Vancouver 1st day of 3!

 Saturday, April 27, 2024

Today marked the end of the seven-day coastal cruise...but for us Vancouver was just another port on our eleven-day cruise. All it took was one look out the window and Michelle and I decided our plan for the day was to stay onboard. But of course Bob and Jon couldn't pass up the chance to have one of their little adventures. Since I have little of interest to report, I will turn the blog over to Bob.

All I saw of Vancouver was what was visible from "our private deck".

It was a rainy, soggy day at Canada Place in Vancouver.

Blogger Bob's report...

Mary and I had been in Vancouver before, but it had been awhile, and there were many parts of the city that we had only been through by bus. I suggested to Jon we do a walking tour on our own since we both like to strike out and explore with no set objectives. I think this frustrates Mary at times, that I can have no plan ahead of time. It was raining, and expected to rain all day, so Mary and Michelle announced they were not getting off the ship and this was just the chance I was looking for. Guys day with no feminine input.

Jon and I dressed in our rain gear and headed out with our "In Transit" pass in hand. Once outside the ship we headed off on a path that led toward Stanley Park. This route took us along the coast and there were lots of things to see as we hiked. We had a great time visiting about everything and anything. After quite some time we arrived at the point where we could get over to the main part of the park and I knew to circumnavigate the park would be just too daunting of a task. We opted to head back to the main part of the city.

We passed through a lovely park that had tons of beautiful flowers. I was wishing the day was dry and Mary was along to see it. There were lots of intertwining paths but we opted to stay on the main trail and make our way to Granville Island. This path took us by the shore with lots of sandy beach areas. When we neared the city again we took a water ferry across to Granville Island. Jon and I spent a short time there thinking we would return with the girls when we came back to Vancouver again. Jon sampled some of the culinary delights and bought some lemon treats for our card game that night. 

Granville Island Market

After exploring the market, we took the ferry back across to the city and continued our walk heading back toward the ship. It was still raining steady as we went right through the heart of downtown. There are not a lot of hills in Vancouver, but just enough to prevent us from seeing the ship in the distance. We used city maps to find the right street to get us directly back.

An approximate route that Jon and I walked.

 

There were other ships boarding new passengers at Canada Place, but we figured we would be able to get right on since we were continuing a cruise and had the "In Transit" pass. WRONG!

As we entered the port building we were met with a line for luggage carrying passengers boarding their ships for the first time. We had no luggage but were still required to wait in this line. We showed the "In Transit" pass to port workers but to no avail. We then went into the next set of lines for getting through customs. This is where we waited another 2 1/2 hours.

This is the line that we should have been able to by-pass.

 

This line was really long and slow. I remember thinking we were here hours ahead of when we needed to be, and it was looking like we weren't going to get on in time for sail away! This was very aggravating and so much so Jon called a Holland America hot line to vent. He thought he woke someone up in India who was of very little help. We just wanted someone on the ship to know we were there but couldn't get on.

We eventually did get on board, but were at a loss to see how the "In Transit" pass was to help us speed the process along. We went to the Guest Services counter on board and let them know, nicely, that the process was severely flawed. This netted us each a bottle of wine, (none of us drink), and some measure of release. Jon and I had been in communication with the girls the whole time and I think they thought it was funny. We eventually got a good laugh out of it as well. After all, these kind of problems are 1st world problems. But...later in this trip this Vancouver outing would come back to haunt Jon and I.

Back to Mary...

When the Zaandam did finally leave Vancouver, the four of us took our positions on "our private deck" for sail away.  As I was taking photos of the city skyline, Michelle wanted to know why I was taking them in black and white. It wasn't my camera setting, it was just how everything looked in the rain! A little photo editing after the fact made some look a little more colorful but in real life the world was just shades of gray!

Leaving ahead of the Koningsdam from Canada Place.

Brockton Point Lighthouse in Stanley Park

Bright yellow mounds of sulphur against the gray mist.

Note from the future: This blog entry is being written in mid-June, over a month after returning from the cruise. This past week, Vancouver made the news when a Harbor Air float plane taking off  near Canada Place collided with a boat in the water. Fortunately there were no fatalities but watching the news coverage brought back memories of watching the planes take off by the ship.

Vancouver is one of my favorite ports to sail away from. I love sailing under the Lion's Gate Bridge, seeing all of the ships lined up in the harbor and most of all...the Point Atkinson Lighthouse. 

Enjoying sail away protected from the elements on "our private deck"!

Lion's Gate Bridge

A brave soul paddle boarding on a cold, wet day.

Point Atkinson Lighthouse.

Goodbye Vancouver. See you in four days!

So as we continued with the rest of our eleven day cruise many new passengers had boarded the Zaandam for a brief 4-day cruise. It was interesting how the passenger demographics changed for that segment of our cruise. Quite a few of the new cruisers were locals from the Vancouver area and many were of Asian descent and tended to be a relatively younger crowd. 

The evening entertainment was comedian Jose Sarduy...AGAIN. The lack of variety of entertainment on our cruise was disappointing so I was extra glad that we were sailing with friends and made our own fun each evening!