Alaska Cruisetour review- Statendam July 2013

July 2013 Alaska cruise/tour

HAL Statendam, 3 days precruise Vancouver, 9 days post land tour: Seward, Alyeska, anchorage, denali, Fairbanks

Who are we: family of 5 minus one. Dad had work so we left him at home. Myself and DS x3 (ages: 5,10).

We love cruising. We are nearing cruise #20 and have only cruised with kid(s). When looking at past trip photo albums, the little ones are jealous of all the places older brother has been to...... They are super excited about seeing some places this trip, that older brother has already been to.

However, initially they asked if we could leave him at home since he had already had the chance to go. HAHA-- no boys, we are all going to go together!

Travel preparation: Ugh! We have done really well the last few trips traveling light. One checked bag, 3carryons (For the 5 of us) but this trip I did not do well! If I pack ahead of time I usually take items out of the forever growing piles but this trip since I had a lot going on with work just before leaving town, we ended up packing early but literally "packing early". We packed the bags and zipped them up over 3 weeks ago. Which was great except I think I added items in, since I was worried that I didn't pack enough...... The day before leaving we had one large bag to be checked and then 4 carryons. PLUS car seat bags x2. I was worried about carrying these awkward carseat bags around so opted to put the booster seats inside a suitcase to make travel easier with them. Plus with the post land tour I though the car seat bags would take a beating vs carseats inside a suitcase. Oh well, will just need to pay for more bags to be checked, but worth the $$ since I am traveling without DH.

Another reason we are not traveling light.....We have about one carryon filled with food. The kids are kind of picky eaters and we have many long day trips planned that we will need food. I didn't want to have to go shopping on vacation for snacks for them, so decided to take most everything we would need. Will just need to buy some bottled water in Vancouver and maybe some juice boxes and we should be set. I hope I don't return home with all this food. It is a challenge to guesstimate!

This is our first trip leaving the camcorder at home, was a hard decision for me to make but with bringing 4 binoculars, one camera, one iPad (eek leaving the computer at home as well), iPhone -and land tour with our luggage being unattended many times, and 3 kids, I just thought I should try to trim down the bulky packing and valuables list. I can video with the iPad and camera but the quality will not be as nice. Oh well. I am also bringing a full size daypack to help hold the daily items for he four of us

Day 1

Flight non stop LAX to Vancouver. Thanks grandma for dropping us off at the airport. The traffic for her to go home looked a little painful- hopefully it wasn't too heavy. We could not leave the car at the airport since we are flying home to another city. YIPPEE was able to use miles for first class at the end of our journey and fly into airport closer to home! We chose LAX since it was nonstop, cheaper ($135) and flight times were more optimal on the outbound.

LAX bag check: the system was slow for some reason, but not an issue as we arrived ~ 90 min early. Due to slow system the agent was a little more chatty, he asked me why I only had 1 carseat but 2 kids the same age, and I told him the other was in the suitcase (carseat, not the kid) since I didn't know how I would carry 2 car seat backpacks myself, so I thought the extra $30 was worth it. Surprise, No charge for the checked bag, that was nice!!

Flight coming in with our airplane was delayed due to LAX runway traffic, (reinforcing why I prefer to avoid LAX..... Pre and post landing runway traffic can get heavy). No big deal for us, except I really needed to get on the plane so I could add 2 hours of sleep on to my 1.5 hours of sleep I had from 4-5am, due to Last minute emails and work before leaving town.....

Warning.... I am using my IPad for the first time posting with CC. Hopefully the cut/paste works easily.:D

I am sure I will become more skilled with it after each post.

i will add in pics from the iPad intermittently. Camera photos will have to wait til after the vacation concludes:)

I have just encountered that once I paste in from notes to CC I can't edit or add pictures in between words. Anyone know how to avoid this?

VANCOUVER

I had forgotten how beautiful YVR customs area was. What a nice welcome to the city with the lovely water feature and cascade down the staircase. There was a line snaking around but it moved quickly.

We opted for taxi From YVR to Fairmont waterfront. $35.

We landed a little before 1p and were checked in to our hotel room by 2:15

VANCOUVER: temps mid 70's and partly cloudy. Forecast had called for small chance of rain but none so far. Beautiful blue skies and partly cloudy.

FAIRMONT WATERFRONT: Check in was efficient and great. Westcoast Suite on 3rd floor was beautiful and spacious. For a suite I anticipated the bathroom to be a little larger, but it worked for us. We had a beautiful corner room at the pan pacific last pre cruise. At the Fairmont we were given a choice of floors but I thought the 3rd floor terrace with table and chairs, plus proximity to the pool and beautiful harbor view and Canada place was excellent . We opted to hang out close to the hotel this first afternoon. Toured the fairmont herb gardens, and bee hives. They had several items for the kids, coloring books, information book, etc. Then a quick dip in the pool. Brief nap. Then walked around the harbor boardwalk. I didn't realize that the fairmont pacific rim was so close to Canada place..... I may have opted for the pacific rim vs the waterfront but since I wanted a super easy task of migrating my munchkins on sail away day from hotel to Canada place, I had only looked in to pan pacific or waterfront. The pacific rim is only about 2 buildings away from the waterfront. For anyone needing to buy a few items at a market. Urban fare is a few blocks away from Canada place. Seems to be a WholeFoods type high end market but probably will work for most unless you are buying in bulk, then you may want to travel a little further to the full grocery store.

Edit after day 3...... Just shop at urban fare if you are staying near Canada place. Don't bother with Safeway! I broke my toothbrush somehow and went by a drug store x2 and Safeway as well as a grocery store near second beach and by far Safeway seemed a little pricey. 10 koolaid boxes were 1.97 at no frills grocer by second beach. Same item at Safeway was $5.97!! Toothbrush was $9.89 at Safeway vs $4@ no frills store.

DINNER: we opted for the Fairmont. The entertainment book coupon gave the 10 year old a nice Cornish Game hen entree for free and I had the scallops with prosciutto. The 5 year olds could have had salmon, beef filet, etc with kids eats free, but they opted for pizza and grilled cheese. Everything was outstanding with exception of the cheese pizza, all of the dishes were prepared beautifully but the garnish on the pizza- was a huge miss for the little ones. They didn't want green vegetables on their pizza..... "I asked for cheese only mom"....... Our server was fabulous. She offered to bring a new pizza, but we opted for a quick bowl of yogurt instead.

Wonderful ending to our 1st day in Vancouver. Time for bed!!

I have to give you an A+ for being able to handle luggage, equipment and 3 children.

Looking forward to this review.

Why are my pictures upside down??

Any iPad experts that can advise how to resolve? I don't see where I can rotate or flip them.....

Unless you want to stand on your head and look at my pics or flip your monitor upside down I guess no pics with my review until vacation concludes, unless I find a solution.

Sorry!

DAY 2

Vancouver: beautiful sunny day again with blue skies and partly cloudy. My guess is 70's

No one was very hungry this morning. So we had some of the snacks we had brought with us... Mini chocolate muffins, pop tarts , and fresh fruit from dinner last night.

First stop capilano suspension bridge. I had not pre purchased tickets. Not sure what the best bargain out there was but we just stopped at concierge to find out when and where free shuttle was and they advised we had to have a ticket to get on the shuttle (not correct) and the shuttle was leaving in 10 minutes and every 15min thereafter. We were given a $2 discount on the published price of admission. However, on our printed pass it noted that as a bonus we were also allowed to board the pink buses. Not quite sure if this is offered daily but was a big bonus to get the pink bus HOHO tour and capilano susp bridge admission for less than the regular price of the HOHO tour.

CAPILANO BRIDGE: the kids had a great time. The park area is as beautiful as I remembered it. Found out that the 10 year old is extremely afraid of heights especially on a moving bridge. He knows my weakness -spiders, and now I know his!! Overall we explored the area for about 2.5 hours. The hawk was out at the raptor center, so we sat for a little bit there to listen to the presentation. We also went on the sky walk which we had not done before. Not sure if it is new or we just didn't realize it was there years ago..... Beautiful and a nice relaxing morning. The kids wanted to see the hatchery. We were advised it was a 10-15minute walk. I didn't look at my watch upon leaving but I think it might be a 10" run..... It felt like a good 20-30minutes for us to get there.... Enough time that I got to hear "how much longer and are we there yet" numerous times..... Hhhhmmm, note to self: I think we will call a taxi from the hatchery gift shop to come pick us up after we look around.

CAPILANO RIVER HATCHERY: very nice. we looked around , the area seems to be reduced from when we visited years ago. The kids had fun. oldest DS likes to read every sign, so we were here for a bit. I thought we were able to walk further around to see the large tanks with the different size/aged salmon but either i was recalling incorrectly or they have closed off some areas. But the biggest issue...... NO GIFT SHOP. Looks like it has been closed for awhile. No phone to call taxi. While I was telling the kids we could not call for taxi and we needed to walk back, a nice tour driver said where do you want to go? " we just want a ride to the end of the hatchery turn off road, we need to walk back to capilano bridge and the walk was a bit longer than what we had anticipated ..." He said come with me, I brought 4 people up here from the bridge that didn't want to go inside the bridge area, so we can take you all the way back. Wow!!! Jackpot, what a very nice man. Saved my little kids legs and me having to make up games the entire way to keep their minds off their walk :)! Upon arrival back to the bridge area we were there less than 5 min and then were on our way back to downtown on the shuttle. Next stop westin bayshore. We hopped off the free shuttle and then hopped on pink bus, we then rode to GRANVILLE ISLAND. Hopped off and walked around. The kids liked the ducks and Canadian geese. The waterpark area looked fun but we didn't have bathing suits. Went to the public market and then we boarded the free ferry with pink bus back to downtown. We explored the beach area for a little bit and then boarded the HOHO BUS at the aquatic center. The kids thought the beach at Stanley park looked fun and asked to return there the next day.

VANCOUVER AQUARIUM: they have expanded some since we were last here . We only had 3 hours to tour so we opted to pay an additional $38 for a year family membership so that we could return the next day.

STANLEY PARK: looked around, played at the playground, walked thru the rose, flower and cactus gardens....

We walked back to the fairmont via the waterfront. It was now 7:45pm after our leisurely stroll back from Stanley park. Dinner: mcDonalds

Bedtime!!

Favorite of the day: HOHO tour- was a nice way to see the city quickly. I didn't let the also added factor of being free sway me on this vote.

For the kids: they loved the aquarium and beluga show. Also loved pacific white sided dolphins but playing around in the tree tops at capilano was fun too!

My ship coming in to port.:D:D

Please let it be right side up!

Edit: upside down again! Makes no sense to me.

Deleted another attempt at pic:)

DAY 3

VANCOUVER: weather, same, temp in the 70's beautiful blue skies, partly cloudy. Either there were sprinklers on the terrace or we had some rain last night......

Breakfast buffet at the fairmont was excellent. We were able to order waffles and chocolate chip pancakes included with the buffet.

AQUARIUM: Taxi to the aquarium. $10. We could have taken public bus but there was a special members only early entrance at 8:30 and I figured the $10 taxi was worth it to have the park less crowded for an hour and we didnt wake up early enough to take bus and arrive by 8:30.

Definitely excellent choice!! By noon there were lots of people! It was so nice having the less crowded hour. The kids spent more time today just reading the exhibit signs and viewing a little more in depth vs the quick look at this, look at that from yesterday. They loved the frog and amazon exhibits today. I highly recommend watching the 4D salmon run movie. It was great!!

STANLEY PARK: walked around, played at the playground. Didn't realize there was a waterpark here as well and we again did not bring swimsuits.

MINIATURE TRAIN- the kids enjoyed the ride. It was different from many years ago. There was a storyline to the ride but it honestly was a little challenging to keep up with due to the screaming kids in front and behind me (not mine). Raven and bear and can't elaborate to much more on the story, $5/ per person

STANLEY PARK: hiked around on the trails and then down to the

STANLEY PARK HORSEDRAWN tours: $48 for the 4 of us with our Entertainment book coupons. This was a nice 1 hour ride around the park with a brief stop at the totems. All 4 of us were a little over walking any longer. So this was a perfect wake to walk the sea wall by horse. The tour gave us a quick look around, beautiful views of Lion's gate bridge, and excellent history about the park and the horses. We were also able to see a princess and holland ship in port while on the horse cart tour but I have no idea which ships they were.

Next planned was walk back to the hotel but the kids heard the tour guide mention

LOST LAKE and they wanted to go find it. We did! it is no longer lost! Next stop since we were already on our way there...... We continued walking to

SECOND BEACH. we didn't know they had a nice looking pool (heated) for $2-5/each. Maybe next time.....

We played in the tide pools and the kids caught many little Goby fish. they played on the beach and then the playgrounds. Next walked back to the hotel. We left second beach at about 5:30 and were back to the hotel by 8pm.

The walk down Robson St was nice. lots of shops and people watching. Stopped for dinner for ~ 45 minutes, made a few stops for souvenirs and also bought water and juice about 4 blocks away from the fairmont. Found someone's drivers license on our way back too- turned that in to the fairmont front desk.

So far we have been in shorts, short sleeves, and flip flops. Good job packing thus far!!

Will I use my warm clothes this trip?

FAIRMONT: quick swim this evening, weather was beautiful.

COOKIES AND MILK: nice treat for the kids from the fairmont this evening.

Favorites of the day: tide pools. 2nd place: slower paced visit to the aquarium and spotting the sloths! 3rd: salmon movie at the aquarium

Vancouver overall: great weather, clean city and streets, we did not encounter a heavy amount of homeless people as some prior reviews but I imagine this may be due to the streets we happened to choose to walk on. Very friendly people.

Fairmont overall: excellent customer service, beautiful property, sparkling clean, room furniture excellent and no signs of wear in the places we visited. Herons restaurant was outstanding. x 3 meals. Food quality was excellent, service was prompt and friendly. Pool and garden area was immaculate. Pool was heated. The terrace furniture was definitely worth picking 3rd floor room. We sat out there every evening. We had issue with our room folio - I prepaid entire stay but charge was showing up exceeding what full prepay was, but this was resolved easily. Overall 5* was earned and deserved.:)

We had he following on our to do list but didn't end up having time. We thought about going to the botanical garden this morning but the kids voted to stay close to hotel until time to go to the ship.

Lynn canyon park- we opted for capilano

VanDusen botanical garden/queen Elizabeth park/bloedel floral conservatory-- went to second beach and tidel pools instead

Science museum- ran out of time :)

I love reading what all you have been doing in Vancouver.

I have no idea how to fix the upside down pictures.

I just enlarged them and turned by laptop upside down.

Love your pictures.

I love reading what all you have been doing in Vancouver.

I have no idea how to fix the upside down pictures.

I just enlarged them and turned by laptop upside down.

Love your pictures.

Thank you!!

We have had a wonderful start to our trip thus far. It has been a nice quiet morning. I am glad the kids voted no botanical gardens even though I really wanted to see them..... Next time.....

Not sure what to about the pictures. I will feel a little silly continuing to post upside down pictures for the next 2 weeks??:D:D

I'll see if google can help me

Now you will be able to see my low quality ipad pictures with my review:D:D

Here it goes, one more try:

Now you will be able to see my low quality ipad pictures with my review:D:D

Here it goes, one more try:

 

[ATTACH]278948[/ATTACH]

For those of you that can't blow up my screenshot-learned screenshot today too!!

Google my bestfriend says:

The home button should be on the right when you take a picture or at the bottom for vertical pics.

I can only attach one picture at a time with the I pad?

Pictures are not my friends right now.....

The kids were super excited to find it!

This was on Granville. Giant styrofoam pieces. Everyone was participating building up the structure.

Yummy!

Reminder after today , no more upside down pics, I know what to do, but can't change the pics I have already taken:D:D