East coast couple have questions about possible west coast cruise

[Brucemcdou]

12 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

Princess has very nice west coast cruises.

 

1 hour ago, Cruiser1862 said:

I appreciate all of the suggestions and now have much more to consider. 
 

Originally, we wanted to fly to California and tour Napa, San Francisco and some other areas.  A cruise came up as an add on. We would only do a week or longer…not interested in a 3 or 4 night cruise. 
 

We have mostly cruised Princess and will look into their offerings. We like the idea of getting on the ship in San Francisco.  We thought we’d try to go RCI because we could book a future cruise with them on our next Allure cruise, plus we like RCI more. 

Thank you for all of your answers!

 

 

I've lived in San Francisco over 20 years and I don't recall RC ever starting or ending a cruise here - Princess does, Celebrity very occasionally, and then the upscale lines - Crystal used to and Regent (?). All the others including RC do west coasters from the southern california ports and SF is at best a stop on a relocation cruise up to or back from Alaska.  

 

I was holding back from discussing a different cruise line on the RC Board, but since you say you're mostly a Princess cruiser....

 

In "normal" times Princess homeports a ship here in San Francisco year 'round and I believe that Ruby Princess is already back on the schedule for 2022 forward.   They do 7- or 10 days r/t to Mexico in the winter, 10 days r/t to Alaska in the summer, and a couple of 12 day r/t to Hawaii in the shoulder seasons.  We've done the 10 day r/t to Mexico itinerary years ago (actually on Celebrity but the same route) and it was a good mix of large and small ports.  I've seen some lines do 7 days r/t from SF but there's only time to get to Ensenada and turn around which in my opinion isn't worth it.  Nice for us locals to have no flying, and for you it would be a great opportunity to add on a couple of days in wine country.  

 

Happy planning!

 

PS: are you from Merion PA?  I went to school in Philadelphia and loved spending time on the Main Line - beautiful old homes and big trees - not like out here!

Edited September 15, 2021 by Brucemcdou