dartnut

Your ship, is your destination. The rest of the trip is the distraction.

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We are doing a 7 night Alaskan cruise from Vancouver on Sept 16th with HAL but realized it was a long way to travel to pick up the ship for just 7 nights. Our last cruise was a full transit Panama for 16 nights so we have been spoiled. We decided to supplement this trip with a back to back down to Hawaii for another 15 nights from Vancouver with Princess. The biggest problem we have is packing for both climates.

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Cruise ship drinks packages tend to be expensive and sometimes hard to justify. The last cruise we went on they were included in the package, it was a 16 nights Panama Canal. We found it to be very convenient more than anything. I guess the question to ask yourself is. Am I likely to consume 5 or 6 drinks a day (which appears to be the break even point,) or am I going to get my money's worth by over indulging and going for the Champaign and orange juice for breakfast, the glass of wine at meal times, the cold beers around the pool, and the Irish Creams for a night cap. Decisions decisions. To hell with it, we are on vacation after all !!!

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Four of you and two of them, your still outnumbered. Lol

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We recently returned from three consecutive cruises to Alaska: Two on the Star Princess (northbound and southbound routes) and one on Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam (Vancouver-Vancouver route.) We decided last year that we would make our 2017 Alaska cruises all about the glaciers; mission accomplished.

 

About Us: My husband is 71 and I am 66. Counting the above cruises, we have enjoyed 21 beautiful cruises to Alaska. We are not loyal to any one cruise line; itinerary and port times are priorities for us. Our Alaska sailing history includes the following cruise lines: Princess (4), Royal Caribbean (8), Celebrity (8) and Holland America (1). We have had balcony cabins and inside cabins during our sailings to Alaska; this time we had inside cabins for all three cruises.

 

 

For now, I have incorporated a few relevant pictures throughout the narrative. Keep checking back as I hope to attach a link below my “signature” that will provide a more in-depth look at our beautiful memories.

 

Flights: We flew Alaska Airlines from Sacramento to Seattle to Vancouver without incident. Our goal was to arrive in Vancouver with a nice time cushion so we could do a little sightseeing and have some relaxation time; mission accomplished.

 

 

Vancouver Airport: Upon arrival in Vancouver we departed our plane and followed the clearly marked signage to Immigration. At Immigration, we followed the verbal instruction by one of the representatives and we took our place in line for processing. Although the lines looked very long, the whole process was quick and painless. After Immigration, we made our way down to the baggage claim area to retrieve our luggage. One nice thing about the Vancouver Airport is the availability of “free” luggage carts to use while retrieving/hauling your bags. We estimated we waited in the Immigration line about 20 minutes and 15 minutes at baggage claim.

 

Transportation to the Hotel: With all our luggage on our cart, we followed the signage directing us to the ground transportation area. Just outside the door, there was a taxi line that moved very quickly. Taxi to the Marriott Pinnacle was $35 plus tip. We were very thankful that the ride from the airport to the hotel was a fixed rate as construction caused extensive traffic delays. We estimated that our ride to the hotel took 45min-1 hour.

 

Hotel: During our past visits we have stayed at the following hotels: Pan Pacific, Hyatt Regency, Fairmont Waterfront and Marriott Pinnacle; all are wonderful hotels. For this visit, we used Marriott points so we opted to stay at the Marriott Pinnacle for both our pre-and post-cruise stays. We had a wonderful room with a view of the water so we could see the cruise ships come and go.

 

I will try to post more tomorrow.

Thanks for your post, we leave Vancouver on the NIeuw Amsterdam on September 16, we then pick up the Princess Star on the 24th from Vancouver to Hawaii. We are first time with HAL and welcome any advice you may have.

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How would the other cruise line even know you just came off another cruise line's ship?

 

 

 

Roz

I thought you may have to sign a declaration at the port that you have not been unwell or have any exposure to in the last 48 hours. We will be getting off the Nieuw Amsterdam from Alaska on the 23 Sept and then boarding the Princess Star later that day in Vancouver for Hawaii.

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Would coming off a cruise ship with an outbreak of Norovirus prevent you from embarking on another cruise ship of a different line on the same day.

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We did both Alaska and Hawaii you will enjoy them we stayed in Seattle post cruise 1 week and also 1 week post stay in Hawaii my wife wants to go back to both but there are other places i want to cruise Panama Canal and more of Europe. Retirement is wonderful

We did a full transit Panama from Miami to LA in January on NCL, highly recommend.

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Good enough reason to bring back "The Plank" verbal abuse is not to be tolerated at any level within any social structure. Respect, always treat people how you would like them to treat you. Mother would always say. She was a very smart women.

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Just wondering why the security cameras on each level that are monitoring what's going on are not picking up on this and notifying housekeeping. If you can pick up the phone to call room service, they must be anticipating dirty dishes being needed to be picked up afterwards. After all is said and done, a waitress/waiter who brings a meal to your table in a restaurant doesn't let them sit there all night after you have eaten the meal. Safety and housekeeping go hand in hand, a place for everything and everything in its place, that's definitely not outside your door in a narrow passageway.

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Snails.

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Actually, my first two NCL cruises were. I was kind of bummed when she was re-named, but to be honest, I never could figure out what her hull would look like, lol!

 

 

 

I think the JADE is too plain! I would like to see a splash of a few more colors.

 

 

 

I love the art work, I can always find my ship when I head to port, and in Cozumel, that helps after a day of fun there, he he!

 

 

 

HoopTroop

We were on the Jade for our first cruise when she was being repositioned to Barcelona. I believe she was originally the Pride of America that was stationed on the Hawaiian isle run. They actually built the casino on board while we crossed the Atlantic

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We planned our retirement 14 months ahead of time, this allowed us the opportunity to do some serious travel planing. We started in Barbados in November, Mexico in December, Panama Canal in January, Cayo Coca, in February, Palm Springs in March and Wales in April. I finally retired on April 28th. 2017. Six trips in six months pre- retirement. We are cruising to Alaska in September and then on to Hawaii in Sept / October. After working for 49 years my message is simple, don't wait until retirement to do the things you want to do. Enjoy life and travel while you can. I met up with an old friend I had not seen for a while and he told me that the only traveling him and his wife do now is to medical appointments.

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Thank you for the information Suzanne, just reading the other questions that you have answered has been very informative. We sail on her Sept 16 out of Vancouver. I enjoy swimming and was not expecting the pool to be open at that time of year heading in that direction. Is the pool suitable for lap swims?

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Sounds like fake news to me.

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I guess 15 drinks max on HAL.

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Is there any limit on the number of drinks per day?

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Thanks, first time with HAL, we are traveling on to Hawaii on the Princess Star when we disembark.

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We are sailing on the Amsterdam to Alaska on Sept 16 is this one of the same ship?

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If your with NCL , I would think the owners suite.

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Thanks everyone for your input, we finally settled on a Richmond hotel with a free airport shuttle and a $14 shuttle to the port. As we are flying in, this seemed to be a good option.

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We are booked on the Star sailing on Sept 23 from Vancouver, this will be our second time on a Princess ship. We will be coming off Holland America's Amsterdam after a 7 night sail to Alaska. Having sailed through the Panama Canal in January with Norwegian, I'm looking forward to being able to compare all three lines.

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Anyone recommend hotels close to the Port that are reasonable priced?

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Thanks for the link, we sail on the Jade on Feb29th to Spain from Miami, our first cruise, if anyone has any tips to share, feel free.