I’ve never had any interest in cruise ships. I mean, they are incredible feats of engineering, but the fact that the largest one out there can carry upwards of 7500 guests and 2500 crew is a horrifying concept to me on so many levels. Even half that is unappealing. And then there is the environmental factor that bothers me about them…..not to mention the social and cultural impacts on smaller communities.
Yes, they bring money in, but at what cost? And money to who, and for what? The cruise lines push their passengers into tourist traps filled with gaudy jewellery shops, small stores filled with ticky-tacky trinkets made overseas, and t-shirt shops filled with poor quality clothing. The locally made wares are in the back somewhere, not on the suggested shopping routes put forward by the cruise companies.
Vancouver and Seattle can absorb the massive and sudden plug of tourists that are disgorged into the city and onto excursion buses, the ships themselves barely register against the skyline.
But in the smaller communities, when the ship arrives it can loom over the community like some hulking monster and the short-term population swells to overload the few streets.
I don’t like crowds, or lines, or being told one has to pay an extra fee to avoid them, or being held captive on a boat that dictates my schedule and restricts my ability to explore the way I want to.
So yeah, cruises have never held any interest for me.
There are two exceptions to that though.
#1. A cruise to Alaska – because I love the Pacific Northwest and from the water is always an excellent way to see it
#2. Small cruise liners (specifically, pocket cruise ships that carry 100 or so people)
The end of September brings some rate reductions, and Kirk had a big birthday looming, so we combined the two and decided to go for it. Kirk called a Holland American agent and made it clear that he wanted the smallest of the ships they had that cruises the Alaska route, and he landed on the ms Zaandam. About 1500 passengers, and about 250-300 crew. Still a LOT for my taste, but I was willing to give it a go. I had just come off two weeks of vacation time that was used up with my canning and preserving, then drove to Bella Coola and back over two weekends. Two days back in the office, and then off north into the “Pacific Northwest”.
Being around a LOT of people was going to be weird; I’d just spent a week working in a small community and I was heading onto a ship that could house the entire population of the Bella Coola Valley.
We headed for the terminal at around 11:30am and got our luggage checked in before winding our way through the check in and security process, where we had a little hiccup. Kirk had input all of our documentation information on the website, and he’d used our Nexus passes as our proof of citizenship. We took our passports along, and when the fellow at the kiosk asked for our passports, we handed them to him, asking if Nexus would be easier. He’d said no. But our identification brought up an error at the kiosk and we were directed to a slow line. When we finally got to the front, the woman smiled and said what I’d figured she was going to say….but she said it in a funnier way. “You have two perfectly good pieces of identification, and when the fellow back there asked to see your passports, you did as you were asked…. Unfortunately, because you put your Nexus passes into the system, and he didn’t ask for that, you didn’t offer it, so here we are and I have to visually look at your ID.” Then it was through US Customs and then finally heading to the gangway and onto the ship, where we headed for the outside decks to explore before the ship got underway at 3pm. I love that the roof over the pool deck slides closed, making it useable in the inclement weather that would surely show up eventually.
And what a day for a departure! This is September and we were under no allusions about the impending weather. We knew we’d be getting wet; Ketchikan is one of the wettest places in the USA, if not North America. The one article of clothing I did not bring was shorts.
I could have used them that first day.
While we were waiting for the ship to leave I was looking aft towards the office building I’ve worked from for the past ten-plus years…..and received a text from a colleague who was there for a meeting I was missing. I took a photo of the peek-a-boo view of the government building behind the Marine building, she sent me a photo of the peek-a-boo view of the ship we were standing on the aft of.
Three-o’clock rolled around, and we pushed off.
And the city said farewell in style, with a pair of orcas swimming off Brockton Point, a blazing sun in a fabulous blue sky, float planes and the Harbour Patrol leaving along with us as we passed under the Lions Gate Bridge, and the Hullo passenger ferry coming into Burrard inlet.
There were drinks, there was celebration, there was dancing. We just enjoyed the sunshine and the heat it brought, and had a glass of champagne as we watched Vancouver slide into the background.
We wandered below decks to find our room, which was comfortable and had a surprising amount of storage as well as a nice verandah to sit on and watch the coastline slip by. The hallway was long and felt weirdly like being in a hall of mirriors.
I was amused by the rug in the elevator….though as the week went on I saw some purpose to it…..
We surveyed the various drinking locations, and picked the Crow’s Nest on the bow from which to watch the sunset before heading to our cabin, where we leaned on the rail of our verandah until Campbell River slid past in the darkness; I could make out the hotel I typically stay at, and the Quadra island ferry, and then Painter’s Lodge… and after that the coast held fewer lights and we called it a day.
…and I have soooo many more photos to review and process so stay tuned for the rest of the week….