Cruise, Day 1, boarding the ship and setting sail...

Many years ago - about 13 - we were visiting in Bellingham, and Cathi and Don and the boys took us into Vancouver for the day for some sightseeing.  One of the places we went was to Canada Place - Vancouver's cruise terminal.  All of us stood along the railing, and waved to the happy people on the balconies of the Princess cruise ship, getting ready to set sail for Alaska!  Well, it took awhile, but, finally, WE were the people on the Celebrity Millennium, waiving to the poor souls on the dock!

It took three taxis to collect the 7 of us with luggage and deliver us to Canada Place.  Boarding the ship was relatively painless, and it was so good to get rid of our luggage!  Little did we know that it would be many, many hours before we saw it again, but that's another story! 

We boarded through the U.S lines, and our NZ friends boarded through another line, but we all met up, in the end, on the ship!  We boarded early - 1:00 pm - and had our first lunch on the cruise ship up on level 10, at the Oceans Cafe.  We were due to set sail at 4:30, and we were all very excited to be underway!

We enjoyed wandering around the ship, trying to get oriented, and soon it was time to sail!  We watched Vancouver recede into the distance, and finally sailed under the Lion's Gate bridge, and out into the open sea!

Bryan and I were armed with the sea sick bands, and had no trouble at all with the wave action.  Our staterooms were great!  Bryan and Peter were next door to John, Jo and Billie, and we were just down the hall.

We had reservations for the second seating (8:30 pm) in the dining room, and were looking forward to having dinner there.  There is a dress code on cruise ships for the dining room, and we were all looking forward to changing out of our "boarding" clothes and into our "smart casual" clothes!

After we got onto the open sea, headed north, we all continued to explore the ship, and check our staterooms from time to time, to see if our luggage had been delivered - we didn't get it till almost 7:00 pm.  Celebrity had relaxed the dress code for dinner since many people didn't have their luggage yet, but, fortunately, we were able to change for dinner.

A great beginning to a fabulous week ahead!!  A sailing day tomorrow!

The sails at Canada Place - Vancouver's cruise ship terminal

The Vancouver skyline from the ship - as you can see, it was very cloudy and overcast, but NO rain!

X marks the Celebrity cruise line and our ship the Millennium!

Some of the outside areas of the ship, with Canada Place in the background

Pat and Jo, with Bryan and Peter in the background, as we explore!

Lee and John and some very dark skies!  I think that we got out of Vancouver just in time!

Lunch at the Ocean's Cafe - Jo, Bryan and Billie

A very happy and relaxed John

Getting our "bon voyage" drinks, as it's almost time to sail!!

Lee, Pat, John and Billie

Sailing away from Canada Place

On our way!  John, Billie, Jo and Pat

Going under the Lion's Gate bridge

Under the Lion's Gate bridge.  Note the people waving to us from the bridge - we felt special!

And, out to the open sea!  Alaska, here we come!

John, with camera in hand!  Needless to say, between the seven of us, we have about a  bizillion pictures of the ship and all of our ports of call!

Saturday is a sailing day - Jo and I have pedicure appointments at the Spa, we're doing a kitchen tour, and plan on spending lots of time watching for whales!  Life is good!!