Princess arrival time at Victoria

[Castaway Cowgirl]

Does Princess ever arrive early to this port?  We are trying to figure out if we can squeeze something in there.

[Teechur]

It seems to depend on the ship. For Alaska cruises from Seattle round-trip, the Emerald has a 4–5-hour window in Victoria. We are going to visit a couple of pubs downtown. The Discovery apparently only has a two-hour window. Not enough time to bother getting off of the ship.

[Italy52]

Early arrival, never happened to us.

[Mark_K]

The 11 day ones from San Francisco sometimes get there early.  Not often, if ever, for the 7 day Seattle ones.

[nini]

It really depends on the itinerary. A few years ago, we did a 12 night Alaska cruise round trip from Vancouver, BC. The last stop was Victoria and we were there as long as a regular stop, about 8 hours. It was glorious and sunny.

[memoak]

2 minutes ago, nini said:

It really depends on the itinerary. A few years ago, we did a 12 night Alaska cruise round trip from Vancouver, BC. The last stop was Victoria and we were there as long as a regular stop, about 8 hours. It was glorious and sunny.

Yes on that itinerary if there is a Victoria stop it is a full day   On cruises out of Seattle it is just a quick stop. On 7 day cruises to or from Vancouver there is no need for that stop since it is not a RT to and from a US port. Just to note once you stop in Victoria casino closes for the rest of the cruise and only 1 bar per deck will be open due to Canadian regulations

[nini]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

Yes on that itinerary if there is a Victoria stop it is a full day   On cruises out of Seattle it is just a quick stop. On 7 day cruises to or from Vancouver there is no need for that stop since it is not a RT to and from a US port. Just to note once you stop in Victoria casino closes for the rest of the cruise and only 1 bar per deck will be open due to Canadian regulations

 

Yes, thank you for the explanation. The longer day really made a difference for the cruisers. And it was a gorgeous sunny day.

 

[phroggie]

On our June of '23 7-day round trip from Seattle there was a rather strong wind blowing through the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The captain, John Smith, not wanting to be like the other Capt. Smith, delayed entering the harbor until after 19:00. We only had a few hours and about all we could do was to walk to the provincial legislature building and take a pix or two of Queen Vicky's statue and walk back. We didn't really have enough time to check out the Empress Hotel. The only consolation was that close to the summer solstice at that longitude and latitude it was still pretty bright that late.

Edited May 9 by phroggie

[SCX22]

Won't happen because the port workers aren't scheduled to work early.  If the ships does happen to arrive early, which is highly unlikely, the ship will bob around the harbor until the proper time.  

 

The better question is which ship will arrive first to berth?  In the the summer, there can be up to 3 ships in port in the evening/night to satisfy PVSA before returning to Seattle. 

[CatMom72]

21 hours ago, Castaway Cowgirl said:

Does Princess ever arrive early to this port?  We are trying to figure out if we can squeeze something in there.

Most Alaskan cruises that begin and end in the US only make those weird stops in Victoria to avoid violating the Passenger Vessel Services Act (a sort of cruise-ship relevant version of the Jones Act).  It’s also the reason round-trip Hawaiian cruises coming out of California always make a quick and seemingly pointless stop in Ensenada before returning to the US.

Edited May 10 by CatMom72

[sherryf]

20 hours ago, Teechur said:

The Discovery apparently only has a two-hour window.

3 hours.  We are scheduled to be there 9 pm to midnight.  I never bother to get off the ship there anyway.

[Teechur]

28 minutes ago, sherryf said:

3 hours.  We are scheduled to be there 9 pm to midnight.  I never bother to get off the ship there anyway.

Another CC poster stated that their Discovery itinerary has been updated to say 2 hours only.

[Castaway Cowgirl]

Thanks for all the responses to this!

[srpilo]

Princess west coast repo cruises (LA to Vancouver) will also usually have a full port stop day in Victoria 

[Mark_K]

On 5/9/2024 at 2:07 PM, memoak said:

Just to note once you stop in Victoria casino closes for the rest of the cruise

Just to clarify, for cruises stopping in Victoria the last night, and then ending the next morning in Seattle or Vancouver, the casino remains closed because the ship never gets back into international waters.  For other cruises visiting Victoria, the ship can open the casino as soon as it reaches international waters.

 

 

Edited May 12 by Mark_K

[Teechur]

On 5/8/2024 at 8:32 PM, Teechur said:

It seems to depend on the ship. For Alaska cruises from Seattle round-trip, the Emerald has a 4–5-hour window in Victoria. We are going to visit a couple of pubs downtown. The Discovery apparently only has a two-hour window. Not enough time to bother getting off of the ship.

Oops! I meant to say Majestic. Emerald is my June cruise to from Florida to Canada.

Majestic is my September Alaska cruise.