Heading for a cruise in Vancouver

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Let the adventure begin…

Off to Vancouver, British Columbia to start our cruise on the Sapphire Princess. We haven’t been on a cruise for almost 20 years so should be interesting to see how life on a ship with 1500 other people has evolved. True to form, United Airlines almost made the flight without irritating passengers. The gate agent was oblivious to those with 3 & 4 carry on bags, so the flight attendants were stuck trying to find space for suitcases that should have been checked. Naturally, they targeted our bags in our overhead. We did pay an extra $20 for early boarding specifically so we could have overhead space. That didn’t matter. Since there was a suitcase needing space and we had backpacks, it was obvious. We should sit with our backpacks cramping our legs so someone with too many carry-ons can relax. Bullshit! After a bit of conversation, our bags were left in the overhead. Now on to Vancouver.

We arrived on time and without incident, except the bag conversation. Now to clear customs and find our hotel, the Le Soleil. Beautiful weather here in BC, 72F and clear. Can’t wait to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. Customs was a breeze, completely automated with only a couple of agents waiting to collect our paper tags given out by the passport readers. Collected our bags, ordered our Uber and off to the hotel.

The drive is about 30 minutes from airport to hotel but today, since the weather is really nice and everyone took the day off, took us a bit longer to get there. The hotel is situated about 4 blocks from the cruise terminal and in an area of lots of restaurants, bars and businesses. Great mix. The room was a corner suite with a wonderful view of the building next door, and if you looked down, you could watch them empty trash containers into the dumpster. Already having fun in Vancouver.

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Dropped our bags and started the search for a restaurant and dinner. Tried 3 different places before finding one that was open and not ear-splitting loud, The Chop, right on the wharf. Turned out to be a funky little 40-somethings pick up bar with a dozen 20-somethings waiting tables with a cross between disco and techno playing in the background. Perfect!

Cuisine was a mix of seafood and steak, with some very tasty bread & butter. We started with mussels in cream sauce and some of that tasty bread, pretty good. Then Collette ordered scallops, while I went for the shrimp linguine (turned out to be shrimp and spaghetti). Wonderful meal for only $124.00US, right! Thank God for the exchange rate!

IMG_0017 (2)Done for the day. Headed back to the hotel for a drink the call it a day. Tomorrow, we tour Vancouver.