Debrief: Star Princess 2 (or so) day Vancouver to SF Repo, 5/14/15 to 5/16/15

[Vexorg]

(EDIT: Whoops, screwed up the title, make that SF to Vancouver repo.)

 

Just made it home from the short 2-day coastal repo on the Star Princess. All in all a very nice little cruise, but way too short (I'll have to fix that on the next one.) Not a lot to say about this really, so I'll go through the highlights:

 

Passengers: On this particular cruise I was traveling with my Fiancee and her sister, both of whom I travel with frequently. In this particular case I booked a separate room (mostly for the double Captain's Circle credits since this one put me one away from Elite) and the other two were in the next room over. Ultimately my fiancee ended up in my room (albeit in a separate bed, as we don't intend to begin sharing a bed until we get married) and I tried to get a room only card for her, but I found that when I did this it disabled room access on my cruise card, and when I got that fixed it disabled the other room card. Given the fact that this was only a 2-day cruise I didn't push it any further. We sailed in interior cabins on Aloha deck for this one. I usually opt for an OV of some sort when I'm the one booking, but it doesn't really matter much on these short cruises.

 

Unsurprisingly, it seemed like most of the passengers on this sailing were from San Francisco, with a smaller but still significant number from Vancouver and a decent amount from the Seattle area. Included among the passengers was what seemed to be a fairly large organized gay group, which seemed to be involved in a lot of the activities (in particular it made from some interesting Karaoke) and in general seemed fairly well behaved. These short cruises seem to be notorious for bad passenger behavior, but I really didn't see any of it.

 

Embarkation and sailaway: As you probably heard, there was a Noro incident on the previous cruise, which required additional cleanup before this one and several hours delay in boarding. This didn't affect us much, as we just ended up dropping off luggage and then spending a few hours wandering around the area. I will say that the porters at the SF Cruise Terminal were rude and pushy, but that seems to be par for the course. Once we did board the process was relatively efficient, but as a result of the Noro cleanup we weren't allowed access to our rooms until 4pm, and even then my room wasn't ready until 4:30 or so. Muster drill was around 5:15, and we ended up not actually leaving port until around 7. Lots of people on deck for the sailaway, especially with the sailaway under the Golden Gate (this is actually the second time I've done that, but the first time the bay was so fogged in I could see basically nothing but a vague shadow above.)

 

Obviously not an ideal situation, but I'll have to cut them some slack, I imagine these Noro cleanups aren't much fun for the crew. The first couple of days were spent on Red alert precautions, but since we ate virtually every meal in the MDR it didn't impact us much. From what I heard, the Noro incident on the last cruise was pretty much isolated to passengers who came back sick from one particular shore excursion in Hawaii, and was contained quickly. The sanitation procedures were lifted on the last day, and operations are now back to normal.

 

The ship: The Star Princess was actually the first Princess ship I sailed on (on a coastal repo in fact) back when she was still fairly new and was quite a bit different from what I remember, and yet still familiar. In general, things seemed to be in pretty good shape overall. A bit of wear and tear here and there, but nothing too major. I had no issues with my cabin (the vacuum toilet was a little weak, but holding down the button a bit longer seemed to take care of that.) There seemed to be plenty of new carpet to go around. I thought the bed I slept in was fine, but my fiancee always requests additional mattress toppers.

 

The Itinerary: Not much to say here, it was a 2-day trip up the coast. One thing tiat was interesting is that the delay had us not getting into Vancouver until 2pm, which means that there was plenty of time to see the scenery on the sail through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juans, scenery that's usually sailed through in the dark most of the time.

 

The food: As noted above, we ate all but one meal in the MDRs (There was no MDR serving breakfast on the last morning.) The food and service were generally pretty good, and most of the time we were able to get our own table. There was some waiting in lines for tables (especially for lunch on the last day) but nothing too bad. the two dinner menus were sailaway and landfall dinner.

 

Disembarkation: Given the shortness of the cruise (and the need to be out of staterooms by 11am even though landfall wouldn't be until 2pm) the disembarkation seemed a bit disorganized. They had only limited luggage collection, and they provided a space to store carry-on luggage in one of the dining rooms, but the line for it was all the way around the Piazza by the time I got there, so we just carried it with us. Once they cleared us at the dock they let everyone carrying their own luggage off. which made for a bit of a line to disembark.

 

Getting home: I've come to the conclusion that there really isn't a way to get back to Seattle from Vancouver that isn't a pain to deal with. Last time we took the train and had to wait until 5PM to board, and didn't get back to Seattle until almost 10pm. This time we did a one-way car rental from YVR back to Sea-Tac (where we had a car parked from the one-way flight down to SFO) and that actually turned out to be cheaper than the train for three people, but was still a fairly long drive, and required a ride on the Canada Line to get to the airport,followed by asking about 2 or 3 people where we were supposed to go (there were no useful signs pointing to rental cars from the train terminus.) I'd know where to go if I did it again, but it was a bit of a pain to figure out. The border crossing took about 30 minutes to get through.

 

Odds and Ends: Owing to the promo I booked this on and the fact that I was on a solo cabin, I somehow ended up with $100 in OBC for this 2-day sailing. Given the fact that there weren't any shore excursions and I don't drink or gamble (I don't think the credit was usable in the casino anyway,) I actually found it a bit challenging to figure out how to use it up. Ultimately most of it got spent on shiny things for my fiancee in one of the gift shops for lack of any better ideas. Both my Fiancee and her sister had $50 OBC apiece as well, and I'm not sure they used theirs up completely either.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Vexorg

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Thanks for the review! I tend to stay away from 2 or 3-nighters as they just seem too short, but between the two beautiful ports of SF and Vancouver it sounds like a great quick getaway :).

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your review. :)

Wondering why you went all the way out to the airport to rent a car?

We do this (one way rentals between Seattle/Vancouver) all the time and use the locations downtown to PU/dropoff. :confused:

[ar1950]

..........................

 

Odds and Ends:...........................(I don't think the credit was usable in the casino anyway,) ..............

 

It was on our Golden shorty B2B cruises last October. We needed a way to use up our credits and the casino was just the place. I won enough that I was given a G-2 tax form. Thanks Princess for the (as it turned out) three free cruises, those two plus the one we took after those two. :cool:

[oskidunker]

Strange. There is always breakfast in the dining room on the last day. Thats the only breakfast we eat there.

[jtcoolk]

Strange. There is always breakfast in the dining room on the last day. Thats the only breakfast we eat there.

 

yes, very strange. I was on this sailing and that is usually the only time I have breakfast in the dining room also. I was surprised they did not have a dining room open for breakfast.

[Colo Cruiser]

As far as your OBC, just take $100 casino credit on your shipboard account and cash it out in the casino.

[partybarbie]

I love doing these short cruises for a quick "getaway". For future reference, this is the bus company that we use to get to Seattle. http://www.quickcoach.com/ I think it's about $50.00-$60.00, per person.

[Colo Cruiser]

I love doing these short cruises for a quick "getaway". For future reference, this is the bus company that we use to get to Seattle. http://www.quickcoach.com/ I think it's about $50.00-$60.00, per person.

 

Yes much better then the train.

[ceilidh1]

I was on the same cruise and pretty much agree with all the comments - great review! This was one of the more fun crowds I have encountered on a 2 nighter- especially the group of pirates/captains!

 

The delayed boarding in san Fran wasn't an issue for us - we got a few emails from Princess ahead of time so it wasn't a surprise. We dropped off our bags and then went to the Exploratorium for the day. We got into line around 4pm and it moved quite quickly, we were on board by 4:30pm. I was disappointed that there were no beverage stickers offered, even though they were advertised on the papers left in the stateroom. Princess lost some $$$ from us on that as we just stuck with the free drinks and the coffee card I had left from a previous cruise. They also didn't have the usual little treasure hunt thing where you collect stamps and enter a raffle at sailaway.

 

We had an inside on Aloha aft (first time I ever sailed an inside) and I actually quite liked the room! It was a convenient location, quiet (once or twice I heard some scraping/dragging noise above me) and surprisingly spacious! I was surprised that, after the sanitation, our room wasn't "spotless" - not that it wasn't clean, but there were definitely areas in the bathroom that needed a wipe down (several black hairs on the shelves and in the shower). Maybe the sanitation was in public areas...

 

I was travelling with 2 kids and they made full use of the pools, hot tubs, and kid areas. I personally found both pools too cold but it didn't seem to bother the kids. They loved the kids club and the staff were really great there! We particularly appreciated that they put on extra activities the last morning due to our late arrival into Vancouver!

 

Entertainment was pretty good - production show I hadn't seen before and Mike Marino (comedian) who I had seen and liked on a previous cruise. As the OP mentioned, the cruise was just too short!

 

Disembark was the only negative for me (and not to the extent that it ruined my trip). I dropped off my bags before the line started and picked them up as soon as I noticed Vancouver's skyline, so didn't encounter the huge line ups that I saw later. However, the "silent" disembarkation was a little bit too silent. We seemed to sit in the crown grill for an hour after we pulled into port. There was no sign of ship staff for a long time, and no explanation as to when to leave. Then, suddenly, everyone stood up and started walking to the door. We just followed - certainly didn't hear any announcement! In the terminal, we were directed to a long line and stood there for 10 minutes until we were told we shouldn't be waiting in line if we already had our luggage. Again, no communication. Once out of the line, we went straight through to customs and exited and were home within 5 minutes!

 

All in all, a great little getaway that was well worth the little $$$ we paid (far cheaper than flying!):D

[Cruise Raider]

I love doing these short cruises for a quick "getaway". For future reference, this is the bus company that we use to get to Seattle. http://www.quickcoach.com/ I think it's about $50.00-$60.00, per person.

 

I love this service...always have had super good luck with them....all good experiences. It usually saves a ton of money as well, when flying back into the bay area. I stop in Bellingham where my sister lives, so fly home from there after a short visit with her.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Does anyone know which Hawaiian island the shore excursion was on that may have gotten pax sick? I heard that people were quarantined on Maui day but couldn't tell whether it was from getting sick the day before or that day.

 

Thank you for the review! Way to go saving yourselves for marriage; God will bless you in your marriage!!

[partybarbie]

I love this service...always have had super good luck with them....all good experiences. It usually saves a ton of money as well, when flying back into the bay area. I stop in Bellingham where my sister lives, so fly home from there after a short visit with her.

 

Lol, my brother lives in Tacoma. Had a couple of days to stop over and visit him before flying back to Sacramento.;)

[Husky61]

Getting from Vancouver to Seattle is quite easy for us. We just book a 30 minute flight, and presto, we are at Seatac.:)

 

No way we would take a bus.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Getting from Vancouver to Seattle is quite easy for us. We just book a 30 minute flight, and presto, we are at Seatac.:)

 

No way we would take a bus.

 

What airline do you use, and how are fares? I tend to avoid short hops (like LAX to SAN) because they tend to be $$$ on a per-mile basis, but I have heard you can spend hours at that border crossing by car or bus :(.

[Renmar]

What airline do you use, and how are fares? I tend to avoid short hops (like LAX to SAN) because they tend to be $$$ on a per-mile basis, but I have heard you can spend hours at that border crossing by car or bus :(.

 

We did spend almost 2 hours at the border crossing a few years back. Everybody had to get off the bus, suitcases had to be unloaded and checked in again after inspection by the USA custom and/or immigration officers.

We got on the bus in Surrey, BC (about 1 mile away from the border) and arrived at SeaTac 6 hours later. Normally it is about a 3 hour trip from our house to SeaTac and we park our car at a friends place close to SeaTac but that time we decided to do the bus because our cruise was from Fort Lauderdale back to Vancouver.

Next time we will avoid the bus because of those border delays.

 

Theo

Edited May 17, 2015 by Renmar

[ar1950]

We did spend almost 2 hours at the border crossing a few years back. Everybody had to get off the bus, suitcases had to be unloaded and checked in again after inspection by the USA custom and/or immigration officers.

We got on the bus in Surrey, BC (about 1 mile away from the border) and arrived at SeaTac 6 hours later. Normally it is about a 3 hour trip from our house to SeaTac and we park our car at a friends place close to SeaTac but that time we decided to do the bus because our cruise was from Fort Lauderdale back to Vancouver.

Next time we will avoid the bus because of those border delays.

 

Theo

 

Interesting that it took so long. We took the Bolt bus a couple of weeks ago and the total trip was 4 hours (and this on a Wednesday with Seattle rush hour traffic). The border stop was maybe 45 minutes with the only thing that seemed to take a while were the foreign (not Canadian or US) folks who had been on the cruise. The nice thing was that the bus got to bypass all of the car and truck traffic and drove right to the customs building. Easy to take the light rail in Vancouver to the bus station (signage is horrible so ask locals about the correct train and the stop that you need). We also took the light rail in Seattle (the station is right downstairs from the bus stop, again crummy signage so ask locals about the correct train) and got to SeaTac in a fairly short time. Made for a bit longer of a day than we would have liked but the savings in airfare back home was well worth it.

Edited May 18, 2015 by ar1950

[Vexorg]

The last couple of times I've done cruises in and out of Vancouver I've taken the train, but this time around we actually found that a one-way car rental from YVR back to Seattle was cheaper than the alternatives for three people. In my experience, the downtown Vancouver rental places are generally much more expensive. If I recall, the train was going to be $53 per person, and Quick Coach was going to be somewhere around $60, where the car rental came out to somewhere around CAD $75 for all three of us. On previous trips I've looked at car rentals and found them to be somewhere in the CAD $150-170 range (probably dependent on having available one-way cars.)

Edited May 18, 2015 by Vexorg

[ar1950]

The last couple of times I've done cruises in and out of Vancouver I've taken the train, but this time around we actually found that a one-way car rental from YVR back to Seattle was cheaper than the alternatives for three people. In my experience, the downtown Vancouver rental places are generally much more expensive. If I recall, the train was going to be $53 per person, and Quick Coach was going to be somewhere around $60, where the car rental came out to somewhere around CAD $75 for all three of us. On previous trips I've looked at car rentals and found them to be somewhere in the CAD $150-170 range (probably dependent on having available one-way cars.)

 

Light rail in Vancouver was a little less than $4.00 each, the Bolt bus was $14.00 each, and the light rail was about $3.00 each to SeaTac. So, less than $45.00 for two.

 

Book the Bolt early for the best fares. They only open up bookings 2 to 3 weeks before the trip and you need to check every day. They fill up fast and the fare goes up as it fills up.

 

BTW, that car rental was a great deal.

Edited May 18, 2015 by ar1950

[VibeGuy]

My most recent rental was a full-size from Alamo at the pier for $67CAD all-in. I did spring the $15 for a Tahoe upgrade given that my friends all shop at Omar the Tentmaker.

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Lincoln18]

As far as your OBC, just take $100 casino credit on your shipboard account and cash it out in the casino.

 

I think I know what you mean, but say it slowly - more detailed - so I really get what to do. :-)

[trinaM]

My most recent rental was a full-size from Alamo at the pier for $67CAD all-in. I did spring the $15 for a Tahoe upgrade given that my friends all shop at Omar the Tentmaker.

 

What is my friends all shop at Omar the Tentmaker?

 

you mean they like to shop and bring home souvenirs? :):)

[Husky61]

What airline do you use, and how are fares? I tend to avoid short hops (like LAX to SAN) because they tend to be $$$ on a per-mile basis, but I have heard you can spend hours at that border crossing by car or bus :(.

 

We fly Alaska and the fares change on a daily basis. Just check out the fares at the Alaska website. I don't pay much attention to what I consider a slightly higher fare so I can enjoy a hassle free trip in a short period of time.

 

I have been at the border quite a few times and sometimes it can be a huge delay and other times not bad.

 

But it is just our personal preference that we don't takes buses, or shuttles nor do we take the light rail to or from Seatac with luggage.:):)

[Vexorg]

A couple other quick notes I might add to this:

 

- The soda stickers were not offered on this particular sailing (although they've been available on the three-day sailings I've done previously.) To be honest, even though I usually do the UKP on longer sailings, this time around I did only a couple of milkshakes and one or two sodas with meals in the dining room, and probably spent less than $10 total on them. Next time around I might just stick to Ala Carte on that.

 

-Since there was no Captain's Circle reception or Platinum lounge on this sailing, I got a coupon for a free drink in my mailbox on the first day. I'm pretty sure this is standard for the short sailings, although I think the three-days do have the reception.