Wednesday, July 3, 2024

July 3: Grand Princess Embarkation Day

It’s embarkation day! My luggage arrived just before 9 o’clock last night and I had a good long sleep and it’s cruise ship embarkation day so all is right with the world.

One of the nice things about staying at Pan Pacific Canada Place is they’ll take your luggage to the ship and the next time you’ll see it it’ll be in your cruise ship cabin. They do suggest a 3 to 5 dollar tip as it’s considered a room to room transfer. And here’s a tip for booking the Pan Pacific…since it’s an extremely pricey hotel with some nights being $500+ I book the date I need (never book nonrefundable) and keep checking the price. I’ve consistently found it plummets within a week of the stay date. I just give them a call when I see it drops, and this time it dropped to $252 (not including taxes). Saved me more than a couple hundred dollars from when I first booked. 

But no more talk about the Pan Pacific, let’s talk about the cruise. I’m booked in a handicapped accessible balcony cabin. It’s a beautiful room so either they redid the rooms or this is one they have converted from a regular room. I was on this ship last year in a handicap mini suite cabin and this one is SO much better than that one. I’m excited to have this cabin all to myself for a whole week.
I had some excess onboard credit attached to this booking so once I got on board I purchased the Plus package. It includes Wi-Fi, crew appreciation, up to 15 alcoholic drinks (no way I’ll be drinking all that), all the water and coffee and sodas I could want, some desserts, fitness classes (and no way I’ll be using those). If I had purchased the package ahead of time I would have to pay insurance because it would’ve been part of my cruise fare but once onboard I didn’t have to pay the insurance - plus I could use my OBCs. Ka-Ching! Even though I cruise a lot I’m all about saving money.
First drink, Captain’s Bounty. 
Such a beautiful day in Vancouver.
As seen from deck 15, ready for sail away! 
Can’t get a nicer evening headed out to sea than this one 
Tomorrow we have a sea day and I don’t usually post to the blog on those days but if something exciting happens I just might. Otherwise I’ll see you in Ketchikan on Thursday. 


One thing I definitely don’t want to talk about right now are the wildfires in Alaska in that are greatly impacting the three places I’m going to be visiting next week. It’s a bad situation for those living there and working there so I can’t really complain if my land tour takes a hit because of it.