driver who was familiar with all of the ins-and-outs of the cruise terminal drop-off process. Thanks to his knowledge we avoided the long drop-off lines and were able to take our luggage out of the car and hand it directly to a porter. We did have a bit of a longer walk than had we gone to the other entrance, but not having to wrangle suitcases more than compensated for the extra steps.

This is our 46th cruise, across four cruise lines, departing from 18 different ports in five countries. It was the most convenient and one of the smoothest processes we've ever experienced, even if it did involve a bit more walking than any others that we can recall. After dropping our luggage we snaked through a short maze of hallways to the elevators, rode up a level, and then continued along a concourse, out of the building. You then walk in another door and go through security. After security you show your passport and get a paper ticket (I think I've got the details in order, I may have a step or two mixed up, but the general concept tracks.) Then you proceed into a large room where there are a line of cruise reps armed with iPads. Boarding passes are scanned and (assuming you completed the online check-in) you're sent along ANOTHER path that runs parallel with the first path you followed from the elevator to the outside. You exit again, then proceed down the breezeway past the door you entered a few minutes ago (showing your paper ticket for passage) and then proceed back in the building, through US customs, and on to the ship. Despite walking approximately half the distance of the Yukon trail this entire process, from handing luggage to the porter to stepping off the gangway onto the ship, took us exactly thirty minutes. 

Thanks to the online safety briefing we were able to complete our muster station check-in within minutes after boarding and then headed to the Windjammer for lunch.

The Windjammer experience was one of the least hectic departure day lunches we've ever experienced. Perhaps it was because we were a party of four, maybe it was just the crowd, or the timing of the day (I heard that the late departure, due to waiting for the tide to allow bridge clearance, allowed some of the pre-cruise activities to run a bit later, so maybe that was it.) Whatever the reason, it was fantastic. 

By the time we finished lunch our cabins were available, so we were able to drop our carry-ons, convert to "vacation mode," and explore the ship. This was our second Quantum-class ship, and was recently "Amplified" (in Singapore last April) so we were curious to see the changes. Most obvious was the removal of the Bionic Bar and it's replacement, the Tiki Bar. The Tiki Bar has several frozen drink dispensers, a couple of which seem a bit questionable, but all are tasty. Giovanni's Kitchen was added, along with Izumi Teppanyaki. The family Splash Pad area was updated as well. The pool area aft of the Solarium has a sliding roof, providing a protected area for colder-climate itineraries. In place of El Loco Fresh (one of our favorite spots on Odyssey) there's a Fish & Ships on the pool deck - which received good reviews from everyone I spoke with. Odyssey has a Sports Bar, with food available for an added fee,  where Ovation has the Dog House, which has a selection of complementary hot dogs and brats which make a good mid-afternoon snack when returning from an excursion after lunch.

Our luggage was delivered promptly at 3:00 (air tags are brilliant for tracking progress!) so we returned to the room and spent about 30 minutes unpacking and organizing before relaxing on the balcony for a bit.

This is the first time we tried early seating for dinner. We have been on small cruises with only one seating, but traditionally we've always opted for late seating. It's difficult to make a comparison due to how unusual an Alaska itinerary is to a Caribbean itinerary. We have early seating for our upcoming New Year's cruise to be more kid-friendly for the grandsons, so that might give us a little better idea.

The welcome aboard comedian was a complete bust. He started strong, but after the fist five minutes or so he devolved into a stream of disjointed babbling and never managed to recover. We ended up in Boleros for a couple of drinks and called it a night.

We enjoyed our time in Vancouver, but it was nice to get settled on the ship.

Planning

I've been researching flights for our 2026 Alaska trip for several weeks, and the airlines should release our dates in the coming week. We have an Air BnB lined up for our time in Vancouver, so our flights are the last piece of the puzzle.

Our New Year's 2026/2027 cruise will largely be a repeat of our upcoming Caribbean cruise (logistically speaking) so planning for that has already been worked out, so that is simply a matter of time.

The "Big 60 Birthday Bash" with Viking River Cruises is still in flux, and over two years out - plenty of time to determine our flights to Budapest and our return arrangements from whichever city we decide to depart from (Munich appears to be most likely, but Prague is an option.)

In the meanwhile we consider other possible adventures. Northern Lights? Antarctica? A Christmas Market river cruise? A Trans-Pacific cruise? Backpacking by train in Europe? Something entirely different? The Scottish Highlands and Ireland are on our list - but certainly don't fit any of the previous mentioned travel methodologies (except the train, on a limited basis.)

 Crisis Averted!

Internet Image

I woke up one day last week and realized I booked our cabin on the wrong side of the ship for our Alaska cruise. Yes, I often have such revelations first thing in the morning – my brain likes to solve problems while I sleep. So, when I woke up I immediately started investigating starboard cabin availability to see how I could fix this problem, hopefully without an associated cost.

I popped open a chat session in one window and started texting my sister in another. I supplied my booking information, as well as my sister's information, and started working on getting our cabins moved.

Then we discovered that my sister was booked on a June cruise and not the July cruise as previously planned.

Engage scramble mode.

My sister opened her own chat session to sort out her reservation and I continued working on mine. After nearly an hour my representative was unable to move me to a cabin that was clearly vacant and my sister was rebooked on the proper cruise and in the correct cabin. Within minutes of sorting out my sister's situation her rep had my cabin moved to the starboard side, in the cabin that the previous representative could never manage to see. I'm a bit flummoxed as to how one could see everything clearly while the other could not.

In the end everything was sorted with only a small fee incurred for the completely erroneous reservation.

However, my sister is no longer allowed to make travel arrangements without adult supervision!

North, to Alaska!

 To borrow from Johnny Horton (no, I didn't know his name without looking, just the catchy line from his song) we've booked a Vancouver departure for 2026 and opted for the post-cruise land add-on. Our thought process being that with everything on our list Alaska will probably be a "one-and-done" destination, so let's do as much as we can (within reason, of course.)

Ovation of the Seas

This will be a new destination and yet another new adventure - travel with my sibling and her husband. No kids, no parents. For a touch of irony, they booked an Alaska cruise for this year after hearing us talk about our (now rearranged) cruise. As I've previously noted, our trip was shuffled due to surgery. Well, their trip also befell what I'll simply refer to as "organizational challenges" and fell by the wayside. As I was contemplating plans for 2026 I looked at Alaska itineraries and discovered a similar trip to our original booking was about 1/3 less in cost.

Courtesy hold? Yes, Please!

Now, my wife is generally of the "just tell me how to pack and when we're leaving" mindset - but I wanted to let this simmer for a couple of days and give us both time to think. You know, at least pretend to be adult. I sent my sister an FYI email with the details of my hold and a note saying "This is what we're thinking about..."

They put a hold on an adjacent cabin.

After a proper conversation, which in reality consisted of "is there any reason we shouldn't?" I paid the deposit and informed my sister. She paid their deposit, and now the planning begins!

 Future Plans

USPS Photo

One thing I've learned over the years, if you're not willing to adapt to schedule changes then travel probably isn't your thing. I still get a bit wound-up when I'm traveling with others and there's a major glitch - not because I'm inconvenienced, but because I don't want others to suffer discomfort. Sometimes we're lucky enough for the changes to come well in advance, sometimes they happen in the moment - while you're at the gate or when you arrive at the venue. We try to keep things moving, making plans on the cusp of published schedules.

On our Panama Canal cruise (fall 2023) we booked an Alaska cruise for this August (2025) only to have hip surgery make an August trip impossible. So the 2025 Alaska cruise became a November Caribbean cruise. Thanks to a bit of good fortune with the reservations department this was accomplished with minimal hassle.

On our 2024 trans-Atlantic crossing (Civitavecchia to NYC) we booked the return for the spring of 2026 (NYC to Barcelona) It appears there may be a conflict brewing with that itinerary, so we're in the process of shuffling the deck again - moving the NY-Europe trip to the spring of 2027 and booking an Alaska trip for August of 2026.

Flexibility.

So far, all of this chaos is going to cost us $200 and $50 on-board credit. Do I enjoy dropping $200? Certainly not - but that's a lot less than if we hadn't booked onboard with NextCruise with their reduced deposits.

So this is what we have on the calendar at the moment:

• November 2025 – Caribbean cruise
• July 2026 – Alaska cruise 
• December 2026 – Caribbean (New Year's with all the kids)
• Spring 2027 – Trans-Atlantic? (NY-Europe)
• Spring 2028 – European river cruise

There are other small trips sprinkled here and there, and rough outlines for Antarctic, Arctic Circle, Trans-Pacific, Australia and SE Asia destinations on the board.

Lots to see and experience.

Stay tuned.