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Friday, 25 August 2017

Wednesday August 16 – Vancouver to sea, aboard the Island Princess

Two new couples have joined our group for the cruise and the land part of the Alaskan tour. We met them on the bus, then went to the port (not far to go). From here we had check-in, security then customs. This took the longest time by far, as all us ‘aliens’ were finger-printed (both hands) and had our eyes photographed. What they do with all this information, who knows? Some of our group have had it done multiple times, so there is some excess data being stored somewhere! All this took about two hours, a relatively short time apparently! There were two ships in port, boarding at the same time, so lots of people around.
Eventually we could board the ship. This is bigger than the last one we were on, with about 2,000 passengers. We boarded just on lunch time, so once we put our hand luggage in the cabin (state-room) we went in search of the buffet. We couldn’t find any of our tour group so we sat at a table that had just become available. Not long after another couple asked if they could join us. He is American and his wife is German and they are living in England at present (and not particularly enjoying it!). The conversation was largely on the NHS (National Health System) in England, and other general health systems.








After lunch we came across two of our group and sat chatting then we all found some others who had discovered the ice cream bar, so of course we all had one too as we sat chatting. Arranged to dine tonight with another couple.
We had to attend a safety talk and life jacket demo at 3.45pm. The ship sailed at 5pm, after the other cruise ship had gone.

Dinner was very pleasant, then we retired to our cabin.

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