When we arrived back at the port, we decided to do a bit of research for our second that in Vancouver. This time round, we would have our luggage to worry about as well. We decided to check with the tourist information inside the conference centre at Canada Place if there are any left luggage facilities at Canada Place. Unfortunately there are not. We did however find out that there are left luggage facilities at the Pacific Central train station where we would get our train to Seattle from and that we could get the Skytrain from the nearby Waterfront station to get to Pacific Central. We decided to walk over to the Waterfront station to see if we could work out the fares and the network. This all seemed straightforward enough, we had been told that we needed to take the Millennium or the Expo line and which station we needed to get off at. This only was 4 stations away from Waterfront and in the same zone. We also figured out that there was a different entrance that at lifts so this seemed quite straightforward.
Once we knew where we need to go the following week, we decided to have a look at the Historic Gaslamp District. Historic in this context needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. I had the feeling that the only thing that may have deserved this label were the gas lamps. All but two of the original buildings in this area were destroyed by the Great Vancouver Fire. The area seemed to be made up of restaurants, bars and nightclubs and shops selling tourist fare covering all levels of prices and quality. There also seemed to be beggars at every corner. Maybe I would have felt a little bit more positive about this if the weather had been nicer, but somehow I doubt it. There was one interesting thing in this area though, The Gastown Steam Clock. The steam-powered clock is the most famous landmark in the Gaslamp District. The clock was built to cover a steam grate, which is part of Vancouver's distributed steam-heating system. There is actually something slightly cynical about this as the clock was built to prevent street people from sleeping on the spot in cold weather. Still, it is very pretty.
Around 12:30, we had enough of the rain and we started to feel hungry. So we headed back to the port. There were two ships in port: the Disney Wonder and the Island Princess. We entered the port and there were signs for both ships, but they were all pointing in the same direction. So we asked a member of the port staff where we needed to go. She explained that there was just one line for both ships to clear security and immigration and that the line would divide after this. The line was huge and did not seem to move much. It was about an hour until we were finally through security. Next up was immigration. As all the ports would be visiting are US ports, we had to clear US immigration in Vancouver. This seemed a bit strange. Immigration was quite smooth and we got a second US stamp in our passports. So the passport stamp count now stood at Canada 0, USA 2.
Once we were through immigration, the then separated the lines. It was great seeing somebody with Mickey gloves pointing us in the right direction and to hear Disney music again. They were very keen to direct us to the normal
Castaway Club check in, but we headed to the Platinum and Concierge check in. I have to admit up to this point I had never seen the point of this perk, but looking at the line for the Castaway Club check in, which was huge, and only having one family ahead of us in our line, I cold definitely see the benefit. Once it was our turn, it was a quick and easy process. They already had our photos and passport verification on file and we did not have to fill out the health questionnaire. It was just literally a question of confirming we were there and printing our new Key to the World cards. The only hold up was getting the lanyards. The person was frantically trying to find the lanyards and eventually came back with one silver lanyard. I pointed out that we were Platinum and therefore our lanyards should be black. She looked very relieved and told us that she knew were those are. She got us our Platinum lanyards, we thanked her and were on our way.
When we got to the area where they had set up the backdrops for the embarkation photos, there was no line at all and we were directed straight to a photographer. It then only took a short time to get on the ship and be announced. We were then directed towards Parrot Cay. I was relieved that this was still open. At one point I even wondered if Beach Blanket Buffet would still be open by the time we were back on the ship. When we got to Parrot Cay, they then tried to redirect us to Beach Blanket Buffet with the excuse that there was a wait for a table at Parrot Cay. I explained that I had to be somewhere at 15:00 and that I would not make it if I had to go up to deck 9 for lunch. She then said that we could check at the podium and we were seated straightaway. Graham had Salad, Peel and Eat Shrimp, Roast Beef, Mashed Potato with Monterey Jack Cheese, Mixed Vegetables, Grilled Spicy Chicken, Pork Schnitzel and a Lemon Cream Puff for dessert. I had Strawberry Soup, Pork Schnitzel, Grilled Spicy Chicken, Roast Beef, Mashed Potato with Monterey Jack Cheese, Macaroni Cheese, Penne in Provençal Sauce, Mini Corndogs, Spaghetti and Meatballs and Chocolate Cake for dessert. At some stage during lunch, our server Jorge caught up with us. We had not seen him since Saturday so he just wanted to make sure that we were OK. We told him that he had a great time and would see him at dinner that night. By the time we had finished our lunch they had started to clear up.
Next up was our forum meet. Fortunately we did not have far to go as the meet was only in the Promenade Lounge. I expected Graham to head back to the cabin as he does not normally attend events like this. However, he decided to come with me. There were quite a few people that had already done the Repositioning Cruise with us and there was also a couple that we had met on the Hawaii cruise last year so there were plenty of people to catch up with as well as faces to put to names of people that I had communicated with online over the past year. Time absolutely flew and soon it was time to say goodbye as we needed to drop off our stuff for the safety drill. When we got back to the cabin, I quickly checked that we had all our excursion tickets and then it was time for the safety drill.
One thing I was impressed with this time round is that just before the safety drill was due to commence, our cruise director made an announcement that was broadcasted into all cabins and public areas with the sort of general announcements that are normally made at the end of the safety drill. This was a much better way of doing this. At the end of the announcement, he then asked us to proceed to our assembly stations. Initially this seemed like a much better organised experience as well with everybody being asked to line up by size. Unfortunately there was a rather large group of late comers that then just stood in front of everybody else. There were some fairly young kids and also a boy with special needs who did not cope at all with being fenced in amongst people that were much talker than them and not really being able to move. So there was a lot of crying and general restlessness so yet again I did not hear much of what was being said. It turned out that our Palo server Mladen was one of the crew assigned to our assembly station so we chatted to him for a bit when the safety drill was over.
After we had said goodbye to Mladen with the promise that we would be back at Palo later in the week, we headed up to deck 9 to watch us leaving the port. By then the rain had got much stronger and they actually had to move the sail away party to the atrium. We headed all the way forward to just above the flying bridge. We were sheltered from the rain there and had a great view. It was not long after we got there that we started to move away from the dock. The Captain sounded the horn. This time it was actually needed. Vancouver is a very busy float plane airport and there were constantly planes taking off, landing and moving into position right by the port. Still, we managed to get clear of the actual port without getting tangled up with any of the float planes. The scenery around Vancouver is very pretty and we enjoyed watching this as we sailed past. We had one last suspension bridge to sail underneath, the Lionsgate Bridge. This is not quite as pretty as the Golden Gate Bridge, but still impressive. Again the Captain sounded the horn and this would be the last time on this trip that I would hear it.
I'm waiting to go out to dinner and seeing brunch is making me even hungrier! 
curious that they can't seem to make humus very well. 
