May 8, 2001 (Day 62)

May 8, 2001 (Day 62): Regal Princess, approaching Vancouver, BC, Canada – 11pm

Health:  Good. Tired, but good.

Morale:  Good. Tomorrow, the next major phase of the trip begins. It is strange to be thinking about leaving. We have a massive inertia factor to overcome – not to mention huge bags of stuff to haul. We have been aboard nearly three weeks. We have gotten into habits and routines on this small floating town that we need to break.

Much of our last day at sea was spent packing. We have deemed the work done and placed most of our bags outside the cabin door. To streamline the departure process, passengers are encouraged to pack up all but what they can carry by hand. The rest of the bags will be transported to the ship terminal where it can be picked up before going through Customs. It allowed another opportunity to see how others packed for this cruise. I think both of our bags could have fit into some of the steamer trunks we saw. Is no one capable of carrying their own luggage?  They must not to have brought so much with them.

Did a wander of the ship and managed to find everyone (we hope) that we wanted to say goodbye to. Irene and Todd. George and Pearl. Joan and ‘Adam’. Kay was not around so we missed saying our goodbye and thanks.

Shelly at the Pursers Office thanked us for being polite when we came down to check out account. I blushed at the compliment and then reflected on what it said about our fellow passengers. She commented on how many people are nasty. It is funny to think that little things like “please” and “thank you” would make one stand out. We mentioned that we saw her hiking along the “Married Man’s Trail” in Ketchikan yesterday. She looked like she wanted to be alone, so we did not stop to chat. She said it was hard – impossible – to get time alone on the ship. She loved Ketchikan because it allowed her to get away.

Said our goodbyes to Ana at the pizzeria, our home away from the dining room. I think the fact that we are fairly close in age has encouraged openness between us. She has been very fun to talk with along this voyage. We were sad to learn that her grandmother passed away yesterday. It must be difficult to be so far away from home (in Mexico) when something like that happens. This, combined with her battling seasickness since departure and recovering from a fall in the kitchen has made this a rough cruise for her. Tomorrow does not get any easier. Between 8 and 10am tomorrow, 1600 passengers depart. At 11am, 1600 new passengers embark. In addition, the Vancouver health inspector will be paying them a visit. Does not sound like fun.

Tipping day – another part of the closing ritual. We did not suffer any “accidents” afterwards so we presume that everyone received their tip envelope and were content with what they had received. The notion of the “expected gratuity” and the expectations behind it tends to make me uncomfortable. I have no problem with leaving a tip, but the conflict between what was given and what was expected can be awkward. There is also the mental battle that rages about what is a proper tip. This arises from having lived in Germany where service personnel could earn a living wage and a tip was truly a bonus. Then again, service in Germany tended to suck. In the pizzeria, tipping is truly discretionary. It made us wonder if the staff there was perhaps overlooked by its patrons. We wanted to be sure that Ana received something for all of the time we spent there, something comparable to what our waiters would have expected.

Noticed that Ron was absent from dinner tonight. I cannot help but wonder if this was some convenient way to dodge the tipping ritual. My Maltese grandparents, George and Amy, were there. Amy was excited since it was the last day at sea. George gave us his card, which was nice of him. Nice card too, almost like a credit card. We warned them that we would look them up when we got to Malta and they did not seem to flinch.

I guess that I had hoped that this time on the ship would clear my mind, help me to order things from the previous portions of the trip. The ship added its own mental pollution. Hours became unexpectedly filled. Clutter was added to clutter. Images and feelings from the whole trip became jumbled together from this portion of the trip as we sat in our floating American hotel watching the world change outside our window. Those that are following our trip from the postings on the website perhaps have a better perspective on our trip than I feel I have right now. I can only hope that, when I re-read this journal, some of that lost clarity will be recaptured.

Excerpts from Anna’s journal included

• Canada
• ChasingFogg15
• Travel
• Vancouver