"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report # 3 Vancouver, British Columbia September 26, 2016 Monday Partly sunny & 70 degrees PART #1 70 PICTURES

Today's port in Vancouver, Canada, served two purposes. Having come from Seattle, Washington, the ship needed to make a stop in a foreign country before traveling to Hawaii. Secondly, it is a wonderful city to visit.

We had received a detailed letter on today's customs and immigrations procedures for this morning. To say the least, it was most confusing. Some folks were disembarking, while many like us, were intransit. Some were on organized tours, and a few folks did not want to go off of the ship. However, everyone had to see the officials at one point or another. All aboard had been printed for 4pm, but it was a misprint. We all needed to be back by 3:30pm, while the newly-embarked guests had to be on the ship by 3pm to attend the muster drill. Confused yet? Many were as we witnessed while at the front desk early this morning.

Although the dining room breakfast was not listed in the newsletter, it did open at 7:30am. That's our favorite spot for breakfast. And we found new menus, great entrees, and good, hot coffee. Most of the waiters remembered us from the world cruise, always a nice feeling.

With most of the people off of the ship, we thought it may be a good time to open up our internet account. What we did not remember was that there were two other large ships in port today….the NCL Pearl and Sun. If we understand it correctly, we all share the same "footprint" for internet, using the same system. As a result of that, it was slow, and we were running into problems logging in. Fortunately the girls at the front desk helped us figure out the roadblocks, and we successfully logged on.

So we did not leave the ship until 11am, after we received a reminder call that we needed to go off of the ship. We needed to take an intransit card along with our passports and room keys. The ship was docked at Canada Place, along with the other two ships. Lucky for us, we were shuffled around the lines, and would deal with US customs on the way back.

Although it was mostly overcast with rain clouds, it never did rain. There was a chill in the breeze, but that makes for perfect walking weather. We made our way around the busy waterfront with restaurants, cafes, boat marinas, yacht harbors, and float plane docks. For a Monday, it was pretty busy. One nice thing is that the sidewalks are divided for walkers and cyclists much of the way.

We reached Stanley Park, and sure would have liked to walk more of it, but we had to watch the time. It took us over an hour to reach the park, but it was worth it to see the local wildlife. Seabirds were abundant, especially the great blue herons. Deeper into the park, we passed the Vancouver Rowing Club, where we spotted a young gal practicing kayak racing. Next was the staging area for the park carriage ride with two massive working horses. Specifically, they use Clydesdales, Belgians, and Percherons breeds. Their hooves are the size of large frying pans. They are advertised as "organically powered" as each horse consumes about 60 pounds of food and 100 liters of water a day. An hour's coach ride ran around $36. For seniors over 65, but a nice way to see the park which was created in 1888.

We had been advised not to wait to the last minute to go through customs, because the lines could get long. For that reason, we decided to head back and bypass lunch in the Gaslight District, and order room service on the ship. It took over an hour to reach Canada Place, and another ½ hour to get back onboard, although we were expedited around the longest of the lines. There were about 5,000 people boarding the three ships today, so it was busy.

The room service menu has remained the same. We ordered salads and sandwiches, but did have to wait almost an hour. The muster drill suspended guest services for that extra ½ hour. It was worth it, because the food was excellent when it did arrive. Dinner will have to be light, we're afraid.

Sail away was well after 4pm. Some guests were still being summoned to see the officials, and we would not leave until they were cleared. Since it was so cool outside, we did not expect to find many folks at the sail out of the harbor. Much to our surprise, the aft pool deck was full of guests. It is a scenic sail out and under the bridge, and would be fine if you wore the proper clothing. All we had were light jackets and sweatshirts, so we went down to deck seven aft to escape the bite of the wind. The two NCL ships raced us out of the port with helicopters and float planes landing all around us all. Very exciting. By the time we reached the open seas, we retreated to the comfort of our room to work on photos and catch up on news.

Dinnertime in the dining room was well-attended with the new passengers. We added one more guest, Vicky, from Los Angeles. She will be on until San Diego. All of the tables for two on the railing were filled this evening. And more than once, we heard birthday celebrations happening down stairs at the open-seating venue. We heard that there are a total of 850 passengers onboard now until San Diego. Some will leave there, but we will increase our population to a whopping 1400. Will have to verify that, because that is really a full house.

We had some more gifts waiting for us in our room. Our travel agency had given us two logo bags and a calendar for the 53 days. And HAL gave us one, only one, blue shopping bag. That always makes us laugh, when there are two of us that could easily use a bag. We estimate they cost about $1.00. Perhaps we can ask our room steward for one more.

It is nearing midnight, and we can hear the foghorn sounding off every 2 minutes. Yep, there is pea soup fog off the coast, so we bet tomorrow will be a chilly day. Better enjoy it, because the further south we go, the warmer it will get.

Bill & Mary Ann

Port of Vancouver, the first stop