Alaska Cruise-Better Late than Never!!! Part 1

My family took an Alaskan Cruise for our big vacation this year. My parents, my sister Becky and her husband Doug, John, Ava and I were all in attendance. We left May 12th, and we were all SO EXCITED to get the trip going. It took about an hour for all of us to check in for our flight only to find out that the plane we were taking to Vancouver via Phoenix was have engine issues. We were informed of this while I was trying to check my family in, and after my parents and my sister had already checked their luggage...SO, we had to find a new flight because now our Phoenix flight was delayed which meant we would miss our connecting flight to Vancouver. We all finally got on an Alaskan Air flight to Seattle with connecting flight to Vancouver. We were assured that all the luggage from Airline 1 would be taken off plane number 1 and placed on our new Alaskan Air flight. Why do I tell you all of this?

(Ava's first flight ever to Seattle, Age 4. My first flight was to Seattle, Age 20)

Because my sister's suitcase with her wardrobe for the ENTIRE CRUISE did not get placed on the right flight. We find this out at 12:30am in Vancouver, when every airport in the Western Hemisphere is closed. We were told we would have to wait until later in the morning to try and locate her suitcase. My sister was in TEARS.
(Doug and Ava in Seattle. SHE LOVES THAT DOUG DOUG!!)

With nothing else to do til morning, we headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Later, around 8am, my sister contacted the airlines to see if the luggage showed up...only to be told they could not locate her luggage on the worldwide luggage finder. They took her number and told her they would contact her if anything came up. Well, the cruise left the docks at 5pm...things aren't looking so good.

We catch our bus to the cruise terminal at 11am, and then Becky calls the airlines again because she is, of course, frantic to have her luggage. Same story. So basically, the only clothes my sister has to wear are jeans, a t shirt, shoes, and whatever she has beneath those clothes. UH oh... The airlines tell her she has $25 a day (with a limit of I think $250) to spend until the luggage is found. What the heck can $25 a day buy you when you need clothes for 10 days? UGHH

SO, LUCKILY, the cruise terminal is located within a few blocks from what has to be Canada's most expensive shopping mall. Becky, Doug and I head off to get her clothes. We spot an American Eagle, so off she goes to spend about $300 for a few shirts, a hoodie--because HELLO, we are going to ALASKA--a pair of jeans..and I head off to find her some underwear. I spot a Sears and think, cheaper than VS right, so I go spend about $80 on those necessities. All the while I am thinking, why can't WalMart be next to the cruise terminal??

We finish shopping for clothes and head to the CVS type store to get her toiletries. While standing on the toothpaste aisle her phone rings--THEY FOUND HER LUGGAGE and was heading to the cruise terminal!! You should have seen her dance! If only they could have found it a few hours before we spent $400 dollars; we didn't have time to return any of it. We race to the cruise ship, because now it is 4:15 and decide the first thing we are doing when we check in is get a DRINK!!
BTW, Vancouver is BEAUTIFUL!!