DAY 1---BOARDING THE EXPLORER IN VANCOUVER

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

       Vancouver is the third largest metropolitan area in Canada with a population of 2.6 million.  Of that 662,000 live in the city itself.  Of course, it is located in the very southwestern corner of the Canadian Province of British Columbia just north of the USA border and 230 miles to the north of Seattle, Washington.

       Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistical diverse cities in Canada with over half of its residents are not native English speakers.  Housing affordability makes it is one of the most expensive cities in Canada and the world. The port is the 4^th largest port by tonnage in North, Central, and South America.  Forestry is its largest industry with tourism coming in at #2.  It has the nickname “Hollywood North” as the film industry is one of the largest film production centers in North America.

       It is one of Canada’s warmest cities in winter.  Despite also being one of the wettest cities it gets very little snow in winters.

        It is a beautiful, modern city, whose cruise port (Canada Place) hosts many cruise line’s cruises to and from Alaska during the summer months.  This is where we will begin our Alaska cruise!

LAST EVENING

        We enjoyed some wine and drinks before ordering the pepperoni & mushroom pizza from Uncle Fatih.  It arrived in just 30 minutes so I went down to the lobby to pay and get it.  We all thought is was very good.

        I went to bed and watched a little tv before turning it off but lied there until after midnight.  Then I did not sleep much all night.  Not sure why but don't feel too tired this morning.  The two hour time change is not helping as I was awake at 4am (6am Dallas time) so finally got up at 5am.  

TODAY

        Rebecca was up by 5:30.  I am showered and ready for the day by 6am.  Hotel restaurant opens at 6:00 so going down to have a coffee with Jeff as he will be having his breakfast then.

        We had a very nice father-son chat while Jeff had his breakfast.  I am waiting for Rebecca to get ready and will have my breakfast with her.

        

                                                  Jeff enjoyed this but could not finish it.

        After his breakfast Jeff took a walk and got a better photo of our hotel.  We really like this hotel.  The shower is great and room very quiet except of airplanes taking off.  Rebecca loves the mirror lighting in the bathroom.  Staff is super friendly and helpful.

        Rebecca was ready for the day at 8am so we headed down for the breakfast buffet.  As Hilton "Diamond" status it was included free with the rooms.  Now we have an hour and half to kill until our Blacklane limo arrives at 11:00.

        Our Blacklane driver was a newby.  I have never stopped at so many lights on our 50 minute ride from the hotel to the port.  Then when we arrived the driver had no clue where to go for us to drop our luggage.  So we drove around for 20 more minutes.  I finally told him to stop and ask someone.  I WAS NOT A HAPPY PERSON!  No tip for him.

                                                                       Our limo

        There were many passengers already at the terminal.  We had our special "Diamond" check in line which was basically no one in it.  Quite a bit of walking but finally at a long Canadian immigrations line.  It went pretty fast as only 20 minutes.  Then to have our carry on bags x-rayed.  Walked on the ship at 1pm.

        We headed directly to our suite as Carlos, Executive Concierge, whom we know, told us our suites were ready when we checked in.

        Our special gifts as Diamond members.  A box of Leonidas chocolates, a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne, and flowers.

  Don't care for the fruit but DO like the Makers Mark.  They order and put it on special just for me.

        After dropping off our carry on, we headed down the have the communications services manager sign Rebecca's cell phone up for "streaming" so she can watch her soaps.  He also set up my phone and laptop for wifi.  He did Jeff's phone also.

        After that we ran into Anatoli, the General Manager.  He immediately recognized us, as did we him.  We had a nice chat and he called the Head Sommelier, Jessica, to come talk to us so we could order special wines for our dinner tonight.  Anatoli said he would be inviting the 3 of us to dine with him on the Seven Seas Society night.  What a great guy and happy to have him as our GM.

        Next we went up to LaVeranda for a bite of lunch.  Of course Rebecca only eats her Atkins bars for lunch (EVERY day).  Jeff had a small sandwich,

        I started with my usual anchovies, blue cheese, and some cole slaw.  Then I had just a little veal stew.  I'm saving my self for Prime 7 tonight.  After lunch Rebecca and Jeff went to the library and I went down to make a request that the next night's menus be sent to our suite the day before.  This so I can make a special order if I do not care for the menu.

        After returning to the suite I started working on this post.  Our suite steward, Jerson, stopped by to introduce himself and we made some requests of him.  He left to go find our checked bags and soon returned with them.  So now we are unpacking  Finished at 4pm.  

        We got a welcoming call from Anna, the Cruise Consultant.  She informed us that we by far have the most nights cruised on Regent ships.  We have 1098 nights before this 14 night Alaska cruise.  She said we would be recognized during the Seven Seas Society cocktail party during the cruise.

                    Gas station in the middle of the bay.  Float plane getting ready to take off.

            I went down to deck 5 outside walk way to take some sail out photos and Jeff was there. 

                                                     Bridge ahead and we went under it.

        This is the Meridian Lounge where we will be meeting Jeff at 6:00 for cocktail hour.  Our Prime 7 reservation is for 7:00.  Should be smooth sailing tonight.  Hope I can sleep better tonight.

        

FLIGHT TO VANCOUVER

         I was up at 5:15 this morning.  Spent time trying to get our yard sprinkler programmed,  (thought it was but not).  We finished last minute packing of our carry-on bags before Mike showed up just before 8:15 to take us to DFW.  It was only a 35 minute ride despite rush hour.

        No line to check our two bags and no line at TSA pre-check.  It was a long walk to our gate due to construction in terminal C but was at our gate by 9:00am.

        

        We had to wait hour and half before they started boarding and we were second in line for first class boarding.  Settled into 2a & 2b seats.  Departed gate 15 minutes late.  But no line for takeoff.

                                                     Lunch was beef and pasta.  Not bad!

        It was a 4 hour flight from DFW to YVR.  Seemed longer but I did have wifi on the flight so got some work done on this post.  Jeff texted that he has arrived before us at YVR.  He gave us heads up on what to expect with Customs clearing.

        We actually landed early and was at the gate on time.  Clearing Canadian Immigration was easy as 72 hours before flying we did our declarations via the ArriveCan app online. When here we went to a kiosk and swiped our passports and our customs slip was printed out to show after collecting our checked luggage and exiting.

        Jeff was waiting for us when we got up to where the hotels shuttles picked up.  We were at Hilton airport an hour after landing.  Very fast which surprised me!

        Our rooms were not ready yet so Jeff and I walked a few blocks to a liquor store to get Rebecca some chardonnay.  Funny as the store was huge and had thousands of bottle of wines for all over the world, EXCEPT THE USA!!   I got an Australian chardonnay.

        Our room was ready when Jeff and I returned but Jeff's was not quite ready.  We settled into our room while we waited.  Half hour later his was ready.  It's just a few doors down from ours.

        So it is now 4pm Vancouver time which is 6pm, our body time.  Seems like it is time for our happy hour.  Jeff got some ketchup flavored potato chips that were NOT good.  I had some cheez-its.  We will be ordering a pizza to be delivered for our dinner.  The front desk guy recommended a place called Uncle Fatih that delivers.  So I will publish this post now and have a Manhattan and chardonnay with Jeff.  Really good to see him as has been toooo long.
        

      

HOW TO BETTER VIEW THIS BLOG

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I will be making posts pretty much daily beginning Tuesday, August 25th.

CRUISE ITINERARY