I'd nearly forgotten we had picked up a good deal on a pre-season, 5-night Holland America cruise. It leaves on the last day of this month from downtown Vancouver. I told Eilene that we wouldn't need an upgrade now. However, I mentioned that I do want to be informed about upgrades on a reserved 7-day Alaskan cruise coming up in July. That's the one on which my sister and her friend will join us.
A year ago, Jay and I took a five-night cruise to Astoria, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Victoria, British Columbia. It was fun.
Our upcoming itinerary is much different with port stops in Ketchikan, Alaska and Prince Rupert, British Columbia. There is a lot of ship traffic up and down the Inside Passage as many cruise ship companies offer cruises to Alaska. However, a stop in Prince Rupert is rare for passenger cruises, so rare we only heard of it one other time.
We definitely want to go take a look at the city of Prince Rupert again. Our province of British Columbia is huge and we've only been to that northern port city once. It is the largest city next to the Alaskan panhandle.
In 2003, we took the first picture aboard a BC Ferry, the MV Queen of the North. We had the old pickup truck aboard and drove more than the 1700 kms back from Prince Rupert on Highway 16 to Prince George and then home to New Westminster. We took a few detours along the way.
The MV Queen of the North used to run the Inside Passage but she ran aground and sank in March of 2006. Interestingly, when we step off the MS Noordam, it will have been 21 years since we visited Prince Rupert.
