Ahoy Matey's

May 8th 2024

Currently on a train from home to Vancouver Canada.

Vancouver, Canada is only about 50 miles from my home. So close that after work we would occasionally drive up and night ski on Grouse mountain. The only thing to slow you down from a quick drive is the International border crossing. So if it was just a day trip I drive. This trip is different, because from Vancouver I will be traveling by ship to Tokyo, Japan. Then after an 18-day voyage, I'll do some independent sightseeing. With my personal highlight of biking across 6 islands over 2 days. Since the tip is out of the ordinary, let's travel differently. Hence, AMTRAK. Home to Vancouver in about 2 hours. Normally the train is maybe 15 minutes late, today for your special needs it will be about an hour and a half late. Glad I don’t have to be anyplace soon. Oh ! Wait I do. I need to be at a cruise terminal by 3pm. I expect I’ll make it. I wonder if travel insurance will cover it if I miss the boat.

For those of you tuning in late, I am on the way to Tokyo for 2 weeks of light exploration of Japanese, via a cruise ship from Vancouver through various ports in Alaska. Eighteen days from YVR to NRT, by air 9 hours. I thought it would be interesting, but I am not too sure if it has gotten too interesting already. Regardless, I am not in control of this part of the trip and should just sit back and endure the experience.

This trip was a 2020 plan. Not the cruise part. I wanted to take my regular annual vacation to Japan, but one of the sights I really wanted to see was under renovation and see it wrapped in Tyvek and construction scaffolding was not my preferred way to see it. I could have put it off for a few months, but the 2020 Summer Olympics were scheduled in Tokyo. So I went to Italy as a second choice.

As you may rember while I was in Italy a virus called COVID appeared and threw everything into chaos for the next couple of years, with many countries closing their borders to tourism for years. So now it seems is the year for Japan, along with the lowest Japanese Yen to U.S. Dollar exchange rate in decades and everybody and their cat deciding this is the year.

Eventually the train crawled into Vancouver station right on time, if you are speaking of Island Time. Canadian customs was more for the formality of the process than the actual inspection process. A quick cab ride to the terminal through Vancouver’s famous Hastings street. I would have expected block after block of junkies sprawled out on the sidewalk in New York and not pristine Vancouver Canada. Google map’s direction to the cruise terminal offered several options to get there from the train station. Public transport, car and walking. It projected a 14-minute taxi ride, and a 35-minute walk. I had thought about walking, after that tour of the shooting gallery I am so glad I caught a cab.

 

The cruise terminal was really convoluted. Walk in follow the women pointing, go to the elevator go down one floor. Find the push me pull you ropes and weave back and forth for a mile and get your official Mickey Mouse club card for the ship. Then follow the pale pointed fingers and find more zigzag until to reach Airport security. Not nearly as intrusive as TSA, you got to keep your shoes on. Back to yet another maze, by this time I was expecting a chunk of cheese as a reward for successfully navigating this maze, but US Customs and Border Protection was next. That was dead simple, get facial scanned and vamoose. More pointing fingers a metal zigzag and a quick touch and go of the club card, and I was again back out of the maze, and released into a very large floating box. Alas, no cheese.

First things first. Make reservations at the specialty restaurant. Forget about the safety briefing and the place to go when we hit the iceberg I want to make sure I have had my rare steak and French bistro as we are going down. With that taken care of I got a Vodka tonic, without the tonic and sat down and relaxed a bit. I guess I better find my lifeboat station, I hear they get pissy if you blow that part of the trip off. Found it, got my ticket electronically punched and held my hand out for an M&M as a reward for being good. All I got was a smile.

Wandered around the ship for a while and eventually found my room, cell ? It has a door that opens when I want it to, so maybe cell isn’t the right term, but it is kinda small and the window is about the size of a fish tank for a gold fish. It’s round and doesn’t open. I think the term for my accommodation is steerage. I met Jesus from the Philippines who is my room steward. Pleasant man. I’ll try and not be the demanding client.

Back outside to get some sun and a drink, this is a cruise ya know? The Bloody Mary was watery and not from having too much vodka. A bunch of honking and a slight lurch, and we were free of the dock and on our way. The view? Well I could see Mount Baker, the same darned mountain I can see from my backyard. So far, no cheese, no M&M, watery Blood Mary and the same view as I have at home. I can’t understand why I haven’t ocean cruised before. It’s sooo special.

So here we are, a sea, under the Lion’s Gate bridge, careful to avoid getting pooped on by the roosting seagulls (I know from a previous biking experience), past the bay where I earned to sail and off we go.

One of my friends who travels, but doesn’t cruise advised me to avoid the elevators at all costs. She caught COVID on a cruise, Rockin’ Pneumonia on another, and the plague from thinking about her cruise experiences. So Steerage is on deck four, the pool is on deck 12 and 13. Two hours in, so far 23 floors according to Apple Watch, and there are more floors ahead.

Dinner was good, a nice menu fit for any palate. I kept it light, an appetizer, some soup and a salad. There are 17 more dinners, breakfasts and lunches ahead. It would be easy to eat so much that I would need to buy new clothes in Japan, and Japanese are not known for their bulk unless you are a Sumo wrestler.

I think now is a good place to stop. 8pm I need to unpack and wander some more. amber get another flight of stairs or two in.