Formal night on short Pacific Coastal cruise

[AfriCan]

We'll be cruising from Vancouver to San Diego on a short 4-night cruise in Sep. 2010 aboard Ryndam. Are there any formal nights on these repositioning cruises? Are the services and facilities much the same as on the longer cruises?

[askworldtraveler]

a few weeks ago. I was "told" that the cruise was all "smart casual'... however it turned out the 2nd night out was a formal night. Basically what happened was the 4 night cruise was and add on to the Fort Lauderdale-San Diego cruise - and they simply continued the format of the longer voyage. Besides the one formal night they also continued the Jackpot Bingo from the previous trans-canal cruise.

 

Now having said that I would say less then 20% of the guests were in Black Tie, and less then 30% even in a neck tie - however almost every one was dressed smart casual. If it were me.... I would leave the tux at home..... sport coat/suit maximum needed.

 

Hope that helps....

[Krazy Kruizers]

Yes -- you will have a formal night.

The cruise starts in Vancouver and continues onto Tampa as she is repositioning from her Alaskan season. There will be people getting on the ship for the entire repositioning cruise and everything is set up with the long cruise in mind. In San Diego some people will be getting off the ship and others wi be getting on.

We have done the entire repositioning cruise in reverse order a few times.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Yes -- you will have a formal night.

 

The cruise starts in Vancouver and continues onto Tampa as she is repositioning from her Alaskan season. There will be people getting on the ship for the entire repositioning cruise and everything is set up with the long cruise in mind. In San Diego some people will be getting off the ship and others wi be getting on.

 

We have done the entire repositioning cruise in reverse order a few times.

 

We're doing the last Alaska and the coastal run to San Francisco. The extra few days to San Fran are the beginning of the repositioning cruise. So, is the second sea day considered the end of the coastal cruise? (will there be a dreaded master chef dinner?)

 

In your experience with these repositioning cruises, do most people do the whole cruise, or should I expect a lot of people get off/on in San Fran?

[Krazy Kruizers]

We're doing the last Alaska and the coastal run to San Francisco. The extra few days to San Fran are the beginning of the repositioning cruise. So, is the second sea day considered the end of the coastal cruise? (will there be a dreaded master chef dinner?)

Expect a formal night the first sea day after you leave Vancouver for the second time heading down the coast. There will not be a Master Chef dinner on that short leg.

 

In your experience with these repositioning cruises, do most people do the whole cruise, or should I expect a lot of people get off/on in San Fran?

 

There will be quite a few people getting off in San Francisco -- we have seen as many as half the ship get off when we have been in San Diego. You would be surprise to see how many people will do one and three day cruises. Also on your cruise -- Zuiderdam -- many people now find it difficult to get to Vancouver. So they will fly to San Francisco and begin their cruise there to go to Ft Lauderdale.

Last year we were surprised to see so many people get off the ship in Vancouver and so many get on just to do a one night cruise to Seattle.

[cruz chic]

There will be quite a few people getting off in San Francisco -- we have seen as many as half the ship get off when we have been in San Diego. You would be surprise to see how many people will do one and three day cruises. Also on your cruise -- Zuiderdam -- many people now find it difficult to get to Vancouver. So they will fly to San Francisco and begin their cruise there to go to Ft Lauderdale.

 

Last year we were surprised to see so many people get off the ship in Vancouver and so many get on just to do a one night cruise to Seattle.

I always amazed at the amount of people that do these short cruise....especially the one night cruise. I just don't get it. Maybe if I lived closer to a port I would. It was a different crowd that got on the ship for the 4 day coastal at the end of my 10 day day Mexico cruise. They couldn't wait to tell everyone how little they paid for great rooms. It wasn't impressed by the fact since I'd paid much more. There was a noticable change in food and service for that leg.

[Dunelm]

I was just on the 4-night San Diego to Vancouver cruise. I was told in an e-mail that all nights would be smart casual, and then once on board it was indicated that the second night would be formal; however, THAT was changed to "optional formal." In sum, very few people were in formal dress. In fact, two of the other nights were labeled "casual."

[tcv cruiser]

I was just on the 4-night San Diego to Vancouver cruise. I was told in an e-mail that all nights would be smart casual, and then once on board it was indicated that the second night would be formal; however, THAT was changed to "optional formal." In sum, very few people were in formal dress. In fact, two of the other nights were labeled "casual."

 

We too are considering the 4 day cruise from Vancouver to San Diego in Sept. on the Ryndam (or the Statendam) a week later. We see the Oosterdam is doing at 5 day but we've only ever cruised on the Vista class ships and wanted to try something different. I see the Rotterdam does at 3 day so that is also an option.

 

Our purpose for going is actually a short vacation in San Diego. We were going to fly both ways but we love cruising and thought it would be fun to take the short cruise down, spend a few days and fly back. We are also interested in how the shorter cruises differ in "feel" and atmosphere. Are all the services the same? Is club HAL open because it not, our son will be bored. I've read some bad reviews of the really short cruises so I'm a little concerned.