Hello Guys!
I have been reminded constantly (lol) to post my trip report. I was of course.. busy.
Not much time to think other than work.
Thanks god, today (rainy day in my hometown) and after exactly 1 month since my Alaska trip.
Finally have some time to post something!!.
Anyway..
ROLLCALL!:
"Victims": My mother(64) and Yours Truly (31).
Place: Disney Wonder (Verandah room, AFT-Starboard area )
Total Days: 10 (7 Cruise + 3 in Vancouver)
Hometown: Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico (The Wonder visits us during its Panama Cruise itinerary)
Departure:
It was a gloriously (and hot) day at Gustavo Diaz Ordaz PVR International airport.
After waiting patiently for 6 months.. The departure day was finally here!
We booked via WestJet to Vancouver (route PVR-Calgary-Vancouver). It was pretty balanced in price and time. As We did not want to touch the United States for 5 hours just to change of planes (lol)
Our plane!
Boarding with Wesjet was kinda slow, the plane was definitively packed.
Also, the layout of these 737 planes is interesting. If you see the above photo. There are 2 sections with missing windows, these are the "undesirable" and "cheaper" seats.
Despite my research I did not know this, I was right behind the first missing area, so we had a window next to me, but not a bit infront like in other planes. (My mother could not see much of the trip lol)
Here is a video of the take off:
As you see, we unfortunately got 2 babies nearby in the plane, one infront and one behind us. And the one behind us... cried ALL THE FLIGHT.
The worst? One of the babies followed us from Calgary to Vancouver as well. Good thing she didn't cry much in the last part of the trip... Still annoying.
Definitively not a small trip in any way for me. Probably the longest in distance since my trip to Orlando via Houston.
I was actually surprised on how big the Nevada desert was. Canyons and red sands for hours!
After 5 hours of flight, we finally approached Calgary.
Interestingly... the plane was always flying WAY SLOWER in the United States air space (400-450mph vs 490-510mph on Mexico and Canada)
Customs was sort of slow, but way faster than other places I've seen (like Houston International), I Of course have one of these "safe traveler" cards that lets me get pretty fast in Houston.
Also, I was surprised that the customs officer at Calgary spoke in a bit of Spanish. So we had no problem explaining our trip.
We got our stamps and good to go!
Finding the new plane wasn't that hard, unfortunately it was a lot of walk.
It was the LAST gate in the terminal. almost completely opposite from where we disembarked lol.
Then we finally arrived to Vancouver!
Since it was almost empty due of being one of the last flights... We decided to take the METRO.
I honestly had a lot of trouble figuring out how to buy the tickets there. They really have no much explanation other than colors and areas.
Finally a gentlemen explained how to use them (cue my broken english) and when we were inside.. We were surprised that they didn't check if you had purchased or not??
What a difference in culture and education! ( In Mexico there is always a guard in every entrance of the Metro, to ensure you pay and use your ticket)
Anyway, when we were waiting for the Metro, we found a pair of Mexicans who were travelling too. They kindly told us which metro train to take and which one. We were lucky as the next one went exactly where we needed to go ( Canada Place).
So once arrived, we had to walk a total of 2 blocks to get to our hotel: THE PAN PACIFIC HOTEL
It was.. of course.. VERY LATE. We were exhausted for the long trip and carrying (specially me) the bags.
And first problem of the day!!!
After checking in and getting our stuff. We go to our room and we found that.. The hotel was OVERSOLD and that the room that I had reserved and prepaid 8 months ago. Was occupied by some clients who stayed more than they should have.
So they gave us the only free room left. A single king.
I had to order a rollaway bed and complained about that. I was really ed.. 8 months in advance and they still didn't get the room I wanted?? unbelievable.
The worst part is that the guy lied, claiming it was my reservation company that incorrectly reserved the king instead of the doubles.
On the next day when asking for the switch very early.. We seen another group who had the same issue as us, except they were 3 persons and they had to share a single king.
(later when I complained in tripadvisor, the administrator knowledged that the hotel was at 100% capacity and some guests decided to stay longer than they had reserved)
View of our Hotel Room (floor 14 HARBOUR VIEW)
Anyway.. they insisted in the next day they could compensate of that and gave us the correct room.
They even moved our stuff(bags) while we were out in Victoria.. but that's for the next part of our trip...
(Continuing in next post..)
Last edited:
