Pacific Coast Cruise Question

We are cruising on Princess from Vancouver to LA in Sept. Just wondering how close are you to the coast on this route? Will you see land the entire trip?

Once you exit the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the body of water between Vancouver Island and Washington state, the ship will be 25 or more miles off the coast so you will see no land at all .... except perhaps an hour or so before you enter or leave whatever ports you are calling at.

Agreed... by going 25 to 30 miles away from the coast... you are in deeper and "calmer" waters.

Then again on my trips... the waters around Oregon can get kinda wild. I still remember sounds of crashing dishes in the dining room when the boat rolled a little too much.

Nor will you get cell reception.

Gotta love the turbulence from the Columbia River.

Sometimes the seas are like glass, other times it can get very rough.

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Agreed... by going 25 to 30 miles away from the coast... you are in deeper and "calmer" waters.

 

Then again on my trips... the waters around Oregon can get kinda wild. I still remember sounds of crashing dishes in the dining room when the boat rolled a little too much.

Oh don't tell me that! LOL

Unfortunately there's a reason that Astoria is one of the trickier ports to get to - you'll find several mentions of it being skipped on these boards alone. The Columbia Bar is a brutal bit of water - the maritime museum in Astoria has a superb exhibit on the local pilots and the history of wrecked ships in the area.

Depending what you're used to on your prior cruises, you may find Pacific Coastals to be notably rougher - we certainly have. On a big modern stabilized ship I don't think you'll have too bad a time even in open ocean unless you get quite unlucky, but choosing a cabin low & near the middle probably isn't a bad idea if you're sensitive to movement - I know my wife regretted accepting our free upgrade to a high forward balcony on our Van to SF cruise!

Haven't really done any reading on the Pacific Coastal cruises at all. We have a cabin on hold for a couple of days while we decide. We will be on the Crown Princess.

We've cruised 7 days in Eastern Caribbean and two cruises of 10 days in Southern Caribbean and one 4 day to Bahamas. Out of the 4 cruises I've been seasick twice. They were really rough days and I certainly wasn't the only one!! We've been on Deck 14 for all of the Caribbean cruises but didn't find more motion there than anywhere else.

We did this cruise last year on RCCL Jewel of the Seas the latter part of Sept. We were fortunate to have gotten into Astoria with no problems. The fall is when the weather is usually more stable in the NW. We had a high deck 9 Aft stateroom and loved every min of this cruise. We did feel some movement leaving Astoria and crossing the Columbia River Bar. Nothing major though and it did not last too long. Smooth sailing after we were back in the open ocean. Our trip down the west coast was rather smooth. We couldn't see much land as we cruised at night and were quite a ways off the coast. We did get up early some mornings to watch us coming into port. This was a very enjoyable cruise. We have actually had rougher seas in the Caribbean.

There is absolutely no predicting what the sea conditions will be like. We have had some very smooth waters and others with 20'+ seas.

Once you exit the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the body of water between Vancouver Island and Washington state, the ship will be 25 or more miles off the coast so you will see no land at all .... except perhaps an hour or so before you enter or leave whatever ports you are calling at.

We just did a 4 day LA to Vancouver and there were 10-15 foot swells the first 2 days but very smooth day 3 and 4. Even with the swells the ship handled it well and it was not that noticeable except at the front or the aft areas of the ship. We have done many Coastal runs and normally there has been a day or two of swells.

We took a similar cruise last week except from San Francisco to Vancouver.

You won't see the coast for most of the cruise.

Keith

OP is going south. South is usually calmer than going north against the current

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OP is going south. South is usually calmer than going north against the current

 

 

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Oh goodness! :( New to this CC board but not new to cruising -- new to the West Coast and we've booked the San Diego to Vancouver next May..... I hope I don't spend the entire 11 nights feeling sick!

I did not realize this area would be rough.......:eek:

Sept. Is usually better weather than May for the West Coast. Sept is one of our most beautiful months. May can be all over the board as far as weather goes!:)

Oh goodness! :( New to this CC board but not new to cruising -- new to the West Coast and we've booked the San Diego to Vancouver next May..... I hope I don't spend the entire 11 nights feeling sick!

 

 

 

I did not realize this area would be rough.......:eek:

North CAN BE rough or it can be smooth. We've done several northbound trips. Only one cruise did we have the bags came out.

Check the weather reports up the coast, including into Alaska. Those will effect the seas

Its completely unpredictable in either direction. It was only 2 years ago that we had a huge storm in September, one of the worst in years. I would prepare for the worse and if it's smooth sailing ..... well that's great.

Cruised up on the Star Princess last month. We were surprised that we could see land for most of the voyage between San Pedro and Victoria. This is in contrast to the Zaandam headed south (Victoria to San Diego 1 1/2 years earlier) and Island Princess (San Pedro - San Francisco - Victoria 4 years earlier) where both ships were substantially further off shore. Not a diesel usage issue so not sure why this 3rd trip was closer to land.

Cruised up on the Star Princess last month. We were surprised that we could see land for most of the voyage between San Pedro and Victoria. This is in contrast to the Zaandam headed south (Victoria to San Diego 1 1/2 years earlier) and Island Princess (San Pedro - San Francisco - Victoria 4 years earlier) where both ships were substantially further off shore. Not a diesel usage issue so not sure why this 3rd trip was closer to land.

Actually it IS a diesel usage issue.

The California coast is one of the relatively new environmental zones where special (Read "expensive") low Sulphur fuel is legally required to be burned.

Initially this zone extended to the International 12 mile limit off the California Coast. So all the cruise lines moved to sailing 15 miles off the coast in order to continue burning the lower cost high Sulphur fuel.

Then the state of California countered by extending (illegally) their jurisdiction beyond the US Boundary, to 25 miles.

Cruise ships responded by sailing 30 miles off the coast.

California responded by threatening to extend (illegally) their jurisdiction to 49 miles.

The major cruise lines responded by installing "scrubbers" that allegedly remove a high percentage of the polluting particulates exiting the smokestacks, thereby - in theory - removing the need for low Sulphur fuel.

The US Government looked at the results - conducted under perfect laboratory conditions - and decided that any ships with these scrubbers installed would be exempt from the expensive low Sulphur fuel requirements. This also exempts the ships from having to sail so far off the California coast.

Unfortunately, under actual sailing conditions, these scrubbers do not really work. In some cases, they actually increase the pollution rather than decreasing it. But the US Government inspectors are apparently sleeping and have not bothered to actually monitor the emissions from these ships that are exempted from the regulations.

So now any cruise ship with the scrubbers onboard (even if the scrubbers are not even operating at all) can legally sail close to the California coast while burning high sulphur fuel without any repercussions from the authorities.

Did this exact cruise in 2011 (5day) and it was crazy rough, missed Astoria, the one time you could see land as we sailed past. The following year we were well stocked with sea bands gravol etc on a 4 day and it was smooth as glass all the way. Hit or miss. Will also be going this Sept. A repeat of the first but with Victoria replacing Astoria.