Last Cruise Stop: Victoria, British Columbia

The last stop of our Alaskan Cruise was 6 hours in Canada, or Victoria, British Columbia to be more specific. A Canadian Visa is required to board the ship, even if you plan to opt not to disembark in Canada. It was just a little bit unfortunate that our ship was docked in Victoria from 6pm-12midnight so we didn't really get to do much except walk around the main street in town.

Before disembarkation, everyone on the ship requiring an entry visa to Canada is asked to proceed to one of the lounges. Then our passports were returned to us and we were escorted as a group to the entry border to get our passports stamped. After that, we all had to get back to the ship, to get the Front Desk to change the status of our ship ID cards so that we'd be allowed to disembark. Quite a lot of steps, but Holland American Lines was very organized. The only downside is if there are passengers requiring visas who don't follow instructions, it delays the disembarkation of the whole ship.

Victoria reminds me of Disneyland. Everything was pretty in a surreal sort of way.

We were welcomed by women in period costumes.

This old man even gave Sofia a Victoria pin.

You also see old cars around town.
I am not sure if old people were riding it.

We wanted to walk around as a group so we just jumped into cabs and waited for each other at The Empress, an iconic landmark in Victoria famous for it's Afternoon Tea.

We took the first cab with Tita Ignie and Sofia. (Ady took the picture)

A semi-jump shot.

Victoria's iconic hotel is now run by the Fairmont chain.

Group picture while waiting.

Family picture while waiting.

The Victoria Parliament is right across The Empress.

A closer look at the Parliament.

The main harbor in Victoria. Also across The Empress.

We just started walking on the Main Street, which was lined with Souvenir Shops (surprise!surprise!)

Sofia and the Moose.

Free Wifi Downtown while waiting for Kuya Ian to find
our other relatives.

As usual, Sofia can't leave without buying anything.
We ended up adopting a Big Moose and a Small Moose.

Once we were all complete, we just started walking towards Chinatown. If my memory serves me right, it was just all the way down the Main Street. We chose our restaurant based on the availability of hakaw (Shrimp Dumpling DimSum) for Sofia and Free WiFi for all of us. Hahaha. Ordering was tricky because some of us ate more on the ship vs the others.

Tito Bong claimed the serving bowl of soup while Tita Nenen and
Kuya Ian looked on. Hahaha.

For a group that claimed not to be hungry, we did pretty good damage
on the Roast Duck, Crab, Salt and Pepper Squid we ordered.
We got a free yummy Prawn dish because it was Mother's Day.

Group Picture Take 1: I think Tita Winky said something funny because
Kuya Ian sans Auntie Celit sure are laughing.

Group Picture Take 2 was much better.

Sof wearing Tita Cheritte's hat.

It was much darker when we walked back so we were able to see
the Parliament all lit up.

And it was also the first time we saw the Oosterdam at night.

We all kind of hurried back on board because we needed to finish packing to have our luggage ready out of the door by 10 or 11pm. I don't think we saw enough of the real Canada to know whether or not we liked it. We just need to plan a trip back to give the country another chance next year. just saying.

You can read all about our Alaskan Cruise here, about Juneau, Alaska's Capital City here, and about the Alaskan cities of Sitka and Ketchikan here.