Wednesday, May 14th - Disembarkation, Vancouver, British Columbia
Despite going to sleep around 1 am, I was awake at 5 am anticipating our arrival into Vancouver. I checked the passing scenery - it was a gray foggy morning and I could tell we weren't in Vancouver Harbor yet - so I went back to bed for a bit. Next time I check, the Carnival Spirit was sliding quietly by the commercial/industrial docks on the north side of Vancouver Harbor. I got up and got dressed and walked up to the exterior forward portion of Deck 9 where I could watch our arrival into Canada Place, the cruise ship docks in down town Vancouver. It was a yucky morning - using Captain Volpi's term - gray in the dawn light, temperature around 45-50 and lightly raining. Ugh - quite different from Hawaii!
As we slid into our berth along the east side of Canada Place, and I noticed that we were being closely followed by two Holland America ships with their beautiful dark blue hulls. It was the Ryndam and the Volendam, and they berthed stem to stern along the west side of Canada Place. Obviously the passenger terminal would be very busy today.
Our position on the dock at Canada Place in Vancouver: N 49° 17.300 W° 123 06.529, 2,423 nautical miles traveled from Maui.
We enjoyed a final sit-down breakfast in the Empire Dining Room, arriving at 6:30 am when the opened the doors to a long line of people already waiting in line. Seems like the whole boat was up early on this final morning.
After breakfast we logged in to the ship's Wi-Fi system one last time to pick up the morning's email, then finished packing our carry-on bags in our cabin. Alas, we don't travel light.
Passengers had been asked to be out of their cabins by 9 am; we noticed that everyone on our hall had vacated by 8:30 and that our cabin steward, Felicia, was well into turning over the cabins for the next guests. We decided to get out of her way so gathered up our carry-ons and headed down to Deck 3 to wait for our debarkation number to be called.
Carnival Spirit had started disembarking passengers with a 7:15 call for express debarkation (passengers who could carry all their own luggage off the ship). Normal debarkation started around 8:15, and we were called off at 9:15. The whole process was well organized and quite quick. Canadian customs and immigration was a breeze, and Carnival was to be commended for the orderliness of the luggage pick-up area: all bags were organized by debarkation group number and we found our luggage easily.
We headed down to the transportation area of Canada Place to find our bus transfer to Seattle International Airport. After asking around, we located the Seattle bus, and hopped aboard. The bus loaded up with 20 other folks off the Carnival Spirit, and we headed out. Crossing the US border was a breeze: initially the border agent asked everyone to get off the bus and come inside the building, but as soon as I was down the steps - the first person off the bus - they came back and said we were all set, that they'd verified we'd come from Canada Place that morning, and we were free to go. I wasn't going to argue! I turned around, shooed everyone behind me back on the bus and we were on our way.
It was an easy drive down to SEATAC where we met by Travis, my brother-in-law, and chauffeured out to Mercer Island where we're spending the next few days catching up with my sister Erin, Travis and their two adorable kids, Tripp and Rieley. And that's all.... our wonderful trip is over.
