Well, all good things must come to an end. We said goodbye to Alaska, and hello to the South Pacific. Looking forward to it. Our day started fine, but it didn't proceed that way. You know how some days everything that can go wrong will go wrong? That was today.
After our early breakfast, we went back to the room to get all of our stuff ready to be moved to deck six. Working with Vini, our go-to-man onboard, he coordinated the moving team with trolleys to transfer everything. One problem we had was waiting for the current guests in our next room to leave the ship. Until they scanned their cards upon leaving, we did not have access to the room. They finally left at 9:30am, and thanks to Vini who called us, we gave the new room stewards a chance to finish the room before we went up by 10am. Some of our stuff arrived shortly afterwards.
Yesterday we had received new key cards, however, when we tried to access the deck six room, the cards would not work. Going down to the front desk, Vini made us new ones. The fellows were still bringing the luggage, so the door stayed opened. We did not think to try the new cards. Not checking the cards would turn out to be a problem later on.
Leaving the ship, we used the old room key. We were advised to use the new keycards when we returned. No problem.
Once again, we had the in transit cards to show the pier people. There were already a lot of new passengers arriving to Canada Place with two ships in port. The Zaandam and the Grand Princess were the only two ships today. And it was not the best weather-wise. It was dark and dreary with constant rain falling. With the temperature in the high 50's and no wind, we got by with sweatshirts and umbrellas. No sense walking all the way to Stanley Park today. It was way too wet. Today we only went as far as the wind sculpture and turned around. We figured if we got to the restaurant before noontime, perhaps the line in the cruise terminal might be shorter. In this case, we were correct.
We went to the Steamworks Brewery for their excellent pizza and Lion's Gate Lagers. We shared the apple galette once again while watching the Grand Princess taking on fuel for her next journey. Where she goes, we do not know. So by the time we left, it was nearly 1pm and guess what? The line was half of what it was last Wednesday. Remembering to put absolutely everything in the basket for the xray, the check went quickly. The line for the facial recognition check went smoothly. We got the green check once again. And we are so glad we do not have to do this procedure again as we will be heading south to San Francisco, California.
So at the kiosk re-boarding the ship, we used our new room keys. They worked….no problem. But when we got to our room, they would not open the door. Only our new room stewards could let us in, but they were nowhere in sight. So we went down to the front desk where 20 people were in line for other problems. We did notice there was a Club Orange sign at the right end of the desk, and we know that we are able to use that line. New keys were printed and to make sure they worked, one of the girls came with us to make sure they worked. Did they open the door? NO. She tried her master room key, and hers did work, so the problem had to be with the card maker. She repeated this drill two more times with no success.
Finally, Vini came to the rescue, and delivered two cards that finally worked. When we opened the door when he knocked, we found him on his knees holding the cards in the air, and saying it worked thank goodness. No kidding….on his knees. That made six times of printing the cards before they made it work. So we stayed in the room putting everything away. It was almost like starting over. The only clothes we did not have to handle were the closet ones on the hangers. By the way, as most of you all know, we are one closet short in the veranda room. We do have more drawers – 9 drawers instead of 3. We left around 3pm to do the muster drill. It has to be done every 30 days, and it could have waited until SF or San Diego. We decided to go now and be done with it for another month. Then we ran the drill on the room TV and we were done.
Two plates of goodies were delivered when we were at the muster check. One had shrimp in cocktail sauce as well as a mango-cheese canapy, and the other place had beautiful chocolate-dipped strawberries. We saved the strawberries for later.
Earlier in the day, we had received an invitation to another Mariner Society welcome onboard at 6:45pm in the Lido Poolside. This would be a more inclusive party with 3,4, and 5 star members. President's Club members were not announced. Since we were still hanging things up and getting organized, we did not attend this one. We did watch the sail away from our veranda, which was nice…..very wet and rainy, but nice. Today there was no sign of those killer whales we saw when leaving last week. Another lucky moment.
The Grand Princess left ahead of us, and we followed on her heels. Once under the Lion's Gate Bridge, we encountered another Princess ship coming into Vancouver, which turned out to be the Ruby. The Grand's captain tooted his horn several times, followed by the Ruby's captain blowing one big toot. The Ruby's passengers waved and cheered as both ships passed by. We figured it was Happy Hour time and the folks were very happy. We did see some sea birds such as the cormorants, gulls, and a few greater blue heron. A couple of sea lions popped up checking us out as we sailed out of the harbor. The trees were starting to pick up more fall colors of yellow, orange, and red. So pretty.
We found an amusing note on our coffee table. It said for safety reasons and to protect the marine environment, no towels, clothing, or any other personal items are to be left on the balcony when the stateroom guests are not present. We suppose this means you are no longer able to do a hand wash and hang it over the chairs to dry all day. Yes, we have seen this this done over and over. And if a sudden wind comes up, much of that wash will blow away.
Trying to get the internet working was a problem. Originally, we had paid for a plan for 77 days. But as far as we could see, it was not recognizing that. Vini to the rescue again. He had to "re-buy" the plan and refund it so we were back in business. Another upsetting moment we did not need. But wait…..there's more.
The most upsetting thing happened when we looked up our shipboard account, finding that the credit we had left from the last three cruises was gone. We were under the impression that all of our four cruises were linked and the account would roll over with each ending cruise. It was even written on the in transit letter they send every time we have to disembark and re-board. It worked fine until today. So with Vini's help once again, he promised to check into this immediately. He did, and phoned back explaining that everyone's accounts are zeroed out after 30 days when they either charge your credit card,and or refund the cashable amount. No one told us this. We always leave the credit in the account to pay for tips or visas, etc. Now they bounce it back to the card, and re-charge it again. This is new since our last trip on the grand world cruise. At least the non-refundable amount did roll over to this trip. In addition to this change, they are no longer able to keep your credit card info on file for more than 30 days. So now we have to run our card at the front desk again. If this new policy was in our contract, we sure did not see it. Remember……read everything before you go. Vini promised to make a copy of our account and send it to our room. It arrived within 20 minutes.
Dinner for us was in the Pinnacle Grill, the least busy night of a new cruise. We ordered the wedge salad and clothes line bacon for starters. We prefer the grilled lamb chops with nothing else on the plate. We call it "naked lamb chops", which the waiters like to chuckle about. For a side we added French fries….the skinny ones. It was so good, we passed on dessert. After such a long day with all of the hiccups, we were exhausted. Good thing we have two days at sea to relax.
There was entertainment in the World Stage with Chris Bannister singing John Denver tunes. He was on the grand world voyage this year as well, so we have seen his show and liked the music. There was a movie as well – Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight. For us, it was bedtime.
Bill & Mary Ann
