Have you ever taken an Alaska Cruise? Well millions of folks have in recent years. This season there are 39 large Cruise ships on the Alaska Run departing from either Vancouver or Seattle. Considering the ships carry between 1000 -5000 passengers each that represents about 60,000 people or more travelling to Alaska each week. 

Here is this year’s fleet.

Noordam. Zaandam Koningsdam New Amsterdam Eurodam Westerdam 

Queen Elizabeth ll  Le Soleil. Quantum of the Seas Radiance of The Seas Brilliance of the Seas

Norwegian Jewel Norwegian Encore Norwegian Sun Norwegian Bliss Norwegian Spirit

Ruby Princess. Grand Princess. Crown Princess  Discovery Princess  Majestic Princess 

Sapphire Princess  Royal Princess Carnival Miracle. Carnival Luminosa. Celebrity Summit

Carnival Spirit. Celebrity Edge. Celebrity Solstice

Seven Seas Explorer. Silver Nova. Seaborne Odyssey. Silver Shadow  Silver Muse
Chrystal Serenity. Disney Wonder Regatta. Viking Orion Roald Amundsen 

The cruise ships use Vancouver and Seattle as home ports. Unfortunately, the Seattle based ships do not use the inside passage but go outside Vancouver Island. On the positive side, most of them stop in Victoria on the return to Seattle. Vancouver based ships use the inside passage. 

The impact of the industry on Vancouver and Victoria is significant. Victoria estimates that it’s a $360 million benefit to the local economy. For Vancouver, it’s estimated that each cruise ship visit is worth about $3 million dollars to the city. Consider there are about 600 visits per season and you can see that the numbers are huge. 

The cruise industry is an enormous financial benefit to Alaska. The city of Juneau sees about 1.7 million passengers per year who spend about $375 million. The city collects $22 million in moorage fees and taxes. Ketchikan benefits to the tune of about $188 million per season. During Covid the ships were not running and it was devastating economically for Alaska. 

Love them or not, the cruise ship industry is a fabulous economic bonus for British Columbia and Alaska. 

I’ve done the trip Alaska from Vancouver. It’s wonderful. Interesting, great scenery, relaxing, hard to beat. Doing it again in September on the Holland America ship ZAANDAM. Can’t wait! 

Just saying…

It’s been several years since I visited the GENOA BAY CAFE but today a visit from an old colleague from Texas provided the opportunity to revisit this delightful spot. Our friends, Peter & Johnna were in Victoria visiting from Dallas and wanted to meet somewhere between Victoria and PARKSVILLE. Not much is open on Tuesday but fortunately the Genoa Bay Cafe was. It was a nice drive for both parties. The road from Maple Bay to Genoa Bay is windy and rural. Lovely. 

Having visited Genoa Bay many times in my boating days I was looking forward to introducing Sheila and the Texans to this charming out of the way spot. Even though it was cloudy we were seated at a perfect corner table on the deck hanging over the water with a view of the yachts in  the marina. Our server, who was charming and efficient took our drink orders while we perused the Cafe menu. I almost ordered the Seafood Jambalaya but instead chose the Mussels in a Thai coconut curry sauce. So did everyone else. What are the odds that 4 people will all order the same thing for lunch? Wow! We were impressed. Maybe the best mussels ever. A very generous portion with lots of broth and garlic toast on the side. Absolutely delicious! Did our friends from Texas like it? Oh yes. They loved the food, the locale, the ambiance. Genoa Bay is a long, long, way from Dallas. 

The Genoa Bay Cafe is a wonderful joint. Charming, good service, excellent food in a unique on the water location. It’s certainly worth the drive. There is a store on the dock as well as a small gallery if you want to go shopping.  If you visit, take a walk down the dock and check out the visiting yachts. 

Go to the website https://www.genoabaycafe.com to look at the menu and the photos. 

Also some interesting history of Genoa Bay https://www.genoabaycafe.com/history

Just saying…

Welcome back, friends. Have not posted for a while but today finally went somewhere new and worthy of reporting. 

In east end of PARKSVILLE is a New Mexican Restaurant, JALAPEÑOS! Yes, it’s the same Jalapeños as the successful one in Nanaimo. My Toronto based son was in town and we tried it for lunch. Not bad.

Jalapeños is in a bright yellow building on Island Highway East near the big orange bridge. Inside it’s bright pink and chartreuse. Very Mexican. The joint is spotless with tables inside and out on a patio too. The menus are on the table but you order at the counter. Then the food is delivered to your table. Service was very quick and the two Mexican ladies running it were very pleasant. 

Here is the menu which includes the typical dishes one would expect.

 We chose Enchiladas with chips & Salsa to start. Excellent home made tortilla chips and really good salsa. The Enchiladas were served up with re-fried beans, rice and salad. And they were very tasty. Not fabulous but just simple tasty Mexican fare. 

Jalapeños is open for breakfast lunch and early dinner. No liquor licence so no Margaritas but a no alcohol Corona Beer filled the bill. 

If you like Mexican, it’s worth a try. I’ll go back for sure. 

Jalapeño Mexican Restaurant is at 731 Island Highway East, PARKSVILLE.

Just saying…