Vancouver, British Columbia, Day 1 – May 9, 2015

Today was our Disembarkation Day for the cruise portion of this trip.  It was an early wake-up call at 6:15 AM this morning.  We had to get ready, eat a little breakfast, complete the last bit of packing, and be in the Casino at 7:30 AM.  The casino was our designated waiting area for our 7:30 AM scheduled walk-off disembarkation.  We arrived in the casino about 7:20 AM, and by 7:45 AM, we were getting off of the ship.  We had already filled out Canadian Customs Forms earlier in the cruise, and the total experience of getting off of a ship in Canada was wonderful.  There were no lines to wait in for processing passports, no customs lines, nothing.  We just walked through the port terminal at what is called Canada Place.

We already had directions to our hotel, it was only about a 5-6 block from the port.  It was an easy walk, there were not many people on the streets at 8:00 AM.  We found our hotel, and walked in to the reception desk.  We were hoping that we could go ahead and get our room, even though it was early morning.  Otherwise, we were going to store our luggage at the hotel and still head out to see some of the sights.  We were happily surprised that they had an open room, so we went ahead and checked in early.

We were able to organize our luggage, and drop off some of the unnecessary item we would have had to carry if we had stored our luggage.  I was able to drop off my camera bag and trade it out for my backpack.

The hotel also had free wi-fi, so we did a little research on locating a Catholic Church for later this evening, so we could attend Saturday Vigil Mass.  We found out that there was a Catholic Cathedral just a few blocks from the hotel called the Holy Rosary Cathedral.  Mass was at 5:10 PM, so we had plenty of time to see some sights before then.

We decided to take a free shuttle out to a park called the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  We used google maps to help us locate the nearest bus stop for the free shuttle, and it was about 4 blocks away.

We packed up and got to the bus stop just as the bus was arriving.  It was about a 15 minute ride to the park, and we also got to see some of the city on the way.

The park was quite an experience.  For the single entrance fee, you get to cross the suspension bridge, go on a treetop walkway, a walkway supported off the side of a cliff, and a few other elevated boardwalks through a forest full of large trees, some 1200 or more years old.

The suspension bridge crosses the Capilano River, and is 459 feet long, and is 125 feet above the river.  The bridge is very shaky as you walk across it, and there are a lot of people crossing together.  After crossing the bridge, you take several elevated walkways though the forest, and learn about all of the trees and animals that inhabit the forest.

The elevated treetop walkway was really interesting.  there were platforms banded to the trees with metal compression bands so that there is no damage to the trees.  We did learn that these bands have to be moved about every 10 years due to the fast growth of the large trees.  Between these platforms are short cable suspended walkways.

We then headed back across the suspension bridge to the other side of the park.  It was funny to see how nervous some of the people were crossing the bridge, either from  fear of heights, or from the wobbly movement of the bridge caused by people walking across, or both.  There was one woman who would not let go of the handrail to pass up while we were taking some photos.  She just waited until we were done and had gone over to the other side.

We went to the cliffside walkway, which is completely cantilevered out over the river, supported by steel supports that were anchored to the rock face of the canyon.  is was very sturdy, no movement like on the suspension bridge and treetop walkways.  The last part of the park was focused on conservation of water and paper products, and had a lot of information on how much water and paper, converted into trees used, that they typical person uses in a year, and how much recycling paper helps.

We completed the park, and got in line for the free return shuttle.  We selected a different shuttle that took us over to Canada Place, the area near the pier.  There was a section of older Vancouver called Gastown that we decided to visit, which is located near Canada Place.

First, we waked around the pier, and found that there were now three ships in port taking on new passengers.  There were two Princess ships, The Golden Princess, which was our ship from the cruise, the Grand Princess and one Holland America ship.

It was a mad house of passengers trying to board the three ships for their cruises.  There was a really long line outside, and everyone had to keep their baggage with the until they could get into the terminal, and then get in the appropriate line for boarding their ship.  We talked with a lady that was trying to keep the long line organized, she worked for the cruise terminal.  Apparently, they do not ever have three ships in port at once, and it was overwhelming their normal boarding  process.

We found a spot to have some lunch near the convention center, which is next to, or part of the Canada Place complex.  It had an outside seating area and we enjoyed the nice weather.

After lunch, we headed a few blocks to go to visit Gastown, which is a national historic site for Vancouver and the oldest neighborhood in Vancouver.  It mostly consisted of stores and restaurants, and was very crowded.  We did not really see where it was all that as a destination to visit.

From Gastown, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for church, and to take a rest break.  We were tired from the early morning disembarkation, and from all of the walking.

We were able to see some of the TPC Golf Tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, our old home town. This was the first year we had not attended the tournament in a long time.  We headed off to church about 4:50 PM, having about a 10 minute walk to get there for 5:10 PM Mass.  The Cathedral was an older church, of french Gothic Architecture, built in 1900.  It was quite crowded for mass, with a lot of older people, most seemed to be of Asian decent.  We had noticed that there is a large percentage of Asians in Vancouver.

After Mass, we headed over to the Pacific Center Mall, which spans about 3 city blocks.  It was just about like any other mall other than some crosswalks between mall sections that are built over some of the streets.  We grabbed some quick food from the food court since we were there.  We were still full from our lunch, so we did not want to eat another big meal.

After walking around in the mall, we headed back to the room to work on the blog and relax a little before retiring for the night.