Circle Hawaii Cruise 2024

    We were awake before Cat left for work just after 7:30 a.m. She had made extra coffee for us which we enjoyed before walking to breakfast at the Breka Bakery & Café on Denman Street close to Stanley Park. The 2 km walk along Comox Street, which is treed and has older three and four storey apartment buildings and 120 year old houses, and then Denman Street was quiet.       We approached Stanley Park from Alberni Street to Lost Lagoon. We followed the path west around the western end of Lost Lagoon onto the Rawlings Trail, which runs parallel to Park Drive until near Prospect Point. At Ferguson Point we could see the cargo ships anchored in English Bay. We checked the posted park map and chatted with a park maintenance worker, who went to his truck and gave us a map of the park. It was helpful to find the other side of the Seawall Walk. The Teahouse is located here, it didn’t open for another hour. We went down to the Seawall Walk at Third Beach, but only...

     The ship docked in Vancouver just before 7 a.m. Alex, the cruise and travel director, announced shortly after 7:30 a.m. that Koningsdam was cleared to disembark passengers. The first group to leave were those taking their luggage with them and not needing any assistance. We were allocated between 8:25 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. (Black 3). Others not having the four or five star Mariner were assigned time after 8:30 a.m. at ten minute intervals. This procedure allowed the 4,000+ pieces of passenger luggage to be off loaded from the ship into the terminal and put into groups of 200 or so. You just needed to find you numbered coloured coded section.    It was raining when we looked out the window and continued for most of the morning. The temperature was 9°C but there was very little wind.     We went to the dining room for breakfast after 8:00 a.m. and sat with two women from Vancouver. We were not in any hurry and had until 9:30 a.m. to leave the ship. We ...

     It was our final Sea Day. Tomorrow morning the ship docks in Vancouver. It was a gloomy morning with rain, wind and four meter high waves. The temperature at 8 a.m. was 12°C.    The clocks were advanced forward one hour overnight. We are now the same time as Vancouver. We talked to Handa and Anto, our room stewards, to personally give them a small tip today, rather than leaving on our desk in the morning. We had breakfast at the Grand Dutch Café since the dining room today didn’t open until 9 a.m. to prepare for the four hour long Hawaii Brunch. The menu wasn’t inspiring so we decided to skip it. Suzanne & Graham went and said they enjoyed the Hawaiian plate - macaroni salad, grilled teriyaki chicken, Korean beef short ribs and sticky rice.     There was a 9 a.m. lecture in the World Stage. Dr. Robert Hilt presented Chasing The Moon’s Shadow about Solar Eclipses with emphasis on cruises that Dr. Hilt has taken to get to an area of total eclip...

     There are just two more sea days until Koningsdam docks in Vancouver. This morning the sun was bright when the curtains were opened. There were just a few thin clouds in the sky. The temperature was a cooler 16°C, the waves were about two to three meters but only an occasional whitecap. Later in the day the waves were higher and the wind was stronger.     Rather than having Sunday brunch this week, Monday is scheduled for a Hawaiian theme brunch in the main dining room on Deck 2. We tried the New York Deli & Pizza on Deck 10 for their breakfast. The breakfast bagel with a fried egg, ham, American cheese and lettuce was quite good. To our surprise when we looked down at the pool there were towel creatures hanging from the ceiling, lining the pool’s edge, on the tables and loungers and decorated the floor. It was called Zoordam (there is a ship named Noordam)     The 9 a.m. lecture by Dr. Robert Hitt was about voyages within the Milky Way, our ...