We again slept in a bit this morning, but made sure we had our breakfast and were sitting on the Terrace Deck as we arrived in Vancouver. We usually cruise through this part of the approach in the dark, so it was beautiful to see the sights on either side of the ship in the few hours before we arrived at noon.
What we were most waiting for, of course, was to cruise under the Lions Gate Bridge, and it looked like the ship would barely clear it…until it was right under, when you can see there is room to spare.
Will we clear it?
Lots of room
Today was a beautiful day weather-wise, and we continued to sit on the Terrace Deck while the gangway was set up and the ship was cleared. Here’s the interesting thing about that: we never had to go through immigration to enter Canada. We listened to the announcements and read and re-read the Patter but there was no indication we needed to take our passports off the ship.
While we waited, we immensely enjoyed watching all the harbor traffic- RORO ferries, sightseeing boats, helicopters, freighters, barges and lots of float planes, which took off and landed right next to the ship. We are fascinated by all those things, I guess because we didn’t have them at home.
Still we couldn’t sightsee for too long. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed off the ship in time for our reservation at Flyover Canada, right next to the ship. I’ve wanted to do this for years, and was thrilled it finally worked out today.
Flyover mixed motion seats (like on a roller coaster) with wind, mist and 3D video to provide the sensation of flying over different land features, in our case the Canadian Rockies. Now, while I love this sort of thing, I am not a fan of riding in helicopters or small planes, so being able to do it this way was perfect.
Afterward, we walked around Canada Place and the harbor area. There an electric scooter track on the point of Canada Place, and we watched for awhile as kids did death-defying stunts while nearly colliding (that can’t be what it’s intended to be used for, can it?), and then returned to the ship in time for dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was our first real miss. We saw over 100 crewmembers changing over today in Vancouver (one set leaving at the end of their contracts, and new crewmembers coming on) and we were left to wonder if everyone in the galley tonight was new. First, neighbor Lana’s panko crusted pork cutlet was red raw, then my always available chicken was so overcooked it couldn’t even be cut or torn, and then they served strawberry ice cream instead of strawberry sorbet. Even though I soon realized it, it wasn’t in enough time to allow me to feel like going back off the ship as we had planned to do after dinner. I am highly sensitive to ice cream and milk. Not our best dinner experience. And Errol and Heifa, who provide the best service always, were very concerned. No worries, tomorrow is another day.
We ended up returning to the Terrace Deck and continuing where we left off earlier, watching the lights off the city and harbor and all the goings-on at Canada Place right next to the ship. It was a busy summer evening, and there was much to keep us entertained.
