Mr_Astro

Any chartered bank (RBC, BMO, Scotia, etc.) will exchange your currency (US$ - CDN$). Discovery cards are not commonly accepted here.

You could park your car at the long term parking lot at the air port. It's very close to the Canada Line which will take you equally as close to Canada Place (cruise ship terminal). It will mean a bit of backing and forthing from/to your hotel of choice but you won't be paying downtown parking charges. It's easily done since your ship doesn't leave 'till later in the afternoon.

Does anyone know anything about the Best Western Plus Uptown Vancouver at 205 Kingsway, Vancouver, British Columbia ? Is it a good area? How close to Sky Train and Port? Looks like a pretty good rate.

Kingsway is too far from anywhere to be of use to you. You'll spend your savings on taxis.

You might consider the River Rock Casino and Resort. It's right on the Canada Line in Richmond and if you book 90 days or more out, the room rate is 176/night based on double occupancy.

Go here: http://www.riverrock.com/hotels/ for more information.

Now that you mention it, I'm a bit curious about the same thing. I'll be on the Zuiderdam, another Vista class ship in April. There will be a full lunar eclipse on the 15th. I'll have a monopod or tripod, my 7D, 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens. I'm kind of curious too, as to where I'd be able to get a decent shot of that celestial event.

The beautiful thing about digital photography is that there is no film to waste so you cannot make any mistakes. So what if a few images are blurry there are likely a dozen more that are good to great.

You will have to zoom in a fair amount to get a good sized lunar image (rule of thumb: the moon will be 1mm in diameter in the frame for every 100mm of focal length of lens), I'd choose an interesting foreground to accentuate the moon. If you are handy with photoshop, you could take a series of photos in rapid succession then 'stack' them in photoshop and create a more dynamic image of the eclipse. Locate yourself amidships to reduce the pitch, roll and yaw of the ship.

I'm assuming the ship will be in the Caribbean so the moon will be quite high up in the sky and late in the evening/early in the morning.

Good luck and clear skies.

Setting Moon in Icy Strait..very early AM as we sailed towards the entrance to Glacier Bay 5/2013 on the Westerdam

 

It was great

I enjoy watching the sun and moon set or rise from the deck of a ship, very romantic.

I am (or was) a guest lecturer on the topic of astronomy and the space sciences. I've worked with HAL, Princess, NCL and Celebrity. On almost every contract I've had, there were issues with getting the lights turned off for me and my star sessions. There were exceptions and the best was HAL. One trip (Mexico Riviera) the CD arranged for access to a highly restricted area of the bow of the Ryndam, below and in front of the Bridge. We had an hour of very dark skies and wonderful promotion to support the CD's efforts. The Prinsendam has an accessible forward balcony below and in front of the Bridge that offers very good and dark views of the sky. On the Star Princess, there was an area near the sanctuary that was kept dark all during my cruise (BA - LA). The Sea Princess has an accessible forward deck that's ok and was used regularly.

The ship is loath to turn off lights for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with accident reduction (say litigation) but some captains (and only the captains' decision to make) will work with the CD to have some lights turned off for a period of time.

No contracts coming up in the foreseeable future but I'm on the Zaandam in October for a coastal to SD. If the CD is interested, I'll volunteer to host a star party and if he/she can urge the captain, perhaps we can do it in the dark. Bring binoculars.

My experience with using scales at sea is that because the ship is in constant motion, especially the ups and downs, you will never get anywhere near an accurate weight reading. Scales would be slightly more reliable when used while the ship is tied up at dock.

Bon Voyage

I have been racking my brain re hotels close to Canada Line stations and other than the ones noted in other posts there is of course the Pan Pacific, the Fairmont Waterfront, the Auberege (the former Tower at the Terminal City Club) and the Delta Suites...the Delta being the closer. I am not certain of the wisdom of taking the Canada Line and then taking a cab; by the time a couple has paid the $9 fare and then another $10 for a cab fare they are at $28 about a $7 saving over a cab and they will have the privilege of waiting for a cab at a Canada Line station as there are no cab lines at the stations. IMO a person with mobility issues would be further ahead to focus on the price of a conveniently located hotel and take a cab. As for handling luggage within the stations, I agree that is not a problem.

If you get off the C.L. @ Yaletown Station, just uphill a half block, or so, is the OPUS hotel a very nice boutique hotel. it has location going for it in spades. The hotel is two stops from the Cruise Terminal right in the middle of Yaletown, a newer part of downtown, along the north side of False Creek. Super good yummie restaurants nearby (including the Twisted Fork on Granville St.).

Have a grand time in YVR. I hope I bump into you.

David

Thanks for the great info Martin! Depending on how tired we feel, sounds like we may walk to the hotel but will definitely ask the hotel desk to call a cab for the ride to Amtrak!! We won't have a lot of luggage, each having 1 personal item plus a rolling carry-on, and possibly 1 shared garment bag. Now I just hope we can crawl out of bed early on Sunday to catch the train to Seattle!:eek: Our son from San Fran plans to meet us in Seattle, so that's our motivation! Thanks again for your help!;)

The walk to the Amtrak station (Pacific Central Station) from the Blue Horizon is a bit much, depending on how much you walk normally and I'd certainly not tackle it with luggage. The hotel is quite close to everything else, however.

Enjoy your stay. Have a great train ride, it's lots of fun (if you like trains).

Can all the above be done in say a day ?

We are landing before noon, staying at Pan Pacific. Check in

Walk Seawall to Stanley Park. Jump on Hoho Trolley.

Switch trolleys to city trolley, see Grandville Market, Gastown Clock and

Chinese Gardens. Maybe add Look out. Nice dinner.

Next morning go to Cap Sus. bridge and Grouse Mt then drop off at Cruise Ship.

Do-able?

 

Also, where can we pick up a case of water for the cruise?

How far from Canada Place?

You've stuffed a lot on the first day! You might not be able to do the gardens and the HOHO will take you by most of the other sights. Dinner might be late if you wander around the gardens.

Dinner? Try the Twisted Fork Bistro (a short cab ride south of the Pan Pacific) on Granville St between Davie and Helmcken St.

I've been a guest entertainer on a number of ships and we are considered crew for technical reasons. It could have been the likes of me in that room but not service crew. They know better.

We were on a Princess cruise this time last year and at Pt. Stanley they did hire a (very fast) local boat to augment the tenders. But, I don't think they were on duty when we tendered in but took it back later in the afternoon.

I hope the weather will be as good for you as it was for us.

Bon Voyage

BTW, your caption is ambiguous, and I thought that the medivacs had injured the passenger they were evacuating! Having seen the care they take during two separate medivacs during our last HAL cruise, I wondered what had gone wrong with this one.

I was a bit flummoxed byt the caption, too.

I've seen a number of evacs at sea and I'm always amazed at how smoothly and professionally they've been carried out.

Five days at sea would have put the ship closer to Hawaii than SD, I would think.

Thanks to everyone for offering guidance and comments. I'll be patient and wait for my travel doc's to discover when and if there will be a formal night.

Notwithstanding, it will be a fun few days.

We're booked on a four day to San Diego from Vancouver (Oct 5 - 9). There are two at sea days following Victoria.

Will there be a formal night and which night will it be? It's not likely to be the last sea day (arriving the next morning), but it could be the evening we leave Victoria (1:00pm) or the next day (at sea).

Does anyone have any experience in this itinerary?

I find it to be extremely annoying during the day. At night it is OK as the pool area is not well used and for the occasional movie I might watch it is enjoyable. But during the day I would much prefer to be able to enjoy peace and quiet around the pool area at least from the perspective of not having MUTS blaring away. Even with headphones on the sound is overwhelming, at least in my humble opinion.

I totally agree with you. I find myself driven away from the pool by the intensity of the film(s) and often there are not other options if want pool and sun and quite(ish) times.

At night you can choose to see a movie or not and utilize what would otherwise be an unused revenue stream for the ship (the bar is open).

Daytime= no, night time= ok.

Thanks for the advice. We will be in BA for a couple of days so will see a lot of the city. Tango and lunch sounds really good. Thank-you. We cant wait.

Where do you intend on staying in BA. We spent 10 days in Argentina prior to our ship. We stayed in Palarmo Soho and had a wonderful time and spent most of our evenings dancing at a milonga held in the Armenian Cultural Centre on Armenia Street. Very cheap and packed every night. Lessons for an hour then all night dancing. Too much fun!

We were on the Star a year ago and there was a tango quartet that played regularly in the atrium. There was also a tango dance team that also danced for us in the atrium. They offered danced lessons both for the general audience as well as private lessons (these you pay for, to them). Princess hired them for the whole of the ships' BA - VAL cruises.

If last year was anything to go by, you'll have plenty of opportunities to dance the beautiful dance.

I was on the Star with him last February and at that time he said he was going to retire. He led me to think that he was retiring sooner rather than later.

Nice guy. He was good to work with and for.

Don't rely on the tv's having HDMI sockets.

Some ships/cabins have them, some do not, some are difficult to access.

Pack accordingly.

I do Enrichment lectures and am brought on board when there are a number of consecutive sea days in a row. Depending on the itinerary and ship, they may bring on two lecturers with one giving a talk in the morning and the other giving a talk in the afternoon. As noted there may be special interest lectures brought on board to enhance your cruising experience for cruises that would be otherwise too short.

Perhaps I'll see some of you in a years' time....

It varies from ship to ship mostly because some tv's are situated such that you can access the rear sockets and on some ships you cannot. There were times when I wished I had a mechanic's mirror (like a dentist mirror but on an extendable shaft) to see clearly behind the tv for any sockets.

The last cruise we ended up using my laptop.

Come prepared for disappointment.

We went BA - LA this past February and the weather was spectacular! Not a cloud in the sky at Stanley, blustery but mostly clear around the horn and clear and calm in Ushuaia and very acceptable in all other locations but always on the cool side.

Not the norm, however so, as said above, dress in layers with a good poly inner layer and a wind/rain gear for the outer with a fleece or sweater in the middle.

You will love Buenos Aires. I hope you'll be staying there for a few days post trip.