One of the things we promised ourselves when we came back to Vancouver was to go on a Carol Ship Cruise. These are dinner cruises on various size boats that leave from Coal Harbour and I believe there is a boat or two that sails out of False Creek.
The dinner cruise we went on was out of Coal harbour and I actually bought the tickets through Groupon. The price was about 50% off the regular price, but looking back I am thinking they jacked up the price so it could be discounted.
I was expecting to cruise from Coal Harbour, around Stanley Park and into False Creek and back again. When I lived up on West Broadway, I could see the Carol Ships coming into and leaving False Creek. They would sail in a line and you could watch them for a good hour as they came and went.
Instead we sailed out (no line of Carol Ships) under the Lions Gate Bridge to Ambleside in West Vancouver, came back under the bridge and went up the Burrard Inlet , almost to the Second Narrows Bridge. Instead of seeing all the interesting things in False Creek we got the container docks and freighters parked in the inlet. Such a disappointment, but it was probably my fault for not reading the information in the offer. Had I paid attention to the course of the cruise I probably would have passed and paid full price to go where I really wanted to go.
The dinner was buffet of course – medium rare shoe leather that looked like roast beef, sans potatoes – rice instead, with a couple of salads (at least they had a decent Caesar), assorted vegetables (broccoli and carrots) and Maple Crusted Salmon (which was actually pretty good). Dessert, the classic Namaimo Bar, Dates Squares and Chocolate Brownies.
So, for $88 for two including, the mandatory tip, we got to sail around in the dark for 3 hours and subject ourselves to soup kitchen food. The best part of the whole thing was going under the Lions Gate Bridge and the 1/4 mile stretch in Coal Harbour cruising past the condo’s and Canada Place Convention Centre pictured above. If they would have had a fire drill during the cruise that would have been the most exciting part, but we had to settle for people singing Christmas Carols off-key.
Bah Humbug!
How disappointing! I wonder why they’d even run a cruise of container docks and freighters… when there are so many beautiful Vancouver sights to see on the water elsewhere. Or – was the complete goal of the cruise to go under the Lions Gate perhaps… and the rest just a sad necessity? (I will admit, going under the Lions Gate does seem pretty epic… but you’ve done that before!)