Boarding Princess Sapphire

August 6th, 2022

Took an Uber from our hotel to the Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal at Port Of Vancouver near downtown Vancouver. It would have been an easy walk, but we were not sure exactly where to go, so we called an Uber. It was a good decicision as there would have been a long walk on the Port to get to our terminal, plus the Uber was able to drop us off right in front where the porters took our luggage.

We had along walk to get to the check-in spot. We had reserved a 10:00am check-in time, but it did not seem to matter. Nobody was checking check-in times and the lines were long. We finally got to the main building where there were zig zag lines with a few sitting areas. It was about half full when we arrived. By the time we made it to the front, the entire building was full.

Once we got checked inn, we were moved to an embarkment room where we were seated in numbered areas and waited for our group to be called. Once we were called, we were able to cross the gangway and board the ship.

Once on the ship, we gathered with some of our family members on the trip in the bar and had a toast to the trip.

Sandy, Amy, Bob, Diana and myself toasting to the trip.

We had packed our swimsuits in our carry-on bags and went straight to the hot tub to enjoy the nice weather while we had it. The weather in Vancouver was sunny and warm and we did not anticipate warm weather for the rest of the trip.

Enjoying the pool and hot tub on the ship after we arrived.

We were glad we had boarded early as there was a system shutdown at the check-in and it lasted over two hours. The rest of our group was stuck in that line (Karen & Steve, Ron & Chris and Danny & Leigh with the two boys) .

We were finally able to get into our rooms. Our luggage was supposed to be derived to our rooms. Sandy’s luggage was there, but mine was not. I was told to give it time, so we went to explore the ship. Later that evening before dinner, by luggage was still not there. I was told to check with security. Sure enough, there it was. It was flagged because I had a pocket knife in my luggage. The confiscated by pocket knife and I was able to get my luggage.

Later I found out that my sister-in-law, Karen, had brought a chefs knife in her luggage, but it was not flagged. They obviously do not scan every bag.