Thanks to our plush beds and blackout curtains, Roy and I woke up feeling much more human than we felt when we collapsed Tuesday night. We wandered the hotel trying to find breakfast and resorted to the hotels’ restaurant, Oru. Our mouths hit the menu when we saw their buffet breakfast was $30 per person! What happened to the $9 omelet like I got at Sawmill last Sunday?! That even came with a drink and a side! We settled on a smaller a la carte breakfast choice that still cost us as much as our dinner from the previous night. After breakfast we packed our bags and the hotel was gracious enough to hold them once we checked out of our room and we hit the streets of Vancouver.
We decided to buy tickets for the Big Bus, a hop on hop off narrated tour of the city. We rode through all of the boroughs such as Yaletown and Chinatown and around Stanley Park. The city still looked the same to me…high-rise, after high-rise, after high rise. Finally, the Big Bus drove through Gastown which looked unique. There were not any high rises and the buildings had character which was a twist compared to the uber modern glass monstrosities around the rest of the city.
Anyway, to snap me out of my cranky city induced mood I grabbed an iced chai latte at Starbucks (my absolute favorite) and headed back to the Fairmont Pacific Rim to get our luggage. We made our way across the street to Canada Place and effortlessly went through security and check in and boarded the Holland America Line Volendam.
Our room was ready upon check in so we were directed to our ocean view stateroom on the Lower Promenade deck. The stateroom was spacious, well, as large as cruise cabin is going to be, it had a large picture window, and a bathroom that you could actually turn around in. Roy and I settled in and then grabbed our cameras and set off to explore the ship. The Volendam has approximately 1400 guests onboard and crew of 600. There are 10 decks, 5 restaurants, 2 pools, a casino, a culinary arts center, a sports court, a fitness center and spa, and a variety of other lounges and bars.
For dinner, we decided against the Rotterdam dining room and we went to the Italian restaurant, Caralleta. The food was wonderful! We went our separate ways after dinner as Roy went to the evening show and I set out for the Greenhouse Spa. The spa was offering an arrival special Top to Toe massage and facial so I reasoned that was a perfect way to begin vacation! The masseuse was very excited to learn that I was from North Carolina because Michael Jordan is his hero. When I told him that I was from Jordan’s hometown, he decided that I deserved an added bonus for my massage and he used hot stones. He made me promise not to tell anyone, but I don’t think he has to worry about that since I can barely remember his name, much less pronounce it!
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