Victoria and Vancouver - May 2024

It has been some time since we took a three day cruise from San Francisco to Vancouver. We had one at-sea day, followed by a port stop in Victoria and a final disembarkation in Vancouver. Not enough time to really get into the cruising ‘spirit.’

San Francisco

Princess Cruises used Pier 80 for embarkation. This industrial port handles containers and roll-on/roll-off  vehicles. We took a 25 minute taxi drive from Fisherman’s Wharf (the drop-off location for our Hertz rental) to pier 80 as public transit wasn't available. Walking would have taken two hours (according to Google Maps).  The typical cruise piers for Princess are 27 and 35 and the even-number piers (up to 96) are south of the Ferry Building. 

The Princess check-in area was in a large empty warehouse and there were long lines (but moving quickly) for check-in and a moderate length walk from the warehouse to the actual boarding area.We didn’t notice the  location for luggage drop-off, so we simply walked our carry-on sized luggage onto the Grand Princess. A separate posting will share our cruise observations. 

Once underway, we were reminded how wonderful it is to view the Golden Gate Bridge as we departed California.

Victoria

After a full day of cruising, the Grand Princess stopped in Victoria from 12noon to 11pm. After lunch on-board, we met our local neighbors that have a second residence in Victoria. Together, we had a nice visit with a walking tour of the attractive downtown area, a stop for tea and a dinner at Finn's Seafood Restaurant before returning to the Grand Princess.  

Vancouver

After departing the following day from the Grand Princess at Canada Place, we had no longer than a three minute walk to the Fairmont Waterfront. Despite showing up at 9am, we were able to be in our room at 11am on the Fairmont Gold floor. This was our first time staying at a room on this executive level floor. We soon found that this area is considered by Fairmont to be a "hotel within a hotel," with a separate registration and concierge desk, full breakfast offering, snacks throughout the day, afternoon canapés and desserts in the evening. There were a variety of drinks available - all without additional charge - except for alcohol.

We particularly enjoyed the friendliness and helpfulness of the Fairmont Gold floor supervisors and managers during our stay. Well done! 

Here's a short run-down of our three day visit:

E-Bike ride in Stanley Park - we walked about 20 minutes to the Spokes Vancouver shop on 1798 West George Street to rent e-bikes to ride along the Park SeaWall. This shop is one of the closest bike rentals near the park. For two e-bikes for about 90 minutes, the cost was about $40 USD.

The six-mile SeaWall bike path around Stanley Park is auto restricted, so it is relatively safe. After being hit by a car while bike riding in 2022, I'm somewhat cautious about riding on streets with vehicular traffic. The views of Vancouver harbour and bay were enjoyable. 

Gastown Area - We walked this area several times as it was only a few minutes from our hotel. An interesting site was the Gastown steam clock. This clock was built in 1977 by Raymond Saunders. It is one of the few steam clocks in operation in the world. It was built to operate from the underground steam lines that clear winter snow and ice from city sidewalks. The clock has a steam whistle to signal the time. I recently read that the clock's backup electric motor now runs the clock as the steam mechanism wasn't sufficiently accurate.  

Gastown has many shops to browse and restaurants to select from. If you're considering a pair of Australian boots, be sure to drop by the Australian Boot Company. This shop offers R.M.Williams Chelsea Boots and Blundstone boots. The store wasn't busy and staff were extremely helpful in fitting a Comfort Classic R.M.Williams boot for me even though I was only 'window shopping.' Perhaps during our next Australia visit, I'll purchase a pair of Chelsea boots.

Granville Island - We spent a half day exploring Granville Island's Public Market and shopping area. After walking about 30 minutes from our hotel we crossed False Creek by small ferry. There were two options available to us, an Aquabus Ferry and False Creek Ferry. The senior rate for two round-trip tickets was about $3.70 USD. The crossing took three minutes at the most.

 

On our arrival, we walked through the Public Market. This indoor market hosts many local vendors offering fruits, vegetables, drinks, art items, candies, and baked items. We purchased donuts from Lee's donuts in the morning and had a light lunch of broccoli quiche and salad. We generally followed a walking tour from the New York Times. 

Flyover Canada - This is an immersive ride attraction in which you sit on a suspended seat and view spectacular IMAX like views of the Canadian Rockies. Occasionally, you feel wind  or mist on your face as you 'soar' through extraordinary scenery. The ride is similar to Disneyland's Soarin' California attraction. The cost for two is about $50 USD. Some detractors report this is rather expensive for a short video and 7-minute ride, but we enjoyed the attraction. We've also been to Flyover Iceland when we were staying in Reykjavik. 

Chinatown - We almost made it here. We started our walk from Gastown to Chinatown via Columbia Street. Unknown to us, the City of Vancouver has been pushing the homeless and drug users into this area from the surrounding business district. After seeing several people passed out on the sidewalk, we turned around. We later learned that the City is providing several services, including needle exchanges, drug and health counseling and housing assistance to those that are in this challenging area. Afterwards, Fairmont Gold staff said Chinatown is well-worth a visit but taking a taxi from the wharf area was advised.

Dining - If you're in Vancouver, we recommend trying Joe Fortes and Miku Vancouver. Reservations are advised as both are very popular and well-known. Joe Fortes is a chops and seafood restaurant that has been offering meals for over 35 years. We shared an excellent Dotty's salad and ordered the Miso Sablefish and the Seafood Cioppino. We were very full after our meal and brought a Carrot Cake back to our room for a later dessert. Note that this cake slice was very generous!

Miku Vancouver is a Michelin Guide restaurant. The menu is noted for its fusion of Italian and French influence on Japanese cuisine. Miku is well-known for its
Aburi Oshi sushi, which has a thin slice of flame-seared fish on a bed of rice. I had the Aburi Oshi sushi sampler (six pieces) for an appetizer and the Kyoto Saikyo Miso Sablefish, with kinoko gohan, miso bernaise and roasted squash puree for dinner. My wife had a Miso soup and Chef's Signature Sushi selection (10 pieces) for dinner. We didn't want to miss out on dessert and ordered a Green Tea Opera, with green tea genoise, matcha buttercream, dark chocolate ganache, Azuki bean cream, hazelnut water and matcha ice cream. We also ordered a Chestnut Pear Mousse, with cocoa sponge, pecan cacao nib tile, caramelized chestnut spiced browned butter ice cream. Note that Miku also offers a Kaiseki dinner - a six or seven course meal - featuring Aburi-style cuisine. Kaiseki dinners were our favorite meal when touring Japan in 2019.

Back to Northern California

On our final morning in Vancouver, we gathered our luggage and walked about five minutes to the Watertown rail station. From this station we took the Canada Line to reach Vancouver airport. This 25 minute ride was very convenient and less expensive (about $4 USD per person) than taking a taxi. There was no need to purchase a ticket as the turnstile reader recognized our credit card. Once reaching San Francisco, we picked up a Hertz rental to drive home. Unfortunately, the major freeway back home was closed in both directions due to police activity. Thus, with traffic congestion, the anticipated 75 minute drive ended up taking 5.5 hours with a long traffic bypass through Napa Valley.

San Francisco to Vancouver - May 2024

Photo from Princess Cruises 

Seeking a spring outing, we booked a short cruise on the Grand Princess. We'll travel from San Francisco to Vancouver. During the cruise, we'll have a day visit in Victoria, British Columbia, before heading to Vancouver. Recently, we've been cruising with Viking Ocean and this was our first Princess trip since 2019, when we toured Japan.

The Grand Princess is now the oldest ship of the Princess Cruises line. Its inaugural cruise was back in May 1998, a mere 26 years ago. It was last refurbished in 2019. The Grand Princess carries about 2,600 guests. At 107,500 tons and a length of 857 feet, the Grand pales in size to the latest Sun Princess, which is rated at 175,000 gross tons, has a length of 1,133 feet and a guest capacity of 4,300. As a comparison, the Viking Ocean ships from our most recent cruises only have a guest capacity of about 930.  These Viking ships do not have features such as casinos or art auctions - which is fine with us. That said, the Viking Ocean ships have a wonderful sauna offering - complete with ice room and cold bucket rinse.

On a three day cruise, there's just enough time to reacquaint ourselves with the Grand Princess, relax in our cabin and enjoy a few dining venues - and maybe enjoy an ice cream or two. One dinner for us will be at the Crown Grill (extra $40 per person) and all other meals will be in one of the included dining rooms, Horizon Court (buffet area) or smaller cafe areas.  We have some on-board credit (OBC) from a Princess promotion and from ownership of Carnival Cruise Line stock. Between the Crown Grill and gratuities, we'll pretty much exhaust our OBC. I don't believe we'll have any other on-board expenses on this short duration cruise. 

While in Victoria, we'll have lunch with neighbors that have a second home near there. This is a nice  departure from our typical Victoria outing to Butchart Gardens.  

Upon docking at Canada Place, Vancouver, we'll disembark the Grand Princess and head over to a nearby Fairmont Hotel for a few days. Afterwards, we board a flight from Vancouver to San Francisco and will use a 24 hour Hertz rental car to return us to our Northern California home. 

 

Updated Travel Plans - February 2024

CCO Public Domain

Six months ago, our future travel schedule looked quite a bit different than today. Here is a brief update to our plans. A number of itineraries have become available for 2026. It seems unusual to be scheduling so far in advance but some of these itineraries are popular and booking may become difficult if we wait too long.

2024

Vancouver Cruise and Vancouver City Tour 

We're taking this short (and unplanned) trip to repurpose the travel insurance policy from our rescheduled 2024 Galapagos and Machu Picchu trip.

San Francisco Presidio

This has become somewhat of an annual visit for us. We enjoy the hiking trails in the Presidio. It is great to park your car and not having to use it until departing for home.

Kenya

This two week trip is still on schedule. We're hoping the drought ends and improves the living conditions for Kenyans and wildlife. 

Big Island 

We enjoyed our 2023 visit to the Big Island and a repeat trip for 2024 provides a brief fall break. This time, we'll stay at the Westin Hapuna Beach Hotel - a sister property of the next-door Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. The latter is undergoing a complete renovation in 2024 and we weren't sure if work noise and venue closures would be a problem.

Christmas Markets in France and Germany 

This trip is still on schedule. We'll spend a few days visiting the seasonal markets in Frankfurt, Braunfels, Nuremberg, Mainz, Wertheim, Bamberg, Miltenberg, Speyer, Strasbourg and Riquewihr. We might look for a Xmas themed German incense smoker/burner. These hand carved figurines are known as Rauchermanner, or "Smoking Men." 

2025

Australia

Our current plan is to spend about a month in Australia and a short visit to Indonesia. This trip is on a Viking Ocean ship.

Japan

We hope to to spend four to six weeks in Japan. Part of the trip will circumnavigate Japan by cruise ship. We'll also try to include time for personal land travel.

Galapagos and Machu Picchu

Due to the 2024 unrest, we rescheduled this trip to 2025.  The rescheduled date should bring us to Machu Picchu in a better - and less wet - season.

2026

Germany 

We've booked an Elbe River cruise with Viking. This will be our first time on this river and a good opportunity for exploring Berlin.

Morocco, Algiers and Spain 

We've booked a ocean cruise that will bring us to parts of the world that we have not yet traveled. 

Our Travel Continues in 2018

We're starting to get ready for another trip. As we're fond of cruising, much of this trip will be on a small ship. The ship will embark on a transatlantic voyage that will bring us from the US to Canada, Iceland, Scotland, southeastern United Kingdom (UK), up to several northern Norwegian ports and back to the UK.  Once we finally reach solid land at the end of the cruise, we'll embark on a driving trip through the eastern area of the UK.

Since most of the trip will be on via a ship, at least we don't have to pack and unpack every few days. The downside of a cruise itinerary is that we only have one day in a particular port to take advantage of local sites. We've been researching our port stops and have arranged a number of scenic and historic tours.

One of our biggest challenges is packing. With a self-imposed limit of one duffel each, this means that we're not bringing along many changes of clothes. Due to the weather extremes we'll likely experience, we also need to pack for both cold and wet weather. We have access to washers and dryers and this will help reduce our clothing needs. Though past experience tells me that we'll be pretty tired of our clothes selections at the end of the trip.

What are some of the highlights we anticipate viewing on this trip? Below is a sample of the activities on our list.

• A visit to "David Bowie Is," an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. This exhibit is at the end of its five year international tour.  The exhibit is said to permit visitors to immerse themselves in Bowie's music, clothes and observe how he was influenced by science, fashion, people, art, events and sexuality. Over 1.8 million visitors have seen this exhibit as it traveled from the Victoria and Albert Museum to Chicago, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, São Paolo and Melbourne. If you're a fan of David Bowie, this is a must-see exhibit.
• With our first-time visit to Iceland, we hope to visit several national parks to view volcanoes, hot springs, geothermal lakes, lava fields and geysers.
• A return visit to Scotland that will provide opportunities for castle, palace, garden and distillery visits.
• A first-time visit to ports along the coast of Norway, as far as up to Tromso. If the weather and seas cooperate, we should be able to make a return visit to Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Some of these port visits will be focusing on museums and local attractions, others will provide an opportunity to stretch our legs on a hike.  For example, in Flaam, we'll take a scenic rail trip up to the high mountains at Myrdal and then ride mountain bikes about ten miles back to town.
• A stay on the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral, Mother Church of the Anglican Communion and seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This will be our home base for UK day trips by car. Each day, we'll return to the welcoming cathedral grounds perhaps not unlike those previous weary travelers on a medieval pilgrimage. With some spousal urging, I changed my original car reservation for a manual transmission vehicle.  I suppose there's no need to add to the confusion of driving on the left side of the road with the need to shift with my left hand. 

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and Heart Mountain
In the fall, we scheduled a first-time visit to two National Parks.  Through a fund-raising auction, I purchased a three day hotel stay at Jackson Lake Lodge, in Grand Teton National Park. Given our proximity to Yellowstone National Park, it only made sense to add a three day visit to this park as part of the trip. We hope to arrange a few hikes and even a rafting trip down the Snake River.

There aren't many airports that serve this part of the United States. With this in mind, we decided to fly back out of Billings, Montana. Along the drive to this airport, we'll make a detour to visit the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, in Wyoming. Along with 14,000 Japanese Americans, my mother and her family were relocated to Heart Mountain. The family entered the camp in September 10, 1942 after a temporary relocation from the San Francisco bay area to the Santa Anita Racetrack, near Los Angeles. At Santa Anita, the family and other Japanese Americans were required to live in horse stalls. Arriving at Heart Mountain Internment Camp, the seven family members moved to barrack 24-12-E and departed Heart Mountain between February 1943 and June 1945. This is an important historical event that needs to be remembered and lessons gleaned from what was essentially forced incarceration.

Halifax, Nova Scotia and Saint Johns, New Brunswick- 2016

Regal Princess
© 2016, R. Ono

During our visit to New York, we decided to add a five-day round trip cruise on the Regal Princess that would take us from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Saint Johns, New Brunswick. As an additiional bonus, this trip included two relaxing at-sea days.

When we left New York, the wind was very strong with some light rain. As the Regal Princess departed its pier docking, two tugboats pulled the ship away from its berth. Without this assistance, the wind could have pushed the ship back into the pier. The wind continued overnight and into the next day. The captain reported gale force 7-8 winds (30-45 mph) and up to 18 foot seas.

Although the Regal Princess didn’t rock and roll much, likely due to its four stabilizers, the weather caused the Captain to alter our itinerary. The change swapped around port days for Halifax and Saint Johns. Apparently, the entry into the port at Saint Johns is very narrow and the high winds can threaten the Regal Princess’ maintaining its path into the harbor. With this change, our walking tour of the historic town of Lunenburg, via our Halifax visit, had to be cancelled as the walking leader was unavailable for the new date. Lunenburg was founded in 1753 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This town is known to as a surviving example of a planned North American British settlement. The building architecture and original town layout has been preserved for over 250 years.

Our first day at sea was spent relaxing – largely in our mini-suite cabin. It was too windy to walk on deck and the ship was moving a little too much to use the fitness center. We’ve found that we're susceptible to getting quite a headache using the gym equipment when the ship is rocking back and forth. Besides visiting the on-board shops, having meals and watching a production show, the day moved forward in a slow meandering fashion. A highlight of the day was perhaps our dinner of escargot, Caesar salad and lobster.

Halifax

In Halifax, the highs reached only the mid-50s, with light winds. Without a planned port excursion, we walked along the Halifax wharf, enjoying the city and harbor views. Leaving the wharf area, we turned towards the Public Garden. This 18 acre garden opened in 1867 and contains over 140 species of trees, monuments, lakes and fountains. The garden is a National Historic Site of Canada.

Halifax has an interesting footnote as related to the American Revolution. Around 1775, when fighting occurred near Boston, Loyalists from the American colonies came and stayed in Nova Scotia. Over 30,000 Loyalists may have arrived in the Halifax area over the next several years and permanently settled. The downtown Halifax area provides visual clues of the British and American residents from the many stately Victorian buildings. The New York Times recently posted a travel article on Halifax.

Departing the Halifax port, we heard the Regal Princess’ fog horn for the first time. The horn plays the musical theme from the old “Love Boat” television show. I’m sure hearing this tune is entertaining for the passengers and nearby ships.

Theodore Too (an imitation tugboat)
© 2016, R. Ono

"Got Drunk" by Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenbertg
© 2016, R. Ono

Public Garden Pond, © 2016, R. Ono

Saint Johns

The weather was partly cloudy and with moderate winds as we arrived in Saint Johns. As rain 

was expected later in the day, we made the most of our time by disembarking the ship by late morning. We walked to the historic information center and enjoyed viewing the humorous human sculptures that were placed outside the center. Continuing our walk, we visited the Old City Market and viewed the colorful vendor offerings. The City Market is Canada's oldest farmers market, chartered in 1785.

Via a network of covered and climate controlled walkways ("pedways"), you can travel from the City Market through the Brunswick Mall to the Public Library and Convention Center. At the end of the walk, near the library, we stopped for coffee (and donuts) at Tim Horton’s before making our way back to City Market. Leaving the market area, we walked through the downtown heritage area, where we could view commercial and residential buildings from 1800s.  

John Hooper Sculpture
© 2016, R. Ono

City Market
© 2016, R. Ono

Saint John's Church
© 2016, R. Ono

© 2016, R. Ono

Our final day at-sea included a visit to the Fitness Center, watching Star Trek Beyond in the on-board theater and, of course, stopping at the mealtime venues. The below view was taken from our cabin balcony - certainly a reminder of the beautiful and rewarding sunrises that are sometimes available.

© 2016, R. Ono

Photos from Halifax

Here are a few photos from Halifax, Nova Scotia

Peggy's Cove
©2013, R. Ono

Peggy's Cove
©2013, R. Ono

Public Garden
©2013, R. Ono

Public Garden
©2013. R. Ono

Quebec Side Trip

We've been exploring the Quebec area for a few days. Yesterday, we rented a car and took a day trip over to the Ile d'Orleans, Basilique Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre and Montmorency Falls. The weather was a bit foggy turning into rain clouds, but it was great to get out into the countryside.

On our drive leaving Quebec, we ran into several detours on the streets and highway. One detour closed an entire intersection and our GPS tried to redirect us to the closed intersection even though we took several side streets. One detour led us through a commercial parking lot. Cars seemed to wander through the parking lot in no particular manner to bypass the closed intersection.

As this was October and a weekday, we ran into little auto traffic around the island. The tree colors ranged from yellow to red and the scenes from the drive were terrific - especially when the sun peaked out and highlighted the trees. We stopped at St-Famile to walk through a park on the edge of  the island.

Most of the fruit stands along the road were closed. As we drove from St-Francois to St-Jean, the views from the road were largely agricultural fields. As we entered St-Jean, the road wound around several houses that seemed to have front doors within 10 to 15 feet from the road.

Departing the island, we crossed the suspension bridge to the mainland and continued our drive about 15 miles or so. The parking lot at St Anne was not very full and no one was in the parking attendant booth as we entered the lot. St Anne is the patron saint for shipwrecked sailors. This basilica was the fifth on this site and was constructed in 1923. It is a huge building, with 22 chapels, 18 alters and 214 stained glass windows.

©2013, R. Ono

©2013, R. Ono

We especially enjoyed our stop at the Montmorency Falls. Our timing was great as we arrived just as the light rain stopped. We walked up to the falls and the park at the top of the falls. The tree colors and park trees were red and yellow. Walking through the forest on a path of yellow leaves will provide long memories of our visit.

©2013, R. Ono

©2013, R. Ono

After visiting the falls, we stopped at the Manoir Montmorency for a late lunch. With a glass of Chardonnay, onion soup and cheese and fruit plate, we capped a great afternoon.

If you're looking for Quebec restaurants for dinner, we particularly enjoyed two near the Hilton Hotel - Cafe Le Hobbit and Le Veau d'Or Enr. The latter was warm and inviting and had very reasonable priced and tasty entrees. Le Hobbit was very busy and reservations were required. A little more expensive than the other restaurant, we enjoyed the Duck Cannelloni and Duck Confit dinners at Le Hobbit.

Quebec Visit - 2012

We’re in Quebec for a few days before leaving for a cruise to New York. The weather was foggy and windy on day one but the fog burned off by noon. It was a fairly busy day, starting with a walking tour from Les Tours Voir Quebec. This tour started from the tourist information center in upper town and provided a historical discussion at several parks, churches, streets and buildings. The walk pace was fairly fast over the 2.5 hour timeframe. Stops included the Place d’Armes, Terrasse Dufferin, Jardin des Gouvernours, Seminare du Quebec, Place Royale, and a walk down Rue St Pierre. We didn’t stop and enter any buildings but the walk pointed out different architectural styles influenced by the French, British, Scots and Italians. After the tour, we stopped for lunch at LePetit Cochon, at 24 Boulevard Champlain, for a bowl of pork tokinese soup and sandwiches. It was great to have a few minutes to rest our legs and the food was tasty.

After this brief lunch break, we stopped at a glassworks near the Funicular base to watch a glassblower at work and took the Funicular to upper town. There we visited the interior of sites from the walking tour. This included the Basilique Cathedrale Norte Dame De Quebec; the Cathedral Anglicane Holy Trinity Church; Simons department store; City Hall with its tremendous Halloween decorations; Rue Du Tresor, an alley with many local artists with their paintings and sketches; the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac hotel; Terrasse Dufferin and the historical basement remnants of the Gouvernours’ Chateau. We finally headed back to the hotel around 3:30pm.

Over the next few days, we’ll visit a few museums, explore a few streets in upper town and rent a car for a day trip. The weather turned rainy for day two, but looks better on days three and four.

Over the past few years, many cruise lines have done away with luggage tags and, instead, ask passengers to personally print out their luggage tags at home and staple them to their bags before arriving at the cruise terminal. Many travelers worry a bit about whether the tags will become unattached and their bags float among the different ship decks until finally reunited with their owners. Here is an interesting alternative I read about on cruisecritic.com:

 

This reusable vinyl tag attaches to your luggage in a more secure manner than a staple. The tags cost around $3 each and are available from http://www.favorsbyserendipity.com/luggage-tags/cruise-luggage-tag-holder.html.