twangster

Breakfast menu for the MDR: Position report as we near the end of the British Columbia Inside Passage.

Day Two - BC Inside Passage Early up with my body still on Eastern time. Sometime around 5am. It was rainy and dark. Typical Pacific coastal weather. As it got lighter it was pretty spectacular despite the overcast and rainy conditions. Pictures don't do it justice. We caught up to that HAL ship and followed it throughout the night.

After dinner I went to Vintages for a drink and awesome views. My cabin TV wasn't working very well with some of the channels breaking up but I managed to grab this position report before the signal really crapped out. (they later replaced my TV). Apple maps from my iPhone with my TV acting up: After this I retired to my balcony to watch the lights on Vancouver Island sail past in the dark. It was very peaceful listening to some music with my earbuds while sipping on some Crown and Anchor wine. The Captain did announce we will return through the Inside Passage and our transit will be in daylight for some of the way back.

Dinner menu: The My Time Dining line was rather long... ... so I went up for a Windjammer dinner with a seat outside to watch the British Columbia coast sail by. The WJ had the same Prime Rib I was thinking about for dinner so this worked really well with no crowds in the WJ.

Suite Lounge drink menu for the nightly cocktail happy hour in the Concierge Club. On this sailing the Concierge Club worked much like the days before the shutdown. Pinnacle were allowed in, they scanned our cards to enter and to leave the lounge but drinks did not use C&A drink vouchers.

I left my 360 camera running on my balcony capturing a time lapse of the departure from Vancouver.

Shortly after 5pm it was our turn. Voom started working once we left the pier. Looking back at Canada Place. It's a short time until we reach the Lions Gate bridge. Here is a video passing under the bridge:

Lots of sea plane activity taking off and landing. The HAL ship was first to leave. With that ship gone it opened up a better city view. Cows on deck 13! The helipad is open to the public.

Cabin tour! Cabins were stated to be ready at 1pm but they opened them up twenty minutes early. SeaPass cards outside on the cabin doors. Unlike some of her sisters, Serenade has shower doors. This is a corner aft balcony.

On board just before noon. Here are some on board prices: Voom was down at the moment. Original estimate of 1pm to restore Voom has been updated to 5pm. I suspect the position and angle of the ship is blocking some satellites as there are some TV channels that indicate there is a satellite outage.

I walked down from my hotel and arrived at Canada Place at 10am. My arrival appointment was 11am but I wanted to drop my luggage and walk around outside taking some photos along the way. Down the ramp following the blue cruise ship signs I was directed to an elevator that goes down into the parking garage P2 level. There was a short line for folks who didn’t have luggage tags. I bypassed that and walked to the drop off area with signs for Serenade to the right of the line. With my bag dropped off I went back up to the CS level and walked outside. Three ships in port, HAL, Princess and Royal Caribbean. Due to the tidal changes they use cranes to load everything on board. Provisions getting loaded. Active float plane base in Vancouver harbor. After taking these photos it was back down to the area where I grabbed the parking garage elevator earlier. Now there was a line with 20 or guests waiting to get down to luggage drop. TIme was a 10:55am. I headed into the area for security. At this point they wanted passport and setsail pass only. Laptop out of backpack and through security shoes on, like many security checkpoints at cruise ships. I had already stuffed my parka required for this chilly Canadian climate into my backpack. Next up was US CBP pre-clearance. After visiting a kiosk the machine spitted out a printout with a big X across my details. Yep, secondary screening. This turned out to be a minor inconvenience and with the ship not boarding yet it was nothing. Even the CBP officer shook her head after running my passport and waved me through. Up to this point the process is common for all ships in port. For today that was three. Once through CBP we separated from other ship guests on the other cruise lines. The next step was Royal Caribbean check in which wasn’t open yet so we waited. Soon enough they announced suites and pinnacle so I was moving again. I managed to pick a queue with a contractor whose iPad wasn’t working so I was sent to the check in counter. Here I presented my ArriveCAN code on my phone along with proof of vaccine, test results and setsail pass. A few minutes later off I went to board the ship!

With hours to kill this morning I completed the ArriveCAN app for a second time. When choosing the cruise ship option it will ask for embarkation date which must be within 72 hours and separately it asks for the date you will arrive into Canada which in my case is May 8.

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!! With my body still on Eastern time it's early in the morning as I write this in my hotel room. Checking out the wind and wave forecast. It looks like there is a system out there that could come into play for my cruise. Time will tell how this factors into the itinerary with Hubbard on Thursday. I thought about walking down to watch Serenade arrive this morning but it's 44°F this morning. Enough said. It does raise the question if my goal of seeing a descendant of Nanook in downtown has just gone up. I've got a lot of hours to kill before my 11am appointment. Tick, tock.

My tummy was on Eastern time so I ventured out for an early bite of dinner. After eating I venture down to Canada Place. The Canada Line train from the airport ends at Waterfront station which is pretty close to Canada Place. There had been three ships in port today, I missed a HAL ship that had just depart. Seven Seas Mariner on the left and Royal Princess on the right. In Canada they take their social distancing seriously so they have put it out there in common terms any Canadian would understand. If curling isn't your thing maybe Maple Syrup is. The ramp to reach the cruise terminal where I'll walk down tomorrow. Some additional pictures of the area. With that I was getting tired so time to start heading towards my hotel a few blocks away.

Hotel LeSoleil for reference in case anyone is thinking of staying here.

Flying through Seattle where I had a connecting flight to Vancouver I managed to convince the pilot to fly near the downtown area. I see cruise ships! Here you can see the proximity from the Space Needle, lower just left of center, versus the Smith Cove cruise port in the center.

T - 1 Day I made it to Vancouver! I'm staying downtown at Hotel Le Soleil a couple of blocks from Canada Place cruise terminal. I was required to show the ArriveCAN form and my passport upon checking in at the airport then again boarding the connecting flight in Seattle for Vancouver. Ironically I was not required to a show the ArriveCAN form going through Canada customs in Vancouver airport but I suspect it matched my passport number to the form. YVR airport does require masks at the moment so make sure to bring some. In YVR airport you are processed by Canada for immigration and customs purposes. It starts with a kiosk where you make your declarations which prints out a form you'll use at the following immigration and customs steps. After going through immigration you collect your luggage. Upon exiting the baggage claim area where you hand over your CBSA kiosk printout you will be directed into a queue for COVID testing if selected, or if not selected for testing you'll be directed into another queue that leads to the actual exit.

T - 2 days. Testing scheduled at Walgreens for 4pm this afternoon less than a mile from where I live. Using a Rapid NAAT.

Once you have successfully submitted an ArriveCAN form you will get a copy by email. I choose to print that out and carry the paper copy for presentation at the border. Delta is my airline for this trip and they have a requirement to upload a copy of the ArriveCAN QR code into the Delta Fly Ready app. Once I did that about 15 minutes later I received an email letting know it was validated and I am clear to check in when my flight is ready for check in.

As time has brought me closer to the sailing the additional requirements for a Canadian based cruise have softened. They continue to improve and what once seemed like a myriad of confusing red tape has become pretty simple and not that much different compared to cruises from the US since the industry restart. For the most part the additional requirements introduced by Canada comes down to the ArriveCAN app used to enter Canada no matter how you arrive, by land, sea or air, at least for US residents. The ArriveCAN app is not unique to cruising, every traveler to Canada no matter how they arrive has to use this app including Canadians arriving home from international travel. As a cruiser flying into Canada to embark in Vancouver there may be airline references to former testing requirements to enter Canada but those have been eliminated currently. Despite that change some airlines continue to suggest testing will be required to enter Canada. There is no testing requirement despite what some airline app might say (cough, cough, Delta). The free ArriveCAN app can be found in the Apple App store or the Google Play store. You will need this for app any Alaska cruise in 2022. For this cruise I'll need two different ArriveCAN applications, one to enter Canada by plane, a second for a cruise that involves Canada. You can only have one active at a time so I had to wait until I arrived in Vancouver and cleared CBSA to create my second one for the cruise.

I'm posting this as a recap summary as my attempt at doing this live that I started on day 1 of the cruise was deleted after getting 8 posts into that thread. I did a live on the site we can't message here so if you've seen that thread this won't be anything new or different. As Royal Caribbean kicks off the 2022 Alaska cruise season it's time to look North, all the way North... to the Southeast coast. The Southeast coast of Alaska that is. Serenade of the Seas sails from the Canadian port city of Vancouver, British Columbia heading North to Alaska and back, round trip to Vancouver. Itinerary Sun 01May2022 Vancouver, British Columbia - 5:00 PM Boarding Mon 02May2022 Inside Passage - - Cruising Tue 03May2022 Sitka, Alaska 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked Wed 04May2022 Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska 5:00 AM 9:00 AM Cruising Wed 04May2022 Juneau, Alaska 12:00 PM 8:00 PM Docked Thu 05May2022 Hubbard Glacier (Cruising) 11:00 AM 2:00 PM Cruising Fri 06May2022 Ketchikan, Alaska 2:00 PM 10:00 PM Docked Sat 07May2022 Cruising - - Cruising Sun 08May2022 Vancouver, British Columbia 7:00 AM - Departure This is an unusual opportunity for Royal Caribbean International in a number of ways. First of all Vancouver roundtrip isn't always been a Royal Caribbean International offering. Secondly an itinerary that includes sailing by two glaciers on Royal is not common. Thirdly, visiting Hubbard Glacier, the premiere tidewater glacier of Alaska, has traditionally meant sailing a one-way North or South itinerary on Royal. Lastly, sailing into Tracy Arm Fjord has not been offered by Royal in some time, even before the industry shutdown. This year brings some additional requirements introduced since this cruise departs from another country (Canada) and that means satisfying both CDC requirements since we visit US ports and Canadian requirements since we sail from Canada.

Random amounts for me. From $2 to $8. B2B it can change, not sure why,

Yes, on board only, but it’s not cheap. $22-$32 per 24 hours. Prices are in flux right now (increasing).

Pre-shutdown MTD started 5:45pm-ish. During the restart someone at Royal decided that MTD is bad and should be discouraged so they tried to motivate guests into early traditional dining. That push required more seating space for fixed or traditional early dining so they “solved” the problem by delaying MTD until 6:45pm. Despite relaxing protocols MTD dining is still largely impacted. Some ships like Anthem in the UK have eased up this particular protocol but most ships haven’t. Serenade this week is pretty bad, like don’t even think about the dining room if MTD, just eat in the buffet. Apparently someone at Royal still thinks they are solving the pandemic by motivating guests to use the buffet over My Time Dining.

On Serenade now. Solarium pool is heated but not as warm as hot tubs. Stuck my hand in it, didn’t feel cold. Outdoor pool is not heated.