DnT Travel Log

12/18/2021

Rock Mountaineer Train Ride from Vancouver to Jasper now added to our YouTube channel. 🥳 This is the train portion of our trip only. The second half of our trip is yet to come 😃

Various videos and photos from the train portion of our Rocky Mountaineer Rail trip in May 2019. I have included the raw audio, so you can experience what i...

06/05/2021

Newest video just uploaded to youtube as first in a series on our Rocky Mountaineer trip back in 2019. It is my first attempt on doing voice over, so I hope to get better with more practice.

As part of our Rocky Mountaineer vacation package, we began our adventure with a 2 night stay at the J.W. Marriott Parq Hotel. Here is our overview and hope...

05/09/2021

J.W. Marriott Park Hotel, Vancouver

It’s a first class luxury hotel and one of the best we stayed at this trip. I will mention that the Rocky Mountaineer package included 1 night here and included private transportation from the airport. It was in a comfortable SUV. The driver met us at baggage claim with a sign and led us to the car. I wish I could remember the company, as he was not particularly helpful or friendly. We had to actually ask him for help with our bags and he was very quiet on the ride. Even to the point that there were 1 word answers to our questions on different sights we were seeing. I honestly think that a person in that position would welcome the opportunity to share information about their home with visitors. Especially as I know there is so much to see and do in Vancouver. Bottled water was provided and he dropped us off at the hotel, took our bags to the concierge and said goodbye. Alas, his tip was included in the package, so I guess he didn’t miss out on that regardless of service.

We did book 2 nights at this hotel, to be able to adjust to the time difference and start our vacation on a more leisurely schedule. It also gave us time to do a couple of extra things before starting our train excursion.

I did ask the front desk to ensure the room was down and feather free, as I’m highly allergic. This apparently had not been conveyed by our travel agent and they asked us to wait in the lobby so they could send someone to change bedding. This is my one complaint. Our flight had landed at 10:00 AM. We arrived at the hotel by 11:00 am and after making this request and them telling us it could take a bit, we went to eat ay BC Kitchen restaurant (more in my next post). We took our time, as the food and service were great and the restaurant was not busy. Around 2 pm, we checked in with the front desk son the room and were told it wasn’t ready yet, so we sat and waited. We went for a walk, then sat again. Finally, around 5:00 PM, I went up and said we have literally been up since 2 am, Vancouver time, we have been more than patient. We need a room now. It does not take 7 hours to change linens on 2 beds.
She immediately apologized, gave us keys and informed us we were upgraded to a Water View, Superior Room. For context, the room with our package was called Standard 2 Queens, base price is $264 per night. Our upgrade base price is $296 per night. And I have to say, it was definitely a superior room. Not a great first day. However the upgrade was appreciated (especially the view) and for next couple of days all staff went out of their way with first class service and attention. So, I'm putting it down to one of the typical glitches you experience when travelling, because we all know they happen and no trip is without them.

The room was beautiful, overlooking False Creek, right beside BC place. We had a Keurig coffee maker, mini fridge and large screen tv. The bathroom was designed in a way I’ve never seen before. When you walk in was a large sink with a massive counter on the right hand side and on the left hand side there were two glazed, glass doors. One for a huge shower the other one was to the toilet. The beds were not typical hotel beds. They had very thick, comfortable mattresses, plush pillows, with plenty of room between beds.

Our pictures include the bathroom layout, beds and our room view of the False Creek Harbour with a day and night view.
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/yvrjw-jw-marriott-parq-vancouver/

I am going to cover the restaurants in the next post. The restaurants were high end, called Salt, BC Kitchen, Market East, Center Bar, Lotus Whiskey Tea Lounge and D/6 Lounge.
JW Marriott Hotel | Parq Vancouver

05/06/2021

Rocky Mountaineer Overview
Doreen and I went on this trip in May of 2019. It was one of my Bucket List trips and the first extended one we took together. Basically, you stay on the train all day and overnight at hotels. While on the train, you receive breakfast and lunch, plus snacks, as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks throughout the day. Rocky Mountaineer does not offer airfare with their vacation package, nor do they include any meals or beverages at the overnight hotels. The cost per person depends on the length of the trip you chose, which is anywhere between $2,500 and $7,000 per person, again, not including airfare. You could also add a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska at an extra cost, but we did not do that. Routes could include combinations of 3 to 7 different stops of Vancouver, Kamloops, Whistler, Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary. We chose the route called Rainforest to Gold Rush which included all of the above and was $6,947.33 each without airfare, which was $713.17 each. As airfares fluctuate constantly and also depend on where you are flying from, I wanted to separate it from the package Rocky Mountaineer offers. That price includes the Gold Leaf service, excursions and overnight stays at triple A hotels (we stayed at Fairmounts), but not meals or drinks at those hotels. We also chose Gold Leaf Onboard Experience | Rocky Mountaineer, which is the first class car, food and service as opposed to the Silver Leaf SilverLeaf | Rocky Mountaineer. On Gold Leaf, you have a separate dining area downstairs, with a daily menu where you choose your meal. Silver Leaf you are served at your seat from a set menu.
I will be posting detailed descriptions and website links on each hotel, excursion, etc. and include pictures and videos. We do not receive commission on any links we post.

Next Post: J.W. Marriott Park Hotel in Vancouver.

Rocky Mountaineer Website:
https://www.rockymountaineer.com/
Silver Leaf:
https://www.rockymountaineer.com/silverleaf
Gold Leaf:
https://www.rockymountaineer.com/goldleaf

04/26/2021

Ready to get back on track and stop procrastinating.

I know it's been a while since posting - 5 months and 2 days to be exact - but we do still have a lot of things to share and I'm ready to start working on bringing our experiences to you once again.

I think you'll find the new approach more informative and, hopefully more interesting. Instead of simply uploading pretty videos and pictures with short overview summaries, we want to give you more indepth information. This will include more describing what you are viewing, along with our experiences, whether great, good, disappointing or not doing that again.

We will also break our adventures down into smaller, more detailed posts, such as featuring individual hotels, including rooms, staff, service, food, etc. This will include giving side trips, excursions and tourist stops their own posts with individual description, including price, time needed, appropriate age/physical abilities and more, as well as personal opinions and critique.

So, I hope you stay tune and enjoy future posts coming in the next week, beginning (as previously promised) Rocky Mountaineer....

11/24/2020

11/24/2020

11/24/2020

From Terri, here are a few photos of Niagara Falls Birthday Celebration, including view of the Falls from our room, then view of our hotel fro the Falls, the WEGO bus, our scenic drive along the Niagara Parkway to Niagara on the Lake, the Christmas Store and a tiny chapel on the Parkway, that holds maybe 2 people ;)

11/24/2020

Hi Doreen here, Terri made my Birthday so special this year as it was a Milestone year for me. For starters we stayed at the Marriott Spa for 2 nights then we had dinner at Morton,s Grill. We had steaks which was delicious ,and had Cheesecake for dessert and the waiter took a picture of Terri and myself. Thank you xox

11/14/2020

Doreen had a special birthday on November 5th, so I arranged a trip for a couple of nights to the Marriott Fallsview Resort and Spa. We enjoyed an awesome steak dinner at Morton's Grill, pampering at the Serenity Spa and beautiful drive along the Niagara Parkway to Niagara on the Lake.

We will upload pics and other videos, but for now, here's a (last minute, because I forgot) video of our room.

11/03/2020

Room tour on our final stop of our Ottawa road trip at the Sheraton Centre, across the street from Nathan Phillips Square.