Category: Canada

Sailing back to Canada on our Anniversary

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Saturday, September 23, 2023 was, apparently, the autumnal equinox, thus the first day of autumn or Astronomical fall. Meteorological fall, I am told, began back on September 1. For us, neither date carries as much significance as September 24 which is today and the 57th anniversary of September 24, 1966. Our wedding day. I know Gail will be proof reading this so if I got it wrong I may need a CARE flight home.

Since we left Ketchikan last evening we have made good time. This morning we emerged into the open ocean south of Haida Gwai. There has been a strong wind and moderate seas. I’m convinced there are pot holes in the ocean too and every so often we hit one and the ship shudders. Looking at the waves beside the ship I can see the foam caps on the waves being blown away as mist. It’s a pretty sight with the sun making the foam and mist almost glow. We move south between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland, most of which is mountains and fjords. The sea appears calmer as we get more shelter from the island. We will weave through an archipelago of smaller islands as we make our way south. Our scheduled arrival in Victoria is 09:00 Monday morning. We are hoping for a nice day ashore but the weather forecast has not been promising but the current forecast is now suggesting the rain will end during the morning.

I have not mentioned much about the Crown Princess, our ship for this voyage. She first sailed in June 2006 but had an extensive refurbishment in 2018. The design of the ship marks its age and telltale signs of her age can be seen in stateroom decor and an occasional bit of rust. She sails well regardless of weather conditions and provides passengers with a comfortable ride. Crown Princess, indeed no Princess ship carries entertainment such as waterslides or carnival rides. The exterior decks feature swimming pools and hot tubs. There is also a large movie screen outdoors which is extremely popular in tropical locations but less so with conditions this trip.

There are three large dining rooms in use for dinner meals but only one is operational for breakfast and lunch when the ship is in port. There is a large buffet area with three serving areas. two of them operate slightly different hours to accommodate changeovers from breakfast to lunch and lunch to dinner. There is a third serving area that seems to provide speciality items. One day it was the “Crab Shack” and today it is serving a huge array of desserts. There are numerous other areas serving food. A burger place, pizza place, Ice cream shop and a cafe serving a variety of sandwiches desserts and fruit. So far everything is included as part the fare for all passengers. Bars serving juice, soft drinks and alcohol are not included but can be purchased individually or in packaged offerings. A Gastro Pub, Steak House and Italian Restaurant are available for a fixed cover charge again, individually or as part of a package of offerings. 

On to the staterooms. Many comedians on cruise ships focus part of their performance on staterooms and rightfully so. Staterooms come in several classifications; inside (no windows), ocean view (windows), balcony (windows that open), mini-suites and suites with various sub-classifications depending upon where they are on the ship. Much humorous focuses on the vacuum toilet systems which can be rather surprising if it’s a first experience. The reality on ships (and planes) is that extra weight costs passengers so big pipes are a no no. Thus a vacuum system that sucks human waste from your toilet at mach 1 (that is what it sounds like). Target two is the showers. Traditionally, inside, ocean view and balcony rooms have been equipped with shower stalls. The humour suggests that the only way to use them is to soap up the walls than cram your body in and rotate. It’s not quite that bad bud if you are taller or heavier than average, they will feel cramped. The third target is often water temperature or pressure. Most often water pressure is fine but occasionally not so. Temperature, on the other hand, can be challenging. Princess showers have two controls, one for water volume and the second for temperature. Sounds perfect. Not so much. On this ship turn it up to full volume then adjust the temperature. The temperature is too cool starting from the cold end until you reach 95% of the way to the hot setting at which the flow becomes lobster boiling temp. Now when the temperature knob is turned back to cold the temp stays sizzling until it gets 95% of the way to cold. Now you spend the next few minutes doing from too cold to too hot until you find the sweet spot. Having found it you might expect that turning the water off and leaving the temperature setting alone that tomorrow you would not need to re-adjust the temperature—and you would be wrong!

Ships today have health and beauty spas and gyms with exercise machines and various group classes as well as individual services offered. Trivia is a common entertainment targeting music, theatre, geography and history to name only a few topics. There is almost always karaoke sometimes competitive versions. Almost every bar provides a venue for musical entertainers. Typical complement is a ship’s orchestra of six or eight pieces, a “party” band of three or four, a couple of duos vocal and instrumental plus one or two solo musicians. These groups rotate through the numerous venues. There is usually a main theatre stage hosting guest musicians, comedians, Vegas style shows that includes a small song and dance troupe. Dance floors associated with the bars are becoming less and less common. 

On this cruise we came across a lovely husband and wife duo performing as Plus 2. They appear to have adopted us and encourage us to dance. Tonight after a really good steak dinner at the Crown Grill we went to the Wheelhouse Bar to dance for an hour with Plus 2. They made too big a thing announcing our 57th anniversary but we smiled. We also allowed a couple of the ship’s photographers to take a few posed pictures of us. Tomorrow we will see if they are worth taking home.

I have only a few photos of the trip today which I well try to post with tomorrow’s collection.

Paul Theroux

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

Leaving Vancouver and Starting North

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We probably should have slept later. Explain the time change to me again please. Never mind, we’re up anyway, might as well get things started.

Showered and dressed it’s off to breakfast. We said “pass” to the $45 buffet and walked the 5 minutes to McDonalds. Although you don’t get much cash back from a $20 any more the coffee’s not bad and the egg McMuffin is more breakfast than we usually have. Back to the hotel room to discover our two large suitcases had been taken away, hopefully, to be next seen in our stateroom. As we returned from breakfast we visited the Princess cruises representative at the hotel and learned that she was planning to escort all interested cruisers across to the terminal round 11 AM but assured us that we could go earlier should we choose.

It was a gorgeous, sunny morning so we walked across to Canada Place which houses a hotel, convention centre, many other businesses and the cruise ship terminal. On both east and west sides of Canada Place are the cruise ship berths. Today, Crown Princess occupies the western berth and Celebrity Millennium occupies the eastern berth. 

Being as shy as I am, you all know that, I only talked to anyone who would stop to talk and as a consequence we found a group of five South African women. As the conversation developed we learned they were very serious about fishing and were on a fly fishing expedition in the Kamloops area. We chatted for a long time and I introduced them to the Lions (check them out in a photo). They said they would return to watch our departure. Later, as we sailed away we saw them on the pier waiving to us. We hope their fishing trip goes well.

On our walk about we discovered where we needed to go to check in and board our ship. Which we did after returning to the hotel to checkout. We spent a while in the hotel lobby, after checking out, chatting with an Australian couple from Melbourne. We chatted about some of our experiences while visiting Melbourne.

This time we decided it was time to see if we could board the ship. Along the west side of Canada Place there was an entrance leading to the boarding registration hall. From here on it is one long snake of would be passengers. First stop we pick up our Medallions, an electronic ID tag, and because of all the pre-registration there was little else to do at that stop. As the serpentine path continues, directed by pillars connected by nylon tapes, we eventually find ourselves at a security check point. Once clear of that we are faced with an array of self checkin machines for US Customs and Border Security. The biggest problem was getting the machines to scan our passports. Once done we receive a printed receipt to take to a staffed post where the officer simply collected our receipts and directed us through a door which lead to a lounge area where no-one waited. We were quickly into a fast moving line taking us onto the ship where the final step was a brief stop where we presented our Medallion and a crew member verified our photos. 

Our staterooms were accessible but we were asked to drop any luggage in our rooms then depart to the ship’s common areas. I believe we found lunch, after a walk around, eventually returning to the room. After a little more familiarization with our ship we returned to our room to discover our luggage had arrived. I had been following the AIrTag’s progress so I knew they were nearby. Now, quickly, unpack before we start to move. Just after 4:30 we began to move and soon thereafter we were under the Lions Gate Bridge and out into English Bay.

Since we now carry an electronic tag with us, rather than a plastic credit card look alike, it the key to our stateroom and is the key to all other purchasing and reserving while aboard. It is linked to a smartphone app with which one i supposed to be able to do all manner of amazing things. As it turns out, things are far from perfect, shocking, I know. It will all work out.

There was an event scheduled for 5 pm, recorded ballroom dance music. We attended only to find that whomever created the DVD knew little or nothing about ballroom dance. Among my observations from the first four tracks were: a viennese waltz that played out for five minutes; a seven minute tango; a bolero (Lady in Red) announced as a waltz; followed by a quickstep that promised to be four or five minutes long. It seemed to me that program would challenge the stamina of a seasoned pro and not appropriate for most likely to be on the ship. Later in the evening I composed a “shittygram” and asked a customer service rep to deliver it to the Cruise Director. We’ll check back in a day or so to see if there is any change.

The new format is supposed to allow cruisers with and without reservations to access any of the three main dining rooms and I suppose it does. We went as guests without reservations and got the feeling that there was much chaos among the dining room reception crew. We did get seated as a seventh and eighth joining a group of six who had reserved. The result turned out great. We were a table of eight Canadians with much in common. 

Subsequently, I tried getting dining room reservations only to receive a “No Reservations Available” message for the next several days. The next morning I was able to get reservations for two more days. Interesting.

There was music in most of the venues and we managed a few adventures on the floor with a very good guitarist so all was not lost. It seems as if there will be two or three groups worth listening to this trip. As we were ending our evening we found ourselves again chatting with another Australian couple whom we will join for dinner on the 19th.

On to the next day where it seems that our itinerary is being modified to accommodate weather conditions. We’ll just have to wait to see how that works out.

Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, ‘As pretty as an airport.

Burlington to Vancouver

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A not to those receiving posts by email. Remember, only the first few lines of the post are sent. Click through to view the full post. The last thing in each post is a quoted saying.

Alarm set for 6 AM. No need. Awake by 5:45. Shower, quick breakfast then out the door. Traffic to the airport was not bad at all. Then it started. The Park N Fly app would not allow me to properly set the colour of my car, nor would it let the staff correct it. Guess what, we revert to paper.

On the Park N Fly shuttle, the luggage rack failed to immobilize the suitcases. With every left turn most of the largest suitcases started to roll across the bus. In the terminal we got our luggage tags with only a small re-education on the electronic checkin system. Now to the security gate.

We are Nexus card holders and we received repeated notification that as a result we would receive Trusted Traveller treatment, meaning leave everything in our carry on bags and walk on through. As we arrived at the gate B entrance with the Trusted Traveller line, it was closed and we were redirected to the next gate entrance 500 metres away which, I discovered, did not have Trusted Traveller access. So I spent the next twenty minutes separating electronics devices and helping the security personnel find a corkscrew and small knife in my carry on baggage, all of which were within their acceptable limits.

It must be nearly a kilometre from the security position we used and the gate assigned for our departure. Fortunately, about half way, we found a Tim Hortons so we stopped for a complete breakfast. The staff there was great and I had a lot of fun with them while waiting for our order. Interestingly, this location did not participate in the Tim points program or allow the use of the Tim’s app for payment.

We carried our coffee away after the food was finished, to continue to gate B19 only to discover it was beyond a large glass door. There was no urgency so we waited outside the door. As it turned out, the gate area was being used for international flights until near 10 AM. Indeed, just around 10 AM the glass for opened. While we waited for the door we saw a parade of workers move in and out of the area secured by the big glass door through an entrance requiring an ID badge or door key code. Apparently, the security system wanted the door to close between each worker entering or exiting. However, whenever there were two or more workers in a group they ignored the 0ne-at-a-time protocol which resulted in 30 seconds of unmusical entertainment as the 160 decibel klaxon announced the violation.

The wait for the plane was uneventful as was the boarding, except, of course for overhead luggage space. I think travellers near the back of the plane deposit their bags near the front, for convenience on de-boarding (my word). With help from a flight attendant we compressed enough of the existing luggage to allow for ours. Yippie!!

Airline food is not what-it-used-to-be. Perhaps it never was but the Mac and Cheese pictured on the menu   bore absolutely no resemblance to what arrived. Gail, bless her heart, gave it a try but she eventually gave up and in the end received a refund of her purchase.

Now that is out of the way, it was a great flight. We took flight a few minutes early, cruised peacefully at 40,000 feet with virtually no turbulence and landed a bit early too. As we deplaned I checked my AirTags and discovered both suitcases had arrived with us. They were also among the first on the carousel. A Princess cruise representative met us on the ramp and presented us with a prepaid taxi voucher. We were in the taxi within about 10 minutes of retrieving our baggage. 

The cab ride into the city was a bit intense, if you were paying attention. There are no highways that pass through Vancouver. There are several north-south streets that carry the rather considerable load. we were on Granville Street. Traffic is stop and go and the driver was skilled at weaving in and out of traffic. 

We checked into the Fairwood Waterfront and after we settled in Gail phoned her niece, Karin, and made arrangements to meet her and her daughter, Brianna, at the White Spot about a10 minute walk from our hotel. We updated our respective lives since our last meeting then we said our goodbyes and we returned to the hotel.

Tomorrow we board the Crown Princess.

Lawrence Block

Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.

Home Saturday, Day 31

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My previous post was October 1. Since then we pointed east, more or less, and started driving. We began the trip home hoping we could shorten daily travel distance but that only worked for one day. On our second day Highway #1 through Crowsnest Pass was closed for construction which diverted us south along Highway #97 to Radium then east on Highway #95 through to Banff where we met Highway #1, That made what was a moderate day into a long day. After Calgary we abandoned all hope of short days and drove our seven hour days. There is no way to stop after five hours. No place is just five hours away from any other place.

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