The Sojourn, Thursday and Friday, Sept 21 and 22

Thursday dawns bright and beautiful. We go to breakfast; it is included and has been fresh and good. Carolyn finished up packing and Dick gets it in the car.

Our plan is to get parked and be in line to board ship by 11AM. There have been horror tales on Cruise Critic about boarding in Vancouver...long lines and mass confusion. The GPS says it is a 30 minute drive, but it takes us 45 minutes. The traffic isn’t bad, but it is stop and go across downtown Vancouver. We pull into the parking garage about 10:45AM.

The real challenge of the day is figuring out Canada Place cruise parking. We enter the building at the marked entrance, scan our email ticket and follow the signs to the cruise parking level, but there the signage stops. There are very few cars and no people. We park near an elevator, but find no indication of where we are to go to drop off the luggage. Dick doesn’t want to get the luggage out until he knows were to take it.

So we go to the elevator, get in and push a button that seems to indicate the drop off level. The doors close...NOTHING happens!! We try all the buttons...again NOTHING. OK, this is a bit scary. We try the open door button several times and at first NOTHING!  Then about the time Carolyn’s claustrophobia is kicking in the door begins to open. We get back in the car and call the number on the ticket.

The man that answers the phone says,”Oh, they must have locked those elevators and to try the ones in the middle or at the other end by the hotel. So we drive to the middle set. It looks like that parking is reserved for Hertz and Budget rental cars so we try the other end by the hotel and find a parking place near the elevator. Dick again wants to check out the lay of the land. So we go up to CS level and find some people about half way back toward where we started on the lower level. They tell us to get the luggage to the middle of the CS floor and we can turn it in. There are no porters.

Fortunately there are carts by the hotel entrance as there is no way we could manage the luggage to the drop off area. The man checking in the luggage tells us not to worry about the carts they will return them...nice of him. He directs us to US immigration next. We are the only people in line so we breeze through. Next stop is check in. There are about 25 people there when we arrive. We fill in the health form and are seated.

It is now a few  minutes after 11AM. Another 10 or so people arrive and are seated. A Seabourn staffer comes over and tells us they will start check in as soon as a technical glitch is sorted out. A few minutes later, they start taking us in groups to the check in counter and we are on the Sojourn shortly before noon.

We head to the Colonnade for a nice lunch which we eat out on the back, covered deck thanks to the multiple heaters attached to the ceiling.  The whole process has taken two hours from leaving the hotel. Well fed, we walk around the public areas and it is soon time to go to our suite.

The suite is just as nice as we remember. In fact it is the best arranged and most comfortable standard suite of all the lines on which we have cruised. The luggage arrives about 30 minutes later and Carolyn gets everything put away. Dick makes a run back to the car for a forgotten item.

The life boat drill is at 3:45PM in the main dining room.  That done, we are soon up at the Observation Lounge, cocktails in hand, awaiting sail away.  Vancouver is a beautiful port to sail from with the passage under the Lions Gate bridge, the small craft that line the harbor and the sea planes taking off and landing around us.

The stress of the last two weeks is finally catching up with us. Dinner is served in the main dining room, the Colonnade and the Patio Grill by the pool starting at 7PM. We decide to try the Patio Grill as we are not very hungry; just tired. Turns out to be a good choice. They have an Italian theme menu tonight along with the normal grilled items. We have a Caesar salad, shrimp cocktail a small serving of Fettuccini Alfredo and tiramisu for dessert . That, with a glass of nice white wine is just perfect.

We are off to “never-never land” as the Sojourn makes its way, at times silently, at times to the music of the mournful fog horn, up the foggy Inside Passage.

Friday is a sea day. The Sojourn will spend the day sailing the length of Queen Charlotte Sound. The day is overcast with some rain. We enjoy our usual Eggs Benedict in the Restaurant, then attend three lectures by various members of the Ventures staff on Animal Photography, Alaskan Wildlife and Glaciers during the day. Dick goes to trivia and enjoys it. We also spend some time in Seabourn Square, the community gathering spot, reading and drinking coffee and hot chocolate and getting our excursions picked out.

Tonight is formal night and we are invited to join the Chief Engineer’s hosted table. This is always fun. It is a table of ten hosted by the officer and his wife from Scotland. The three other couples are from Florida and the NE coast. As can be imagined, Harvey,  Irma and Maria are hot topics for the night. The food is excellent. Most of the table has either the lobster or the Alaskan sole as the main and the vanilla souffle with berry sauce for dessert. Wonderful meal and conversation! The young, (Dick says Austrian; Carolyn says German..we will check on this) head chef comes by to meet us and let us tell him how good the food was....and it was!

We close the dining room down...so we all must have had a good time. The evening musical program started at 9:45PM, but we pass in favor of sleep.

Tomorrow Ketchikan.....probably in the rain, what else is new!