Victoria BC

This is the last posting to this blog. If you want to read it from the beginning you need to go to the first posting.

You can see some of the pictures we took at

https://picasaweb.google.com/107923363810248771461/AlaskaMay2011


We put into the port of Victoria at 8 am. In fact, we had been off the port of Victoria since around 10 pm the night before. I had arranged for our friend Dunstan Chicanot to meet us at the port. Dunstan lives in Duncan about 50 miles north of Victoria. Dunstan will repeatedly tell you that Duncan is well know as the home of the largest hockey stick in the world.

We had been given a bottle of wine in each cabin by our travel agent. As neither the Fiske's nor we drank the wine we decided to donate to Dunstan. I put our bottle in my back pack and I walked through Canadian boarder control with no questions. They had cleared the whole ship so that no one needed to show passports. Nancy Fiske carried her bottle in a plastic bag. When she got to the Canadian customs officer, he asked her what she had and she said it was a bottle of wine she intended to give to a friend. Well, lights went on and things heated up about 1 bottle of wine. The Canadian officer said this was not allowed and that she would have to take the bottle back to the ship. I was already outside with Chicanot and we waited at least for 10 minutes until the wine bottle problem was resolved. Apparently, the officer finally asked whether Nancy intended to drink part of the bottle and when she said yes, the problem was resolved. One has to wonder what the bureaucracy wastes its time on when there are bigger and more important issues than a bottle of wine.

We then took off with Chicanot in his rented limo, a suv which he had organized for the day. We visited Victoria and its outskirts and then went out to Royal Roads where I had graduated as a naval officer when this facility was a naval base. It is now the home of a university but it is still a beautiful location.
We returned to Fisherman's Wharf where Chicanot has a boat. He had arranged for us to bring our lunch to his neighbor Jean who has a lovely floating house on the wharf. It was an other beautiful day and we spent several hours with Jean enjoying her hospitality and eating our fish and chips. We even drank the wine which Nancy had negotiated out of customs. Jean is a charming lady who also is well known as a foster mother for many children with disabiities. She even was written up in the Reader's Digest last year.

We then left and reboarded our ship. That evening we headed out towards Seattle but in fact we headed west along the San Juan de Fuca away from Seattle as we only had 160 miles to go and about 12 hours to do it. Around 12 pm we turned around and headed back east. In the morning, we arrived in Seattle. We had been assigned a 9.30 disembarkation time and we went through customs and immigration with not problems. Our bags had been unloaded and were waiting for us in the arrival hall. We found our taxi and headed for the airport for our 1pm flight. The flight went smoothly and we were all home by 10pm that evening.

It was a great trip and going to Alaska by ship is a wonderful experience. I would recommend it. We were lucky to be able to find a 10 day trip and to go early in the season. I presume in summer the ships are not only very full, but there are many more children. Our travel agent Erna Turner did a super job and we can highly recommend her if you need to make bookings.

It was fun travelling with Nancy and Harry Fiske. This had been their first time on a cruise ship and I think they enjoyed it. Nancy who is a die hard New Englander told me at then end:" I would not be opposed to doing this again." I interpret this as being an expression of great satisfaction for a New Englander.

The ship itself was nice but one had the impression that they have cut corners to contain costs mainly by reducing the manpower at check in and even in the dining room where service was slow as each server had to cover too many clients. At least they did not try and charge us a fuel supplement which they could have done with the higher cost of fuel.
Brigitte and I still prefer longer trips as the hassle of getting to the ship boarding and returning is the same for a short or longer stay. We hope one day to another long trip but we are not sure when we will be able to do so.

Heading towards Victoria BC

After leaving Icy Strait we headed towards Victoria BC. It was daytime as we headed down the inland passage. At times, the passage is so close to each side of the ship, that 2 ships would have difficulty actually passing. These passages are the result of tectonic movement which moved pieces of land away from the mainland. They are very deep and mountains rise from the water up to snow in some places. The water is still and smooth and it is like gliding through the air. We spent hours in the main lounge and out on the deck watching the scenery go by. It was a wonderful experience. As night fell, were still navigating the passage. According to the brochure and even the navigation map at the reception desk, the next day we were scheduled to continue our passage through the channel between Vancouver Island and the mainland. In fact, the next morning we awoke not far off the Northern tip of Vancouver Island where the ship had stopped to off-load a sick passenger. At around 7am we were heading south but out in the Pacific, not through the inland passage as we had been promised. We were at sea, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I was quite upset as this inland passage of Vancouver Island is beautiful and I had looked forward to seeing it. No explanation was provided for the change in route. I visited the bridge that morning and asked the officer of the watch why we were not using the inland passage. He responded rather snootily: "We changed our minds". On board the ship, there were reps of Vacations.com through whom we had booked our trip. When I complained about the change, she told me that the line consistently promises the Vancouver Island inland passage and then opts for the easier Pacific side to Victoria. Of course, it is easier to navigate on the open ocean but the passengers do not get the promised route.

I have lodged a formal complaint with the line through our travel agent. At this time, June 3, I have still not heard a peep from the line. I have complained that they bait and switch by doing this. Of course, they have the right to do anything according to the conditions of a cruise ticket but this is deception of the kind one finds with used car dealer.

Icy Strait Point

This is stop where cruise lines stop each day in the season. The pier and the facilities were originally a canning plant. The plant went bankrupt many years ago. This is an interesting case of how a bad thing was turned into a better thing. The cannery was gutted and remodeled into a large area where there are now stores selling tourist things to cruise line passengers who are brought ashore in the life boats. In addition, from this point, a number of land excursions are available and one of the world's longest zip lines has been built. The tours employ local people and the zip line charges US$ 100 for a 90 second ride down the hill. The village itself is cannot be more than 1000 people, most of then natives. We took off in a bus to see if we could find bears. The tour went about 10 miles inland to an area which had been developed for tourists consisting of a mile long walkway with 2 or 3 platforms to 0bserve. We actually saw a bear about a half mile away but it was a leap of faith to say we saw it. We returned to the pier area, got a tender back to the boat and were ready to head south to Victoria via the inland passage.

The next morning we were going north along the coast of Alaska headed for the Hubbard glazier. The captain had promised that we would be there by 1pm and good to his word we got there on time. It was again a beautiful day with the sun shining. The captain pulled the ship into the bay and about a quarter mile from where the glacier met the sea.

A picture of this glacier can be seen at:

http://www.susanmilne.com/glacier/glacier.htm#hub

The ship nose was pointing to the glacier and the whole bay was filled with floating ice pieces. The captain then opened the helicopter pad on the ship bow for passengers to get as close to the ice as possible. It was quite a strange impression to be sitting looking the glacier and to see fairly large chunks of ice floating along the ship side. I was told that ship hull had been reinforced to allow such trips. We spent 4.5 hours sitting in the ice field. At one point, we saw a harbor seal sitting on one of the ice flows sunning himself. It was really a wonderful experience.

We then turned around and headed for our last Alaska stop in ICY strait.