We enjoyed a fantastic week prior to our cruise flying into Calgary and touring Lake Louise, Yoho National Park and Banff in a coach party with 63 others! We rapidly gained a reputation for eating several breakfasts and missing the bus (twice!). Enjoyable as it was, Jet lag and going straight to high altitude may not be a good idea as lots of us suffered from insomnia, headaches and nosebleeds. Scenery was worth it though! We took the Red Leaf service Rocky Mountaineer train to Vancouver (and the Volendam) via Kamloops. Absolutely stunning - Rocky Mountaineer adventure would make a story in itself.

In Vancouver we overnighted in the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel with a harbor view - luxury itself.

Onto the Volendam next morning. Embarkation was an American documentation nightmare - involving several forms and somewhat embarrassing medical questions such as verifying none of our fellow travellers had experience loose stools in the last few days (some asked what relevance defective bar furniture had...) Once on board we were herded into the Lido deck area whilst the rooms were readied - that took a while. Read more