my un-cruise adventure to beautiful british columbia!

8/11/2019 My Un-Cruise Adventure to Beautiful British Columbia!

1/15

A few weeks ago I found myself trying to plan a vacation for my husband and I for his 60th

birthday. We didnt want a regular ocean or river type cruise, so I looked into a company

named Un-Cruise. Ive known about them for about a year or so but had never been on one of

their boats. I signed us up just 9 days before departure.

Our Un-Cruise trip began and ended in Seattle. The itinerary on the 22-passenger Safari Quest

took us to Victoria, where an excursion to Buchart Gardens was included, with high tea before

returning to town. From there we motored up to our furthest destination, Princess Louisa Inlet

This is in a remote area of British Columbia.

Only 13 guests booked aboard for this departure. Like our private yacht!


2/15

High Tea in the Dining Room


3/15

Buchart Gardens is so beautiful. I know many of you have been there.

The scenary was spectacular as we headed north. I was surprised by how many homes and

cabins there are dotting the shores of the islands we passed. But, the farther north we traveled

the sparser these became. Periodically, we would pass a logging camp or some sort of

unidentified buildings. We saw many areas on the mountainsides that had been logged ~ som

still bare but others had been replanted and had new growth reaching for the sun (so happy to

see this)!


4/15

When we had left civilization behind (no wi-fi, cell service, or hoards of people) and were in

what seemed to me a very remote area, we came up on a group of very pretty cabin-like

buildings. This is the spot where we entered the Princess Louisa Inlet through the Malibu

Rapids. Many explorers (including Vancouver himself!) had passed the inlet by looking for the

Northwest Passage, as the entrance is small and difficult to find. Those who did find it had to

deal with raging currents on the tidal changes, still a problem even for modern vessels like our

We learned that the buildings are actually a summer camp owned by Young Life, a U.S. based

Christian organization that is all about mentoring young adults. This camp is in the middle of

nowhere! The campers take a boat there and stay for one week each. Four hundred or so kids

rotate in and out every week for three months during summer. We visited the camp on our wa

out (the season being over now) and got a nice tour of the grounds, which were quite

beautiful!

Lots of rainbows, calm waters and only a little rain.

Here are some of the views we enjoyed while anchored at the northeast end of the inlet:


5/15


6/15

Chatterbox Falls

We watched this huge sea lion (on left) come up with a large fish in his mouth. The pesky bird

were ready to steal it away!

Now Ill tell you more about the Sea Quest. As I mentioned, the boat can host up to 22 guests

plus 9 crew at a time. This is Un-Cruisessmallest boat by far. Their fleet can accommodate

anywhere from 22 to 88 guests ~ with some boats being a bit more luxurious than others. We

were lucky in that ours had an open bar included in the fare (some dont). I would classify ou

overall experience as soft adventure. You hada wonderful boat to stay on with pretty

fantastic meals, but still get to go out kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, hiking, or justexploring with a guide on the Zodiacs.


7/15


8/15

Finding a large piece of garbage (styrafoam) to carry back on your kayak

Exploring the fiord and watching the boat come through the very narrow passageway!


9/15

One of the highlights of the experience was definitely the crew. Adventurers themselves, they

were fun, pleasant, knowledgeable, and took care of everyone like we were royalty. I cant say

enough good things about them! We thought this company was very lucky to have each of

them!

Here is our cruise director (a fisheries biologist) entertaining us early one evening:


10/15


11/15

Our boat was not large but it had cabins on three decks. We stayed in the least expensive ~ o

the bottom deck. I have to be honest and say that it was a bit noisy from the engines, but

luckily we didnt travel at night too much. Our cabin had two tiny windows but we could not

see out of them. There were four other cabins below deck just like ours. There were two cabin

on the main deck with windows, but the nicest ones of all were found on the top deck. These

cabins werent larger, buthad sliding glass doors and French balconies, which I would have

loved!

The rest of the boat consisted of a galley, dining room, living area, library, hot tub, and bar and

game table area.


12/15


13/15

Cant forget the workout area with a view to die for!


14/15

Like all cruises, our meals were included, and were very good. The meals aboard the Safari

Quest were sit-down, although some of their ships do serve meals buffet style. Lots of Pacific-

Northwest seafood for us on this trip!

Scallops, excellently prepared.

There are several other Un-Cruise itineraries currently, including voyages in Alaska, the Sea of

Cortez, up the Columbia River, and through the Hawaiian Islands. All offer travel into more

remote areas where you will never see the larger cruise ships. Some of their trips are more

active than others, although people of all ages are cruising with Un-Cruise. As I said, the

experience is soft adventure and great for most people.


15/15

my un-cruise adventure to beautiful british columbia!

Documents