SEATTLE TO VANCOUVER
Saturday May 15th, 7:15am. Seattle’s King Street Station is bursting at the 
seams with passengers: some for the southbound Cascade to Eugene, a large tour group, and cruise passengers and day-trippers heading north on the Mt. Baker International. The latter train, although using the same equipment as the Cascades, is blue with cream trim and the with the word “Talgo” in red script. A Talgo representative is aboard, who explains that the tilting mechanism is in use and expedites the train’s passage around curves, but when it gets to White Rock, BC, the tracks are so rough that the cars lurch, confusing the tilting mechanism. “It senses that we are starting to curve and leans into it, then lurches back the other way, so it only works properly over smooth track,” the Talgo rep explains.
The dining car is open so we settle in for breakfast before our 7:45 AM departure. We have a long train this morning, and still, it is oversold by a few seats. A large group boarding in Edmonds fills our car to capacity. Overheard conversations indicate that are taking cruises out of Vancouver. Others have summer homes in BC and recite a menu of bounty they’ll soon have in their freezers: salmon, halibut, elk, etc.
The Mt Baker International skirts the scenic shore of Puget Sound for most of the trip, and after an uneventful border crossing, where we are merely asked to fill out the customs form, we arrive on time in Vancouver at 11:45 AM.
Business Class passengers disembark first, claim their bags which have been off-loaded from the baggage car, and carry them through the immigration line, where we display our passports, turn in our customs forms, and reply to a few simple questions.
Beginning our Brewster Tour. We book clients who want an independent, but fully reserved Canadian itinerary, through Brewster Tours. This time, we’ve had Brewster book our own trip. Armed with a detailed itinerary and a booklet of prepaid vouchers, we’ll travel as our customers do.
After taxiing to the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel, we present our prepaid Brewster voucher to the front desk. Instead of paying the 17.5% combined taxes (which we’d have to do if we’d booked directly with the hotel) our tax has been reduced to less than 3.5% and it’s included in the voucher, as is the gratuity for the bellman to handle our luggage. Therefore we don’t need to bother with small change, currency exchange, etc. Simple!
Brewster offers an option of transfer vouchers, which we highly recommend. If you choose to handle your own taxis, make sure you have a bundle of Canadian dollars with you. If you don‘t have them, stop at the currency exchange desk in the station before going out to the taxi line. Taxi drivers are ill-prepared to handle foreign currency exchange.
Travel Tip: When you choose a harbor-front hotel in Vancouver, make sure it still has a waterfront vista. A large landfill project across the street from the Marriott Pinnacle has sprouted a new high-rise condo project, which blocks the view towards the cruise terminal from the Marriott Renaissance. While the latter is still adjacent to English Bay, it now has a large park in front where water used to be.
Fortunately, Brewster has placed us in a large corner room on the 27th floor, which means we can see over the top of the Renaissance. And what a view we have! English Bay, Stanley Park, the yacht club and marina, and across the Lion’s Gate Bridge; West Vancouver, North Vancouver, and the Grouse Mountain ski resort in the mountains behind it (lit up at night) are all just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. While we cannot see the cruise terminal itself, we hear the whistles and watch the departures of the Zaandam, the Island Princess, and two more cruise ships we can’t identify, heading under the Lion’s Gate Bridge and Alaska bound.
Travel Tip: Be ready for the 9 PM canon. You might be a bit alarmed at nine o’clock if you are not expecting a loud, sharp report. It is a long-standing tradition (sorry, we can’t recall why) to fire a blank charge from the 18th century canon at Stanley Park. It rattles the windows and echoes among the high-rise buildings.
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