Trippingpara's 'Legend'ary Alaskan Cruise Photographic Review

[trippingpara]

Following along as I love your reviews and we're looking at booking an Alaskan cruise coming up soon!!

 

I can't wait to read this review!

 

Hi smitty89 and heffy2! Thanks for joining along for the ride. I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know if you have any questions and thanks for the kind words. Cheers!

[trippingpara]

FOOD: Of course, with all the foodies on Cruise Critic, I had to address this one. However, since the Legend has had so many reviews over the years that have discussed the various food venues extensively, I will only give our brief thoughts on the various eateries. For those that are curious or don't recall/know the venues available on the Legend, here is a listing of the main restaurants/eateries aboard: Truffles Restaurant (MDR), the Unicorn Café Lido Restaurant (buffet), Guy’s Burgers/Blue Iguana, Bonsai Sushi, Pizza Pirate and the Nouveau Steakhouse.

 

Truffles Restaurant (MDR): This is located on Decks 2 and 3 and is all the way aft of the ship. The restaurant is not quite as gaudy as some of the other Carnival ships (yeah, I’m looking at you there Victory!). Since we had Any Time Dining, we were seated on Deck 3. We didn’t eat here too much, just dinner one night and the Seaday Brunch on the first sea day. The food was delicious, service was good and the food was plentiful. Overall grade…”A”.

 

The Unicorn Café Lido Restaurant - Aside from the extremely long and tongue-twisting name, if you have been to the buffet on a Carnival ship then you know what it's like here. If you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all! We never found the lines to be overly long or more crowded than any other ship that we've been on. The food was good and the crew kept it clean and well stocked. My made to order omelet was outstanding!

My one big gripe here was not the café but the people. There were many times that people would camp out in the café and take all of the chairs and tables by the windows (where the vast majority of the seating was) and they weren’t eating. They were just sitting there with their binoculars and some were even sleeping. Really?? There are flipping thousands of chairs by windows all over Decks 2, 3 and 4 if you don’t want to be outside watching the beauty of Alaska sail by. I get that you want to see it but please don’t take all of the chairs and tables during the main feeding rushes. That’s just rude. People that were trying to eat had to juggle their plates and drinks as they searched all over for seating. Slam me if you think I’m wrong, I don’t care. The tables and chairs in the buffet area are for those eating. If you’ve done eating or have no intention of eating, please move and give your spot to those that are trying to eat. It’s called courtesy people. Rant over. Overall grade for the buffet (not the people)..."A"

 

Guy's Burger - This is usually one of my favorite haunts during a cruise. I was pretty stoked to find out that this was added in during the recent dry docking in May. As usual, my standard order, the Ringer Burger was “shut the front door” good. Overall grade..."A"

 

Blue Iguanas – Another recent addition courtesy of her latest dry-docking renovation. I became a raging Blue Iguana fan on our recent trip to the Canadian Maritimes on the Sunshine. This is by far DW’s favorite place and it is quickly passing Guy’s Burgers for me (is that even possible??). Their burritos are the BLEEP! If you have never been here before, please put the crack pipe down and go there. Now. Take your time, I'll hang out and wait.

 

See? Wasn't that worth it?! Seriously, go there. It's that good. Overall grade..."A++"

 

Nouveau Steakhouse – Thankfully, they recently renamed the steakhouse. It was formerly called the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece? Seriously? Am I the only one that is starting to feel like I’m stuck in some crazy children’s book? The Unicorn Café, the Golden Fleece…***!

 

Any ways, aside from the quirky and rather childish former name, the steakhouse is what the steakhouse is…the jiggidly bomb! Do I need to say anymore? The service...outstanding! The food...delicious! Upcharge price...there is no steakhouse that I've ever been to where I can get that kind of service, quality of food and amount of food for $35. It's an absolute steal at that price! I reserved well in advance because, well, I’m anal as all get out! I’m also a cheap SOB and I wanted that free bottle of wine on embarkation day.

 

I know the wine aficionados out there are snickering in earnest over that, but I don’t care. It could be 2 Buck Chuck, but if it’s free, it’s for me! For those of you that actually have a taste palate and enjoy a finer wine, you also have the option of 50% off their regular wine menu instead (which really means you get the bottle of wine at the same price you get back home - what a deal!) Overall grade...like I even need to say it..."A++"

 

Pizza Pirate - Okay, let's get real. I could live off pizza. Seriously. You can put all the major food groups on one slice. Bam! Knock that food chart right out of the park. You can't beat it. And it goes with everything...milk, soda, beer, wine, water, did I mention beer? I mean, what more could you ask for, right? So, I'm probably not the best person to rate a pizza shop because I don't think there is such a thing as a bad pizza. There's just good pizza and even better pizza. This one however, ranks squarely in the “good” pizza category. Not awesome or incredible, or even “better”, but they did deliver a tasty little pie which is heaven when you have the late-night munchies from too many Caribbean Manhattans. Lady Trip was not the biggest fan of it, but then again, she doesn’t consider pizza to be a food group by itself.

 

I do have to say that I was highly disappointed when I ran up to the Pizza Pirate in an obvious state of excitement (and maybe a Caribbean Manhattan or 2 [more like 10]) and shouted out “Arrgghh Matey!” and all I got in return was a blank stare from two very confused young men. I was really hoping to see Johnny Depp back there whipping up some tasty pies while downing a gallon of rum, spewing out some witty and savvy sayings. But alas, that was not to be. Just a pair of tired, young men from Indonesia clearly convinced that I was a perfect example of a stupid drunk tourist. If you’re not going to have pirates there, why do they call it “Pizza Pirate”?? Aside from that extreme disappointment of that night, I’ll still give them an overall grade of..."B"

 

 

...

[trippingpara]

ENTERTAINMENT: Even though we boarded the Legend with no real plans on what to do while sailing on her (aside from the Steakhouse), we did end up taking part in several different entertainment options. I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed all the various forms of entertainment that we took advantage of. Here's a quick snippet of the options we did.

 

Playlist Productions - I've read many reviews where people slammed these shows because they no longer had live bands performing or didn't include multiple stage sets, etc. Being a drummer and performer, I do enjoy and even prefer live musicians whenever possible. But the fact that a particular show does not utilize a live band does not by itself cause me to dislike a show. Whatever rows your boat man.

 

My DW occasionally gets me to take her to a play or musical. Although personally, I'd much rather watch a televised chess game announced by Ben Stein in his role as the teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But that's me. (Sigh…you younglings are still reading along? Google it. I bet that you can find that scene on YouTube. “Bueller…Bueller…”) As I said before, I’m a knuckle-dragging Marine. I still laugh when someone farts, I applaud when people can finish a complete sentence while burping, my favorite cologne is a mixture of freshly sawn wood coupled with gun powder, and I think fondly of the “good-ole” days of political incorrectness of watching Benny Hill and All in the Family. Yes, I choose to find the humor in things instead of being offended by them.

 

So, what does all of that have to do with Playlist Productions? Well, nothing actually. But it does show that even a Neanderthal like myself can enjoy a very well put together show. And these shows were very well done! We liked the 80's rock show (Epic Rock) the best (we both grew up in the 80's and severely miss our giant hairdos!). My DW and I found ourselves dancing and singing along throughout the show (the countless Irish Car Bombs and Caribbean Manhattans couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with that!)

 

Hasbro Game Shows – My DW took me to their CLUE show. It was interesting. She loves puzzles and it lasts the entire cruise. She was really into it. If puzzles and mysteries are your thing, then by all means, attend this show, you’ll enjoy it. I wasn’t so much into it, but DW loved it. I’ll let you decide the grade on this show.

 

Comedy Shows – We went to the adult comedy night on our first night. We saw Tim Young who was hysterical. His show was predominately interacting with the audience which I really enjoy as it really shows that the comedian is truly funny because he (or she) can clearly think on their feet and is really funny vs. just having a funny skit that they have memorized. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

 

Musicians – The musicians were really good but I did notice that they tended to be much calmer musically speaking then I’ve seen on other cruises. There was one guitarist (Lucas) who also had a drum kit set up so he could play it with his feet. Being a drummer, I was really impressed to see him play drums (with both feet) while playing guitar and singing simultaneously. The band, Murphy’s Law was really good however, I was really disappointed when I saw their name but found out it wasn’t the Murphy’s Law I was thinking of. But then again, I really don’t think Carnival would hire an old hardcore punk band from New York City, especially on an Alaskan cruise!! Not quite the right demographics!

 

Nature Speakers – Nancy was our naturalist and she would occasionally pop on the loudspeaker to announce various sightings of wildlife. When we entered Glacier Bay, we picked up a couple of Park Rangers that spent the day on board and announced wildlife sightings as well as various landmarks and glaciers views. They also had a desk set up on the Lido with various animal pelts and information about the bay.

 

Dive-in Theater – Now don’t go getting your hopes up…no theater was added during dry dock. I know that many people were hoping that it would be, but again, it was left off the honey-to-do list. This was our first time being on a ship without it. We personally didn’t miss it since it was a wee bit cool in the evenings on deck in Alaska, so I doubt that we would have used it much if it was there, but I did keep looking for it when we would stroll around the Lido during the afternoon on Sea Days. It felt strange not seeing it. I can imagine that we would really miss it when the Legend heads down under or to Hawaii. We always enjoy sitting out at night watching a movie cuddled up next to each other with a bag of popcorn and a tasty drink.

 

 

Next up: bars, staff and misc areas...

[trippingpara]

I'm along for the ride Trip!! Carry on!! :D

 

My man, Jamman54! How you doing mate? Glad you hopped along for this magic carpet ride!

[trippingpara]

Had a ocean view cabin on deck 1 (1172) heard NOTHING from the Follies or Firebird during our cruise. A couple of times I thought I heard faint cheering that I was hoping meant someone in the casino had hit something good but it was very low key and not something I think I would have even heard if I wasn't awake. I was worried about noise after I realized where the cabin was (of course this was after the cruise was booked solid and changing was not an option) but we seriously heard nothing outside our room. :)

 

Hi MominWA, thanks for joining. Wow! I'm surprised that you didn't hear anything but I think you were in the best area on Deck 1. You were a good distance from both Firebird Lounge and Medusa's Dance Club and under the Shore Excursions desk on Deck 2. We had friends on Deck 1 that were under the Red Frog Pub and only a few cabins away from the Firebird Lounge and they said it was super loud, but then again the Red Frog Pub had bands there that would often play late into the night. Thanks again for popping in and giving us that feedback, it's good to know and glad it turned out to be pretty quiet for you!!

[trippingpara]

I can't wait to read more. We did this itinerary in 2016 and loved every minute of it (except for all the rain.

 

Hi Namelocg, thanks for joining along. This itinerary is a great one, isn't it? We ended up being fairly lucky with the rain. We definitely got some, but not as bad as some others that I've heard from.

[trippingpara]

DW and I were on the same cruise, aft balcony cabin on deck 7. Loved it, will do it again. I will add comments on the ports as you write about them.

 

Great cruise! We were also onboard for this cruise. Cabin 6154, Ocean Suite; beautiful and great temp controls.

 

Hi skiorcruise and 2Shoes2Go! Thanks for following along and welcome back to the real world. I'm still waiting for someone to magically pop back up and clean up after me here at home. It's not quite the same as being on the ship. I sure do miss the awesome staff taking care of me!! Please do pop in and let us know how the ports were for you too throughout this review. Cheers!

[trippingpara]

ALCHEMY BAR: Our home away from home! This is also located on the Promenade Deck (Deck 2) and another new addition from their recent overhaul. Thank the Sweet Lord Party Jesus for that!! If you fancy a fancy drink, then this is THE place to be! Ufuk, the Crazy Turk, and his crew were incredible! Their drinks were so delicious and they loved to joke around and have fun. There was always a party going on there. Well, at least there was when we were there! Want a drink that’s not on the menu? No problem! These cool cats kept the drinks flowing and witty banter going. We cannot recommend this place enough! Get there early and grab a stool as it fills up quickly and stays packed all night (although it did close earlier than I'm accustomed to on our other cruises). This was also the main hangout for the crew on their off hours, including the captain. He was often found here and was quite approachable. This is a must do on every cruise for us. Grade…”A+++++++++”

 

Here are a couple shots of the new Alchemy Bar. These were quick shots taken with my phone as we roamed the decks right after we embarked. This was the largest Alchemy area that I've seen. All of the other ones have large seating areas as well but they are not themed with the bar like this one. You are not able to tell from the photos, but the carpet has the chemical sequencing of alcohol all over it. Of course my DW (who is a science geek and does this stuff for a living) immediately spotted that. I just thought they were cool geometric shapes! There are also old pharmacy slips and books and other paraphernalia spread throughout the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RED FROG PUB: We first started going to the Red Frog Pub when we sailed on the inaugural voyage of the Vista and fell in love with it. Okay, maybe not “in love”, but we really enjoyed it! For some reason, we’re not the biggest fan of the Red Frog Bar or the Blue Iguana Bar (probably because they are always swamped being right next to the main pool and big screen (if it existed!). Needless to say, we visited here a couple times. We were bummed though to find out that they do not offer any snacks as they do on some other ships.

 

BILLIE’S PIANO BAR: This is another really fun joint. However, it does depend highly on the quality of the piano player so keep an eye out for who is playing on your cruise. I’ve seen some great ones that really get the place a’jumping (Ben Gentry) and others that play some good music but that’s about it. Ours was unfortunately the latter. Not a lot of the fun, rowdy music that we’ve heard in other piano bars. Much more subdued. Fun, but not awesome fun.

 

SERENITY: The Serenity Deck is located on the Lido Deck (Deck 9). I’m used to the Serenity Deck being forward of the ship, but here it is located aft where the aft pool normally is. There is technically a pool still here but if you’re more than 6 feet tall, you won’t be able to do more than lay down without bumping your head on the wall. And that’s if you’re completely alone in the pool. It’s really small! The attached hot tub is pretty much the same size! But it has a large bar, so it completely makes up for it!! I couldn’t tell if the staff enforced underage rule as I never saw any children there (there were not many children on our cruise to begin with). Overall, I’d grade it as an “A”.

 

SPA: This is not a Cloud 9 Spa so it does not have all the cool saunas and heated chairs that those spas have. Due to that, the wifey said no way to it. So, that means, I really can’t tell you much about it except for the fact that it does not have all the bells and whistles of a Cloud 9 spa.

...

[trippingpara]

Before I dive deep into the day to day diary stuff, I want to cover a couple more things quickly...

 

STAFF: This is one area that I think Carnival excels at. It is truly rare to run into a foul tempered staff member. Most of them are all smiles and very outgoing. I'm not sure if I would be able to smile while I work as hard as they do. They put in very long hours, day after day and they do it all with a huge smile. In fact, I am utterly convinced that I could not do what they do. The second some obnoxious idiot starts yelling at me about the stain on the carpet, I’d Superfly Snuka their derriere back into the Stone Age. Sigh. Really? Don’t know who Superfly Snuka is either? Am I really that old??

Anyways, maybe they fake it until they make it, but they are darn good at it! Overall grade "A+"

 

Cameras: Okay, this one doesn’t deal with the ship at all. But I am commonly asked what camera am I using? Well, I'm glad you asked. Alaska is so insanely beautiful. Seriously, it’s like God went crazy dumping everything beautiful into Alaska and then got to a few other parts of the world (looking at you there Gobi Desert!) and just said “oops, all out of beauty. Sorry guys!” Needless to say, I went a little crazy bringing gear. Like, all of it! Okay, so I didn’t bring all of my studio lighting, stands, etc., but I did suddenly get in touch with my feminine side and went a bit overboard with packing the “essentials”.

 

You know that you have a serious problem when the luggage carrying your photography gear is bigger than your luggage for everything else! I could pack 2 shirts, a pair of pants, some socks and undies and I’d be good to go as long as I had all of my camera gear with me. I mean, that’s what washing machines are for right?? If I forgot my 16-35mm f/2 G Master lens, I’m pretty much screwed when I try to capture that incredible wide-angle view of the snowcapped mountains or that vista from the top of a glacier. Those are once-in-a-lifetime shots. I can get undies and socks anywhere!!

 

Now that you see where my priorities lie, let me get back to answering the original question…I carried two primary cameras, my Sony a99 dSLT full frame camera and my brand spanking new Sony a7riii full frame mirrorless camera. My DW carried her Sony a300 crop sensor dSLR (yes, we are a Sony family!). We also brought our Olympus TG5 just in case we needed a camera that could take a beating and water submersion.

 

Now you’re probably like my DW and any other sane person and asking yourself “why in the world does he need two primary cameras?” That’s a great question and I’m glad you asked (I know that was a rhetorical question, but I’m going to answer anyways). Since the scenery in Alaska can change quickly from a scenic landscape that requires a wide-angle lens to wildlife photography that needs a very large telescopic zoom lens, I had a camera body set for each type of lens.

 

Walking up nose-to-nose with a 1,500 lb grizzly bear chomping on some salmon in order to capture that close up shot because you have a wide-angle lens on your camera is really not advisable! At least, that’s what my doctor tells me, and he has a lot of fancy looking paper hanging on the wall telling me how smart he is, so I’m going to listen to his advice!

 

Since my a99 dSLT is the big boy here, he was assigned to do all the heavy lifting and carried my large zoom lens. My svelte little a7riii mirrorless camera was assigned for the landscape shots since it has an insane megapixel count and it is light enough that I could just mount it onto my tripod and carry it around like that. Thus, I did not have to worry about quickly changing lenses to capture that pod of orcas that appeared out of nowhere or that incredible sunbeam that is hitting the mountains just right. In a matter of seconds both of those shots could be gone.

 

For lenses, I brought my Sony Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 and Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 for the Sony a99 body and my Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master and 24-105 f/4 G lenses for the Sony a7riii. My DW brought her Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5 and her Sony 30mm macro lens.

 

I know that I’m speaking complete gibberish to all those non-photographers out there, but there are a surprising number of photographers on Cruise Critic. If you don’t believe me, just check out the photography forum on CC. Any who…

I also brought my 3-Legged Thing Leo tripod which I absolutely love!! It is so small and cute! I can remove a leg and use it as a monopod which I was planning on using heavily on our little jaunt to Admiralty Island to watch the giant Brown Bears feast on the annual salmon run. More about that later. Awesome-sauce!!!

Now, let’s get to the real deal here…

 

Next up: The Official Trippingpara Review!!

 

...

[trippingpara]

The Official Trippingpara Review – Diary Style

 

Okay, enough with the Cliff Notes. Now it’s time for the meat and potatoes of my review. Hmmm…, all this talk of meat and potatoes is making me hungry! But that will have to wait for later. Let me give you a little background about us. As I mentioned earlier, I’m Trippingpara but you can just call me Trip. I’m in my early, err mid, ALRIGHT! late forties and work in upper management for a large international software company when I’m not galivanting around being a photographer or pounding the skins on stage as a drummer. I’m a pretty laid-back guy that loves to travel and goes a little crazy with planning trips. I’ve been told by many that I should have become a travel agent and tour guide. I unfortunately missed that calling. Although, for anyone living in or visiting New England, I am in the process of developing photography tours as part of my studio offerings. Oops, did I just throw a commercial in here? Sorry about that, back to your regularly scheduled program...

Joining me on this adventure was my lovely wife who we’ll call Lady Trip. She is in her mid, oops, early (not quite!), let’s try slightly late-early-not quite mid-forties and works as a paralegal specializing in international biotech patents. Yeah, don’t ask me what that means. My head spins just typing that out!

 

That's us! I'm the handsome devil on the left, and the beautiful one on the right is Lady Trip but you probably already figured that out.

 

We knew that we were going to Hawaii to renew our vows and celebrate our 20th anniversary in marital bliss so why not extend the celebration and take it up north! Hawaii usually goes into lockdown the second they hear that the Trips are returning, so we thought it was bloody well time that our brothers and sisters’ way up north got the privilege of partying with us!

 

Knowing that we wanted to go to Alaska on a cruise, we did our usual routine of checking out all cruise lines. Although we have only cruised Carnival, it is primarily because they have always been the cruise line that has offered us the best itinerary at the best price at that particular time. Many of our friends (who are regular Carnival cruisers) did point us towards other cruise lines for an Alaskan itinerary which we did look at first. But at the end of the day, it was Carnival that again provided the best bang for our buck. So, we made the decision to sail with Carnival to Alaska.

 

Even though we booked this cruise in 2016, before we knew it, it was time to pack our bags and head up to Boston’s Logan Airport for our flight to Seattle!

Next up: Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia...

.

[watermelonqueen99]

BILLIE’S PIANO BAR: This is another really fun joint. However, it does depend highly on the quality of the piano player so keep an eye out for who is playing on your cruise. I’ve seen some great ones that really get the place a’jumping (Ben Gentry) and others that play some good music but that’s about it. Ours was unfortunately the latter. Not a lot of the fun, rowdy music that we’ve heard in other piano bars. Much more subdued. Fun, but not awesome fun.

 

 

 

[/quote]

 

Ben was the PBE on our last cruise, and he is phenomenal! I'm worried about who will be on our October cruise, because I can't imagine anyone living up to him! Oh, the things that went down in that bar. Lol :D Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[MominWA]

We had a great time in the piano bar but what was played was of course based upon what the crowd requested. There were a couple of times when other performers would drop in and Jam and things would get a bit more rowdy. My son closed down the place a few nights and said it was much more upbeat the later it got. Having a seven year old in tow I was always limited to Camp Ocean hours and seemed to miss those moments.

 

They did have the big Jam session with all the artists one night in the Red Frog Pub and that was a good time. The last night with Murphy's Law was a great time too. The playlist performers and Adam all hit the dance floor. The actually got my non-dancing son out there with them. Those pictures are priceless!!!!!!

 

I never did get a chance to try the Alchemy bar. I've read such good things about it and with your review added in I am a bit bummed. But hey, that gives me a reason to go back. :)

[vinsheer]

Yes, I also joined my daughter (Sharla, with the Purple hair) there a couple nights. We also closed the Piano Bar the night they sent us down to the Jam Session for lots of fun and good talent. My daughter loved the Red Frog Pub and Murphy's Law. It was her go to place. Adam and the singers and dancers joining in that final night really made the place start jumping! Loved both nights! Loved the entire cruise!

[Frank12]

We were on this one with you. It was our favorite out of 28 Carnival cruises. We've been to Alaska before, but this one was special. The staff on the Legend were amazing. And the weather... very little rain!

[trippingpara]

 

Ben was the PBE on our last cruise, and he is phenomenal! I'm worried about who will be on our October cruise, because I can't imagine anyone living up to him! Oh, the things that went down in that bar. Lol :D Looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

Yeah, I think Ben sorta ruined the Piano Bar for us. Everyone after him seems to have been a step down. Not to say that any of the other ones were bad, because they certainly weren't! None of them just seemed to be as much fun as he was. He really knew how to get the crowd going.

[trippingpara]

We had a great time in the piano bar but what was played was of course based upon what the crowd requested. There were a couple of times when other performers would drop in and Jam and things would get a bit more rowdy. My son closed down the place a few nights and said it was much more upbeat the later it got. Having a seven year old in tow I was always limited to Camp Ocean hours and seemed to miss those moments.

 

They did have the big Jam session with all the artists one night in the Red Frog Pub and that was a good time. The last night with Murphy's Law was a great time too. The playlist performers and Adam all hit the dance floor. The actually got my non-dancing son out there with them. Those pictures are priceless!!!!!!

 

I never did get a chance to try the Alchemy bar. I've read such good things about it and with your review added in I am a bit bummed. But hey, that gives me a reason to go back. :)

 

Hmm, maybe we just didn't stay long enough at the Piano Bar. We popped in a couple times and he was always playing slower songs and nobody was singing along. It was earlier in the evening so it sounds like it got a bit more entertaining later on. We did go to the jam session in the Red Frog as well as seeing Murphy's Law on the last night. Those were great!! That's the first time that I've seen a jam session of all the musicians at once. I really hope they do that on other ships too now. The crowd certainly seemed like they loved it, I know we really did!

 

P.S. You really need to try the Alchemy Bar on your next cruise! We've never been disappointed with either the drinks or the bartenders there and the people there always seem to be the most fun.

[trippingpara]

Wednesday, August 22nd

Boston, Massachusetts

Since we live in the sprawling state of Rhode Island (please note the official name of our lovely home is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – useless tidbit – check!), we often participate in the Park, Sleep and Fly program at the Four Points Sheraton near Boston’s Logan Airport. It’s cheaper than parking at the airport and we get to start our vacation a bit early. It also makes the morning commute to the airport sooooooo much easier. If you’ve never experienced morning rush hour in Boston, you don’t know what you’re missing! Envision a cacophony of horns blaring, tires screeching with Bostonian slang-filled tirades as a flurry of middle fingers wave at you from car windows blasting the rhythmic hometown sounds of Aerosmith or Godsmack. That should get you in the right frame of mind for a jaunt down to the corner store during rush hour in Boston.

I worked from home during the day and had the responsibility of finalizing our packing and securing the house. After I triple checked all the doors, windows, chimneys, vent pipes, keyholes and any other possible source of entry into our house, I was ready to go. The fact that we have a friend of ours house/dog sit at our place while we’re gone doesn’t seem to matter to me. My pre-trip OCD requires me to repeatedly check all our luggage, camera gear and then house security for every potential scenario before we can leave. My papa always told me to be prepared! You don’t want to get caught with your pants down when you’re away. I mean, what if a swarm of locusts come through and destroy all those crops in your garden that you never planted but really wished you did! Or that mass murderer/serial rapist/budding politician that just escaped from prison in California, steals a car and drives across the country just to break into your house. Man, you need to prepare for these things!!

Sigh. God bless Lady Trip for dealing with me!!

Once I was convinced that our house was locked down like Fort Knox, I manhandled all our luggage into our car and headed up I-95 to the loveliest airport built on a trash heap: Boston’s Logan Airport. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a trash heap, but it was built entirely on a landfill. Back in the day, the entire area that now houses Logan Airport was in the middle of the harbor. Useless tidbit #5…Check.

Anyways, we eventually made our way through the crazy Boston traffic, parked our car and checked into the Four Points Sheraton. The rest of the evening was pretty casual. A simple meal next door at Uno’s and then off to bed for an early morning alarm.

Next up: Flight to Seattle and drive up to Vancouver, British Columbia...

 

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[trippingpara]

Thursday, August 23rd

Boston, Massachusetts

0430 (also commonly referred to as “Zero Dark Thirty” or “What the hell am I doing up at this ungodly hour?”)…

 

…the evil rooster from hell suddenly comes to life…

 

I wipe the sleep from my eyes and launch myself out of bed like an 8-year old on Christmas morning. I’ve been waiting a long time for this trip and the day was finally here. After throwing the evil rooster from hell (aka my alarm clock - aka my phone) out the window to silence it, we started to get ready. Once I was showered and awake, I realized that I just tossed my phone out the window and I sheepishly went downstairs and outside to retrieve it. Of course, I had to get on my hands and knees and dig through the bushes four floors below our window to find my phone. Thankfully, the very smelly mulch (aka cow poop) made for a soft-landing spot for my very expensive phone (aka alarm clock – aka the evil rooster from hell). Amazingly, the alarm was still going off. Although it was rather muted from all the cow manure stuck in the speaker.

 

We finally made our way to the front desk and requested the shuttle to the airport. The very pleasant desk attendant muttered something about an odd stench of poop as she called for the shuttle. A few minutes later it arrived and magically whisked us to the Delta terminal for our non-stop flight to Seattle. Okay, so it didn’t “magically” whisk us there but since I wasn’t driving, getting honked at, the finger flipped at or screaming out the window at other Ma@@hole drivers, it certainly felt magical.

 

As I stated, we flew non-stop on Delta and had “Premier Seats”. Which is just a fancy way of saying that we got to sit near the even fancier first class seats. It was rather comfy there aside from the stewardess (or is it Flight Attendant now?) that would give you the look of death if you even thought of crossing that invisible barrier between the “Premier Seats” and “First Class” seats. Even though a restroom was 8 feet away from me, apparently my arse wasn’t nice enough to use that one since it resided on the “other” side of the line. Now I’ve flown first class before. There is nothing special about their restrooms. No golden toilet seat, no machine gently blowing bubbles of perfumed essence up your behind, nada. The same thing as all the other restrooms on the plane. But can I use it? Nooooo! I was pointed towards the one that was 75 feet away and had to crawl over 4 sleeping babies and 18 chickens to get there. And trust me, from sitting 8 feet away from it, I can absolutely certify to the fact that those peeps in first class…yeah, their poop does NOT smell any better than anyone else’s, including mine! But then again, they probably didn’t have their $1,000 phone covered in cow poop. P.S. can you believe phones actually cost that flippin’ much now?? Am I the only one that misses having the little flip up phone that fit perfectly in your front pockets, was not the size of a small laptop and was not able to provide the entire world of knowledge at your fingertips and was given to you for free?

 

Any ways, no offense is intended towards those peeps that sit in first class…I am clearly jealous of the fact that I did not. Mea culpa. Where was I? Oh yeah, flying to Seattle…

 

HDR photo of Glacier National Park in Montana as captured during our flight to Seattle.

 

HDR photo of Mount Rainier poking above the clouds outside Seattle, Washington.

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Seattle, Washington / Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (cont.)

 

Once we landed and fought through the crowds to get our luggage, we then strolled over to pick up our rental car. Even though we were planning on spending some time with my sister and brother-in-law, we actually flew in a day early so we could run up to Vancouver and spend a night there.

 

I think I mentioned in my review of our inaugural cruise of the Vista in the Mediterranean, if there is a border anywhere in close proximity to me, I will find a way to cross it. That was pretty much my mentality here. A little over an hour away by car was the Canadian border. Close enough, I needed to cross it!

 

So, we hopped in our rental car and headed north to Canada. The drive through Seattle was surprising smooth and easy. The biggest traffic jam that we ran into was at the Peace Arch border crossing between I-5 (U.S.) and Hwy 99 (Canada). Once we slowly made our way through the checkpoint, it was smooth sailing all the way to the Sylvia Hotel on Beach Street in Vancouver. The total trip took us about 3 ½ hours in total.

 

The Peace Arch on the U.S. side of the border.

The Canadian Flag flower garden on the Canadian side of the border. The actual border is the granite pillar seen in the foreground.

 

Welcome to British Columbia!

 

The quaint and historic Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver, BC

The Sylvia Hotel was a great old hotel sitting right on English Bay and nestled up next to Stanley Park. We parked the car and checked into the hotel. This is one of the oldest hotels in Vancouver and has tons of old photos scattered around of the famous guests that have stayed there over the years. They try to keep the old vibe going and still even use real keys!!

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[Hogladyrider]

Loving your review!

 

Stanley Park is amazing, Vancouver isn't too bad either!

 

Looking forward to reading more.

[trippingpara]

Yes, I also joined my daughter (Sharla, with the Purple hair) there a couple nights. We also closed the Piano Bar the night they sent us down to the Jam Session for lots of fun and good talent. My daughter loved the Red Frog Pub and Murphy's Law. It was her go to place. Adam and the singers and dancers joining in that final night really made the place start jumping! Loved both nights! Loved the entire cruise!

 

We were on this one with you. It was our favorite out of 28 Carnival cruises. We've been to Alaska before, but this one was special. The staff on the Legend were amazing. And the weather... very little rain!

 

Hi guys, thanks for joining!! This was a great cruise wasn't it?! I couldn't believe how much we lucked out with all the great weather! Those nights in the Red Frog Pub were great too!!

[trippingpara]

Loving your review!

 

Stanley Park is amazing, Vancouver isn't too bad either!

 

Looking forward to reading more.

 

Thanks Hogladyrider! Stanley Park was incredible. We couldn't get over the trees there, they were huge!! The park itself was huge too, so glad we drove the park instead of walking it!

[trippingpara]

Vancouver, B.C. (cont.)

We basically just threw our luggage into the room and headed out to explore Vancouver. We hopped back into our SUV and drove into Stanley Park. Even though we were right next to the park, it is actually larger than Central Park in NYC. There was no way that we were going to walk the entire park after traveling all the way from Boston and then driving up from Seattle. We were bushed but excited to see Vancouver. Since I mainly wanted to see things on the opposite side of the park (of course!), we opted to drive there.

 

Looking out into Vancouver Harbour. The cruise terminal can be seen to the far left (Silversea's Silver Shadow is docked there in this photo). The red building on the island in the center of the photo is a reserve naval base.

 

Looking in the opposite direction across Vancouver Harbour is a large marina and a small beach. We saw plenty of harbor seals playing around right by this beach as well as on the opposite side of the bridge.

 

We parked the SUV and started to stroll along the sea wall and the totem park area. Beautiful is all that I can say about Stanley Park. Absolutely beautiful! If you ever get a chance to visit Vancouver, this is a must see!!!

 

A grouping of totem poles in Stanley Park

 

A woodpecker certainly loves these totem poles!

 

The Woman in the Wetsuit statue.

 

The Brockton Point Lighthouse and Vancouver Harbour

 

After spending a couple hours strolling around the park, we headed back to our hotel, parked the car and grabbed some dinner at the hotel restaurant. Good food but not a particularly large menu, only a few options. Spectacular view though! Once we finished our dinner and excellent dessert, we strolled across the street and walked along the beach at English Bay. The views were spectacular as the sun set over the water. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos here as my media card got corrupted as I was downloading the photos onto my computer. Oh, the torrent of foul language that flowed out of my mouth when that happened!!!

 

Life goes on. At least, that’s the mantra that I keep repeating to myself! We spent a couple hours walking up and down the beach until the sun was completely down before we called it a night and headed to our room. Needless to say, after our flight across country, a 3 ½ hour drive across the Canadian border and several hours of walking, we were utterly exhausted.

Next up: Grouse Mountain, Vancouver...

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[dltvermont]

Great start to another review! Love your writing style! Im always torn about an Alaskan cruise. Something about being on a cruise ship means warm, by the pool, shorts/tshirt. Not cool, pants/sweatshirt. I can get that right at home! Would love to head there someday though. The scenery and wildlife are amazing.

[trippingpara]

Great start to another review! Love your writing style! Im always torn about an Alaskan cruise. Something about being on a cruise ship means warm, by the pool, shorts/tshirt. Not cool, pants/sweatshirt. I can get that right at home! Would love to head there someday though. The scenery and wildlife are amazing.

 

Welcome dltvermont! I wasn't too sure about how I'd like "cruising" to a cold weather port. I pretty quickly forgot about it once I saw the amazing vistas of Alaska. Plus, they main pool is covered and it was quite warm and toasty there. I did miss the swaying palm trees though!