A Quick Coastal Cruise on Princess

Over the past few decades we've sailed on various cruise lines, but we're not serious cruisers, averaging one cruise a year, and occasionally two.

Our first ocean cruise was an Alaska cruise on Princess in the 1990s with members of Kathy's family. Since then, we've sailed once on Disney and with Cunard on the Queen Mary II, twice on Celebrity, Carnival and Royal Caribbean, Holland America a bunch of times, and Oceania a whole bunch more. 

We were pretty well "cruised out" before discovering Oceania, a new line in the early 2000s with small (650-passenger) ships, great cuisine, and an attractive loyalty program (we're Platinum, superior to Gold but not as exalted as Diamond, let alone the President's Circle).

Today, however, we're embarking for the second time in around three decades on Princess, a five-night cruise on the Majestic Princess, a 3500-passenger vessel that will sail first from Vancouver to Victoria, and then down the Pacific Coast to dock at San Diego before we disembark at San Pedro.

Why this cruise? It will be our second bargain cruise promoted by a regional travel agent, Travel With Alan!, who puts together some exceedingly good package deals. This one includes an upgrade to a so-called mini-suite with a balcony, paid gratuities and internet, a drink package, and several other perks. Princess, like most large cruise lines, charges extra for almost everything (including bottled water!), so our package deal protects us from most of the nickle-and-diming that we find so annoying.

We saved even more by dropping the travel agent's transfer package. We'll park our car at the Park'N Fly at YVR, take the Vancouver Skytrain's Canada Line from the airport to the Waterfront Station, about 20 minutes, and walk the block or so from there to Canada Place, where we'll board our ship. That saves a drive into the heart of downtown Vancouver and its hefty parking prices.

Coming home, we'll arrange our own transfer from San Pedro to LAX, fly back to YVR, pick up our car, and drive back home. It couldn't be much easier.

We have no major plans other than to explore the ship, try out the specialty restaurants, and generally enjoy ourselves. It will probably take most of this short cruise to explore the ship. 

This will serve both as a warmup and a contrast to a river cruise in Portugal and a transatlantic cruise from Lisbon to Miami next month.

It seems like a good start, especially on this sunny Northwest day.