Quantum & Ovation Plus - 30 Day Live (hopefully)

[bobmacliberty]

Enough pics for now. We’ve turned inland and are traveling along the Fraser River by Surrey. About another 30 minutes through the outskirts of Vancouver until we arrive at Pacific Central Station in downtown Vancouver. We’ll take a taxi/Lyft/Uber from there to our hotel. 
 

More to come…

[bobmacliberty]

31 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

Happy for you the train was a success!  Tell Micheline to be very careful and pace herself.

Congratulations on D+.  Sometimes you just need that extra drink🤪

And the bag of laundry. 😁

[bobmacliberty]

15 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

I don't often do it myself but if time permits, train travel is the way to go.  Don't have the hassle of flying & getting to and from the airport, much more comfortable & relaxing than a bus.  The only downside - other than not having the freedom of a car - is that sometimes the train schedules are less than ideal, especially long distance.  If only more people would take a train, there would be more trains.

I wish the US had a better train system. I love train travel in Europe. I get it though. The US is large and train travel takes time.  Even with the flying hassles you mention, flying is almost always faster.  Plus we do love our cars. Probably not enough demand to justify the expense. 

[bobmacliberty]

4 hours ago, crzndeb said:

Carlington may still be the Diamond Concierge on board. Great guy!

Carlington is the Suite Concierge for our cruise. Got an email from him a couple of days ago and he has already booked all of our reservations. 

[bobmacliberty]

I used Trip Advisor Plus (think I can mention them since CC is owned by TA) to book our stay at the Pan Pacific Vancouver and last night at the Embassy Suites in Seattle. TA+ has an annual membership fee but I saved enough on our Pan Pacific booking to more than cover the annual fee. I saved another $120 last night at Embassy Suites.

 

Unless it’s a coincidence (Gibbs’ rule #39), these savings mean getting the least desirable rooms. We all know from cruising that all rooms are not created equal.  Last night at ES we were in a standard 2 queen bed suite, but on the third floor overlooking the front entrance. No big deal since we didn’t care about the view and there was no street noise. We took the first available room so that Micheline could lay down and they had a room for us at 10:00. That was exactly what she needed and we didn’t care where the room was. 
 

Today at the Pan Pacific, we are in a standard harbor view king room. We’re on the 9th floor which I assumed would be fine. However, the outdoor pool is on a raised section above the 8th floor roof, right in front of our window. Since we’re going to be here a few days, I did opt for a more expensive view, although granted at cheaper TA+ rates. Technically, we can still see the harbor, but I should have confirmed the view when we checked in. Our 9th floor harbor view:
 

 

Yup…complaining about some little things. Moral of the story though is that I think that cheaper 3rd party room rates mean the hotel tries to give you their less desirable rooms. 

 

Here’s our Vancouver hotel (upper right part of the picture) directly above Canada Place and the cruise terminal. The hotel has a service where they will take your luggage from your room and deliver directly to the ship. Nice. 
 

[George C]

Welcome to the diamond plus crowd , we were also not to happy with the Bills Sunday after going thru the hassle of getting rid of dish to get directtv so we could watch the game at home ( bills definitely missed last year offensive coach) . Great thread. 

[bobmacliberty]

39 minutes ago, George C said:

Welcome to the diamond plus crowd , we were also not to happy with the Bills Sunday after going thru the hassle of getting rid of dish to get directtv so we could watch the game at home ( bills definitely missed last year offensive coach) . Great thread. 

I’m trying to look on the bright side. Practically their entire defensive backfield was out, as were their 2 starting DTs. Their C, RG, and RT were second and third stringers. They missed an easy FG, dropped an easy pick six, fumbled inside their own 10, Josh bounced an easy TD pass, and they had numerous badly timed penalties and a couple of bad coaching calls.  Yet they only lost by 2 and nearly pulled out a win. They’ll be fine. 

[George C]

48 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I’m trying to look on the bright side. Practically their entire defensive backfield was out, as were their 2 starting DTs. Their C, RG, and RT were second and third stringers. They missed an easy FG, dropped an easy pick six, fumbled inside their own 10, Josh bounced an easy TD pass, and they had numerous badly timed penalties and a couple of bad coaching calls.  Yet they only lost by 2 and nearly pulled out a win. They’ll be fine. 

I agree loss might have been good for them , did you see the offensive coordinator go crazy at end of the game throwing everything around . 

[Jimbo]

8 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I’ll add a few misc. thoughts while I have a lot of

time sitting on a train. The Loyalty Ambassador on Quantum is named Lisha and she is fantastic. I talked with her on day 2. Told her that we’d be D+ after our Quantum cruise and would get on Ovation 4 days later. Was that enough time for

our D+ benefits to appear on Ovation??  She said probably no. It usually takes 1-2 weeks. However, she said she would email the LA on Ovation (a friend of hers) who could manually update our status for the Ovation cruise. I figured there was about a 50% chance that this would work and I was ready to have to have the same discussion again on Ovation. 
 

To my surprise, Lisha called our cabin on day 4 to confirm that the Ovation LA had replied and we were all set. I bought a ship model (we have one for every ship we’ve been on) on day 6 and told the clerk that I wanted to use my D discount.  She looked at her computer and said that it actually shows me as D+!  I’m now 99% confident that we’ll have no issues on Ovation, leaving 1% for a typical Royal IT screwup somehow. 
 

I was very impressed that Lisha not only took care of my concern, but also personally called to confirm. Great service!

Congrats on joining our Elite Diamond + Group.  You  will find the + means  a lot 🙂

[bobmacliberty]

32 minutes ago, George C said:

I agree loss might have been good for them , did you see the offensive coordinator go crazy at end of the game throwing everything around . 

Loved it. Shows that he’s got passion. 

[Jimbo]

2 hours ago, George C said:

Welcome to the diamond plus crowd , we were also not to happy with the Bills Sunday after going thru the hassle of getting rid of dish to get directtv so we could watch the game at home ( bills definitely missed last year offensive coach) . Great thread. 

Got to love Direct TV,  I get to see all the Eagles Games 🙂..........3-0 so far looking good !

Watching the Phillies Game now at Wrigley in Chicago.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Jimbo

[bobmacliberty]

By the time the train arrived 30 minutes late, we cleared customs, and checked into the hotel, it was 2:00 and we were hangry. Went to a place

on the next pier over call Murphy’s Tavern for lunch. It was just OK. Better than the Windjammer though. 
 

We walked around Gastown for a bit. This is the touristy part of Vancouver with lots of shops and restaurants.  Everywhere we looked, we saw the Canadian maple leaf. 
 

 

Surprise, surprise,  there was no personalized key chain that says Micheline. 
 

 

Really surprising, was that there wasn’t one for Bob. There WAS one for Robert. Maybe the don’t use the Bob nickname in Canada??

 

if you were feeling cold, there were plenty of toques (ask a Canadian friend 🤣). 
 

 

is that you Mike Szwajkowski?

 

 

Gastown’s iconic item is the steam powered clock. Every 15 minutes, steam blows through whistles to play a song. 
 

 

 

 

[derorim]

22 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Gastown’s iconic item is the steam powered clock. Every 15 minutes, steam blows through whistles to play a song. 
FullSizeRender.MOV 49.17 MB · 0 downloads  

 

That steam powered clock is awesome. 

[Sea Dog]

Have you found Dudley Do-right?

[NHProud]

Liking your review and the photos .  I’m not fussy about food but very particular about hotel rooms .  If you don’t care for the view ask to see something else .  Enjoy Hawaii , we sail there in January on Holland America.  We visit five ports on four islands on a seventeen day cruise from the city with the May grays . 

[Ozark_Kid]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

Gastown’s iconic item is the steam powered clock. Every 15 minutes, steam blows through whistles to play a song. 

Thankful y’all made it to Vancouver safely and Micheline is doing better.

There is a place near Sandusky Ohio named Lakeside.  It is one of our family summer vacation places.  They have a clock at the pier that plays the same tune every hour except it sounds like chimes.  At the end of the tune it chimes a number of times based on the time, ie 5 times at 5pm.

[Kathscof]

12 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I used Trip Advisor Plus (think I can mention them since CC is owned by TA) to book our stay at the Pan Pacific Vancouver and last night at the Embassy Suites in Seattle. TA+ has an annual membership fee but I saved enough on our Pan Pacific booking to more than cover the annual fee. I saved another $120 last night at Embassy Suites.

 

Unless it’s a coincidence (Gibbs’ rule #39), these savings mean getting the least desirable rooms. We all know from cruising that all rooms are not created equal.  Last night at ES we were in a standard 2 queen bed suite, but on the third floor overlooking the front entrance. No big deal since we didn’t care about the view and there was no street noise. We took the first available room so that Micheline could lay down and they had a room for us at 10:00. That was exactly what she needed and we didn’t care where the room was. 
 

Today at the Pan Pacific, we are in a standard harbor view king room. We’re on the 9th floor which I assumed would be fine. However, the outdoor pool is on a raised section above the 8th floor roof, right in front of our window. Since we’re going to be here a few days, I did opt for a more expensive view, although granted at cheaper TA+ rates. Technically, we can still see the harbor, but I should have confirmed the view when we checked in. Our 9th floor harbor view:
 

 

Yup…complaining about some little things. Moral of the story though is that I think that cheaper 3rd party room rates mean the hotel tries to give you their less desirable rooms. 

 

Here’s our Vancouver hotel (upper right part of the picture) directly above Canada Place and the cruise terminal. The hotel has a service where they will take your luggage from your room and deliver directly to the ship. Nice. 
 

Used to work in a hotel....another view on it is.....the hotels sell MANY rates as the lowest category, so they have to upgrade SOMEONE if the hotel is close to full.....I used to sort all out all our arrivals by rate in the morning and go from either the highest or lowest rate and assign rooms by the category.  Obviously the people paying the most would get the best rooms, even if it was the same category (across from the elevator vs down the hall in a quiet corner).  So think of it that you still got what you paid for, but you had a lesser chance of getting something BETTER.

 

I just read the storm surge briefing, wouldn’t want to live in Piney Island, Marsh Lakes, or Oyster Bay! I hope your House is ready!

Edited September 28, 2022 by Kathscof

[bobmacliberty]

Good morning from Vancouver!  I had a tough decision this morning. There’s a Starbucks on the ground level of our hotel. There’s a Tim Horton’s across the street. Where to go for breakfast?  Just kidding…that’s not a decision at all. I can go to Starbucks just about anywhere. Timmies is a rare treat. 
 

 

And no, that’s not a double double. I’m a black coffee guy. 

[DaKahuna]

1 minute ago, bobmacliberty said:

Good morning from Vancouver!  I had a tough decision this morning. There’s a Starbucks on the ground level of our hotel. There’s a Tim Horton’s across the street. Where to go for breakfast?  Just kidding…that’s not a decision at all. I can go to Starbucks just about anywhere. Timmies is a rare treat. 
 

 

And no, that’s not a double double. I’m a black coffee guy. 

 

 I agree 100% -- $tar%ucks has always tasted to me like cheap beans over roasted.  The only way I have been able to drink it is in a frappuccino.  At one time I did find a nitro cold brew that I liked. 

 

As I once said, the only reason I would ever go into $tar$ucks is that it is one of the very few places you can walk into and order a "tall hot blond" without getting into trouble with the law. 

 

 

[George C]

15 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Have you found Dudley Do-right?

On our European cruise 6 years ago we had a great roll call group , one was a recently retired Mountie.

[bobmacliberty]

7 hours ago, Kathscof said:

Used to work in a hotel....another view on it is.....the hotels sell MANY rates as the lowest category, so they have to upgrade SOMEONE if the hotel is close to full.....I used to sort all out all our arrivals by rate in the morning and go from either the highest or lowest rate and assign rooms by the category.  Obviously the people paying the most would get the best rooms, even if it was the same category (across from the elevator vs down the hall in a quiet corner).  So think of it that you still got what you paid for, but you had a lesser chance of getting something BETTER.

 

I just read the storm surge briefing, wouldn’t want to live in Piney Island, Marsh Lakes, or Oyster Bay! I hope your House is ready!

Makes sense about the hotels. We are ready, at least as ready as we can be from 3,000 miles away. As I said earlier, we are not in a flood zone on the island, but everywhere can be in a flood zone with a significant enough amount of water. I’m not too worried at this point. People on the west coast of Florida have it much, MUCH worse than we probably will. 

[CanuckCruizer]

48 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Good morning from Vancouver!  I had a tough decision this morning. There’s a Starbucks on the ground level of our hotel. There’s a Tim Horton’s across the street. Where to go for breakfast?  Just kidding…that’s not a decision at all. I can go to Starbucks just about anywhere. Timmies is a rare treat. 
 

 

And no, that’s not a double double. I’m a black coffee guy. 

Hi Bob - Hope you got some donuts to go along with that.😀

Hope Micheline is doing much better.

Question for you - we are having a "staycation" at the Pan the night before our cruise.  We have stayed many times and it is one of our favourite hotels but....lately the reviews have not been good.  I know they don't do any maid service at all (using Covid as the reason) if you are staying longer than 1 night & people haven't been able to get fresh towels, had to change their own linens on the bed, garbage piling up etc. (not okay, but ok for us as only staying overnight).  I know the Oceans 999 restaurant is only open for breakfast, not lunch or dinner.  I know their Coal Harbour Bar serves an abbreviated menu from the restaurant.  I am wondering if their patio is now open to have drinks on and if their elevators are working ok (I know, sounds bizarre, but lots of people complained waiting longer than 1/2 hour for elevators and some were broken etc.).  Just trying to get a "sense" of how the hotel is right now, as we are spending a lot. Trying to decide if we stay or cancel and time is ticking for cancellation.  Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Canuck

[bobmacliberty]

16 minutes ago, CanuckCruizer said:

Hi Bob - Hope you got some donuts to go along with that.😀

Hope Micheline is doing much better.

Question for you - we are having a "staycation" at the Pan the night before our cruise.  We have stayed many times and it is one of our favourite hotels but....lately the reviews have not been good.  I know they don't do any maid service at all (using Covid as the reason) if you are staying longer than 1 night & people haven't been able to get fresh towels, had to change their own linens on the bed, garbage piling up etc. (not okay, but ok for us as only staying overnight).  I know the Oceans 999 restaurant is only open for breakfast, not lunch or dinner.  I know their Coal Harbour Bar serves an abbreviated menu from the restaurant.  I am wondering if their patio is now open to have drinks on and if their elevators are working ok (I know, sounds bizarre, but lots of people complained waiting longer than 1/2 hour for elevators and some were broken etc.).  Just trying to get a "sense" of how the hotel is right now, as we are spending a lot. Trying to decide if we stay or cancel and time is ticking for cancellation.  Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Canuck

Our room is clean and well supplied. They told us at check in that there was no automatic maid service but we can call if we need anything (like fresh towels) and they would deliver. Haven’t tried that yet but will probably ask today for

more coffee packets. We actually don’t mind that since we’d rather not have strangers in the room while we’re not there and we’re fine with the same towels/linens for 3 nights. 
 

We haven’t checked out the restaurant yet, or the bar for drinks. I’ll see what I can learn today. We did order room service last night for dinner and it was delivered quickly and hot, for whatever that means. No issues with the elevators and the pool deck/hot tub is open. 

[CanuckCruizer]

6 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Our room is clean and well supplied. They told us at check in that there was no automatic maid service but we can call if we need anything (like fresh towels) and they would deliver. Haven’t tried that yet but will probably ask today for

more coffee packets. We actually don’t mind that since we’d rather not have strangers in the room while we’re not there and we’re fine with the same towels/linens for 3 nights. 
 

We haven’t checked out the restaurant yet, or the bar for drinks. I’ll see what I can learn today. We did order room service last night for dinner and it was delivered quickly and hot, for whatever that means. No issues with the elevators and the pool deck/hot tub is open. 

Thanks so much Bob.  I knew the pool was open (at least from reports) but wondering about the large patio outside the restaurant that overlooks the Pier (I have called several times and they tell me that it has been closed for a long time - since the start of the pandemic...)  Good to hear that you have had no elevator issues.

Did you happen to get early check-in okay - I can't remember if you said?

I will be anxiously awaiting your bar report later on.😎

Too bad that it is a bit overcast, light rain & cooler right now.  Supposed to be hot again for the next few days and sunny - fingers crossed.

Cheers 🍸

Canuck

[George C]

22 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Our room is clean and well supplied. They told us at check in that there was no automatic maid service but we can call if we need anything (like fresh towels) and they would deliver. Haven’t tried that yet but will probably ask today for

more coffee packets. We actually don’t mind that since we’d rather not have strangers in the room while we’re not there and we’re fine with the same towels/linens for 3 nights. 
 

We haven’t checked out the restaurant yet, or the bar for drinks. I’ll see what I can learn today. We did order room service last night for dinner and it was delivered quickly and hot, for whatever that means. No issues with the elevators and the pool deck/hot tub is open. 

Seems most hotels don’t have automatic maid service we always request it .