Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Vancouver, BC


Our Celebrity cruise left from Vancouver. If possible, I'd always suggest having your travel agent get you to a port at least a day ahead of your cruise departure just in case you encounter any flight problems. Now I know there are never any flight cancellations (yeh, right!) , but, just in case, it sure eases my mind to know a little flight delay will not make me miss my cruise. My wife, Sharon, and I went to Vancouver two days ahead of time to explore the area.

Vancouver is a large city (about 2 mil) on the coast and has a new, cosmopolitan but "out- doorsey" feel. Being on the water, near the mountains, with a lot of parks made me feel like I should be jogging or hiking. Yet, the downtown has new skyscrapers with good shopping, great restaurants, and fun entertainment. We stayed in the West End area which is within walking distance of a lot of food, entertainment, and shopping. We walked to Gastown, their historic area, which features a lot of "pubs" and jazz entertainment. Seems like this Northwest area has a lot of micro-breweries, so my wife had to try them all (or was that me? I forget). The city also has a large Asian population with the biggest "Chinatown" in Canada. That also equates to good oriental food!

Sharon and I explored two other Vancouver city areas that I would recommend. Taking a city bus from the West End we went to Granville Island. Don't know if this is an actual island, but it is an area down by the river that has been refurbished with a lot of restaurants, micro-breweries (for my wife!), a great market (fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, meats, crafts, etc.) and fun entertainment. A nice place to stroll around and spend an evening (and take a cab home!).

We also walked from our West End hotel to Stanley Park; the crown jewel of Vancouver parks. Stanley Park is a huge natural area (like Central Park, NYC) that has horse-drawn carriage rides, miles of foot trails, seawall walking and biking trails, with picnic areas; you get the picture. There are also shuttle buses rounding the park. You can get on and off at stops throughout the park and visit their restaurants, totem pole exhibit, scenic overlooks, etc. Very relaxing way to be outdoors. Again, Vancouver, with a lot of parks, seems centered around the out of doors.

The next day, we took the Sea Bus across the bay toward the mountains. Earlier we had purchased a two day bus pass that also included transportation on this ferry. This area north of Vancouver has a lot of nice residential areas (you notice how well flowers grow in this mild climate), but we headed to two other attractions; Capilano Park and a salmon hatchery. A bus (again, pre-paid) took us from the dock to Capilano. The park, in the tall pines and hemlocks, has an exhibit about the old logging days, but the main attractions are its suspension bridge and tree top tour.

The suspension walking bridge is 450 feet long and hangs about 230 feet above a river. Traversing the "two lane" bridge with people walking both ways is a cool experience that becomes more "exciting" when kids start it swaying! Actually, the park rangers are real good at stopping these shenanigans. Once on the other side, there are paths to walk the woods. If you so desire, there is the Tree Top Adventure. The Adventure is a series of suspended foot bridges that goes from tree to tree throughout the park with "tree houses" at the junctions. At times you are 100 feet above the foot paths. Pretty unique.

A half mile up the road from Capilano is a salmon hatchery. It has the normal exhibits and tanks with various size fish, but what I found interesting was the fish ladder. The "ladder" is a series of stepped tanks that allow salmon, that are migrating up stream to spawn, a way to get around an obstruction in a stream like a dam. At the hatchery the fish ladder has windows into the tanks. Here, you can see the salmon pooling in the various tanks until they get enough courage to make the jump up to the next higher tank. Tough to get the timing right to photograph the jump, though.

With only two days in Vancouver, that's about all Sharon & I could accomplish before boarding our ship (cool ship terminal!). Two things we had wanted to do were a day trip north to Whistler (winter & summer resort area and part of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics) and a ferry ride over to Vancouver Island and the town of Victoria. Maybe next time. Remember to Live the World!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Cruise Alaska


This summer my wife and I took a cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage followed by a few days in Denali. I'll follow-up with some other blogs on the land portion of our trip, as well as, thoughts on the ports we visited.

There are a lot of options when cruising Alaska. First you have to decide if you want the small ship experience or what we consider "the normal size" cruise ships. The small ships generally have a more casual atmosphere and decor/accommodations and often have an expedition/education theme. They have the advantage of being able to go to places the larger ships can't. The larger ships have all the glitz and glamour we associate with cruising. They offer the lounges, spas, entertainment, and activities that are normally limited on smaller ships.

Next you have to pick a cruise line. All cruise lines are not alike. Even some ships within one cruise line can have a different "atmosphere." They will vary in price (of course), accommodations, level of service, food, type of clientele, prepaid inclusions, and activities/entertainment. A good travel agent can pick the cruise line that best fits your budget and tastes.

Cruises will vary in length and travel either north or south. There are a few round trip cruises (in and out of the same port), but I feel they only give you a tease of the experience. These cruises don't go far enough. I don't have any preference if I take the north or south route for just a cruise. I don't even see a big need to pick what side of the ship your cabin is on (to be able to see the land), but for some that might be a factor to consider. A determining factor would be if you are adding a land portion to the cruise (that, I really recommend!). Some people like to do the land tour first and then the "relaxing" cruise last (a south route). My preference would be cruise then land (north route, which we did) because the land portion was so spectacular! Doing the land tour first would make the cruise anti-climactic for me because a day in a port, although pretty and interesting, was not as dramatic as spending time as part of the land. Also, we saw much more wildlife on the land portion and, of course, Mt McKinley!

My wife and I were on the Summit of Celebrity Cruise Line. Celebrity is an upscale Royal Caribbean; its parent company. It's above the mass market entry level cruise lines but a step below the luxury lines. In a lot of respects, I find Celebrity and Princess Cruises are similar. There is still a wide variety of ages on both cruise lines but more of an upscale clientele and decor than, say, Carnival. Celebrity has a good reputation for its food. The service is good, the ship clean, with normal entertainment. Their specialty restaurant (at an an additional fee) was excellent! Cirque du Soleil is on board with an abbreviated show, but I wanted more having seen several of the full scale shows. Cruising on the Summit was very enjoyable. Having been cruising in the Caribbean, it was weird to see the deck chairs around the pool to have rolled wool blankets instead of towels! Live the World!