Trip Report: May 21, 2018 7 Night Alaska Cruise – Day 8

Day 8: Vancouver

You can start this trip report from the beginning by clicking here.

I normally don’t write a dedicated post for the day we leave the ship and travel home, but this time we did a port adventure in Vancouver so I have lots to share.  Since our flight didn’t leave Vancouver until 6:00 pm, we booked the DCL port adventure called “Northwest Exploration & Capilano Suspension Bridge – Debarkation Day – Onboard Bookings Only (VC01)“.  This DCL port adventure can only be booked after you board the ship, and only if your flight is after 3:00 pm.  They do need a minimum number of people in order for it to happen ( I was told 15 and 25 by two different CMs), and our tour appeared to be full so I would sign up for it as soon as possible after boarding the ship.  If you are booked on this port adventure, you will get specific luggage tags so that your luggage (which you set outside of your room the night before) is in the first group of bags to leave the ship and be placed in the terminal building.  For us, it was Ariel.

I didn’t take any notes this day, so I am going to have to rely on my memory, which is not a good thing.  I can’t remember what time we woke up, but I do know that we went to Cabanas for breakfast.  I was shocked at how empty it was.  I have never seen Cabanas this empty before in my life.  We ran into Pat and Rita, so we ate with them and got to say a final good bye.

I can’t remember exactly what time we were supposed to meet for our port adventure in the D Lounge , but I think it was either 8:15 or 8:30.  We got there right on time and it was crowded.  We checked in at the table and found a few seats in the very back.  We were sad to be leaving the Wonder after 12 fantastic nights.

We were given specific instructions (or so we thought) about what to do and where to go after leaving the ship.  When it was time, we left the ship through a door inside the D Lounge, which I had never noticed before.  We went into the terminal building to find the 2 large suitcases that we had set out the night before, which we did quickly.  Then, we followed the instructions we had received earlier in order to find our tour bus.  This is when things started to get confusing and unorganized, which is my biggest pet peeve about group excursions.  We swore that the CM onboard had told us to go to loading dock B.  Harry and Meghan were on this port adventure with us, and they thought the same thing.  So, we went through the B door and quickly realized that this was probably wrong.  There was an employee there asking us questions that we couldn’t answer, and asking us for documentation that we didn’t have.  I looked back towards the hallway hoping to see people who had been in the D Lounge with us so we could follow them (we had all gotten separated at baggage claim), but didn’t see anyone I recognized.  I sent my husband back out the the hallway to look/ask around and figure out where we were supposed to be.  He came back a minute later and told us that he was pretty sure he had figured it out.  So, we followed him further down the hall to another loading area where a line had formed. We checked with a nearby employee, and it was indeed the right line.  Whew!

We stood in line for a few minutes as they took people in groups to board the bus.  The bus driver loaded all of our luggage underneath the bus as we boarded.  We found seats near the back and only had to wait a few minutes before the tour was underway.  Our bus driver/tour guide was great.  He was full of information about the city and what we were seeing.  First, we took a brief bus tour of the city.  I didn’t take very many photos because it is hard to take good photos from a moving bus.  Right next to Canada Place was the Olympic Cauldron:

This is the Vancouver Art Gallery:

Our driver shared with us that Uber is not allowed to operate in the city, and there is only 1 gas station in downtown Vancouver.  He pointed out cars that are part of a ride sharing business, where you subscribe and then use an app to locate the nearest car and unlock it.  Once you are done, you lock it and leave it for someone else to use.

This is the Gastown Steam Clock.  It was built in 1977 and is one of only a few functioning steam clocks in the world.

We also drove through Chinatown, which he said he said was safe during the day but would caution against walking through at night.  Next, we arrived at Stanley Park.

We were allowed to get off the bus for a short time (I think it was 25 minutes) in order to look around and use the restrooms.  Our driver apologized for the tight schedule, but said that he was responsible for getting us to the airport at a certain time so that’s what he was going to do.  We had a great view of the city and the Wonder:

We walked over to the totem poles, which was right next to the restrooms (which I needed to use).

Then we walked over to the waterfront for more views of the city.

Everyone was very punctual and returned to the bus right on time.  We then headed to our next stop, the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  We drove over the Lion’s Gate Bridge on the way, which we had sailed under earlier that morning.

We arrived at the park and our driver again gave us a time limit, which I think was an hour and a half.  Because we were with a tour, our admission tickets were already taken care of so we were able to immediately enter the park without waiting in line.

There are 3 main sections of the park:  the suspension bridge, the treetops adventure, and the cliffwalk.

The park is just gorgeous.

The first thing we did was walk across the suspension bridge.

It felt sturdy and the rails were high so I didn’t find it scary, but I was surprised by how much it moved.  It was swaying pretty good.  Here is a video that sort of shows how much it was moving.  At the very end of the video, you can see us grab on and steady ourselves as the bridge moved:

The views from the bridge were gorgeous:

Here you can see the Cliff Walk section:

As we were getting closer to the other side, I turned around and took this picture to show how far we had walked:

It takes a few minutes to get all the way across, and while I wasn’t scared to be on it, I was relieved to reach the other side.  I am normally afraid of heights, but my fear decreases based on how secure I feel, and even with the movement, I felt secure on the bridge.  My husband, however, was not a fan of the bridge and he is normally not bothered by heights.  Got figure!  The girls loved it and were not scared at all.

Next, we explored the Treetops Adventure section.  These are elevated platforms around tree trunks that are connected with bridges and walkways.  The neat thing about this section are the views from the air, and just getting a sense of how huge the trees are.

Even with all of the people, the forest felt so peaceful and serene.

I have never seen trees this tall in my life:

We had a different view of the suspension bridge:

Next it was time to walk back across the bridge so that we could do the Cliff Walk.

That’s where we were headed:

Here we go!

This is what was holding us up:

This gave us yet another vantage point of the bridge:

I do admit that this view was a little disconcerting:

From the Cliff Walk we could see this beautiful pool and waterfall:

After this, we only had a few minutes before we were supposed to be back at the bus.  We did a quick walk through the gift shop where I bought a magnet, and we were all starving (I think it was around 12:30) so we stopped at a coffee stand for some iced coffee and soft pretzels.  Just as you leave the park, there is a counter where you can stop to get a certificate saying you crossed the bridge.  We were completely out of time, so we skipped this and went back to the bus.  Once again, everyone was back on time and as we boarded, our bus driver handed everyone a certificate!  He was thoughtful enough to get these for us while he was waiting.

Next, we drove to the airport, seeing a few more sights from the bus.  We pulled up to the airport somewhere around 1:30 and waited for the driver to get all of the luggage out from the bottom of the bus.  Once it was all out, we got off, found our luggage, and said goodbye to Harry and Meghan.  It was so nice to be able to send the last day of our trip with them and even though they live on a different continent, I hope our paths cross again.

The Vancouver airport is not huge and it took us no time at all to check our luggage.  We were worried about our suitcases being over the weight limit, as there was no way to check ahead of time on the ship.  But, strangely enough, the woman didn’t even weigh our suitcases.  Score!  At this airport, after you check your bags and get them tagged, you take them yourselves over to a conveyer belt and place them on it.  Then, we got in line for security.  The line wasn’t huge, but was moving slowly.  About half way through, an employee motioned for our family to leave the line and go through the Global Entry line, which was empty.  Score again!  Next, it was time to go through Customs.  We were the only people there at the time.  We did the computer kiosk thing where you scan your passports and then it takes your photo, and then went to a counter to see an agent.  The agent immediately asked us if we had been on a Disney cruise.  I thought that was strange, and then my husband recognized that he was the exact same agent that had checked us in at the cruise terminal a week prior!  The agent had remembered us too!  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

After he cleared us, we went in search of food.  We found a map that showed only 1 restaurant in the area, so we headed that way.  As we walked, we passed a gift shop and saw Pat and Rita shopping.  We said one more last goodbye to them (their flight was leaving soon) and went to eat at Canucks Bar and Grill.  We had a very large booth, which was nice because it gave us plenty of space for all of our carry-ons.  It wasn’t busy at all, so we took our time since we still had hours until our flight. The food was really good, and I was impressed with the quality considering we were in an airport.  Finally, we moved towards our gate where we proceeded to wait about another hour and a half for our flight to board and did all of the airport things like use the restroom, fill water bottles, and buy snacks.  Our flight left on time, and the trip home was uneventful.

Well that’s a wrap!  Thank you for following along on our adventures!  I also made a video of highlights from our trip, which you can see here.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at disneycruisemomblog@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to answer them. Also, I like to end my trip report with a giveaway so check back within the next few days for that!

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