June 20, 2026 The journey home


  This was our final morning onboard Koningsdam.

  The ship docked before 7 a.m. and had to be cleared by Canadian Border Services before unloading passengers and their luggage. The “all clear” was given just after 7:30 a.m. for “self-assist” people to leave the ship, carrying their own luggage, which we had chosen.

   There was an option to place the luggage in the hall for staff to remove it, after midnight, then have it delivered to the terminal to pickup on the way to Canadian Customs. The time slots for picking up the luggage did not start until 8:10 a.m. 

   Instead of our key card being scanned as we departed the ship, security was using tablets to scan people’s faces. This was the method used when we boarded in Skagway. But in Ketchikan, when we returned to the ship just the key card was scanned.

   We were off the ship about 8 a.m. The sky was clear, temperature was 13°C and the wind speed was WSW 19 km/hr.  We took our phones off airplane mode and could connect to our cell network. 

   We met our daughter, Cat, for breakfast at Breka Bakery & Café, before catching the train to the airport from Waterfront Station. The journey was just under 30 minutes. There were no people in the Nexus line. We had cleared security and were at our Gate within one hour of leaving downtown Vancouver.  The plane departed about 1:15 p.m. (3:15 Central Time)

     We were home by 6:30 p.m., the taxi ride was about 15 minutes. We ate a delicious  dinner at a nearby Ukrainian restaurant called Food Culture.


 Total Steps = 11,810         Flights of stairs = 4 

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