Saturday, September 8, 2018
The big day Alice and I have been waiting for all these months has finally arrived. We woke up early and had coffee and pastries at the Starbuck’s downstairs. Alice went back up to the room while I headed to Shoppers Drugmart to get a few supplies for the weekend.
I came back to the room, showered, then met Alice and Austin at breakfast inside the lobby for fifteen minutes or so before packing up and retrieving a bellboy for our many bags. Austin and I took a taxi to Canada Place while Alice waited for her parents who were about 20 minutes behind us. We arrived at Canada Place at 11:30. Our bags were taken to the Grand Suite while we waited for the Youngs, who had flown in from San Francisco (Lisa/Richard/Sophie/Miles) and LA (Ari) early this morning.
I’d been anticipating the moment when the Young family and I boarded the Golden Princess. Their limo arrived around 11:45 or so and after many joyous greetings, we made our way to check-in. Miles and Sophie were very tired from such an early flight. They were dragging, but also excited. Because Alice and I are now Platinum members, we went into the express lines to turn in our paperwork and collect our cabin keys. After check-in, we headed back through the maze of security checks, customs checks, and finally onboard check-in.
Our immediate destination was Baja deck to our cabin. We took the elevator to deck 11 and walked down the hallway to the double doors of the Grand Suite. Sophie took a video of our entrance into our weekend party room!
After inspecting our rooms, we headed up to Horizon Court for lunch. We loaded our buffet trays and hung out at a large table near one of the entrances. Rossana joined us, then Alice. Pam and Mike Davis soon ran into us, friends of mine from WSU (Pam and I went to Copenhagen together). Throughout lunch I was in nonstop chat mode.
After about an hour or more at Horizon Court, we headed down to the International Café for coffee, where we ran into Dorian, Glenn, Tiger and Karen. We spent another hour or so gabbing over lattes and coffee drinks (all free, thanks to coffee cards Alice and I had won on our Royal Princess cruise to Copenhagen and last year’s cruise along the California coast).
Even though I had meetings to schedule with the maitre d at Canaletto Dining, the photo department, and our assigned wedding coordinator, I was having too much fun chatting at International Café. I also had wedding favors to put together once our bags arrived. Then there was the muster drill that was happened around 3:30.
Finally, I escaped International Café and headed back to the Grand Suite. Our bags had arrived and I went into drill sergeant mode assembling the final parts of the 66 wedding favors Alice and I had put together. I liked the take-out theme we were using. The wedding favors looked good. Inside a brown paper bag with a receipt stapled onto it were three white takeout boxes (the larger two with snacks and the smallest with two fortune cookies), an A&M Tea package, an A&M Recovery Kit, custom chopsticks, a menu and napkins. It was pretty cute!
Once the wedding favors were done, we stayed in the room and chatted with people who came in until it was time for the muster drill. Alice and I made sure Ada and Charles were in the proper location. We then headed over to the Vista Lounge and sat with Neal, Karin, Kara, Ryan, Mathew, Rathna, Tristan, Nicole and Hailey. I talked with Nicole and Mathew while Alice talked with Neal and Karin.
Steve and Amanda were one row up from us. Susan and Jay were next to them. Kathryn and Tom were nearby. Everywhere I turned, there were friends and family. It was something!
After the muster drill, we returned to the Grand Suite. I needed time to prepare for our welcome reception at the Wheelhouse bar, but it was impossible to do anything beyond simply going with the flow of the moment and connecting with everyone. I wanted to speak with the Canaletto dining room to make sure the seating arrangements were good, but there was no time left to meet. I changed into another outfit and left the room with Alice a little after 5. We arrived at the Wheelhouse Bar at 5:10. The party was already in full gear with a band playing and everything drinking. The bar was packed with guests! I’m guessing around 60-70 guests were already there. It was amazing walking in and seeing so many familiar faces. The moment I walked into the bar I was overwhelmed by the presence of so many people from my entire life history. It was a moment I’ll never forget. From that moment on, I was in total chat/conversational mode and everything was on auto-pilot. All I could do was be the guest and talk and greet and meet everyone who was there. It was an amazing moment!
Around 5:40, I headed over to the Canaletto Dining room. Alice left a little earlier. When I walked into the room, Alice was with the maitre d complaining about her parents’ seating assignment. The maitre d saw me and said, “Where have you been? Everyone has been looking for you!” I apologized for not speaking with him earlier in the day (no time to do so), and said we’d straighten out whatever seating assignments weren’t right tomorrow.
Alice’s parents were supposed to sit with Bill, Vicki, Florence and Howie, but were only sitting with Austin and Nathan. The 8-top was divided into two 4-tops.
Other than that, everything else seemed fine.
I quickly distributed Saturday night’s wine list to our guests, then sat down for dinner. I was bouncing around from table to table and really didn’t get to hang out and enjoy dinner the way I usually do.
Time sped by.
The largest table was the Petty table with Jill/Tom/Lori/John and all the Pettys including mom. Donna, Nelson, and Wendy were at a table with Steve, Matt, mom and Karen.
Dinner was lively and fun. I sat with Alice, Austin and Nathan, but only for a short time. I also sat with Donna and Wendy and told a few stories of the good old days in Port Alberni.
Dad and Sue sat with Mugs, Mary, Emerson and Charlotte, so they were good.
After dinner, we assembled at the Grand Suite for some Trivial Pursuit. For some reason, I lost the game pieces. I have no idea where they were (I still can’t find them). I had only a few minutes to get things ready. Kevin was a huge help in running the Trivial Pursuit game. I was already feeling somewhat overwhelmed. The bar was fully stocked and people were collecting their gift bags. The game lasted an hour or so with the January-June birthdays winning the game by one pie. They won a 2-lb box of See’s Candy.
After the Trivial Pursuit game came a poker tournament for $10 entry fee…50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd, 20% for 3rd.
At 1 a.m. or so, Uncle Chris came in and asked that we move to another venue as Alice was ready to go to sleep. We moved the game to the Wheelhouse bar, which ended up being a perfectly fine place to play poker. The bar closed around 12:45. We played until 1:30 or so. I was very lucky and ended up winning with so many trips it was ridiculous. Groom luck.
After poker, we walked through the casino to see who was still up, then went to International Café for a late-night snack.
I didn’t go to bed until 3 a.m.
The big day Alice and I have been waiting for all these months has finally arrived. We woke up early and had coffee and pastries at the Starbuck’s downstairs. Alice went back up to the room while I headed to Shoppers Drugmart to get a few supplies for the weekend.
I came back to the room, showered, then met Alice and Austin at breakfast inside the lobby for fifteen minutes or so before packing up and retrieving a bellboy for our many bags. Austin and I took a taxi to Canada Place while Alice waited for her parents who were about 20 minutes behind us. We arrived at Canada Place at 11:30. Our bags were taken to the Grand Suite while we waited for the Youngs, who had flown in from San Francisco (Lisa/Richard/Sophie/Miles) and LA (Ari) early this morning.
I’d been anticipating the moment when the Young family and I boarded the Golden Princess. Their limo arrived around 11:45 or so and after many joyous greetings, we made our way to check-in. Miles and Sophie were very tired from such an early flight. They were dragging, but also excited. Because Alice and I are now Platinum members, we went into the express lines to turn in our paperwork and collect our cabin keys. After check-in, we headed back through the maze of security checks, customs checks, and finally onboard check-in.
Our immediate destination was Baja deck to our cabin. We took the elevator to deck 11 and walked down the hallway to the double doors of the Grand Suite. Sophie took a video of our entrance into our weekend party room!
After inspecting our rooms, we headed up to Horizon Court for lunch. We loaded our buffet trays and hung out at a large table near one of the entrances. Rossana joined us, then Alice. Pam and Mike Davis soon ran into us, friends of mine from WSU (Pam and I went to Copenhagen together). Throughout lunch I was in nonstop chat mode.
After about an hour or more at Horizon Court, we headed down to the International Café for coffee, where we ran into Dorian, Glenn, Tiger and Karen. We spent another hour or so gabbing over lattes and coffee drinks (all free, thanks to coffee cards Alice and I had won on our Royal Princess cruise to Copenhagen and last year’s cruise along the California coast).
Even though I had meetings to schedule with the maitre d at Canaletto Dining, the photo department, and our assigned wedding coordinator, I was having too much fun chatting at International Café. I also had wedding favors to put together once our bags arrived. Then there was the muster drill that was happened around 3:30.
Finally, I escaped International Café and headed back to the Grand Suite. Our bags had arrived and I went into drill sergeant mode assembling the final parts of the 66 wedding favors Alice and I had put together. I liked the take-out theme we were using. The wedding favors looked good. Inside a brown paper bag with a receipt stapled onto it were three white takeout boxes (the larger two with snacks and the smallest with two fortune cookies), an A&M Tea package, an A&M Recovery Kit, custom chopsticks, a menu and napkins. It was pretty cute!
Once the wedding favors were done, we stayed in the room and chatted with people who came in until it was time for the muster drill. Alice and I made sure Ada and Charles were in the proper location. We then headed over to the Vista Lounge and sat with Neal, Karin, Kara, Ryan, Mathew, Rathna, Tristan, Nicole and Hailey. I talked with Nicole and Mathew while Alice talked with Neal and Karin.
Steve and Amanda were one row up from us. Susan and Jay were next to them. Kathryn and Tom were nearby. Everywhere I turned, there were friends and family. It was something!
After the muster drill, we returned to the Grand Suite. I needed time to prepare for our welcome reception at the Wheelhouse bar, but it was impossible to do anything beyond simply going with the flow of the moment and connecting with everyone. I wanted to speak with the Canaletto dining room to make sure the seating arrangements were good, but there was no time left to meet. I changed into another outfit and left the room with Alice a little after 5. We arrived at the Wheelhouse Bar at 5:10. The party was already in full gear with a band playing and everything drinking. The bar was packed with guests! I’m guessing around 60-70 guests were already there. It was amazing walking in and seeing so many familiar faces. The moment I walked into the bar I was overwhelmed by the presence of so many people from my entire life history. It was a moment I’ll never forget. From that moment on, I was in total chat/conversational mode and everything was on auto-pilot. All I could do was be the guest and talk and greet and meet everyone who was there. It was an amazing moment!
Around 5:40, I headed over to the Canaletto Dining room. Alice left a little earlier. When I walked into the room, Alice was with the maitre d complaining about her parents’ seating assignment. The maitre d saw me and said, “Where have you been? Everyone has been looking for you!” I apologized for not speaking with him earlier in the day (no time to do so), and said we’d straighten out whatever seating assignments weren’t right tomorrow.
Alice’s parents were supposed to sit with Bill, Vicki, Florence and Howie, but were only sitting with Austin and Nathan. The 8-top was divided into two 4-tops.
Other than that, everything else seemed fine.
I quickly distributed Saturday night’s wine list to our guests, then sat down for dinner. I was bouncing around from table to table and really didn’t get to hang out and enjoy dinner the way I usually do.
Time sped by.
The largest table was the Petty table with Jill/Tom/Lori/John and all the Pettys including mom. Donna, Nelson, and Wendy were at a table with Steve, Matt, mom and Karen.
Dinner was lively and fun. I sat with Alice, Austin and Nathan, but only for a short time. I also sat with Donna and Wendy and told a few stories of the good old days in Port Alberni.
Dad and Sue sat with Mugs, Mary, Emerson and Charlotte, so they were good.
After dinner, we assembled at the Grand Suite for some Trivial Pursuit. For some reason, I lost the game pieces. I have no idea where they were (I still can’t find them). I had only a few minutes to get things ready. Kevin was a huge help in running the Trivial Pursuit game. I was already feeling somewhat overwhelmed. The bar was fully stocked and people were collecting their gift bags. The game lasted an hour or so with the January-June birthdays winning the game by one pie. They won a 2-lb box of See’s Candy.
After the Trivial Pursuit game came a poker tournament for $10 entry fee…50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd, 20% for 3rd.
At 1 a.m. or so, Uncle Chris came in and asked that we move to another venue as Alice was ready to go to sleep. We moved the game to the Wheelhouse bar, which ended up being a perfectly fine place to play poker. The bar closed around 12:45. We played until 1:30 or so. I was very lucky and ended up winning with so many trips it was ridiculous. Groom luck.
After poker, we walked through the casino to see who was still up, then went to International Café for a late-night snack.
I didn’t go to bed until 3 a.m.
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