The plane landed at the Vancouver airport to the nicest weather we can remember. We found it interesting that the flight was only half full, not that we were complaining. It was lucky that it took off on time, and not cancelled until the next flight. Yes, that has happened to us many times flying from either Los Angeles or San Diego to San Francisco, as these are considered commuter runs.
It seemed like we were walking forever to reach the area of immigration kiosks, where we had to log in with our passports, answer some questions, and have our photos taken. That generated a coupon that we handed off to the immigration official. All was well. We did take note that the Arrive Can had been attached to our electronic passports already, and there was no need to show anyone our printed paperwork. In addition, there was no inquiry as to our recent Covid test.
Luggage carts were complimentary here…a nice touch. We picked up two, and headed for the turntable for Air Canada. These days, it is easy to find your luggage as most folks do not check bags. At this point, a rep from HAL was there to direct us to the exit, where there were at least three cruise line counters set up. The HAL group took our four pieces of luggage and promised we would see it in our room on the ship. That was most welcomed news. All we had to do was board the coach for a 40 minute ride across town to the pier.
By now, it was noontime, and the tree-lined streets and avenues were full of locals out and about for lunch and shopping. We arrived at the pier at One Canada Place, where the Pan Pacific Hotel is located. It is one of the nicest and scenic hotel/piers, where we have had the pleasure of staying and boarding many ships. Today we chose to board directly, and gosh, it was some boarding process. There was one other smaller ship in port, which was the Regent Mariner. All together, it appeared that there were hundreds of guests in line to go through the screening. This would have taken a long time, if it were not for the help of Henk Mensink, the Hotel General Manager of the Zuiderdam. He must have been on the lookout, and lucky for us, found us. It has been over two years since we last saw each other, and that was when the Amsterdam's Grand World Voyage of 2020 was abruptly stopped in Australia. Little did we know that the flagship of the HAL fleet, the Amsterdam, would be sold months later. So here we are, on another "Dam" ship, and so glad to be back with Henk and his specially-picked crew.
We joined the shorter line for the 4 & 5 star Mariners and suite guests, as well as President's Club members (we understand there are only 4 of us on this trip). Producing our passports, boarding passes, the current Covid test papers, and Covid vaccination cards, we proceeded to the next step. By the way, the skew on the boarding passes did not work, so a small receipt had to be duplicated in order for us to continue. Henk led us off to board, but we were stopped to have our photos taken. Then we set off to board the ship, ending around the ship's photographers. That is one picture that seldom comes out good for us.
Henk came all the way to our room, and we were soon joined by Shiv, the best Executive Housekeeper and his assistant. He was there to confirm that all of our requests had been met, which they had. There was an extra refrigerator, which we did not really need as there is one in the room anyway. We discovered that it did not work, but decided to keep it and use it for a cabinet. It also was a good place to put our bouquet of flowers. Our room steward, Edy, arrived and said he was the only one servicing the aft cabins, which is unusual. He did say he had half the amount of rooms, which is a good thing. So, we had two bottles of California champagne on ice (also known as sparkling wine), a mixed bouquet of fresh flowers, and a bunch of gift cards from the front desk and our travel agency. Trays of canapes and sweets were waiting for us as well. Since there was no luggage yet, we headed off to satisfy the muster requirements. While we were gone, we let the flat screen TV play the muster directions, a must-do as part of the drill. Of course, we have seen it before and knew the drill.
On the way, we decided to have lunch in the Lido. Salads and sandwiches filled that need, although it was a surprise to see some of the sandwich bar was self-serve. Not fans of that idea, we will stick to staff-served items. We should mention here, that there is a recommended mask mandate, not mandatory. However, we have chosen to leave the masks on regardless of what others are doing. One of us had the virus back in late January while on the Nieuw Statendam, and sure do not want to repeat that experience. So it is "washy-washy", hand sanitizing, and K95's for us.
Our room keys were scanned for the muster, and we had to listen to a very short talk by a boat commander. So much better than standing in a tight group for a very long muster drill, usually done in the hot sun. There was an invitation to the Mariner's welcome reception in the Crow's Nest at 2:40 to 3:20. We did attend, but only stayed briefly, as there were no more seats available. Most of the guests had taken the forward facing lounges and were actually snoozing. One last stop was at the Seaview Bar, where we ran into the assistant beverage manager, Twinkle. We have known her for many years, and she also remembered us. Filling us in on the last two years, she said how happy she was to get back to work. Like many of the crew, the pandemic really disrupted their lives. Then she helped us out by explaining how the beverage package worked. She tested it by giving us four cans of Coke Zero, which worked as part of our 15 beverage per person a day count. By the time we got back to the room, the luggage had been delivered.
We missed the sail away festivities at 4pm. at the aft pool, but did enjoy the sailing out of the harbor from the comfort of our extra-large aft-facing veranda. No kidding…it is big enough for a party. What a beautiful day we had here in Vancouver. Hope to explore the city when we return for three more visits in the upcoming weeks. We did attempt to stash some of our belongings, but did not get far. Tomorrow would be soon enough to do the chore.
Dinnertime came at 8pm, and we headed for the upper dining room. When we booked this series of cruises, we had a table request at 66. However, we had been given a table at the side window. It is not a bad table, but not one on the railing. We had visits from the head waiter, and both the Maitre'D and his assistant. They said they could relocate us at the beginning of the next cruise, where we said we would let them know. Our waiters seemed to be really nice, so we may not want to leave them. We had a salad, soup, and roasted chicken entrees. Desserts were a lemon torte and a hot fudge sundae. And since we have the Have-It-All promo on these trips, one of us ordered a decaf cappacchino. It will be quite a challenge to reach the 15 beverages a day per person.
There was no show in the Mainstage this evening, only lectures, not that we would attend anyway. The Music Walk did perform this evening with the Rolling Stone and Billboard entertainers. It had been the marathon day we had expected, and we were more than ready to turn in to the comfort of our room. Looking forward to the motion of the ocean to rock us to sleep. More tomorrow…………..
Bill & Mary Ann
67 Pictures
