Stealthdog

Every time we walked through there yesterday, there were children in there. They weren’t loud or misbehaving, so I didn’t care. The Observatory looks like a great place to spend some time, particularly yesterday when it was colder and wet on deck.

Our tour guide with LandSea gave us some of the history of Guinness, the bridge, and north/west vancouver. Not as detailed as you, but makes me appreciate the tour even more. I looove Stanley Park, even more after sailing past it last night and getting to appreciate how big it is. It’s probably in my Top10 things to do/visit list, and it’s a huge draw to get us to come back to Vancouver for a longer land vacation.

Dinner in Allegro last night was a disaster. Eric got the cod, which he enjoyed. I got the French onion soup, which started the dinner of well. It wasn’t too salty like some other versions on other ships and was easy to eat. I got the short ribs and when it arrived and I cut into it, it had weird grayish-green hue in it. No big deal, I sent it back and decided to just go with the NY strip. First one came out well done, second one arrived with the restaurant manager and came out well done, with the manager apologizing after I cut into it. Third one came out well done, with the manager again apologizing after I cut it into it. I would have spent all night until they finally brought out a steak medium-rare or medium, but we didn’t want to waste any more time. Ended up getting the fettuccine Alfredo, which was pretty good. We skipped desert because the the table next to us wasn’t very happy with it. It was probably the most disappointing dinner experience we have had on a cruise ship.

Wet departure from Vancouver yesterday. Everyone was packed outside for the departure. We skipped the spa raffle to watch the departure and it was worth it. One of the nicest views for the departure with great views of the city, Stanley Park, north Vancouver, and other sites. Our favorite is still Venice, but leaving Vancouver was awesome. Only disappointment was the ship didn’t play the love boat on its horns. We went inside to watch the sailing under the bridge.

Day 1 event listings

Having more than a dozen cruises, Vancouver is probably the weirdest and most confusing port we began a cruise with. We got dropped off somewhere in the parking garage of the terminal, I lost track how many levels down we went - attendants just kept directing the driver down levels. This is the first time I’ve checked in to a cruise underground. The porters were all helpful and immediately packed luggage onto their carts and there were representatives present to help direct people where to proceed. We were sharing the embarkation with a Holland ship and sometimes we were not sure if we were proceeding in the right direction (for Princess be Holland travelers). Soon enough we were checking in with Princess and received our medallions. We then proceeded through 4-5 other points, going up and down areas and snaking through roped lines seemingly for no reason. I’m used to 1, sometimes 2 stops to board a ship, not sure why we had so many different checkpoints. I thought we were finished when we processed US customs, but I think we had a medallion checkpoint before the ship, and then another one when boarding the ship. As confusing as the constants stops and need to keep going up and down areas was, the whole thing only 30 minutes, so it was tolerable. Once on the ship (about 11am) we switched to airplane mode and got on the Wi-Fi, which was easy enough. We had a little help with the internet station and explored the ship a little. Shortly after 1200 we decided to head to Allegro for lunch. It’s a bit of an adventure because you can’t get there walking thru Deck 6. I think we went up to 7 and then down to 6 to access Allegro. We have been on a ship with a similar experience, so it wasnt to difficult to figure out. The lunch was ok (not great, not terrible). The selection and layout of the buffet at World Fresh Market looked really nice - other ships are really congested with their buffet layout. The Majestic seems to be better - I’ll check it out at a high volume time. After lunch we did the obligatory gym and spa tours. The spa seemed fairly standard. We often get a thermal suite pass on ships, but will skip it on the Majestic. For us, it was weird for the spa not to be collocated with the gym at a deck near the top of the ship. The gym seems a little small for the size of the ship. There looks to be plenty of cardio machines, but anyone looking for space for weights will be disappointed - it’s about the same size and equipment as a well equipped hotel gym. 2 things we had to take care of today we did - excursion credit and speciality dining. We received a coupon book after booking and paying for a Princess excursion. We brought the digital coupon book to the excursions deck and they applied 10% of the cost of our excursion back to us as OBC. We waited for the speciality restaurants to be staffed by someone at the front to get our dining straight. We were originally booked for the French restaurant, which has been replaced by The Catch. Princess changed our reservation at some point to Harmony. The employee at the dining station was able to change it to The Catch at a reasonable time (630). She was also able to change our Crown Grill reservation from 820 to 520. Originally she told us we had to make our own changes on the App or the digital stations around the ship. Don’t take no for an answer - of course they can help with your dining reservations.

Success! I’ll give a run down of the boarding later. It wasn’t too bad - 30 minutes from arrival to the port until we were on the ship. Was a lot of mindless standing and walking in lines without any real understanding of where we were going, but I’ll take 30 minutes! And my traditional first drink on board - mimosa!

They had some really nice rose bushes on display, but the bus drove past that area so we didn’t have an opportunity to walk through or enjoy that area. There were some interesting purple circle flowers that were nice and some other white ones I didn’t recognize. While driving through, there were some we could see from the bus, just not well.

We had a 2 night stay at the Loden Hotel on Melville Street. We booked through Fine Hotel & Resorts program through AMEX Platinum. Using the travel benefits we got $200 off each night (booked one night in 2022 and the other in 2023). It’s a fairly expensive boutique hotel, so using the perks made it affordable. When we checked in, they took care of us by putting us in the same room each night. We got really lucky with a corner room - 2 sides are all windows! We also have a $60 breakfast credit each morning with the adjourning restaurant and $125 hotel credit to spend, so we ended up having dinner at the restaurant as well to use up the credit. The restaurant is called Tableau, it’s French themed and offers breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner. it’s a really nice hotel in a great location. The staff is really friendly, they have a bottle of wine in the lobby for Happy Hour, and a nice gym that noone seems to use. A surprising perk is if you ask the front desk for a ride somewhere in the city they will take you. They dropped us off at a bakery last night and are taking us to the ship this morning. They also have spa services on site, but we didn’t check them out. The bathroom is nice - separate shower and tub. It might be the deepest tub I have ever seen. They also use Molton Brown products - a few small travel size bottles just happened to find their way into our backpack for us to bring on board to use because this will definitely be better than what Princess has in the cabin for us. I would recommend the Loden to anyone staying in Vancouver for a pre or post cruise stop, if it’s within an affordable range for you. It’s in a great location near the cruise terminal, Canada place, downtown, and Stanley park, and away from the known drug areas so it feels safe walking.

Update on the binoculars drama. There are a number of sporting goods stores in Vancouver that have a lot of affordable hiking, camping, and other outdoor equipment. We talked to a couple locals for some recommendations and ended up getting a good set of binoculars at a place called Mountain Equipment Company https://www.mec.ca/en We went there after the tour, so took a Lyft instead of walking there (we didn’t want to end up in a questionable part of the city). MEC is great - they also offer first responder and military/vet discounts to US citizens who meet those categories.

Here is the landsea tour contact information if anyone is looking for more information on tour options in Vancouver.

Some other pics of Vancouver from our walking along the river area or other areas. It appeared they have 5 lines that use this port - Seaborn, Viking, Celebrity, Holland America, and Princess. Celerity Millenium was in port on Friday, but we met a couple on the plane that were sailing on Celebrity Eclipse (we love that ship), so it’s a very popular cruise port. Near the cruise port they have a seaplane excursion option, which is probably a lot of fun. We didn’t have enough time to try it this time.

Granville Island is alot of fun. It is a concentrated area of artists making goods and a huge food market where you can buy groceries (fruits, vegetables, meats, etc) or get a meal from just about any ethnic food. Close to the downtown area, so it’s not too far to go. We were in Granville Island for about an hour and this easily could have been a half day expiration as well. I wish we had more time there. It is easy to get lost there, so make note of where you are on a paper map or google maps, so when you explore down the alleys and unmarked walking areas you know where you need to get back to.

Prospect Point appears to be another popular tourist stop, with some walking paths and areas to explore. We only had about 15 minutes there, so not much time to explore. They did have some interesting bird watching (I think the bird below is a humming bird) and some nice views of the bridges and areas across the river from Vancouver (which I think is called North Vancouver and West Vancouver). Prospect point does not seem as mobility friendly as Stanley Park because there is a lot of stairs down to the walking paths. The area up top is mostly flat.

Stanley Park is awesome. They have a nice little Totem area, tons of bike and hiking paths throughout, lots of animals (apparently including coyotes, which we didn’t see), and some parking areas for people with some mobility issues. There options right outside the park to rent some bikes, and it’s also close enough to the downtown area that you can probably bike from your hotel. Would have have spent a half day or full day just in Stanley Park - it’s a very nice space. Edit - I’ll have to fix the upside down pictures later - didn’t bring my laptop with me on the trip.

The landsea tour reminded me of a cruiseship excursion. They picked you up at the hotel, bus you around the city, and you stop at various points to get out for a specific time. At the end they bring you back to your hotel. We were torn between a hop on hop off do it yourself ticket and this landsea tour. I think we chose the right one. It was a full tour (about 25 people). The seats on the bus they use were one of the most comfortable bus seats I have been on. The bus they use also have USB ports so you can charge your phones on board. Some of the people had luggage stores, so it seemed like they were either coming straight from the airport or going to the airport after the tour. The traffic in Vancouver did not seem terrible, so I wouldn’t be worried about being late to a flight because of traffic. Specifically, we had 3 stops - Stanley Park, Prosect Point, and Granville Island. They also bussed us all around the city and gave us some interesting narration and history of the neighborhoods, including the cruise port so you can see where you will need to go. One interesting benefit of the bus tour is they intentionally brought us through the less reputable areas where you can see people sell stolen goods and doing drugs openly in the public. It was horrifying and intriguing at the same time! I’m glad we had that experience because we would not have known and could have accidentally found ourselves in those areas. NOTE - DONT go to Chinatown in Vancouver. In fact, I would highly recommend reading up on the latest of Vancouver before you venture out on your own. The city itself is beautiful with interesting architecture, clean streets, and then boom you are suddenly in an area with dozens of people doing drugs, and likely not in very stable mental conditions. Know where those areas are so you don’t stumble into them by accident. If it wasn’t in the high 50s, low 60s in mid June, Vancouver is a city we could see ourselves living in.

Have a safe flight today! Looks like it will be overcast most of the day with a high in the low 60s. Not too bad!!!!!

Thanks for the heads up. Tendering definitely complicates the ease of getting on and off the ship, and timing for private tours. I’ll update as we go through which ports are tenders and partial tenders.

Quick update and will provide more information later. After the 6 hour flight, we landed in Vancouver last night. Went straight to the Loden Hotel and went to bed. Loden looks beautiful. Jet leg not too bad - woke up at 5am local time, so after tonight I shouldn’t have any issues. I’ll post some photos of the hotel, the tour we are doing today, and thoughts on the Air Canada, the Vancouver Airport, and Vancouver itself. Also, bad me….I forgot to pack the binoculars, so we will be looking to get a cheap pair today.

I plan on going to the restaurants to book first thing when we get on tomorrow. In my experience on other lines, they withhold a lot of seats from pre-cruise booking and you can book good times when on board. Will find out tomorrow.

I’ll try to get some photos so you can get a visual of it.

Packing complete. For the ~15 days, we ended up with 4 suitcases. If we were more familiar with Alaska and Princess we would have done 3. We organized the suitcases by phase - 1 for Denali, 2 for the cruise, and the little one for Vancouver and toiletries. We most definitely overpacked but wanted to make sure we had what we needed. Because we finished so early (a first) we just decided to head to Dulles early and hang out at a lounge. LyftXL from DC to Dulles is about $80. This is the first time I have been to Dulles in over 5 years. Last time I remembered it being hectic. This time, really quiet. No lines at all to get through security. We decided to hang out at the Turkish Airlines lounge. It’s pretty nice here - they have a self serve food area with ethnic Turkish foods a bar with automatic pourers making it quick to get drinks.

Awesome - see you soon! Feel free to contribute as much as you want. We (ahem Eric) wanted to specifically be on the Majestic, so we are really looking forward to it. How long a trip is it from Seattle to Vancouver?

I'll let you know! We were split between the half-day tour and the Hop on Hop off ticket, but wanted something that really didn't require us to plan our own stops.

I'll make sure to pay attention to walking distances and type of terrain we walk on, and include that in my review of the tour.