Part Three: Setting Sail on Celebrity Summit

It was Friday morning and time to finally begin our Alaskan cruise. We had no idea what Celebrity had up their sleeve, but as far as we were concerned we were going on the cruise.

Our group of ten, luggage in tow slowly made it’s way to the check in point for our ship, Celebrity Summit.

When my wife and I finally got to the head of the line we found out the final surprise that Celebrity had in store for us.

The representative said May I see your boarding passes please. My wife opened the Celebrity app, opened up our trip – our boarding passes had been deleted! Not good. Not at all. We were quickly referred to another representative at a counter off in the distance. Well, that poor woman must have seen the fire in our eyes as we charged toward her ready to do battle. Before we could really say much of anything she simply said Not to worry, whatever it is I’ll take care of it. Could it be? We finally found someone at Celebrity that really wanted to help? We told her our story and she then said No problem, you are correct. I’ll print out your boarding passes right away and you can be on your way. Yes, we won! As we knew we would all long. But what a lot of nonsense along the way. Why oh why did it have to be. I do believe Celebrity needs to do some retraining. All I kept thinking was, if their customer service is really this bad, I can only imagine how horrible service was going to be on the ship. Spoiler alert, service on the ship was fantastic from beginning to end.

This was probably the best sign I saw on the whole trip!

And just like that that, we were onboard.

Okay, confession time. I had never been on a cruise before. And from the beginning I was not to keen on taking one. Previously, all my travel had been in our motorhome. Turn the key, start the engine and you take your whole house with you. Easy as could be. No dragging luggage. No hassles with customer service. Cruising? I had no idea what to expect.

Let me tell you, when I walked on board I was in awe and wonder. When I opened the door to our cabin my first thought was I believe I’m going to like this. As the day went on I kept finding new surprises that delighted me to no end. We went to the buffet for lunch and I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was food in every direction. And the service? I went to fill my glass with ice tea and before I could I heard a voice Please let me get that for you.

You are looking at one happy sailor!

Right on schedule we left the dock at Vancouver,

And headed out to the open sea. I remember standing on our balcony, a silly smile on my face, this was so relaxing. The gentle movement of the ship, the breeze on my face, I could feel all the stress and turmoil of the past days just fading away.

When the sun finally set that night, I knew right there and then, I was going to like the cruising life. Oh yes, I would.

Part Two: Vancouver Tour

It was the day after our interesting trip to Vancouver, and we and eight others decided to see a bit of the city. However, given that the oldest member of our group was a spry 91 years of age we decided we would forgo a bicycle tour of the city and instead take more suitable transportation for the age of our group. I will say, though, I believe a bicycle tour would have been much more fun.

We chose a 4 hour tour called Vancouver Highlights Tour provided by Landsea Tours. The tour would take us throughout the city, over to Stanley Park, then finish with a delightful stop at Grandville Island.

Here are some of the highlights of the tour.

This was the entrance to Stanley Park. Here we learned that the area that the park encompasses today was first used by the Coast Salish people to hunt, fish and gather food for centuries. Evidence of their villages and activities have been found at several park sites. In 1899, one year after the opening off the park former Governor General Lord Stanley dedicated the park to the use and enjoyment of all peoples of all colors, creeds and customs, for all time. Stanley Park is Vancouver’s oldest, and Canada’s largest, urban park.

Off to the right as you entered the park was this rather fascinating stature. The plaque that was at its base gave us this information: this sculpture, craved in cedar, than cast in bronze is a tribute to the ancestral connection between this area’s aboriginal and Portuguese communities. The stature depicts Portuguese Joe Silvey and his family. The fishing nets and the whale harpoon refer to how the family made their living.

This was another attraction that we saw while in Stanley Park. Though commonly referred to as Totem Poles we learned that that is not quite correct. Rather they should be referred to as Story Poles. They were typically carved of western red cedar and each pole tells a real or mythical story. They are not idols nor are they worshiped. We would discover many more such poles on our cruise through Alaska.

Looking across the parking lot, and across the bay from where our tour bus was parked we could see the downtown skyline of Vancouver. Once a bustling logging town, the skyline is now dominated by residential and retail developments, and the unique white sails of the convention and cruise ship center. Also, if you look real close in the above photograph you’ll spot Vancouver’s version of the Space Needle.

Time to get back on the bus and head to our next stop.

This was our next stop.

Which offered us a beautiful view of where we would be sailing tomorrow as we began our actual cruise to Alaska. This area is known as Vancouver’s gateway to the Pacific.

Back on the bus and we were headed to our final stop.

Grandville Island has a little something for almost everyone.

There are theaters, educational centers and craft studios.

Even the cement factory is something special.

And then there is the Public Market, which had one shop in particular I was looking for in order to make the next day’s breakfast something special. Can you guess what I was looking for?

Arby’s may have the meats but Siegel’s has the bagels! And I was in desperate need of an everything bagel fix!

But there was more. Take a look.

Oh if I could have just had some shipped home. I love Ravioli.

Any chocolate lovers among us?

There were crafts of every shape, size and form. Honestly, you could spend hours in the market and never see the same thing twice.

We spent a delightful couple of hours wandering through the shops. We stopped for lunch and took time to also find the ice cream shop. All too soon it was time to return to the bus and make our way back to our hotel.

We absolutely enjoyed the time we had in Vancouver. The weather was perfect. Time with friends was wonderful. We wished we had had another day to spend there but tomorrow we were to board the Celebrity Summit for our cruse to Alaska.

Back at our hotel we felt like all was right with the world and nothing could dampen our soaring spirits. The the call came from our cruise line, Celebrity. Want to know what they said? In so many word they told us that because we didn’t have the documents they required they would not allow us to board the ship. Want to know what my wife said. Simply Try to stop us. And she hung up the phone. Tomorrow was going to be a most interesting day.

Part One: It Almost Ended Before It Began

We had dreamed of and planned for this day for months. A cruise to Alaska. Now, the day had come for us to begin this great adventure.

We would fly from Tampa to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Vancouver where we would board our ship. What could go wrong? We were soon to find out!

In preparation for our flights our airline, Delta, was asking us to scan our passport cards onto our reservation. However, for whatever reason we were unable to scan them in. Note, I said passport cards, well that was our first mistake. . There were many more to come. However, we were not worried. We decided we would just arrive early at the airport and let them take of things.

And early we did arrive, like 2:30 am. Off to the Delta counter we went. Wait a minute, there was no one there. Other airlines had representatives staffing their counters but not Delta. We soon discovered they do not begin until 4:30 am. Our flight was at 5:30 am. This was going to be close. Nevertheless, we got in line – we wanted to be first to the counter – and stood there for 2 hours until the counters were staffed.

The counters were finally manned and sure enough we were first in line. We explained our problem to the representative who assured us he would take care of it. Can I have your passports please he said. Did you note what he asked for? A passport. We had passport cards. We had used them a lot in the past to travel between the US and Canada. Well, we gave him what we had and he said in a straight face I’m sorry you can’t use these to travel by air to Canada. He turned them over and read the words we had never noticed only good for land and sea travel between Canada and the US.

We were dumfounded. Barb was in tears. If we couldn’t get to Vancouver there would be no cruise. Our great adventure would be over before it ever began. Wait a minute he said I may have a solution. Well, Okay, whatever it was we were all ears. He suggested we fly into Seattle and then then take ground transportation to Vancouver. Point of fact, he had a non stop to Seattle at 9:08 am that morning that had just two open seats. Game on! We were now booked on the flight to Seattle. Now, we only had to get Celebrity to pick up the new flight.

We soon discovered thought that Celebrity didn’t open until 8 am. A quick call to our travel agent and he was able to give us and emergency number. For all the good it did. They stonewalled us and refused to help us at all. No, they couldn’t change the flights. No, they would not refund our money for the original flights. We were getting no where with them and by this time it was 7 am.

Only one thing to do. We went back to Delta to purchase the tickets ourselves. Up to the counter, we explained what we wanted to do and guess what? When we didn’t show for our scheduled 5:30 am flight Celebrity cancelled that flight, the connecting flight, and the new flight to Seattle that Delta had put us on. Delta wasn’t sure if those two seats were still available. So, they gave us tickets for a flight the following day, and put us on standby for the flight that day.

It was now 8:15 am, the flight was at 9:08 am. We still had to clear TSA and find the gate. Off we went at a brisk walk. Which for the two of us isn’t really that brisk. But we were doing our best. We finally made it to the gate at 8:45 am. The last few passengers were boarding the plan. We looked at the board in front of us, could it be, it indicated two seats remaining and our names were on the board as well.

We went to the check in counter, explained our situation, asked if the seats were still available, and if we could have them. Then we heard those wonderful words last two passengers coming down the jet way.

How to get to Vancouver from Seattle? Who knew. We would figure it our when we arrived. It would end up being a 5 hour bus ride. But we ultimately made it to Vancouver. Our great adventure had been saved. I wish I could say it was smooth sailing from this point on but alas we would do battle with Celebrity again before we actually were on the ship. But that is a story for another day.

I Can See Clearly Now

May, 2024

Some time back I began having issues with my eye sight. Objects no longer appeared clear and crisp, and forget driving at night. My initial thought was that it was time for new glasses.

Since my care is provided through Veterans Services I called to schedule an appointment. Then I waited. Eventually they will get back to you with an appointment time but patience and persistence is definitely needed when it comes to their scheduling. Thankfully, Ms. Barbara has both thus I’m so grateful that she handles all the scheduling.

After about a wait of a month, they finally decided it would be better for me to go to a local eye specialist in my area rather than make the 45 minute trip to Tampa. So, I was transferred to Community Care and again sat back and waited. If you’re beginning to think that working with Veterans Services is a bit laborious and time consuming you are oh so right.

Fast forward about three months and finally the call came that I was approved to work with Eye Specialists of Central Florida. Time now to call them for an appointment. They promptly scheduled a date and time for me to come in.

Okay, so after a complete eye exam the verdict was in. The real issue was that I had cataracts which were causing my decrease in vision. The suggestion? Remove them as soon as possible. Which of course required approval from Veterans Services before any type of corrective surgery could be performed.

So I was back in a holding pattern again. Three times the surgery was scheduled and three times it was cancelled because approval had not yet been received. The fourth time proved to be the winner.

First the left eye was operated on, then a week later the right eye. The surgery is really easy, in fact it only takes about 10 minutes total. In each eye the cataract was removed and a corrective lens was then installed. With the lens in each eye I now no longer need glasses except for reading.

Let me tell you, it’s amazing just how clearly I can now see. However, out of habit I’m still reaching for my glasses! But the only glasses I now need are for reading only. All I can say is Yes ,indeed, I can see clearly now.