Cruise Trip Report - warning long

[katiesue]

Trip Report – Alaska June 21-28th

Participants – Katie (44), Maddie (15), Aunt Liz (60ish), Cousin Lisa (39)

We flew into Vancouver a few days early. Maddie and I arrived around 5 on Sunday the 19th. We had no lines for customs or baggage claim and were headed to the city in a towncar in no time. We looked into taking the Skytrain but with all the luggage a car just seemed easier. It ended up being a $42 flat fee to the hotel which didn’t seem bad at all to me. It was about a 25 min drive.



Liz and Lisa had already checked in ahead of us. We stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Canada Place. The location is perfect. It’s literally the upper stories of the cruise ship building. So you can just take an elevator down to the right level to get on the boat. The bellmen will also come take your bags and check them through. It was a very nice hotel. We had two rooms. Liz had found some great deal on them, she paid for the rooms so I don’t know the exact amount.

So we checked in and then went to find some dinner. Liz had already interrogated the concierge so we had some nearby options. We picked Steamworks which was a pub a few blocks from the hotel in Gastown. I can’t even remember what we had, nothing was bad but nothing was beyond wonderful. Then we walked around Gastown for a bit in some of the tourist shops then back to the hotel.



Monday we got up early and had a quick breakfast at the food court across the street. Maddie had McDonalds and the rest of us went to Tim Hortons. All the tour busses stop directly in front of the hotel so we went out and got tickets to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was about a 20 minute bus ride out to the location. It’s a beautiful setting and besides the bridge there is also a cliff walk and a treetop walk. Definitely worth the trip. We grabbed a few souvenirs and headed back to the hotel. Once there we grabbed another bus tour that took you all around the city and through Stanley Park. It was a hop on/off tour. We just took it round trip and ended up back at the hotel around 1.





We then headed back to Gastown for another concierge recommendation, Rogue Kitchen, which was very good, for lunch. We then took a short walk past the convention center to the Olympic Flame sight which was pretty cool looking. We then walked around and found a grocery store and got some snacks and a liquor store for some booze for the ship.

After that we walked down Robson Street, one of their shopping districts, most of the stores were the standards, Gap etc. And then back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and a dip in the Jacuzzi.

We decided to try the hotel restaurant for dinner. The food was fine but the waiter wasn’t the nicest. He seemed a bit put out by having to wait on us at all. Lisa ordered a steak and he gave her the choice of two sauces. She asked if she could get both since she hadn’t tried either. He seemed like this was some MASSIVE deal but agreed to give her both. Our food came and only one sauce. She asked about the other and again he seemed massively put out but brought it. He then made the comment leaving the table that normally he’d have to charge for that. Which honestly he could have said at the start and it was a very expensive dinner, I think you could throw in an extra sauce. That all left us with a bit of a bad taste.

Tuesday morning we looked out the window and the Wonder was already docked. It looked very small from our room. We hit the food court again for a quick breakfast then just walked around for a bit. We came back to the hotel and had the bellman take our bags. Then we took the elevators down to the cruise dock level. Checking in and customs went pretty smoothly and we didn’t have to wait horribly long to board the ship.