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Cruise Day 2 - continued We all split up after the 50s and 60s trivia, for which I was purely accessory. I wanted to head to my stateroom to unpack, but there was a card in my key slot saying I should contact the Shore Excursions desk, so I went there instead. The guy at the desk let me know that the Rainforest excursion in Ketchikan wouldn’t be possible, because at such short notice they weren’t able to organize an accessible vehicle. Grumble grumble it wouldn’t have been short notice if the request had been properly sent back in August, but fine. That is 100% not this guy’s fault, but I will have a lot to say on the matter in my end of cruise survey. The guy, however, had good news for Sitka. He said that as long as I weigh less than 300lbs with my chair and that I’m not wider than 30 inches they would be happy to have me on board for the Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest. But what about accessible transportation, I asked. According to him the pier for the excursion is a 7 minutes walk from where we dock, so no transportation needed. Now I’m not fully convinced that this will happen, but let’s say I’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully I’ll get to see some otters tomorrow! I returned to my stateroom with my brand new excursion ticket and I swear I fully intended to unpack, but there was a rainbow outside and I could see both ends of it and also the sun was peeking out from behind interesting clouds and yeah no I’m not unpacked.

Cruise Day 2 - continued We headed to lunch after trivia. The Windjammer was packed, so much so that they had an announcement telling people not to linger after they were done eating. I had never heard such an announcement before. I had some noodles which chicken and pork salad. I also tried a hot dog from the Boardwalk Dog House. It was back to trivia after lunch, this time for Disney and Friends. We came quite close for both, but the famous keychains or zipper pulls evaded us once again. The Schooner Bar was extremely busy on that day, which was also the case last year on the Anthem when the weather was bad. My two cocktails of the afternoon, none of which involve peanut butter: a Tropical Sidecar and a Passion Spritz.

Cruise Day 2 - continued Everyone got some pre-measured coloured fondant, a chocolate cupcake, and (of course) an apron and a hat. I think I pulled it off. We made frogs. I’ve been sitting here for several minutes thinking about what I want to tell you about the class, and I have nothing. I didn’t love it, otherwise I would already have three paragraphs written about it. I also didn’t hate it, because, well, same. It was a fun activity and I’m glad I did it, but I don’t think it was worth the price for me. After the class, we did Marvel trivia in the Schooner Bar. I felt adventurous, so I had a Peanut Butter Tropic. It was definitely strange. I’m not used to seeing peanut butter and pineapple together, but it wasn’t as weird as I expected. And isn’t that what everyone wants in a cocktail? Not as weird as expected?

Cruise Day 2 - continued Eventually, I felt a bit peckish so I went to the Windjammer. It was pandemonium, but I remembered something from my November transatlantic crossing on the Jewel: you can have a very peaceful breakfast if you can stand the cold. I’m Canadian; I’ve been training for this my whole life. So I made myself a plate of fruit and cheese and I settled comfortably at the back outdoor section of the Windjammer. Aaah. So quiet. I hope the word doesn’t get out too much about that section. I didn’t want to eat too much, because I had booked a cupcake decorating class with one of my friends at 10am. It’s something I see proposed as an activity on all the RCI cruises I take, but not something I would have done alone. On the way to Giovanni’s, where the class was being held, I found a tiny duck!

Cruise Day 2 - continued I took my freshly, carefully prepared hot beverage to the Viking Crown Lounge that I remembered liking a lot on the Jewel. It was very quiet, so I sat there for a while while I worked on my review.

Cruise Day 2 I was up early after having set the clock back one hour the night before. I had some unpacking to do, but it would practically be a crime to do that before coffee, so I went to check out the Diamond Lounge. There was some confusion in the elevator bay, since apparently two out of the four water-facing elevators could go up to deck 13. After a couple of false starts, I eventually made it up there. They had some breakfast offerings out, but I went straight for the coffee machine to make myself a latté. And yes, I know that I’m taking liberties with the words "make myself" since it was just pressing some buttons, but hey I’m the narrator and I can be a barista if I want to.

Thank you so much for all the info, everyone! I appreciate it a lot.

If your friend is not opposed to having sticky nostrils I think they should go for it.

Yes, I have, thank you. It was very helpful to have a friend with me who gave me a push when there was a hill to climb. Probably helped speed up the recovery process. The internet has been really good so far up until today. I was able to steam some Ted Lasso on Apple TV+, stream some music, and post a bunch of pictures to Cruise Critic without any issue. I was actually surprised at how good it worked. However, I’m struggling today. Posting pictures is out of the question, so I’ll wait until we’re docked in Sitka to do that. Streaming music is working, but with some random interruptions.

Day 2 Cruise Compass

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. I have saved the information if not for this visit then for a future one.

Cruise Day 1 - continued We went to the Colony Club after dessert for some liquid dessert and Movie Love Themes trivia. We did quite well, well enough to each leave with one celebratory marker which I hear will work on furniture, but not paper. Can’t wait to test that out on my sofa. I returned to my stateroom to unpack after that, since my suitcase had arrived just as I was leaving for dinner. However, I felt too tired and too full from dinner and I decided to leave it until the next day. What was it that Scarlett O’Hara said? I’ll think about it tomorrow? Yeah, that.

Cruise Day 1 - continued But there was food to eat and drinks to drink, so I left the Shore Excursions desk and went to dinner. It was my first time experiencing the new MDR menus and I didn’t know what to expect. I had the escargots, the fried chicken and I shared a key lime pie and a peanut butter bar with a friend because sharing is caring. Also, sharing is hopefully not feeling so full after dinner that you just…can’t. My food was ok. The escargots seemed very similar to what they were before, although I hear I won’t be able to get them every night so now I’m kind of regretting not getting two. The fried chicken was pretty good and it was hot, which wasn’t the case for everyone’s entrees at the table. The key lime pie was good, and so was the peanut butter bar, but I would pick the pie over the bar anytime those two are on the same menu.

Cruise Day 1 - continued Since packing wasn’t an option, I went to my balcony instead. It felt like a much better use of my time, to be honest. The scenery was beautiful and the sun was just starting to set. That moment alone confirmed I had made the right choice splurging for a balcony. Eventually I had to leave my little rectangle of paradise. I was meeting my friends for dinner and I had to go to the Shore Excursions desk. I had to cross the Centrum, which looked very lively. I contacted the Accessible Shore Excursions department back in spring to inquire about excursions for this trip. They responded saying it was a bit early for them but that they would contact me later when they were ready to plan excursions for people sailing in the fall. They wrote back at the end of June with a list of potential excursions. After discussing it with my friends, I requested the Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest for Sitka and the Rainforest, Wildlife Sanctuary, Eagles and Totems excursion in Ketchikan. They wrote back early august to let me know they had received my request and would contact the tour operators. And that’s the last I heard from them. I wrote back twice to inquire about the status of my excursions, but I never got an answer. So I explained the situation to the lady manning the desk and she confirmed that they didn’t have any accessibility requests under my stateroom number. They said they would contact the tour operators and let me know. My level of confidence that I would get to see any otters or totems was pretty low.

Cruise Day 1 - continued After that, it was sailaway time. It’s always pretty fun when we have to go under a bridge. We had some down time before we had to meet for dinner, so I went back to my stateroom hoping I would be able to unpack. My suitcase hadn’t arrived, but this insult had: A banana?! Bananas are the worst fruit. Bananas need to go to their room without dessert. Really, as a brand new Diamond Plus member I was expecting better treatment than this.

Cruise Day 1 - continued After our snack, it was time for another drink, this time from the pool deck. To continue the peach vibe, I had a peach lava flow which was nice and festive. You can probably tell from the pictures, but the weather was very lovely. Perfect, really. The pool deck has hopping and a lava flow felt appropriate. We took our drinks to the Solarium, where I spotted that the Park Café that’s in there seems to be serving the famous kümmelweck sandwich. At one point we were just sitting there and one of the waiters randomly brought me a bowl of strawberries. I’m not one to object to random strawberries appearing in front of me, so I was quite pleased and ate all of them happily.

Cruise Day 1 - continued I like how the cruise lines used to do the shower benches: big! Look at that bench, so much space for both cheeks! The grab bar right behind the bench will be a bit of a bother, but with such a large bench it will be completely manageable. Getting on the balcony seemed nearly impossible at first, until I realized the door handle was in the locked position. I was able to open the door after I switched the position of the handle, but it still required a lot of strength on my part. Good thing I have these well-defined, muscley, almost god-like arms. We were meeting up in the Windjammer for some pre-sailaway snacks, which I forgot to take a picture of, but my plate was all fruits and cheese so nothing too exciting.

That’s a very good tip, thank you!

It’s trivia time! I’ll post the rest later unless my multiple trivia prizes are weighing me down too much 😉

Cruise Day 1 - continued But now, we were on the ship and we had some serious ship business to take care of. First, we went to the dining room to link our MYD reservations. If you have anything dining-room related to inquire about, you have to go to the right deck (4 for MTD and 5 for fixed seating). Then, we went to Chops to make a reservation for Samba Grill. My muster station was in the Schooner Bar, so I thought I would check-in real quick while I was there. I ended up getting the whole speech and life jacket demo despite having watched the video in the app that morning. Once that was done, I ran to Chops where the rest of the group was waiting for me. Two of us in our group are Diamond Plus, so we are each including another person as part of our BOGO dining, which leaves the man of the group to fend for himself. It’s my first time sailing as a Diamond Plus and I have friends to share the BOGO with, but what about next spring when I’ll be sailing solo? Do you know if I can use the offer on myself (pay for one specialty restaurant and get another night in another specialty restaurant free)? After taking care of so much business, we needed a drink. Since we were already in the Schooner Bar, we settled in a nook and had a look at the menu. I was pleasantly surprised to see the menu had been upgraded with some new drinks I had never seen before and was excited to try. I started things off with a Desert Pear Margarita. I liked it a lot; it was fruity and sweet, but not overly so. Then, I tried the Irish Peach. It was absolutely lovely and a must try if you enjoy that artificial peach flavour (which I do). Once we were done with our drinks, the staterooms were ready so we all went our own way to check them out and drop off some weight. The radiance is an older lady, so of course the stateroom is showing its age. The feature I am going to miss the most from the newer ships is the outlets next to the bed, but I should survive for the week.

Cruise Day 1 I had a check-in time of 10:00, but I left the hotel a bit after 9:00 since I knew my luggage would be slowing me down. I said a last goodbye to the Stadium-Chinatown station that had served me so well and I squeezed myself and my luggage into a very full train car. If you’re arriving from the Expo Line at the Waterfront Station and are heading for Canada Place, you should look for the Howe Street exit. If you are in a wheelchair, ignore what I just said and get in the elevator for the Cordova Street exit. It wasn’t fun dragging that suitcase uphill to Canada Place, but I managed. At Canada Place, I found someone in a bright vest who was directing people down the outside promenade, so I followed a bunch of people with RCI tags hoping they knew where they were going. Luggage drop-off and check-in were in the same big room in the Convention Centre and it didn’t take more than 10 minutes to get those two done. Then, we were given a green ticket as proof we had done our check-in were and directed downstairs for US customs. This step took a while. The lines weren’t moving at all at first, but once we started moving it was quick. What wasn’t as quick was the next room where we were playing cruise ship musical chairs. Chairs are in multiple rows, you sit in a chair, when they call your row you get on the ship, and once chairs are empty new people sit in them and wait for their row to be called. Unfortunately, one of the gangway’s alarm went off and they had to…I don’t know…turn the gangway off and then back on again. Luckily for us, we were all sitting and our row was the first to be called once the gangway was ready. All things considered, it was still a relatively smooth process for us. Based on the roll call group it wasn’t the same for everyone and some people had to wait hours to board.

Cruise Compass Day 1

I’m sorry, I don't remember. We saw too many beautiful birds!

Pre-Cruise in Vancouver Day 6 - continued We met up with our other two friends and had a look around the Lonsdale Quay Market. I had seen the market a few days earlier, but most of the shops were closed at that time. It was fun to see the market with everything open. We had an early dinner at the Tap&Barrel restaurant. I forgot to take pictures of the food, but I had a spicy passion fruit margarita which was delicious and a PB&J burger. That may sound weird, but I loved it. It had bacon jam with chipotle peanut butter. Very unusual, but very delicious. On the way to the restaurant, I had spotted a Lee’s Donut food truck, so I stopped there on the way back to get a pumpkin spice donut for the next day’s breakfast. Then, we said goodbye to our Vancouver friends and took the SeaBus back to Waterfront Station. My other two friends left to see people looking at a clock and I took the Expo line back to my hotel where some packing was waiting for me. I was going on a cruise!!!

Pre-Cruise in Vancouver Day 6 - continued They were both rescued as cubs back in 2001. Coola’s mother had died and they found Grinder alone so they never found out what had happened to his mom. I was so smitten, I could have watched them for hours. They have ranger talks about the two bears that are not to be missed for anyone who wants to learn more aboute Grinder and Coola. I finally pulled myself away from the bears when my friends came back from their chair lift adventure and we headed over to the Birds in Motion presentation. Did I mention I love birds? It was very informative and I loved seeing all the birds fly. At that point, we had done everything we wanted to do, except grab a BeaverTail. Unfortunately, that was not to be as the place was closed. We started to make our way back to North Vancouver. First the cable car down the mountain, and then the 236 bus.