Soul Searching Traveler

The big day is finally here! We woke up at 4:00 to arrive at the Nashville airport by 6:00 a.m. All of our bags were packed and loaded, so we got on the road pretty quickly. Sometimes getting out the door is so hard for me. I want to check and recheck. I’ve learned that if I want my travel morning to go well, I need to plan ahead: do the rechecking and have the car packed the night before; set my clothes out ready to put on; have my coffee ready to brew; build an upbeat music playlist ahead of time ready to click play. A travel morning could be an exciting energy building experience if the preparation has been completed. And this morning we were ready for it!

The Flight

We had been worried about a same day flight, but this turned out to be a great day for us. We arrived at BNA by 6:00 a.m., checked our luggage with Air Canada ($35 per bag), flew through security (I recommend TSA Precheck!) grabbed Voodoo Donuts for the plane, and boarded at 7:45. Everything went as planned.

Flying mindfully for us means finding an affordable flight with the most comfortable seat option possible. For this trip, we purchased tickets for $250 each and then upgraded to comfort seating ($113 each way per person) that had more legroom so Jeff would be able to stretch his legs a little bit on this five hour flight. The plane was great, very roomy and clean. The video screens on the back of the headrests were nice, and I actually enjoyed the safety film created by Air Canada, which acknowledged the native lands we would be flying over and used those lands as a setting for actors to move through fastening seatbelts, putting on air masks, and positioning for emergency landings. We couldn’t figure out how to connect the wifi which meant Jeff’s earbuds wouldn’t work, but my ginormous plug in Bose headset worked well.

We didn’t order any food, but Air Canada includes wine and beer in their free drinks, so I enjoyed a white wine once around 11:30. They offered some pretzels and cookies, but we had our Voodoo donuts, which were worth every calorie! I normally avoid gluten and dairy, but I’m not allergic. Voodoo offers vegan donuts, so I had the vegan maple cream (yes, it had gluten), while Jeff with no dietary restrictions ordered an apple fritter. These donuts were huge! Jeff didn’t finish his, but they were soooo good! I enjoyed every bite.

Vancouver

Arriving in Vancouver was so much easier than I had anticipated, partly because we had done some forward planning. My recommendation is to download the ArriveCAN app at least three days before your trip, so you can complete the advance CBSA declaration. This alerts Canada officials to your trip, so when you go through immigration you only have to do a quick check in at the kiosk and can move along. If you decide not to complete this ahead of time, you will simply spend more time at the immigration kiosk. Either way, this process was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. The Canadian airport had many people positioned along the way to support guests. I love learning about new cultures, so for my first time being in Canada, I was taking it all in: the french and english announcements, the friendly smiles, the beautiful native artwork, the helpful attitudes, and just a tone of respect that created an almost peaceful ambiance.

This changed a little once we arrived at the cruise terminal. We took the skyline train from the airport to the harbor, which was super easy and cheap (only $6.40). We had to tote our luggage down the street a couple of blocks, but it wasn’t too bad. The cruise terminal was the convention center and three different cruise lines were embarking simultaneously, so there was a feeling of rushed confusion. Jeff and I agreed that this was our least favorite cruise terminal, and we hope we never have to sail out of here again. There was a line for luggage, another for cruise check in, and finally another for security. It took about an hour to get through everything and board.

Finally, the travel was complete and our vacation could get started! We had to sit down for a few minutes to take in the fact that we had been in Kentucky at 4:00 this morning, and now here we were across the continent in Vancouver, British Columbia this afternoon. We stopped to be reflective and thankful for a safe flight and such helpful, friendly people along the way.

Read my next post for an overview of the ship!

Read our dining experiences in this post!