Thursday, June 19, 2014

Sailaway

The Bon Jovi concert on the MUTS screen (Movies Under the Stars) was soon interrupted by the call to Muster Drill over the ship's P.A. system. This is a safety drill and attendance is mandatory.

For me it involved returning to our cabin to join Carol. Lifejackets are stored there and are to be carried with us to our Muster Station. Staff are nearby to guide you to the fire escapes . In our case we had to go down 3 flights of stairs to Club Fusion on Promenade deck.Upon entering our room keys are scanned to record our attendance. Several hundred people file in and take their seats. The Captain talks about safety over the P.A and then we are shown how to put on the lifejackets. This simple exercise could save our lives in an emergency so we take it seriously, as should you if you cruise.

Some lines have their passengers assemble on the open decks to stand in the heat/cold/rain without lifejackets to watch a demonstration by someone who knows how to put on a lifejacket-hopefully that person would be standing right next to you to help you if the ship caught fire... (good luck with that)

Once muster is over the ship can leave port and now you are free to enjoy yourself.  For us that meant standing on top of the ship's bridge with the warm wind in our hair. We would be sailing under the Lion's Gate Bridge on our way out of the harbor. The Zuiderdam remained at the dock for a later departure. (video)


Once beyond the bridge the ship can increase speed which is a maximum of 22 Knots or roughly 25 mph. The Captain can pass control of the ship over to the navigating computer that steers her in open waters. There are always two officers monitoring the computer and two deckhands scanning the sea with binoculars while the ship is in motion, which it would be for the next 36 hours until we reached our first port, Ketchikan, in Alaska. We were sailing the Inside Passage so land was never far away.

We took a walk on the Promenade deck...


This deck, deck 7, runs most of the way around the ship but when you get towards the bow a set of stairs leads up to the deck above (deck 8, Emerald Deck) and that brings you to a covered deck overlooking the bow of the ship, a design unique to some Princess (and P & O) ships.

Looking towards the bow


The mountains and islands on the coast of British Columbia

Even though we had complimentary canapés and champagne delivered to our cabin at sail away we had an invitation to attend cocktail hour (5 to 7 p.m) in the Skywalker's Lounge which is high up on the ship behind the funnel. It is open to Suite, Platinum and Elite members of the Princess Captain's Circle which is like a frequent flyers club for loyal cruisers. Munchies are served each evening. This would tide us over to dinner at 9 p.m in Sabatini's, one of the two specialty restaurants onboard where there is a fee to dine. It is much quieter than the Main Dining Rooms which are serving hundreds of passengers in 2 sittings, the first one of which begins at 5.30 p.m. At home we never eat before 8 p.m so we opted for Anytime Dining where you eat in an MDR when you want, before 10 p.m.


The view from Skywalker's looking aft, 3 hours after leaving Vancouver.

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