Cruise Ship Terminal

Today we scouted the embarkation point, Canada Place.

Cruise Cam
http://www.northvancouver.com/webcams/cruisecam/



Alaska : Places to See, Things to Do, Food to Eat

Apparently, one trip to Alaska is not enough.

We're looking forward to a trip up the Inside Passage so that we can
enjoy the legendary scenery.  We weren't thinking so much about the food
until we read Adventure Your Way Across Alaska ,  a new CNN special
travel feature with good information about where to eat. We better have a
plan for working out because it seems as though this trip will be about food :)

Food, Glorious Food On Board

We booked four restaurant reservations today. This is the first year that

passengers have been able to make reservations in advance of boarding.
There are five restaurant choices on the Regatta. Three of the five restaurants
do not require advance reservations, two do. Since we are staying in the A1
concierge level of the ship, we are guaranteed, at minimum, two meals

in each of the intimate high end restaurants, the Polo Grill and the Toscana.

Even tho' we had a total of two guaranteed reservations on our last cruise, we
ended up eating in those two restaurants four or five times. It was fairly easy to
get last minute reservations because our fellow travellers had so many other good
choices including the Grand Dining Room and the Terrace that can accommodate
dining without reservations.

We decided to make all reservations for 6:30 PM as opposed to 7:30 or 8:30 so
that we can digest before going to bed.  We also tried to book those times
during at-sea days but some of those days had no space left at 6:30 so we just
selected other days.


Three of the five ship restaurants require that you wear country club
casual/no jeans. Two others are very casual. Sometimes the extra casual 
atmosphere combined with delicious food is the favoured combination. 


Here are the menus for the five restaurants on our ship, all designed by French 
chef Jacques Pépin :
Polo Grill Menu
Toscana Menu
Grand Dining Room Dinner Menu
Grand Dining Room Lunch Menu
Waves Lunch Menu

Oh, Oh! Rough Waters

We once traveled from Miami to Los Angeles via Cartegena, Columbia which
necessitated crossing the Gulf Of Mexico, right across the path of the Trade
Winds. During the two or three days that we spent out of the lee of Cuba, our
ship rocked.

Harry and I seemed not to be inclined to seasickness. I actually liked the back
and forth motion, especially at night.  We did notice a drop in the numbers of
passengers who showed up at the buffets and for some of the events.  The
effect of the wind on us might be evident in this short video of the waves hitting
our verandah (our exact stateroom view taken by another passenger at another
time).

Today there is an article in the Cruise Critic collection about the World's
Roughest Waters. Sure enough, the list includes the Caribbean at certain
times of the year and (oh, no) Alaska, which is where we are going next.

I'll be okay in rough water. Harry will probably be okay, but I'm not too
sure about Mum. We may have to make some changes in our shipboard routines.

Looking Ahead

We would love to take advantage of some of the bargains on Oceania for the
coming winter but we're not 100% sure when treatments will allow Harry to
travel.

Right now he's having hormone therapy for his prostate cancer which means
an injection every three months, but when that ends and he is examined this
coming November, he may be facing radiation. We just don't know.

If we could... we agree that we'd love to take the Oceania cruise from 
Beijing to Bangkok during our winter in Winnipeg.

Ironically, until the health picture is clearer, we can't make travel plans that
are near or that are far in advance.  Maybe we can pick the next trip in
November after Harry's 1st year check up with the urologist/surgeon.

Still, it's Alaska in 2011. Hopefully it will be Beijing in 2013 or sooner.

Must see this

If you would like to know where Vancouver natives Michael Buble and Sarah 

McLaughlin would recommend you visit when you go there, read this item from 

USA Today or click below on the video (one of four in the USA Today series).

Vancouver is the embarkation point of our cruise.

We want to visit the Vancouver Public LIbrary. We'll be dropping in here 

while we're there.  This Library Square Project was the largest capital project 

ever undertaken by the City of Vancouver. We've been to Vancouver many 

times since 1995, the date the library opened, but we've never been in that

building.

Large or Small

We have only been on a small cruise ship and we loved it. We can't 
even imagine being on one of the giant ships. (Chart below)


The intimate setting made it easy to find our way around the Regatta. 
Perhaps the spaces are pared down but everything on our ship 
suited us perfectly. Five restaurants is enough as is one fitness room, 
one library, one casino, one small pool, and one theatre. Even though 
we love children, it suited us to have none about on a ship that had no
facilities for kids.


Regatta:
30,277 tons, 684 guests
Built in 1998, Refurbished in 2011

Click to see larger version of the chart of the biggest cruise ships