Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Voyage of the Glaciers (2015)
All aboard the Grand Princess!
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| LEFT and CENTRE: Riding the Skytrain to downtown Vancouver | ||
| RIGHT: First glimpse of Grand Princess at the cruise terminal | ||
Once again, there was absolutely no pressure to be up early, which was just as well as I didn't even wake up until after 8am. We sought out a light breakfast in the airport concourse, finding a suitable offering in a popular coffee shop. I also finally managed to obtain a bottle of sparkling British Columbia wine to take on board the cruise ship a little later. Somehow time passed very quickly and we were soon checking out of the Fairmont and walking to the airport Skytrain station. This was a new addition to the network since my last visit to the city, offering direct service to Waterfront Station and the cruise terminal.
In all honesty, the cruise ship boarding experience on this occasion was fairly horrible compared to my one previous experience in Japan, with huge queues for both Security and US Immigration. The whole process took two hours. We eventually got on board and settled into stateroom D110, which was second from the front on the port side of Dolphin deck, two decks lower than on the previous year's voyage on Sun Princess. This time around, the cabin had a less spacious layout, but it was still an excellent choice by any reasonable standards. The decor looked a little bit tired, which certainly correlated well with the fact that the vessel was due to undergo a major refit at the end of the current season. Soundproofing didn't seem to be as good as on Sun Princess, but on the other hand, having an end-of-corridor cabin was a huge benefit in terms of minimising corridor footfall. The beds were pushed together and made up as a double, but were quickly split into twin singles when we pointed out the error.
An early priority was a late lunch in the Horizon Court buffet restaurant, only half of which was open. Back in the cabin, our departure canapés arrived, together with an ice bucket for our own champagne. Additionally, there were already two filled complimentary glasses of fizz in our fridge, from cabin steward Eric.
As the weather conditions for departure were really quite poor, the only sensible option was to sit inside with the balcony door open. At 4:30, the Holland America ship Noordam left first and the ship's log would later show that fourteen minutes later, we in turn let go our mooring lines, pushed ourselves clear of the berth using the thrusters and began to move ahead under engine power. The two ships departed as though in stately procession, making a left turn around Stanley Park and then steaming westwards under the Lion's Gate Bridge.
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| Berthed in Vancouver | Time for Holland America's Noordam to get underway | Finally, departure time for Grand Princess | |||
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| The customary departure celebrations |
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| Passing under the Lion's Gate Bridge |
As a departure celebration, we enjoyed our cold shrimps, canapés and sparkling BC wine, the latter being nice enough despite not being very dry. This was followed up in due course by a room service order of soup and a pizza to share, and we were in bed by 10pm on this first night at sea, hoping that the weather would show some signs of improvement before morning.