Glaciers & Volcanoes with Bill & Mary Ann - 25 days on the Eurodam

[old mike]

Great photographs and commentary, the shots of the Salmon in Ketchikan bring back memories of our first two years in Canada.

 

As a new immigrant I accepted a job with Granduc Mining company in Stewart BC and the first fifteen miles of the drive up to the mine site meant crossing into Alaska at Hyder before crossing back into BC.

 

The creek that ran down through Hyder into the Portland canal was a nature documentary dream. In the fall it would be red with spawning salmon and literally every tree was filled with eagles trying to beat the grizzlies to the dead salmon on the banks. Vivid memories from the late 70's, such as the population of Hyder temporarily dropping by 50% when the state trooper from Ketchikan flew in on his monthly visit, it was a real modern day outlaw hide-out, the pot plants on the windowsills of the first chance/last chance saloon that served a very good ever-clear and a certificate to confirm that you had been "Hyderized"

 

Back to packing we leave for Vancouver and the Westerdam tomorrow morning.

Edited September 29, 2018 by old mike
spelling

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great photographs and commentary, the shots of the Salmon in Ketchikan bring back memories of our first two years in Canada.

 

As a new immigrant I accepted a job with Granduc Mining company in Stewart BC and the first fifteen miles of the drive up to the mine site meant crossing into Alaska at Hyder before crossing back into BC.

 

The creek that ran down through Hyder into the Portland canal was a nature documentary dream. In the fall it would be red with spawning salmon and literally every tree was filled with eagles trying to beat the grizzlies to the dead salmon on the banks. Vivid memories from the late 70's, such as the population of Hyder temporarily dropping by 50% when the state trooper from Ketchikan flew in on his monthly visit, it was a real modern day outlaw hide-out, the pot plants on the windowsills of the first chance/last chance saloon that served a very good ever-clear and a certificate to confirm that you had been "Hyderized"

 

Back to packing we leave for Vancouver and the Westerdam tomorrow morning.

 

 

How were you able to see the Ketchikan pictures?

[erewhon]

Thanks for your report and photos.

Guess those folk will not miss a ship in the future.

[erewhon]

How were you able to see the Ketchikan pictures?

 

The Ketchikan photos are on the blog link to Pictures 1.

[atexsix]

So is somebody packing up their stateroom as we speak? Would they fly to Victoria and meet the ship there? What happens with a missing the ship incident?

[Krazy Kruizers]

The Ketchikan photos are on the blog link to Pictures 1.

 

 

Thank you -- I will go and look for them.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I swear those pictures weren't there yesterday when I was checking everything.

Dolly's house -- a museum -- we toured it many years ago.

Love walking along Creek Street.

Great pictures.

[NextOne]

We enjoyed meeting you on the Panama Canal trip last May. We'll be on the Eurodam in March for the Tahiti cruise, so we're avidly reading your reports. Thanks, as always, for all the details and pictures!

Edi

[WCB]

Report # 8 Victoria,British Columbia September 28,2018 Friday Sunny and 58 degrees Part #1 Of 1 77 Pictures

 

Today began with the lightest breakfast we could order inthe dining room. Mainly, because we wereinvited to the Mariner Society Lunch at noontime. While sitting at a window seat at the veryback of the lower dining room, we experienced much vibration and noise. So the answer to the question, would a roomback here have problems with that? Wewould say yes to both. Especially if theship was going around 22 knots, like they are today.

 

The best aspect about today was the fact that we are seeingblue skies and sun for the first time for a week. Sailing south towards Vancouver Island findsus with warmer temps and scenic cruising. But the best part are the whale sightings. Humpback blows were apparent from a distance,and we hoped to catch more of it this afternoon.

 

At 11:30am, we were invited to the Mariner Society awards ceremonyin the BB King’s Blues Club. At themost, there were about 30 people invited. We figured they began with 4 and 5 star Mariners, and the new medalawardees. And us, of course,President’s Club, which is never advertised as a level of achievement. Why, we don’t know. A receiving line included the hotel director,the cruise director, and the Captain. There were only six people getting their bronze medallions, so theceremony was short and sweet. We hadbeen offered a mimosa, wine, or champagne, but we opted for one Jack Danielsand one mimosa. Canapies were passedaround to all. At the end, the two of uswere introduced, announcing our days, and we had our photos taken with thehotel director and the Captain .

 

Finally, we were escorted past the line of folks waiting toenter the dining room on deck two. Tables had been reserved for the high day group, and we had a nice onewith six other people. One of the couplesfrom Montreal realized that they have been reading our blog for some time. Andanother couple will be going on the 2019 world cruise, as well. Smallworld. And the same two couples we dinedwith will be staying on for the next cruise to Hawaii. Lunch for us consisted of a beer and cheddarsoup and entrees of beef pot roast. Dessertwas great - a chocolate cup of berrycompote covered with meringue. Coffeefinished the meal. Naturally, a flute ofchampagne was available for the general toast given by the Captain. By the way, none of the tables were hosted bystaff, and the dress code was smart casual. A nice affair, we thought.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent in our room on theveranda watching a display of humpback whales feeding. This is the best sighting we have ever seencoming down this part of the coast. Eventhough the pods were at least 100 yards off of the ship, we were able to getsome good photos of their behavior while eating, blowing, and diving.

 

Our port of call for this evening was Victoria, Canada, amust stop after visiting USA ports on this cruise. Arrival was supposed to be 7pm, but it endedup being 7:30pm. Since we had dinnerreservations in both the dining room and the Pinnacle Grill (thanks to a diningroom head waiter), we chose the Pinnacle Grill. They serve killer lamb chops in there, and there was no other entrée inthe dining room to top that tonight. Nosense leaving the ship in this port, since we will be back here on Sunday.

 

We began our meal with Caesar salad, lamb chops of course,and dessert of Baked Alaska. Normally,we would keep dessert off of the menu, but lunch was so early, we were actuallyhungry. The best part of Baked Alaskahas to be the Cherry Garcia ice cream in the middle. Rich coffee finished our meal. Expecting the room to be empty, we weresurprised to see it full of guests. Butthen, this is the final night of this 7 day cruise, and people want to get itall in before they leave.

 

It was rather pleasant walking the promenade deck afterdinner. Lights of the city brightened upthe area, as well as the NCL ship docked across from us. Earlier in the day, two Princess ships leftport, one pf which was the Star Princess. And since there was no live entertainment in the Mainstage theater, amovie, The 15:17 to Paris, was shown instead. We’ll have to watch for this to be shown again, since it looks like agood one.

 

Tomorrow will be a busy one, because most everyone will bedisembarking in Seattle. As for us, wehave a lunch date with our most favorite travel agent, Debra.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[Krazy Kruizers]

It seems like each ship does the awards ceremony differently.

When we were on the Westerdam, a new captain was not in the receiving line as we entered the Queen's Lounge. No pictures were taken of new people getting their medals. They announce the names of us with high number of days -- we were told just to wave our hands. Even the 4 President passengers only got to wave their hands. We had met one of the president couple members -- asked about the lunch -- no reserved tables.

[Krazy Kruizers]

You certainly got a lot of wonderful pictures of the whales.

[WCB]

Report # 9 Seattle,Washington - Embarkation Day September29, 2018 Saturday Partly cloudy & 67 degrees Part #1 Of 2 60 Pictures

 

It must have been much earlier than 7am when the Eurodam dockedat Pier 91 in the port of Seattle, as it was still dark. Today is the end of the line for the 7 dayAlaskan journey, but the beginning of an 18 day trip to and back from theHawaiian Islands. To be more precise,there is a 2 night cruise from Seattle to Vancouver. These types of “mini cruises” are nick-namedthe booze cruises. For couple of days, the Eurodam becomes a partyboat, or so we have been told. As wedon’t frequent those public areas after dinner, we will probably miss thatparty. What is not unusual is hearingthe party-goers coming back to their cabins after a night of fun and more thana little drinking. The solution tothat? Earplugs.

 

Early in the morning, one of us attempted to finish thereport from Victoria, yesterday’s port. However, something occurred with the computer that made the report andphotos go “poof”….gone, disappeared forever. That is so frustrating, because we knew wehad to re-do all of it from scratch. Atleast, we had not disposed of the port info.

 

Because we will be sailing onward, we received in-transitcards to show to the folks in the terminal. Also, we had to bring our passports with us to pass by theofficials. There are no more USdeclaration cards to fill out. There wasanother ship debarking their passengers at this pier – the Ruby Princess. So many guests were crowding the terminal,looking for their luggage. We had noneto find, so we lined up and got out to the parking lot in a few minutes. By now, the time was 9:15am, leaving us lessthan 2 hours to reach downtown.

 

From here, we had a long walk to Pike’s Market and the HardRock Café. Sure we could have taken ataxi, but what fun is that? It was only9:15am, and we had until 11am to get there. The good news is that we were meeting our wonderful travel agent, Debra, who is based in Seattle where shelives. It is not often that we are herein town on a weekend, so this worked out well for her. The shoreline bike and hike trail had adetour, due to a large construction project. But it was well marked, and we followed the signs that led us to afrontage road following the railroad tracks.

 

Did we mention that the weather could not have been moreperfect? It was partly cloudy, but notcold. Eventually, the sun peeked out, and it stayed that way for most of theday. No rain today.

 

Since today was Saturday, there were many locals out andabout. The city has Lime Bikes for rent,like we do in Walnut Creek. It’s reallytaken off here, because we had to be mindful of where we walked. We guess therewere about as many runners and walkers too. Once past the construction, we were back on the regular path. Benches and a few picnic tables lined theway. Estimating that our walk would benear 4 miles, we took advantage of some of those benches.

 

About halfway to downtown, we looked over the railings intothe water, and spotted a large sea lion. Appearing to be a grey rock, we could make out his head and tail. He must have been under six feet of water atthe rocky edge, simply looking at us. Ina few minutes, he turned and swam away without ever surfacing. That was the only seal we saw all day.

 

Snapping photos all the way, we arrived to the Pike Marketparking area and elevator to the top. Wow, there was a mob scene up there. Given it was a Saturday with the addition of two ball games at bothstadiums today. We have never seen it socrowded. The street souvenir stands werejust opening up, and trucks were delivering produce to the markets. Starbucks had a line ½ block long. Having 10 minutes to spare, we got to the Hard Rock Café to meet withour travel agent and friend, Debra.

 

Sure was nice to be able to spend a couple of hours withher, while enjoying a couple of entrée salads. Arriving at opening time was the best idea, because this place filled uprapidly. The ambience is fun, a bitnoisy, but that’s OK for a change. Thetime flew by, and by 1pm, we said our goodbyes, heading back the way wecame. The next time we will see Debra,it will be in January in Ft. Lauderdale before the 2019 world cruise. Believe us, that will come way too fast.

 

We had sun when we walked out of the restaurant, but theskies clouded up as the day progressed. Still, it was warm and balmy with no rain. So glad we did not bring the umbrellas withus. Taking our time, we got back to theterminal parking lot before 4pm. A funnything happened on our way back to the ship. Same as last year, a shuttledriver kindly stopped and offered us a ride back to the terminal building. Yes, we thanked him for his ride. A group of pier workers (those that checkpeople in) were waiting for this ride back to their cars. Their work for Princesswas done, since we saw the ship leave well before 4pm.

 

Going through the security check, we by-passed the newguests checking in, and went directly to the ship. Going over our list for this next cruise, wenoticed some things were missing. Sincewe had to turn in the customs declaration once again for Victoria’s stoptomorrow, one of us went down to the front desk to take care of that. Another funny thing happened on the waythere. The lights went out. Apparentlythey were testing the “plug” where the ship can operate on local power, insteadof our generators. The test did notwork, and we lost some power for a few minutes. Sure is dark on deck one without any windows to give it light. All the ship’s TVs lost their content aswell. Our new Captain, John Scott, cameon the speakers explaining the blip, and promised all to be correctedsoon. It was within minutes. Then there was the follow-up of our amenitiesfor this cruise, which was booked under a separate booking number. More shipboard credit was coming, andflowers, sodas, waters, and canapies, which had already been delivered. What was missing was the bottle of welcomeonboard champagne, but it arrived in a bucket of ice shortly after ourrequest. We sipped this sparkling wineon the veranda, while the rest of the passengers had to attend the musterdrill. We had been excused, because wedid this just one week ago.

 

The remainder of the afternoon, one of us worked on photos,while the other relaxed outside, taking in the warmth from the setting sun. Acomplimentary shuttle was available starting at 5pm to the Westlake Center intown. Running every 30 minutes, this wasnice for those who may want to go to dinner in Seattle. The last shuttle was at 9:15pm, savingpassengers a lot of taxi money. Since wehad reservations for the Tamarind at 8pm, we did not wish to go back totown.

 

Our meal in Tamarind was just as pleasant as our first timehere. Service was excellent as was thefood. This evening we switched up ourentrees with one order of lobster and one veggie tempura. Both were really tasty. Spring rolls and Thai salads started ourmeal. Desserts were Thai donuts drizzledwith three sauces, and one fortune cookie with coffee. We were finished after 9pm, and did haveplenty of time to attend the one show at 9:30pm. However, the entertainer was comedian, DanChopin, and we chose not to go. Instead,we took a short walk outside to get some fresh air.

 

The ship left late after 11:30pm. Since we had such a long hike today, we neverdid hear any noise from the party-goers. We were asleep instantly.

 

Tomorrow’s port will be Victoria once again. Hope the weather holds up.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sounds like you had a wonderful day in Seattle and evening meeting up with your TA for lunch.

Great pictures.

[MTAK]

So we would have gone to the sail away, but there was noorganized one on the aft deck. By 1pm,the Captain came on the speakers with his daily talk. Seems that some people were missing, and we werenot leaving yet. Watching from ourveranda, the gangways were pulled in, while an announcement was made for twopassengers. We could see them attemptingto run up a side street towards the ship, towing large packages. Guess they assumed the ship would leave at1pm. Guess they were wrong. Talking with who we assume was the portagent, the ship slowly pulled away from the pier, and left them standingthere. That will cost them dearly, weare afraid. We have seen it happenbefore on other trips, but the Captain has no choice, as it costs the company alot of money to go beyond their time slot.

 

 

We were also on this cruise and watched this episode play out.

 

We attended the port presentation earlier in the week, and it was surprising to hear the Cruise Director say that they left passengers at Ketchikan every week this season.

[erewhon]

Thanks for your reports, great photos of the whales.

[Spinner2]

The earthquake/tsunami disaster in Indonesia has surely affected some crew families. Are you getting any information?

[JamesEM]

Liked all the whale photos.

[sue1898]

Enjoying your reports! The globe with the eagle is the local newspaper building the Post-Intelligencer.

[WCB]

Report #10 Victoria,British Columbia, Canada September 30,2018 Sunday Partly cloudy, light rain & partlycloudy Part #1 Of 2 80 Pictures

 

Today’s port of call was Victoria, British Columbia,Canada. At least we are here from 8am to11pm, and not arriving at 7:30pm. What achange the weather took from two days ago. On Friday, there was sun, while today it is heavily overcast anddrizzling. Luck of the draw, we guess.

 

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia with apopulation of 80,000 people. DecidedlyBritish with tearooms, double-decker buses, and horse-drawn carriages, there isalso another side to this area. Remindersof older cultures are reflected with the totem poles of the indigenous tribes. Victoria is nicknamed the city of gardensfilled with prim English-style gardens. And being that we are visiting during the start of autumn, we have beentreated to the changing of the colors of the landscape.

 

There were a few tours offered today starting from $40 to$130. Among them were city tours, a tripto Butchart Gardens, tearooms, and a whale watch zodiac ride. We did see the orca watch boat go by while wewere taking an early morning walk around the promenade deck. The ten passengers looked pretty cold intheir bright orange jackets and life vests.

 

One thing nice about not taking tours is the fact you neverknow what you might run into when you are on your own. That was what happened today. After breakfast, we left the ship for a walkto downtown. There was a shuttle service for the price of $12.95 if bought onthe ship, or $13 purchased on the pier. The bus dropped you off at the Empress Hotel, then would provide you areturn trip back at the latest, 10pm. Walking for us was easier. We didnotice there was a display of military vehicles, as well as a naval vessel onthe pier. Locals were touring throughthis display.

 

It was evident from the deep puddles in the streets that ithad rained this morning. A steadydrizzle kept us damp, but with our arctic jackets, we stayed warm and dry. Since the Eurodam was the only cruise ship inport, there seemed to be less of a crowd in town. The closer we got to the center of town, wecould hear bagpipes and possible singing from a chorale group. Yes, something was happening at theLegislative Assembly of British Columbia, the seat of parliament. A group of uniform-clad men were singing thenational anthem…..something that reminded us of a veteran’s group.

 

Over at the Inner Harbor, we saw that Government Street wascordoned off, and lined with police and fire vehicles. Something big was going to occur. Before it did, we ducked into the EmpressHotel for our usual stroll through there. Coming out the front entrance, we heard the bagpipes and drums as onegroup after another of police and the Royal Mounted Police marched down thestreet. Giant flags had been hung withcranes, adding color to the dismal skies. Although we could not find that today was a national holiday, we figuredthat was a parade dedicated to police and military veterans perhaps. Whatever the reason, we felt honored to havegotten a front row spot to watch it. Allof the groups ended up at the Parliament Building where the ceremony continued.

 

We continued up Government Street to go to Earl’s forlunch. This restaurant is more like thesports bars we have in the US, but the best thing is that they serve a reallygood pizza. And we ordered a Margheritapizza of course, followed by a shared slice of pumpkin pie. All was delicious.

 

We did a little window shopping in the shops on the wayback, and happened to catch the return of the parade men and women coming backfrom their ceremony. Every participantpaid strict attention to their flag at half- mast as they passed by the poleand the bronze statue of a soldier in front of it.

 

On the way back, we followed the pathway that went aroundthe water’s edge. Few tourists go thisway, and as we passed by condos along the way, we could get a glimpse of lifein Victoria. According to the ship’sinfo, many retirees come here to enjoy the mild and usually snow-freeclimate. Can’t say we blame them.

 

Back at the cruise terminal, we checked out the souvenirs inthe compact store, but decided we needed nothing. Back onboard, we headed back to our room tocontinue watching the next episode of Game of Thrones. Downloading photos and working on today’sreport took us to dinnertime.

 

The upper dining room was about full at 8pm fixed seatingthis evening. Everyone around us wasnew. We understand that many of thesepassengers will be leaving tomorrow in Vancouver. It has been a bit tricky trying to make ourfuture specialty dinner reservations for this next voyage. At the front desk, we were told that theycould not get into the next portion of the Hawaii cruise, since we were stillin the middle of a 2 day cruise. Thatwas not the case at the Pinnacle Grill, where the manager gladly took our listdays requested days to get us booked. Whileon the subject of trying to arrange things on the phone, we are sorry to reportthat every time you attempt to call any department, you have a very long waitfor someone to pick up your call. Tenminutes of waiting is not unusual.

 

Anyway, for dinner one of us ordered French onion soup, andthe other had a peanut-cilantro salad, or more like Mexican tortillasalad. Mains were the honey mustardchicken with mashed potatoes. Onedessert of tres leches cake, and a fruit plate made us both happy.

 

The one show in Mainstage was at 9:30pm, and featured thesingers and dancers with “Off the Charts”.

 

Tomorrow, we will be in Vancouver, but the stay will berather short, since we have to be onboard by 2:30pm in order to be seen by theUS Border & Protection agents. Wejust hope it isn’t a rainy day.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[Dogstar]

Although we could not find that today was a national holiday, we figured that was a parade dedicated to police and military veterans perhaps.

 

 

 

It was the annual BC Law Enforcement Memorial Service ...

 

http://www.bclem.ca/next-memorial/

 

https://globalnews.ca/news/4502739/bc-law-enforcement-memorial/

[erewhon]

Thank you for your report and photos of Victoria.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you were able to get your favorite pizza in Victoria. I do like when we are able to have a nice long day in Victoria.

Off to view your pictures.

[Krazy Kruizers]

As usual -- great pictures.

[Overtime4me2]

Hoping this link works.

 

 

http://cruisingwithbillandmaryann.blogspot.com/

KK, thanks for posting the link. Enjoying the pictures. Love AK!

 

Sue

http://www.suebees.wordpress.com

 

 

Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

[WCB]

Report #11 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Another Embarkation Day October1, 2018 Monday Rainy & 57 degrees Part #1 Of 3 80 Pictures

 

Today was the end of a two night sailing from Seattle, thebeginning of a 16 day voyage, and the continuation of our cruise, which began10 days ago. Confusing? You bet….it was going to be one humdinger ofa day. We sure didn’t need the additionof internet glitches, but that also happened this morning.

 

We had been given directions for today’s procedures, whichturned out to be the most confusing one we have had in regards to theimmigration check here. First of all, wewere in-transit, and had one, just one in-transit card delivered to us. We needed to call about that, even though weasked for one at the front desk earlier. It never arrived. All guests hadto present themselves for clearance by the US Customs & Border PatrolProtection officers, who would be available from 10:30am to 2:30pm only. If we wanted to go off earlier, we would needto be back before 2:30pm. The ship wasdue to leave around 5pm, but all aboard was 4pm. You could not come back at 4pm, or you wouldhave missed the US Customs check. If youchose not to go into town, you had to go with a group at 10:30am to seecustoms, then wait out the time when the ship had zero clearance before youre-boarded. We did hear that 22 of uswere in-transit, but we do not know how many passengers were the 2 nighttrip. Probably quite a few.

 

While we were deciding when to get off, we wanted to takeadvantage of the internet while in port. After today, there will be 5 sea days with questionable internetconnections. Turned out that our complimentarytime from the Alaska cruise was gone, and the computer was not recognizing ourpin number. So we spent considerabletime with guest services trying to figure it out. The internet gurus never seem to be availableduring these transition days. So we didnot resolve this problem, and also could not download the new set of minutes ormegabytes since the system said we were already logged in. Another mystery. We had no choice but to take care of thisbefore we left Vancouver if we were to save our time. Initially, we were told all of the serviceswould roll over to this following cruise. Guess they were wrong.

 

Wanting to have a little of time exploring the city, wedecided to leave around 9:30am. Goingthrough the maze to get out, we ended up showing our room cards, photo ID, andthe in-transit card with a reminder that we had to have our passports withus. That was easy. Coming back was more complicated.

 

Did we mention that it was raining. Never believe the weather report they show onthe TV, as they are seldom totally correct. A bit warm, we wore our arctic jackets and also took umbrellas. We needed all of it. There sure is a difference between now, thefall season, and the summer season. During the summer, you can count on a ton of tourists on the waterfrontwalkways. Today, there were few peopleout and about, except for locals. Hardlyno tourists. Of course, last year, wewere here on a Sunday, and it was a different story. Today being Monday, most every shop andrestaurant was closed on the waterfront. There was a lot of activity on the water though. Float planes and some boats were coming andgoing in the harbor.

 

Here’s a little info on Vancouver in a nutshell. The city lies on a peninsula surrounded byinlets, bays, and rivers tht all flow into the Pacific Ocean. Downtown is full of glittering glass towerswith some sandy beaches. Forests, and walking/cycling paths everywhere. It is a natural setting that can be describedas postcard perfect. One thing wenoticed was the freshness of the air, as well as the cleanliness of the cityand parks.

 

The population is about 603,500 people, and the elevation isa mere 10 feet. There is lots of thingsto do and see, but today there was little time for much. Two destinations for us today was StanleyPark, where we can see the towering Western red cedars and hemlocks. Douglas firs house squirrels, while we couldstill find some berries among the salmonberry, huckleberry, and something calledbog buckbean. Established in 1888, thepark has 1000 acres to explore with 16.7 miles of trails. One day we hope to hike them all, but wewould need a whole lot more time to do it.

 

It took about an hour for us to reach the start of thepark. That’s about where the Rowing Clubis located. Further up the road was thepark’s kiosk and restrooms. It’s alsothe beginning of the Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tours where you can take a ridefor $45 a person or $42 for seniors, which lasts for one hour. There are four different breeds of horses usedhere. They are Grey Shire, Clydesdales,Belgians, and Percherons. Two of theirwhite horses from Yorkshire are named Dudley and Denzil. Cool names and also a near way to see thepark.

 

This was our turn-around point, since we needed to be backin town for lunch around 12:30pm. A niceplace that we have gone to the last three years is called Steamworks Pub andBrewery. The establishment is namedafter the Gastown steam line that runs through the property. Their beer is brewed on-site. We ordered two 18oz beers, one house salad,and a crispy fried chicken sandwich to share. All was quite good. We hadremembered a dessert by the name of hedgehog, which we seem to recall it wassimilar to mud pie. But we ended up withsomething similar, with two flavors of ice, a cookie-type crust, and whippedcream sprinkled with chocolate shavings. There was a hint of peanut butter, so this must have been a differentdessert – equally as delicious and calorie loaded, no doubt.

 

Located close to Canada Place and the ship, we got back tothe cruise terminal around 2pm…..plenty of time to do the immigrationscheck. Showing our room cards andin-transit passes, we were directed towards the security check first. The next stop was at the kiosks in the USBorder Patrol. Self-explanatory, weregistered each of our passports, and pushed the correct buttons, getting apaper document to hand to the agent. Oneof the questions asked was if we had any contact with farm animals whilevisiting Vancouver. Do you think pettingone of the horses in the park counted? Sort of forgot about that when we pushed “no”.

 

Sure was nice getting back to our room to relax for awhile. Of course, the rain had let up bynow, and it was looking good for the upcoming sail away, only the second one ofthe two cruises so far. But first, therewas the obligatory muster drill at 4:15pm, which we happily did not have toattend. Hearing every whistle and wordof the drill on the veranda was just as good as going there on the promenadedeck. By the way, we have had a changeof captains and CD…..now we have Captain John Scott and Cruise Director ErinDuffy. We met her a few years ago whenshe took over on the Amsterdam’s world cruise.

 

So we went back to the aft deck and it was wellattended. Even some canapies were beingserved, while many folks bought the drinks (mostly beers). No sooner did we walk to the back railing, itbegan to rain big drops, sending several guests under the overhang. Wearing the heavy jackets was a great idea,as they are waterproof and warm. As fastas it began, the rain stopped. Then, outof the blue, a couple that we met on this year’s world cruise appeared. In fact, we ran into them on the Panamare-positioning cruise in May, while it stopped in Victoria, where theylive. Was really nice to see them, andknow we have several more days to visit with them. Surprisingly, earlier in the afternoon, weran into two other couples who recognized us – one from the world cruises, andthe other from reading Cruise Critic blogs. Always nice to know that there are folks who are reading it every year.

 

Once the ship went under the Lion’s Bridge, the Captainslowed down to do a yearly check on the compass. After that was accomplished, he headedsouthwest towards Hawaii.

 

Dinner tonight was in the Pinnacle Grill. Last night, we turned in our request forseveral dinners in here and the Tamarind. They all got confirmed, so we will dine away from the dining room aboutevery other evening. As always, the foodand service were excellent. We walked tothe Mainstage to catch part of the first show of the cruise – Preview. There was only one performance at 99:30pm,but the lounge was not really full. Guess many people turned in early tonight –it had been a really long day. Now wewill have 5 days at sea to rest up for 5 days in Hawaii.

 

Bill & Mary Ann