Hello Seabourne!

I’ve booked an 11-day Alaska cruise, roundtrip from Vancouver, Canada, with Seabourn Cruises. This will be my third time visiting Alaska but my first experience with Seabourn. I'm excited to try something completely new!

The dates are from June 17th - June 28th and looks like the below itinerary except for Haines. 

The ship is the Odyssey which has 229 Suites and has around 500 passengers. It's a beautiful ship, and we heard it was sold to a Japanese company, so she only has a few more sailings before she leaves the fleet. 

It's just a 3-hour flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver. If I were feeling adventurous, I could catch a 6:00 am flight and arrive in Vancouver by 9:00 am, just in time to board the ship. However, I decided to arrive a couple of days early to enjoy a leisurely stay in Vancouver before embarking on the cruise.

Here's how I start:

I fly in to Vancouver and land around 5:00 p.m. My hotel is the Pinnacle Hotel that I found on Hotels.com and is downtown near the Pier Canada Place  just a couple blocks away. 

Pinnacle Hotel Vancouver Canada

I booked on Hotels.com because that was in US currency and I usually book through them. 

I looked into taking a taxi but discovered the Sky Train and how easy it was. When you leave the airport just follow the signs that say "Train". It will take you across the street and you go up the elevator to the 3rd floor. All you have to do is Tap your credit card on the pad and the gate opens for you. However you can't enter 2 people. So I went through and handed my card back to my husband. When he tried to tap it, it said you already used it and wouldn't let him tap it. So he pulled out another card. I did see another couple it did work for, so I guess it was just us. You just tap your credit card on the screen below. 

The trains arrive every 6 minutes and have about 10 or 11 stops to reach the Waterfront station in downtown. The journey is mostly through a tunnel, so next time I’d sit at the front for a better view, as the train is driverless. The last stop is considered 2 zones, and you need to tap your credit card again when passing through the turnstile to indicate the number of zones traveled. At $8.75 per person, it’s much more affordable than an expensive taxi ride.

My hotel was about 4-5 walkable blocks away, which we did. However, next time I’d probably take an Uber to avoid the hassle of carrying our suitcases, as we both had checked luggage and carry-ons. The Hilton Pinnacle was on the left side, and our hotel, the Pinnacle Hotel, was on the right. It's a mid-range hotel—not the most expensive, but not the cheapest either.

Once we checked in and settled in we went to look for a restaurant to eat and had passed one that looked interesting. I think the name was "Fish and Hooks" or something like that. 

                                                                        Fries w/Rosemary                  The Inside restaurant and Tofu Salad w/Grilled avocado. After dinner we stopped by a Gelato cafe and had one Pistachio for my husband, and one Licorice for me.  I know that sounds gross but it wasn't. It was very light flavored and not black.  We walked around a bit and then went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is our "Foodie Tour" 

A couple photos of the view from our Hotel room.