West Coast Deal Alert ~ Explorer 4-day (Best of BC) Sept 17-21

[sfaaa]

Dang, the taxes are almost as much as the cruise. :(

 

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Story of N American ports. Two to three times higher than Mexico or Caribbean port tax.

[John&LaLa]

So untrue! They don’t sail from the west coast (California) because of the environmental laws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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No one really knows. One thing mentioned is Royal ships can't plug into port power.

 

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[Clarea]

So untrue! They don’t sail from the west coast (California) because of the environmental laws.

And other things that make their expenses significantly higher than other ports.

[wl2cruise]

No one really knows. One thing mentioned is Royal ships can't plug into port power.

 

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The information is out there in bits and pieces written in news articles. Once you put it together it’s pretty clear.

 

Royal will not retrofit any of their ships with AMP capability it’s to expensive. This is why Royal is investing fuel cell technology.

[Hoopster95]

Well, looks like $199 was the breaking point. This past Sunday there were about 90 cabins still available... today 7. Likely several booked as well as many cabins given away as freebies to the Casino cruisers like last year. I just did a mock booking.... I'm guessing still bookable at $199 probably until the end of business day today.

 

This will be last short 3-4 nighter BC coastals RCL may do for quite a while with EX being replace by Ovation. I also think Nanaimo will be gone from RCL's port list... extremely little to offer to cruisers there, you really need to rent a car and explore outside of Nanaimo on your own.

 

In Sept 2019, Radiance is offering a rare 4 nighter return out of Vancouver through the British Columbia inside passage and back (well worth a balcony cabin for this) to Ketchikan next year.

[KiwiGal117]

We did the spring 4 day. While Nanaimo was nice - you are right - not much there itself to draw people. We talked to some old timers having coffee near the port and they told us how much was spent on building the pier to attract cruise ships and as of May - only 3 ships had visited. Another observation - none of the local businesses knew a ship would be in port and many had to scramble to get in extra staff to accommodate. That seems like a fail on the part of the tourism and port people.

 

 

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[PCWalton1]

We did the spring 4 day. While Nanaimo was nice - you are right - not much there itself to draw people. We talked to some old timers having coffee near the port and they told us how much was spent on building the pier to attract cruise ships and as of May - only 3 ships had visited. Another observation - none of the local businesses knew a ship would be in port and many had to scramble to get in extra staff to accommodate. That seems like a fail on the part of the tourism and port people.

 

 

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For Nanaimo we have a car rental and plan to explore. I doubt we will hit all of these but we have a list:

 

• Cathedral Grove
  
• Little Qualicum Falls
  
• Old Country Market
  
• Qualicum Trading Post
  
• North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre
  

[Hoopster95]

For Nanaimo we have a car rental and plan to explore. I doubt we will hit all of these but we have a list:

 

• Cathedral Grove
  
• Little Qualicum Falls
  
• Old Country Market
  
• Qualicum Trading Post
  
• North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre
  

 

Hey Bill, you're plan above is superb and extremely easy to do. Look through this

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53147797&highlight=Qualicum#post53147797

 

Everything above close together.... next time I would leave out Wildlife center, it was very disappointing