PACIFIC COASTAL CRUISES

[drumming cruisers]

Looking at Pacific Coastal cruises. Anyone been on one? Looking at Jewel because it stops in  Monterey, and Astoria. Do you have to tender? Wondering about weather in October?

What airline did you use to fly to Vancouver BC? Looks like it would have to be one way for us and another airline from Los Angeles.

Anyone been on Jewel lately?  Prices look VERY HIGH for a Jewel class size ship. Why is that? Way more expensive than Bliss or Joy. (Going on Joy in June, been on Bliss twice)

Have only been on Breakaway class last few years. 

 

Thanks for any tips!

Edited April 17, 2019 by drumming cruisers
addition

[fshagan]

We live in So Cal so we have done several Pacific Coastal cruises.  Astoria is a dock, but I'm not sure about Monterey (our stops have been San Francisco instead of Monterey).

Vancouver is an expensive airport to fly into from some places. We usually end up on Canada Air, but one or two of the major airlines (Delta? United?) fly into there from LAX.  If you have limited luggage you can carry with you easily, and don't have mobility issues, there is a great train station right at the airport that takes you into Vancouver. Vancouver is one of my favorite cities to walk in, and always feels safe to us.

 

[CaliMom05]

A couple of years ago we did a pacific coastal on the pearl from Vancouver to LA. We flew United / Air Canada to Vancouver. Prices were very reasonable for the one-way fare.  Our ports were different - Victoria and San Francisco.  We had a great time but upgraded to a suite as we took our daughter for her graduation trip and wanted the extra bedroom. A little pricey but we had a great time. Neither port was a tender port and we had delays in SF due to customs so they extended our time in that port by several hours. Although we prefer sailing on longer itineraries, I’d definitely do a pacific coastal again. 

Edited April 17, 2019 by CaliMom05

[YVRBassElectric]

Vancouver is home, so I have done a few pacific coastal cruises (booked on Bliss next week). Price is probably high because of the unique itinerary 

for flights into YVR I would look at westjet

[herdingdogmom]

2 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

Looking at Pacific Coastal cruises. Anyone been on one? Looking at Jewel because it stops in  Monterey, and Astoria. Do you have to tender? Wondering about weather in October?

What airline did you use to fly to Vancouver BC? Looks like it would have to be one way for us and another airline from Los Angeles.

Anyone been on Jewel lately?  Prices look VERY HIGH for a Jewel class size ship. Why is that? Way more expensive than Bliss or Joy. (Going on Joy in June, been on Bliss twice)

Have only been on Breakaway class last few years. 

 

Thanks for any tips!

We went on a Vancouver to SF cruise on the Pearl 3 years ago.  We used WestJet to fly to Vancouver and they were great.  We docked in Astoria and San Francisco.  I would think Monterey is a tender since I haven't heard of cruise ships going there before.

 

Weather is usually pretty nice in October in these ports.

 

I think you can disembark in San Francisco if you don't want to go all the way to LA, but probably not in Monterey.  NCL would have to ok the early disembark.  We were on the Jewel in Asia last month and she looks great after her refurbishment, but of course is nowhere near the size of of the Breakaway class ships.

Edited April 17, 2019 by herdingdogmom

[dexddd]

We've done one and it was great.  Flew to Seattle then bus up due to price.

 

Astoria had two NCL and one Princess so one NCL tendered to downtown but this is probably rare.  Rented car and went south then downtown.  Great city and people.

 

SFO did Alcatraz.

[newmexicoNita]

7 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

Looking at Pacific Coastal cruises. Anyone been on one? Looking at Jewel because it stops in  Monterey, and Astoria. Do you have to tender? Wondering about weather in October?

What airline did you use to fly to Vancouver BC? Looks like it would have to be one way for us and another airline from Los Angeles.

Anyone been on Jewel lately?  Prices look VERY HIGH for a Jewel class size ship. Why is that? Way more expensive than Bliss or Joy. (Going on Joy in June, been on Bliss twice)

Have only been on Breakaway class last few years. 

 

Thanks for any tips!

can't answer the question about prices, it may have to do with port charges as every port is different. As for tendering, you do not tender in Astoria. We have never sailed with a stop in Monterey  We used AA for our flight last time we did a similar itinerary .  It was a fun cruise I will add and very from most we have done. We did it on the Pearl but it was several years ago. We haven't been on the Pearly for about 2 years..

[TravelGirlinDallas]

We did a Pacific repo cruise on the Pearl a few years ago, also in October. We've actually done repo cruises twice. The first time, we flew into Seattle and took Amtrak to Vancouver. The second time, we flew into Seattle and took a 1-night repo cruise on HAL into Vancouver (Canada Place), then took a taxi to the other cruise port nearby and boarded the Pearl.

 

Regarding Astoria, we disembarked at the dock, but then another ship arrived and the Pearl moved away from the dock, so we had to tender back to reboard. That took a long time. We really enjoyed the museum of the Columbia River in Astoria. The weather was great.

 

Unfortunately for us, the port of San Francisco was cancelled and they substituted Seattle in its place... where we had just been 2 days before. So that was really disappointing.  Does anyone know how often that happens? We are trying to plan another cruise to see San Francisco, but are worried about that happening again.

[don't-use-real-name]

Monterey would be a tender port - Astoria would be at a Pier if only one ship is present (normal).

 

Monterey weather virtually the same all year temperature wise.

Astoria a seasonal stop - weather much like Seattle.

 

With Global Warming who can predict exactly anything these days !

[jmh3791]

On 4/16/2019 at 9:52 PM, drumming cruisers said:

Looking at Pacific Coastal cruises. Anyone been on one? Looking at Jewel because it stops in  Monterey, and Astoria. Do you have to tender? Wondering about weather in October?

What airline did you use to fly to Vancouver BC? Looks like it would have to be one way for us and another airline from Los Angeles.

Anyone been on Jewel lately?  Prices look VERY HIGH for a Jewel class size ship. Why is that? Way more expensive than Bliss or Joy. (Going on Joy in June, been on Bliss twice)

Have only been on Breakaway class last few years. 

 

Thanks for any tips!

I'm looking at this cruise as well.   Did the Jewel for Alaska Southbound in May and LOVED her and her crew. Prices for this ship look pretty comparable to the Joy and are actually a little lower compared to the Bliss' Pacific Coastal itinerary.  The Jewel is going to be a much smaller ship than the other two and it's quite a bit older.   If you like the larger ships with all the newest activities, you may not like the Jewel.   We flew home from Vancouver on WestJet and were very happy with them. 

 

[YVRBassElectric]

On 7/8/2019 at 8:44 AM, TravelGirlinDallas said:

We did a Pacific repo cruise on the Pearl a few years ago, also in October. We've actually done repo cruises twice. The first time, we flew into Seattle and took Amtrak to Vancouver. The second time, we flew into Seattle and took a 1-night repo cruise on HAL into Vancouver (Canada Place), then took a taxi to the other cruise port nearby and boarded the Pearl.

 

Regarding Astoria, we disembarked at the dock, but then another ship arrived and the Pearl moved away from the dock, so we had to tender back to reboard. That took a long time. We really enjoyed the museum of the Columbia River in Astoria. The weather was great.

 

Unfortunately for us, the port of San Francisco was cancelled and they substituted Seattle in its place... where we had just been 2 days before. So that was really disappointing.  Does anyone know how often that happens? We are trying to plan another cruise to see San Francisco, but are worried about that happening again.

I think you got very unlucky with San Francisco - we have been there in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 & 2019 - with 3 different cruise lines without a problem. 

FYI all cruise ships in Vancouver dock at Canada Place so it's even easier to do a B2B now

[Markanddonna]

Astoria is a jewel of a port IF you can get in.  I recall learning about the conditions at the mouth of the river leading into Astoria can be quite violent and sometimes ships can't enter. We made it!

[TravelGirlinDallas]

19 hours ago, YVRBassElectric said:

I think you got very unlucky with San Francisco - we have been there in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 & 2019 - with 3 different cruise lines without a problem. 

FYI all cruise ships in Vancouver dock at Canada Place so it's even easier to do a B2B now

This is great to hear!!

[bonvoyagie]

Not too long ago Canada Place was over crowded during the changeover season as all of the Seattle based ships had to come through Vancouver to start their AK season so they had to use the older cruise port/ cargo terminal next door - so it sounds like that has changed. The popular cruises then were LA to VAN (Pacific Coastal) to AK and return to Seattle.

 

In the past few years I have seen the Panama Canal cruises end in Seattle so they can start the AK season without a trip to Vancouver as well as repositioning without pax between the two ports and other tricks to get around the PVSA.

 

Also is it my imagination or are there fewer ships doing the NB/SB itineraries? It seems like Princess has cut their AK fleet back a bit over the past few years- ever since Seattle built the second big cruise port area that can handle up to  four large ships.