Grenouille21

After lunch we went next door to check out the pool. While it may look empty now, there were always kids and adults swimming during the cruise. This pool was busy, but not the "Kid Soup" of Disney Cruise Line. This was a MUCH more manageable level of busy! Those who used the pool seemed to enjoy it a lot!

This was the only time on the cruise that the pool tables were not in use. Every other time I walked by there were people using both tables, and people waiting for the tables.

This was the thermal spa. They were (aggressively- but that is normal for cruises) selling passes to the spa on the first few days of the cruise. I don't do spa stuff, so this is as far as I went. Every time I walked by the spa it seemed busy, but I did overhear someone at dinner saying that the spa workers did not get paid to work there. Their only payment is tips. So you might pay $200 for a massage, and they don't see a penny of that $200. All they get is the tip. Now, as I said, I overheard this, so it may not be true. But he said his masseuse told him this, so... who knows.

There are two types of Cabanas on the Nieuw Amsterdam: Retreat Cabanas and Lido Cabanas. This is one of the Lido Cabanas, which are located near the pool. These are sectioned off with curtains, and offer some privacy and a guaranteed sitting area. I know there are other benefits, such as lunch and beverage service, too.

When the pool top is closed, these cabanas are entirely indoors. The Retreat Cabanas cost more, and are exposed to the outdoors. In nice weather this would be awesome. The Retreat Cabanas were busy on Glacier Bay day, but otherwise weren't usually occupied.

I really like dessert. Like, REEEEEEALLY like dessert. My team at work has endless discussions about the desserts they serve us at lunch. Its A Thing.

Sooooo many choices!

Now, I am not really a fan of buffets. I am sort of a germophobe, and the idea of soooooo many people breathing on my food, touching my food... eeew. I have watched countless videos of cruises, and I have seen SO many kids AND ADULTS in the background of these videos taking food from the buffet, then putting it back. YUCK!

One thing I really liked about HAL was that most of the food at the buffet was plated by HAL employees behind the buffet. There were a few things you could grab for yourself, such as bread, pre-made sandwiches, etc. But there was no open salad bar where you could help yourself. No self-serve taco bar. This did lead to longer lines at each section, but I feel that is a very fair trade-off.

Some of the pre-made sandwiches (there was a list of what each sandwich was, you just can't see it in this photo).

I was overwhelmed by the choices and ended up getting a caesar salad from the salad bar (that is NOT me in the photo). They put too much dressing on it, but otherwise it was great! The woman who made my salad asked what I wanted and I could customize my salad any way I wanted. Obviously I asked for avocado, because avocado makes EVERYthing better. I have no photo of my salad because I ate all of it so quickly because ADRENALINE!

I really liked this penguin. So here s/he is.

I want to take a moment to talk about food allergies, and how they are handled on HAL. (Spoiler Alert: They are AWESOME with food allergies!)

Being a travel agent has its privileges, so I was able to note the allergy in our reservation. If you have a food allergy issue and you are working with a travel agent, make sure they know how to note the allergy in your reservation. If they don't, or if they don't know what you are talking about, you might want another travel agent.

The next step is contacting Ship Services and filling out a form, which I linked earlier in this report. There you can make note of the allergy and provide details. I also called Ship Services, where I was told to fill out the form. I had filled it out, it just hadn't been processed yet. So you can always do one or the other, or both.

When we entered the buffet I found one of the managers and asked about allergies. DD is allergic to tree nuts, and he assured me that most of the food was fine. We walked through and looked at which areas had nuts, and he advised to stay away from those areas. He said we could always ask at any station, and they would bring out the chef for us. DD ended up eating pasta pretty much any time she ate at the buffet, which is safe, so it wasn't an issue.

I'm jumping ahead, but when we arrived at dinner they knew about our allergy, though I mentioned it anyway because you always need to be proactive when it comes to food allergies. They suggested a specific dish for DD, but she wanted something else and they were happy to oblige. Each night they brought DD a menu where she could write her name, stateroom number, and star or otherwise mark her order for the next night. DD is an artist, so she almost always drew a picture on the menu (it was a paper copy and she was told to write on it) and wrote notes about things she loved. One night she wrote "I LOVE BUTTER!!!" and every night thereafter we had like 17 pats of butter in the butter dish.

Our server, Libra (YAY LIBRA!!!) was awesome, and he seemed to enjoy her drawings and notes. He started making origami animals for the kids, and our other server Hendri and our wine steward Edgar started doing magic tricks for the kids, too.

But I digress. I will talk about the Main Dining Room later. I just want to say that I felt that food allergies were handled very well on the ship. I also felt that food preferences for the rest of us were handled very well. But I'll talk more about that later.

I'm having a lot of fun traveling along with you guys! Thanks so much.

 

Your photos are amaaaazing!

 

More, please.

Thank you!!! I LOVE taking photos, and took almost 3000 photos on this vacation. Actually I probably took more than that, if you combine the photos from my camera and my phone. That's a large part of why it is taking me so long to do this report! I have to sort through my photos and find "good" ones, then upload them to another site, then write the text. I am using the World's Slowest Computer, so all of that takes triple the amount of time it would take on any other computer.

Glad to know someone is reading along! I promise there is more to come!

Cruise Boarding Day!

I think we woke up around 8:30am, and I must have popped out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning! I ran to the window. Would our ship REALLY be there? Had this day FINALLY arrived?

There it was!!!

I was SO EXCITED!!!

We had a Princess ship at the other port, but I only had eyes for THIS!

I ran downstairs while the kids finished waking up (have you ever seen a tween or teen try to wake up in the morning? It goes on forEVER....). I was in need of caffeine and I didn't want to bother with Starbucks (which was right downstairs, on the ground level). The hotel lobby was not on the ground floor, but the hotel store was. It was 9:30am, and I figured I'd grab us some Diet Cokes so we had something to drink. NOPE! The store was CLOSED at 9:30am! What??? This was so weird!

I decided the pre-cruise adrenaline was an adequate substitute for caffeine, and went back upstairs to see if the kids had managed to wake up or if they had fallen back asleep. Turns out they had awakened and were dressed. It really was like Christmas!

One of the questions I see often on Cruise Critic is "How long does embarkation take?" So I paid attention to the time during most of this process.

We left our hotel room at around 10. Went downstairs and checked out of the hotel, then took our bags down to the port (we could have checked them through the hotel, but 1) we only had carry-ons and backpacks so it was easy to manage and 2) I am a control freak and I get super anxious when my luggage is out of my sight at the beginning of a vacation. End of vacation? I don't care WHAT happens to my stuff. Beginning of vacation? DON'T TOUCH MY STUFF!!!

We never had to go outside to board the ship. Well, we once had to go in a covered walkway, but we were able to go from our hotel room to the covered walkway without going outside.

There were very kind people guiding us everywhere. With the Princess ship in port as well, they were directing us using the ship name. "Nieuw Amsterdam/Holland America over here, Princess over there!" I may have joked with DD that she is a princess and shouldn't she be going the other way. Take note: Teens don't think that's funny.

We had to scan our passports again, and go through customs. We were sent this way, and that way, and this way, and that way. There was a lot of walking, but it felt a lot better than having a lot of sitting around, if you know what I mean. I was full of energy (pre-cruise adrenaline IS apparently an adequate substitute for caffeine!) and needed to move!

Eventually we were given our key cards (room key and payment for drinks and souvenirs on the ship), When & Where (directory of what's going on each day on the ship- BTW I have all of these if anyone wants to see them), and info about our Beverage Packages and other things.

We were then herded into a waiting area where they had cookies, and maybe cocoa and coffee. I couldn't be bothered to go check. I WANTED TO BOARD THE SHIP!!! DS went and got cookies. Then he went and got more cookies. I think he went back for thirds and we were called to board the ship. It was very efficient, and they called one row of seats at a time.

Behold! The Nieuw Amsterdam, from the aforementioned Covered Walkway!!!

We were on the ship by about 11:15am, so from leaving our room to walking on board the ship was about an hour. But as I said, most of that time was spent walking all over the place so it didn't even feel like an hour had passed.

We headed straight to the buffet because we hadn't eaten (except for the cookies). We found a table easily and I started taking photos. We didn't have our luggage with us any more. I had finally relented and allowed them to take our precious cargo at one of the stops (which was where we would later grab a taxi on disembarkation day AKA Saddest Day Ever).

I took a bunch of photos but hunger quickly consumed me, and I had to get something to eat.

I didn't feel like I had seen enough of Stanley Park, and although it was super humid (hello, rainforest!), we decided to go back and hike at least one trail. We filled our water at a nearby running store (I did buy something we needed, but they had a hydration station) and headed back to the park.

DD and DS moaned a bit about having to go back to the park. They wanted to go back to the hotel and do nothing. Well that was not an option! This was our last day in Stanley Park, and who knows if/when we would ever return! I wanted to go walk through the park and see some of the giant trees.

So I dragged poor DD and DS back to the park and forced them to hike through a gorgeous place. Oh the horror!

We chose the Tatlow trail, because it had the most "giant tree" symbols on the map.

Tatlow did not disappoint! The trees were quite big!

But they found this crazy branch up on a tree, and decided this branch was worthy of a TV series, and they spent the next hour or so developing said TV series.

When I finally decided that I did not enjoy sweating and I wanted to go back, the kids protested (!!!) and asked to keep going (!!!!!). I mean, how could I say no to that?

Eventually we turned back and headed to the hotel. DS wanted to go swimming, and DD said she MIGHT go swimming.

DS swam for a bit but DD could not be convinced. She was too cool for the pool. Sigh.

Eventually we went and got something for dinner. I think we got Chronic Tacos, which is kind of like Chipotle. Then we headed back to the Pan Pacific because the kids (yes BOTH of them!) wanted to go swimming.

They spent like 2 hours playing together in the pool. This was unprecedented. They haven't done this in... I don't know how long. We belong to a pool here, and they NEVER want to go, and they NEVER want to actually get in the water if I make them go. I have no idea what happened, but it was magical! I actually enjoyed myself as well!

BTW, don't do this. They have a bar at the pool, but the hours it is open are determined by the woman who works there. I had bought a glass of wine earlier, and when I went for a second the woman who was working said she was going on a 30 minute break. It was about 4:45. I asked if she would be back, and she said she would, but that she would be closing at 5:30. She never came back.

However, you could use the phone to call Room Service and they would bring you whatever you wanted. I brought this bottle of wine down from the room and asked for ice and a glass for the pool, and they brought me this lovely ice bucket and plastic wine glass. I thought that was so nice!

And it WAS nice, until this kind of mean woman who worked there came straight over to me and said I could not have the bottle here. Um, would have been nice to hear that from the guy who put the bottle in the ice bucket, but OK sure. She had someone bring me a plastic carafe so I could pour the bottle in there. It was almost empty, so that seemed silly, but whatever.

That and one other thing bothered me about the Pan Pacific. The hotel shop was NEVER open! I went to buy something there at like 7:30pm and it was closed. Went to buy something at 9:30am and it was closed. Never saw hours posted anywhere. Like the pool bar, they seemed to be open whenever the person working there wanted to be there. It was SO strange and not at all what I am used to.

Anyway, we headed up to the room eventually, and packed everything up. We were heading out on our cruise the next day, and we wanted to be ready to go in the morning!!!

The totem poles were especially cool to stop and see.

We also had to stop for the Girl in a Wet Suit (she is NOT a mermaid!).

DS walked down among the rocks and tidepools and really enjoyed finding starfish etc. DD and I stayed up with the bikes, which was totally fine because we were enjoying just watching everything and taking in the view.

We continued and enjoyed the scenery some more.

After we circled the park we returned the bikes. Yes ended up only charging us for the time we used the bikes, which was awesome! I ended up spending 1/3 of what I had anticipated, which was so nice!

Day 4: Stanley Park

When we woke up, we had new neighbors outside our room. There was a Royal Caribbean ship, maybe the Explorer of the Seas, outside our room. We watched people bustling around, cleaning, leaving the ship, and getting things ready for the next round of passengers. It was very exciting to know that when we woke up the next day OUR ship would be out there, on the other side!

I have to admit, I was impressed with their upper deck landscape. It might be hard to see, but they have a rock climbing wall up there, and some green space, and some winding paths. It looked pretty cool, and I started to have pre-cruise jitters. Was our cruise going to be super boring? Did I make a huge mistake signing us up for a cruise that had very few bells and whistles?

Well it was too late to turn back now, so all I could do was check out their ship and move on with our day!

It was another beautiful day! We really lucked out with the weather. It was a little humid, but we had sunny skies which meant we could move forward with our plan to rent bicycles and ride around Stanley Park.

We asked the front desk and were directed to Denman Street for bicycle rentals. We had an easy walk along the waterfront, with a couple of turns to get to the bicycle rentals.

We stopped at Lightshed, because that's not something you see every day. You can't tell from this photo but it is leaning forward, toward where I was standing. Very cool.

We saw some awesome houseboats. These were just so cool!

I wasn't sure where to get bicycles. There were so many choices! Most places rented by the hour, half day, or day. I had no idea how long we would need the bikes. We don't bike a lot, and I wasn't sure if we would want to stop, or ride more.

We found a bike shop, but the prices seemed high, and all of the workers were busy helping others, so we moved on.

We went to Yes Bicycles, and decided to just go for it. We used an ipad (their system, not our own ipad) to reserve bikes, free helmets, and free baskets for the bikes. I think I chose 3 hour rentals for the bikes, and I hoped that would be a good guess.

We were given our bikes, helmets, and baskets, and pointed in the right direction. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, and they made sure the bikes were a good fit for us before we left.

We rode down the street, and there we were at Stanley Park. We stopped and oriented ourselves, found the bike path (easy, plus there was a guy there pointing people in the right direction), and off we went.

The bicycle path goes in one direction around the park. There is a separate path for walking. For the most part, walkers stayed on their path and bicyclists stayed on their path. Everyone did bike in the proper direction.

We stopped so many times to take photos. Here is a little more info about some of the places where we stopped:

https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/landmarks-in-stanley-park.aspx

There were just so many cool things to see, and usually there was a space to pull over or to cross to the walking path (obviously checking to make sure it was clear) and take photos or walk around.

What a view! I can't tell you how much time I spent looking out those windows, watching the planes take off and land. I love a good water view!

We debated going swimming, but it just wasn't going to happen. Hello there, swimming pool. Will we get to enjoy your lovely water? Perhaps tomorrow night.

DD and I went down to the bar so I could get a glass of wine, and there was a singer in the lounge. Interestingly, she WAS allowed in the lounge, even though this was clearly a bar atmosphere and not a restaurant. So who knows about these laws. I took my wine to go, though we did enjoy watching the singer and the women who were dancing to his music. DD declared this whole scene was "cringey" which is teenager speak for horrifying/embarrassing. Whatever. Wait a few years, DD. We'll see how "cringey" you are.

Oh wait, I forgot! We also did the Fly Over Canada ride! This was so awesome for two reasons! 1) It is a cool and awesome ride. 2) It is EXACTLY like Soarin' at Disneyland and Disney World. EXACTLY!!!

We took it easy and went to sleep, because we had big plans for the next day! We were going to rent bicycles and ride around Stanley Park.

Eventually, once again, we had to get in the car and move along.

I remembered that I needed to put gas in the rental before taking it back, so I tried to find a gas station. Well, that was an adventure. I won't go into it but this was such a nightmare. The gas station was nowhere near the highway, we drove around and around, and we ended up in horrible rush hour traffic going IN to the city. UGH!! By the time we got to the car rental place I had used up enough of the gas that it was no longer a full tank. Oh, and you have to pre-pay the gas, so you have to guess how much gas you need and how much it will cost. What the what? How is that supposed to work? Ugh.

We decided to drop off our luggage at the hotel (Pan Pacific) and return the car. Check in was a breeze, and we left our luggage with them with the promise that it would be delivered to our room.

So when I returned the car I was hit with a ton of taxes and gas fees and the price was about double what it was supposed to be. The guy at the rental place was horrible, too, so I didn't feel like arguing with him about it, but I will definitely think about it before renting a car in Canada again.

It was really cool walking around, looking at the city.

We walked over to Gastown, to see the Steam Clock and statue of Gassy Jack, and to scope out possible dinner options.

The clock was so cool, and we got to see it twice because it was going off on the way back, too.

I had wanted to eat at a restaurant, because it seems like the thing to do on vacation. But after our experience in Whistler I just didn't want to have to go through the process of looking at every menu and agreeing on a restaurant just to find out once again that we wouldn't be able to eat at a restaurant because they were actually a bar. I think we actually ended up eating ice cream for dinner that night.

Oh speaking of that, when I went to pay for the ice cream I was told it was cash only. I didn't have enough Canadian cash so I paid with American money and she gave me change for the Canadian amount. Don't make that mistake like I did!

One other thing I learned... when you pay with a credit card there is often the choice to pay in USD. Don't choose that!! I was told to always pay in Canadian dollars because your bank will have a better conversion rate. Of course I was told this when it was too late, so I am passing this along to you so this knowledge will go to good use.

This sign was SO funny! So Canadian!

We walked back to the hotel and found out that we had a GREAT room on a corner.

Eventually we had to head back to the car and get back on the road. We had one more stop to make before getting to Vancouver, and that was Porteau Cove.

We found it easily, and parked the car.

Now, as you go from Whistler to Vancouver the terrain changes from mountains to fjords as you approach the city. Porteau Cove is in the fjord part of the highway. The views are just amazing. Amazing!

We walked around a little and took a ton of photos.

Once across the bridge, we knew we were finally in the right place. And it had been SO worth the trouble! This place was so cool! If you haven't read the story, go back a few posts and read it. What a cool way to deal with an issue!

We took so many photos, and explored.

We actually ran into the family who said they had couldn't find the trail. They had apparently come a different way and found it. So I guess there are a few options for finding this amazing place.

Day 3: Whistler to Vancouver

Today we were leaving Whistler and heading back to Vancouver. We didn't really have anything planned for Vancouver, so we were going to take our time and stop along the way to see a few more things. At the top of the list was the Train Wreck Trail. I don't give up easily! I had already asked two people how to get there and had vague directions that were at least better than what I had on the way up to Whistler.

So we checked out of the Westin, loaded everything up into the car, and headed out on the road!

We tried looking for bears on Callaghan Road again, but they just weren't cooperating. Darn bears! I know we want to be safe, but I just wanted to see a bear or two! DD hadn't seen the ones from our tour, and I wanted her to see one, too!

We had been told to look for Function Junction (yes that is a real place) and exit the S2S, and that's where the Train Wreck Trail would be. It sounded like it would be easy to find once we had exited the road, but that was not how it worked out. We found a parking area right off the road and I thought that was it. There happened to be a trail map there, so we checked it out. Nope. We were not in the right place. We were close, though! So back in the car we went, and we drove on.

We got to this little village area, and then hit a place where the road looped and went back to the beginning. Oh, and there was a turn off that was closed, because it was an entrance to a mine.

We went back to the trail map. It had to be there!! There had to be a way to get there!!!

We looked at the trails again, and the roads, and gave it another try.

Aha! We had found another parking area! That was a good sign!

We got out of the car and crossed our fingers that we were finally in the right place!

There was a family walking by and I asked them if we were at the right place for the Train Wreck Trail. They said they had hiked for an hour and couldn't find it. That was NOT what we wanted to hear!

We decided to go for it. We had come all this way! We had to be close! The trail maps said this was it!

Here came a few other people. Maybe they could help. We asked if this was the way to the Train Wreck. They said yes! We asked if it was far and they said no. I chose to believe these people and on we went.

The trail was beautiful, and YES! There was a sign for the Train Wreck! We had to be on the right path.

We walked for maybe 10 minutes and came to a small sign that said we had to change to a different path. Perhaps the first family we asked hadn't seen that?

We took the path and walked on, and we arrived at a small suspension bridge.

Remember that fear of heights I mentioned earlier? Yeah, normally that doesn't go well with suspension bridges. This one was OK, though. It wasn't TOO high, or TOO long. Plus you had this to look at:

 

Those darn MTB’ers are everywhere at Whistler. Did they look like this motley crew? Were they well-behaved at least? If not we’ll have a word with one of the instructors (on left in red jersey, our son). :-D

They looked like that, only miniature size. The 3 kids were about 6 years old, and very well behaved. The kids were the ones who told us we shouldn't get out at the 1st stop. (y)

We just returned from our Alaskan Cruise which stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. By far the favorite excursion of my 12 and 14 year old was the Bering Sea Fisherman (Deadliest Catch) crab fishing tour. The fishermen were AMAZING. These are not tour guides, they are guys who have been fishing for decades, sharing their love for their craft with you. We stopped at an eagle breeding area where they tossed fish overboard and eagles swooped down and picked them up. We saw and held box crabs, snow crabs, and we saw Rockfish and Alaskan King Crabs and a "surprise guest" who had been put in time out for eating crabs (don't want to ruin the surprise).

A few photos from our experience:

The trail was pretty short, and the scenery was amazing. We stopped at the lake and ate our snack, and then continued on the trail.

Little did I know, that was ANOTHER trail, not the one we had been on, and we ended up on a random loop that was totally unnecessary and added a bunch of uphill hiking to our day. I don't do well with a lot of uphill hiking in the mountains. I get really out of breath and frustrated with myself for being out of breath. I know it is the altitude, but I am also out of shape and I just feel like a failure when I can't breathe while hiking.

We ended up finding our way back, and boarded another gondola down the mountain.

We had the option of riding the Peak to Peak Gondola, which takes you across to Blackcomb Mountain, but NO THANK YOU that thing is REALLY high off the ground.

When we got back down to the resort area, we ate lunch somewhere and went back to the hotel. We rested for a bit before heading out on a bear seeking tour.

On our previous vacations to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier, we had this "I want to see a bear but I am afraid to see a bear" thing going on. I really wanted to see a bear, but I was also terrified of running into a bear on the trail.

I had read about these bear viewing tours, where they take you on backroads and look for bears in areas where they usually hang out. It seemed like a safe way to view bears, and while it was expensive I figured we would get to go on some roads that were normally off limits.

We were picked up in a Land Rover, by a lovely man named Craig, who was from England. We also stopped and picked up 2 other passengers who came from Australia. Craig had bottled water available for us at each seat, and more in the back of the car. It was all complimentary.

Craig took us on some very bumpy and very narrow roads. If you've ever been to Disney World, this was very much like the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. If you've ever been to Disneyland, this was like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. If you've never been to either park, 1) Please go to one of those parks soon and 2) It was a really bumpy ride. We may have referred to the ride as Jurassic Bear Tours at one point.

Anyway, fairly early on we spotted a mama black bear with 2 cubs. Unfortunately we startled her and she ran off before any of us could get photos. There was another tour out at the same time, and Craig and their driver kept calling each other with bear sightings. Unfortunately the bears were always gone by the time we got to their location.

We did go to some awesome back roads sites, including this lake which was stunning.

On the ride, we started talking to the Australian folks, and it turns out they (and Craig) were all Harry Potter fans. This came up because Craig drove us past a random site and pointed out that just recently a red double decker bus from London had appeared there, under a tarp, and he commented that it was like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter. Well that set all of us off, and we decided that the site where the bus was was a wizard campground, but it just looked like a junkyard to us because we are Muggles. We spent the rest of the ride talking about Harry Potter and showing each other photos of our pets. Trust me, there is a connection.

We returned to the Westin, and ate dinner somewhere, and went to bed. It had been another exhausting but fun day, and we had another one coming up. We would be leaving Whistler in the morning and heading back to Vancouver along the S2S (thanks, Dogstar!). Would we be able to find the Train Wreck this time? I had asked 2 "locals" how to find it, and had been given 2 different answers. How hard could it possibly be to find a train wreck??? Well, it turns out it is pretty darn hard!!!

Day 2: Whistler

Today we wanted to go up. Up to the top of Whistler Mountain. Well, not the the VERY top, which you can do, we just wanted to ride the gondola as far as it went, and hike a little bit.

2/3 of us are afraid of heights. 1/2 of the acrophobic family members have zero coping skills. This made it a bit of a struggle to agree to riding the gondola, but eventually we made it.

The gondola climbs to the top of the mountain, but is never *too* high off the ground. We discovered that facing the side that is going up helps if you are afraid, because you just see the ground and not how high up you are.

The view from that seat looks like this:

Below is the view you do NOT want to have if you are afraid of heights:

We waited in a rather long and hot line to board the gondola. When we boarded, we had 3 young kids and a mountain bike instructor in our gondola. The kids were part of a camp, I guess, and they were getting off at the first stop. That stop is only for bikers, so we continued on.

We did stop a few times, for what felt like an eternity. It was hot in that gondola. Really hot.

We got to the top and checked out the building, and got a snack and some water and just took in the scenery. Really truly amazing.

In the photo below, you can see another activity that had we had NO interest in doing. You can take a chairlift up higher, and then cross a suspension bridge between the two peaks on the right side. NOPE!

Then we took some photos of a few buildings. Do you notice anything about the door in this building?

We posed on the Olympic awards pedestal, and set off on a hike.

As we walked, we could see the Peak to Peak Gondola and NOPE. Too high!!! This does not even begin to illustrate how high this thing is over the valley floor.

Appreciate the detailed report. Some commentary that might be helpful if you return, or for others visiting, is in red within your text and below.

 

 

The clue is in the name - although they can be called anything, words like Saloon, Bar, and Pub in the name usually indicate a Liquor Primary establishment, and they still have a lot of restrictions. Liquor is controlled at 'State' (Province) level not federally, again like the US, and most of our ridiculousness is a BC thing, not a pan-Canadian thing - in Quebec for example it's almost civilized with boozing from 18 and corner shops even allowed to sell beer & wine.

 

Just think yourself lucky you visited now, and not five years ago when we started getting rid of some of the really, truly insane rules like not being allowed to carry your own drink from the bar to a table!!!

Thanks for the insight. We did attempt the Train Wreck again. You'll have to stay tuned to see if we ever found it!

It is so interesting how different the rules are. It is part of what I enjoy about traveling, even when the rules are, as you say, ridiculous. Where we live you can buy alcohol at the grocery store, but I know in other states you can't. We can also buy alcohol on Sundays, though only after a certain time. I know in some states you can't buy alcohol on Sundays. Oh and in some states you aren't allowed to pump your own gas. We have our own ridiculous rules here ;).

With a name like Grenouille, I would have though you spoke French ;p

Bien sur! Je parle Francais! I wasn't worried about it, just curious.

Great trip report thus far. Enjoying your writing style & humour.

 

It’s fun to read your adventures up the Sea-to-Sky Highway (aka S2S to us locals) .... I think I may have swerved around you on my daily commute when you slammed on your brakes thanks to Google. He he.

 

Have fun. Happy birthday!!!

 

Cheers. Dogstar.

So that was YOU!! So sorry! ;p;p;p:D:D

We were too tired to go much further, so we ate at a little hot dog/sausage/poutine stand. The hot dog was gross, according to DD, and the poutine was good but WAY too much for one person.

I think we might have gone to the grocery store, where we stopped and looked at all of the "different" products, but then we headed back to the hotel to go to sleep. It had been a long day, and we were exhausted.

I think we were all starving and really thirsty at this point, and I had no idea where we could eat. I used Google Maps to find the nearest place to eat, and we headed off to A&W, which is something we don't have where we live. There were a few other options there as well.

After that we headed off to Callaghan Road and Olympic Park. I had heard that you can often see bears on Callaghan Road, so we were hoping to see some on our drive. We tried all sorts of tricks to make the bears appear, such as replacing words in the songs we were singing with the word BEARS. So instead of Dancing Queen, we sang Dancing Bears. Instead of Take a Chance on Me, we sang Take a Chance on Bears. Yes, we were listening to Mamma Mia soundtracks in the car. No, we did not see any bears :(.

We did see the ski jumps, and the park where the winter Olympics were!

I don't like sports. There, I said it. I just don't have any interest and can't pay attention to any sort of sports activity. I know this is about as un-American as it gets, but I just can't like sports! I have tried! I have sat and watched football games, and when someone asks me "What just happened?" I have absolutely NO idea because while I was staring at the screen I was thinking about something entirely different and not really watching the game. I just find sports incredibly boring and unwatchable.

Except when it comes to the Olympics (though I still can't/don't watch team sports during the Olympics).

So this was a big deal for me, and something I had really wanted to do. Although there wasn't much to do, and we were too hot and tired to climb to the top of the ski jump. But it was still cool, knowing that the Olympics had happened here!

We took photos of the ski jumps and the Olympics Guy (that's what we called him), and drove on to the biathlon area. We just stopped and got something to drink here, and posed for photos.

Back we went along Callaghan Road to the Sea to Sky Highway, looking for the Train Wreck trail exit.

I had read about the Train Wreck trail and it sounded so cool!

https://www.whistler.com/blog/post/2016/07/27/boxcars-bridges-new-access-to-iconic-whistler-train-wreck-hike/

So I programmed it in to Google Maps and started the navigation. Navigation Lady hadn't failed me yet, and always gave me plenty of notice when I needed to turn, so I had no reason to doubt her instructions now.

Well there is a first time for everything.

"In 600 meters, your destination will be on the left."

Um, OK, but I don't see an exit coming up, maybe she is just a little off?

"You have reached your destination!"

But... but... there is no exit in sight. Nowhere to turn off, no exits, not even a sign!

We had messed up, and there wasn't really anywhere to turn off and try to figure things out. At this point, it was already past 4pm Vancouver Time and we had been up since 5am Central Time. We were hot, tired, and ready to just go to our hotel. We decided we would try again on our way back to Vancouver, since we didn't really have much planned for that day.

We headed in to Whistler, and our hotel was the first one we came across. We pulled in to the parking area and unloaded the car, and handed the keys to the Valet.

The Westin was really nice! Everyone who worked there was really helpful and friendly, and they were happy to answer our questions and help us find whatever we needed.

We checked out our room and unpacked what we would need for the next 2 nights, and then headed out to the village.

There were actually a lot of people walking around, despite what you see in this photo.

We walked around and took some more photos.

We walked around, looking at the stores, stopped in the pharmacy to pick up a few things we had forgot to pack, and then decided it was time to eat. We walked in to the Longhorn Saloon, and headed out to the patio. As we did, I was told we were not allowed to eat there because my kids are underage. What? This place is a restaurant, how can you deny admission to kids? Whatever, this is Canada and apparently they have odd rules. If the establishment is licensed as a liquor establishment first, and food establishment second, they don't allow kids after 1:30pm. If their food license is their primary license, kids are allowed. So obviously they lost our business.

Day 1- Flying to Vancouver, Driving to Whistler

We left for the airport while it was still dark. I maybe slept an hour, maybe I didn't sleep at all, who knows. Either way I was very happy to be greeted by a Starbucks on the other side of TSA. We all have TSA Pre-Check (actually DS does not as he is still 12 but I will get him signed up this year) and it is awesome.

So we made it through security and Starbucks in record time and waited at the gate.

We were so early, there was another flight departing from our gate that hadn't even boarded yet.

We started chatting with the two gentlemen sitting next to us, who ended up boarding that plane, leaving us to talk to each other.

Now, even though I had booked through my United Frequent Flyer airlines, we were flying on Air Canada. This was a bit nerve-wracking as I am a mildly anxious person and new things make me nervous! Why was the idea of flying on Air Canada making me nervous? I HAVE NO IDEA! It just was. I think it was the unknown. Will they have movies on demand on board? Will there be anything that I actually want to watch? Will there be anything my kids want to watch? Will they serve food? Will they all speak French?

So anyway... it turns out Air Canada is NOT scary, and our flight was awesome, except for the part at the beginning where it sounded like 100 bolts came loose and fell off the plane.

But we won't dwell on that.

I liked the screens on the seat that you could use to watch movies and/or check out how far you had traveled, or how far you had yet to travel. I watched Book Club and The Internship, both of which I recommend though I might not recommend both to the same set of people. I also watched this:

I also really love looking out the airplane window, which usually means leaning over at least one of my children.

It is worth every eye roll and moan from my children to get photos like the one I posted earlier, and the ones I am sharing now.

We arrived and breezed through Customs. There were kiosks where you tapped some screens and scanned your passports and headed on your way.

Keep your "receipt" from the kiosk! There are at least 2 humans who will need to check it before you can go about your business!

While I was expertly scanning my kids' passports, a woman who did not speak English approached me with her passport, and gestured that she wanted me to scan it for her. It was so odd! In no way did I look like an airport TSA employee. I was wearing athleisure and a backpack, for Pete's sake! I gestured awkwardly, attempting to indicate that while I am polite I am NOT Canadian, nor am I a TSA employee, and thus I was unable to scan her passport. Yes I managed to convey that entire message in gestures, because I am that talented.

Anyway, we got through security and went to pick up our car.

We ended up with a Mazda CX5. I'll admit, when the car rental agent said "Mazda" I may have rolled my eyes. When my son asked what kind of car we had and I told him, there may have been a groan. But I rescind my eye roll and my son rescinds his groan because that car had such PEP! I could floor it and it responded like it had been waiting all its life for someone to just underSTAND it. I doubt the car would last terribly long as an owned vehicle. We all know what happens to wild souls when they are kept too long.

So off we went on the Sea to Sky Highway, in our peppy car! The plan was to stop at Shannon Falls, Tantalus Lookout, Brandywine Falls, Train Wreck trail, Alexander Falls, and Callaghan Road/Olympic Park.

Half of those stops are quick walks from the parking lot. Half are walks or hikes of varying difficulty. One is a tourist attraction where you are basically paying for the right to say you've been somewhere that was once important.

Our first stop was Shannon Falls. However there was nowhere to park, despite 2 attempts. It was disappointing, and I wondered if each stop would be a similar disappointment.

Next stop was the Tantalus Overlook. Now, this is a roadside pullout, it is not labeled, and it is just around a corner. I had plugged it in to the navigation, and the Navigation Lady warned me it was coming, and I STILL had to swerve off the road at the last minute and scare the bejesus out of all 3 of us. So you might miss this one if you aren't ready for it. But if you manage to catch it, it is so worthwhile for the view!

Next was Brandywine Falls. Here you park, and walk a short distance on a trail, crossing train tracks at one point, to see the falls. You can then go farther and see the falls from another viewpoint, and then go even farther to see a wide panoramic view of the canyon. The whole thing is probably less than a mile, and very easy.

I am happy to say that we easily found parking and headed off on the trail. We passed an adorable covered bridge, and then crossed the tracks.

There was a tour group as we stopped to view the falls, and they were taking up all of the "good" viewing space, so we went farther down the trail and came back later.

had a whole pre-trip thing written up, and I've decided to scrap it and fill in the important bits as I go along, otherwise it will be next summer by the time I actually report on our vacation!

Testing my photo posting abilities...

Do you see this? Is it too big? What about the photo, is THAT too big, too?

What led us to Alaska:

We are a family of three, and we like to travel. We have sailed on Disney Cruise Line before, both to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, but this is our first non-Disney cruise! We have recently traveled to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, and Glacier National Park. We really enjoyed these vacations. Ok that is probably the greatest understatement of all time! Wow, understatement much?

The first time I ever visited a National Park was when I was in my 20s, and a friend invited me to visit him at his dad's house near Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Now, I had gone away to overnight camp in Minnesota, so I had been "out in nature" but I had never been to a National Park, nor had I ever gone anywhere with the intention of doing nothing but hiking and seeing nature. That was not how my family vacationed when I was growing up.

When I was a child my family always vacationed in Florida, at the same beach resort and then at the house my parents bought when I turned 13. I loved the beach. I still love the beach! I feel "at home" at the beach. That particular beach was always a place that made me feel like everything would be OK. I felt like it washed away all my worries, and made me feel like a new person. It was great, and I never felt like I was missing anything!

But then there I was: just graduated from college, no summer job (I'm a teacher), my friend was away all summer, and he promised me some amazing scenery, great company (he was one of my very best friends and no we were NOT dating) AND he promised a stay in Las Vegas (another place I had never visited!) so I said why not and went for it!

That visit to my friend changed everything.

I fell in love with nature.

Hiking and exploring re-awakened a love of nature and hiking in me, and I wanted more.

I can't believe how long it took me to get back to nature. We visited Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park 2 years ago and I fell in love all over again.

When we visited Yellowstone, we ran into a family I know from work. Yellowstone has millions of visitors all summer, and I ran into someone I know there! That always happens to me. Always!

Anyway, they were on a road trip, and had done this circuit before. In our brief conversation they mentioned that while they really liked Yellowstone, they felt Glacier National Park was better.

I am a competitive person. If someone expresses a strong opinion about something I HAVE to experience it and form my own opinion. So guess where we went the next summer?

Yep, we went to Glacier National Park.

I spent the whole year planning this vacation, choosing our hotels/lodges, planning our hikes, and wondering if this place would ever live up to my expectations. Would this REALLY be BETTER than Yellowstone/Grand Teton?? How was that possible??

Well it was possible, and I fell in LOVE with Glacier. I'm talking I-Made-You-A-Mixtape love.

That's pretty serious!

So when thinking about where to go next, I was stumped. Glacier was so incredible, so amazing, such a transformative experience for me... where do I go next?

Well, it seems like Alaska is where you go next. I'm still not sure this trip will meet my expectations. I feel like we should be going farther into Alaska if I want to see/do anything that will come close to what we saw and did in Glacier. Believe me, I know everyone says how amazing Alaska is, how you will want to return... I'm sure I'll feel the love... but right now... I am not sure.

Have no fear, I felt this way last time. I thought Glacier would be OK, maybe one part would be cool (the days we would be at Many Glacier) but I thought the rest was just sort of filling time.

Yes, I know. I am embarrassed even writing it.

We did two hikes in Glacier that were really challenging for us (Iceberg Lake and Grinnell Glacier). It wasn't so much the distance; we walk A LOT at home and we can easily do long distances in one day. What killed us was the elevation gain. Our lovely city is FLAT. We are not used to climbing. So these hikes were a challenge and we overcame.

I don't see any of these challenges in our Alaska vacation, though we might have some hiking opportunities in Whistler.

I am sure Alaska will be amazing, but I really am sad that we won't be getting out there and hiking and getting into the land. That's what I have learned. I really like to get in there, hike, explore, and see the sights that you can't see from pulling over to the side of the road. And cruising in Alaska, we won't really do that.

I really hope I am surprised, and that I still have that feeling of coming out of this vacation a better person than I was when I went in.

About Our Journey:

We are sailing to Alaska round-trip from Vancouver, and we will be spending 2 nights in Whistler and 2 nights in Vancouver before we sail. We will be driving to Whistler, and returning the car when we return to Vancouver 2 days later.

Costco members: If you book your car rental through Costco: keep checking the price! I have saved hundreds by rebooking as the prices drop! You don't pay a deposit when you book, and you can cancel without any penalty, so keep checking the prices and rebook if there is a price drop!

We were originally picking up and returning our car to the Vancouver airport, as that seemed to be the best option. We would then take a fixed rate taxi back to our hotel. That makes the most sense, right? We all know that you pay more when you rent a car from one location and return it to another one. It is best to save money by renting and returning to the same location, always!!!

Well once I actually looked at a map of Vancouver, mapped out the route from Vancouver to Whistler and back again, and looked at where our hotel is... I realized that this was a really dumb plan. Why would we drive past our hotel, drive through downtown Vancouver traffic, and then PAY MORE MONEY on top of the car rental to get back to our hotel??? Even if we took the Sky Train to our hotel, that would still be more money in addition to the car rental fare!

So I started looking at options.

I played with different options and found that we could return our car a few blocks from our hotel, and since I am obsessive about checking prices I found that we could do that for less money than we would spend returning the car to the airport and taking any transportation to our hotel. We could even drop off our luggage at the hotel, then take the car to the rental place, and walk back to the hotel or hop on a tour bus (that was the plan anyway) and stop in at the hotel to see if our room is ready.

This sounds so much easier than driving past everything and backtracking!!!

Now, our family car is a Honda CRV. I do not like driving in unfamiliar places. I have been on too many road trips where we missed an exit, or hit traffic, and it caused so much stress. So for YEARS I refused to get a rental car. I have recently acquiesced and now I am OK driving around, within some parameters. One of those parameters is that I like to drive the same kind of car.

So we have rented Nissan Rogues, and Subaru Legacies. When I booked this vacation and decided to change to returning the car to downtown Vancouver instead of the airport, the only options were "Intermediate Car" or "Full Size Car" but there were no "Intermediate SUV" cars. I struggled. I really struggled! Can I actually drive a REGULAR car in an unfamiliar place? Is it worth the time and money savings? Will I be a ball of stress or will I be OK?

Well, I decided to do my due diligence and consult Google Maps Street View. If you are not familiar with Google Map Street View, you can drop a camera into the street/area and virtually "drive" or walk the entire route. I "drove" much of the Sea to Ski Highway and decided it would be OK to do this drive in a car, vs. a SUV.

Well lo and behold, because I check the prices obsessively, an SUV became available and I jumped on it and yeah, that's what we ended up with. Comfort above all else.

Keep checking prices and think outside the box! You won't necessarily pay more for returning the car to a different location!

Our Hotels:

I originally had us staying at the Marriott Pinnacle, because I had a great rate for that hotel. Then I kept hearing about the Pan Pacific, which is right at the port, making it so easy to embark. Well I am all about making things easy, so I called and managed to get an amazing TA rate, so I made the change to the Pan Pacific!

In Whistler we are staying at the Westin. We'll be close to the gondola, and close to the village, and we got a GREAT price, so there you go!

This cruise is a birthday present to my son, a birthday present to myself, and a graduation present to my daughter. We love nature and the outdoors, and this seemed like a perfect way to celebrate all of our milestones.

One of the ways I prepare for vacations is by doing research. It is partly the travel agent side of me, but it is also partly the mom-of-a-child-with-food-allergies side of me. I love to learn about where we are going, what we will see, and I love to have a plan of what to do and where to go and where to eat. When we sailed on Disney I marked DD's allergy on the reservation and spoke to the head server and all servers we encountered on the ship, and we were all set. DD was served food that was safe for her, and everyone went to great lengths to make sure she was safe.

I was worried about how Holland would handle allergies. Would they take the same precautions? Would they be able to alter menu items, or allow DD (and the rest of us- we don't eat the foods she is allergic to which avoids cross-contamination) to pick and choose menu items to make a meal? For example, on the night when everyone else fights over who can get into the MDR first for the much-coveted "Lobster Night" we need all traces of lobster OFF our plates. Would that be OK? This is what I have to deal with when we eat outside our home. Most restaurants and resorts have been very accommodating, but we have also run into some very uneducated individuals.

I posted a thread here asking for help, expressing my concern, and most of the replies were very reassuring. I was directed to this form: https://book.hollandamerica.com/specialServices/login.action?WT.ac=FAQ_ShipboardLife_AccCruise_CommitmentToService_SRI_PDF and told to call Ship Services, which I did. Turns out the form is all that is needed, but the call to Ship Services did help put my mind at ease. I had also marked her allergies in the reservation, and was commended for doing so by Ship Services. I was also directed to speak with the head servers upon boarding (already planned to do that), and to dine in the MDR as much as possible to avoid cross-contamination. I had planned for that, for the most part. I've already requested a table just for our party, to again avoid cross-contamination of DD's food, and near the window because I don't want to miss a minute of the scenery so hopefully that works out! I'll check out the buffet when we are on board and determine whether there are some safe options for DD there.

We'll have to vet the restaurants in Whistler and Vancouver as we go, though I'll do some further research before we travel.

I am on the NA now and have not felt anything like you describe at all.

So many visitors! Yay!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes!

So far the cruise is amazing! Breathtaking scenery and experiences despite less than ideal weather in Juneau.

I can't wait to write about it in depth!