. The hotel had a very international clientele—mostly Brits and Germans. After checking out and storing our luggage, we walked to the pickup point for the Vancouver Trolley Company. It was a great way to see the city—our driver, Larry, was very funny and we got a good overview of the downtown area. 
We drove through their beautiful downtown park, Stanley Park. It is 1000 acres with rose gardens, totem poles and miles of hiking trails. We drove the full length of Robson Street, Granville Island, Chinatown (one of the largest in North America) and Canada Place (where some of the cruise ships dock). We got off in Gastown, a little Victorian area of the city, begun in 1867 when a guy named “”Gassy” Jack Deighton built a saloon to serve the area’s loggers and trappers. Today, it’s a tourist area, with cobblestone streets, gaslights, a steam-powered clock – and lots of tourist shops. We stopped to see the “Luv Bug”- a VW Beetle competed covered- inside and out- with all sorts of bric-a-brac.
After our tour, it was time to head back to the hotel, collect our luggage and head to the ship. We managed to make a stop at the state liquor store—buying two more bottles of wine for our trip (Note- wine is expensive here! – Small bottles cost more than the 1.5 litre bottles do at home).
We headed to Ballantyne Pier to board the ship. It was wonderful—the taxi driver transferred our bags directly to the Celebrity bag-handlers and we started the process of boarding the ship. With friendly Celebrity greeters at every turn, we got through a brief bag check and got “checked-in” with room keys and info packet. Then, it was time for U.S. Customs. After our breeze through customs in Canada, we held our breath hoping that Mom’s I.D’s would be O.K. It turns out that I was the problem. We had to deal with Mr. Cranky U.S. Customs guy- who took one look at my passport and instantly branded me as a terrorist. It was Israel all over again. He saw Lebanon and Jordan and started with the questions. Why did you go, what did you see…Then he saw Syria and I thought he would choke. Thank God he missed the Iranian visa. I probably would have been strip searched! He finally decided to stop tormenting us and let us go on.
to the ship. After a photo at the entry, we were given a glass of champagne and an escort to our room. Ahhh, our new home. What a welcome sight. It was wonderful! I was amazed at how well designed this small space was. We had lucked into one of the “secret” rooms – with an oversized balcony. The entire outside wall was a sliding glass door leading onto our private balcony- with two lounge chairs and a table. Inside, we had twin beds, our own end tables, a small sofa and coffee table, a small desk, a corner TV cabinet, and a large closet and small, but comfortable bathroom. One of the walls was all mirrors- so it made the small space feel more spacious.
Our bags started to arrive and we were thrilled to see that our wine (wrapped securely in bubble wrap) had made it through. We had heard varying reports on bringing your own wine on board. We quickly un-wrapped it and put a few bottles in our mini-refrigerator. Once all the bags arrived, we decided to postpone the unpacking and explore the ship. Our room was on the 7th deck and we stopped at the library, “Words” on the 8th floor. We both found books to pick up/exchange. They had a full library full of guide books and current best-sellers and it took all our will-power not to start checking out books. We realized that, as tempting as it was to read the latest Jodi Picoult book, we probably wouldn’t have time.
On the 10th floor, we discovered the Waterfall Café, the buffet style lunch service, which was serving lunch. No time to waste when it comes to eating massive quantities of food- we saw huge people mounding huge amounts of food- pizza, pasta, desserts, ice cream- onto their plates. We did stop and had a salad (it was, after all 2:30 and we had our first dinner at 6:00 that night) and splurged on a scoop of ice cream. The woman next to me at the ice cream bar was ordering 2 huge scoops of ice cream with sprinkles. She told me “not to miss the dessert bar”. She definitely should have missed the dessert bar.We took a tour of the “Aqua Spa”. What an amazing number of treatments all designed to make you look and feel better. This is a sampling of their treatments:
* Ionithermie Algae Super Detox – Created by a French surgeon, the only treatment available to detoxify your body. Guaranteed to lose 1-8 inches after just one session. A bargain at $160.
* Microdermabrasion Facial – Resurface your skin - 75 Minutes for $169
* La therapie Hydralift Facial – using computerized technology to penetrating into the deepest layers of the skin – 50 Minutes for $120
* Pro Collagen Marine Facial – Holistic skin therapy – using Japanese silk protein compresses – and a face, scalp and arm massage – 75 Minutes for $143
* Exotic Lime and Ginger Sat Glow- Warm oil is dripped all over your body before the Lime and Ginger Salt Glow is applied. Your skin is cleansed and polished. With full body massage – 85 minutes for $196
* Aroma Spa Ocean Float Massage – A warm seaweed mask is applied to your body before you are cocooned in a comforting wrap, floating completely weightless, relaxing while the active ingredients work to detoxify, stimulate and ease away aches and pains, stress, poor circulation – With Full Body Massage for $257
* Hot Stones Massage – Heated Volcanic stones used with Swedish massage
* Gentle Touch Teeth Whitening – 50 minutes $199
Then, just in case you needed more, there were fitness seminars including:
* Detox for Weight Loss
* Burn Fat Fast
* Secrets to a Flatter Stomach
* Or Polar Body Age Revitalization Program– as seen on Oprah – a test to assess your body’s age. Two sessions for $99
Resisting temptation at the Spa, we had to get to our rooms, grab our life preservers and join everyone on the ship for the Emergency Drill. Walking down the stairs with our orange life preservers on was a bit awkward, but we got to our muster stations and listened to the drill. By the time we got back to the room, we had time for just one glass of wine before our first dinner.
The Cosmopolitan Restaurant was lovely. We had a table close to the window – so we 
had a view outside as the ship left Vancouver. We started to peruse our menu options when we heard a loud voice from behind us. It was our new table mates, Naomi and Ginny. Naomi was an 82 year old woman from Cape Hatteras. She walked with a cane and was only about 5 feet tall, but her voice and presence were much larger. (Note- later on the trip, we heard people talking about this remarkable “86” year old woman—it appears her age increased as the trip went on…) Ginny, her niece, was taking her on this holiday. Our other couple arrived, Harold and Ann, (Harold from Missouri, Ann from Napa, CA). It turns out that the cruise had arranged both of their flights- and had flown them into Seattle and bussed them to Vancouver! There was no food provided and the bus driver got lost, so they had all just arrived on the ship. Needless to say, none of them were too happy. Naomi’s first priority was getting a bottle of wine. It didn’t take much for us to cave and order our first bottle of over-priced white wine from the wine steward. We ordered an inexpensive (comparatively inexpensive-coming in at only $26 plus 15% gratuity) South African wine which was quite good.We spent the dinner getting to know our travel companions. Harold had just had surgery for throat cancer and had difficulty talking- as well as not being able to taste much of anything past the first few bites. What a shame to have such a range of wonderful food- and not be able to taste it. Ann, his wife, was the beneficiary, as she got not only her own food, but his as well. Naomi was a spirited 82 year old- well traveled, had been through 3 husbands (not sure whether they died or divorced…). Ginny’s mother (Naomi’s sister) had just died and Naomi had become Ginny’s surrogate mother.
We met our waiters, Socorro and Michael, both from India, and the assistant Maitre’D, Yusef, from Istanbul, Turkey. 
Our meal was wonderful. We started with a “Feuillete with Mushroom and Cream Herb Sauce”, followed by a Roasted Tomato Bisque, a Caesar Salad, Veal Picatta and Crème Brulee. A few cups of coffee and we were ready to tackle the unpacking job back in the room and watch the ship start its’ journey to the Inside Passage. 
No comments:
Post a Comment