{"id":78,"date":"2016-05-23T22:16:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T22:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/?p=78"},"modified":"2016-11-29T03:26:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T03:26:02","slug":"78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2016\/05\/23\/78\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Inside Passage Cruise: Exploring and Embarking in Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

This is one of my rare trips where I had a companion; and in this case, it was Erin, one of my two best friends in the world. I had originally planned to go on this cruise alone, and while I think I could have managed it, everything was definitely easier–and more fun–because she was<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

with me. We both arranged to fly into Vancouver the day before the cruise so we could relax a little and not be so rushed to get to the ship.\u00a0\u00a0I can’t speak enough about how incredibly wheelchair accessible Vancouver is as a city. I had no trouble getting a wheelchair taxi from the airport to the hotel, and our room at the\u00a0Sheraton Wall Center<\/a>\u00a0in downtown Vancouver was very accessible. The bathroom was small, but the roll in shower was absolutely wonderful.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and did a little bit of shopping before taking a taxi to the port.\u00a0\u00a0Our cruise was on Princess cruise lines’ Star Princess, which holds only roughly 2700 passengers, but the boarding process was the cattle call anyway. I won’t bore you with the details, but the important thing is to say I had no trouble getting through any of the rooms or the lines in my scooter. Once we made it onto the ship, we went to our cabin to start unpacking our stuff. We had an accessible cabin with a balcony on the Baja deck, and it was incredibly spacious. I had plenty of room in the bathroom to maneuver, and the roll in shower had plenty of space and grab bars for me to get to the fold-down seat in the middle. The twin beds were, well, twin beds, and not super comfortable; I’m sure the mattresses were quite old, but I was able to get enough sleep each night.<\/p>\n

After getting settled, we went to get something to eat, then headed out on\u00a0the deck to watch our departure through the channel. We explored the ship as best we could, and started looking for fun things to do that night after dinner. Erin and I are both huge fans of music and karaoke, so we were doing one or the other pretty much evry night on the cruise.<\/p>\n

The first full day of the cruise was spent at sea on the way to the inside passage,\u00a0so we slept in, had breakfast in bed, played bingo, and just a bunch of other cruise ship activities. We got a little dressed up that night, and took part in the ship’s version of the voice singing competition’s preliminaries. All throughout the day and the evening, I had no problem getting around the ship on my scooter. There were some areas leading to outside decks where the doors were very heavy and the ramps to get over the doorway thresholds were quite steep. There is always someone around, so had I been by myself I’m sure I would’ve had some help. But it was definitely nice to have Erin there with me to open the doors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of my rare trips where I had a companion; and in this case, it was Erin, one of my two best friends in the world. I had originally planned to go on … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,33,2,30],"tags":[27,35,36,34],"yst_prominent_words":[322,335,337,340,329,328,331,338,326,339,336,334,333,327,330,332],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-cruises","category-north-america","category-travelogue","tag-alaska","tag-cruise","tag-inside-passage","tag-princess","latest_post"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8737.jpg?fit=2473%2C2195&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8IhCJ-78","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":842,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2017\/10\/19\/wheelchair-accessible-alaska-cruise\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":0},"title":"Tips for Finding the Perfect Wheelchair Accessible Alaska Cruise","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"October 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many wheelchair users already know that cruising is one of the best ways to see the world. It is arguably also the easiest way to visit The Last Frontier in America, also known as Alaska. Having cruised to Alaska in 2016, this is easily one of my favorite destinations in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Canada"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/category\/north-america\/canada\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8896.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8896.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8896.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8896.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8896.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1196,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2018\/02\/05\/best-cruises-disabled-wheelchair-users\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":1},"title":"Best Cruises for Wheelchair Users and the Disabled","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"February 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Going on a cruise is easily the best way for wheelchair users to see the world! Cruise ships are becoming more accessible every year, and ports of call are increasingly aware of the need to cater to disabled visitors who both use wheelchairs and have money to invest in their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cruises"","block_context":{"text":"Cruises","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/category\/cruises\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/4E78C278-C604-454A-9AE7-8386630C5645.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/4E78C278-C604-454A-9AE7-8386630C5645.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/4E78C278-C604-454A-9AE7-8386630C5645.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/4E78C278-C604-454A-9AE7-8386630C5645.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/4E78C278-C604-454A-9AE7-8386630C5645.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2016\/05\/23\/review-sheraton-wall-centre-vancouver\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":2},"title":"REVIEW: Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"May 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"ACCESSIBILITY SCORE - 5\/5 My best friend and I stayed at this\u00a0Sheraton\u00a0on two separate nights bookending a cruise to Alaska out of the nearby port. When I made the reservations, I was under the impression the room would have only an accessible bathtub. I was very pleasantly surprised to see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Canada"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/category\/north-america\/canada\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/188014367.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/188014367.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/188014367.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/188014367.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/188014367.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":165,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2016\/05\/22\/alaska-inside-passage-cruise-juneau-ak\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":3},"title":"Alaska Inside Passage Cruise: Juneau, AK","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Technically this was the day we were scheduled to dock in Juneau, but I only knew it as helicopter day. I don't remember the last time I had been this nervous in my whole life. I had been on a large military helicopter, but never in a private sightseeing helicopter.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cruises"","block_context":{"text":"Cruises","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/category\/cruises\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"star princess alaska juneau era helicopters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_9175.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_9175.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_9175.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_9175.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_9175.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2016\/05\/22\/alaska-inside-passage-cruise-sitka-ak\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":4},"title":"Alaska Inside Passage Cruise: Sitka, AK","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know how we managed to luck out on this cruise that we actually docked in Sitka.\u00a0\u00a0Normally this is a tender port, which would have made it off-limits to me, so we felt very lucky. Instead of taking my electric scooter, I decided it would be wise to rent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cruises"","block_context":{"text":"Cruises","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/category\/cruises\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8794.jpg?fit=1200%2C625&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8794.jpg?fit=1200%2C625&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8794.jpg?fit=1200%2C625&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8794.jpg?fit=1200%2C625&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8794.jpg?fit=1200%2C625&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1401,"url":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2018\/05\/04\/wheelchair-accessible-shore-excursions-alaska\/","url_meta":{"origin":78,"position":5},"title":"Top Wheelchair Accessible Shore Excursions for an Alaska Cruise","author":"Sylvia Longmire","date":"May 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I have visited 40 countries - 23 of them as a full-time wheelchair\/scooter user - and I've seen many amazing places. But one place remains at the top of my list for jaw-dropping scenery, and that's Alaska in my home country of the United States. A cruise is easily the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cruises"","block_context":{"text":"Cruises","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/category\/cruises\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/top-wheelchair-accessible-shore-excursions-for-an-alaska-cruise.png?fit=735%2C1102&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/top-wheelchair-accessible-shore-excursions-for-an-alaska-cruise.png?fit=735%2C1102&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/top-wheelchair-accessible-shore-excursions-for-an-alaska-cruise.png?fit=735%2C1102&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/top-wheelchair-accessible-shore-excursions-for-an-alaska-cruise.png?fit=735%2C1102&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}