I am a person who enjoys sleeping (and sleeping in) – I woke on my own before 7am on this day. I was just so excited! As soon as I woke up, I rushed over to the window, pulled back the curtains – and was met with this beautiful sight <3. As I said – the price of the Pan Pacific was worth it to be able to look out the window at this while getting ready.

Our friends who were on the same cruise had crossed multiple time zones, so they were awake very early – they actually watched the Wonder dock and sent me this picture (they were also staying at the Pan) –

I can’t remember our exact check-in time, I want to say it was 11:45? Luke and I decided to walk to the liquor store, which was only a block or two away. I grabbed a cheap bottle of wine to take onboard – and I didn’t even touch it the entire trip. Luke bought some beer to take onboard. While walking back, we ran into a couple wearing Disney clothing – obviously they were embarking today as well so we chatted with them the entire way back.

Once we were back, we finished packing everything back up and called bell services – they came to our room, and took our checked bags directly to the ship – so handy! We got ready and took some more pictures –

At some point Luke went and grabbed McDonald’s breakfast for everyone (except me – I ate some leftovers they had brought me back from Old Spaghetti Factory). I’m not a breakfast food person, so foods like spaghetti will win every single time over an Egg McMuffin.

While we were still in the room I filled out the required health questionnaire. I also took a screenshot of the countdown in the app showing zero days left!

Check out for the hotel was at noon I believe, so we were able to hang out in our room until it was time to check in for the cruise. We checked out around 11:15 (and I got a picture of the Monday mat in the elevator). The picture of the funnels was from the hotel lobby (the timestamp on that was 11:19am).

When staying at the Pan Pacific, you don’t even need to go outside to reach the check-in areas. At 11:29am I took this picture (and we were not setting any land-speed records haha – we were walking at the pace of a four year old) –

I think our official check-in time was 12? But we were showing our passports and getting wristbands before that time. After that, we went through customs and then another room to put our backpacks through a scanner (like at the airport), and finally found ourselves in the final waiting room. I have these pictures of a happy Jocelyn in the waiting room timestamped at 12:21 (and we’d been in that room for awhile by that point).

When we arrived in the final waiting room, they had already allowed anyone in boarding groups 1-8 to board the ship. We were group 13, so we did have to wait a few minutes but it wasn’t bad at all – I think we were in there for ~20 minutes?

By 12:32 I was taking this picture:

And we found our first photographer of the trip!

And then we were finally onboard and ready to truly start this vacation!

Since our cruise departed on a Monday, we decided to fly to Vancouver on Sunday. This flight is only ~90 minutes for us, and we had multiple options for flight times on that day. We ended up going with a 1:20pm departure, flying with WestJet and their new UltraBasic option. When booking this type of ticket, you do not get a carryon – you can only board with a personal item. Going there, this was fine, but we really could have used the space a carryon would have given us on the way home after buying souvenirs… Luckily, I have the WestJet mastercard, so all four of us were able to check a full size bag for free (saving $50/bag/person each way – so $400 total). We basically needed a full size bag just for Jocelyn’s princess dresses haha!

We had chose to stay close to home since the fall of 2022, as our elderly dog had started showing signs of declining, and we didn’t want to be far away in case something happened. We had someone set up to watch all the pets in our own home while on the cruise, but unfortunately, we did have to say goodbye to our dog in July 2024. Our remaining dog ended up going to hang out on my best friend’s acreage and our neighbours checked in on our cats. All this to say – Jocelyn hadn’t been on a plane since 2022 and it was safe to say she was a bit excited… This was in the car when we arrived at the airport –

Also – within a 24 hour time span, we drove in a car, a bus, a plane, a train and a ship. We all agreed that was pretty cool…

Once we parked our car, we had to take a bus to the main terminal of the airport. Check-in was a breeze, security went very smoothly and before long we were standing by this sign in the Edmonton airport –

Jocelyn chooses her own outfits every single day, and 9 times out of ten it involves a dress. She’s also big on accessories – she had on a ring, a bracelet, a necklace and that giant fancy tiara. She was called “Princess” so many times by airport staff and you could see how happy it made her – she didn’t stop smiling…

We had time to kill, so we grabbed some Cookies by George, drinks from Starbucks and then found a spot to sit and watch the planes.

Technically with an UltraBasic ticket, you board last. However, we were travelling with a child under the age of five, so we were allowed to use family boarding which was nice – gave us time to get situated! We gave Jocelyn the window seat, and she loved watching outside before drawing some pictures and then settling in with her tablet for the rest of the flight. She was so well behaved – I’d fly with her any day <3

Before long, we had arrived in Vancouver! It’d been a long time since I’d been at that airport – the last two times I’d been to this city, we’d drove. After collecting our checked bags, we walked over to catch the skytrain.

We got off the train at the Waterfront Station, and somehow got swung around the wrong way… we took the wrong exit up to ground level, and had to drag our suitcases a few blocks – if we had taken the correct exit it would have been a few steps *facepalm

But, we made it! And saw our first docked cruise ship!

The Pan Pacific is such a fantastic location if you’re in Vancouver for a cruise. It was expensive, but I’d stay there every single time, the convenience was worth the cost (plus the view from our room window was amazing – especially the next morning ;)). When we arrived to check in, our room was not ready yet – the receptionist kept apologizing and ended up giving us coupons for drinks in the lounge in the lobby. This was completely unnecessary, but greatly appreciated!

A friend of mine who lives in the Vancouver area wanted to come say hi – so we went and found a couch in the lounge to wait for her. Shortly after my friend arrived, Jocelyn started melting down, as four year olds do. Luke and Mom decided to take her up to our room which was now ready, letting me spend some time catching up (Mom also had some work to do). They ended up taking Jocelyn to the Old Spaghetti Factory – by the time they returned our friends we were meeting on the cruise had found me, and we had supper together at the restaurant at the Pan Pacific. I took zero pictures during this…

There was an actual meetup of people from the cruise (organized through the facebook group and whatsapp chat that had been set up for our specific sailing) – and it was in the same lounge/restaurant we were in. We quickly said hello to that group, I said goodbye to my friend who lives in the area (I’ll see her again next year when I’m back in Vancouver for a book signing event) and then headed upstairs to our hotel room.

I loved the day of the week mat in the elevator – the simplest things make me happy haha.

Our room for the night had an amazing view of the floating Chevron – this also made us irrationally happy haha…

We watched so many seaplanes taking off/landing this evening and the next morning – it was really cool. I’m also just realizing I didn’t take a single picture of the room itself – it was nice, but nothing special. Just a standard hotel room with two queen beds – one for Luke and I and one for Jocelyn and my Mom.

We tried to get a good night’s sleep, but we were all pretty excited! Tomorrow was the big day!

Introduction

August 25, 2024 – Travel Day

August 26, 2024 – Embarkation Day

• Part One
• Part Two

August 27, 2024 – At Sea

August 28, 2024 – Glacier Day

August 29, 2024 – Skagway, Alaska

August 30, 2024 – Juneau, Alaska

August 31, 2024 – Ketchikan, Alaska

September 1, 2024 – At Sea

September 2, 2024 – Disembarkment Day