You’ll never get me on a cruise. Unless it’s to ALASKA! Recap and New PTR Link! 2/1

[brookelizabeth]

I'm here! Loving all the plans - it sounds just amazing. I saw a tilt shift video from the Alaska cruise a while back on the Disney Parks Blog-it was beautiful!

[glennbo123]

Subbing!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by smeecanada

No, no, no. Head to Deck 4 with your book and read there. Much more fun and interesting than the verandah. Plus, wooden padded deck chairs. One of DH and my favoriate spots.

Much more interesting than the verandah? Why? (Besides the padded chairs)

Originally Posted by smeecanada

White Spot is much more than a burger place now. Started out a car hop, much like A&W way back when. Now, it's a wonderful restaurant that still makes great burgers, along with a lot of other offerings. Haven't heard about Cardero's, need to ask my sister about that one.

Here's the menu, apparently they do the teahouse as well which I have been to. White Spot may well be a better lunch spot! I'll see what Jeff says but I really didn't plan on a big lunch like this, was thinking more casual.

http://www.vancouverdine.com/cardero...PageName=Lunch

I A&W. We might need to check out White Spot, sounds a little like Steak & Shake, which I adore (not that we have any in Seattle).

Originally Posted by MAGICFOR2

See, like I said in my TR - they don't eat in Vancouver!

I think Cardero's was the steak place near the water that a local recommended to us.

LOL Tammie. Looks like Steak and Seafood and more of a dinner place than lunch. This is the lunch menu

http://www.vancouverdine.com/cardero...PageName=Lunch

After looking at the menu I'm not sure it's what we want for lunch though it does look lovely.

Originally Posted by Poolrat

I'm in. Hoping to cruise to alaska next summer if I can get the time off work.

Oh very cool Pat, I didn't know that. Are you looking at DCL or other lines as well?

!

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

I'm here! Loving all the plans - it sounds just amazing. I saw a tilt shift video from the Alaska cruise a while back on the Disney Parks Blog-it was beautiful!

Tilt Shift?

not a clue what that means!

Brook!

Originally Posted by glennbo123

Subbing!

Glenn!

[Shanny145]

We are sailing with you!!! Can't wait to read more...great start!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Shanny145

We are sailing with you!!! Can't wait to read more...great start!

Hey Shanny! Happy to have you along for the ride

[mom3sonstt]

Joining in! All caught up right now - but will be behind shortly....have a little thing like a Disney trip starting on WEdnesday. But am looking forward to hearing all about the cruise. We have never gone on one, but I think I would like an Alaska cruise more than I would a tropical one.....

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by mom3sonstt

Joining in! All caught up right now - but will be behind shortly....have a little thing like a Disney trip starting on WEdnesday. But am looking forward to hearing all about the cruise. We have never gone on one, but I think I would like an Alaska cruise more than I would a tropical one.....

Tanya! so happy to have you here

for 5 days!!!!!!!!!! (4 by the time you read this)

oh dear, I see you have a contest question link? I must see what that's all about.

[eandesmom]

I am lucky enough to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. As a result, I have spent a fair amount of time in BC. From the Victoria parade in High School (which I'm happy to say the HS the E's will go to won their slot in 4 different categories this year...yes I was a band geek) to Vancouver in college (where the drinking age was 19) to adult getaways to Tofino, Nanaimo and Whistler, to family trips in...Whistler.

I adore Whistler, as does my family. I've been there 7 times now, with winter still winning at 4 trips and summer at 3. Interestingly enough I've only been there in the summer with my family and never in the winter with kids. Not sure what that means.

It is a wonderful place year round and we've seriously looked into doing a time share up there and may well do one, one of these days. As some of my cruise mates and other '11 AK cruisers plan side trips to Whistler it seems appropriate to start this TR off with a pre trip trip report to Whistler.
Last weekend I needed to go to Whistler for a work function, an annual conference of some key clients. My company is a sponsor of this organization and the event would mean some trade show type time, some networking social time and also some down time. It is a family focused annual event with many clients, and peers/competitors (aka other sponsors) bringing their families or significant others. I decided to do the same this year and extend the trip by a day to have one full vacation day with my family. We’d hoped it would be all 4 kids but Kendall ended up at a UW soccer camp that was the live on campus all week full meal college recruiting deal. We didn’t want her to miss that, it was a great exposure opportunity but…bummed us out. Taylor respectfully declined, not wanting to miss work ($$) which also bummed us out but…having been 18, we get it. It’s about the last thing I’d have been interested in, during the summer before college. As we thought it might be 6, I’d booked a condo, a place we’d stayed at before versus the Fairmont, which is where my event would be. 4 of us would fit in a hotel room, 6 not so much. It was walking distance to the Fairmont, we knew the lay of the land, a perfect fit. My only regret was that we weren’t booking the exact same unit as our last summer trip, simply b/c I couldn’t find the info (I’ve now found it after a weekend long office paperwork purge while Jeff and Eric were at Cub Scout camp). It sounded similar, so good enough and, at the price the 4 nights in the condo matched what 3 would have been at the hotel so…company would cover!

My event was scheduled to go Thursday evening-Saturday evening. I’d originally hoped ot head up on Wednesday and have a full day with the family on Thursday before set up and social events. Instead I had an all day/evening event on Wednesday to attend as well. That meant I’d have to head into the office Thursday morning to unload and reload as the 2 events would require different things, then load up my family and hit the road. Ideally we wanted to be in Whistler by 4. If we were on the road by 10, including a stop for lunch, that was doable. Later than that, not so much.
I got up at 5. I had to pack, finish up work stuff and get to the office. Then I needed to get gas, hit Costco and the vet for pet food. A 10am departure was doable but….not probable. It meant only being at the office until 9 and then really being efficient about the rest of it. A impromptu meeting at work shot that all to you know what and I left the office at about 9:45. Home at 11 we still had to unload costco and pack up the food/drinks and load the car. One more stop after we were loaded and we were on the road at….12;30.

Not what I’d been hoping for but it was what it was. The weather…sucked. Driving north we went through squall after squall and some sucky traffic. We were all hungry but given the time, decided to just power through and get through Vancouver and try to minimize chances of commuting traffic. It took us a solid 2.5 hours to get to Vancouver, 30 of it at the border. Which was far longer than usual given the short lines? Though we sailed through we watched both cars in front of us get inspected. More on the border later.

For any of my cruise mates who are flying into SEA and driving up I highly recommend getting a good map. I’ve done this drive I don’t know how many times and am still amazed at how poorly marked it is. To get to Whistler from Seattle or Downtown Vancouver for that matter, you end up driving on city streets, through the heart of things and it’s very very easy to miss a turn. Add to the fact you have international roaming charges, GPS’s that may or may not work depending on your service (mine doesn’t, turns to a big green screen the minute you cross the border) and it can be a recipe for disaster.

At a minimum it meant I had to put down my book and pay attention so Jeff didn’t get off track!

Before we hit the border it occurred to us that we hadn’t planned on where to eat. Typically we stop at Granville Island but we wanted to get through the city. I’d tried, a bit desperately, to look up things via my phone but given that I didn’t start looking until Bellingham, I ran out of non roaming time sooner rather than later. Though you can see where places are on the google map on an Android phone…it’s so small it’s next to impossible to get your bearings on distance. We’d originally been shooting to find something in West or North Vancouver but quickly gave up and settled on Horseshoe Bay. Which certainly got us well past the city but eating later than we'd planned. For those of you that know me, and my habits, yes, that means I hadn't eaten yet...at all.

I’d found 2 options that looked good for lunchish things. Troller Pub and Troll’s restaurant. After parking (and driving down down down to the actual waterfront) we quickly found that Troller Pub was adult only. Bummer as they seemed to have the better beer selection (aka and IPA that we wanted to try). So…Troll’s it became. It had some mixed reviews online but we were hungry, menu looked good and hey…we could sit outside.

I’ll admit, I didn’t take a picture of our table, or the restaurant, only of our view. Apologies in advance, my photobucket upload setting must have been changed for something and as a result, these are a bit large! It was very hazy and bright and I clearly didn't adjust any of my settings (or try to edit lol) so they are bit overexposed, sorry about that!



Which didn’t suck





I had an OUTSTANDING meal. Jeff and I each had a Granville Lager and I had a fish wrap that was a fascinating mix of whitefish (probably cod), salmon and veggies with cumin, served with chips. It was delicious! We all had fun referring to our fries as “chips” and they were chip like, very different from many of the fries we have at home, with a wonderful potatoeyness (is that a word?) to them. After our meal we strolled, just a bit.









Oh, and there’s our restaurant





Now this place gets high marks



But it was a bit fancier, more of a dinner spot, than what we were looking for.



And with that, we hopped back on the road. By the time we got to the condo, unloaded and I headed to the Fairmont to do my own set up… it was 6:30. There was a reception that was scheduled from 6-9. My hope had been to set up, go back and shower, and then hit the reception. As it was I set up, hit the reception around 7:30 feeling a bit grubbier than I’d have liked but given that it was Whistler most everyone was super causal and headed back to the condo. They'd swum, Jeff had made dinner, fed the kids and they were watching a movie. I walked in to find all the makings of a lovely soft taco and a nice cold beer which was the perfect ending to a long day.

Up next. A trip before a trip continues.
Cheeserolling??????

[mom3sonstt]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Tanya! so happy to have you here

for 5 days!!!!!!!!!! (4 by the time you read this)

oh dear, I see you have a contest question link? I must see what that's all about.

The ticker is actually off a little. I made it based on our original arrival date of Saturday, but somewhere along the way we decided that I could fly down early I actually get there the day after tomorrow! The guys are driving down and won't get there until Saturday.....what ever will I do with all that free time

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by mom3sonstt

The ticker is actually off a little. I made it based on our original arrival date of Saturday, but somewhere along the way we decided that I could fly down early I actually get there the day after tomorrow! The guys are driving down and won't get there until Saturday.....what ever will I do with all that free time

Oh how cool is that! Solo time is rather lovely, I forget, have you done it before?

[jeremysdisneymom]

Joining in! I can't wait to hear about your cruise to Alaska.

Whistler looks amazing!

I was in Seatle several years ago for a conference and just loved it. That area is so beautiful.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by jeremysdisneymom

Joining in! I can't wait to hear about your cruise to Alaska.

Whistler looks amazing!

I was in Seatle several years ago for a conference and just loved it. That area is so beautiful.

!! So happy to have your here. Whistler is truly one of my favorite places in the world, something about it is just "right" for us, Jeff and I were just talking about it last night, how much we love it there. Seattle's a pretty good place too.

[Shanny145]

We have 5 hours in Seattle post trip....any close easy suggestions from the airport?

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Shanny145

We have 5 hours in Seattle post trip....any close easy suggestions from the airport?

What time of day? Downtown is only 20 minutes but traffic will depend on the time of day so could be quite a bit longer. You can take the light rail in but it can actually be slower due to the fact it makes a bazillion stops.

The Museum of Flight, if you like that kind of stuff, is quite close, probably 10 minutes by cab. Other than that there isn't much other than a mall, without heading downtown. With 5 hours though, unless it's late at night, you'd have time to hit Pike Place Market and maybe the waterfront to just walk around and soak it up. My guess is once you clear customs and recheck in you'd probably have 2-3 hours to play with, which might well make it worth heading downtown.

For eating, tons of stuff at the market to choose from and I can definitely recommend some places but there is also a very good selection of local places at the airport, in the main terminal (shockingly enough).

[englishrose47]

What no food porn ??? Your pix were great, my good shots are even more blurry