Stress and then Fun...

Theresa does not rest when something is on her mind.  Still stressing over the bag that spent all day Friday alone in a “timeout corner” at DFW, Theresa woke up at 4AM, and had to check.  Did it make it on the last flight of the night like they promised?  Did they deliver it in the wee hours to the hotel desk like they promised??  Unable to sleep, she got up and headed down to the front desk to find out…nope!!  She checked the app on her phone and it wasn’t clear where the bag was.  A long phone call later, and she was “assured” the bag was marked “expedited” to get it to Vancouver (much like the previous 2-3 phone calls.  Eventually, the app showed it loaded onto the plane bound for YVR, so then we spent 4+ hours tracking said flight.  We headed to the airport to start trying to figure out how to procure our bag.  Since it was an international flight, the baggage claim was prior to Customs, and inaccessible to us.  So, we went to the check in counter and pled our plight, insisting some human being get their hands and feet (and brain) involved, firmly dismissing their attitude of “Oh, don’t worry…it’ll be along soon, this just takes some time!” ☹  We pointed out that our boarding time for the ship was NOW, and the ship was 45 minutes away, and would leave without us (and our bag) in a few mere hours.  So, we would NOT just chill and let them sally about letting time take its course.  An unhappy agent rolled her eyes after being told to go get our bag and bring it TO us.

Blue or Green?  You decide!

Side note:  When describing the bag, we had a disagreement.  Theresa was certain the bag was “greenish grey”.  Bill was certain the bag was blue.  Blueish grey?  Blueish green?  Maybe, but definitely BLUE!  Sure sure.  Bill is color blind, and Theresa usually gets the final say on what color things are…but in this case, YOU decide!!  Feel free to leave your vote in the comments and tell Bill he is right!  😊 (We have a greenish grey bag, but this isn’t that bag!)

Tic tic tic…Bag in hand, we scurried out the door, and having observed stopped traffic toward the pier on our ride to the airport, we jumped a train.  The check in at the port was insane.  We hadn’t printed our bag tags, and the line for that was uninviting.  Besides, we went through way to much to just say goodbye to our bag, so we tromped along with all 5 (1 checked, two roller board carry-ons, and two back packs).  There were three ships all boarding at the same time, and a crush of people filled every hall.  But we eventually found our way, and at each interchange with staff, we asked “Where do we go for “The Retreat”?  Theresa has been wanting to try Celebrity’s “Retreat”, which is not just suites, but has partitioned off sections of the ship exclusively for “Retreat guests”.  Yeah yeah yeah…we’re spoiled snobs!  But as we circled around passing, winding lines of standing people, we were very grateful to be able to be “special”!  We checked in, got through security, cleared Immigration, and officially were in the United States (though our phones insist we were still in Canada).  Finally, we boarded the ship with our assortment of bags, and got to our room.  Time to put stress behind us!

Not the prettiest thing on the water...  But home for a week!

Our suite was really cool!  Big, spacious, and rather well laid out!  But no time for that, as it was getting late and passed time for lunch, so we dropped things looked quickly, and fled for the restaurant.  They gave us a “sharing table” with two other couples.  Over lunch we each shared our sagas for getting there, since all six of us had multiple problems on three different airlines!

Our Suite!

After lunch we quickly unpacked and had room for EVERYTHING (helps to have a big room and only 6 days).  We headed down for a Music Trivia.  The theme was “one hit wonders” and although Bill recognized 14 of the 15 songs, we could only manage enough titles and artists to eek out 11 of 30 points.  (someone got all 30!) Oh well.  It was fun.  General Trivia followed, and we again managed 11 points but out of 20.  Then we ran upstairs for the “Sail Away”.  We found a couple of lounge chairs (this segregated Retreat has some plusses!) and got a couple of drinks.

Possibly the biggest bathroom we've ever had on a ship!

Probably the nicest balcony chairs we have had!

The view from our balcony.  Those "seats" are puzzling!! :-)

Ready for sail away from the Retreat deck.  Nice cushions!

Beyond this door is the rest of the ship.  No cushions on those chairs!

Are those jet engines from the 1950's?

Taking off as we took off!

Good bye Vancouver!

Good bye Chevron gas station!

Setting sail!

Gratuitous plane picture!

Dinner!

It was then time to get ready for dinner.  Theresa had tuna, and Bill had duck twice (duck consommé and then duck Bolognese).  There was supposed to be a good showing of Northern Lights, so we each had coffee and then headed out to the evening trivia.  This time we managed 20 out of 28 points (winner had 22, so we’re closing in!).  This was followed by a “game show” which was sort of a version of Jeopardy, but with two teams.  Our team won!  We then followed up by going to the evening show, which was a comedian/illusionist.  He was a very good performer and it was a really good act.  We needed some good laughter!  We then ran around looking for a nice night cap.  The Scotch options were a bit limited in most of the bars, so we found the “good one” with a few choices.  It isn’t clear how this is going to work since our drink package is only up to $17 per drink and the better Scotches are above that mark.  We’ll see how that goes.

Over dinner we found a few nice views!

Random hallway.

Chair?

Then we took a brief walk outside and decided it was COLD and windy.  And no aurora to be seen.  Theresa was in bed asleep by 10:30 and Bill by 11-11:30 (still no aurora).  We crashed HARD!