We made it to Vancouver. We were not deterred by American Customs, Canadian Customs, TSA Security, Canadian Security or Holland American Security. Not that these professionals didn't try slow us down just a bit. Between our Global Entry (GOES) card and the right color AMEX card we were able to skip to the head of the line at both Miami and Toronto airports. Air Canada, unlike American Airlines, actually had human sized seats. With the seat in front me reclined, I still had 3 inches in front of my kneecaps and my hipbones weren't embedded in the armrests.
If this had been an AA flight, they would have crammed another two rows of seats between rows 18 and 19. Those rows would be designated 18.33 and 18.66. They would also have shaved 3 inches from each of the 7 seat across configuration to allow two more seats on each row with the extra 21 inches saved. Which American do you know that can't fit into a seat 10.5 inches in width. Airline travel has become so much fun.
Air Canada was a wonderful carrier. My only fault was that, on the Miami to Toronto leg, the plane only had one bathroom for the 130 economy passengers and crew members. The door to this bathroom was situated inside the crew galley where, anyone waiting to use the facility, had to stand right where the four flight attendants needed to work. Both passengers and crew looked thrilled with this arrangement.
I will also give credit to the Canuck version of TSA. It would appear that they hire polite, respectful people with manners. What a concept. When was the last time you heard an American TSA agent say, "I'm sorry, but could I have your permission to open this bag, we need to do a run a simple test". He did this in front of me and performed his test within a few feet. The last time an American TSA agent did the same thing, he plucked my camera bag off the line, moved it behind a cubicle wall, did something "secret", gave it to another agent who the moved it out of my sight, and then tossed it on a conveyor belt to be X-rayed again.
In Vancouver we stayed at a Hilton located outside the hustle and bustle of the downtown section port area, politely referred to as Gastown. We stayed in Metrotown, which is Chinese for, "we own this". We went to a market trying to buy some cranberry juice. They had such hard to find items like, fried starfish, fried scorpions, fried rooster feet, but alas, no cranberry juice.
We ate in the hotel for most meals. After seeing what the Asian population was buying to eat, we didn't trust the restaurants run by the same folks. For our one day in Vancouver we took their municipal rail transportation into the city. We bought tickets but no one ever asked to see them. They work on the honor system in Vancouver. If Miami used a similar system, they would annually take in a negative $128 as somebody would figure out how to steal the sales kiosk.
We grabbed a cab and our turban topped driver whisked us directly to the port. After the drop off at the port a human vortex literally sucked us aboard our ship. More on this later as I am trying to make an excursion in Ketchikan and this is our first cellular signal in two days.
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