Monday Jan 22
We left Sydney on QF direct to Vancouver at 7:30PM on Monday Jan 22 - paid business class. Traffic to the airport was heavy but we were all checked-in and in lounge within about an hour of leaving home.
As luck would have it our flight was delayed by an hour and a half and even worse it had the old Skybeds (ie angled flat) - boo hiss - never again QF 747 for us. The service was perfunctory at best but the food was pretty good, definitely better than AC.
We got through customs and immigration in YVR pretty quickly even though our luggage took a while to arrive not aided by the fact QF had not put priority tags on. Cab fares from the airport are now fixed at $31 and we had a quick trip to the Trump Hotel where our executive room was extremely nice - large with great views and a Nespresso machine. It was now approaching 5pm so we hightailed it to Joe Fortes to take in Happy Hour which ends at 6pm - we had a couple of drinks and appetisers. It was "Dine Around Vancouver" week (2 weeks really) and all participating restaurants were offering 3 course meals for $20, $30 or $40 (depending on the the restaurant). JF’s had an excellent $40 menu so we tried to book for dinner but alas even though it was Monday they were fully booked. So we went back to our hotel for a rest then had the $30 menu at the Trump Champagne Bar - excellent and amazing value. Then it was off to bed.
Tuesday Jan 23
We slept in until after 8am - then went to breakfast - there was an issue with our egg order so they comped both our brekkies - great service recovery.
We caught the 10:40am bus to Whistler arriving at Embarc at 1pm to find our condo was ready - totally happy. We had lunch at the Mallard - ah settling in. Afterwards we picked up our seasons passes then did our first “big shop” - $400 of food, goodies and grog. then it was back to the condo to unpack (groceries and clothes and ski gear) then a bit of relaxing followed by some Aussie Open viewing and a dinner of sambos.