Queen of the North Positioning Cruise

[Sandi]

We have a cabin but I don't think we will spend much time in it. I don't want to miss any of the awesome scenery!

Does anyone know what time they start loading? All I have been told is that we have to be there by 6:30.

[Koastal Karl]

She would probably start loading around 7 I would say if she leaves at 7:30 but I am not totall sure. We should be there by 6:30am. I dont know about walk on if they have to be there that eary but we are driving on so we will be there at 6:30am. We are leaving in like an hour to start the the long drive to Port Hardy! Maybe see you and Flugel onboard tommorrow!

[Scott (Former Account)]

Just saw the Queen of the North pass through the channel here in Campbell River. Hopefully everyone on board is having a good time, and will bring back a lot of photo's to share with us.

[Curtis]

Yeah they should be they should be in Tsawwassen in under 5 hours they'll probably have lots to talk about

[Balfour]

I think they will. I don't think Karl is getting into Victoria until tomorow, and Sandi also lives on the Island, as does Fluge, so I don't think we'll hear anything until tomorrow

[Curtis]

Unless they get the Last Sailing out of Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay or Duke Point at 9:00 and 10:45

[Balfour]

yeah I guess Karl could do the 9PM out of TSA but, I think he said he was spending the night in Vancouver.

[Ferryman]

Wow! That would be a long day on the ferries! To go on the Queen of the North for 13 hours and then get back on either route 1 or 30 to get home, totalling about 15 or so hours on a ferry. I know I just about get to the point when I'm bored of being on a ferry just before it comes into the dock at the other end, and that's on route 2 after sailing for an hour and a half! But for 15 hours?! I'd go nuts! lol

[Political Incorrectness]

it is doing the cruise today

[Doug]

The Inside Passage is 15 hours...I loved it. The best part had to be when we were in the Queen Charlotte Sound, and the ship was rolling up and down on open Pacific swells...brings back memories.

[jcachristian]

I was down at French Creak Marina today and watched the Queen of The North pass Directly in front at 4pm. She sailed via Stephens pass and the West side of Lasquitea ISland. SHe was at Ballenas ISland at 4:25 with a eta of 6:45pm for Tsawwassen.

[Curtis]

ferryman said:

Wow! That would be a long day on the ferries! To go on the Queen of the North for 13 hours and then get back on either route 1 or 30 to get home, totalling about 15 or so hours on a ferry. I know I just about get to the point when I'm bored of being on a ferry just before it comes into the dock at the other end, and that's on route 2 after sailing for an hour and a half! But for 15 hours?! I'd go nuts! lol

dougubell said:

The Inside Passage is 15 hours...I loved it. The best part had to be when we were in the Queen Charlotte Sound, and the ship was rolling up and down on open Pacific swells...brings back memories.

The Queen of the North and her live aboard crew with the cruise being so long to Port Hardy or Prince Rupert they want you to never have a dull moment ;D If you stood in the same spot the whole voyage you'd probably leave after about 2 hours unless you were hypnotized than it would be different. There's another thing I'm thinkin about could you imagine if they couldn't re-float the Oak Bay and passengers had to stay on for the rest of the day or even if it was high tide when it went aground then the tide went down and they couldn't re-float it then they decide to re-float it with the Queen of Surrey I could ramble for hours about a long time on a ferry but I might as well keep this short and not talk and talk and talk as it's 11:00 now

[Koastal Karl]

Hi everyone! I'm not home yet. I am at my aunts in Ladner using her computer. I wont be home till later today. The Cruise was awesome. We drove to Bear Cove at 6:20am and were on the ship 5 mins later. She dident leave till 7:30 so we were on her 50 mins before we left. It was neat to drive in and go right on! I met Flugel (Mike) onboard and we bumped into each other on a off throughout the whole cruise and saw Sandi and her Son too on and off. It was a bit foggy leaving Port Hardy but it cleared up as we headed south. Seymour Narrows was really cool and the Ripple Rock just out side of Campbell River as we passed about 1:30 or so. For your info the Albert J Savoie is in Campbell River just north at some logging place as we all seen her from the ferry. Wasent too exciting coming down the strait but it was still awesome. We were early too. We arrived at Tsawwassen at 7pm and were off by 7:20pm. Sandi and Flugel are heading back today to Duke Point I think on the same ferry the 10:15 to Duke Point. But people were actually getting of the Queen of the North then getting back in line for either Duke Point or Swartz Bay. We also arranged for a tour of the Bridge. There was a few groups that went up with us and it was really neat to see the bridge. Got a few photos. The one thing we found with the Queen of the North was the lack of forward viewing. But she is a neat ship. I saw her from our hotel in Port Hardy the night before coming in, it was neat. Oh we also passed the Alaska State Ferry Columbia heading north about an hour or so out of Port Hardy. Was kinda neat to see. But anyways I got photos so I will be posting them whenever I get time when I get back later today. And the crew does live aboard, we were talking to them during a car deck visit, your only allowed down at certain times, but the crew had been on her for 2 weeks and will be going back to Prince Rupert after this. Queen of the North is stern too at Tsawwassen in berth 1 as we had to back in last night which was kind of interesting. Anyways I will post more when I get back. Ha, I beat Flugel to it. He probably thought he would be the first one to post.

[Curtis]

Awesome you guys (and girl) must of had a real great experience of the West coast and some multiple meetings of board members lets hope we can schedule a meeting next summer thats more affordable like on the SoBC with their Conference room then we can have a discussion live that would be great than theres the 4 C-Classes so we'll need to schedule that some day in summer

[QSaanich]

That would be good. Nice trip on Queen of the North hay karl

[Low Light Mike]

Here's my report:

- we left Nanaimo by car at 11:30 am Friday.....and arrived at Port Hardy at approx 4:00 pm....with only 1 short stop. Saw a big black bear crossing the highway just north of Port McNeil.

- Glen Lyon Hotel in Port Hardy is clean, spacious-rooms, and only 7 minutes away from the Bear Cove Ferry Terminal. I'd recommend it to anyone who is taking a Port Hardy ferry.

- wake-up call at 5:15 am on Saturday. Departed hotel at 6:00.....and arrived at Bear Cove shortly after....and only spent 5 minutes in the line up at the ferry terminal before they allowed us to drive on. Their strategy is to load the vessel slowly over an hour's time.....because they need to put wood-blocks on every vehicle, and get a nice snug fit between cars. Also, they have 2 half-height watertight doors that they close, effectively changing the cardeck into 3 separate compartments. There are platform decks on either side, but only the starboard side was used. The portside platform deck was flush with the ceiling, and barely discernable. We were in the first compartment (closest to stern doors), since we had arrived early.

Q-North has 9 decks, as follows:
1- engine room
2- Tween deck, home to the crew
3- main car deck
4- platform deck
5- Saloon deck: home to the buffet, cafeteria, galley, pursar's square, gift shop
6 - passenger deck. home to the forward lounge, starboard pay-lounge, port seating & arcarde & kids area, and stern staterooms.
7 - boat deck: home to the bridge, officers cabins, and passenger staterooms at stern
8 deck: don't know what's inside, because passengers only have access to the outside deck, which is the only outside deck that runs completely around the vessel.
9: not really a deck, but it's the service area below the funnel & main mast.

- as you go higher, each deck is of course shorter and narrower. The stern decks have a nice terraced look to them. Stern decks are the best outside places to spend some time, because they are sheltered from the wind. Passengers have access to stern decks on deck 5, 6, 7,8...which are linked by outside staircases.

All railings are wood, just like on the Sidney & Tsawwassen.

I met Karl outside on Deck 6 or 7, when it was still dark at 6:45 or so. I can confirm to you all that Karl is not a 55-year-old pervert. I'm sure he'll confirm the same about me ! (you always wonder, when you meet someone from the internet.....) We also passed by Sandi on the dark outside deck, who was taking the first 100 of her 10,000 pictures for the day.

You may be asking yourself, "What type of crowd was there on board?". Let's just say that the Queen of the North was like a floating nursing-home for the day. 2 or 3 bus-tour groups of Seniors. Most had already staked out the prime seats in the inside front-lounge by the time we boarded. They would have fought me off with their canes and long-winded stories, so we retreated to a side-view seat. The cafeteria quickly sold-out of prune juice, and the gift shop sold-out of polident.

The buffet had breakfast for $14.95, lunch for $15.95 and dinner for $23.95. In a rare occurance of both fiscal and healthwise restraint for me, I resisted the breakfast buffet, and instead went to the cafeteria for something cheaper.

Word to the wise, for anyone who wants to travel on a northern route: the food is expensive. During the day, we enjoyed some $5 basic tuna sandwiches, a $2 can of juice, and a $9 chicken strips & fries combo. The fries were fresh from the McCain bag, and the chicken-strips were from the 7-11 dumpster.

The buffet likely had better food.....but at the high price, I'd be tempted to overeat, and that would be uncomfortable for a 12-hour trip.....and would also be unhealthy in my opinion.......but I digress.

Like my internet buddies on board, I spent most of my time on the move......checking out the sights from different angles. My wife & I felt the temptation at the beginning to find a good seat inside and defend it all day long.....but rational-reason took over, and we realized that it was a long day, and we didn't want to tie ourselves down to a seat. Over the whole day, whenever we wanted to sit down inside for a while, we were always able to find a seat inside......just not at the front.

By the way, I walked thru the front lounge in the early afternoon, just after lunch, and it was full of napping seniors. Lots of snoring, mouths open with dentures in plain view.

2:15 pm had 2 movies to watch: a Jack Nicholson - Diane Keaton flick in the main lounge, and Madagascar in the kid's play area. I'm surprised that the main lounge crowd didn't comandeer the vessel and demand to see "Murder She Wrote" or "Matlock"......but again, I digress.

Now, about the trip itself:
- we departed Hardy Bay, and hit a fog bank. We went down the middle of Queen Charlotte Strait, on the outside of Malcolm Island. That means that we did not pass by Port McNeil, Sointula nor Alert Bay. The reason for this route was visibility for the bridge.

Near the Broughton Archipeligo, we navigated a narrow pass, and then went by Robson Bight. Just before Robson Bight, we saw a pod of Orcas.....a very moving experience to observe Orcas in the wild. Johstone Strait was long & narrow, just like it looks on a map. We saw the occasional cabin in the middle of nowhere.....it was much like Grenville Channel I think, except the mountains weren't as steep. Our bridge-tour was cut short, because there was lots of marine traffice around the corner, where Johnstone Strait makes a 90-degree turn south, at Rock Bay area.

We then had a long straight-away south as we approached Seymour Narrows. Seymour Narrows was neat, but a shorter experience than Active Pass. When you go thru Active Pass, you're in it for 10 minutes or so......but Seymour Narrows was over pretty quick.

We saw the Albert J. Savoie docked north of Elk Falls Mill.....closer towards Menzies Bay. She has a ramp built onto her bow.

We saw the Powell River Queen crossing and then docked at Campbell River.

While passing Campbell River, I saw the Burger King, Canadian Tire, Wendy's and McDonald's thru my binoculars.......and my wilderness-experience was shattered.

Campbell River south to Tsawwassen became a bit boring, as afternoon-tiredness set in, and the open strait wasn't as interesting. We saw the Burnaby docked at Little River. Didn't see the NIP, or the Hornby-Denman ferry. We passed between Lasquiti & Hornby.....and I thought we would have passed thru a cloud of pot-smoke from those 2 islands....but it was clear.

We passed a nice lighthouse island between Hornby & Lasquiti islands.......I was unaware of this, so I'll have to research the name of the island / lighthouse on the net. It looked smaller than Entrance Island.

Once we passed the largest Ballenas or Winchelsea island, I knew we were close to Nanaimo, and I found my neighbourhood in my binoculars.

As Nanaimo came into view, so did the anchored cruise-ship Mercury (Celebrity line). The seniors in the forward-lounge remarked that it was a ferry just like ours, but us ferry-nerds were quick to set-them-straight with a short lesson on martime-architecture.

We passed the Queen of New Westminster near Entrance Island. We passed the Alberni off Richmond.

Nearing Tsawwassen we saw a Spirit (the ferry kind, not the angelic or evil kind), and also saw the Queen of Tsawwassen. We took our time in the last few KM's, as we were waiting for clearance from the Tsawwassen-terminal control....as they had to fit our arrival in between their regular other sailings. at 19:00 hours, we arrived at the terminal, and sailed to the area between berths 1 & 2 and the breakwater. There, we proceded to do a stopped-360 turn, and backed into berth #1. I then did a sprint down from outside deck #8 to the car deck....dodging senior citizens like Walter Payton dodging tacklers. When we drove-off, Berth 1 didn't fall apart, and we disembarked full of happy memories.

Tsawwassen was home for the night, at the Coast Tsawwassen Inn, on 56th street...... We were chosen at random as "guests of the day" and received a free upgrade to a deluxe suite, with a jaccuzi jet tub. Every room in the hotel is a suite, and it was clean & comfortable. We only paid $109, with BCAA card. I'd recommend this hotel to anyone who needs to stay overnight in Tsawwassen.

This morning it was back to the ferry terminal at Tsawwasen for the 10:15 sailing on the New-West to Duke Point. I snapped my last 2 pictures of the Q-North, from the outside deck on the New-West next door. (old style 35mm film........and I don't know how to post pictures, so sorry).

Re Queen of the North on Saturday, we met some intersting people on board, which was part of the overall trip experience: we met Karl and Sandi, and their relatives. I met a family from Richmond with a 10-year old son, who had incredible ferry knowledge. He's read the books, studied the internet, and he knows his ships. I encouraged him to find our board and to post (actually, being the responsible citizen that I am, I encouraged his father to check the site out and to see if he thought it would be ok for his young son......). Lots of obvious veteran tourists on board, with good camera gear, goretex jackets and quick-dry zip-off pants. One couple had just spent a week in the Queen Charlottes and then took the Q-North from Rupert to Hardy, and was now going home to Vancouver......talk about culture-shock!

That's all that I can think of at the moment. It was fun, memorable and I'll probably do it again. I love that ship, it just might be my favourite.

[Doug]

Sounds like it was a nice trip!

[Doug]

Here's a cross-section view of the ship....

[Balfour]

Sounds like you all had a great time. I might try to do that trip next year, and maybe some of the other forum members can come along too! If I go, I'll get the Cafeteria to make an extra large pot of Dopesauce, just like you said a few months ago, Fluge.

[Low Light Mike]

Skier: You remembered the dopesauce comment. Good to see that the weed hasnt' killed your memory yet.......just kidding!

No offense to Karl's relative or to Sandi who were on board the Queen of the North, but I did not see any females in the 20-30 year age group.......not even in the 10-20 year age group. For males, the only teen I saw was Sandi's son....the only 20-somethings were Karl and another guy, and there were only a few 30-somethings.

It was definately an older crowd. I wonder if that's what an Alaska-cruise is like.

In contrast, the NewWest had a high school group onboard, with maybe 40 teens.

[Curtis]

That's Odd that there's more old people on the ship than the younger age group it's a cruise not a ordinary ferry trip??

[Retrovision]

I'm back.

After a lengthy hiatus (long story), I've returned with gifts in hand...

Check them out at:

community.webshots.com/user/grahameajohnson

P.S. There's plenty more where that came from. I'll be finishing off my QotN gallery soon, as well as introducing new galleries.

It's all *New and Improved*, thanx to my new Kodak 'EasyShare' Z740 with 5 megapixels and 10x optical zoom.

Enjoy

[Koastal Karl]

oh man, I hate it when there are noisy High School groups onboard! How was the trip back on the New West Flugel?? But yeah Flugel explained it all about the trip. Lots of older people hardly any young people. I would do the trip again. It would be neat to go the other way now from Tsawwassen to Port Hardy! The Queen of the North is a neat ship, she's a nice looking ship too. Coming back today on the 3pm SOBC sailing there was alot of the seniors coming back too who were on the cruise yesterday. SOBC was packed today. But overall the cruise was awesome!

I got like 85 photos yesterday so I have to get them up and then you can see them. Not as many as Sandi though, lol!

[Retrovision]

BTW, if the link doesn't work, give it some time.

If that fails, I'll take a look at it later.

[Koastal Karl]

Cool photos Tsawwassen Terminal! You could probably of seen us onboard last night as we were out on deck as we backed in. Awesome!