The start of the Vancouver 2009 cruise season - the arrival of the "Balmoral" April 24, 2005

One of the sure signs that the tourist season is getting underway officially here in Vancouver is the arrival of the cruise ships at Canada Place - while we are a week away from the home porting ships taken up residence in our City for the next 5 months we usually get a few strangers making a rare visit to our City and yesterday was no exception as the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines ship the "Balmoral" - formerly the Norwegian Crown - paid us a visit as part of a 35 day world cruise - this is the first time that I can remember this company have one of its ships visiting us.

Furthermore it is also overnighting here giving its passengers even more time to see our great city.

Here in photo essay form is my tour of Canada Place and the "Balmoral" which was docked on the east side of Canada Place.

View taken from walkaway at foot of Granville Street and looking towards the ship.

I am now walking along the east side of Canada Place towards the ship.

Close up view of the bow of the ship.

The ship was enlarged after it was brought by Fred Olsen from Norwegian cruise lines.

Unlike many other ports you can get up close and personal with the ships on either side of Canada Place.

View of the ship from near the north end of the promenade that surrounds Canada Place.

The ship and a view back towards the Vancouver skyline - you get a better skyline view on the west side.

If you look closely you will see that the crew are doing a muster drill which is usually done while a ship is in port so as not to inconvenience the passengers.

One more from the walkway.

I now head over to adjacent Granville Square where I took this final image - this is where you get the best views for ships that are berthed on the east side of Canada Place.

The sun was shining and the tour buses were doing a brisk business.

The ship will sail under the Lions Gate Bridge Saturday night heading for Seattle, San Francisco and Mexican ports, then through the Panama Canal - visit some Caribbean ports and head across the Atlantic and into Dover, England - it's home port.

A big welcome to any one one the ship who may have found this blog site especially from its link from the Cruise Critic web site.