20230917 AAAA Trip - To the ship and...sailing, and Viking missing the boat a bit

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 2/105 - Viking Orion sails

Wow, we were tired.  Arlona didn't even make it until I finished writing last night before she was sawing logs.  Once I crawled into bed, it wasn't long before I was right there with her.  We slept in until about 7 a.m. which, for reference, is 10 a.m. at home.  Yes, we were tired.  But, it only takes one of those types of days to get acclimated to the new timezone, so that's a good thing.  We'll be gaining time for most of this trip as we'll be heading mostly east.  The trip home from Abu Dhabi (UTC+4) to central Florida (UTC-5 by the time we get home) will be a big adjustment.

We headed down for the included breakfast of preformed egg circles, English muffins, sausage, and a little peanut butter.  They did come to the room and got the TV working this morning, so we had some background noise while we packed up.

I checked Uber pricing and it was about $45CAD to get to Canada Place.  I decided to schedule it for 10 a.m. and much to my surprise, the pricing jumped to just under $70CAD.  Wow - gotta love surge pricing.  I checked with the hotel and they partner with a shuttle.  Now, we're heading out at 945 a.m. for $40CAD.

In retrospect, I should have just sprung for the Uber. The van was fully packed and the luggage was overloaded. The driver was rude and everyone in the van wasn't happy.  Oh well, we made it.

We were able to get our bags checked in at Canada Place and then head over to the Fairmont for the hospitality.  Not many folks were there that early.  Viking had a nice spread of croissants and other pastries, coffee, soda, water, and such available.  We were able to also have them hold our carry-on luggage in a secure area.  Around 11:30 a.m., check-in opened back over at Canada Place.  We wandered back there, checked in, and got our room keys.  With our luggage checked in or stowed, and with us being checked in for sailing, this gave us the freedom to wander, so that's what we did.  A nice couple from Phoenix joined us.  It turned out that they were originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, about 30 miles southeast of where Arlona grew up.  It is funny how things like that happen, a lot.

Welcome Centre

Canada Place cruise terminal

Here's a look around

We headed out along the shore.

Three ships were docked - the Orion is just above Arlona, anchored

Since there were three other ships docked, one each from Holland America, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean, there was no room for the Viking Orion.  It anchored just off the port. Disembarking guests and their luggage were taken by tender boat from the ship to shore this morning.  It will dock after one of the other ships leaves so we will embark directly onto the ship.

We wandered around, taking in the sights.

There was constant seaplane traffic coming and going

The colors were changing

We swung by the Olympic cauldron

Another view of the cauldron

We headed back to the Fairmont where the snack spread had morphed into a lunch spread with several sandwiches and salads available.  The crowds had increased significantly.

We decided to take another walk to the Gastown area and swing by the steam clock just in time for the two o’clock sounding.

Heading back to the Fairmont, we stopped in a local restaurant, Rogue, where our friends, Rose and Ted (who we had dinner with last night) were having lunch with other fellow world cruisers, Joe & Judi.  Joe & Judi are also cruising on this journey.  We got back to the Fairmont and enjoyed a beverage, meeting other cruisers, and waiting for embarkation.

Overall, the quality of the hospitality was good.  The room was crowded, but they did a good job of having plenty of food and drink available and kept the tables clean and clear. Still, even with that positive, Viking seems to have dropped the ball here, keeping 900+ people waiting for hours to embark because the port is overcrowded.  Here's an idea.  Stop cruising out of Vancouver and cruise out of Seattle instead.  It would save the US passengers, the majority of the passengers, from having to clear Customs not once, but twice.  Plus, Seattle's port has more room and we wouldn't be held from boarding for eight hours.

That last part notwithstanding, the boarding process was in a word, terrible.  At about 5 p.m., they started calling passengers by boarding group.  When we checked in, we were given a boarding group number - ours was group #2.  They called each group up and walked us back over to Canada Place where we had to clear US Customs and Border Patrol in preparation for sailing to Alaska.  That process was smooth.  Once done, we were escorted into a large holding room filled with row after row of uncomfortable folding chairs.  We were packed in shoulder to shoulder for over an hour as the rest of the passengers were brought over for Customs and then brought to the holding room.  

Does this look fun?

No, it does not

A little after 6 p.m., the ship finally was docked and we were allowed to start embarkation.

I realize that these are all first-world problems, but you pay a premium to cruise on Viking, and this embarkation process was worthy of a Dollar Store.  Seriously.  Viking needs to get better on this, or eliminate its tagline of "Exploring the world in comfort."  There was nothing comfortable about today's embarkation.

One major plus was seeing the Cruise Consultant, Hâmed Reza Esfahanian, as we boarded the ship.  We spent a good deal of time with him on our world cruise, and he was the one who booked us on this cruise.  We look forward to working with him to plan future travels as well and just enjoying time with a really good guy.

Bags weren't loaded while the ship was anchored, so even after getting to our room about 6:30 p.m., we had no bags and couldn't unpack.  Yay.  If we can't unpack, and the food service doesn't start until 7 p.m., what can we do?  Here's a hint...

But, we couldn't go to our favorite, the Explorers' Bar, because it wasn't going to open until l0 p.m. It seems Canada has a weird law that only one bar per floor can be open while docked.  The bar that serves the buffet is on floor 7 and the Explorers' Bar is on 7, so the buffet bar wins.  Oh well, they made a nice drink.

We hit up the buffet and enjoyed a nice meal. A nice couple from California joined us at our table and we spent a couple of hours over wine and nice conversation.  Eventually, it was time to head to the room and see if our bags were there.  First, we checked out Vancouver's night skyline.

Our bags were in our room.  Arlona unpacked while I wrote up this blog post.  I'll unpack my bags tomorrow morning, or maybe after I publish this if I feel ambitious (not likely).  We are set to depart around midnight and we will sail the inside passage tomorrow - a full day at sea.  Perhaps we'll make it to the Explorers' Bar sometime tomorrow.