One of the most interesting things about the Canadian ports was how friendly they were. Getting into the country was very easy and unlike our Mexican cruise, marijuana is less of an issue because it is legal nationwide. We were barraged with signs on the cruise ship and Mexican ports around marihuana being illegal, but here you just had to declare it and it seemed like a small amount for personal use was allowed. It wasn’t an issue for me either way since I don’t partake but if you do its something to keep in mind.
Prince Rupert was our first Canadian port and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. Once again I opted for walking the town and this one was very small. I really wanted to get those crab legs but the few places that were open said they were out of stock and ultimately I just wandered around a bit looking at a few shops. I tried to get something to eat at one point but the one open restaurant just didn’t look very good so ultimately I went back to the ship and ate on the boat. Nice how you can do that if you want.
The next day though we were in Nanaimo and I really liked that town. We were only the sixth cruise ship to dock there that year and they had a wonderful shuttle with a guide who explained the town. It was raining pretty hard but I still had a lot of fun as I visited a Church thrift store, a few small shops, and a craft market they had setup just for our ship. The craft fair in particular was lovely and I spent more money there than anywhere else on the cruise as I loved what they had and wanted to support the folks who had braved the rain to sell to us.
Nanaimo is actually on the same Island as Victoria and only about 30 miles as the crow flies from that city. It is also across the bay from Vancouver and we saw sea planes taking off and landing all day along with helicopter flights to either of the two big cities. There are ferries as well, but they take longer and I was surprised by how many people were flying back and forth. The port building at Nanaimo doubled as a helipad office which was also pretty interesting.
It really is a very nice place and everyone we talked to seemed glad we were there. It isn’t super touristy yet and they were still working out the kinks of having cruise ships in their port but it was a very pleasant experience.
It was interesting going to two small ports back to back, but next up was Victoria and another bucket list item was checked off my list. You don’t want to miss that one!
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