Diamond Alaskan Cruisers, Victoria Stop/luggage question.

[srphnx]

Accoding to the official Princess Itinerary, Diamond stops at Victoria from 7PM till Midnight, isn't baggage an issue? Normally people go to cabin and have to pack for disembarkation the last night before 10 or 12 at the latest. If you are in port till late, what time do bags have to be set out? How did that work for you?

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[paulli]

As I recall from last year on the Star Princess, most people have their bags out before they hit the town. Really not much different from when you have a sea day for your last day since Princess wants most of your bags our before you go to dinner.

I ran into more people than I would have expected that were leaving the ship in Victoria after dinner on the ship. They would spend a couple days in Victoria before either continuing on from there or returning to Seattle on the high speed ferry and returning home.

[Jem4life]

We just got back from the Diamond Alaksa. There is plenty of time to pack. You leave Ketchikan Thursday at 12:30 in the afternoon and don't arrive in Victoria until 7:00pm on Friday. Gives you all day! My husband went to the casino while I packed. Didn't take long for him to come back (only winning $35) and I was about done.

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[srphnx]

I know there is plent of time to pack, the question was how to pack the items you wore in Victoria if the bags are already gone. Normally you go to cabin from dinner, pack, leaving out the next days clothes and then put everything else in the checked bags. Timing was odd with the midnite sail time.

[B] Life is at it's best when your address floats [/B]
[B]<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>[/B]
Diamond Princess 05/04 ~~ Mercury 06/02
Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98 ~~ Legend o.t. Seas 09/95
[B]<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>[/B]
Diamond Princess 12/04
Diamond Princess 11/04 ~~ Diamond Princess 04/04
Sea Princess 01/02 ~~ Vision o.t. Seas 04/02[B]<FONT color=red>
West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>[/B]
Ecstacy 09/01
[B]<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>[/B]
Century 12/97
[B]<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>[/B]
Century 9/96

[WolfpackFan]

I've about decided that we might just skip Victoria. I hate to be rushed on the final night. It's bad enough you're leaving the ship the next day. Plus I hate eating early. We may just stay on board, eat a nice dinner (should be easier to get into restaurants) and then take our time packing, etc.

-----
WolfpackFan

June 1994 Premier Atlantic
June 1995 Regent Rainbow
March 1998 Celebrity Century
January 2000 Norwegian Sky
January 2003 Golden Princess
June 2004 Diamond Princess

[srphnx]

Good plan, I have a similar thought, we might go ashore for an hour, hard to keep the lady from doing at least some window shopping. We don't mind eating early but whole heartedly agree about last night aboard, why add stress?

[B] Life is at it's best when your address floats [/B]
[B]<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>[/B]
Diamond Princess 05/04 ~~ Mercury 06/02
Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98 ~~ Legend o.t. Seas 09/95
[B]<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>[/B]
Diamond Princess 12/04
Diamond Princess 11/04 ~~ Diamond Princess 04/04
Sea Princess 01/02 ~~ Vision o.t. Seas 04/02[B]<FONT color=red>
West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>[/B]
Ecstacy 09/01
[B]<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>[/B]
Century 12/97
[B]<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>[/B]
Century 9/96

[Lynda90]

Another alternative is just to wear the same thing in the morning that you wear to Victoria. You don't have to dress up to go to Victoria; just dress for comfort and wear the same thing off the ship the next day. Keep a small carry-on available for miscellaneous items. You will need to keep a couple of things until the next day anyway. However, I agree with the others not getting off the ship. It's too bad Princess gets there so late. On another line (although Princess is my favorite), we got to Victoria in the morning and spent the whole day there. We went to the Empress for high tea and really enjoyed it.

Lynda

[pg.]

SKIP VICTORIA!!!!!!! Don't be doing that crazy talk! Victoria is too wonderful to skip!

[pg.]

SKIP VICTORIA!!!!!!! Don't be doing that crazy talk! Victoria is too wonderful to skip!

[srphnx]

It will be a bit chilly in Victoria at night, we can't wear the same items home to 100 degree Phoenix so we have to plan in advance, thanks for the help all.

[B] Life is at it's best when your address floats [/B]
[B]<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>[/B]
Diamond Princess 05/04 ~~ Mercury 06/02
Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98 ~~ Legend o.t. Seas 09/95
[B]<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>[/B]
Diamond Princess 12/04
Diamond Princess 11/04 ~~ Diamond Princess 04/04
Sea Princess 01/02 ~~ Vision o.t. Seas 04/02[B]<FONT color=red>
West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>[/B]
Ecstacy 09/01
[B]<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>[/B]
Century 12/97
[B]<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>[/B]
Century 9/96

[Guest Snorkelbunny]

Skip Victoria? Take it from us Northwesterners and Canadians, this town is a must see! Don't skip it, please!!! You will really enjoy it!!

~Adrienne in Seattle~


[img]http://www.animationlibrary.com/Animation11/Hobbies_and_Entertainment/Dances_Ethnic/Hula_girl_2.gif[/img]


Noordam 1991 Pacific NW/Repositioning
Vision of the Seas April 2002 Mexican Riviera
Grand Princess November 2002 Western Caribbean
Norwegian Sea October 2003 Caribbean Sampler/Repositioning

[img]http://www.animationlibrary.com/Animation11/Animals/Fish/Tropical.gif[/img]

[Jem4life]

We put our(dirty) Victoria clothes in our carry on. Simple solution [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] Only left in our rooms what we needed in the morning to get ready to come home.

Victoria is a beautiful city! The gardens and flowers everywhere! It should be even prettier when you are there as they have baskets of flowers hanging on every street pole. They weren't putting them up until this week, so we missed that last week when we were there.

Don't sweat that packing bit. It's your last day... enjoy!

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[geoherb]

We skipped Victoria last summer. We spent three days a couple of years before in Victoria and saw the highlights then. If people haven't been before, I'd definitely recommend going to Butchart Gardens.

We enjoyed our last dinner on the Star Princess in an almost empty dining room. The traditional dining room was never crowded at all during our cruise. I think a lot of folks assigned to it opted to eat elsewhere, especially the nights we were in Juneau and Skagway since the ship left those ports after dinner.

[phabric]

We are thinking of doing this cruise in Sept. What did people do in Victoria at night? Did Princess offer any tours or did people do things on their own? The Diamond is in Friday night (7-12) and Sapphire is in Sat.(5-12) are places opened that late.