Cheezwhizard

Hi - our flight doesn't leave until 8:30pm after our cruise. I was hoping to book the hop-on hop-off Miami tour with NCL (they store luggage) and it was $80 Canadian per person (just BF and I). This post-cruise excursion/transfer is not available. What are your recommendations? TIA!

10 minutes ago, nukesubsailor said:

The higher up you are the better the view.  You will have to move from one side to the other according to which side has the best scenery at the time.  Also you will have to decide if you want to stand to view or sit in a lounger.  Another factor you need to consider is the weather conditions such as wind and rain.  You may want to view from under cover such as the tables on Lido deck.  Just remember that people sitting at the tables just to watch the scenery may be denying seats to people wanting to sit and eat.  On the back of the ship on decks 16 and 17 are a few chairs that are under a roof but open to the wind.  They are great places to keep an eye on where you have been.

Thank you for the advice!

My parents have just booked an Alaskan cruise on the Royal Princess northbound in an obstructed cabin ...on the left/port side of the ship. I've read that the Royal does not have as great of viewing spots as some of the other ships. Any tips though?? Thank you!!! 😃

Thank you to all who followed along! :*

After hopping off of the water taxi, we explored on foot.

We stopped into a mall for a bit, but didn't buy anything here. We went into some stores along the streets, like chocolate stores or souvenir stores (still didn't buy anything)! Not much further was the Empress hotel. It is beautiful!

Across from the Empress hotel was the Parliament building.

We stayed here for a bit then hopped back onto another water taxi back to the fisherman's wharf to go back to the ship.

Victoria is a very beautiful and clean city. We enjoyed spending the day walking around leisurely.

This area has a couple of food options, set up in the boats, in a way similar to food trucks. The menus had many options for some fresh fish/shellfish items (which I didn't try due to my allergies but these eateries looked popular). We spent some time looking at the beautifully decorated houseboats, before deciding to hop on the little "toot toot" water taxi/boat. We purchased a round trip ticket for $10 each and there was about 4 or 5 different stations to hop on these boats. This allowed us to save 20+ minutes walking to central/downtown Victoria. The little boat was a fun way to travel.

Here are some more photos from Fisherman's Wharf (Victoria)

Here's the little boat/water taxi we took.

Day 8 - Victoria, British Colombia

I am from Canada and am a terrible Canadian....because... I have barely seen my own beautiful country! To be honest, it's often a lot cheaper to travel (even with the exchange rate!) into the United States, especially since we are a border city with Detroit airport being so close.

I was excited to see this port on the cruise's itinerary's booking. I am really interested in doing a Canadian & United States East Coast cruise as well.

The wind was really blowing again last night and this morning. It caused for us to not be able to pull up to the port safely. We were right near Victoria, but had to stay out at sea until the wind died down. We were suppose to be in port in the morning, but it ended up being around lunch time when they announced we were able to begin heading down to the gangway.

We had no plans for Victoria, which was just as well, because I'm positive all or most of the excursions were cancelled. We set off on our own.

We wanted to walk towards Fisherman's wharf. In the port area, an information area was available so I asked the man working there to point us in the right direction. In the same area, people were lining up for a shuttle bus to take them to the downtown area. I'm not sure how much this cost but we decided to stick with our idea in walking. Not a bad idea with all of the food we ate on the ship this week haha

We made it to Fisherman's wharf, which is small but very cute. There were three seals right next to one of the docks to greet us.

Thank you for this. We were on this sailing as well, and are going back in September!

Oh awesome! Is the itinerary exactly the same? Any changes?

Definitely following along. Will be doing a TransPacific on Explorer in October. The itinerary you did looks great!

Oh great! Thank you for following. :D That sounds awesome! Bring a good book or two for those days you just want to (or need to) relax in the stateroom - the television didn't offer too much variety.

A transpacific sounds amazing.

What did you think of the ship? Dated but still nice? or has it seen better days?

The ship was in good condition! The energy at night was low though. Could of been both itineraries I chose.

Wednesday was the roughest day at sea I had ever experienced as well. I just spent the day in bed.

 

 

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After that sea day, I thought to myself that I wouldn't cruise for a little while... but I'm going on the Oasis in May! I'll never stop cruising! The pros just out weigh the con of sea sickness :confused:

Thank you for continuing your review. I understand how work can really take up your time. I promise to be more patient;)

Thank-you for understanding and following along! Life got busy and I wasn't sure if anyone was really following along... so I thought I could get away with it! ;p

Day 7 - Astoria, Oregon [continued]

Back onto the bus to make the short journey to Cannon Beach, which is part of Ecola National Park. I think we had about 2-2 1/2 hours here, but I thought it wasn’t enough to walk down the beach to see Haystack rock and go shopping. I don't know if everyone decided to make the walk down the beach to get closer or if they stayed in the shopping area. Haystack Rock, from where we were dropped off, was not a quick walk to go see.

The waves were really crashing, which makes sense with how I was feeling last night!

Cannon beach is a beautiful town - I’d love to return for a holiday and stay for a week! The beach houses looked lovely from the outside and there are lots of nice boutiques down there that I would love to check out.

Haystack Rock almost looked eerie on this gloomy day!

Before we left, there were some elk hanging out in the soccer field by where our bus was parked. Beautiful animals!

We returned to port around 2:30. We had hoped to have walked into Astoria and checked it out, but at this point, it was raining, windy, and cold. We went back onto the ship to have some lunch. I would like to return to Astoria on a cruise and check out this city.

Day 7 - Astoria, Oregon

We booked an excursion on the ship for this port (on day one of the cruise actually, as it was previously sold out when I wanted to book online). We were going to Cannon Beach (yes - this where the Goonies filmed their final scene :D)

A school bus picked us up at the port on this cloudy and gloomy day. The bus driver had a time frame to work with, as she had to pick up school kids at the end of the day. During the drive, we were told history and tidbits of information. After a half hour, we stopped in Seaside for some shopping. We only had a half hour here, which wasn’t enough time. It isn’t a big town, but you didn’t want to go too far or shop too long. Mom and I went into Dundee's Donuts, grabbed a hot beverage to-go and a donut. The donuts were delicious!!!

Day 6 - Sea Day

This day, the ship was a-rocking. I’ve been on many cruises (let’s summarize: 8 or 9 with Disney, 2 with Royal not including this one, and 1 with Carnival) and this was the roughest I’ve ever felt the seas. The clothing hangers in the closest were whacking against the wall and my stomach and head were feeling it. Some fresh air did help, but this day was mostly spent in the stateroom. By the way, we had an inside stateroom. We booked this cruise two months in advance when we saw the great price for an inside. The room was clean, had sufficient space, and served us well. Our housekeeper was Rooney from India. He was very polite and quiet. He also was not feeling well today! I couldn't imagine having to work when the ship is going through rough seas. :fever:

I will say that on the Explorer, the t.v. channel offerings weren’t the greatest. The same two-three episodes of a show played over and over throughout the week. Normally, I wouldn’t care because I’m out and about enjoying the ports and ship, but when you’re feeling ill, it’s nice to have some good T.V.!

Hope you continue with your review. Really enjoying it, especially your beautiful pictures! We will be sailing on Explorer in a few months (Alaska, finally!!):D

 

Thank you for taking the time to do this!

 

Judy

Nevada

I've had a busy couple of days and wasn't able to keep posting! I didn't know if anyone was following along! My apologies. More posts on the way :D

Day 5 - San Francisco [continued]

Mom and I decided that we were going to head to towards Westfield Centre. The walk was about 30-40 minutes from the ship. We bought a bottle of water and went on our way, going through China Town during the journey.

We made it to the busy area and my mom was able to go to the Disney Store (we are a Disney family all the way). We went into a crowded Ross store as well. We hopped on a bus to head back to the port area. It cost a couple of dollars. We ended up getting off a bit too soon (I thought I recognized the port and wasn’t paying attention to the numbers — a lot of those terminals down there look very similar) so we still had about a 15 minute walk to the ship. We had a late lunch on the ship at the Windjammer, grabbed a sweater, and went to Pier 39.

There was a free shuttle being offered from the Port so we took that. Although we’ve been to this area before, it was nice to walk around and check out the shops again. We bought a hot drink at the Biscoff Coffee Corner (side note: I didn't care for the complimentary coffee on board). We saw the sea lions and watched the sunset. We walked the short distance back to the ship.

Glad to see this first on picture, otherwise, I might faint when I enter the toilet ! :eek::D:eek:

My mom was the one who saw it first and it definitely scared her! :')

Day 5 - San Fransisco

Again, we didn’t have any plans for San Fran. We’ve been here before on a previous cruise with Disney and spent two days here, where we went to Sausalito, Pier 39/Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghiradelli Square, and of course, Alcatraz.

I had wanted to be on top deck when the ship went under the Golden Gate bridge, but kind of forgot about it...:rolleyes: I woke up and dashed to the top deck, just in time!

Now - this was a cloudy, cool morning but the rest of the day was actually quite nice!

Day 4 - Santa Barbara, California [a couple more photos]

the two below are from the pier

on the tender, on the way back to the ship

Day 4 - Santa Barbara, California

We didn’t have anything planned for Santa Barbara. We spent a few hours here walking along the beautiful beach, checking out the pier/boardwalk area, and strolling down State Street. You'll have to tender into Santa Barbara. The tender ride back to the ship was a lot more rocky, but nothing to complain about. Where we got dropped off was right next to a beach and marina. The beach has nice, white sand but there was some glass and other sharp objects here and there so be careful. I think some people grabbed a cab and headed to a different beach.

The pier has some cute shops and restaurants. We enjoyed our stroll here. It's at the end of State Street so we decided to head there once we were done. State Street has a lot of shopping and food options.

Day 3 - At Sea

I honestly have no idea what we did this day. I know we participated in the cruise critic meet-and-mingle as well as the slot pull, but can’t remember if it was held on this day. I’m thinking it was. :confused:

We had lunch in the dining room (known as the bistro and home of the tutti salad) and it was great. We did this both sea days. The tutti salad bar, for those who don't know, has many, many toppings and ingredients to make your own salad and the chef mixes it up for you. Both my mom and I enjoyed the menu here. Usually, you'll be seated at a table with others and we did this the first day, but the other sea day, we were seated at our own table due to my allergies (shellfish, tree nuts, other less serious allergies). One of the officers (I believe that is their title - they wear the white uniform) from Turkey took excellent care of us. She made sure to sit us at our own table and personally helped me with my order. I didn't feel comfortable ordering from the salad bar because when I went up, I noticed a piece of shrimp had fallen into one of other ingredient bowls. I didn't want to take any chances, but it wasn't a big deal to me - I could always order off the menu. When she heard this, she asked me what I would like in my salad and brought it to me directly from the kitchen. She took quality time out of her day to help me 1:1 and it was so appreciated. I seen her a few other times during the week and she always made sure she stopped by to say hello and see how I was doing. I wish I remembered her name! I did make sure to do the survey after the cruise and put in a note of thanks and appreciation for her.

A few random photos from the cruise

These were handy after a couple days into the cruise! ;)

OK - how hilarious is this? On all of the cruises I have been on, I have never, ever seen towels be made into this!!! We loved it! :')

I was on this sailing as well. Fond memories. :cool:

I actually remember your cruise critic name during our roll call! I did the meet-and-mingle as well as the slot pull :D

I'm enjoying following along especially since I was on the cruise with you!

Great - thank you! I hope you had a wonderful time :)

Day 2 - Onto the Ship Continued

We enjoyed the sail-away party. The sun was shining, the drink of the day was delicious, and the Seattle skyline was stunning.

I'm not sure what we did for the rest of the day... I'm sure just enjoyed the Explorer!

Note: mom and I went to the main dining room every night for dinner, except for the buffet once, maybe twice. We did not book dinner at any of the restaurants on board. We did our time dining and requested the same staff every night. We usually made the reservation the night before, but not always. Our servers were kind (I unfortunately can't remember their names right now) and it worked great for my allergies.