15 hour ferry along west coast

[katia]

I read about a15 hour ferry trip with breathtaking scenery along west coast. Unfortunately I misplaced the information. Would love to find out which ferry it was. Can anyone help in that regard?

[FNS]

May 23, 2010 17:55:31 GMT -8 @katia said:

I read about a15 hour ferry trip with breathtaking scenery along west coast. Unfortunately I misplaced the information. Would love to find out which ferry it was. Can anyone help in that regard?

This is the run between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert. I took my first trip last year and is a must for all who loves our west coast scenery. MV NORTHERN EXPEDITION is the vessel that makes this fifteen hour trip these days now.

[Kahloke]

Here's a link to BC Ferries northern schedules including the Inside Passage route you are interested in:
www.bcferries.com/schedules/inside/

[WettCoast]

May 23, 2010 17:55:31 GMT -8 @katia said:

I read about a15 hour ferry trip with breathtaking scenery along west coast. Unfortunately I misplaced the information. Would love to find out which ferry it was. Can anyone help in that regard?

What you read about is without doubt BC Ferries' Inside Passage all-daylight summer service between Port Hardy, at the northern end of Vancouver Island, and Prince Rupert, on BC's mainland coast just south of the Alaska 'Pan-handle'.

For further information check out the following:

BC Ferries: www.bcferries.com/schedules/inside/ip-current.html

Westworld magazine article: www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/Westworld-magazine/wwb_summer2010_cwm53358/2010050701/

As pointed out above your ship will be the Northern Expedition. For more on her see these two threads on this forum:
ferriesbc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=generaltalk&action=display&thread=4578
ferriesbc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=major&action=display&thread=7365

[lmtengs]

Yep, it's the Inside Passage Trip on the Northern Expedition. Here are some photos that I took last summer...

The ferry at Bear Cove, in Port Hardy, BC.

This is how you get on to it.

Sightseers

The outside deck

Looking towards the back on the outside deck

The modern stairwells

One of the side-lounges


A lightstation

A sailboat

Another lightstation

The manned Coast Guard Lightstation at Boat Bluff.

A British Columbia sunset

And I assure you that this was not photoshopped. It actually looked like that.

I highly recommend you book a stateroom. It makes the experience on the trip so much nicer, since you have a secure home-base where you can rest, keep your stuff safe, and nap if you want to. Each stateroom has it's own private bathroom with shower. Each stateroom has two beds, a TV, and you can get staterooms with windows. There are 55 staterooms on the ship, and you need to book the trip in advance. During the summer, there are two options you can choose from, those being a night trip, which leaves in the evening, or a day-trip, which leaves at about 7am. The trip does indeed take about 15 hours, weather-dependent.

It's nicer to do in the summer, as it's warmer and there's a lesser chance that it will rain