I’ve been on two cruises to Alaska, one round trip from San Francisco and one round trip from Seattle, that included stops in Victoria, Canada. On the first one, I remember wondering, “why are we stopping in Victoria on a cruise to Alaska?”
Visit Victoria: It’s the Law. Although that wouldn’t make a very appealing slogan to promote tourism in Victoria, in this case it’s accurate. The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, originally intended to favor American vessels over foreign ones in order to promote American shipping, mandates that passengers transported from one American port to another American port must be aboard an American flagged ship.
Today nearly all cruise ships (with the exception of a few that sail in Hawaii) are flagged in foreign countries, to steer clear of US tax and employment laws. As such, to avoid violating the Passenger Vessel Services Act, cruise itineraries that begin and end in the US must stop in a foreign port, classifying them as foreign voyages instead of domestic.
So that’s why you’re calling in Victoria. But before you go lobbying your congressman to change the law so you can spend more time in Alaska, give Victoria a chance. I think you’ll like her.
Typically on the last day of a cruise I pull on my maternity pants and give my food baby a few little pats while I sigh and sorrowfully declare, “vacation’s over, kid.” Then I drag my suitcase out from the closet and hurl it onto the bed while wiping away tears.
But on the last day of our 14-day sailing to Alaska onboard Holland America’s ms Zaandam, we had an afternoon call scheduled in Victoria. So instead of packing and envisioning myself stepping onto the scale only to break right through the floor before I could even determine how much weight I needed to lose before my next cruise, we were boarding a bus, headed for our Butchart and Butterfly Gardens Excursion.
This cruise was in celebration of my mom’s upcoming 70th birthday and my teaching/travel assistant “H” starting Kindergarten. During the planning phase, which for me is the equivalent of a full-time job, I asked my mom if there was anything she really wanted to do. The only thing she mentioned was Butchart Gardens, especially when I told her I didn’t remember having been there on my previous visits to Victoria. “Oh, you must!”
So Butchart was added to our list. But what about “H?” Since this whole Kindergarten thing was about to severely hamper his cruising schedule, we wanted to give him a last hurrah before his carefree days at sea were replaced with reading and writing and arithmetic. For the boy who now spends his recesses looking for insects to bring home in his pockets, the Victoria Butterfly Gardens seemed like the perfect spot.
We also had a good deal of non-refundable onboard credit to blow through, so we went with Holland America’s excursion to both Butchart and the Butterfly Gardens. Most other cruise lines sailing to Victoria have a similar excursion, although the cost may vary slightly.
This includes a short narrated tour through the city and admission to both gardens.
*Note that on most other cruise lines the cost is $99 for adults and $69 for kids.
It took our full-sized bus about 45 minutes to arrive at our first stop and roughly the same time to return to the ship after our excursion. This included some detours through crowded city streets to drive by some of the major tourist sites such as the Empress Hotel, the Parliament Building, and China Town. The drive went by fast thanks to our guide’s interesting commentary about Victoria and the Butchart Gardens. If you’re not a history buff, consider a few episodes of your favorite cartoon on an iPad as per the recommendation of “H.”
The Butterfly Gardens and the Butchart Gardens are 5 minutes apart, so not enough time to start a new episode of Paw Patrol. But assure your husband that he can watch it on the way back to the ship if he’s good.
While you’re probably expecting to see butterflies at a butterfly garden, you’re probably not expecting to be greeted by these:
If you’re calling your therapist’s crisis line from under your bed after viewing the above photos, sorry about that (and you do realize that under the bed is where spiders prefer to hide, right). And you should probably cover your eyes and link arms with your travel companion as you quickly make your way through the included Insectarium, which is the first room you’ll visit at the Butterfly Gardens.
It offers a fascinating (and for some, exceedingly creepy) collection of live insects and invertebrates behind glass enclosures. Take some time to play the exciting new game we invented there: “leaf, stick, or bug?” After giving up because you, “swear those bugs look just like sticks and leaves!” proceed to the main attraction, Treasures of the Rainforest.
Take off the ankle length hooded puffer coat you purchased for optimal glacier viewing (seriously, that’s my best tip for Alaska – even though it will require its own suitcase, you’ll thank me and be the last man standing on the outside decks after everyone else has surrendered to hypothermia) before entering the simulated rainforest because, true to life, it’s very hot and humid in there. You’ll forget you’re on your last day of an Alaskan cruise and think you’ve just embarked on a tour of the amazon.
You’ll see plenty of butterflies, yes, over 70 different species of them. And you can give your soon-to-be kindergartener a leg up on his classmates with a lesson on metamorphosis as you watch a new butterfly’s soft, folded wings emerge from its chrysalis. “Nature’s a skillful magician indeed,” you’ll comment as you ruffle the shaggy head of hair on your own little miracle and encourage him to move on so you can cover everything in your allotted 40 minutes.
As you meander through the lush, verdant tropical vegetation and flowers, your eyes will widen in wonderment upon spying these unexpected surprises, for the name of this place far undersells what you’ll actually find here:
Mind your fingers and toes though, “don’t eat me Seymore!” for there are carnivorous plants hiding among the innocent bromeliads.
As you glance down at your watch and realize the bus is about to leave without you, sprint through the gift shop and catch your breath on the quick drive over to your second stop, The Butchart Gardens.
As you reach the entrance to the Butchart Gardens you’ll start listing off all the shades of green you see and will try, but fail, to imagine this place in her former life as a limestone quarry and cement plant.
In 1904 Robert and Jennie Butchart, originally from Ontario, built a cement plant on a large limestone deposit. By 1912 the limestone was depleted and the land ravished, seeming to haunt Jennie and prompting her to imagine transforming it into a beautiful garden. While most of us would take our riches and move on to more fertile grounds or, in my case, embark on back to back to back world cruises, Jennie got to work. At first with just a horse and cart loaded with top soil.
The quarry was eventually fully transformed into the famous sunken garden.
And gradually the gardens were further expanded to include a Japanese garden near the sea:
A rose garden (don’t forget to stop and smell the roses):
And an Italian garden on the site of their former tennis court.
In 1939, Ian Ross, a grandson of the Butcharts was given the gardens for his 21st birthday and is credited for building it up to today’s world renowned attraction spread over 55 acres and enjoyed by more than a 1 million visitors every year.
More recent additions include a fireworks display initiated in 1977 by one of the Butchart’s great grandsons (certain evening cruise ship tours of the gardens include the fireworks display):
And the Children’s Pavilion and Menagerie Carousel ($2 per ride) were added in 2009 by the current owner, Robin-Lee Clarke.
This place was breathtaking and expansive and made me think about my dad, known to all for his kindness and mad gardening skills, who passed away from cancer in 2010 before we could make it here together. “He would have loved this,” I thought as I watched “H” run through row upon row of colorful blooms, gaze up at baskets appearing to rain with flowers, gently pull a chrysanthemum to his nose to breath in her herb-like scent.
But instead of sadness at his absence, I could almost feel him willing me to enjoy it double – once for me and once for him. “Okay dad.”
And enjoy it we did. In fact, my only criticism of the self guided 1.5 hour tour was that it was far to brief. I could have used at least 3 hours to fully appreciate this place. I think next time, I’ll come here on my own. Make a day of it with a relaxed lunch in the Dining Room or at the Blue Poppy Restaurant.
Yes, but next time I wouldn’t book a cruise ship excursion. Instead I’d hop in a taxi (or Uber – possibly coming to Victoria around September 2019). Or explore a private tour company. While it made sense for us to go through the ship this time due to our generous onboard credit courtesy of Cruise Direct, the cost of the excursion seemed excessive and we felt rushed at both locations.
So after stopping to watch a caterpillar emerge from its pupa as a shy butterfly who would quickly grow confident and fly away at the Victoria Butterfly Gardens and to smell the roses at The Butchart Gardens, we re-boarded our ship and headed back home to Seattle. Where, a few days later, I watched my faithful travel companion and trusty teaching assistant transform into a kindergartener. And of all the wonders I’ve seen on my travels, nothing compares to this:
Enjoy your time in Victoria and be thankful for all you have back home. And with that, class is dismissed.
*Check out my Alaska port posts here. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog (scroll up to the top right) and follow me on social media:
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