JDinWA

I hadn't heard about this new cruise but it's great to see a new offering, especially one to an area I'm unfamiliar with. It's nice to get a full day in Victoria instead of the usual few evening hours. We've booked the Oct 2025 sailing, thanks for getting the word out!

I can't speak to that cabin, but we were on Westerdam to Alaska late September. This was the friendliest HAL ship I've been on. Even security personnel and ship maintenance workers were cordial. The cruise itself was wonderful.

Quality Town Car has good reviews on Yelp.(https://www.yelp.com/biz/quality-town-car-seattle-4) I haven't ridden with them yet, but did book them to transport us from home to the pier next month, their prices were comparable to every other service we looked at and I liked that it's a female-owned business. They will provide a complimentary car seat.

I think both of the cruises were on the Westerdam.

Thanks for the replies. It just kind of shocked me: in the neptune suite category, one of the cruises I tried, it was $400 more per person and the other was $740 more per person.

(Apologies if this has been discussed, I didn't find anything from a forum search.) I started a booking on the Holland America site today, and at the cabin selection page, it was a low price to just choose the category and a significantly higher price to select a specific cabin. Is that now standard operating procedure for HAL? We didn't used to have to pay more to specify a cabin.

I didn't use the app, I just went to https://www.emed.com/ and clicked "Start testing". (I had already set up our profiles on emed.com.) It was slightly confusing during the test because they had us use the back camera for some parts and the front camera for others. The results were emailed to us almost immediately.

Ordering the tests from Optum is simple, but I was concerned about scheduling the test and couldn't find any useful information on their site so had to have an email conversation with them. They said: No appointment is required. You can take the test at any time, 24/7, even on holidays. It's confusing, because the test box itself says "before your appointment". Anyway, I thought I'd share in case anyone else needed to know. Here are the quotes from their email: "Only one person can take the test at a time, using their own account. Each individual will need to create an account for testing. The eMed customer service is available 24/7. They are even available on holidays. There is no need to set up an appointment. The customer service number for eMed is 1 (866) 955-1173."

I used to slip my card key inside my Kindle case, then I discovered the hard way that the magnet clasp of the case made my card key inoperable.

Oh that reminded me of one issue with the online booking: it isn't obvious when you make your reservation that you should set time as well as date. I just chose the arrival and departure dates and booked it, then I noticed that my confirmation charged 8 days instead of 7. I had to revise the reservation to set appropriate times on each date, otherwise it assumed a full 24 hours on each date.

I used that link to make my reservation last week, so hopefully it should still work. 🙂 My initial email confirmation came from WestPark Canada Place, but a follow-up email came from INDIGO (CA) - VAN - Canada Place, so they're still tweaking the name change in various places. They've changed the instructions, though. We used to have to scan the confirmation barcode on entry and exit. Now, it says " Effective August 15, 2022, you will no longer need to scan your bar code when arriving or departing." So I guess they're just going to manually check license plate# to see that parked cars have already paid...?

A few years ago, I found a route recommendation in this forum for driving from Seattle to the Vancouver cruise port. Could someone familiar with the area confirm if the notes I saved are still good? They seem to work using online maps, but those aren't always up-to-date and there might be better alternatives due to traffic or construction or whatever. (Travelling on a weekday, if it matters.) Take I-5 north to 99, go over bridge, right on Marine, left on Cambie. Cambie becomes Smithe, turn right on Seymour, left on Cordova, right on Howe, arrive.

I've always booked and paid for my parking at the Vancouver cruise port online. You start at https://canadaplace.parkindigo.com/reserve-a-space.html

Oh geez, that wouldn't have occurred to me! Thanks for mentioning it.

Just remember to take your passport with you. One cruise leaving from Vancouver, I checked in, then after dumping my stuff in our cabin, decided to run out on a quick errand. I didn't really think it through, just figured it's like any other port and I'd just need my ship card key to get back onboard. Got stopped at security. Had to make a desperate call to the concierge, who had to track down my cabinmate, get my passport from her, and race it out to customs. Got back on the ship just in time!