Disembarkation, city tour and airport

(Almost) Last day, we arrived Vancouver Cruise port around dawn, 2nd photo is dawn breaking as we make the final few miles into the bay. We arrive to see the Norwegian and Disney line ships, that were following us when we did a last deck walk at 21:00 yesterday evening, already berthed at the terminal, presumably they needed to come in first as they needed the 2 larger berths as they are both significantly larger than the Roald Amundsen. We are colour code blue with disembarkation time of 09:00, but preparations started the night before as cases had to be outside cabins at 22:00, requires careful planning on what needs to be in or out of final pack. So at 09:00 we went to the departure point, collected the customs form we had completed and hand in to the ship for checking earlier. Then on into the customs hall where different colour coded (or Disney character) signs stood above lines of cases. Collecting ours we were then lined up with other blues to be lead to another area, where a Hurtigruiten guide ticked us off on his list. At some point I handed over the customs form and was welcomed to Canada. There was then a call for the English speakers. In the Hurtigruiten line to come forward (fortunately Karen chose this time to return from the rest rooms) and we were taken outside to our coach, the cases were whisked away from us and loaded whilst we boarded the coach. At 09:30 we were. Pulling out of Canada Place into the Vancouver traffic for a short city tour. We toured Stanley Park with a stop to see the totems, ( would have been a shorter stop but 2 of the “English” group got back on the “German” bus, eventually the expected numbers on both buses agreed and we set off again, finishing the circuit of Stanley Park, visiting The China and Gas town areas, two of the oldest parts of the city, then onto Granville Island where we had an hour wandering (in circles) around the market stalls before re boarding for the ride out to the airport. Check in was quite painless and priority security was virtually empty so we were through quickly. Some duty free shopping and now in Air Canada lounge with just over 3 hours to go before we are scheduled to take off.
Will be some more pictures later and a video (courtesy of Karen) of small porpoises swimming alongside the ship when we went for dinner.Read more