We enjoyed our second and last day in Vancouver, starting with a nice buffet breakfast in our Hotel, the Hyatt Regency Vancouver.
We tried to sleep in a bit, but as we were now on the West Coast time zone, the 3 hour time change had us waking up earlier than expected. We didn’t head down to breakfast until 10am or so, and even at that late hour we still had a 15 minute wait. There also seemed to be an enormous amount of kids, which seemed unusual since we figured they would be in school. Turns out it was the Labour Day Holiday in Canada, so the hotel was mostly full of tourists, rather than business people. It was also the Labor Day Holiday in the United States, which is spelled Labor vs Labour in the US and Canada respectively. I didn’t realize the holidays were on the same day, as some of the other holidays such as Thanksgiving are celebrated on different days. We further found out that the Disney Cruise Line had a ship leaving later in the day; hence the huge number of kids, but of course!
After breakfast, we walked down to the Canada Place Vancouver Port, but first made a stop at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, which we could see from our room right across the street.
The fancy hotel was very nice inside, but not as grand as I expected from the outdoor building architecture. The street level entrance is actually a shopping gallery of luxury stores such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and others.
We took the ancient-looking elevators up one level to the lobby, and walked around the hotel a bit more, taking interest in many of the historic photos and exhibits on display from yesteryear at the hotel.
I was hoping to find a fancy cocktail lounge for later in the evening, but only a small one just off the main restaurant there. Maybe I overlooked another pub somewhere else in the hotel?
After our quick visit to the Fairmont Hotel, we passed by this beautiful Church right a cross the street from our hotel, and on the next block from the Fairmont. I took a couple photos of this Christ Church Cathedral, and also their Love Rainbow sign, which indicates the ties they have to the gay community and how all people are welcome there, as it should be.
We then walked down to the Canada Place Port area, which besides being a cruise port, it also contains the Pan American Hotel and Convention Center, stunning views from the long and multi level pier areas, shops, cafes, and the Fly Over Canada attraction. The port area was designed to resemble a ship with its huge white sails and lengthy layout.
We ‘rode’ the Fly Over Canada attraction last year, which is similar to the Soarin’ Attraction at EPCOT in Disney World, except with Canadian cities and landmarks. It’s basically a huge Imax theater, and you are seated in one of 3 rows of seats, which lift up during the attraction, and gently sway with the music, simulating an immersive virtual reality experience “hang gliding” over Canada. It really is a cool attraction to do! While we didn’t do the Fly Over Canada attraction again this year, it was nice to browse thru the gift shop there and get a couple photos out front of the entrance. They also have a second theater for Fly over Iceland, however we haven’t seen that one. Fly Over Canada is definitely worth a go if you’ve never done it before.
We walked around the port area for quite a while, admiring the Disney Wonder which was docked on the port side of Canada Place, and later the Norwegian (NCL) Gem, which was docked on the starboard side. We were definitely spot on with the kid observation from breakfast, as it seemed like all of the kids were going on the Disney Wonder, while we didn’t notice any kids going on the NCL Gem.
I took this photo of DOS admiring all of the kids (not!) and their mountains of luggage waiting outside the terminal waiting to board the Disney Wonder. And I thought we packed a lot! The Disney cruise is a shorter 7 day cruise too, while our’s on the Crown Princess is 10 days.
As it was a beautiful day weather-wise, we had lunch across the street from Canada Place in an outdoor seating area from the indoor food court and Tim Horton’s. DOS brought his food out from an Asian take-away restaurant, while I brought my food out from Tim Horton’s, a Canadian icon all across the country.
After lunch we walked about some more and then walked back to the hotel. We were both concerned about my ability to walk any lengthy distance, and especially up hill from Canada Place, and considered taking Uber back to the hotel. I actually did fine, however, and my ankles were ok, and I didn’t get out of breath like I did last year prior to my heart issues in Alaska.
In the evening we met our friends Diane and Murray, who we had met on a Celebrity Panama Canal cruise back in 2015, and had stayed in touch. They like in the Vancouver area, and met us at our hotel for a pre-dinner drink, and then we all went to dinner at The Keg Restaurant, which we went to last year and had really enjoyed it. We had a wonderful and lengthy dinner catching up with our friends and travel adventures.
Diane and Murray filled us in on another couple of their friends who lived 4 hours away (we had also met them together on the same cruise), but were temporarily staying in Oregon as they were evacuated due to the horrendous fires in many parts of British Columbia (BC). They were ok fortunately, but the fires came so close to their home, it was literally at the edge of their property, which they could see on their home security cameras. Firefighters from literally all over the world were assisting with the fires all over BC, and at one point Firefighters were stationed at the friends (Sue and Jerry’s home) fighting the fires. They hope to go home from Oregon, back to BC soon, now that there fires have dissipated there. Thank God and bless the brave Firefighters and others who came from all over the world to assist! We do hope to visit the other friends Sue and Jerry on a future visit to the BC wine region in the Okanagan Valley, as they have invited us previously, but then COVID hit so it hasn’t worked out so far. Anyway, we are so glad their home is safe, and prayers for the others that are still impacted by the fires.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel, and Diane and Murray took the 20 minute train ride back to their home, via the Burrard Station, which was right next for to the Hyatt Regency, which we had passed on our walk home that afternoon from the Canada Place port area.
It was really a wonderful night seeing our friends again, and this time in their home city.
Once bag at the hotel, we packed up our bags so we wouldn’t be rushed in the morning checking out, and also to have plenty of time for breakfast, and soon it was off to sleep.
Next stop in the morning: our 10 night Alaska cruise on the Crown Princess! Good Night!