After lunch at home, we drive to Victoria airport, where I take a Pacific Coastal Airways flight to Vancouver South Terminal (YVR), flying over the Strait of Georgia looking SE on a smokey afternoon. I take the shuttle from the South Terminal to the main terminal, and get off at the first stop (International and USA departures), walk across to the Skytrain terminal, and take the Canada Line to City Centre Station at Pacific Centre – about a half hour trip costing CA$9. The Skytrain is quite scenic as it crosses the Fraser River.
I’m staying at the Metropolitan Hotel (a Marriott), which is a half block walk from the Skytrain station. For nostalgia’s sake, I walk back to the intersection of Georgia and Granville Streets to take a few photos, and then do some last minute shopping at the London Drugs store on the corner where Birk’s Jewellers used to be when I lived here in the 1970s. The Birk’s clock is still there, but is now buried in the high-rises. After returning to the hotel, I have dinner at the hotel’s Gala bar and restaurant – a chicken clubhouse & Granville Island Pale Ale, before retiring for the night. I board the ship tomorrow.
Panorama of Georgia at Granville – Hudson’s Bay, London Drugs, Pacific Centre
I’m awake at 5:30AM, get dressed and go up to the Crow’s Nest on Deck 11 forward where the Explorations Cafe is located. The staff are preparing for opening at 7AM, but I’m interested in watching the ship pass under Lion’s Gate bridge as we sail into Vancouver. It is raining and gloomy outside, but I manage to take a time lapse video with my iPhone that captures the few minutes it takes the ship to pass under the bridge. The North Shore industrial terminal is on our left and Stanley Park is on our right as the ship makes its way through Burrard Inlet to the Cruise Ship Terminal at Canada Place in Vancouver harbour, arriving right on time at 7AM.
Time lapse video of the Nieuw Amsterdam passing under Lion’s Gate bridge, entering Vancouver harbour
I grab my last cappuccino from my favourite barista and head back down to my stateroom on deck 5, where I’m facing the dock at Canada Place. My preordered breakfast arrives at 7:30AM, right on time – my last lox, cream cheese and bagel for breakfast while aboard the ship. My debarkation time slot is second to last, so I have lots of time to relax and let everyone leave the ship. No doubt some are in a hurry to get to flights home and other onward travels. When my turn comes to leave the ship for the last time, my keycard is scanned by ship’s security, and I’m soon in the Canada Place terminal with throngs of other travellers.
It is actually pretty well organized, with lots of staff to point everyone in the right direction, and keep people moving. The Canada Border Services officers are waving everyone through, taking our customs declaration forms, but they don’t want to see passports, vaccination cards, or our bags. Perhaps this is the benefit of everyone onboard having previously entered the required personal information into the ArriveCan app. I’m soon directed to a line to wait for the bus that transfers us to Vancouver Airport. A half hour later I’m dropped off with my bag at Domestic Departures, and walk a bit further to the free South Terminal shuttle, which soon arrives, taking me on a 20-minute drive out the main terminal area and back into the south terminal area.
The south terminal used to be Vancouver’s main airport, which I can remember taking flights from when I was a kid in the 1960s. Now, it is home to Pacific Coastal Airways and other small airlines serving people travelling to small BC destinations. I arrive at 11AM, but my flight doesn’t leave until 6:30PM, so I have the whole afternoon to kill before I fly home. I surf the Internet for awhile, but I’m soon bored, so I have a plate of fries at the Galiano Cafe for lunch.
I’m looking at a lot more waiting time before my flight, so I go outside and soon discover a plane spotting platform on the north side of the terminal. It has a great view of the executive jet facilities next door, and the main, southern east-west runway, which is being used for takeoffs this afternoon. Plane spotting using my long 100-500 lens keeps me busy for a couple of hours. I spot a couple of executive jets landing or taking off, an Air France flight taking off for Paris, a Japan Airways flight destined for Narita, along with the usual traffic. Vancouver YVR is a very busy airport.
I clear security and wait for my flight in the only secure boarding lounge in the South Terminal. My flight to Victoria aboard Pacific Coastal Airways takes off a few minutes early, since everyone has checked in and are onboard. The flight takes about 20 minutes, and os clear enough for me to take a few photos out the window with my iPhone as we fly over Georgia Strait and the southern Gulf Islands before arriving at Victoria Airport at 6:30PM. We retrieve my bag and drive home, where my Jack Russell Terriers are waiting to give me a frenzied welcome.
The ship arrives in Juneau at 8AM and my floatplane excursion doesn’t leave until Noon, so I have plenty of time to have breakfast and look around the city. Juneau is the state capital of Alaska, so in addition to tourism, the city has the government and some industry to base their economy on. There are nice plazas, a developed waterfront, the shops are plentiful and appear to be prospering. Before returning to the ship, I check out where Wings Airways dispatches their seaplanes from, which is only a 5-minute walk from where the ship is docked.
Five Glacier Seaplane Exploration
The pilot selects me to sit in the co-pilot’s seat, so that’s a real bonus, allowing me to see out the front of the aircraft as well as having a side window. We soar over the lush wilderness of the Tongass National Forest, catching our first glimpse of five distinctly different and majestic glaciers making up a section of the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Ice Field. We fly over the deep crevasses and azure blue meltwater pools of the Norris, Hole-In-The-Wall, East and West Twin Glaciers and lake, plus the impressive five-mile-wide Taku Glacier. Of the 36 named glaciers comprising the Juneau Ice Field, the Taku Glacier is the largest. The Annex Creek power station is visible as we fly along the Taku Inlet. There is a verdant valley between the foot of Norris and Taku glaciers and Taku Inlet.
We end the flight by overflying the harbour and city before landing on a southerly heading, returning to the dock. I buy a souvenir t-shirt and ball cap combo from the seaplane office before returning to the ship. I have lots of photos and video taken with my iPhone 13 Pro on this spectacular flight in clear and sunny weather – well worth the expense for this excursion.
I have a pizza and a beer from NY Pizza aboard the ship, sitting in the shade beside the Sea View pool on the stern, overlooking the city and harbour. It’s a lovely warm and sunny day. In fact, Juneau breaks a record today set back in 1946 for the hottest day: 28ºC (82ºF). Our Belgian cruise director complains about getting a bit of a sunburn today!
Since I have the drinks package, I’m making a point of ordering cappuccino and alcoholic drinks anytime I want one. Today I had two cappuccinos with breakfast, the beer with lunch. I also have another cappuccino in the late afternoon at the Explorations Cafe, where Maria, the young barista thanks me for leaving a complimentary comment using the Navigator app a couple of days ago.
I skip dinner or even a snack this evening, since the personal-sized pizza I had this afternoon was 6 slices, which filled me up. I attend the 7pm Step One Dance Company Presents: Humanity and send a comment through Navigator app: “This is my first MainStage show viewed on this voyage, which I thoroughly enjoyed! Please pass on my congratulations to the performers. I know it must be tough to play to a mostly empty house, but their enthusiasm and professionalism shone through.”
I spot my first small Humpback whale at 9:30PM this evening from my verandah as we pass through Frederick Sound. The ship is making 20 knots to Ketchikan, so there is only time to grab binoculars, not my camera.
I wake up around 7:30AM, and then go down to the restaurant for breakfast. I have regular coffee and a seafood frittata, which costs $35. I go for a walk along the same path as I used last night – it feels good to walk the 1 km loop, and get some fresh air this morning. When I return to my room, I pack my things and sit around for awhile before rolling my bag downstairs to check out. I will be wearing my mask all day, which I’m not used to when I’m at home.
I walk the full length of the airport to the Air North gate, but I’m too early for the afternoon flight, so there are no gate agents yet. The Holland America check-in lane is marked, so I find a seat and watch the people entering the security lines. Once the Air North agents arrive, I check in and get my boarding passes for the two flights: Vancouver-Whitehorse and Whitehorse-Dawson City. The security process is relatively painless, and the procedures are exactly the same as pre-pandemic. I find my gate and settle in to wait for the flight. The notice board says the flight is delayed an hour, now departing at 2:30PM, so we’ll see how our connecting flight to Dawson City works out.
There is an incident as we board the aircraft, where a young male passenger refuses to wear a mask and eventually leaves the aircraft. The captain announces they will be starting engine 1 using the power cart, and then starting engine 2 from engine 1 after push away, which takes a bit longer. We take off from Vancouver at 2PM, so the flight isn’t seriously delayed. I’m stuck in an aisle seat, since I didn’t have a choice of seats when I checked in, so other than taking a couple of zoomed in photos through the window across two seats from me, I don’t get to peer out the window like I usually do on flights.
Our Holland America Tour Director Cassandra Joy is waiting for us in Whitehorse airport. She gives us name tags on lanyards to help her remember our names, and she also hands out some information sheets covering the Dawson City portion of our tour. I chat with a few of our group, since this is the first time we’ve gathered together. Our chartered flight aboard an Air North 737-400 Whitehorse to Dawson City is delayed a bit, but eventually we are lead through a “gate” to board the aircraft waiting for us on the apron. There is an actual wire fence gate we are checked through outside, just like the old days! There are 16 of us, so the Boeing 737-500 cabin is nearly empty. Our route follows the Klondike River as the 45-minute flight takes us over the Tombstone Mountains.
Diamond Tooth Gertie
Once we arrive in Dawson City and get settled into our rooms at the Westmark Inn, I join our Tour Director and two other people from the group to see the dancing girl Can Can show at Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling hall and saloon. We have a slice of pizza and a beer, since we will otherwise miss dinner. The show is quite good, but costs a $20 entrance fee per person. There is also a small casino in addition to the stage show and bar. Two RCMP officers walk through the establishment while we are paying our admission and showing ID.
After I return to my room, I settle in for the night. The Wi-fi is too weak from my room, since I’m across the street from the router, so I make use of my mobile LTE service, hot-spotting to my notebook computer. At midnight, I go outside to take a photo of the hotel at midnight, since the sky is still bright blue – the midnight sun at Dawson City, located at 64° North latitude.
I finalize packing this morning, since I leave this afternoon on a 1:05PM flight to Vancouver – the first leg of my Alaska Cruise with Holland America.
We leave for Victoria airport at 10AM, which is incredibly early, but I want to check in and navigate security without having to stress about the new procedures. The Pacific Coastal Airways agent tells me I have about a half hour before the security area will be very busy, so I proceed directly there. It is all very easy – all I need is my boarding pass QR code, my passport, and my federal COVID-19 Proof of Vaccination QR code. I have a couple of hours to kill, but after a few flights depart, my aircraft arrives and the flight is announced. We take off 5 minutes early at 1:00pm in a Pacific Coastal Airways Beechcraft 1900D (10 rows of 2 seats). Chad is our pilot, Tyrone is our copilot, there is no flight attendant, and there are about a half dozen passengers aboard the flight. Once we arrive at the South Terminal of Vancouver Airport, three of us collect our checked bags and then take a shuttle to the main terminal. I walk back to the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel, which is right inside the terminal at the east end and check-in.
Joe having a martini with lunch in the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel bar overlooking the gates and mountains
Once I unpack a few things, I go downstairs to the bar for some lunch. There are seats right beside the windows that look out on the gates and aircraft aprons, with the North Shore mountains and the City of Vancouver visible in the distance. My lunch is rather expensive ($60 with tip), but I don’t care since I am hungry and I have a martini to celebrate my first time travelling in over two years. When I return to my room, I freshen up and have a nap. After waking up, I go for a walk through the pocket park, which is just east of the hotel, located between the main road approach to the terminal (Grant McConachie Way) and the servicing areas for the aircraft. The Canada Line Skytrain runs overhead, but it’s good to get outside for some exercise – the fresh air smells good believe it or not!
My room faces south over the southern 08/26 east-west runway with the South Terminal visible in the distance. The main road approach to the airport is directly below and the Skytrain is there as well. Despite all this, my room is quiet and very comfortable. Since I had a late lunch, I don’t bother with dinner.
By mid-morning, we are called to leave the Rotterdam, so we put on our face masks and gloves before leaving the ship. US customs and immigration wave us through, as does US Health, since ship’s staff pre-processed the required paperwork the previous day. As we board our buses, many of the staff in the terminal wish us well, and one woman is waving a Canadian flag – very touching and much appreciated! We wait in the buses for about an hour, and then the Broward County Sheriff officers on their Harleys escort us on a half-hour motorcade to a private area of the Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood airport (FLL). I must say that despite the circumstances, it’s a very impressive ride!
We are then checked in by US officials and airline staff, and walk aboard the aircraft to find our seats and get settled. We wait for over two hours while the rest of the passengers board the aircraft. The Eastern cabin attendants are fully-suited up (see banner image above) and only offer basic services. The 1978-era Boeing 767-300 charter aircraft is a wide-body cabin with 2-3-2 seats across two isles, and has a capacity of 375 passengers with every seat taken. Once we take off for Toronto, we have several hours to get into the bagged meal given to us as we boarded.
Flight path from FLL – YYZ – YVR – YYJ
Canada
After our arrival in Toronto, we are processed by Canadian Border Services and Public Health Canada, given a kit describing the quarantine conditions we will be operating under for the next two weeks, a digital oral thermometer and a new mask. They take my temperature, ask me some health questions, and get me to dispose of the mask and gloves I’ve been wearing all day on the aircraft. I’m on my way to Terminal 1 and my domestic flights from Toronto to Vancouver, and then Victoria. I barely make it aboard the Toronto-Vancouver flight, since the shuttle driver doesn’t know where she is supposed to take us, and once we arrive at the terminal, the Air Canada staff are confused about how to get us to the gate!
The flight to Vancouver is otherwise uneventful. Once we make the short hop from Vancouver to Victoria, my travel buddy and I drive (independently) to our respective homes, adhering to the Canadian quarantine rules we are now bound by for the next two weeks. Air Canada manages to lose my checked bag, but the baggage claim clerk takes a description of my bag and assures me they will deliver it tomorrow afternoon (which they do).
It’s a huge relief to finally be home with my family, as we ride out this pandemic together!
The captain announces this morning that Chile has closed its ports to incoming cruise ship traffic due to the just-declared global pandemic (COVID-19), so we are at anchor in Punta Arenas awaiting further information. He made the decision to return to Punta Arenas and end the cruise here, since there are good transportation options for passengers to return home. We shall see how that plays out…I must confess, I’m worried that it has come to this.
Noon – The captain is working with Chilean authorities and he detects some movement with his requests to dock and to disembark passengers here, but he has nothing to formally announce yet. He assures us he will keep us informed.
I go for lunch to the main dining room where I have seafood poutine. This is a first for me, since despite being Canadian, I have never eaten poutine before. It is good, but there is no gravy on the fries. We spot a small whale beside the ship as my table of six eat our lunch.
I’m certainly depressed about this whole scenario. We are less than a mile from shore. The bridge is having to use thrusters to keep the ship from dragging anchor due to the strong winds and currents. When we were docked yesterday, special bracing lines were being used!
Chilean navy ship between the Zaandam and the Punta Arenas dock
We receive an official letter today from Holland America’s President Orlando Ashford, which offers a choice of refunds and/or credits for the cruise. After receiving this letter, I book flights leaving March 18th from Punta Arenas to Santiago, where we will spend three nights before flying Aeromexico on the 21st through Mexico City and Vancouver, arriving in Victoria on WestJet on the 22nd. Everything is confirmed, so now we just have to get off the ship by Wednesday afternoon. Apparently, Holland America will shuttle us to the airport.
Clouds off the coast of Peru lit by the setting Moon
Neither my friend nor I sleep much on this long 9.5-hour flight…just half hour naps once in awhile. I admire the Moon setting over the Pacific Ocean as we approach Lima. The light from the Moon illuminates the clouds below us – very pretty. Later, with a darker sky once the Moon has set, I observe the Southern Milky Way.
United flight path from Houston to Buenos Aires
The sun rises as we fly off the coast of Chile, so I can see the thick cloud cover below us. The aircraft has travelled down the coast on a southerly route, but makes a turn to head southeast to Buenos Aires two hours before our arrival. When the heading changes just north of Coquimbo, Chile, we lose our 50 mph tailwind and pickup a 15 mph headwind increasing to 25 mph, which explains why we were flying this heading down the west coast of South America.
We cross over the Andes Mountains and then the Pampas as we approach Buenos Aires. The headwind picks up to 58 mph as we get closer to the airport. Buenos Aires airport is quite large, and our 777 is given the second-to-last gate, so we have quite a hike to get to the immigration hall, where there are well over a thousand people waiting to be processed. We manage to pick a just-formed line, and get through in under a half hour, claim our checked bags, and clear customs. The Holland America reps are waiting for us in their orange shirts to take our checked bags from us, and we board a bus which transfers us to the dock area.
The cruise check-in process is a bit convoluted, since we now have to clear Argentinian immigration again, fill in a health questionnaire about the coronavirus, before being processed by Holland America. We obtain our key cards for the ship, and give our passports to Holland America for safekeeping and so they can clear us at each port-of-call.
Once we go aboard and find our stateroom, we get cleaned up a bit and go for lunch in the Lido. By the time we return to our stateroom, our checked bags are waiting for us. I call home to let my family know I’ve arrived without a problem and I’m aboard the ship. Later, we have dinner in the Main Dining Room. My friend has a pork rib entree that looks great and I have very tasty Flat Iron Steak with grilled onions, and a cappuccino for dessert.
We are both obviously very, very tired after our 22-hour marathon travel session, so a good sleep is welcome! Tomorrow, we get to explore Buenos Aires before our departure.
I’m up before 7am, and have a quick breakfast before the Current Taxi arrives at 7:30am to take me to the airport in a Tesla Model 3. My travel buddy arrives an hour later, and we check-in at the Air Canada counter, give them our big bags, and get our boarding passes. They don’t charge for our checked bags, since this is an international flight. Thankfully, I have time in the waiting lounge for a cappuccino from Spinnakers On the Fly.
Our Air Canada Bombardier Q400 prop plane to Vancouver leaves on time, spends five minutes waiting at the stop line, but arrives on time. We make the long trek across the Vancouver airport from the domestic terminal to the USA pre-clearance area, which is not at all busy and a breeze to get through compared to the last time I went through this area. There were no questions about health at the kiosks and the immigration agent didn’t care either. I guess we would have had a more careful inspection if our passports were from the countries currently affected by the coronavirus.
Vancouver airport and the city as we head south
Once we find our gate, we go to a restaurant in the boarding lounge area to have some lunch. We both notice that it is much quieter than the usual expected chaotic crowds. By the time we finish our meal our aircraft is loading, so we walk on board and get settled in our seats. We take-off on time at 12:15pm, flying over Georgia Strait before heading south to Denver, our first stop on United Airlines flight 1184. The flight deck tells us our flying time should be 2:15 instead of 2:50 on this Airbus A319.
Despite being the same flight number, we change planes in Denver, flying in a Boeing 737-900 to Houston. Midway through the flight, the captain reduces flying altitude from 35,000’ to 26,000’ to avoid some rough air over Texas between Dallas and Houston. The Gibbous Moon is visible in the east both before we land in Denver (see laminar clouds and the Moon in the banner image above) and again after we take off for Houston as night falls. The flight crew estimate we will arrive about 10 minutes early, which I’m always happy about.
My flight from Toronto lands in Calgary a few minutes late at 1:00AM local time, but no biggie since my flight to Victoria doesn’t leave until 7:00AM. There are seemingly endless passageways to get from the gate to the terminal building, and there are no staff around to direct us. Once in the terminal, there are precious few signs to help us find our way. The airport is going through a major expansion, but they need to do better.
A YYC LINK electric tram pulls up and the driver offers to take me to the domestic terminal, which is where I need to be for my next flight. After being dropped off in Terminal A and before I find my gate, I spot an A&W which is open at this late hour, so I stop to have one of their new Beyond Meat Burgers, fries and a root beer. It has been 12 hours since I’ve eaten a real meal, so I find the veggie burger quite tasty!
I walk further down the virtually empty terminal and easily find my gate, where I flop down for a couple of hours’ sleep. Of course I’m exhausted, but by 5AM the Starbucks adjacent to the gate opens, so I have a Tall Cappuccino, which perks me up a bit. By 5:30AM passengers and staff start showing up at the gates, and some early flights are being announced.
The flight to Victoria leaves a few minutes ahead of time, with flight time estimated to be about an hour. I take some nice shots out the window of downtown Calgary and the Bow River at night. The onboard WestJet Connect Internet is working, so I can keep myself busy on this short flight home.
We start our descent into Victoria 125 miles out as the First Officer announces landing at 7:25AM local time in Victoria. We arrive at Victoria airport 17 minutes ahead of time in pouring rain and some gusty wind. I take a taxi home instead of the shuttle, since the weather is so bad.
