Oosterdam Coastal - San Diego

[guardhouse]

Has anyone done the San Diego to Vancouver? We have prices of $404 PP upper outside deluxe, but wondering if it is worth it for 4 days onboard. Ports are San Diego, Victoria and Vancouver.

[Petert]

Hi gaurdhouse,

We took a four day cruise with an itinerary of Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle. We had a great time and a great cruise experience. Victoria and Vancouver are really nice ports of call, and I am sure you will enjoy them. You will also have a couple of sea days to enjoy the shipboard ambiance, which should give you a nice change of pace. I would plan on spending a few days in Vancouver post cruise to round off the experience. There is plenty to see and do in Vancouver if you have the time.

I think you have a great cruise booked, and you should really enjoy your vacation.

Peter.

[dot73]

What a great cruise. Victoria and Vancouver are my two most favourite cities in Canada. (I live in Toronto) Victoria is lovely to stroll around. If you enjoy old hotels and old-world charm, you must have high tea at the Empress Hotel. Also, a trip to Butchart Gardens (just oustide Victoria) is a must if you enjoy gardening or just strolling through beautiful grounds. Vancouver is a very metropolitan city. The shopping is amazing and there are many great neighbourhoods to stroll around in. Also, if you like the mountains, you can take a bus excursion to Whistler (1.5 hrs. from Vancouver), which has been rated as one of the best ski resorts in the world. It is beautiful, even without the snow. The 2010 will be held at Whistler/Vancouver. You can take a gondola ride up Blackomb Mountain and get amazing views. Last time I was there, I saw a bear with a cub from the gondola. The town of Whistler is also wonderful to just stroll around, shop and enjoy good food. If you want to stay closer to Vancouver, you can go up to Grouse Mountain in a gondola and have a wonderful meal at the restaurant there while overlooking the city. If you are lucky, you can see deer strolling around. Have a great time, if you go.

[Druke I]

We've taken several short coastals, San Francisco North, or the reverse, and have enjoyed them. We like to take the ship one way, and Amtrak the other.
Great way to try a ship for a "quickie".

If I lived in San Diego, I would jump that in a moment.

[Oppgaard]

We just booked the 4 night coastal for April 30, 2005, San Diego-Vancouver. Great rates! $555.60 for a category S, Deluxe Verandah Suite. Balconies are only $375.20. For this price we took the S.

[johnnycruise]

That itinerary sounds great for a short cruise. Nice, clean ports of call with a myriad of things to do. I do agree with Petert ... too many people use Vancouver solely as an airport-to-pier transfer point and miss its attractions.

[DaveOKC]

Where did you find this cruise (April 30 Coastal)? I cannot find it on the HAL site.
DaveOKC

[Oppgaard]

It isn't on the HAL site as of yet. You would have to contact your agent or HAL directly. I found it by accident.

[Saps at Sea]

We are also booked on the Oosterdam Costal in April. We did the Ryndam costal several years ago and had a wonderful time. To check the itineraries on the Holland web site, click on "costals" and several sailings are avalible (spring & fall). The Holland site lists prices for the S & SS cabins around $920. Online prices are almost half that figure, mid $500's. For the price I can not think of a better short vacation value. Vegas will cost you that much just walking past the blackjack tables.

[johnnycruise]

Where did you find this cruise (April 30 Coastal)? I cannot find it on the HAL site.
DaveOKC
You can request the the 2005 Coastal Cruise brochures on HAL's web site. 15 different offerings and none of them include nasty Nassau.

[BJane]

We are also booked for the April 30 Coastal cruise, but we are staying on the ship for the trip back to Seattle. We've been to Vancouver several times and plan to spend "turn around day" as a port stop in a city we enjoy very much.

[DaveOKC]

I went ahead and booked two suites for the April 30 sailing! Great deal, thanks for the tip.
DaveOKC

[Oppgaard]

Dave,

We are in S suite 7087. Where are you?

Jerry

[DaveOKC]

7055 and 7053.
DaveOKC

[Oppgaard]

It appears that we may have two of our friends joining us. We are on the board for a local senior center and two of our fellow board members prefer HAL over the other cruise lines and when I mentioned the price to them they seemed to be interested and I received an email this morning asking me to check availability for them.

[Oppgaard]

Our friends booked and they are in 7085.

[MaxKare]

My wife and I will be doing this same trip on April 20-24 on the Statendam. An S suite for 575 each.

[Oppgaard]

It seems that we are starting to fill up the S suites.

I have started a thread on the HAL ROLL CALLS. Everyone please come over and join in.

Jerry

[Travelbug 2]

Nice to hear all the good comments about Vancouver and Victoria.
I certainly agree they are two great cities. I am lucky enough to live on Vancouver Island. The nickname for the island is "Paradise" ----that says it all. If any of you get chance to visit either of these ports don't pass it up, you can not help but enjoy your time there.

Happy cruising.

[DaveOKC]

Would you mind sharing some ideas on what to do in Victoria and Vancouver? We are in Victoria from 10 am to Midnight and in Vancouver we are planning on spending the entire day, staying overnight and perhaps another day.
Thanks
DaveOKC

[Travelbug 2]

Would you mind sharing some ideas on what to do in Victoria and Vancouver? We are in Victoria from 10 am to Midnight and in Vancouver we are planning on spending the entire day, staying overnight and perhaps another day.
Thanks
DaveOKC


There are many interesting things to do in these great cities. Vancouver is a big city blessed with the mountains and the ocean on it's doorstep, spectacular in every respect. Here is a useful website with tons of info and useful links. http://www.tourismvancouver.com/about_us/tic.cfm

Victoria is a charming beautiful smaller city (also the capitol of BC ) and easy for walking.
The harbourfront is a great place to stroll and as mentioned earlier in this thread "afternoon tea" at the Empress Hotel on the harbourfront is an experience not to be missed. Victoria has a very "all things British" atmosphere, a horse drawn carrage ride is fun. There is so much to do and see in both these cities.
Here is a good website for Victoria-- http://www.vancouverisland.com/regions/towns/?townID=1

Enjoy your visit to the "best of the west" in Canada.

Happy cruising.

[dakrewser]

Would you mind sharing some ideas on what to do in Victoria and Vancouver? We are in Victoria from 10 am to Midnight and in Vancouver we are planning on spending the entire day, staying overnight and perhaps another day.
Thanks
DaveOKCWE spent a couple of days in Victoria on a pre-cruise a few years ago. Here's some othe things we did:

http://vquill.com/gallery/victoria_one.html

http://vquill.com/gallery/butchart.html

[BJane]

Since we will be taking both the 4/30 cruise to Vancouver and then the 5/4 trip back to Seattle we will get two full days to enjoy Victoria. On a cruise a few years ago we rented a car (Avis picked us up at the pier) and drove to Buschart Garden. That way we could set our own schedule and even had time to have a nice lunch out there. So we will be doing that again on one of the days. On the other we will just wander. They have a wonderful museum there and the Parliament Building is quite interesting. We will also be in Victoria on the Amsterdam in July but that visit is only for four hours at night so we'll get all our siteseeing done while on the Oosterdam.

[Sprocket]

Just booked today for April 20-24 on the Statendam. This will be DH's first
time on HAL and our first time in an S suite. AMAzing price!

We will be flying into San Diego a day or two early, and as this will be our
first trip there hope to do some sightseeing. The Zoo and perhaps the
Aquarium, maybe Coronado if we can fit it in.

Would appreciate some suggestions on booking a hotel, one that would pick
us up at the airport upon arrival and would also take us to the cruise ship
terminal. Has anyone used Hotwire for this? I used them last year for
Fort Lauderdale and got Embassy Suites for $50, just not sure what hotels
they use for San Diego.

Thanks for any help.
Bev

[cruisinjudy]

We are looking at this one to take my mother on. She has a friend in Seattle she wants to visit so we are booking the back to back.

[guardhouse]

Singerbj and cruisinjudy.....where did you find the B2B from Vancouver to Seattle? It is only a 1-2 day??

Thanks for the help.

[guardhouse]

I should have mentioned this sooner.......SO SORRY!

The April 30 has a group cruise on it that my brother started. It has about a $200 discount per cruiser. The group ID number is G0858715. Hopefully those of you who have already booked may be able to re-book and get the discount! I know they are still looking for a few more people.

Good luck!

[cruisinjudy]

Guardhouse, the Seattle part is a three day, see my message on the other thread. How does your brothers price compare to The site I mentioned?

[guardhouse]

Not sure where your other thread is.

On the April 30, the HAL Web rate for VC is $598. The group rate for the same, all fees included, is $404.

[guardhouse]

Disregard ~ found it.

I did not price an S category. Just the VC.

[cruisinjudy]

After booking both coastal cruises on Oosterdam, I called back with a request to change cabins and HAL said the B2B can't be done due to the Jones Act. We had to cancel the May 4th cruise. Darn. What do we do now. We wanted 7 days for this cruise with my mother!

[MaxKare]

Sprocket:

We are also going to San Diego a few days early. I was able to book a room at the Hyatt Regency Islandia next to Sea World for 90 a night using Priceline.

[guardhouse]

Judy.....that was the same answer we got. I just don't get that!

[cruisinjudy]

I am so disappointed. I got my mother all excited, so we will do the four day and just vacation off the ship. But I wanted that S suite for seven days!

[Oppgaard]

We just got two more of our friends to book and they are in #7088. HAL tried to give a price of over $800 but with correct coding got it back to the original price.