Trip Report: May 3 - 18, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Through the Pacific Northwest and Canada
by Amtrak, BC Rail and VIA Rail Canada
A FREE DAY IN VANCOUVER
Wednesday, May 16, 2001
We have a free morning in one of our favorite cities, Vancouver, British Columbia. What to do? Well, our day is cut out for us. We have fallen back on our work and have the most beautiful office in the world (other than our own back at the ranch in the Klamath Basin), so after a delicious room service breakfast, we settle into today's office with a view of beautiful Vancouver Harbour. Unfortunately, hotels are always checking in new people, so we are unable to keep our room beyond 12 noon.
But, always the travel agent, we decide to check out of the Club and check into the new tower of the Sheraton Wall Center for the afternoon. The room is beautiful, with modern low key décor in blues, grays, and wood tones. It has a nice office with table high outlets at the desk. After enjoying a room service lunch, we set down to complete our work, but find the air conditioner to be cycling on and off with the noise of an inexpensive window unit. And as this new tower has been open for only a few days, many things do not work, such as the data phone port. As I use the regular phone port for data on my laptop, Sylvia attempts to use our cell phones for voice calls, only to find that we are in a cell phone proof room. So although this hotel is rated as one of the four most luxurious in Vancouver by a major consumer travel magazine, we would have to not recommend it, if only for the air conditioner noise.
Travel Tip. What do we recommend as the best hotels in Vancouver? Well, we have to admit that we have not visited all of the hotels here, but from what we have experienced, I would have to recommend these four, but not necessarily in this order.
The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. One of the flagships of the former Canadian Pacific Hotel chain. Or is it the Fairmont Hotel chain? If you have read our Toronto segment, you will have learned that in spite of the Fairmont name, this hotel is still owned by Canadian Pacific, but bears the Fairmont name for reasons possibly understood only by CP and Fairmont. Located in the heart of the city, it is very convenient to shopping and theaters, plus having all the amenities you would expect of one of the finest hotels on the planet.
The Terminal City Club Tower Hotel. Only recently has the Terminal City Club expanded to include a hotel tower. Guests enjoy the most of the facilities of the Club, including two excellent restaurants, a fitness center, and one of the finest indoor pools in the city, or indeed any city. Conveniently located one short block from the cruise terminal. Travelers looking for a luxurious but very quiet and low key hotel will enjoy the Terminal City Club Tower, which has all the ambience of a private club.
The Westin Bayshore Resort and Marina. It has been 28 years since we stayed at this Westin, located an easy walk or bicycle ride to Stanley Park, but it has been completely renovated within the last year and upgraded with all of the Westin amenities, including the Heavenly Beds. Greatest view of the harbour with ships and float planes coming and going all the time.
The Fairmont Waterfront Center. A contemporary hotel right across the street from the cruise terminal, and a much quieter and low key property than the Pan Pacific Hotel, which is located in the cruise terminal building itself. The usual high Canadian Pacific standards apply here. Although there is only one restaurant, on the lobby level with a view of the harbour, it is of the expected excellent quality.
Our day in Vancouver is over all too soon, and we call the bellman to bring our luggage down to the entrance lobby and find a cab for us to go the Pacific Central Station. Checkin procedure for Amtrak's Mt. Baker International begins at 5 PM and is complex but painless. First we check in at the Business Class counter where the Amtrak conductor gives us boarding passes (actually tiny stickers with seat numbers attached to our ticket,) and vouchers good for $3.00 off in the dining or lounge car. The next counter is customs, where you merely sign in and are waved on to the immigration counter, where they stare at us and swipe our passports through some kind of reader machine, before going back to their personal conversation with each other. After this formality we get to the practical stuff, the baggage man can now accept our bags for checking in the baggage car, and we are free to board.
After settling into our seats and stuffing our carry on bags into the overhead shelf, we go to the dining car. Believe it or not, Amtrak actually will serve dinner while you are sitting in the Vancouver Station. However no alcoholic beverages are available until the trains begins to move, which we do promptly at 6 PM. Our motion is short lived, as the Canadian National dispatcher, knowing that Amtrak is due out of the station at 6 PM, has placed a freight train across our path and stopped it there, just a half mile outside the station. We wait here about twenty minutes while our waiter delivers our dinner, the CN freight begins to move out of our way, and we proceed to Seattle.
We always enjoy the coastal scenery south of Vancouver, and in the late spring twilight, it is even more beautiful than we remember. At the border, the train makes a stop to pickup the United States Border Patrol officers. The train chief announces that we are all to remain exactly where we are while the officials make their inspection as the train proceeds, and adds disgustedly, "They're bringing on the dogs tonight!" Fortunately, there are no dogs sniffing at us, they must be back in the coach section, therefore I don't have a sneezing fit. The officials merely walk through, stare at us again, and ask us important questions, such as, "How long have you been out of the United States?", "What is the purpose of your trip?", and "How much have you purchased?" We understand it is much worse to enter the United States by automobile, the wait can be as much as an hour at the border station.
At this time of year we have light until about 9:30 PM, at which time we are still running about 15 minutes behind schedule. Still, with a leisurely dinner, sightseeing, reading the onboard newspapers, and working a little on this story, we arrive in Seattle before we know it, and find the American Orient Express spotted on the track across from us. Having learned from experience how long the taxi lines are here, we are ready to disembark the moment the doors are open, and we high tail it through the station and out front where we find that only a few people are ahead of us. As the taxi whisks us to the Westin Seattle and our Heavenly Bed, we hear on the radio that the Mariners have just won again, and we beat the crowd pouring out of Safeco Field.
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