Trip of a Lifetime-Day 3, Part 1

I probably don't say it often enough, but I'm pretty darn lucky that one of my best friends is an amazing photographer. My hubby keeps telling me to get a nicer camera, but I know that a large portion of this has to do with skill...that I just do not have. The memories she has captured on film I will treasure forever.  Nothing makes me happier after coming home from a vacation then to see a Dropbox alert that she has sent me pictures.

The more pictures I see from this trip the luckier I feel that we go to travel with them...but more importantly than amazing pictures, without fail, we have an absolute blast with them.  Vacation with friends or family isn't always easy but we can never hesitate to plan vacations with Lauren and Patrick.

Ok enough of the mushy stuff! It's time to get onto Day 3. You are all in for a treat today! Not only do I have some amazing pictures BUT Lauren has included a video of us boarding the ship!! 

The day started out EARLY!  We left around 6 a.m. for the drive up to Vancouver due to a bridge being out (we wanted extra time). If you are driving up to Vancouver, I can highly recommend parking right at Canada Place. We went online ahead of time and pre-paid (http://www.vinciparkcanadaplace.ca/).  It was tricky to find at first but only because it was so obvious lol!  Once you get inside, you have to stop at the parking office FIRST! Once we did that we found a spot right by the elevator, went upstairs and we were literally right there. It was so easy!!

We had gone through customs into Canada when we drove across the border, but in order to board the ship we had to go back through U.S. Customs. We had enhanced drivers licenses that allow us to drive/boat into Canada and Mexico but many people didn't recognize it and it gave us a bit of trouble. Once through customs, it was time to check in. Both Lauren and I completed online check-in at the same time. were given the same Port Arrival Time and checked-in at the same time but they were given a MUCH lower boarding number.  Remember, if you are traveling with multiple parties you can board with whoever has the lowest number!

While we were waiting I tried to get Eric and Patrick to record the first of what should have been several videos....here is their best attempt...

Hopefully they get better later in the trip! We had a while to wait so we took a few photos! After we checked in and headed to the waiting area, we were given our first Personal Navigator to begin planning our day!

Before we knew it was time to board! We had a little fun while boarding that I'll be sharing later this week on Facebook!

As soon as we boarded we headed to Parrot Cay for lunch and we were starving! On a side note, we had been gone from Kennedy for 3 days now and it was SO weird not having her with us. We immediately starting planning her next cruise. How odd to eat without having another mouth to feed!

After lunch we explore the ship and secured our Palo reservations since we weren't able to in advance.

The boys even got in a little basketball!

Next up, our room is ready and it's time to sail away!!