Blackduck59

Apparently cruising isn't for you. Your political attack on Dr. Henry was just not on. I'm sorry you had a bad cruising experience that's not Dr. Henry's fault.

I'm getting tired of the lame excuses for cutting simple things, Butter pats, packaged sugar and sweetener, now crackers. All in the name of reducing plastic packaging. Am I the only one that remembers that all these things were once found in paper packaging? Butter pats and crackers used to be packaged in waxed paper and the sugar and sweeteners were and are in paper packages. These people are running a floating hotel, penny pinching under the guise of being "Green". I don't really use saltines except in my soup, fine cheeses deserve something more than the little square crackers found in the red box (here in Canada). HAL is a big enough company that they could order up a special batch of saltines in paper packaging complete with the HAL logo probably for less than 10 cents per unit. Even at that low price it would add up to thousands of dollars a week to keep the world wide fleet in crackers. I had take out Chinese food the other day for my lunch they haven't been able to get the small soya sauce packages for months.

The Yukon is experiencing unprecedented wildfire activity this year. Here in BC we have had a rather mild fire season so far so we are lending some of our fire crews to the Yukon. This is our way of saying thank you to the Yukon for the help they gave us during our extreme fire season last year.

For those who asked for an update with regards to the wounded Police officers from the shoot out 2 weeks ago. I just saw on the evening news that the most seriously wounded member who has had at least 3 surgeries was moved out of intensive care today. He has a long recovery ahead. Another member was released from hospital so that will leave 2 members still in hospital and 4 recovering at home. Details of the investigation have been kept to a minimum. Some disturbing videos of the perpetrators have come to light and this may be less about robbing a bank and more about shooting police.

Have you been to the Yukon? We are looking at ways to do that. I haven't been there since 1977 and my wife has never been there. You could easily spend a week on Vancouver Island and only scratch the surface. I have lived on this island for most of my 63 years and haven't been north of Campbell River.

If you come back let us know, I'll stand the first round. I'll see if Barbs has any merch for sale, they don't show any on their website.

Aren't the little harbour ferries fun? We take them sometimes just because they are fun. We can park outside the downtown core and hop the little ferry into the inner harbour and wander around like a tourist. We haven't really gotten into Barbs, our favourite Fish & Chips shop is nowhere near Downtown. I was happy to see a ship that was here during the day. So many ships show up in the late afternoon and stay for about 4 hours. Victoria deserves a whole day, not just a 5 minute stop to fulfill the PVSA.

We had a visitor in Victoria today. We happened upon a small group excursion at the summit of Mt Tolmie, you can see the ships from there. I decided to take a picture, a royal visitor as it were.

I should just let this thread fade and die but felt I should chime in. The title of this thread is COMPLETELY misleading. I thought it was someone (like myself) who felt that Viking had not delivered the cruise experience they had expected for the price paid. When it turned out to be whining about the terms of payment, which are very well known. I just went, huh? Like many others who have responded, I think that you buy the product with the terms that apply or don't. There is no "standard" to live up to. If that product does not live up to your expectations then you may comment on that (which I certainly did after my cruise) Maybe now would be a good time to let this poorly titled thread fade off the board.

Try a "Pimm's Cup", it's not as dry as a G&T but a nice cocktail. Traditionally made with "Pimm's #1" mulled cucumber, lemon juice and ginger ale. My wife really enjoys them.

We were just watching the evening news and the flooding in NSW is quite alarming. It looks much like parts of British Columbia during last fall when we had the "atmospheric river" event. We hope everyone is safe. The destruction looks quite complete from the pictures they showed. Take care everyone. Lynn and I are thinking of you and hope you're on high ground.

Welcome to cruise critic. You will find much knowledge here and folks are more than willing to help. I thought I should mention that Australia is a vast country about the same size as the "lower 48" United States. So seeing much of that in 15 days will be hard. When we planned our 2 cancelled cruise vacations down under we planned to be away for 28+ days. The cruise portion with many port stops in New Zealand was a one way from Auckland to Sydney and that was 11 days. I'm sure you will get lots of good advice here but I suspect most will tell you 15 days isn't nearly long enough. Cheers, enjoy planning your trip.

I'll try San Juan, Puerto Rico

Perhaps they were magic mushrooms😉 I like mushrooms in pie they make a nice accompaniment to the all important meat. I'm sure there are some tasty pies without meat. I like cherry or banana cream myself although other meatless pies like apple and peach are quite satisfying. 😁

Nothing of substance, 3 officers have been released from hospital and 3 are still in hospital 1 in ICU. All the wounded were members of the GVERU (Greater Victoria Emergency Response Unit). The unit is made up of members from several different police departments in the region. There were 3 members from Victoria PD and 3 members from Saanich PD wounded. I don't know how many ERU members were deployed at the beginning of this action but there were many regular patrol officers that responded as well. So far there has been no word as to who the perpetrators were and I think they will probably keep the names of the police involved confidential for now at least. My friend Matt was not involved and he really didn't elaborate as to what he knows. He did thank us for our concern. So far there are many more questions than answers especially whether or not there were 3 perpetrators. Whatever information the investigation has uncovered they won't be sharing it any time soon. I think that there will be a long investigation into this, they were still at the scene today collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. They are also asking people to supply any video that they have. I know one thing, I sure wouldn't want to be the person writing the after action report on this event.

Okay, although the current state of cruising is up in the air; I would like to move forward. I'm looking for local knowledge on the land down under. I don't want to get specific in the "topic" but will throw out questions within the thread. Also I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Canada. Keep in mind that like Australia Canada is a vast country and I probably don't know your buddy Bruce in Moose Jaw. But I do have pretty good knowledge of my home Province of BC. I look forward to gaining local knowledge from you and passing on local knowledge of my part of the world. First stop Auckland we have 2 days before the cruise what is not to be missed in Auckland?