She Wants To Be A Ship When She Grows Up – Day 3

We had set our alarm for 7:30. I was awake a few minutes before then. I noticed that I had a lot of WhatsApp messages. I rarely use WhatsApp and was kind of surprised by this. It turned out they were from the owner of the guesthouse we were staying at in Vancouver providing the access code for our room and some instructions how to find our room.

When the alarm went off, we got up. We took turns having a shower and put the few odds and ends that we had unpacked back in the hand luggage. Then we went downstairs to check out. About 10 minutes later, we were at the business class check in. It definitely has advantages having some status with an airline. There was one person in front of us and we were checked in very quickly.

We got equally lucky at security. As we approached the end of the line, they opened a new line, and we had a minimal wait. Better still, neither of us set off the scanner and none of our stuff took a detour. We headed upstairs where the restaurants are. Graham thought that there was a Giraffe in the departure lounge, but at Gatwick, this is before security. Graham found a seat while I went to study some menus. The menu that appealed most to me was a place called Wondertree. I went to get Graham and we went for some breakfast. We both had some orange juice. Graham had an Americano, and I had a Flat White. Graham had the big English breakfast with sausages, bacon, fried eggs, tomato, mushrooms, baked beans and a side of toast. I had the Mexican fried eggs, which consisted of a tortilla topped with melted cheese, black beans, fried eggs, chorizo, cherry tomatoes and avocado. This was amazing.

Once we had finished breakfast, I stopped by Boots to pick up some ibuprofen and water. My left knee had been playing up for about a week. I figured that this may give me some trouble in flight.  I decided to pre-empt this by taking some ibuprofen once we were at our gate waiting to board.

 I was hoping to see our A380 which was due out at 10:05. However, by the time we got to a satellite lounge where we had a view, the plane had gone. It had actually left 15 minutes early. Still, there were plenty of seats there. It was still a little early for our flight to be listed. When the gate was listed, it was just around the corner. We went over and had our boarding pass scanned. I noticed that they were offering upgrades to business class for £75. Unfortunately, my mobile was slow to connect and once the page had finally loaded, the upgrades were gone. I took some ibuprofen and soon it was time to board. Having priority boarding has its advantages. Not only did we have time to settle in without disturbing anybody, but we had no trouble finding space for our hand luggage.

I had hoped that the seat next to us would remain free. However, just before boarding was complete, we got company.  When we were nearly at cruising altitude, a member of cabin crew came over and offered our neighbour a different seat. She moved as soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off. We had 3 seats to ourselves, and I got a window seat.

I started off playing some games. They had 2048, which I found rather addictive on our flight to Los Angeles. The idea is to merge tiles with the same value until you reach 2048. I found that I did not have the patience for this this time round. I played a round of Monopoly. Initially I did pretty well, but I landed on the wrong property, and this wiped me out.

I decided to watch Barbie. I did enjoy it, but I am glad that I did not spend any money on seeing it at the cinema. Early on in the film, they did a drink’s service. I had a gin and tonic and Graham had a Sauvignon Blanc. 

About two hours into the flight, lunch was served. There was a starter that neither of us could figure out what it was. Graham tried some of it and did not like it. I did not bother. The rest of lunch was nice. Graham had vegetable moussaka and I had cottage pie. There was also a bread roll and cheese and crackers. Desert was a raspberry chocolate mousse. As Graham can’t have chocolate, I ended up with two.

After the movie had finished, I played a couple of rounds of Trivial Pursuit. The computer won the first and I won the second. Around that time, we flew over Greenland. The sky was completely clear, and the views were stunning. I had another go at playing Monopoly and this time I won.

I had chosen three films that I wanted to watch. I started to watch the remake of Mean Girls when my entertainment system rebooted. It came back up and I was able to restart the film and then suddenly the sound turned itself all the way down and the screen froze. I tried my hardest to carry on watching, but I missed a lot as I struggled to hear.

Once the film was over, I worked on the trip report and then I read for a while. I started to feel cold and huddled underneath the blanket. I must have fallen asleep as when I looked at the map, we had about 90 minutes left. I worked on the trip report a little longer.

With just over an hour to go, they came round with a snack. I had a sweet pepper chicken pastry and some orange juice. Graham passed. It was tasty, but I did not notice any presence of chicken. We got another pretty view while I had my snack.

We landed slightly ahead of schedule. When we were allowed to use our mobiles, I checked my emails. There was an email from Royal Caribbean stating that repairs were being carried out on Radiance and we would get a further update by 2nd May, which was the day before were due to get on the ship.

I was seriously impressed with how things were handled at Vancouver airport. From stepping out of the aircraft to ordering an Uber took 30 minutes and that included a bathroom stop. I had filled out the customs declaration via the Arrive Can app on Friday evening. They have a large number of self-servicekiosks where you just scan your passport, they take a photo and then you certify that the information you provided is correct. This prints out a receipt. You then go to a desk where they check that you have a receipt. This took a matter of seconds. We proceeded straight to the baggage hall. Graham spotted my suitcase straightaway and his was not far behind. As we were exiting the baggage hall, they collected the receipts. This really could not have been any easier or smoother.

Vancouver airport services are pretty well signposted,and we had no issues finding the pick-up area for ride share services. I ordered an Uber, and it arrived two minutes later. It took about 30 minutes to get to Imperial House. The instructions we received were spot on. We took our stuff to our room and then we headed out again. On the way out, we met our host Aviva. We chatted with her for a bit and then we went to catch the Skytrain into Vancouver. We took a slightly detour getting to the station , but it was nice to just stretch our legs.

When we got to the platform, a train was just leaving, but the next one was two minutes behind. We took the train to the terminus station of the line, which is Waterfront. This is the stop for Canada Place. One of my favourite ships, Quantum of the Seas, was docked there that day. I wanted to see her. We actually caught our first glimpse of her very soon. There is a walkway alongside the cruise terminal, and this is where we were headed. As soon as we got there, we got a very up close and personal view of our latest ship friend, Radiance of the Seas. I think for both of us, it was love at first sight. There was a lot of activity around the ship and a fuel barge was just leaving. We decided that before we walk further to get a better look at Quantum, we would head for the float plane terminal, which is close to the cruise port.

We had tried to book an excursion from the UK that included a 20-minute panoramic flight on a float plane as well as a round-trip shuttle and admission to Capilano suspension bridge. We had visited Capilano in 2013 and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, our bank blocked an attempt to authorise our card. Graham had an unauthorized charge on this card not long ago and they replaced his card. I wonder if they got suspicious as the airline tried to debit the card for one Canadian Dollar. The company was wonderful to deal with. We agreed that we would contact them once we were in Vancouver, and they would try to fit us in. Well, they had no trouble doing just that. They offered us a flight for that day, but I had enough of flying for one day. We instead booked a first departure for the following day.

With this taken care off, we headed back in the general direction of the cruise terminal. I was trying to get a photo of Radiance from that walkway when suddenly she started blowing her horn. Graham told me that she was leaving. We hung around and watched her go. I got a nice photo in the process. Better still, from where we were standing, it looked both azipods were working.

Once we had seen Radiance off, we headed back on the walkway around the cruise terminal and said “hi” to Quantum. By then we both were ready for some food. There was nothing that tempted us in the vicinity and we decided to head back to Burnaby and check out the food court of the shopping centre right by the local Skytrain station for our hotel. I took a quick photo of the stern of Quantum and then we headed back to Waterfront station. Again, we just missed a train, but the next one was straight behind.

When we arrived at the other end, we headed straight to the shopping centre. Once there, we took the direct route to the food court. We walked straight past Bath and Body Works, but I was not even tempted. We did find an outlet called Bourbon Street Grill as soon as we entered the food court. This kind of reminded me of Panda Express. Graham went to find a seat and told me that he would have what I have. I got two combos with fried rice, courgettes and mushrooms plus bourbon chicken. This was delicious. I got some iced tea for Graham and a Coke for me.

When we had finished dinner, Graham found the most direct route back to Imperial House. We got ready for bed. I went online to post my photo of the day and noticed that I had a lot of notifications. People were excited as they had an email stating that the repairs on Radiance had been completed. Sure enough, we had that email, too. All that excitement had given me a second wind. I read for a bit, but soon I was ready for some sleep, too.