Trip Reports: April 30 to May 24, 2004

by Ted & Sylvia Blishak

From Mexico to Canada by Rail and Sea

Port Hardy to Prince Rupert by BC Ferry

May 18, 2004  You’ve heard this before, but we always seem to carry an overwhelming amount of luggage, or “impedimenta”, as Julius Caesar called it. Two heavy bags contain our portable office; laptops, printers, files, etc., so that we can keep in touch with our clients on our working vacations.

This morning it proves to be worth the hassle, as Sylvia confirms four clients on a Brewster independent vacation combining VIA Rail trains and the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. Next, she puts the finishing touches on an American Orient Express week-long Los Angeles to Seattle rail tour for another customer. All this is done before breakfast!

The Pacific Spirit bus arrives at the Glen Lyon at 6:40am to pickup a small group of sleepy passengers and their luggage for the 7:15am departure of BC Ferry’s “Queen of the North” to Prince Rupert, her first trip this season. The classic white vessel with green trim resembles a miniature cruise ship. Automobiles and RVs are lined up to board. After we exchange our Brewster vouchers for boarding passes, we become foot passengers, check the luggage not needed on board, then walk down the same boarding ramp used by the vehicles. We are directed to a stairwell up which we must haul our luggage three flights from Deck 2 to Deck 5; although there are several men directing passengers, they don’t offer to help. (But, we should have asked.) There we exchange the boarding pass at the Purser’s Office for a key to our pre-reserved day room on Deck 6. We now find that there is an elevator, but its entrance on Deck 2 was blocked by vehicles by the time we boarded.

Travel Tip: Do request a dayroom at the time you make your booking; many travelers don’t realize it is an inexpensive (about $27.00 per person US) option. The privacy and a place to take a nap are well worth the cost.

There are three classes of service on the “Queen of the North”: deck passage, which entitles you to a seat in one of two seating lounges, an upgrade to a private “business class” lounge with key card access, or a further upgrade to a day room. The seating lounges have reclining seats with leg rests, the day rooms have a lower and upper berth, a writing desk, and a lavatory with wash basin. Although this vessel has been in service since 1980, it has been recently refurbished and exceeds our expectations. We expected a basic ferry boat, but find that it is neat, comfortable, and even has touches of elegance.

We settle our luggage into the day room and head for the Evergreen Restaurant where a hot and cold buffet breakfast is being served with nautical blue linen, china, and silver. The food is expensive, but excellent. Other dining options are a cafeteria and vending machines.

The morning is cold and overcast, and as we leave the harbor, we begin to feel ocean swells as we cross the open water between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. After an hour and a half, we enter the Inside Passage where the sun comes out and the water is calm.

Out on deck, our face masks and windbreakers are a necessity in the morning. By later in the afternoon, the wind is with us and we have enjoy sleeve weather. There are a few patio chairs on deck, but most sightseers are leaning on the railing or sitting on the life vest storage boxes soaking up the bright May sunshine.

The scenery in this fjord-like wilderness is non-stop, with only three tiny villages to be seen during the 15-hour cruise. If you become jaded by snow-capped peaks, tree-covered mountains and inlets, and waterfalls plunging into a deep blue inland sea, under an azure sky, you can always go inside and watch CNN in the forward lounge.

Beginning at 430pm, Don Ross, a Mel Torme-style vocalist accompanying himself on the grand piano entertains in the Evergreen Restaurant cocktail lounge, returning later to play and sing during the dinner hour.

A week’s Alaska Inside Passage cruise is, in some ways, compressed into a similar experience here on the “Queen of the North” but only takes 15 hours, and you don’t even get to Alaska! It has become a very low key, relaxing, and pleasant cruise. There are features the big cruise ships have that it doesn’t, but we don’t miss them: no crowds, no waiting in lines, no canned background music. No gambling casino, no port stops where souvenirs made in China are hawked, no dress code, no swimming pool, no spa. “But,” dead-pans Ted, “I do miss the rock-climbing walls that some of the big ships have.” Yeah, right…

We purchase postcards and reading material in the well-stocked gift shop, which has the latest magazines, but mercifully, no newspapers. We are miles away from it all here, and the spell might be broken if cellphones and newspapers were an option.

In fact, our only concern is how we are going to get our heavy portable offices off at disembarkation. Ted inquires at the Purser’s Office us. We don’t like to check our laptops, and carriers do not want to be responsible for handling them anyhow. We are advised that although they will announce when it is possible to use the elevator to the car deck, we may find it difficult to make the lengthy walk from the ship up to the terminal building. They tender assistance by bringing a BC Ferry pickup truck down to the car deck after all the vehicles are off-loaded.

When we finally reach the Prince Rupert terminal building, our checked bags are the last to be picked up, and there is one lone Skeena Taxi waiting to take us to the Crest Hotel.

It is 11:30pm as we hand our prepaid voucher to the perky young lady behind the reception desk. Soon we are in a comfortable room, but it is a bit overheated and there is no air conditioning. A call to the front desk, and the perky young lady has delivered a fan to our room two minutes later. And, believe or not, we have Wi-Fi Internet Access.

By the time we check our e-mail and retire it is 1:30am. We have a 5:30am wakeup call, and a taxi on request for 715am. By the time the sun comes up, we’ll be at the station. At 8am, the Via Rail “Skeena” will depart Prince Rupert for Prince George – and we’ll be on board the Totem Deluxe Panorama glass-topped dome car.

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