Live--Vancouver to SFO and Back Again

[vickie_bernie]

Friday morning, DH drove DS and GF and I to the bus center in Coquitlam and then proceeded over to our friends’ house to drop off our car. The three of them then caught the bus to the transportation center and just as soon as they arrived, the #160 to Downtown Vancouver showed up. It was a pleasant drive into town and the bus dropped us just a block or so from the ship. Very handy. By 2016 they will have a new spur of the commuter train to Coquitlam which will be even more convenient..

 

Too bad I wasn't driving that 160, husband drove the 9 am one though but you were obviously on a later one.

 

The skytrain is being expanded to coquitlam, but it will still be more efficient to take the 160 downtown (that is if it is still running) as it is just one bus instead of taking skytrain to Lougheed, then changing trains to Millenium Line to Broadway then changing trains to Expo line. Too many transfers with bags.

[Wehwalt]

I'm curious to see PunkiC's description of the immigration megaline this morning. I got there early, slogged through it, and was second off the ship. Not everyone was so lucky, judging by the repeated announcements asking people to chill in the lounges until the line was shorter.

[ContemporaryTraveler]

I'm just off the Star Princess as well. Sorry to be contradictory, I do want to clarify that as someone who personally purchased the AI drink package, there is no limit to the # of drinks you can get in a day. Carnival does have a limit of 15, but not Princess. The only thing that was weird was that you had to sign the slip even for a $0 amount; this seemed like a waste (Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, whose drink package I have also used, do not require this).

 

Thank you for reconfirming there is no limit. I was recently on the Royal Princess and there was no limit for drinks as well. I couldn't imagine Princess would just add limits to the drink package, even for a shorter cruise. I did find signing the drink slips to be strange. I appreciate you letting us know.

[vickie_bernie]

We were on the Crown and there was no limit in Feb/Mar, then on the Golden in May and there was no limit. Neither did we have to sign a slip. But I was told that the process may be different ship to ship. Also that Princess was reviewing the entire AI drink package. So who knows what it will be like tomorrow.... :D

 

Vickie

[PunkiC]

Live—Vancouver to SFO, and back again, Star and Grand—Day Three Disembarkation from the Star

 

Disembarkation was a zoo. I guess it started out OK with people politely showing up at the Vista Lounge at their assigned times, but customs was just slow, slow, slow. DH said that by the time he went down to drop off our FFC form (about 8:30 a.m.) that the line ran the whole length of the ship and snaked around. Navigation was nearly impossible.

 

Since our “appointment” at Customs wasn’t until 9:25 we were ready to leave our cabins until about 8:50 a.m. Just as we were seated in the Horizon Court, they made an announcement that Customs was running very late and that passengers should just stay away until they made another announcement. That was fine with us. We had a very leisurely breakfast in the Horizon Court and just hung out blabbing until about 10:00 a.m. when they finally made an announcement that folks could proceed down the Deck 7 and go through Customs. At that time everyone else in the HC jumped up and ran down to get in line, so we just decided to wait a bit longer, like until they kicked us out. Some people who were coming back up through the HC reported that they had just waited for almost two hours and that some folks ended up waiting in line for up to three hours. I don’t much like lines so I was content to drink coffee and wait. ;)

 

They never did actually kick us out but we were the last people to leave the HC. There was no wait for the elevator and the line, which by this time only made it down to The Wheelhouse was moving pretty fast. Just as we entered the Vista Lounge, after less than 5 minutes in line, they moved us into the Non US Citizen line so we breezed through very quickly. Upon leaving the Vista Lounge, they scanned our cruise card and gave us a disembarkation card, which we never did use. They scanned our cruise cards one more time at the gangway and we were on our own in San Francisco. By the time we hit the street, there was a long line of folks ready to board.

 

The weather in SFO was fantastic and we stayed at the Sheraton at Fisherman’s Wharf which is just a short walk from the ship. When we arrived at the hotel, they put a rush on the cleaning of our room and after a short wait, we were able to take our luggage (and the kids’ luggage) to our room where we took a nap and the kids took off to explore this beautiful city.

 

We took a nap in the afternoon and then went wine shopping at Trader Joe’s and picked up a couple of toiletries we needed to replenish at Walgreens. After returning our purchases to our room we walked around looking for a place to eat. We had originally wanted to eat at Mamita’s which is a dive which is supposed to have really good food, but it was closed. Instead, we went to Taqueria San Jose on Mason. It’s another dive with good food. I always want Mexican food after I get off a cruise. The Princess brand of Mexican food just doesn’t cut it for me.

 

By the time we got back to the room and ready for bed, the kids still hadn’t shown up to get their luggage. Young people just function differently than old people.

 

Tomorrow they fly home and we board the Grand for our return trip to Vancouver.

 

p.s. I don't know what to say about the drink limit. They definitely told the kids when they bought the package that there was a 15 drink per day limit, but I don't know if anyone was actually counting. Another instance where you get different answers from different crew members.

[Colo Cruiser]

[trbarton]

Live—Vancouver to SFO, and back again, Star and Grand—Day Three Disembarkation from the Star

 

Disembarkation was a zoo. I guess it started out OK with people politely showing up at the Vista Lounge at their assigned times, but customs was just slow, slow, slow. DH said that by the time he went down to drop off our FFC form (about 8:30 a.m.) that the line ran the whole length of the ship and snaked around. Navigation was nearly impossible.

 

Since our “appointment” at Customs wasn’t until 9:25 we were ready to leave our cabins until about 8:50 a.m. Just as we were seated in the Horizon Court, they made an announcement that Customs was running very late and that passengers should just stay away until they made another announcement. That was fine with us. We had a very leisurely breakfast in the Horizon Court and just hung out blabbing until about 10:00 a.m. when they finally made an announcement that folks could proceed down the Deck 7 and go through Customs. At that time everyone else in the HC jumped up and ran down to get in line, so we just decided to wait a bit longer, like until they kicked us out. Some people who were coming back up through the HC reported that they had just waited for almost two hours and that some folks ended up waiting in line for up to three hours. I don’t much like lines so I was content to drink coffee and wait. ;)

 

They never did actually kick us out but we were the last people to leave the HC. There was no wait for the elevator and the line, which by this time only made it down to The Wheelhouse was moving pretty fast. Just as we entered the Vista Lounge, after less than 5 minutes in line, they moved us into the Non US Citizen line so we breezed through very quickly. Upon leaving the Vista Lounge, they scanned our cruise card and gave us a disembarkation card, which we never did use. They scanned our cruise cards one more time at the gangway and we were on our own in San Francisco. By the time we hit the street, there was a long line of folks ready to board.

 

The weather in SFO was fantastic and we stayed at the Sheraton at Fisherman’s Wharf which is just a short walk from the ship. When we arrived at the hotel, they put a rush on the cleaning of our room and after a short wait, we were able to take our luggage (and the kids’ luggage) to our room where we took a nap and the kids took off to explore this beautiful city.

 

We took a nap in the afternoon and then went wine shopping at Trader Joe’s and picked up a couple of toiletries we needed to replenish at Walgreens. After returning our purchases to our room we walked around looking for a place to eat. We had originally wanted to eat at Mamita’s which is a dive which is supposed to have really good food, but it was closed. Instead, we went to Taqueria San Jose on Mason. It’s another dive with good food. I always want Mexican food after I get off a cruise. The Princess brand of Mexican food just doesn’t cut it for me.

 

By the time we got back to the room and ready for bed, the kids still hadn’t shown up to get their luggage. Young people just function differently than old people.

 

Tomorrow they fly home and we board the Grand for our return trip to Vancouver.

 

p.s. I don't know what to say about the drink limit. They definitely told the kids when they bought the package that there was a 15 drink per day limit, but I don't know if anyone was actually counting. Another instance where you get different answers from different crew members.

 

Thanks for your review.

 

Because of the Customs problems perhaps that was the reason for our BVE delay although they boarded a bunch of travel agents when I arrived at 10:30 am.

 

I also doing the BVE for my May 23rd cruise with friends so perhaps things will be better. They were so disorganized that they didn't even have a photo station set up when we boarded and since I have done the BVE several times I know how it was set up in the past. When we boarded, 11:30 - 11:45 I saw a photographer starting to take the photo stuff out to the pier.

 

Hope you have a good cruise on the Grand.

 

I found the layout on the Star very similar to the Grand with the exception of Skywalkers being removed.

 

Tom:)

[PunkiC]

Live—Vancouver to SFO, and back again, Star and Grand—Embarkation day for the Grand

 

Well this is a first for me—heat in San Francisco. The temperature in San Francisco is supposed to get up to 88F today. The weather here is usually so mild but they are being hit by a heat wave. I am glad we are leaving as I really don’t care for the heat.

 

We all got complimentary breakfast at the Sheraton, thank God. The cost for the brunch was $24.95 per person without the coupons, and it certainly wasn’t that good. I have had huevos rancheros that cost $3.95 that were a lot better. After we packed up, we left the kids at the pool (they have a 4:00 p.m. checkout) and took the short walk down to the ship.

 

Boarding was fast and easy. Since I as using my cane for the walk, they put me in a wheelchair (whether I wanted it or not) and whizzed me straight through. When they asked the wheelchair lady if I had wine in my bag, she told them I only drink water.  We declared two bottles and at the ship another wheelchair person took over and took me straight to my room. I felt pretty silly as I really can walk quite well for quite a long way with my cane.

 

The Grand is different than any other Princess ship we have sailed. The companionways are quite a bit wider and the bathroom/closet layout is totally different. It’s a short cruise so we don’t have many clothes, but the space on the floor for shoes is barely adequate. As dancers, we have a lot of shoes. When they took Skywalkers of the ship, they added a new night club on Deck 15 called One5. We will have our Meet and Greet there in the morning and they have the elite lounge there at night.

 

We had lunch at Alfredo’s along with a glass of wine each. We have enough OBC that we thought we could afford to spurge. We also received more complimentary drink coupons since there is no Captain’s Circle party on this cruise either.

 

After lunch we ran around and got as many stamps on our Treasure Hunt books as we could and managed to get everyplace except the Casino as it couldn’t open while we were close to port.

 

Our Coquitlam friends came over to our cabin for a glass of wine before we went down to dinner. We have anytime dinner and we down about 7:00 p.m. to find a fairly good wait. We checked in and then took our wine over to the International Café until they called our name. We had asked for any size table 4, 6 8 or 10 that had four empty chairs so our wait wasn’t really very long. We ended up at a table for 6 and were joined by another really lovely couple from Alameda. Dinner was great fun.

 

After dinner we checked out the music in the Wheelhouse but were too tired to go u and change shoes and dance. I needed a good night’s sleep. I didn’t sleep as well at the hotel as I do on the ship. I think someday I will live on a ship, just so I can sleep like a baby every night.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like a great day. :)

[vickie_bernie]

sounds wonderful, and I can just picture the whole thing. It is so nice to follow your travels and live vicariously through you.

 

The warm weather is all the way up the West Coast. In Coquitlam yesterday it got to 27 C, very nice, driving the bus was a little warm though, but I won't complain.

 

yes the Grand's closets/washroom is a different layout and I could see the floor space for shoes could be an issue for you as dancers.

 

Enjoy your trip

[caribill]

 

After lunch we ran around and got as many stamps on our Treasure Hunt books as we could and managed to get everyplace except the Casino as it couldn’t open while we were close to port.

 

 

Usually there is a casino employee in or near the casino to do the casino stamp.

[PunkiC]

Usually there is a casino employee in or near the casino to do the casino stamp.

 

That is what we have always found in the past, but this time they said we had to come back the next day.

 

Live—Vancouver to SFO, and back again, Star and Grand—First day at sea heading north.

 

We woke up to a truly beautiful sunrise at about 6:00 a.m. We have the same cabin heading north as we had going south which means we get the morning sun. I love having the morning sun so I can dry my lingerie and my hair out on the deck. It is so nice to arrive home with a suitcase full of clean clothes and that is pretty easy with a combination of hand washing our delicate clothing and sending our sturdier clothes to the laundry, one of the best perks of being Elite.

 

I need to be more careful on future cruises to make sure I book cabins where I get the morning sun for most of the cruise if possible, although I must admit that we also enjoy the sunsets.

 

It feel like the showers on the Grand might be little bigger than those on other ships. Maybe that is why they reconfigured the shower and closet area on this ship. I imagine they must have received complaints from some larger passengers about the size of the shower. We aren’t very big and they even feel a little tight for us on most ships. Maybe once they cut down the closet size and increased the shower size, they received even more complaints from folks who didn’t have enough closet space. Our shower curtain was really moldy so I called to get a new one. They asked if we wanted them to come right away, so I said sure. We waited, waited and waited and the new curtain didn’t come. I finally told DH that the only way they would show up is if he jumped in the shower. Sure enough, as soon as he turned on the water, they knocked on the door. I just told them to do it later. Our steward finally switched it out when he cleaned our room in the morning. I love having a nice, clean new shower curtain.

 

After breakfast we went up to One5 for the Meet and Greet. Sadly no officers showed up and there was some confusion as to whether it was supposed to begin at 11:00 or 12:00 so people showed up at different times. There was also no organized program which made it seem even more disorganized but everybody seemed to have a good time just hanging out and talking. I did miss having a gift exchange but I can’t complain since I didn’t step up and organize it which I should have if I had really wanted one.

 

The Veterans meeting was held in The Wheelhouse and was quite well attended. It always amazes me at some of the people who I think are really old served later than I did. It was a pleasant meeting that lasted about an hour. There were quite a few people at the meeting who were unaware of the Military Benefit so it was a good for them to learn on a short cruise where they weren’t out a whole bunch of money. The credit is only $50 pp on this cruise. We discovered the benefit on a 15 day cruise in the middle of the Atlantic. Learning that we had lost out on $500 hurt a lot more than it would have to discover that you had lost out on $50. Once you have filed your DD-214 it remains permanently on your record so you will receive the credit for every Princess Cruise you take. Since Princess and Cunard share the same data base, it will also show up automatically on Cunard cruises too.

 

The wine tasting was the fancy Maître d’ wine tasting starting with champagne and continuing on to two whites and three reds, some of which were really quite good. This is the first time that I remember that the free-to-elites wine tasting was the fancy one. They also provided six quite good and especially selected hors d'oeuvres including caviar to accompany the second white.

 

We had to run from the wine tasting to the Piazza to make it to the Treasure Chest drawing. Sadly, neither of us won anything. Sooner or later I will win a massage. 

 

Early dinner was a necessity tonight because the Princess Orchestra was playing in Explorers starting at 7:30. There were quite a few dancers who attended, most of whom were Asians who, for some odd reason, do not appear to have learned line of dance. Ballroom dance should always proceed in a counter-clockwise manner to avoid running into one another but this group, which appears to have learned some fairly complex patterns, has obviously not learned to dance in public. It makes it very hard to negotiate a traveling dance such as a waltz or foxtrot.

 

The Wheelhouse band is The Colibri Band and the rate about a “D” as a dance band. They play primarily rhumbas and their songs go on way too long. Dance songs should last somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-4 minutes. When the band finished, I took off my dance shoes and prepared to leave when Robert Deans came in and started playing the piano. He was wonderful so we ended up dancing another set to some wonderful foxtrots and rhumbas in my street shoes. I probably should have changed back into my dance shoes but my toe was starting to hurt and really needed to be painted with Second Skin so I continued on with my street shoes. This was the first time in a long time that I danced enough to cause pain in my toes. I guess that is a good thing.

 

Tomorrow we dock in Astoria.

Edited May 15, 2014 by PunkiC

[Colo Cruiser]

Enjoy!

[Susie51]

Thank you for your review. I'm confused about your itinerary, but perhaps it is because Grand was doing the roundtrip cruises from San Francisco and now Star will be doing them. Any your review is quite entertaining. Enjoy your next cruise!

[PunkiC]

Thank you for your review. I'm confused about your itinerary, but perhaps it is because Grand was doing the roundtrip cruises from San Francisco and now Star will be doing them. Any your review is quite entertaining. Enjoy your next cruise!

 

Sorry, Susie51, I didn't mean to confuse. We drove up to Vancouver, took the Star southbound, spent a day/night in SFO, and then boarded the Grand for the return trip home. They don't often schedule cruises that work out that way, but when the do, we usually take advantage of them.

 

 

 

Live—Vancouver to SFO, and back again, Star and Grand—Astoria

 

Not!

 

First thing in the morning, the Captain wakened us with a message that our stop in Astoria was cancelled. Apparently the Columbia River Pilot advised that it was unsafe to negotiate the river due to gusting winds. The mouth of the Columbia, called The Columbia Bar, is one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. More than 2000 ships have sunk on the Columbia Bar since 1792 and we are happy not to add to that number. We have previously visited Astoria and have cruised enough that we know you have to just roll with the flow, but I am sure that folks who have never been there will be very disappointed. Astoria really is a rally great little town to visit. Oh well. Next time.

 

In our cruising career we have had four surprise schedule changes, but this is the first one where they actually printed new Pitter Patter. Shortly after the decision to skip Astoria was announced, they cancelled The Wake Show and started making over-mike announcements, one of which was that we would be issued a new Pitter Patter shortly, and so we were. We aren’t sure how long it took them to produce the new Patter, for as soon as DH came back from the gym, we decided to spend the morning being bums and went back to bed. Why not, it’s vacation, even if we don’t really have anything to vacation from.

 

After a long, leisurely lunch of blabbing with friends in the HC, we checked our account again and decided that we would play Bingo with our extra money. On the Jackpot game, we got a card that had only two spaced left quite early on, but luck was not with us so we didn’t win. Losing is a good thing as it keeps one from being tempted from seriously thinking that you can ever really win.

 

It did, however, work up an appetite so we went down to Alfredo’s and had some pizza and wine. Alfredo’s is a really nice little restaurant and a great place to relax.

 

As we were heading back to change for dancing and dinner, we ran into some friends we have previously met several times skiing and also hooked up with for a black-tie fundraiser at The Westin at Whistler a few years back. They were actually planning to visit us in Whistler last year over American Thanksgiving, but he had to cancel out for medical reasons. They went off to their early dinner, but then came back up and joined us later while we were dancing in The Wheelhouse. We might end up doing a South American cruise with them.

 

Our tablemates (a group of eight) at dinner were very all interesting. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we literally were the last people to leave the dining room at some time after 10:00 p.m. That is a very good thing as meeting new people and hearing their stories is our favorite part of cruising.

 

The ship is just barely coasting along the inside waters between Canada and the USA so we were able to pick up an AT&T 4G signal on our deck. We naturally hung out on the deck for a while, enjoying the free internet on our phones.

 

All day long I was feeling that nagging feeling of withdrawal that I get when I don’t have a cruise scheduled right away. We do have a med cruise scheduled for November, but I am going to be keeping my eyes open for a smoking deal on a last-minute Alaska cruise to get me through the summer. We have a lot of friends and relatives who have never been so we might hook up with them.

[PunkiC]

Live—Vancouver to SFO, and back again, Star and Grand—Nanaimo

 

Nanaimo is a beautiful little town for folks who like that sort of thing. Personally, we are city people and start having panic attacks when we realize that we are more than 20 minutes from a major international airport. Of course we don’t think much about airports when we are busy cruising.

 

We did however, go into town after brunch. They have FREE shuttle from the port to town and they also have a building with FREE internet at the port. Currently very few cruise ships visit Nanaimo, but I hope they start adding it in as a port more often. It is especially nice that the ship cleared us all though customs before we were allowed to disembark so that should really speed things up in Vancouver.

 

Last night they announced that there were over 200 people who had failed to turn in their customs forms and would not be allowed to disembark if they didn’t do it ASAP. I guess somebody must have noticed that most of the people who hadn’t turned in their forms had Asian names, because shortly thereafter they made some announcements in Chinese and read off a long list of names. There are somewhat fewer Asians on the return trip than there were on the cruise down o SFO, but they still make up about one third of the passenger population—maybe more. On the Star it was more like 50-60% Asian which is not uncommon sailing in and out of Vancouver.

 

The weather was perfect and we made the most of the day, walking all over town, shopping at the open-air farmers’ market, where I bought really neat tie-dyed top which I know I will enjoy wearing for years to come. This was the most I have been able to walk since I broke my ankle last summer and that is very encouraging.

 

There was a Dollarama in the mall in Nanaimo and I had a ball shopping there. We have dollar stores in Seattle, but the quality of the stuff in the Dollarama was much higher and the cost was about a third to a fifth of what I would have to pay for the same stuff at home, especially flower pots and other garden supplies. We are definitely stopping at a Dollarama in Coquitlam on our way home. DH thinks that shopping is about as exciting as watching the grass grow so I will have to park him on a bench in a mall with WIFI while I indulge. I also got some great NYX make-up a Long Drugs. This was pretty exciting because I love NYX stuff and can’t find it at home. While I can buy it on e-Bay, playing with the testers and being able to touch and feel in real life is a lot more fun.

 

After asking for directions, we hiked up to a Mexican Restaurant for a bite. I love Mexican food in general, but his was more expensive than it should have been and not particularly good. I wouldn’t go back there but DH was happy enough with his meal. We walked back down the waterfront until we came to the shuttle bus stop, caught the bus, and then came back to the ship.

 

Just as we were boarding we noticed kayaker just under the bow of the ship which was interesting. Our pier was on the port side and the local police had cordoned off the starboard side with buoys and patrolled the cruise ship all day long. The kayaker must have come in on the port side under the loading ramp. Anyway, security was getting pretty excited about his presence, talking back and forth on their radios. We weren’t around to see the outcome.

 

This time when we reboarded they had an alcohol control table (the first I have seen at a port lately), but I didn’t see anyone being stopped with wine, or anything else. We had brought on all of our wine at embarkation so, when they asked if we had any alcohol, we could honestly say “no”. ;)

 

There was a log freighter at the pier next to us and it was very interesting watching the cranes load logs, and watching the little tug round up all of the strays. When we left for town this morning the ship was still quite empty, but nearly full of logs when we returned. We didn’t sail away until 11:00 p.m. so I was hoping that we would be able to see them tie down the logs and sail away, but that didn’t happen. I wonder where the ship is going. Some folks say Japan and other say China, but we all agree on Asia.

 

Did I tell you about Mikey? He is an assistant cruise director and we really like him a lot. He is cute, smart, funny and full of enthusiasm. I am confident that one of these days we will board a ship and find that he is our cruise director. That would make me very happy.

 

We had a late dinner but neither of us was very hungry because of the Mexican food. I am not really a big foodie, except that I do like Mexican food, salad, and pizza, so I generally view dinner in the MDR more as a source of entertainment and making new friends, rather than as a chance to eat. Our table consisted of three couples (including us) and they were a lovely group. For the entire length of both cruises, everyone we met was very interesting without single dud. That was very nice.

 

After dinner we checked our account to learn that Princess still owed us $2.57. We also still had one remaining drink ticket. We used the drink ticket for a glass of wine in The Wheelhouse while we danced and just left the $2.57 on our account. It will be curious to see how they deal with that credit. In the past we have been required to return to the purser’s desk when we were trying to disembark to claim our extra cash, but I don’t know if they would do that for such a tiny amount. We’ll see.

 

In The Wheelhouse we danced a bit, but were honestly rather turned off by the band Cabrilio. They just aren’t a competent dance band. For instance, we asked for a swing or foxtrot and they played “When the Saints Go Marching In”. Groan. We finally just gave up and went to bed. Despite the fabulous last minute prices we are seeing for Alaska trips out of Seattle, I think that band will discourage us from rebooking on The Grand this summer. We could, however, change our mind on that. ;)

 

So ends our Pacific Northwest repositioning adventure. We will be docking at Ballantyne Pier which will be another first for us. I will finish this live with a report on how it goes with the final disembarkation process.

[MicCanberra]

I am enjoying this thread, thanks.:D

[cdngrl]

have a safe and speedy trip home until your next adventure!

[PunkiC]

Our disembarkation in Vancouver at the Ballantyne pier was a breeze. It sure is nice not to have to go through customs on the return.

 

Ballantyne isn't very accessible so the taxi line was horrendous. We decided to forget the taxi and spring for the downtown shuttle which was $10 pp, but worth it. Our driver was funny and informative and dropped us off right at the bus stop we needed to catch the #160 bus to Coquitlam. The Saturday bus from downtown to Coquitlam (about 20 miles) was only $2.75.

 

We picked up our car at our friends' home and stopped at the Coquitlam Center Mall on the way home. I spent $147.00 on $2.00 garden items, 76 items total, literally filling up the back of our car. If any of your are gardeners, you need to go to a Canadian Dollarama. The prices on stakes (even really fancy stakes) are incredible. I was in Seventh Heaven and DH was unbelievably patient with me. After my shopping spree we went to Montana's for lunch where he was rewarded with a big plate of juicy ribs for his heroic shopping efforts. I also poked into Ardene's which is a very inexpensive Canadian accessories store where I like to buy flowers for my hats and my hair. I bought two beautiful orchids and some crazy hot pink and orange flowers to match one of my amazing shawls for a total of $10.00. I won't need to shop for a month. :) This is a good thing as we got home to find our garden is desperately in need of at least a month's constant attention.

 

Our plan was to stay home all summer long, but I keep finding they amazing cruise deals so I make weaken. :p

[Susie51]

Thank you for the second part of your cruise and clearing up my confusion.

[MicCanberra]

Thanks, I look forward to reading about your next adventure.:D

[CalCruzers]

Hello! We sailed with you from SF to Vancouver, it was a very relaxing cruise and we had a great time. The weather was perfect, the crew was delightful and the food was pretty darned good! ;-)The crème brulee was fabulous! :p

I am wondering about our inability to go into Astoria...the captain said it was due to the spring current, our friends in Astoria said they were told there were issues with the ship. ? ?

Do we get a refund from Princess on the port fees for this stop?

Can't wait to go again!:)

[PunkiC]

The Columbia Bar is very dangerous--one of the most dangerous a waterways in the world--and trying to dock against a current that is running 5 knots is not a good idea. The Captain's explanation sounded perfectly logical to me.

[Urban trekker]

As I did both parts of this cruise I will add my two cent worth - oh wait we don't have pennies anymore in Canada so I will round it up to a nickels worth of advice.

 

I agree that the immigration was a mess in San Francisco - My assigned time was 8:05 AM so fifteen minutes before I head down from my cabin on Deck 11 to prepare to clear customs but what do I find a line snaking all through the ship - if this was totally a result of a slow DHS personel how does Princess explain that the people in front of me and many others had a report time after mine - didn't see a Princess staffer until I got to the Explorer's Lounge where us non-US citizens were told to stay to the left - this was actually benifical as the line moved quite a bit.

 

Once I got to the Vista Lounge the clearance was quite quick - interesting to note that there were somewhere around 8 DHS for the non-US citizens vs three for the US.

Once cleared of customs I proceeded to the Portofino restaurant to await my planned departure at 9:35 AM which happened on time.

 

Then the short 5 block walk to the Best Western where they had a room ready - met my friends that I met on a previous cruise some years ago.

We took the F streetcar to the Ferry terminal and the ferry over to Lakspur where they parked there car.

 

After a quick lunch at the IN and Out in Tiburon it was off to Mt Tamalpais for some sightseeing and exercise.

 

After that it was back across the Golden Gate Bridge - a quick clothes change and off to A T&T park to see the Giants beat the Braves.

 

Before boarding the Grand the nex tday I took the street car up to the Civic Center area and then to the end of the line at Castro.

 

More below.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Urban trekker]

As the OP mentioned boarding the Grand was a breeze - this despite there being another ship in town - because it was overnighting it was less of a problem that I thought it would be.

 

The Grand brings back memories to me as it is the ship that I spent 48 days on last year doing a South American cruise - I even booked the same cabin B420 that I had on that cruise.

 

I too was disappointed in not stopping in Astoria - have been there before on a cruise and have camped and hiked in the area as well BUT as one early risers stated to me the pilot boat spent at least 30 minutes trying to safely get along side the boat.

 

I asked the Passengers service desk about a port fee cancellation refund and her words were "read your contract."

 

In more than 20 cruises this is the first time I haven't got a refund for a missed port.

 

As for the free drink for us Platinum and above cruisers - wonder if it had more to do with no formal get togethers for the various passenger groupins.

 

In Nanaimo - I took the ship excursion's to the Horne Lake caves north of the City - there were 12 of us in a mini-van - our tour guide is a local and a wealth of information - I was the only other Canadian on the bus and as I have spent time in the area over the years I added to some of her info.

 

We arrive a Horne Lake around 2 o'clock where we are met by a parks guide - we are given our helmets and lite - sign our waiver and start the 1.5 mile walk UPHILL to the entrance to the Riverbend cave.

 

It was a steep drop down in the cave on a steel stairwell and you rarely were able to stand erect.

 

I survived and then it onto to adjacent regional parkm for a lite lunch and then back to the ship.

 

I opted to get down off in town - walked around enjoying the fine weather - the last time I was there it rained. Stopped at "The Troller" for a feast of fish and chips.

 

Then walked back to the ship.

 

On Saturday morning my disembarking was a breeze - myself and another couple both had 9:05 AM walkoff but we were called early.

 

Proceeded outside and waited less than five minutes for a taxi - there was a steady stream of cabs in the holding area when we were there.

 

Thanks PunkiC for starting this thread and letting me share my experience.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis