We had a good time on our cruise. We weren't sure if we would enjoy a long cruise, but we enjoyed the experience of a one day cruise and here is a picture of the Golden Princess and you can check it out at
http://www.princess.com/learn/ships/np/index.html
Here is a diagram of our room.
It was a nice day when we arrived in Vancouver BC. The mountains were beautiful above the city.
This is a view of Vancouver from the ship
You can just see the back of another ship that was docked next to us.
This is a view taken from the ship looking towards the Port of Vancouver.
In Vancouver BC there were lots of things to see.
Float planes were very active with many coming and going because many of the areas on the inland passage are only accessible by plane or boat.
This is a view from our deck looking towards the front of the ship. Each of the partitions is a room and the section sticking out near the front is the control areas of the ship.
This is Marsha playing a 9 hole mini golf game.
One of the things we did a lot of was eating. There was a buffet that was open most of the time, two main large dining halls and three specialty restaurants. The specialty restaurants had added charges but all the others were included in the price of the cruise. Plus there were a number of bars, an ice cream parlor (the death by chocolate was delicious), a hamburg-hot dog stand, a pizza parlor and most of it was free except the soft drinks, alcohol, specialty coffees, and ice cream parlor had fees attached.
The buffet had a wide range of items. We enjoyed blueberry cheese blintzes, salmon, roast beef, salads, soups, desserts, etc.
In the dining hall we enjoyed smoked salmon (the salmon was almost like a sushi, very good), shrimp cocktail, spring rolls, and mushroom soup for the appetizers. For the main meal Russ and I had prime rib and baked potato, Marsha had fresh water fish with couscous and asparagus tips. Pam had a puff pastry with lobster & shrimp in it. For dessert we had a strawberry cheesecake, ice cream, and peach cobbler.
The ship had about five swimming pools, about 8 hot tubs, a huge promenade with gift shops and often there were musicians playing and you could get your picture taken.
Outside pool with hot tubs, bar, sun deck, ice cream parlor.
This pool was inside with a cover over it. The designs on the posts and curved walls around the pool are all made out of small tiles approx. 1 inch square.
This is the Promenade area with shops, music, the main desk and some of the restaurants were also in this area.
We arrived in Seattle early Saturday morning and enjoyed a good breakfast before disembarking.
We disembarked the ship in Seattle about 9 am and boarded our bus for home.
The Grand kids loved having the snow right outside the house, a great change from Southern California.
This is a view of Vancouver from the ship
You can just see the back of another ship that was docked next to us.
This is a view taken from the ship looking towards the Port of Vancouver.
Float planes were very active with many coming and going because many of the areas on the inland passage are only accessible by plane or boat.
This is a view from our deck looking towards the front of the ship. Each of the partitions is a room and the section sticking out near the front is the control areas of the ship.
This is Marsha playing a 9 hole mini golf game.
The buffet had a wide range of items. We enjoyed blueberry cheese blintzes, salmon, roast beef, salads, soups, desserts, etc.
In the dining hall we enjoyed smoked salmon (the salmon was almost like a sushi, very good), shrimp cocktail, spring rolls, and mushroom soup for the appetizers. For the main meal Russ and I had prime rib and baked potato, Marsha had fresh water fish with couscous and asparagus tips. Pam had a puff pastry with lobster & shrimp in it. For dessert we had a strawberry cheesecake, ice cream, and peach cobbler.
Outside pool with hot tubs, bar, sun deck, ice cream parlor.
This pool was inside with a cover over it. The designs on the posts and curved walls around the pool are all made out of small tiles approx. 1 inch square.
As some of you may know I like to ride. I have been looking for a new bike for about six months and I really wanted a 2001 Honda Gold Wing or newer. I have searched a four state area of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. I finally found one in Hillsboro, Oregon. It is a 2002 and is in like new condition.
The color is a pearl blue and it appears either blue or purple depending on the lighting. It came with two helmets and the intercom connections so we can talk to each other while we are riding. It also has an adjustment for how it rides. It has 26 settings from a soft cushion ride to a stiff sport bike kind of ride.
It only has 4500 miles on the bike, which is very low mileage for a Gold Wing. I have seen them for sale with over 150,00 miles. It has 7 weather channels you can listen to, AM, FM and a 6 disc CD. It also has cruise control and reverse. Since the bike weights about 850lbs it is very nice to have reverse to get out of parking spaces and move the bike around in tight spaces.
It has two side storage compartments and trunk and a storage rack on top of the trunk. Their is even a keyless lock and unlock and a automatic trunk opener like you have on a car.
It has nice bright lights, automatic turn signals that turn off automatically and there is an adjustment for the head lights you can adjust in varying conditions. The bright lights really light up the road in front of you.
It has an 1800cc six cylinder engine that is very quick to respond and plenty of power to carry driver and passenger over any mountain pass. It comes with a 6.4 gallon gas tank and at 35 mpg in town and 45 mpg on the highway you can go between 225 to 280 miles on a tank
One of the things I was waiting for was to sell my dad's truck and use some of those funds to get a new bike. And a couple weeks ago the truck sold so I became even more serious about getting a Goldwing. I was sure I wanted a bike that was at least a 2001 or newer because they started the 1800cc in 2001.
Getting started on our Tour.
We had a good time on our guided tour. The tour included an all day trip with a guide that took us to two placed to snorkel. Snorkeling was really great. The colors and variety of coral and fish are amazing.
The boat approaching Nan Madol an ancient place built with huge rocks see the link to learn more about it. www.janesoceania.com/.
Mom liked having lunch on a small island in the area we were snorkeling. She dreamed of being on Surviver and being on our own island.
ls. So we had to ask a lot of questions and even some of the local people had no idea.
We visited another beautiful waterfall. Three people were killed visiting this falls during a rain storm because of a flood of water that came down from the mountains.
On the night before we left we visited some missionary friends and celebrated Megan's birthday.
