This cruise on the Carnival Spirit was the 5th cruise in as many years for my wife and me. We are extremely fortunate that her parents are willing to watch our children each fall so that we can get away for a week by ourselves.

We left Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon 9/13, to fly to Vancouver the day before the cruise. We did not want to take a chance of flying across the country on the day of the cruise and having travel delays that caused us to miss the sailing. While we were concerned about the Northwest Airlines mechanic's strike, the flights went off without a hitch. Upon arrival we took the hotel shuttle to the Quality Inn - Vancouver Airport. This hotel is adequate at best, and I would not recommend it for others. The front desk clerk was very helpful though and recommended a Vancouver city tour for the morning, that would drop us off right at the Canada Place pier in time to board. We took his advice and booked that. We then went across the street to a local Greek restaurant and had a very good dinner.

On Wednesday morning, the tour company picked us up at the hotel and off we went for a whirlwind tour of Vancouver. We got to see many of the highlights of town, including Granville Island and the view from the top of the tallest building in the city. The view was somewhat obscured due to the marsh that had been burning for several days. There was a lot of smoke in the city. In any event, the tour was worth the price we paid, and it did drop us off right at the pier. Read more