Our stop today is in Victoria, British Columbia, but we won't arrive until 3 pm and will sail away at 10 pm. The Jones Act states that cruise ships that are owned by foreign countries or that have crews that are not American citizens or residents cannot make their way from one U.S. port to another without also visiting a foreign port. Thus, we have today's token stop in Victoria.
We had a relaxing breakfast this morning before heading to the theater. This morning, John Heald is having a "Behind the Scenes" talk where passengers can ask him anything about life on board. It was pretty interesting. There were questions about how to get a job on a cruise ship, how many hours the crew works, how much vacation time they get, how one becomes a captain, and everything in between. John was taking questions from each of the three sections of the theater, and when a young boy, who was sitting in the middle section realized John would not get to his question, he moved to the next section. It probably wouldn't have been very obvious except that he was sitting in the front row with his parents. Of course, John noticed immediately, and he made sure the 10 year old got a chance to ask his question, which was how to become the captain of a cruise ship. Interestingly, all of Carnival's captains are Italian.
We then headed to the photo gallery to look at all of the formal (and informal) pictures that were taken throughout the week. Zach took several opportunities to have his photo taken with the wildlife, and they had a hard time deciding which ones to purchase. Most of the ones of Mom and me went in the "bye-bye box."
As scheduled, we arrived in Victoria around 3pm. We didn't have any excursions planned, so Mom decided to stay on board while the rest of us went exploring.
The bad news is that I forgot my camera when we went ashore. The good news is that there wasn't much worth taking a picture of. Unlike most cruise ports, there were no shops or tourist traps in sight. We walk to the end of the pier to an information booth where we asked for directions to the nearest poutine. If you are not familiar, poutine is a Canadian dish consisting of french fries covered in a brown gravy and cheese curds. If that's not fancy enough for you, some places offer chicken or pulled pork on top. Last summer, Kelley and Zach had visited Toronto on vacation, and they'd tried poutin there and loved it. We were told we could find poutin at Fisherman's Wharf, which was a 15 minute walk from the pier. It turns out that this was a really cute area with floating homes and a few small restaurants. We found poutin at Grilligan's - where buoy meets grill. I wasn't impressed with the poutin, but I'm not a huge fan of gravy of any kind.
 |
| Grilligans |
.jpg) |
| Water Taxi at Fisherman's Wharf |
We really didn't have a plan at this point, so we wandered from the wharf to street level. We were in a fairly residential area, so there really weren't any shops to explore. We realized we were standing near a bus stop, and before long, a city bus came along. It was a scheduled break for the driver, so he parked and got out to stretch. Zach asked him how much it would cost us to take a loop around Victoria to see the sights. The driver told him the route really didn't make a loop, but he would give us a transfer and we could switch buses at one of his outermost stops to come back to the pier. All this for the price of $2.50 each. No, it wasn't narrated, but we got to see quite a bit of the city. The whole trip took just over an hour. Score!
Our final dinner on board was delicious. Mom and I had prime rib, and Kelley got the seafood mac 'n cheese. I'm not sure what Zach had originally ordered, but he was instantly coveting Kelley's dinner. He told Adnan, our headwaiter, that he wanted what she was having, and Adnan came back in a few minutes with two more bowls of mac and cheese. Yep, he ate them. What's a guy to do?
 |
| Seafood Mac 'n Cheese X 3 |
 |
| Tina, Rowel, and Adnan |
We got off to a rocky start with our head waiter because Mom kept calling him Adrian or Adman, instead of Adnan, but he eventually warmed up to us. He was always excited to see Zach. Adnan was from Croatia, and although he didn't mention it until our last day (because he said we didn't ask), he was married with three kids. His assistant was Tina. She was from the Philippines, and she'd actually started her new contract on the Miracle on our first day of the cruise. She was very sweet and soft spoken, and because she'd hadn't ever had a chance to see Alaska, she enjoyed looking at our photos at the end of each day. This will be her last contract with Carnival because she's anxious to get back to her fiance in the Philippines.
The ship was very quiet tonight. Since it was our last night on board, I suspected everyone must be in their cabins trying to pack. It will be interesting trying to get everything back in my own suitcase. Luckily, I purchased only small things.
This was a great trip. We had a lot of laughs. I just wish Kelley had felt better. She did say she might trying cruising again in the future, but only if the length is 5 days or less. It's a start.
Zach's Word of the Day - Ay (in honor of our pit stop in Canada)
9,746 steps
4.38 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment