Today would be a long day at sea. We had already been sailing since 1pm the previous day from Ketchikan and were now off the west coast of Vancouver Island around 300 miles from Victoria. We were sailing along at a brisk clip of around 23 miles per hour on pretty flat seas. The island on our left was barely visible in the low clouds and the Norwegian Jewel was in view about 5 miles ahead of us on our starboard side.
We attended the presentation on what's to see in Victoria given by Lance, the EXC representative. It was a good overview, and we had already booked a walking tour shore excursion. A bit later we were invited to participate in an awards presentation to Mariner guests. I was surprised that it was held in the Ocean Bar and limited to a small group of Mariners who were receiving Bronze and above awards. In the past there has been a large gathering in the Main Stage and then the entire group heads for the Main Dining Room. At that ceremony we received our silver medallions for over 300 cruise days sailed. For us, this has occurred over the relatively short period of 5 years. We were then told to follow a HAL representative down to the dining room for the luncheon which we did. The problem was that there were other Mariners already there for the lunch. When we were led to the head of the line, there was extreme hostility expressed from those guests who were already in line at the door. It was a pretty uncomfortable situation that we were put in. I passed on my observations to both the Hotel Director and the Cruise Director that they need to use a different method to accomplish this merging of the two groups. The meal was quite good and we were seated with another couple from Washington State and we enjoyed our time together.
Because we didn't receive our Mariner wine tasting invitation until after the event occurred earlier in the week, we were invitied to attend one of the regular wine tastings. It also was held in the Ocean Bar after the Mariner lunch. There was an opportunity to sample 6 White and 6 Red wines and rate them. For us, there were some clear winners and clear losers. Angela was selected to model a dress in a fashion show on the Main Stage and and while she did that, I went to the Crow's Nest to watch the sailin into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. During that sailin, we saw a number of whales. There were both orcas and humpbacks. We saw more whales in that 3 hours than we saw the rest of the entire voyage.
Around 6pm we arrived at our berth just after the Norwegian Jewel docked. The Emerald Princess was already docked facing outward while the Jewel and Oosterdam pulled in facing the shore. On the dock in front of us we were surprised by a custom / classic car show. Later per our tour guide it happens every Saturday night. Unfortunately we didn't have time to stop and tour it, but for those who wanted to stay at the port, it would be a nice thing to do there.
We had booked a walking tour of Victoria and we met our guide, Forest, just outside the terminal after being cleared to leave the ship. Our group tour wandered through the waterfront park, an older residential neighborhood, by the childhood and adult homes of Emily Carr, a noted Victoria artist, and through a park the land for which was donated by the Hudson's Bay Company many years ago. Many of the old homes were very well preserved. The tour ended when we arrived at the Empress Hotel. The Empress was elegant as ever and is void of the ivy cover that once covered it. Apparently the ivy was causing structural damage to the building. The Parliament building was well lit as were a number of other buildings. Crowds were out, but it was easy to walk around and we walked up to Chinatown and back doing a little shopping but no buying.
We took a shuttle bus back to the ship around 10pm and started packing (we travel very light, so it was really easy). We even made the 10:30pm buffet and enquired at the front desk as to where our commemorative tiles were as none were passed out at the Mariner luncheon. It turned out that one has to request them. At 11:40pm the Oosterdam pulled away from the terminal into the dark night sky for the short and slow sail overnight to Seattle. Our 6:30am alarm would be the earliest we set for the entire cruise, but we have Expedited Departure at 7:45-8:15am. Would we make that time?
Stay tuned for a final posting of our arrival and disembarkation as well as some final thoughts about the cruise.
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