On the seventeenth day of our 17 Day Ultimate Alaska Cruise, we stopped in Vancouver, Canada for a day in port. We had no official excursions planned, because Vicki had relatives living there. Two of them volunteered to be our tour guides for the day.
When we got up, we realized that, even though Victoria and Vancouver are very close, we were still moving through the water! We went up to the sun deck and enjoyed the great weather as we sailed underneath the Lion’s Gate Bridge into Vancouver Harbor. We noticed that there was another large cruise ship following us, but as we were in front, they would have to wait while we maneuvered into our slip. Along the way, we got to watch the cranes at the nearby container port loading steel boxes onto a big ship. Everything was done precisely, and fairly quickly, too. I learned something new already.
We went back to the stateroom and got into suitable clothing for a fine sunny day. Then we headed out with everybody else, flowing in a continuous stream of passengers down the gangway and into the terminal building which housed the Canadian Customs official. Once again, the ship did all the paperwork, and we walked right on through.
We walked along until we were out on the city streets, and headed for the railway station. We didn’t have long to wait. Vicki’s cousin arrived and the three of us decided to walk along the harbor edge until we reached Stanley Park. It was only a two mile hike. Vancouver was truly a beautiful city, and it was a pleasure to be there.
We arrived at Stanley Park and walked a bit further. The plan was to spend the morning visiting the Vancouver Aquarium. We paid our entry fee and went inside. I’ve been to a few aquariums, and this one was quite good. They had all kinds of displays and tanks showing the sealife from everywhere along the Pacific coast, from Alaska to Mexico. I’m not going to show many photos here, even though I took a ton of them. As usual. Instead, I’ll just show some fun things, like Moon Jellies and Sea Otters. Those are the highlights in my mind. But I still learned a lot. The sea has such an abundance of life forms, all of which are nearly as amazing as humans.
We left the aquarium and prowled the nearby parking lots until we met Vicki’s aunt in her car. We drove to yet another parking lot, then got out and walked over to a vendor that sold food. We ate lunch and Vicki got to talk “family” news with them. I didn’t know who half these people were, so I just sat and smiled, putting in a comical word every so often. I’m good at that. Afterward, we took a walk to a great overlook of the channel that the ship came through earlier that morning. Then it was back to the car, where we crossed into another part of town, somewhere in the suburbs. We hung out at her aunt’s house for a snack and a yak.
As the afternoon went by, we realized that we needed to get back aboard the ship before 5:30pm. Her aunt didn’t feel like driving into downtown rush-hour traffic, so the three of us bravely took a ride on a city bus. Luckily, her aunt had several “looney” and “twoney” coins (Canadian dollars) and we were able to pay for our rides. It was fun, but the bus got very crowded at one point with school kids packing it solid.
We arrived downtown, and Vicki’s cousin headed to the train station. The two of us went back into the cruise ship terminal and walked through the echoing rooms to board the Grand Princess for the final time.
Later that evening, we went to our final dinner at our favorite restaurant, with our dinner-family, assisted by our two waiters, who made everything fun, as usual. We were going to miss them, without a doubt.
Without us even realizing it, the ship eased out from the dock and began effortlessly gliding away from Vancouver. When we got upstairs onto the Sun Deck, the ship was already steaming south. Good-bye Canada!
Then the real work began. We had our own shipboard deadlines to meet. All of our luggage had to be packed and labelled with our special “group” numbering, and left outside our stateroom door. We only got to keep our personal item bags, such as our daypacks. Whatever clothes we were wearing now would be worn in the morning. Our steward was running around like crazy, helping everybody get ready. This phase of the cruise was known as “Disembarkation” and it was probably even more stressful for the crew than Embarkation. But actually leaving the ship was a problem for tomorrow morning, when we would be safely docked in Seattle.
For a topographic map of the cruise see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the voyage see my Flickr Page
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