sunviking90

The itinerary round trip from Vancouver is much more scenic and generally much smoother as it takes the inside route between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Seattle itineraries go on the west side of Vancouver Island, in open seas. We’ve done the itinerary from Seattle twice, and 3 times from Vancouver and IMHO there is really no comparison.

I used to really worry about this, but I have to say that on our last few cruises simply hanging the clothes seems to get any minor wrinkles out. No longer having to bring a suit for DH also lessens the issue. I leave my nicer dresses in the dry cleaning bags and have no issues. In the past I have used my hair straightener for minor touch ups.

Yes! I always bring mine. Works for emergency pressing touch ups on clothing too. We are also boarding today. See you there! 😊

I always bring my Arc’teryx goretex jacket. It doesn’t take up much room and I can layer under it if it’s colder. I never use umbrellas (and I live on the “wet” coast). I like to have my hands free.

As others confirmed, you do need to test. Most people now are doing online proctored tests with their own (sometimes free from the government) kit as it’s the most cost effective way. If you have hotel wifi, it should be fairly easy. If you’re not comfortable doing this, I would contact the hotel where you’ll be staying in Quebec City and see if they can recommend a private testing clinic nearby. I googled and found this company. https://covidtest.santemedic.ca/quebec#contact Their location is about 3 miles from the tourist areas in Quebec City. Hope this helps. Enjoy your cruises! Your itinerary is one of my favourites.

We’ve been in a number of HAL and Princess cruises, but I would pay more for the HAL for this itinerary. HAL ships have the retractable roof over the pool, meaning your family can use it even in poor weather-it looks like you’re planning on May. You’ll also have much more deck space for viewing on the Eurodam. As far as staterooms, HAL veranda cabin will be larger and the balcony will be much larger too. The Standard balcony cabins on the Royal Princess are very small, the deluxes a little bigger, but for most the balconies are tiny. I don’t see your family enjoying time out there viewing wildlife comfortably. We don’t travel with our son anymore, but when we did we took HAL to Alaska and it was nice to have more space. We love the Royal class ships, but I just don’t think they’re suited to Alaska. As far as food, they each have their strengths, and we’ve always been able to find enough that we like. I realize HAL is more expensive in this case, but prices fluctuate. Deals come up all the time. HAL isn’t necessarily a “more expensive” line than Princess. Your itinerary may go down. We used to be able to take advantage of some great “kids sail free” offers with HAL. We used to joke that if they knew how much our son ate, they would never have let us have that offer! Good Luck!

Thank you for the review. We’re on the Zuiderdam this Wednesday for the 3rd time and really looking forward to it. Glad to hear things are still good. Enjoy the Zaandam Montreal to FLL. That was our last cruise before Covid and we loved it!

There is a testing facility at YVR on the departures level at the far end of the US departures. There is also one upstairs in the Fairmont YVR.

This seems very strange to me too. Usually hotels will pre authorize a daily amount on your credit card for “incidentals”, but you’re not limited to that amount of spending. I would think this is an issue of inexperienced/poorly trained employee. Did you book the hotel directly with Marriott? When you say you had to put in your pin that makes me wonder. We usually are only asked to show the card we booked with, but are never required to enter our pin. I would also call Visa and ask why the card wasn’t authorized (as they say) for the additional $25.

I am so sorry to hear you are going through this. At least it sounds like you’re being well taken care of. $500 a night for the Airport Sheraton sounds like a major price gouge to me though. That’s at $250 a night hotel at best! We’ve paid less for the Airport Fairmont! Sort of adds insult to injury.

Really enjoying following along with you on this cruise. I agree poor Sydney is a bit of an ugly duckling, but rent a car (if you have not already) and drive the Cabot Trail and she becomes a swan!

Your question may get more replies on the ports forum for Hawaii, but I can tell you that last time we did that cruise on the Solstice (2019), we rented thru Costco for Hilo at the airport. It’s very close to the port and the rental car companies all had shuttles picking up at the ship. We looked into rentals for Lahaina, but the closest to the port was in Kaanapali at the Sheraton, and the hours were too limited to make it worthwhile. They also didn’t pick up at the dock, so we would have had to get ourselves there. We’ve been to Maui many times, so we decided to just Uber to Kaanapali beach and rented chairs/umbrella from one of the hotels and had a nice beach day.

No, they will still have testing requirements.

So, I did end up getting boosted last Monday-they booked me in the same day when I called and said I had travel coming up. As it happened though, DH came home from work that day with symptoms, and tested positive on Wednesday. I tested positive on Friday even after avoiding him all week. 2 1/2 years we have been Covid free, and now it finally got us. This BA5 variant is SO contagious. Fingers crossed that we will be negative in time for our upcoming cruise.

Thanks for coming back to update how it all went! It’s always nice to hear the result. My own experience has been that SEA to YVR flights are frequently delayed. Not sure why.

We usually fly in the afternoon before and stay at an LAX hotel (Marriott or Sheraton). We Uber to the port the next morning. Uber is quite a bit cheaper from the hotels than it is from LAX. There isn’t a lot around San Pedro, so not worth it for us to stay down there. We have stayed in Long Beach in the past which is very nice, but lately I’ve found the hotels very pricey as lots of conventions in the area.

Looking forward to following along, and wishing you a happy anniversary! The Zaandam repo in October 2019 Montreal to Fll was our last cruise before Covid, and truly one of our best! We didn’t get to Boston (on the bucket list) but loved the eastern Canadian ports. Having lived out west all our lives we had never seen this part of the country (shameful, I know). Can’t wait to go back.

I hope mods will lock this thread. Nothing productive going on here, and lots of nastiness. Not what I come to these forums for.

Thank you for your review. The pictures are lovely,

Years ago, when the airlines first started charging for bags, we were on a full flight 737 from Orlando to Seattle. We got on the plane to find ALL overhead bins full and the FA actually instructed me to put my carry on CASE (average size 20” long with wheels, not a tote bag) under the seat in front of me. I spent the flight with my feet propped on top of it. Luckily I’m a small woman. I was pretty mad as I could see the bins stuffed with backpacks, purses, etc which should have been under seats.. I don’t think they had started gate checking bags back then, and we’re just overwhelmed. It wouldn’t happen today, I’m sure. I certainly wouldn’t let it happen now, lol.

I’m going to be much more positive for you with much respect to the previous poster. As you say you’re all paid up and there’s no going back, so don’t worry and look in the bright side. We have done Coastal cruises almost every year for the last 20 years, spring and fall and the smoothest one we did was actually late October. The Sea was like glass. You just never know. Regarding Alaska, October is not ideal, with the shorter days, but a sad effect of climate change seems to be the nicer weather for longer. As far as testing, without a crystal ball, I don’t see it being dropped as it was part of the conditions for ships to sail out of Canada this season. Im sure you’ll wonderful trip!

Shoppers Drug Marts (and Walmart) in parts of Canada do the tests, but here in BC they do not. That’s probably why the website won’t take you further. It would be nice if that info was on the website though. If you Google Covid antigen testing in BC you’ll get to a page that lists the various place that do it.

I recently picked up some more free (BC) Covid tests, but they have a blue box and the brand in them is Artron Labs. Looks like a local BC company. Has anyone used these? I still have 2 left in my last green box, but just in case.

Yes, I’ve done that too!

I received a text from the govt yesterday saying 2nd boosters were coming for all over 12 in the fall and to wait for an invite, but it also says if over 18 and have “unique needs” you can get it sooner. I would think travel would qualify. We have an Alaska cruise in August, but I hope we’ll be fine as is. We cruised during the January surge and again in April and we were fine. I want to wait until the fall and get the new booster that is supposed to work for Omicron as we have a trip to Europe and 2 week transatlantic. I definitely want to be freshly boosted for that!