Explorer of The Seas - September 30th, 2016 Review

[Cheezwhizard]

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.

[novalab]

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

[Cheezwhizard]

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

[JoyMouse]

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

 

 

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[Scyl]

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

[Jasperdo]

Excellent review. My wife and I were on the same sailing. We had a wonderful time. The Explorer of the Seas is a beautiful ship.

[ellenw]

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

[ASeaPrincess1]

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

[Cheezwhizard]

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:

[Cheezwhizard]

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.

[Cheezwhizard]

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.

[Cheezwhizard]

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?

[Cheezwhizard]

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.

 

[Cheezwhizard]

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.

[Cheezwhizard]

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.

[easyboy]

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.

 

 

You are not alone in seeing one's own beautiful country. Lots of like people I know here in NY.

 

You should try the Canada/New England cruise next time.

[Cheezwhizard]

Thank you to all who followed along! :*