By Bon Voyage! All of these posts were about my Alaskan cruise…but the cruise does end in Vancouver. I know Canada isn’t part of the US…yet…but I decided I had to keep the title Alaska because that’s what the trip was mainly about.
The next two days are somewhat lost – a lot of hurry up and wait. I had room service to start the morning as we pulled into Vancouver. The cruiseline want you out of the room by 8 am so they can begin flipping (they’re turning around and taking another set of passengers from Vancouver to Anchorage – back and forth, back and forth). I had to set my luggage out the door by 10 pm the night before. So now I was sitting in the lobby/atrium waiting for my group to be called to disembark. It was the lottery and I was unlucky Blue 3. Basically everyone and I suspect the crew got to get off the boat before me. That’s okay because I had nowhere to go and all day to get there. My options to fly back to Atlanta are extremely limited – either a 9:30 am flight (which I couldn’t make because of when I was leaving the boat) or a red-eye (which I didn’t want to do after my dreadful Hawaii red-eye that broke me). So I had a day in Vancouver to pull myself together. I had visions of going on a bus tour or going to the park.
My body had other plans. After a bit of drama trying to get to Fairmont Vancouver hotel, I was spent. I met two absolutely lovely couples – one finishing up a train trip across Canada and one getting ready to go on the Explorer from Vancouver to Anchorage (the return trip of my cruise). It was nice to socialize while I waited for my room. The hotel receptionist upgraded me to a corner room which was stunning. It was rather unfortunate that I was only staying one day. Today was rainy and grey. I did roam around the city a little, but I was feeling kinda blah. I ate at Joey’s (great restaurant near the hotel) and came back to my room and crashed. hard. I was zonked out. It became clear there wasn’t going to be any touring of Vancouver. I ate at the hotel restaurant,Notch8, for dinner. I had a salad with salmon, which was perfect. I met a nice couple from Illinois who were on my cruise (I met them at the Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage and a few times while on the ship). They too were worn out and chose to take it easy at the hotel restaurant before adjourning early. Lucky them had one more day in Vancouver.
I had to be out the door by 6ish in the morning in order to get to the airport three hours before my flight, which is the recommendation according to Delta/WestJet, so I went to bed early. Next time I will stay longer in Vancouver (and stay at that hotel)! I sense the city has a lot more to offer than what I experienced.
My alarm went off early and it was off to the airport. The taxi driver was very friendly which was nice. I walked in the door and over to the WestJet counter where I was immediately assisted by a gate agent who was incredibly helpful. I didn’t even have to stand in line (well, except to go through customs). The Vancouver airport is easy to negotiate – not sure you really need to be there three hours before a flight, but as always it is better safe than sorry. The great thing about Vancouver is customs is there, so I didn’t have that headache in Atlanta.
I found a Tim Horton’s to enjoy some authentic Canadian coffee and donuts. I went to my gate, which I will lovingly call ground zero for viruses. Everyone around me was coughing, coughing coughing. I eventually fled to duty-free to escape the germs.
The flight was uneventful. WestJet has incredible leg room…but no entertainment system. I could have hooked up my iPad to watch movies, but instead chose to read a book. The bad thing for me (and my sister) is my flight landed at 5:30pm (again – not a whole lot of choices). My sister got stuck in all sorts of traffic coming to pick me up.
She and I had a welcome home dinner at Brookwood grill (ironically or not, I had a Salmon BLT) and then I stumbled home to sleep.
I’m guessing I didn’t sleep a lot on the boat, or maybe the time zones really threw me off, because I was tired. And with all that coughing, I’m sure I was exposed to something.
I know it was a good vacation because I had a great time AND was also glad to be home.
