Vancouver Sail Away on Millennium

[teachatthebeach]

Where is a good place on deck for the sail away?

[wendychloecruiser]

Vancouver is probably the most beautiful cities in the world. Position yourself as high up as possible. North van then West van will be on your right and Stanley Park will be on your left as you go underneath Lions Gate Bridge. I hope the weather cooperates for you.

 

Wave to my mom in North Van for me!

[BecciBoo]

From our aft cabin: click on pic to play video

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by BecciBoo

[fleckle]

Where is a good place on deck for the sail away?

Best bet is to make friends with the people in one of the penthouse suites and join them out on their deck. ;)

 

Barring that, many like the deck on the back of deck 10 where there are tables and a bar, but that area usually gets very crowded.

 

 

For panoramic views from the rear of the ship, you can go up high on the back of deck 12.

(Take aft elevator up to deck 11, go outside and walk up the stairs to deck 12)

There you will be above the annoying flagpole obstruction that sticks up behind the back of deck 11.

Up on deck 12 you get the full views up and down both sides of the ship as well as to the rear, and you will be right below the Lion's Gate Bridge when the ship passes under it.

 

They usually put loungers out on deck 12, although you really need to get up and move around to enjoy the views all around you instead of only facing one way.

 

 

 

For great forward views from inside, where you can sit in comfort, there is the big Cosmos lounge up at the front of deck 11.

That is one of the best accessible locations for those with mobility problems, as there are no steps to climb.

 

But it can get crowded there if you happen to have bad weather that day.

Otherwise, most passengers prefer to be outdoors, and you can walk around outside for the views from both sides on deck 11, which has the running track.

 

Those who are able-bodied and go outside there can climb up the stairs to decks 12 and 13 for wonderful unobstructed views forward and all around.

 

Deck 12 is in two separate sections on these ships, one at the front of the ship and one at the back, so you can't walk the length of the ship from one end of deck 12 to the other without going down to a lower deck.

Since deck 12 is not accessible by elevator, you need to climb up the stairs from deck 11 at either end to get there.

 

 

Yet another option is deck 4, the promenade deck, which is like having an enormous balcony on both sides of the ship, and there are usually loungers out there.

Its drawbacks are that smoking is allowed on the port side,

and that it doesn't wrap all the way around, so you can only get the views on one side of the ship at a time.

It is necessary to cut across through the interior of the ship to change from one side to the other.

 

 

Oh, and some passengers just like to be out on the pool deck for sailaway, listening to the band play.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by fleckle

[alcpa1]

We often schedule a sail away for our Roll Call at the Mast Bar on 11. There are tables and chairs as well as the bar seating.

All other suggestions work too....have a great cruise. It's a shame, sort of, that you have to leave Vancouver. Alaska awaits so savor every moment.

[teachatthebeach]

Thank you all for your suggestions! Right now, it looks like rain on Friday.[emoji20] Hope the weather forecast changes!

[wifeofbedo]

It has been so hot and dry here, the bit of rain expected will likely be tonight, if at all, and partly cloudy skies tomorrow. I'm betting your sailaway will be dry and beautiful! :D

 

Enjoy

[elkay68]

We are sailing out of Vancouver and leave at4:30 pm. How long does it take to sail away from Vancouver before you get into the the open waters?

[Janet987]

I have another question about the timing of this sailing. If the Mille leaves at 4:30pm, where are we on the inside passage the next day when it is light again? The first full day is "Sailing the Inside Passage" but if the ship cruised at regular speeds overnight, would we, for example, miss seeing all of Vancouver Island? I have a very detailed cruising map, what section of it do we see the first day?

Thank you for all the tips for places to enjoy sailaway and going under the Lions Gate bridge. We have been to beautiful Vancouver before and look foward to our three days there before sailing to Alaska

[elkay68]

We are doing the transpacific in sept and just trying to figure out how long we should plan for sail away and when is a good time to make dinner reservations. Never have sailed from Vancouver but hear it is beautiful.

[Wine-O]

On the M-Class ship, we always arrange Sail Away at the Sunset/Oceanview Bar on Deck 10 back aft. There's a bar there, and plenty of seating.

[Janet987]

Elkay, How lucky for you, what an exciting cruise! I dont know how long it will take the ship to pass Cape Flattery, but after leaving Vancouver, it travels through the Gulf and San Juan Islands, then Strait of Juan de Fuca. All of it is stunning scenery, with orcas or killer whales often in that area. I've only seen the strait from the Vancouver Island side and the islands and whales from ferries going between Victoria and Vancouver, but I would delay dinner until past sunset to enjoy as much of this area as you can.

 

Going north through the Inner Passage there is a narrow gorge, Seymour Narrows, that is safe to pass only at certain tides. I'd like to see it, but not if it 2 am:)

Edited July 25, 2015 by Janet987

[teachatthebeach]

Sail Away follow up...

 

We had our muster drill at 4:00 and it seemed to last forever. We finally got up on deck around 5:00 and relaxed on loungers by the pool until the ship started to move. Then we moved up as high as we could which I believe was deck 12. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was amazing. We went to dinner around 8:00.

 

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Going under the bridge!

[Janet987]

Oh, wow! Thank you for those gorgeous photos, amazing weather indeed. Hoping that the rest of the week remains perfect for your cruise. One month today we will be in Vancouver. If you have a chance, let us know the section of Inner Passage sailed today. Enjoy every minute!

[teachatthebeach]

We sailed back on June 19. And we were blessed to have great weather all week. I don't know how much of the Inside Passage we covered that first day. We had already been traveling for 5 days when we got on the ship. I needed that first evening to unpack and regroup! I do know the views from our balcony were amazing!

[longmonster]

If we go south around Vancouver Island (likely route) then we'll probably be out of sight of land by morning. If we go the inside route then we'll probably be rounding the north end of Vancouver Island by dawn.

 

I plan to record a continuous GPS track of the voyage that I'll be happy to share with anyone by e-mail after we get home. You can upload it to Google Earth and zoom into any particular part that interests you.

[longmonster]

I thought I'd attach a couple of GPS tracks from previous cruises that you might find interesting. The first one is on the HAL Veendam to Antarctica out of Buenos Aires. Most of the track of the return crossing of the Drake Passage to Tierra del Fuego is missing because the weather was so bad that they bolted steel plates over all the windows on the bottom two decks. This blocked the GPS signal in my cabin. The only part of the track I could get was when I went out on deck during the daytime.

The second one is on the Maasdam about a day out of Tenerife, when we lost engine power for about an hour and started to drift back toward Ft. Lauderdale.

[longmonster]

Sorry, I thought the "attach image" button would upload a .jpg file the way my e-mail program does. Can anyone explain how to upload an image file?