Miramar

We found the condition of the ship to be fine--no complaints on our end. Everything we encountered was clean and in working order. We didn't find it to be in any better or worse condition than any of the other ships we've sailed.

@memoak As far as the casino goes, I'm not sure as I didn't go or really even go by it to notice the hours.

@jbeth our head waiter in Club Class was Genel (sp?)

Thanks--I actually do take notes and try to write up each days events every day!

Saturday we once again went to Crown Grill at 7:30am and enjoyed our final breakfast with a lovely view out the window.  We each had OJ and cappuccino. My mother tried the yogurt and granola raspberry parfait and the BLT sandwich while I just had the usual BLT.

At 9:45am we went to the Culinary show where the Executive Chef and Maitre D cook a few dishes and run their comedy routine. The show was interrupted twice with announcements that due to deteriorating weather (again) we would be speeding up even more and coming into San Francisco even earlier than originally planned. Our new arrival time was estimated to be 6:30pm. The concern was with the high winds that were predicted to develop overnight. I would guess they didn’t want to attempt to dock the ship during the wind event. All passengers would have to clear immigration upon our arrival so this arrival time would screw up dinner plans for some (traditional dining was canceled and all dining was open seating). The Culinary Show lasted about an hour and then we did the galley walk through.

At about noon we went to Slices, the by the slice pizza place on the 14th fl for slices of cheese pizza. We then enjoyed dessert on our balcony. We finished the last of the treats that we had purchased at Pike Place Market. Despite walking through the Horizon Court to check out what they had, we didn’t find anything we really wanted to eat. There were too many people too. I felt like the buffet on this ship always felt crowded—more so than on other ships we’ve been on. We spent the afternoon on the balcony enjoying the sunshine. We didn’t observe any deteriorating weather thus far. At 12:45pm I did go up to the 14th fl for the ice carving demonstration. I usually go to that (and the fruit carving), as I like seeing what they can do so quickly with ice. Today they made a dragon but there was an unfortunancy and part of the tail broke but the carver was able to “glue” it back on again using water and snow/ice chips.

Since the last evening on board was going to be screwed up and we wanted to see the ship sail under the Golden Gate again, be had our pre-dinner drinks early at 4:15pm. My mother got the Toasted Almond and I tried a new one—the Bugsy (espresso, creme de menthe, Bailey’s and cream). This turned out to be my new favorite—too bad I only got to try it the last night. We were due to sail under the bridge at about 5:15pm, so we went up to the 14th fl to watch and to watch us dock as well. They estimated that we’d be tied up by 6:30pm and that was correct. Other than the fact that we would all need to go ashore with our passports once we were docked and that they wanted us to go in the order that we were set to disembark the next day, they didn’t give much information. Nobody knew if we were supposed to wait in our assigned disembarkation lounges or what—and there were not many (any) people in authority to really ask. People started lining up to get off, so rather than wait in a lounge waiting to be called and then find ourselves at the very end of the process if it turned out that it was just a giant free for all, we ended up just getting in the growing line. Ours was to be the first group after self walk off anyway. It was all very chaotic and as I said nobody really had any good information. Thankfully it was not an emergency. The line started moving sometime close to 6:50/7pm and I think we were done and back on the ship by 7:30pm. When we got off, they still hadn’t made any announcements calling the different color groups off.

Upon re-boarding the ship, we went right to dinner. We both had the same thing—fettucine alfredo and the steak. The normal sauce was green peppercorn, while the Club Class sauce was mushroom  and we both got the mushroom sauce. For dessert we got the “ice cream bombe” which is basically a baked Alaska. During dinner they did start making announcements for the various color groups, about every 10 minutes. After dinner we went back to the room to put our bags out and then went back to Crooners to hear the piano player one more time and have a final cocktail—Toasted Almond and French martini. The early arrival time sort of messed up the whole evening, as eventually they did start calling color groups and then after everyone (most) had gone through immigration they started calling for those who hadn’t completed it (many times). One missing group was a group of Italian contractors/workers who finally went after they made the announcement in Italian and another large Chinese group who finally went after they made the announcement in Chinese. It would have saved us all time if they had just made the announcement to those groups in their respective languages after they first noticed that they hadn’t completed it. The whole event sort of put a damper on the last night festivities but I’m sure Princess as a company wasn’t thrilled that we had to go back early either, as they are not allowed to operate the casino nor the shops while we are in port, so I’m sure they lost money on the final night.

Back under the Golden Gate

When we woke up on Sunday morning, the wind had developed. It was very breezy on our balcony and when I went up to the 14th floor to take final photos, it was quite windy up there. This morning we skipped breakfast since we would have had to go to Boticelli and we had brunch reservations for later in the morning off ship anyway..

Getting resupplied for the next cruise

We got off around 8am and beat the rush for cabs. Getting off was easy this time, as I guess since we all cleared the night before. Other times we’ve found disembarkation to be a hectic nightmare, though not as bad was the previous nights “festivities”. I guess you just never know what you’re going to get. Had we known it would be so easy, quick and even a bit early, we could have booked an earlier flight!

We took a cab to the Club Quarters hotel on Clay street where I had booked a day room using hotelsbyday.com I’ve used that website before to book day rooms and find it very useful. Our room was for the hours of 9am-5pm but we just used it for a few hours to repack our luggage, access fast internet, relax etc. At 10:30am we Ubered to Perry’s Embarcadero for brunch. We each got burgers with fries and they were quite tasty. If it wasn’t so windy, it would have been nice to sit outside. We then went back to the hotel to collect our bags and take a cab to the airport.

Once agin we flew Mint class, so the bag check in line was non-existent but the security line was very slow, despite having pre-check. The problem was not the ID check portion, but the actual security screening, as after they checked your ID, all the lines including pre-check and priority, merged into one screening lane/conveyor belt. And it was not “real” pre-check, it was one of those modified pre-checks where you are handed a card and the only benefit is you don’t have to remove your shoes—you still have to remove laptops etc. One screening lane for all those people! I’m not sure why they couldn’t have opened another lane—they seemed to have extra agents wandering around. Once we got through we got “dessert” at Illy Coffee—blended mochas while waiting to board.

Once on board we got RefreshMint drinks as per our tradition. We pushed back on time and taxied out with the pilot saying we were next in line for departure . . . . then once it became our turn, we turned off the main runway onto a siding. The pilot comes on saying we have a revised departure time—he does not tell us what the time is, but instead says he is going to try to negotiate a better time. He comes back a few minutes later saying our new departure time was 30 minutes later—-as opposed to the 2 hour later departure time they had originally given him! So while we wait the required time, I checked the FAA air traffic website and it turns out the problem was in Boston—due to weather it said inbound flights were averaging 2 hour delays. Finally we took off and from my side of the plane you could see all of SF Bay and what I think was the Kincade fire.

The meal on the plane was pretty good—-I enjoyed the salt and pepper cashew appetizer and then choose the apple kale salad (didn’t eat the kale), the chicken and the beef short ribs. I thought the short ribs were really good. Upon landing in Boston, we had to wait for them to reposition the jet bridge and then waited about 15 minutes for the bags to come out.

While we enjoyed our cruise, it wasn’t our best one ever. We enjoyed the ports that we visited and we enjoyed our room and dining experiences. Despite the fact that we have been on several other “cold weather” cruises, for us nothing beats a warm weather cruise (though I really like Alaska too even though it’s not that warm when we go). We did both take Future Cruise Credits in case we find another cruise we want to take, but as Princess keeps sending away all the smaller ships we tend to have fewer options.

The ship was in good condition I thought and I didn’t notice any maintenance issues that I haven’t also observed on other ships (a leak/drip here and there). The staff was fine and we liked many of the various bands/pianists they had on board this time.  The demographic on this cruise definitely skewed older—at 44 years old I was one of the younger guests. I’d say the average age was about 60 yrs on this particular cruise. There were a couple people with very young children but not many.

I would repeat this itinerary again sometime in the future.

Thursday we once again got up in time for our arrival into Vancouver, traveling under the Lions Gate Bridge in the dark and had our Crown Grill breakfast—OJ, cappuccino and BLT for me and waffle for my mother. Today our plan was to visit the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. While we’ve been to Vancouver a number of times, we hadn’t yet done the aquarium. This was the first time to Vancouver when we haven’t been starting or ending our cruise. Therefore the cruise terminal looked totally different than what we are used to seeing. No milling crowds so thick you can’t see! The drop off and pick up area was practically empty—I’ll have to remember what the terminal actually looks like empty so the next time I embark a ship there I’ll have a better sense of it. We took a cab from the pier and enjoyed the ride into the park. The aquarium opened at 10am so we took our time getting off the ship. We really enjoyed this aquarium—the exhibits were all very nicely kept, with crystal clear water. They had number of outdoor exhibits including sea otters (a favorite of mine) and Stellar Sea Lions. They had a special exhibit on frogs down on the lower level which was nice too. This was one of the nicer aquariums we’ve been to and it wasn’t wildly crowded but there were school groups there.

The clown fish tank

From there around 1pm, we took a cab to a cafe we like called Breka. The location we went to on Bute Street was quite busy but we did find a table. We split a chocolate cookie and each got a Belgian chocolate mousse and a blended Kona Mocha. The mochas were a little bland and could have had more coffee flavor but the cookie and mousse were excellent. After lunch we took a cab from the nearby Blue Horizon Hotel to the Vancouver Lookout. Getting a cab was a bit of a pain—the ones driving on the street all had customers already so I called one on the phone but it never showed so we finally took one that showed up to wait by the hotel. It seems that Vancouver does not have Uber yet . . . .at least when I tried to book one, it said it was not available in my area.

The Vancouver Lookout is on top of the Harbour Centre. The Lookout is an enclosed circular viewing area from which you can see in every direction. The problem is that it’s not quite high enough to get as sweeping a view as you might like. I think when it opened in 1977 it may have been taller in comparison to the surrounding buildings. I also felt like the signage telling you what you were looking at could have been better. It was hard to tell exactly what they were referring to. I’ve been to lots of these observation decks and some have better signage than others and I think this one could improve theirs.

We walked back to the ship around 3:45pm and I shed a layer and then went immediately out again to take more photos. I walked along the harbour down to Stanley Park and photographed the waterfront with fall foliage. It was fun watching the sea planes take off and land as well.

I went back to the ship by 5:15pm and we had our drink at Crooners at 5:30pm. I had a chocolate mint martini and my mother got the Raspberry Romance. We went to dinner by 6pm and I had the butter lettuce with shallot vinaigrette, the strawberry thyme sorbet intermezzo and the beef tip and mushroom cobbler and the club class special crepes with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The beef was good but it turned out to be more of a beef stew than how it was described on the menu. My mother had the exact same thing that I had.

Once again, I got off the ship after dinner to take some more photos. This time I walked to Gastown and took photos in that area, including the steam clock. I was back to the ship once again by 8:30pm.

Gastown Steam Clock

We watched the sailaway from the promenade deck tonight, as our suite was not on the dock side in Vancouver. There was one person who was late coming back to the ship but despite the fact that she returned 15 minutes late, we still didn’t leave right away after her return. We didn’t actually leave until about 10:30pm. I think we may have been waiting for a large COSCO container ship to pass by, as we pulled out right after that ship passed us.

Friday was supposed to be our day in Victoria but they had announced the night before at dinner that we would have to miss that stop due to deteriorating weather conditions that might delay our departure if we made the port call and cause issues getting back to San Francisco on time. So the decision was made to skip Victoria and head directly back to San Francisco and arrive there about 8 hours early. Missing a port is always a bit of a disappointment and this time I had been looking forward to seeing more British Columbia fall foliage at the Butchart Gardens.

We had our normal 7:30am Crown Grill breakfast—-OJ, cappuccino and a BLT for my mother and waffle for me.

Most of the ship board activities are never really to my liking, so I worked on my trip report during the day and sat out on the balcony. It just seems that so many of the activities are just sales pitches for things I don’t want (teeth whitening, art auction, jewelry seminar etc). It was really quite warm in the sun, so the balcony was vey comfortable. We had lunch at the Salty Dog burger stand. My mother got a classic cheeseburger while I got the triple smoked which had gouda cheese and onion jam. I thought my burger was quite tasty. Both burgers came with a generous helping of crispy fries.

At 5:30pm we went to our reservation at Crown Grill (tonight was the second formal night). I had a coconut mojito, black and blue onion soup and the ribeye steak with loaded baked potato. They bring the accompaniments for the potato on a tray and serve you along with three special types of sea salt as well. I got the pink salt. My mother had a sangria (not fruity enough) black and blue onion soup, ribeye steak also with baked potato. For dessert I got the dutch molten chocolate cake which came with chocolate ice cream. I really liked my dessert since it was was very fudgy. My mother got the dessert sampler which included the lemon tart, peanut butter chocolate cake, molten cake and s’mores stack.

Here is the dessert sampler

After dinner we went to the Piazza and enjoyed the music there and then made our way to Crooners to have after dinner drinks. My mother had the French martini and I tried the Tropitini which I didn’t care for (too strong). After only consuming half, I decided to try the Milky Way which I liked much better. We stayed in Crooners for 2 sets of the pianist that night.

Monday was a sea day and we started with the suite breakfast held in the Crown Grill. One of the things we like best about booking suites is the private breakfast held in either Crown Grill or Sabatini’s. Open only to suite guests, it’s a quiet, non-hectic dining experience and if you go on the early side, you will likely get a window table. We each got a cappuccino and fresh squeezed orange juice and I got the BLT sandwich with no egg and my mother got the Belgian waffle. We savored our breakfast and then went back to the room.

The BLT is below

We sat on our balcony for part of the morning as it was in the sun. For lunch we had a little from the Horizon Court and then got ice creams at the Coffee and Cones shop. I tried one of the extra cost ice cream sandwiches, but the one I ordered they didn’t have that day, so I had to settle for the chocolate chip one that I could have made myself for free using ingredients from the Horizon Court and a vanilla ice cream from the ice cream stand! I seem to recall the cost being $2.50 and they were not large—I don’t feel like it was the best value. I might have liked it better if they had had the one I actually wanted (the mint one or the snickerdoodle).

During the afternoon we sat on the balcony again and then went to get a cocktail before dinner once again at Crooners Bar. Crooners turned out to be our favorite lounge on this trip—normally we like the Wheelhouse, but we liked the drinks better in Crooners. I had fun working my way through all the specialty martinis and finding new favorites. Dinner tonight was a 5:30pm reservation at Sabatini’s. One of the things that we found to be different from all our previous Princess cruises were the reservation times they offered for the specialty dining. In the past, we were able to make a reservation at a specialty restaurant for 6 or 6:30pm but on this ship, they kept to set times of 5, 5:30, 7:30 and maybe 8:30 (can’t recall). This was our first time choosing to dine at Sabatini’s for dinner as we had never liked the menu before. Since they had changed the menu since our last cruise and it seemed agreeable to us, we thought we’d give it a try! This was also the first formal night and we prefer to skip the dining room on those nights. If you book a suite you get a complimentary dinner in one of the specialty restaurants on the first night, but we prefer to eat in the main dining room the first night. Sometimes they will honor the complimentary dinner for other nights if you choose not to use it the first night, but it is up to manager discretion. There is soooo much food in Sabatini’s. When you arrive at the table there are breadsticks, then they bring the normal bread basket and then house appetizer to start. The house appetizer was little buns of pizza dough fried with a red pepper dipping sauce. I then got the cheese soup, lamb skewers, mushroom risotto, sage and prosciutto pork and chocolate Rocher for dessert. My mother got the same except a pasta trio and the veal marsala. We really enjoyed our meal there, even if it was way too much food for us. I especially enjoyed the lamb skewers and the dessert. We made a conscious effort to eat only part of each course and still came away totally stuffed. Of course you are not obligated to order each course that is offered, so ordering only some courses would be a lighter option. Perhaps next time I’ll consider ordering just some courses.

Below is the Rocher dessert in Sabatini's

After dinner I walked a bunch of laps around the Promenade deck. One annoyance I had with this cruise over the long run is that the Promenade deck seemed to be closed off a lot. This evening seemed to be one of the few times it was open. Of course if they are using it for the gangway in port, then I’d expect part of it to be closed off, but it was often completely closed (I checked all the exits) even if the weather was fine. One evening it was slightly breezy and they closed it; I’ve been on other Princess ships where it was pretty much always open except under the most extreme conditions, so it was a bit disappointing to have it blocked so often.

Tuesday we woke up in time to see the ship dock in Astoria Oregon. Of course being a fall cruise and being up north, it both got dark earlier and got light later than our spring cruises. We wanted to get off the ship quickly today to pick up our rental car, so we ordered room service of english muffins for breakfast. I got off about 7:45am to walk Enterprise to get the car (about 10 min if you walk fast) and then I swung back to pick up my mother. We drove to Cannon Beach, Ecola State Park and then down scenic Rte 101 to Tillamook Cheese Factory. While we had driven down Route 101 before, we hadn’t stopped in the town of Cannon Beach. We got there early before any crowds and it was quite cute. The State Park was also nice. The drive in was through a beautiful green forest with large trees cloaked in moss. The views of the ocean from the park were quite nice too. Once we arrived at Tillamook, we had grilled cheese sandwiches and then did the self guided factory tour and then had ice creams. I wanted to try several different flavors so got 3 scoops (mudslide, Stumptown coffee and chocolate PB) which my mother had chocolate PB and mudslide.

Cannon Beach view

Ecola State Park

We drove back to Astoria and dropped the car and I walked back to the ship by 2:45pm. We sat on the balcony in the sun watching the ship next to us, the African Raven, get loaded with logs.

Astoria Harbor

ship carrying logs getting loaded

Around 5:30pm we went to the Wheelhouse Bar for our pre-dinner drink. My mother got the Toasted Almond while I got a 24K Margarita which I didn’t like (not limey enough and it was watery). Tonight was Italian night in the dining room. I got peach bellini soup (a favorite of mine), pasta arrabbiata, veal marsala and tiramisu. My mother had the soup, mixed green salad, pot roast and tiramisu. The Italian menu is always one of my favorites on Princess.

Wednesday we once again got up early to see our arrival into Seattle WA. You could see Mount Rainier in the distance though it was veiled in fog. We also had our usual breakfast in Crown Grill. I had the waffle with whipped cream and a fresh orange juice while my mother had the French Toast. We then got off the ship about 9:40am, as it took a while to get tied up and cleared to send guests ashore. We walked up to Pike Place Market about a 10 minute leisurely walk. We always enjoy a visit to the market when in Seattle and we especially like going on a weekday when it is less crowded and you can actually see what’s around you and enjoy looking at all the shops. In the past we have always visited in the spring and have enjoyed all the beautiful fresh cut spring flowers. This time of course the floral varieties were different—lots of dahlias, and fall cabbages and dried flowers. They were lovely but I still prefer the spring displays. We strolled up and down the various market stalls, taking in the fish markets and watching them toss the fish around when someone purchased one. When at Pike Place, we have favorite vendors we like to visit. Three Girls Bakery is a favorite and we bought a bunch of items to share for later back on the ship—-we got a snickerdoodle, gingersnap, PB chocolate chip cookie, PB double O, fudge brownie and raspberry shortbread bar. Next we had lunch at Beecher’s Cheese—-we each got a small size of their “World’s Best” Macaroni and Cheese. It was so flavorful and rich but the seating is very limited in there so you have to be lucky to get a spot in the window so you can eat while watching them make their cheese. Finally we stopped at Le Panier and split an Amandine (almond croissant) for dessert.

 Pike Place Market flowers

Our next stop was the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. We had been there before and really enjoyed it so wanted to go again. We spent about an hour looking at the exhibits—and enjoying the outdoor displays integrated into the gardens with the Space Needle in the background. We had purchased a combo ticket for the glass museum and the Space Needle, so around 2pm we went over to the Space Needle for our time slot. We went up and enjoyed the views. It can be a bit cool and breezy on the upper deck as it is open air. There is a deck one level below which is inside and has a clear, revolving floor so you can look straight down.We were lucky that it was a sunny day and you could even see Mount Rainier in the distance though it was a bit foggy that far out.

I love seeing the Space Needle with the Chihuly glass

Below is the view form the Space Needle of Mount Rainier in the distance

A panoramic photo I took from the stateroom balcony

Around 3pm we took a cab back to the ship and sat on the balcony watching the city view. Tonight we had drinks in Crooners again—Raspberry Romance for me and Chocolate Mint martini for my mother. We went down to dinner at 6pm and it was not a menu we liked. We had a lot of “always available” items that night, as it was a pacific northwest/california fusion menu. I started with the mixed green salad with blue cheese dressing, the fettuccine alfredo and the chimichurri burger (provolone cheese and a slaw) and then the Princess Love Boat Dream with a scoop of butter toffee ice cream. My mother had the Caesar salad, Baked Potato soup and the surf and turf and the Princess Love Boat Dream with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Around 7:30pm I got off the ship again to take night time photos. I walked to the Pike Place Market and then back along the waterfront. There is an observation deck near Pier 66 where were were docked so I went on the top level of that as well. I got back on the ship around 8:30pm with an hour to spare before we actually we required to be back on board. Everyone was supposed to be back on board by 9:30pm. My mother stayed on the ship while I went off and they called our room at about 8:20pm (more than an hour before we had to be back) to make sure I was indeed off the ship. They said it was less usual for one person in the room to be off while the other was onboard so wanted to be sure I wasn’t actually onboard and they hadn't missed me. So they really do keep track of where people are even well before you are due back. So my mother told them oh yes, she’s off the ship and plans to be back well within the time allowed—and 5 minutes later I was back on board!

Empty Pike Place Market

Seattle at night

We watched the sailaway from Seattle from our balcony; sailaway was 10pm.

I'm attempting to post photos in this report, so hopefully it works. This is a long, detailed style report, so if you prefer the Cliff Notes version you may want to pass this one by.

This was our second time doing a cruise up the West coast of the U.S. and Canada. My mother and I went together on this trip. We chose this itinerary aboard the Grand Princess, due to the fact it was on one of the older and somewhat smaller ships that Princess has left, as we don’t care for the newer designs.

Our cruise departed on a Sunday so we flew on Saturday to San Francisco, our port of embarkation. We took the early morning JetBlue flight from Boston and flew our favorite Mint class. Upon boarding we each got the non alcoholic version of the signature RefreshMint drink. The breakfast offerings were pretty good. The croissant was excellent—really buttery and flakey. It was hard to believe it was served on an airline. For the main dishes I got the French toast, fresh fruit and the biscuit sandwich. My mother chose the same items. The flight went by quickly since the seats, food and entertainment are so nice. We landed in San Francisco at about 10:20am and waited about 15 minutes for the bags to come out. We then got a cab to our hotel, Sir Francis Drake which is in the Union Square area. We got room 704, a room with 2 queen beds. The room was quite small, despite supposedly being one of the larger category. We then set out for our first stop, Pier 39 to look at the sea lions. We stayed there for about 30 minutes and then went to the Dahlia Garden and Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. I especially enjoyed the dahlias; there were so many different colors, textures and varieties. The Conservatory was nice but does not take that long to visit. After that we tried to take the free GGP shuttle to another location within the park, but after waiting 30 min we gave up and called an Uber. The shuttle is supposed to run about every 20 minutes but it didn’t seem to be coming.  Of course it passed us as we were driving out in the Uber. We decided to instead go to Palace of Fine Arts but by the time we got there, the weather had turned drizzly and breezy so we didn’t linger long.

One of the dahlia specimens

For dinner we went to the Cliff House and ate in the Bistro section which is first come first serve, but you can put your name on their list. We got a window table since we were early and the weather started to clear off. I had the Ocean Beach cocktail while my mother had a margarita. For the meal I got the French onion soup and the cheeseburger and chocolate cake for dessert. My mother also go the burger and chocolate cake. The food was good but not memorable. The real drawing card here is the view. We were lucky that the weather improved so that we actually had a nice view despite the earlier fog. Below is the view from outside the Cliff House.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and I put on a warmer jacket to go outside and walk around. I walked to Fisherman’s Wharf and then took a cable car back to the hotel. Taking a cable car is always a San Francisco tradition for me.

Sunday morning I got up early and walked to the curvy part of Lombard St to take pictures. I got back around 8:30am and we had planned to get crepes at Cozy Cable Car Cafe but it was closed so instead we went to Lori’s Diner and had chocolate chip pancakes and a coffee shake for me. Next we Ubered to Coit Tower and walked down the Filbert Steps. From the top of Telegraph Hill you can take either the Filbert or Greenwich steps down and each is a bit different. We have done both sets of steps during various trips to San Francisco. One of the things I like about San Francisco are all the different sets of steps you can take in various locations around the city. We even bought a book one time that lists all the different step walks you can take.

This one is taken from the Levi's Plaza at the bottom of the steps with Coit Tower in the background.

Around 11am we went back to the hotel to get our bags and take a cab to Pier 27 to board our ship, the Grand Princess. We arrived at the pier around 11:45am and it was a bit hectic but we got on fairly quickly. The rooms were not ready so we had to waste time sitting around minding our carry on bags. In the old days, one of the nice aspects of Princess was that the rooms were always ready upon your arrival.

This cruise, we were in room C425 the Amerigo Vespucci suite. Once we were able to get into the room around 1:15pm, we unpacked, looked around the ship and then later went to our muster station for the mandatory drill. The Sailaway was at about 4pm and we decided to go up to the 14/15th floors to watch the ship go under the Golden Gate Bridge. They had music playing on deck and made a big deal of going under the bridge, blowing the ship horn etc.

Below is the lovely and spacious balcony in C425

Prior to dinner we went to Crooners Bar and had a Toasted Almond martini for my mother and a French martini for me. I hadn’t tried the French martini before and it ended up being a cruise favorite with a nice light raspberry flavor. Being in a suite, we had Club Class dining—so we could eat anytime without waiting. Club Class was held in the Da Vinci dining room on the 6th floor. We ate around 6pm and had the pina colada soup and the special club class prime rib—which came with Yorkshire pudding. For dessert, I got the flourless chocolate cake (loved it--very dense and fudgy) and my mother the hazelnut souffle for dessert (she really liked the sauce that went with it). With Club Class they advertise one special dinner item each night but overall it was often the same entree as the regular dining with just a different side dish (Yorkshire pudding instead of corn on the cob—or broccoli instead of asparagus, etc) so you are not really gaining much in the way of additional choices.

I stayed at the Marriott Circular Quay (not related to a cruise) and really liked it. Great location very central to all the tourist sites, including the cruise terminal.

Friday was our last full day on the ship. We went to Sabatini’s for breakfast. I had the BLT, OJ and cappuccino, my mother a cappuccino, OJ and french toast and my father the bagel with salmon and cream cheese, OJ and coffee. After breakfast we went to the naturalist lecture at 9:45—the topic was her experiences living in Alaska. It was very interesting and we enjoyed it. I then walked around the promenade deck before we decided to do a quick lunch in the Horizon Court. I had mac and cheese, fried onions (pakoros) cookies and chocolate cake.

After lunch we went to another lecture by the naturalist, this time the topic was animals past and present in Alaska. This one was interesting too. I wish there had been a lecture everyday.

After that we sat on our balcony as we were on the sunny side and saw some whales and porpoises.

We went to the Wheelhouse about an hour earlier than usual, as we wanted to be done with dinner when we went through Seymour Narrows so we could see it. I had a Passionada, my mother the Toasted Almond and my father a 007. Dinner tonight I had an appetizer portion of fettuccine alfredo and the club class special steak preparation—Steak Diane and then Baked Alaska for dessert. My mother had caesar salad, Steak Diane and apple pie for dessert. My father had a seafood soup, eggplant and rice dish and apple pie.

We got out of dinner just in time to go through the narrows but we missed some of the commentary that the naturalist gave.

I walked around the deck again and then at 9:45pm I went to the Crew talent show. I had never been before and I liked it quite a bit. To entertain the crowd before the show, the staff threw about 50 balloons into the seating area and people were hitting them around. They had about 7 acts— singers, guitarist and a skit. Our assistant waiter from Sabatini’s breakfast performed a song.

Saturday we woke up about 6am just in time to see the ship passing by English Bay just as they did the previous Saturday as we saw the ship come in. This time of course we were on the other side! We watched them dock from our balcony and then went to Club Class breakfast in the dining room since Sabatini’s is not open on disembarkation day. I just had an English muffin, my father had his salmon bagel and my mother had their crunchy French toast. We didn’t have to leave the room until 8:30am so we watched them unload luggage and deliver provisions to the ship until we had to go and meet in Wheelhouse Bar for our color to be called (white 3). We got off on deck 7 and proceeded to claim our bags. We then went to the National car rental desk in the terminal and rented our car and we got a Hyundai Santa Fe.

Provisions to be loaded up

We set out for our drive to Seattle by about 10am. The wait at the border was about 20-30 min. Some cars ahead of us seemed to be stopped at the booth about 5 min each; we got through in about 45 seconds- 1 minute. We drove by way of Whidbey Island, just for the sake of variety, so we took the car ferry which was fun and different. The ferry ride from Clinton to Mukilteo only took about 15 minutes. Ferries depart every 30 minutes in each direction. We arrived into Seattle proper about 4:30pm and drove to the Ballard Locks and watched some boats go through and enjoyed the gardens. The locks allow boats to pass between Puget Sound and Lake Washington and Lake Union. One funny thing happened; one of the boats that we saw enter the locks was the absolute worst looking boat I’ve ever seen still floating. It needed paint, there was trash all over the deck and inside the cabin and the engine was sputtering/choking and spewing black smoke. Apparently someone else thought it was an awful boat as well as he yelled out “fix your boat! Your boat is terrible!” While I wouldn’t have said anything, I was thinking the same thing. I wouldn’t want to go out in a boat like that. I wonder how long before it sinks?

Ballard Locks

Anyway, we then left and drove by the new Amazon building on our way to our hotel, The Inn At The Market. This was our second time staying at this hotel, as we really like the location right at the Pike Place Market. They have a nice roof deck on the 5th floor overlooking the waterfront. We rushed to check in as it was 6:20pm and we had a 6:30pm reservation at Steelhead Diner which is just across the street from the hotel. We received room 512 and it was a good size room. They have redecorated since our last visit and with the update came much higher prices as well.

Steelhead Diner is literally right across the street from the hotel. The noise level is a bit loud. At dinner my mother and I had margaritas and my father a local beer. My father also got the chicken spring roll appetizer. My mother and I got the cheeseburger which was served with fries. Then she got the strawberry rhubarb tart and I got the flourless brownie served with coconut almond ice cream and fudge sauce which was great. The food was really tasty and well prepared but the atmosphere was a bit loud for our taste and the waiter not among the best we’ve ever had.

I then walked around and took pictures of the market and waterfront.

Sunday morning I was out the door by 5:45am and walking around the Market as the vendors set up their wares. There are so many flower vendors and I always enjoy seeing the beautiful, colorful arrangements and buckets of tulips for sale. The last time I was able to buy a bouquet but no such luck this time since we were flying out that morning. A word of advice, lots of the vendors/shops have hours listed but they seem to open earlier than stated in some cases. For example, Le Panier says they open at 8am but people were walking out with bags at about 7:40am so I guess they opened early. The flower and fruit vendors are the same way—they are more than happy to take your money if you want to buy something ahead of set hours. I went to Three Girls Bakery to get breakfast pastries for our group and some cookies to bring home on the plane. For breakfast I got us an almond croissant, chocolate croissant and bacon cheddar croissant. I got assorted chocolate chip, M&M, snickerdoodle and chocolate macaroon cookies for later. I brought our breakfast back to the hotel and we ate it up on the roof deck. It was a little cool and wet but was the most convenient place to eat it. After eating I had more time to go back and take photos at the Market before having to be back at the hotel at 8am.

flowers at Pike Place Market

We left the hotel at 8am and drove to the airport via route 99. There was not much traffic. Once we dropped the rental car and got the shuttle back to the terminal we checked in for the flight. The security line for general security was a mile long. Since we purchase extra legroom on JetBlue we were able to use the premium security line which went more quickly. However, the part of security where you have to go through the scanners was the world’s slowest. It had to be one of the slowest I’ve been through. I’m not sure what the problem was but they kept stopping the machine and sending many bags back for rescanning and the agents were among the most petty and annoying of all the airports I’ve been through.

Upon landing in Boston we waited about 10 min for bags which is not bad. Unfortunately our prearranged cab was waiting at the wrong terminal. He was waiting for the Delta flight from Seattle at Terminal A while of course we were at Terminal C. How that happened I’ll never know.

A few random notes about the trip. We got pretty lucky with the weather. When I was looking at forecasts before we left it basically said rain everyday for each port. It really only rained on the Glacier Bay day and early in the day in Ketchikan. Before we left I was expecting to be in full rain gear every day but really only wore it twice. We did bring winter jackets and wore them everyday with layers underneath (we also wore gloves in Glacier Bay). The temps were in the 40s/50s but it can feel quite cool being in a marine environment. If you go in peak summer season, perhaps full winter gear is not needed but I know going when we did I would have frozen without it.

The one way cruise has slightly better scenery than the round trip due to getting further north into Alaska. By doing the roundtrip you miss College Fjord and getting up by Whittier. If you have a choice between Northbound, Southbound and round trip and you have never been to Alaska before and all else is equal, I’d pick Northbound. This is because the scenery gets more spectacular as you head North and less so as you head south (though it’s still nice). You won’t go wrong with any of the itineraries but if I had to pick one and one only it would be Northbound.

Regarding dress for the dining room, this was by far the most casual cruise I have seen/been on. There were people wearing hooded sweatshirts and jeans to dinner in the main dining room. Most people (at least in our section) did dress more or less accordingly for formal night but I didn’t see many people truly dressed to the nines. We don’t care what other people wear but I know some people do, so that is why I bothered to observe what others had on. Personally I like a more casual feel so would be happy if cruising got more casual so I wouldn’t have to bring extra types of clothes just for dining.

Regarding Club Class—we loved Club Class. It was the best dining experience we have had on any of our cruises and we have taken about 75% of our cruises in full suites. We loved that we could walk in at any time and be seated right away and that we didn’t need a reservation so we could vary our timing according to what scenery we wanted to see that day. Often you didn’t find out until the last minute when the best chance of seeing animals or some other site would be on a given day so it was nice to have some flexibility. The special food preparations were nice but in a way I wish they would do a special dessert one night like bananas foster instead of just the entrees. Mostly what we liked about Club Class was how convenient it was and they didn’t try to convince you to share with others. In fact on our cruise if you had Club Class everyone ate with just their party; nobody shared as far as I could tell. The only issue was that the tables near the windows were very close together—maybe 9 inches apart so that is a bit close.

Some suite passengers have reported if I recall correctly, that they no longer got automatic delivery of free canapés on formal night. We did—we got a plate of canapés the first night and a plate of chocolate truffles on the first formal night and a plate of truffles the second formal night. We didn’t ask for them—really the last thing we need is more food. The truffles were really good though.

We each booked future cruise credits so now we have to pick another cruise. I want to eventually do a cruise-tour to Alaska. I’m dying to get more into the interior and see Denali and Fairbanks.

We pulled into Juneau about 5:15am on Wednesday morning. The Horizon Court was much less busy today. Maybe everyone was excited to get off the ship the day before since it was the first port. I had a chocolate chip muffin.

My parents had to meet 8am on shore for their shore excursion: Discover Alaska’s Whales (animal planet exclusive). They said there were 14 people on the tour—including the naturalist from our ship. The boat was smallish but fairly new and nicely equipped. They did scientific research and experiments such as water sampling. They saw some whales but just dorsal fins—no flukes or spyhopping behavior. They really enjoyed the tour and were glad they chose it. We did Harv and Marv on our last cruise and they enjoyed the tour this time more.

My tour met at 8:15am and I chose Mendenhall Glacier Guide’s Choice Hike. There were only 5 of us on the tour (guide said 12 was normal). We were picked up in a large and spacious van and drove to the East Glacier trail head. The trail was beautiful with lots of moss and rocks. The trail itself consisted of rocks, dirt/mud areas, wooden steps (200) and switchback turns. I wouldn’t call it a difficult hike for someone in shape but you need to be able to go up stairs, be comfortable on a wet trail and some steepish areas. I would not recommend it if you have any infirmity/trouble walking/balance issues. I guess I’d call it moderate for people who are not hikers. I am not a hiker but I am athletic and enjoy walks with lots of steps. The guide was excited and pleased because we all had worn proper shoes (sneakers with treads/low hikers etc) and he said that almost inevitably someone ends up wearing dress shoes or flip flops that are not practical on the trails. We viewed a waterfall- AJ Falls and the Mendenhall Glacier. Since we did the hike more quickly due to our small group size we went down to the beach in front of the glacier. We still had time after that so we took some of the boardwalk trails as well. We had even more time so guide Clayton drove us to Douglas Island for a view of the cruise ship docked in Juneau. We saw a mother black bear with 2 cubs crossing the road on the way. Then he drove us around Juneau and we saw the state capitol, governor’s mansion and some of the old victorian homes. You could then be dropped downtown, at the tramway or back at the ship. We got back about 45 min early. I really enjoyed this excursion and was glad I did it; the trail setting was lovely.

The forest that the trail went through

I went to the Horizon Court for lunch—-meat lasagne, olive oil/garlic spaghetti, sweet and sour pork a small piece of chocolate cake, and cookie. Lunch was great today with many selections I liked. I then went back into town and up the Mount Roberts Tramway. I enjoyed the view, looked at the eagle on display (it was injured) and took one of the short trails which was not snowed in. I saw my father up there as well but he went up separately than me. I then took the tram back down and looked around the town for about an hour before heading back to the ship. We had to be back on board by 3:30 and I arrived at 3:15 to a long line.

My parents and I viewed the sailaway from deck 7 as our cabin was on the wrong side. We then sat on our deck (in the sun) for an hour. We listened to the naturalist speak though no whales were spotted. The naturalist commentary can always be heard on your stateroom TV on channel 41 or on the open decks 7 and 14.

At 6pm we got on our formal clothes and went to Wheelhouse Bar for a drink. I got a Key Lime Pie Martini, my mother a Toasted Almond and my father a 007. At 6:45pm we went to dinner. I had salad with blue cheese dressing, appetizer size fettuccine alfredo, beef short ribs and the chocolate pistachio dome. My mother had the same except no alfredo. My father had caesar salad, fettuccine and lobster tails and the chocolate pistachio dessert. This was also the night they serve little cookies/chocolates.

After dinner I walked around the deck for my daily walk.

Thursday we woke up at 6:30am and then went to breakfast at Sabatini’s once they opened. I had cappuccino, OJ and BLT. My mother had Belgian waffle, OJ and cappuccino. My father had the bagel with salmon.

We then watched our approach into Ketchikan. We arrived about 9am and got one of the plum dock spots, in the center very close to town. It was raining steadily when we arrived but ended up clearing later on.

I had a tour booked, the Rainforest Sanctuary Nature Walk. The meeting time was 10:15am but the bus was quite late so we left 30 min late. The drive to the sanctuary was about 20 min. We got off and broke into 2 groups. My group had guide Nick and we began our nature walk. We learned about different plants in the rainforest and viewed animals such as banana slugs, red squirrel and sand pipers (in the estuary section). We then went in to see some rehabbed raptors (bald eagle, peregrine falcon, red tailed hawk). Our next stop we went into the old sawmill and watched a totem pole carver. After that you were free to enter the gift shop and roam the courtyard viewing all the totem poles. I enjoyed this tour. This one was more of a nature walk as opposed to hike and the ground was mostly flat—just slightly sloping in some areas.

Totem pole

Upon arrival back at the ship at 1pm, I had lunch in Horizon Court (pasta, beef stew and peanut butter cookie) before heading back out into town. I went to Creek Street, Married Men’s Trail, the downtown shops, small boat harbor, and a residential section of town.

I returned to the ship about 4:15pm. We sat on our balcony which was on the sunny side until it was time to watch the sailaway from the port side on deck 7. Then we went to Patisserie Bar for our nightly cocktail. I had a mojito, my mother a margarita, and my father a Lynchburg lemonade.

Dinner tonight was 6:30pm. I had the pineapple and prickly pear, fettuccine alfredo and the surf and turf without the surf (had just filet mignon). My mother had the same except she had caesar salad and melon/prosecco soup. My father had seafood bisque and halibut. For dessert my mother and I got the chocolate lovers platter (3 different small chocolate desserts) to which I added a scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream and my father had the coconut cake.

I then walked around the deck as usual.

Monday I got up at 6am again and then we went to Sabatini’s at 7:30am. I had cappuccino, OJ and a BLT. My mother had cappuccino, OJ and the Belgian waffle. My father had coffee, OJ and a waffle. After breakfast we walked around on the promenade deck and got ready for our day in Glacier Bay. We turned the TV to channel 41 to hear the naturalist and ranger commentary once it began. The commentary is available on your stateroom TV channel 41 and on the open decks 7 and 14/15.

Sabatini's BLT (without the egg)

We went to lunch in the main dining room—my mother and I had meat tortellini and chocolate cake while my father had gazpacho and parmesan chicken.

We picked up the park rangers for Glacier Bay about 12:30pm but the commentary didn’t start until about 3pm I think. Your timing in Glacier Bay will vary by cruise/itinerary. Last time we spent pretty much all day in Glacier Bay and saw Johns Hopkins glacier in addition to Marjerie. This time were just in there for the afternoon. We got to Marjerie Glacier about 4pm and stayed an hour—30 min on each side of the ship. We got to see many pieces of ice calving. Along the way in we saw otters, seals, sea lions and mountain goats on the side of a hill (they were very hard to see, even with binoculars). The day was gray and overcast with some periods of drizzle. In fact it seemed to be raining on one side of the ship but not the other! The clouds were low hanging so it was hard to see the mountains.

After we left the glacier, the commentary stopped; I wish they would have stayed on helping to spot wildlife or speaking about the wildlife in the area.

Kayaks in Glacier Bay

Glacier calving

This is a bit out of time sequence, but we had called the room service line at about 10am in the morning to have afternoon tea with the cookies, sandwiches, scones etc delivered to our room at 3pm. The woman who answered the line asked if we wanted any coffee or hot chocolate in addition to the tea so we said yes, hot chocolate. Well, 3pm came and went and no tea service. So about 3:20pm we call back and this time a different person answered the line and had never heard of our order—she said oh you have to order tea in advance. We said “we did—at 10am this morning”. So she re-took our order but refused to include hot chocolate—tried to tell us we needed to go to the Horizon Court for that. Ummm what would be the point of getting room service if we had to go out to get something basic??? I know they have packets of hot chocolate as I’ve had them before in room service so it was just a case of someone being not wanting to do their job well. Plus being in a suite gets you upgraded room service options so really hot chocolate should not be any issue. It really shouldn’t be an issue no mater what room you are in! That room service experience was really the only bit of a snafu we had during the cruise.

We had dinner about 6:15pm. I had a strawberry margarita, bibb lettuce salad and coffee rubbed pork loin with truffle whipped potatoes and “Love Boat Dream” for dessert. My mother had the same except a plain margarita. My father had Caesar salad and the special of the day chilean sea bass and the apple walnut spring rolls for dessert.

After dinner we went back out on deck to look for sea life, as they said that 7:30-8:30pm would be a good time to spot it as we neared the opening of the bay. We also saw the rangers get picked up about 8:30pm on port side. We were able to view lots of seals or otters.

Tuesday we woke up at 4:45am just in time to sea the ship sail into Skagway and dock at the Railroad dock. Since Sabatini’s does not open until 7:30am, we had to eat in the Horizon Court due to early shore excursion. We went up about 6:15am and it was already packed and hard to find a table. The breakfast potatoes had no flavor and the chocolate macadamia coconut muffin was passable. There were 3 other ships in port today with us.

We got off the ship at about 7:55am, as we had to meet our tour with Chilkoot Charters on shore at 8:15am for an 8:30am departure. This was a tour we booked independently of the ship. We were doing the tour that took the mini bus up to Carcross and the train back from Fraser. There were about 20 people on the tour and we had tour guide Mike as our driver. We used Chilkoot the last time we were in Skagway as well and liked the fact that they use mini buses as opposed to motor coaches so the group size is smaller. We stopped at many scenic vantage points along the way. The first stop was at an overlook where we could see the train climbing the tracks. We also saw Tutshi Lake, Emerald Lake, Lake Bennett, and the town of Carcross among many other stopping points. It seemed like more snow this time than the last time we were there but our trip this time was a week earlier. Tutshi Lake was still pretty much iced over, though the ice was getting thin and Emerald Lake was only partially clear. We also were lucky enough to see Dall sheep very close to the road near the welcome to the Yukon sign. The lunch stop was at Caribou Crossing—lunch is bbq chicken, rolls, cole slaw, and donuts. There is also a taxidermy museum, sled dog puppies, sled dog rides and a petting zoo all included with your stop.

Dall Sheep

Emerald Lake

After lunch we made a few more stops before being dropped at the train about 2:15pm (train was late). We were given our car assignment and then had the 2 hr ride back to Skagway. Once the train gets going you can go outside on the viewing platforms. On the ride down on the train, the right hand side gets the panoramic views and on the ride up on the train the left side would get the views. Our guide then picked us up and you had a choice of being dropped back at your ship or downtown. I went downtown to look around for a little while before walking back to the ship. The last time we did this excursion we did the train up and the bus back while this time we did the reverse. I’m not sure I really have any preference—both were good and you got to the same stops.

We had drinks in the Crooners Bar before going to dinner at 6:30pm. It was Italian night which is my favorite. I had the peach bellini soup, small portion of the arrabiata pasta which I loved and the veal marsala. Tiramisu was my choice for dessert. My mother had the eggplant, pot roast and tiramisu. My father had eggplant, veal and tiramisu.

After dinner we watched the sailaway at 8:30pm. The scenery was really nice on the sail out with the sun on the mountains. Almost every night we experienced beautiful sunsets.

One of many gorgeous sunsets

This was our second Alaska cruise. Three us went—myself and my parents. Our first cruise to Alaska was back in 2008 aboard the Island Princess. This most recent Alaskan cruise was a roundtrip from Vancouver, while our first cruise was a Northbound Vancouver to Whittier. We picked this cruise partly because it was on the Coral which we have sailed before. We like the smaller ships so Coral is a perfect size for us. We always like to arrive in the departure city a day prior to cruise departure in case of any problems with flights or luggage. Even though the cruise was to depart from Vancouver, we decided to fly into Seattle and drive up to Vancouver. There are not currently any nonstop flights from Boston to Vancouver (Air Canada is starting nonstop service from Boston/Vancouver in late June—but that wouldn’t help us). We prefer nonstop flights when given a choice and since the drive to Vancouver is not that far from Seattle that was our decision this time.

We departed Boston Friday morning on the 6:42am JetBlue flight bound for Seattle. This was my first trip with my new suitcase, a TravelPro Magna2. I was hoping that the airlines (or cruise line) wouldn’t damage it the first day out! My other bag, a Pathfinder, had seen many years of airline abuse and had to retire. Upon landing in Seattle, we waited 15 minutes to claim the baggage and then got the shuttle bus to the rental car center. There is a stop at each end of the arrivals level of the terminal. We picked up our Budget rental car and received a Ford Flex. We then set out for our first stop- Teddy’s Bigger Burgers in Green Lake which is north of Seattle and not far off I-5. I discovered this chain in Hawaii and always enjoy it, so suggested we plan to stop there for lunch. Our original idea was to have lunch at Pike Place Market but we didn’t like the idea of having to park the car and leave the luggage in it in full view in the heart of the city. Even though we still had to leave the luggage, it was in a more suburban area at this restaurant. It took us about 30 min to get to Teddy’s. We parked in the small garage around the back. They serve burgers in 3 sizes—Big, Bigger and Biggest. I got a “Big” Original with american cheese and a kids size chocolate peanut butter shake, my mother had the same only with cheddar cheese and my father had a Bleu Wave (teriyaki burger with bacon and blue cheese) and chocolate shake and fries. The shakes also some in a few different sizes but I find the kids to be just fine. We all really enjoyed our meals.

After lunch we continued our way north on I-5 up to the border crossing at the Peace Arch (about 2 hrs). There was hardly any wait to cross the border—maybe 3 minutes. We then picked up BC-99 and continued the rest of the way up to Vancouver (1 hr). We drove to our hotel, the Blue Horizon located on Robson Street. This was our third time staying at this hotel. We like it for it’s central location, rooms with 2 queen size beds (as opposed to doubles) and the fact that all rooms get a balcony with a view of Vancouver. We checked in and got room 2106 a room facing English Bay and then my father and I dropped the rental car off at the Georgia Street Budget location which is just a few minutes away from the hotel. It may only be a few minutes in theory, but the traffic is so slow that it took about 20 min to get there and then we had to fill the tank with gas and find a gas station so the whole thing took about an hour.

For dinner tonight we had a 6:30pm reservation at Al Porto, an Italian restaurant we discovered and enjoyed on our first trip to Vancouver. It is located in Gastown right near the steam clock. My mother and I got margaritas and my father a glass of wine. My father got the early dinner special (soup or salad and entree): a curry soup and halibut entree. My mother got veal marsala and I got veal saltimbocca and tiramisu for dessert. We all enjoyed our choices and would return there again if looking for dining in Vancouver.

Below is a picture of the tiramisu at Al Porto

After dinner we walked to Canada Place cruise terminal and looked around so that when we returned from our cruise the next Saturday, we would know where/how to pick up our National rental car. My parents took a cab back to the hotel and I walked around a bit. One of the things I like about that area of the country is how late it stays light outside. I walked over to English Bay to photograph the cargo ships anchored out in the bay with sunset as the backdrop.

English Bay

The next morning I got up at 6am just in time to see the 3 cruise ships come in across English Bay from our hotel balcony (Star Princess, Coral Princess, Nieuw Amsterdam). I got up and walked down to Canada Place and strolled around for an hour and a half before I met my parents for breakfast at Breka, a cafe on Bute Street that is right around the corner from the hotel. Actually it is a chain that has several locations in Vancouver and they are open 24hrs. The Blue Horizon also has a coffee shop which we have eaten in before and also enjoyed, but we decided to try something different this time. They had many items available and it was hard to choose just one, so I didn’t! I got a small mocha, ham and cheese muffin and pistachio ganache cake. My mother had a mocha and an apple fritter while my father got a chocolate raspberry scone and a plain coffee. We enjoyed our selections.

After breakfast I decided to walk around the area before we went to board the ship. I walked around the residential West End and over to English Bay and then up to Stanley Park before heading to Coal Harbour and then back to the hotel.

Pistachio Ganache Cake at Breka

We met back at the hotel at 10am and the hotel elevators were acting up—it took 20 minutes to get downstairs from our room. The cabs in Vancouver tend to be quite small, so if you have lots of bags and more than 2 people you will need to call for a larger vehicle. The front desk called one for us and it arrived in about 5 minutes. We wanted to get to the pier early since this was a day that there were 3 ships in port and we wanted to be closer to the start of what we expected to be long lines. We had read about the long lines that form on days when the port is fully committed. Last time we were lucky that we were the only ship. By the time we arrived at the pier today it was just before 11am and Canada Place was absolute chaos. The cab let us out but there were so many milling people you could not tell where you needed to go to drop luggage and we were given bad information by a worker near where the cab let us off so we were sent the wrong way to drop bags. Finally, we got to the correct place to drop bags and then were able to join the line up to Hall C to wait to go through customs (there were seats in this hall). We were given group number 19 and only had to wait about 15 minutes before our group was called. We then proceeded back down the escalator and to security and then customs before being sent to the individual ship check in counters. After checking in we were sent to another holding area with rows of seats as they had not started boarding yet. We waited maybe another 15 min and then they started boarding about 11:50am and we were onboard by about noon. I think we arrived the terminal at just the right timeframe, 10:30-11am seemed good.

We found our room D423 Catalina Suite on the starboard side and enjoyed watching them load the luggage on board. We always like it when our room is on the dock side so that we can easily watch the provisioning or the set up of the gangway in the case of a day port. After watching for a little while we went to Horizon Court for lunch. I got a small meatball, slice of pork and spoon of pasta marinara. I also got a coffee opera cake which was dry so I didn’t end up eating that. After lunch we went to make a reservation for Bayou Cafe and then back to the room. I then walked around the ship taking pictures while there were not a lot of people. It was a great opportunity to get photos without people walking around.

Loading luggage

Empty ship

The muster drill was delayed an hour due to many people not yet getting on board due to the overcrowding at Canada Place with all three ships. We watched people trickle on from our balcony. After the drill we went to watch them cast off the lines and sail away. We were the first ship to leave (all were delayed about 1.5 hrs).

We went to dinner at 6:30 and because we were in a suite we had Club Class dining. The line for regular Anytime was out the door but we had a choice of 3 tables. The entrance to the dining room is divided into 3 “rows”. As you face the dining room the line on the far right is for walking in with no reservation, the middle row is is for reservations and far left is for Club Class. I have to note that the Bordeaux dining room, which is the dining room used for Anytime and Club Class is also used for a partial Traditional seating at 5:15 so that may also account for the lines we saw early on in the evenings of people trying to get in. Later by about 7:30pm there was much less of a wait if any. It was the usual everyone wants to eat between 6-7pm. I would say maybe an eighth of the total dining room was set aside for Club Class. The largest table they had was for 6. The linens were different as well—gray rather than white and they say CC on them in a corner. Our servers were Analyn and Daryl and we kept them for the whole cruise. I got a margarita, salad with blue cheese dressing, beef chili and flourless chocolate cake. My mother had a margarita, melon medley and the special lamb chop (this was the club class special of the night) and the chocolate hazelnut souffle. My father had a martini, spring rolls and shrimp etouffee and cheesecake.

After dinner I attempted to walk around the Promenade deck but they were cleaning it so it was hard to keep going back and forth. I try to walk at least 2 miles after dinner each night and more during the day.

Sunday morning I was up at 6am and saw the sunrise. The Nieuw Amsterdam was ahead of us and Star Princess way behind. We went to suite breakfast at Sabatini’s when they opened at 7:30am and were the only ones there! We got a nice window table which we were also given for the rest of the cruise; I guess most people were not the early risers we were! I had a cappuccino, fresh squeezed orange juice and Belgian waffle served with whipped cream. My mother had the apple French toast, OJ and cappuccino and my father had a bagel with salmon and cream cheese, OJ and plain coffee.

After breakfast we sat and watched the waves flow by and then my mother and I attended the fruit and vegetable carving demonstration in the atrium. Sea days are not my favorite, especially on cold weather cruises as you have to bundle up to be comfortable sitting outside when the ship is underway. I’m not the biggest fan of many of the onboard activities either, as so many of them are just a sales pitch. Buy “art”, “How to look 10 years younger” (buy this product), spend money on a lottery/jackpot. Eh, those are just not of interest to me. So I spend a lot of time walking and taking pictures.

We had lunch in the dining room today and I had the pasta carbonara, Philly cheese steak and toll house cookie ice cream. My mother had a cheeseburger, carbonara and rice pudding. My father had hot and sour soup and carbonara pasta.

After lunch I walked around the promenade deck a few times and then went to the lecture on glaciers given by the onboard naturalist Sue Hazlett. The lectures given by the naturalist were the activities I enjoyed most onboard. The seas started to get a bit rough as this was the time we were going up the outside/unprotected side of Queen Charlotte Islands and it rained so I went back to the room after the lecture and watched a television show (I know- boring) until 6pm when we went to the Wheelhouse Bar for a drink before dinner. My mother and I had toasted almond martinis while my father had a Jack Daniels. The motion of the ship was bothering my mother so she did not get to enjoy our dinner as much as she would have. Tonight we had a 6:30 reservation for Bayou Cafe, as this was the first formal night. The decor in the restaurant is a New Orleans theme and each place setting has mardi gras beads to wear. I had the salad with roasted red pepper dressing, carpetbagger filet and chocolate peanut butter bar. My mother had the salad, carpetbagger and bread pudding. They bring you all the side dishes family style so you can share. They also offer an Alaskan seafood theme on the other side of the menu so my father ordered from that side. He had oysters on the half shell and a salmon dish.

After dinner it was still quite rough—actually rougher and I walked around the promenade deck another few times—I was the only one outside. You could feel moments of weightlessness as the ship pitched up and down with the waves.

Havana 1957 is within walking distance on South Miami Ave in the Brickell neighborhood. They have a few locations in the Miami area--I've eaten at the Espanola Way location and liked it quite a bit.

If you don't mind driving or taking a cab I always like Versailles on SW 8th St.

yes, you can. I did it couple years ago--used the ice bucket in the room for a vase.

I'm enjoying your review! I'm considering a cruise on the PG so love reading about people's experiences.

Wow, I'm late seeing this, but as a former Arabella sailor under the old management I'm glad to hear she's back to doing sailing trips again.

I hope the public sailing trips are a success for them, as I would love to sail on her again! I'll have to keep my eye on their website.

My favorites:

The Fettuccine Alfredo--if you get the appetizer size portion and want the parmesan bowl, make sure to ask for it (appetizer size does not normally come with the bowl)

The tiramisu that they serve on Italian night (not the always available one in the International Cafe)

The Toasted Almond Martini

The flourless chocolate cake

The mushroom and leek quiche in the International Cafe

Yeah, the boat has not exactly been quick to sell. They keep doing price drops as well. It's all online, you can follow the "progress" if you google it.

Yeah, I just got the same letter in the mail ( I didn't get an email).

This is a real bummer, as the Arabella was a wonderful vacation and great way to explore the smaller islands of the Caribbean.

I had seen earlier this year that they'd listed the boat with a yacht brokerage around March or April (just happened to stumble upon it online) so wondered if something like this would come up and unfortunately it has.

If you get any more email communications let us know!

This is a real loss to the small cruising community.