A brief stop in Canada – country #28

24 August 2018

As is the new normal, so it seems, Bugsy woke after 10:00, and we traipsed down for breakfast, fashionably late again. Clearly, we weren’t the only late risers, as Emily, Barbara and Steven arrived shortly after us, so joined us for our morning munching mayhem!

None of us had particular plans for after breakfast, as we weren’t docking until the evening, and had a day at sea to fill, but Cornelia was very keen to go in the pool again as soon as she could, telling us that she wanted to go to kids’ club in the afternoon so wanted to swim in the morning! It seemed that one of us had a plan after all!!

We agreed to meet up by the pool, and when Bugsy and I arrived, Emily and Barbara were already in the water. Well, that was it! Off my little water baby went and jumped right on in! Her swimming is pretty much independent and she loved swimming widths and playing with her dice ring. Barbara said that Emily hadn’t enjoyed the water as a baby, so they had been reintroducing it to her, and Cornelia was quite good at sharing her goggles with her, once we’d moved to the hot tub, although she did then keep telling Emily she could have five more go-s then had to give them back! 🙄

I was a bit worried that we were all going to freeze our asses off when we got out of the tub, but the heat must’ve warmed our blood sufficiently and it was rather pleasant in the sun and breeze on the open deck. So pleasant in fact, that the girls decided they’d earned themselves chocolate ice creams and well, how could we disagree?!

Having stuffed her face with ice cream, it was time for lunch, and we went down to the cafe for our predictable order of croissant, sandwich and salad. Cornelia had fifteen minutes to spare before she could go up to Deck 17 and kids’ club, so her and I danced in the Piazza whilst listening to a violin and guitar duo. Ian hid out of sight. 😂

With Cornelia safely installed with Jessica et al, Ian and I went back to our room to start packing up for the end of our trip. You were required to put your luggage outside your room by 23:00 that night, in order for it to be taken onto land for you the following morning. It was a real squeeze fitting everything in and, as we are heading to sunny hot Las Vegas next, we thought we may be able to keep one bag in Seattle and collect it on our return, and packed accordingly. (As it happened, the cheapest storage we could find was $6/day, plus the cost of a cab to and from the airport to pick it up, but it only costs $50 to take the bag with us. So, we are taking it!) We had a hope that we might get to the gym, but before we knew it, it was time to collect Cornelia for a couple of hours, before her evening disco party and movie! She was practising her moves on the Wii, dancing along to something from the Little Mermaid, so I stopped for a dance with her, Tally and Jessica (two of the club staff) until the song ended, then peeled her away with the reassurance that she would be returning in a couple of hours!

Ian and I tag-teamed keeping an eye on her while she watched a bit of her Kindle back in the cabin, and we alternated having showers, before it was time for her bath.

After that, we went up for our last dinner on board… We were treated to a delicious striploin steak that melted in the mouth, along with veg and potatoes. Bugsy had a bowl of mac ‘n’ cheese, a bowl of chips, a bowl of cucumber (at her request!) and some of my mash, followed by chocolate cake and strawberries!

She ate very quickly, so she could be whisked back up to the club where she was first in, and I dashed back down for our dessert – we shared a chocolate cake, a roasted nut pie and some strawberries. Delicious.

With Cornelia safely installed at kids’ club, we were able to leave the ship shortly after 19:00, as it had docked in Victoria (Canada) and all the relevant immigration checks had been completed. As we were leaving, we suddenly realised that we might need our passports, so dashed back to our room to collect them, then back to the exit! As it happened, of course, we didn’t need them. Still, that’s the right way around!

We had originally planned to walk around Victoria and go for a drink in one of the many bars, but it was such a pretty and bustling place, and because we hadn’t been to the gym that day, we went for a good old stomp around instead, trying to see as much of it as possible. The various walking routes around were really well signposted, and we took off towards Fisherman’s Wharf first. Downtown, there were some great examples of Victorian wedding cake architecture, and we were surprised at how many Union Jack flags were around too. There was even a bagpiper!

It was dark by the time we returned to the Ruby Princess, and the route back wasn’t very well lit – in fact, there were no lights at all and I was a bit concerned for the older people as it would’ve been very easy for them to trip. That would be my only criticism of an otherwise attractive, vibrant, thriving and tourist-friendly town.

We could easily have stayed longer, but it wouldn’t be fair to Cornelia to make her have a late night, especially when we needed to be up and out of our cabin by 08:00 tomorrow. She was in the middle of watching Paddington 2, but came quite willingly and she was clearly very tired. Jessica said she’d just managed to stay awake! And then, bless her little heart, she turned and walked straight into the glass door. 🤦‍♀️ She was not injured, thankfully, but very upset, exacerbated by her tiredness, I suspect, and I swept her up into my big mummy arms (as she calls them!) and carried her back to the room, snuggled into my neck. She was good as gold going to sleep and had been warned that I would need to wake her in the morning so we could vacate, so hopefully all would go smoothly!