Alaska 2024 - Day 7 Vancouver
15 August 2024
After another night of smooth sailing through the Inside Passage, we arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We were pier side at the Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal in downtown Vancouver.
The sky was kind of grey when we moored in the morning, but it wasn't cold and the cloud cover lifted toward later in the morning.
For many passengers, including our Captain, Tomasz Kulas, this was the end of their cruise. The Captian was heading ashore for some vacation time and our new Captain took command.
For Galina and I, since we were going to be doing another 7 days, we had an "In-transit" sticker affixed to our ID cards, so the crew would clearly be able to tell that we weren't stowaways trying to wrangle our way onto another cruise.
We shifted cabins directly across the passage, moving from the starboard side to the port side. Galina had arranged the move before the trip in the hope that we'd have more time facing the scenery on shore both ways. It can get boring pretty quickly looking out over the open ocean, especially when you know the other side of the ship may be viewing some nice Alaskan landscapes. I'm not sure it really made a huge difference, as when we were near land, we were in channels and passages with land on both sides.
Our butler and room attendant took care of much of the move process for us. We had everything except the items hung in our closet packed and they moved and did much of the unpacking for us.
We had done our research and knew to book reservations and excursions as early as possible, but because this port was between cruises, the "normal" methods of reserving an excursion weren't really available to us. We asked a few days before the port call what excursions were possible for Vancouver and were told there was a Vancouver city bus tour, but it was all booked up. None the less, the shore excursion crew took care of us, and we found tickets for the bus tour waiting on the morning of our arrival.
Vancouver is a modern, clean, low crime city of about 2.6 million. We did find it to be quite crowded, likely mostly with cruise ship tourists, so I shouldn't complain about that. The bus tour wound through the city with our very friendly, soft spoken guide sharing interesting tidbits about the history of the areas as we transited through them.
After some time viewing the city, we stopped at Stanley Park.
The park is large with a totem pole display, bike trails winding along the shore line, and large forested areas with some roads and bike trails. There are also a few gift shops, restaurants, and ice cream stands at strategic locations. One of those areas with some shops is Prospect Point, near the very North end of Stanley Park, and along the base of Lions Gate Bridge.
The design of Lions Gate Bridge may look a bit familiar to those acquainted with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. According to our tour guide they were both designed by the same person. (I've been unable to substantiate this so far). Whatever the case, the bridge does look like a miniature version of the Golden Gate, except for the color.
From Prospect Point, we continued through Stanley Park, then back into downtown Vancouver. We parked at a large tour bus stop on Granville Island and our guide walked us up Johnston Street to the Granville Island Public Market.
Johnston Street was filled with art galleries, restaurants, shops, and people. It's tough to tell whether the economy is driven more by tourism or locals, but there were certainly a lot of cruise ship passengers in the mix judging from the number of busses we left behind at the tour bus stop.
The Public Market had a lot of beautifully arranged, brightly colored, fresh produce, cuts of meat and fish, gifts and trinkets, and food kiosks in a large covered, but open space facility.
It was early afternoon, and I was getting quite hungry. Knowing we wouldn't be back to the ship for at least another hour or more, I decided I'd like a veggie burger from the Market Grill. Galina wanted to wait until we got back to the ship, but I thought the buffet may be closed by the time we got there and dinner on the ship was tasty but usually not very filling.
A small argument ensued. Galina felt like Silversea was trying to get us to spend money ashore, so they wouldn't have to supply food on board, which saved the cruise line money. I have no doubt that's true, and they do encourage passengers to spend as much time as we can ashore and to try the local cuisine.
Also, though, we do get to try local cuisine and support the local economy when we dine off the ship. I really liked the food on the ship and would gladly eat on board, if it wasn't lunch time and I wouldn't have to be hungry while walking around Granville Island.
I decided to bear the scorn for a while and have a Vegan Deluxe Burger and fries. The burger was $15.95 Canadian fries included. Kind of pricey for a veggie burger, but I was hungry! Also, the ship is great, but we're on the ship to experience things in the ports, including trying the food.
Although we have disagreements from time to time, we pretty quickly get over them and end up having a good time, which was the case this afternoon.
There was a Ukulele band that was playing near the Market Grill we both enjoyed. It was the Langley Ukulele Ensemble. They played quite a range of music. Galina liked the Iris jig.
There was a falconer hanging proudly displaying his bird of prey next to the Market Grill too. I think it was there to chase away pigeons.
We started back to the bus depot and came across another local landmark. A concrete company on the island, Heidelberg Materials, had their concrete silos painted, transforming them into bright, engaging characters, consuming 14,000 cans of spray paint in the process.
We continued back to the bus, then to the ship to relax and prepare for our next day, another trip through the Inside Passage.