Last summer, we went on a cruise for the first time, to Alaska. In our previous post, we wrote about our planning process, how we got on the ship and there. Here we talk about getting there and our first day on the ship.

Vancouver: Arrival and Afternoon

Our cruise started in Vancouver; so we flew there the day before. As a general rule of thumb, if arriving by air, you want to get to your initial cruise port with plenty of time for flight delays, which is usually the day before. Also, Vancouver is a beautiful city in which to spend the day. We had morning flights on Air Canada, and got to the city by mid-afternoon.

In our case, the highlight for my boys and me was renting some bicycles and biking around the city including primarily Stanley Park, which is a large green area near to the water and downtown core.

In Stanley Park, there’s a nice bike and pedestrian trail with great views of the city, lots of water views, places to get ice cream, and things like totem poles or cricket fields. On a busy day, the bike trail might be a faster way to get around the park than via car.

We also did plenty of walking around the Vancouver core. This included the obligatory Gastown stop, where everybody (us excepted) photographs the steam clock. We also scouted out the cruise port area, and got some dinner. One thing to bear in mind is that Vancouver, like many cities, does have a homeless problem, and you should stay aware of your surroundings.

The following morning, we got breakfast at Tim Horton’s (“when in Canada…”) and took a morning walk.

Cruise Embarcation Logistics

Our cruise ship’s departure was at 4pm, but our email from the cruise line indicated that we needed to be in the terminal at 2pm at the latest to be allowed to board. Furthermore, they would start processing passengers at 10:30am, and allowed boarding at 11:30am. Make sure to read your instructions carefully!

Since our hotel checkout was at 11am, we took the taxi ride to the cruise terminal then, and it was pretty well-choreographed. The staff collected our large luggage right after we got our of the taxi, so we didn’t have to deal with our luggage in line – it’s delivered directly to your room. Then, it was mostly a series of lines in the area upstairs; they photographed us, checked our passports, gave us access cards, and got everything set up.

After getting through checkin, we walked onto the ship, and were able to get a lunch with a nice view of the harbor, while they were moving our luggage into our rooms. Before the departure, there are some brief safety things that everybody needs to complete, including checking in at the evacuation area.

On the Ship & Sail Away

That afternoon, we also explored the different decks of the cruise ship. And soon enough, we sailed away, out of Vancouver Harbor. It was a great time to be on deck!

One thing that we enjoyed about our ship (the Holland America Noordam) was that although it wasn’t tiny (1,924 passengers), it was not nearly as huge as many of the other ships that we saw on the route. Some seemed to be double the size. This smaller size kept the scale of the dining areas, pool, and common areas manageable, and meant that we rarely waited in lines for elevators, unlike the stories I heard about on some ships. Also, we seemed to get a closer boat “parking spot” in a couple of the ports.

The larger ships probably do have a bigger selection of shows (Holland America was honestly so-so in that category) and dining areas. And some of the other ships are a bit newer – our ship was from 2005. But, we really liked our choice of ship.

Our ship had two main dining areas – a cafeteria on the top floor, where we had most breakfasts and lunches, as well as the main dining room, which was more upscale, and where we had our dinners. We didn’t bother with the speciality dining. There were some other places – e.g. a place for take-away hamburgers by the pool, a coffee shop, and several bar areas in the upper deck areas. We were quite happy with dinner the first night, the staff was quite accommodating to dietary requirements in our experience.

We did have a fixed-time seating for dinner at 7:30. We did this when signing up because we though it would help avoid waits, but it probably wasn’t necessary in retrospect. The seating was standard restaurant seating, not the big cruise tables with strangers that we’d heard about in the past.

It was probably good that the next full day was a sea day. We got a good chance to explore the ship, have a few good meals, and to get our bearings. Our youngest was making good use of the gym, and we were catching up on reading. There were some shows in the common area, and we even had a “high tea” that afternoon, which was fun.

More From Our Blog

Keep reading our travel blog for more adventures in Alaska: