Our Cruise to Florida

Sat. Sept 24, 2011

Arrived at the ship (Coral Princess) at about 11:45 am.  The porter took our bags for delivery onto the ship and we entered the terminal to see when we could check in (we weren't supposed to start boarding until 12:00).  Dawn reminded me that we needed our passports so I started digging around for them.  Checked all the bags we had with us but couldn't find them.  The dilemma then was were they with our bags that had been taken onto the ship, or were they in our car that was on its way back to Abbotsford? I ran out to where the porter had taken our bags, but they weren't there, so I found him and he directed me to his supervisor.  I asked him if he could find our bag and bring back the one where I thought the passports might be.  He left, and when I turned around, Dawn was wagging them at me (they were in one of the bags I had already checked).

Long story short, I couldn't find the supervisor, so I asked another porter who was heading to where the bags got loaded to let him know that we had found what we needed, and then headed off to board.

Boarding is very slick - line-ups that moved fairly quickly, boarding check first, then into US border patrol to check us out with our passports, then a quick medical questionnaire.  Finally to the window where we confirmed our credit card info, and then onto the boat.  Had to go through another security check where they took our pictures matched to our cards, and then to our room.  We were in the room by about 12:15 and our bags showed up about 1:00.

About 3:30 we had the emergency drill to make sure everyone had the life jacket procedures down, and then we left port.  Took some pictures on the way out of the harbour and going under the Lions Gate bridge.  Sent one to the kids through IM with our farewell message.

Karen and Lloyd are in the stateroom beside us, and mom and dad are on the other side of them.  We went up for dinner about 5:30, eating from the buffet.  Very nice although the roast beef was not very tender.

Dawn and I went to the theatre at 7:45, just as we were passing Victoria (I brought the GPS and it worked if we were out on our balcony).  A comedian-juggler was performing and he was great.  Had quite a few laughs.  Walking down the aisle, we found Norma and Doug Butler in the show, too.  They came and sat with us as there was room where we sat.  They are going to San Francisco (arrive there Monday).  They'll stay there for 4 or 5 days and then fly back to Kamloops, so it was nice to visit with them.

Just about the end of the show, the boat started moving around so we thought we were getting some weather.  We went back to our room and on the  balcony it wasn't bad.  It was cold out there and we didn't stay too long before coming in and watching TV.  Overnight it did become rough (I assume when we left the Straight of Juan de Fuca).  Didn't sleep too well because it was so rough and bouncing around.  In the morning, we could see the wave were quite large and there was a wind blowing at an angle to the bow