We arrive at the Cruise Ship Terminal in Vancouver Harbour at precisely 2pm, ready to board our ship the Holland American Lines Ms Veendam. The terminal is situated in Canada Place, built for Expo 86, as the Canadian Pavilion. It houses, a hotel, convention centre, I-Max theatre, restaurants, shops and of course the most beautiful cruise ship terminal in the world.
With little ado my mother and I say goodbye to family and are taken aboard, to our suite S006 on the Navigation deck of the ship. We enter a large, bed sitting room, with a dressing room, medium sized bathroom, with a jacuzzi tub. Sliding glass doors open onto a large verandah, with a table , chairs and 2 lounges. There is a bottle of champagne from our travel agent, Gail Searson, Drainie Wagon Lit travel and another along with a basket of fruit and fresh flowers from the ship's hotel manager. What a lovely welcome!
The first place I check out is the balcony. Looking down at the dock, from this height makes one realise just how large the ship is. Built in 1996 The Veendam is 720 feet long, 101 feet wide and weighs 55,000 gross tons. It accomodates 1,266 passengers and 560 crew. The Veendam's state of the art technology, makes it one of the safest vessels afloat.
It's decor for the most part is modern, with many art pieces and antiques complimenting the interior design. The atrium has a green, gold glass, sculpture, called Jacob's ladder, which was created by Luciano Vistosi, Italy's leading contemporary glass artist.
Amoy, our room steward drops by as we are unpacking and invites us to partake of lunch one floor up on the Lido deck. We enter a large sun filled room, with a glass roof that opens. There is a huge indoor pool, with a sculpture of jumping dolphins, a couple of hot tubs and along the sides, tables which look out of floor to ceiling windows. At the other end of the room are bars for drinks, the hamburger, pasta, taco bar and the entrance to the Lido restaurant
The Lido is a very large restaraunt with a huge buffet on either side of the ship. There is also a soup and salad buffet and an ice cream parlour. We opt for soup and salad as it is late and we are the first sitting for dinner. We do follow up with the Lido's legendary bread pudding*. After lunch we go back to our rooms and await intruction, for the daily program sheet has arrived and along with the " Welkom Aan Boord! " it informs us of a boat drill.
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