Today was the end of a two night sailing from Seattle, the beginning of a 16 day voyage, and the continuation of our cruise, which began 10 days ago. Confusing? You bet….it was going to be one humdinger of a day. We sure didn’t need the addition of internet glitches, but that also happened this morning.
We had been given directions for today’s procedures, which turned out to be the most confusing one we have had in regards to the immigration check here. First of all, we were in-transit, and had one, just one in-transit card delivered to us. We needed to call about that, even though we asked for one at the front desk earlier. It never arrived. All guests had to present themselves for clearance by the US Customs & Border Patrol Protection officers, who would be available from 10:30am to 2:30pm only. If we wanted to go off earlier, we would need to be back before 2:30pm. The ship was due to leave around 5pm, but all aboard was 4pm. You could not come back at 4pm, or you would have missed the US Customs check. If you chose not to go into town, you had to go with a group at 10:30am to see customs, then wait out the time when the ship had zero clearance before you re-boarded. We did hear that 22 of us were in-transit, but we do not know how many passengers were the 2 night trip. Probably quite a few.
While we were deciding when to get off, we wanted to take advantage of the internet while in port. After today, there will be 5 sea days with questionable internet connections. Turned out that our complimentary time from the Alaska cruise was gone, and the computer was not recognizing our pin number. So we spent considerable time with guest services trying to figure it out. The internet gurus never seem to be available during these transition days. So we did not resolve this problem, and also could not download the new set of minutes or megabytes since the system said we were already logged in. Another mystery. We had no choice but to take care of this before we left Vancouver if we were to save our time. Initially, we were told all of the services would roll over to this following cruise. Guess they were wrong.
Wanting to have a little of time exploring the city, we decided to leave around 9:30am. Going through the maze to get out, we ended up showing our room cards, photo ID, and the in-transit card with a reminder that we had to have our passports with us. That was easy. Coming back was more complicated.
Did we mention that it was raining. Never believe the weather report they show on the TV, as they are seldom totally correct. A bit warm, we wore our arctic jackets and also took umbrellas. We needed all of it. There sure is a difference between now, the fall season, and the summer season. During the summer, you can count on a ton of tourists on the waterfront walkways. Today, there were few people out and about, except for locals. Hardly no tourists. Of course, last year, we were here on a Sunday, and it was a different story. Today being Monday, most every shop and restaurant was closed on the waterfront. There was a lot of activity on the water though. Float planes and some boats were coming and going in the harbor.
Here’s a little info on Vancouver in a nutshell. The city lies on a peninsula surrounded by inlets, bays, and rivers tht all flow into the Pacific Ocean. Downtown is full of glittering glass towers with some sandy beaches. Forests, and walking/cycling paths everywhere. It is a natural setting that can be described as postcard perfect. One thing we noticed was the freshness of the air, as well as the cleanliness of the city and parks.
The population is about 603,500 people, and the elevation is a mere 10 feet. There is lots of things to do and see, but today there was little time for much. Two destinations for us today was Stanley Park, where we can see the towering Western red cedars and hemlocks. Douglas firs house squirrels, while we could still find some berries among the salmonberry, huckleberry, and something called bog buckbean. Established in 1888, the park has 1000 acres to explore with 16.7 miles of trails. One day we hope to hike them all, but we would need a whole lot more time to do it.
It took about an hour for us to reach the start of the park. That’s about where the Rowing Club is located. Further up the road was the park’s kiosk and restrooms. It’s also the beginning of the Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tours where you can take a ride for $45 a person or $42 for seniors, which lasts for one hour. There are four different breeds of horses used here. They are Grey Shire, Clydesdales, Belgians, and Percherons. Two of their white horses from Yorkshire are named Dudley and Denzil. Cool names and also a near way to see the park.
This was our turn-around point, since we needed to be back in town for lunch around 12:30pm. A nice place that we have gone to the last three years is called Steamworks Pub and Brewery. The establishment is named after the Gastown steam line that runs through the property. Their beer is brewed on-site. We ordered two 18oz beers, one house salad, and a crispy fried chicken sandwich to share. All was quite good. We had remembered a dessert by the name of hedgehog, which we seem to recall it was similar to mud pie. But we ended up with something similar, with two flavors of ice, a cookie-type crust, and whipped cream sprinkled with chocolate shavings. There was a hint of peanut butter, so this must have been a different dessert – equally as delicious and calorie loaded, no doubt.
Located close to Canada Place and the ship, we got back to the cruise terminal around 2pm…..plenty of time to do the immigrations check. Showing our room cards and in-transit passes, we were directed towards the security check first. The next stop was at the kiosks in the US Border Patrol. Self-explanatory, we registered each of our passports, and pushed the correct buttons, getting a paper document to hand to the agent. One of the questions asked was if we had any contact with farm animals while visiting Vancouver. Do you think petting one of the horses in the park counted? Sort of forgot about that when we pushed “no”.
Sure was nice getting back to our room to relax for a while. Of course, the rain had let up by now, and it was looking good for the upcoming sail away, only the second one of the two cruises so far. But first, there was the obligatory muster drill at 4:15pm, which we happily did not have to attend. Hearing every whistle and word of the drill on the veranda was just as good as going there on the promenade deck. By the way, we have had a change of captains and CD…..now we have Captain John Scott and Cruise Director Erin Duffy. We met her a few years ago when she took over on the Amsterdam’s world cruise.
So we went back to the aft deck and it was well attended. Even some canapies were being served, while many folks bought the drinks (mostly beers). No sooner did we walk to the back railing, it began to rain big drops, sending several guests under the overhang. Wearing the heavy jackets was a great idea, as they are waterproof and warm. As fast as it began, the rain stopped. Then, out of the blue, a couple that we met on this year’s world cruise appeared. In fact, we ran into them on the Panama re-positioning cruise in May, while it stopped in Victoria, where they live. Was really nice to see them, and know we have several more days to visit with them. Surprisingly, earlier in the afternoon, we ran into two other couples who recognized us – one from the world cruises, and the other from reading Cruise Critic blogs. Always nice to know that there are folks who are reading it every year.
Once the ship went under the Lion’s Bridge, the Captain slowed down to do a yearly check on the compass. After that was accomplished, he headed southwest towards Hawaii.
Dinner tonight was in the Pinnacle Grill. Last night, we turned in our request for several dinners in here and the Tamarind. They all got confirmed, so we will dine away from the dining room about every other evening. As always, the food and service were excellent. We walked to the Mainstage to catch part of the first show of the cruise – Preview. There was only one performance at 9:30pm, but the lounge was not really full. Guess many people turned in early tonight – it had been a really long day. Now we will have 5 days at sea to rest up for 5 days in Hawaii.
Bill & Mary Ann
