Arrival in Vancouver and Fly toTokyo

 We seemed to make little progress last night as we are obviously quite close to Vancouver ad the captain is wasting time waiting for our berth to become available. As has been the case a few times this cruise we dock late, I suspect largely because of the number of blocks of flats that seem to get priority and everyone arrives within a pretty tight window of arrival times. 


A nice little settlement on Victoria Island


Entering Vancouver Harbour with the Cruise Terminal in Sight (another ship is reversing in)



Coming into our berth at Vancouver 

Holland America and Princess already pretty much have Vancouver dock space filled, we seem to be that last one in.

Rooms had to be empty by 8 am as the ship sails again this afternoon at 5 pm. We were still tying up at this stage and spare seating spaces on the lower floors near the gangway were in short supply. Disembarking was delayed by 30 mins awaiting baggage to be taken off the ship and port clearance to be gained. We were onshore by 9 am, left our luggage in storage and headed out to stretch our legs for a few hours before getting a taxi to the airport for our 4.45 pm flight to Tokyo.


We walked around Gastown for most of the time




After a good stroll around Gastown, we headed back towards the Cruise Terminal, had lunch in a food court nearby and then collected our luggage and took a cab to the airport. It is Sunday here, and there is no traffic, so we arrive quite early and have to wait for the check in counter to open.

It was a packed flight as there were a number of crew from the various shipping lines heading home at the completion of their current contracts. Once again, it was a pretty good flight, I think the apprentice was at the wheel when we landed as we hit the deck pretty hard but we arrived ahead of time.

There was a bit of await for bags and the new electronic documentation system they have for clearing immigration and customs is a bit cumbersome, but we were outside by 7.15 pm Tokyo time (a day later, Sunday).

Our stay in Tokyo is for 3 days and we have a private tour with guide and driver organised. We were met at the airport for transfer to the Shibuya Excel Hotel. Where we are staying.




We were pretty tired and were in bed by 8.30pm, local time.


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