Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Ship - the last part of our Trip

Monday Morning. Time for our Star Princess two day cruise.

Our hotel room rate included breakfast, so we ate there. We'd left our bags in the room, ready to go, so after breakfast we took one last walk around Canada Place. There is major construction there, and the side of Canada Place where the Star is docked was blocked, so no good side views. We did take a look at the back of the ship, and looked at the balcony of the room we'll have on our next cruise.

After that, we decided to brave the security lines for the ship. Both the Star and the Coral Princess were in port, so where to drop luggage was a bit confusing. We walked right by it. Fortunately, an employee directed us back, so our luggage didn't end up in Los Angeles on the Coral. It apparently was a problem to others as well, because as we dropped the bags, the porters were moving signs around to make it more obvious.

It was, contrary to the last time we sailed from Vancouver, a quick trip through security. The next step was to go through US Customs. There was a line, but it only took about 10 minutes to get through. A quick hello to the Customs Agent and onward to Cruise check in. Alas, no priority line (in Seattle that saved us a bunch of time). However, this line was short, and within 15 minutes we were on the ship.

We'd originally booked a balcony room, but a week before we'd been upgraded to a mini-suite. After the inside cabin, we really appreciated the extra space. I don't love the balconies on this ship as they are completely uncovered. The bathroom has a tub/shower, and that's a huge improvement over the normal tiny shower.

Our room steward arrived promptly, and offered us a glass of champagne - about the only "perk" of having a mini suite besides the space.

We did sailaway and waved to the people on the Lion's Gate Bridge. Before dinner, we headed to the Wheelhouse to dance. When we were on the Star in May, we were unimpressed with the Wheelhouse as a dance venue for two reasons. The floor is small (not a huge problem, since it's really only slightly smaller than most) and the big problem - the layout meant that the smoking section was right up against the floor. We didn't have much of a problem with it, but friends on the cruise afterward said it was awful. We're on this ship for 16 days next year, so smoking could be a huge problem.

However, since May, Princess has changed their smoking policy and now the bars are, with the exception of the cigar bar and part of the disco, completely non smoking. Yay. The band was good, unfortunately they are leaving after next week.

I also ran into the street entertainers, a ballroom couple. They remembered us from the May cruise.

We found ourselves at large table for 10, oval shaped. We met some nice people, and as is typical on the coastals some didn't come back for the second night. The only interesting thing about dinner was that the second night was a different menu than the northbound similar coastal.

We spent the sea day as we always do - dance lessons and relaxing in the Patasserie.

When we got the disembarkation information, we discovered we were among the last to disembark. It didn't bother me, because I was planning to take the day off, but Glen told me he was going back to work. It took until almost noon to get off the ship, but fortunately, unlike the northbound, they did set up a lounge area for the higher loyalty status passengers, so we had coffee, juice and pastries while chatting with fellow passengers. A roughly 1 mile walk to BART to get back to the airport to pick up our car followed.

At the BART station a local probably homeless guy was helping people buy their tickets, so we and others gave him a dollar. That' to my mind a creative and useful way to panhandle. Also, a couple were with us heading the airport to drop off their bags before catching a red eye home. Appartently they were then taking BART back up to the city to sightsee. It is about a 45 minute ride (btw, BART completed our planes, trains, automobiles and ship trip) each way, so that's a lot of overhead to drop the bag.

After arriving at the airport, we picked up the car, and resumed real life for a while, while still eagerly anticipating our next trip on the Star - our big one!

The day in Vancouver

We arrived at the Pan Pacific around 9am. Naturally, our room wasn't quite ready. We hung around the lobby until our friends arrived. Della and Joe decided to try for a noon flight, and so bailed on us for lunch. Sam and Kathleen, however, knew they weren't going to get on the noon flight to Seattle, so decided to stay for lunch.

Before that, however, I took them all to the hotel business center to get their boarding passes. We then walked Joe and Della to the air train station to the airport, a new public transportation system that apparently has been opened since the last time we visited the Vancouver airport in 2006. After a quick cheerful good bye, we head to Joe Fortes for lunch. It was a nice, although slightly expensive, lunch. We enjoyed getting to know Sam and Kathleen, and are hoping to see them when both our schedules settle down. They'd left bags at our hotel, so we headed back there with a stop at Rocky Mountain Chocolate for me to get a Caramel Apple.

We then wandered around Canada Place, and looked at the ships. There were three there that day - the Golden Princess (which we'd just vacated) and two Holland America ships. I left Glen to take a nap while I headed to a nearby coffee place for a quick internet check.

When I returned, we wandered around some more. There are two convention centers at Canada Place, so we walked around the promenade of the other building. There were display boards about the history of the area, and curiously, they chronicled some of the worst black spots on Canadian history.

Following that, we met our friend Tammy, who works for one of my client companies. We had a delightful hour at the hotel bar, and then she had to leave.

That, however, gave us time to watch the sailaways of the ships.

We watched muster drills. Here's one of the many things I love about Princess.

Here's the muster drill on one of the Holland America ships:


And here is the same view of the Island Princess during their muster drill:


Notice the difference? Princess musters their passengers in the theater and lounges - much nicer.

After sail away, we headed back to the room and relaxed until our dinner at Joe Fortes. Yes, the same restaurant we had brunch at. Someday, we'll have to go to a different restaurant in Vancouver.

We wandered back to the hotel after dinner, watched The Empire Strikes Back on TV, and went to bed, anticipating our next cruise tomorrow.