Pacific Coastal Cruise & Stay 2007

[mrcruzer]

Hello All!

 

Our "Group" in which i have successfully baited to the cruise bug, are now exploring the option of a Cruise and stay on the Pacific Coast, in Spring 2007.

 

I have sailed the Radiance of the Seas (July 2003) and Sapphire Princess (February 2006) before.

 

Has anyone done any coastal cruises before?

 

Does anyone have any Ship suggestions, or possible ports not-to-be-missed?

 

Still in the planning stages, but we would love to hear from you all!

 

Also heard that the Norwegian Pearl will be sailing in Alaska in 2007, so perhaps a Coastal cruise on that new ship-no itineraries have been announced yet.

 

Thanks, and look forward to hearing from you,

 

Mrcruzer.

[greatdanemom]

Celebrity Summit has an interesting Alaska/West Coast cruise on 5/12/07. Also on 9/16/06 and 9/14/07 if you can do Fall.

 

RCCL has some new just ones out for Fall '07. 9/14/07 Radiance and 9/22/07 Serenade have nice Alaska/West Coast itinieraries.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheryl

[DanJ]

Island Princess is doing an interesting 9 day repositioning this year from LA to Vancouver, with a couple stops in Alaska. They haven't posted enough info on their site to see if they are doing something like this in 2007, but I hope so.

[critterchick]

We do the northbound repo cruises every year. We've done 3-nighters on the Star & Diamond Princesses, a 7-nighter on the Star and are headed on the Island 9-nighter on Saturday! All of them have been fun, but the longer cruises are "real" cruises, while the 3-nighters, although enjoyable, go by too quickly and you can't get everything in that there is to do onboard without rushing, which IMHO isn't the point of a vacation.

 

Diamond is doing a 7-night repo next year, and Island is relegated to the 3-night non-stop (it may be 4 nights, I haven't looked in awhile). We're booked on the Diamond already. She's a wonderful ship, with lots to do, had a great crew last year, and good food in traditional dining. The usual stops on the repos are 2-3 California cities, Astoria or Seattle, sometimes Victoria. They all have good points.

 

We're also booked on the Radiance Ultimate Alaska for the fall, a southbound repo from Vancouver to LA via Alaska. It's really 2 cruises in one and less than the cost of a 7-night Alaska only cruise in peak season. I think any Alaska port can be considered "don't miss" and the scenery is amazing, so if you have the time, I would go for that.

 

Then again, Vancouver is a wonderful destination, so if you only have limited time, take a 7- or 3-nighter and stay 3-4 nights in Vancouver before or after the cruise, depending on the season. There is so much to do up there that you'll need to book another coastal to see more of it!

[DanJ]

I was trying to talk my wife into taking a couple of the shorter repo cruises in a row. 4 nighter LA-Van, fly back to LA for a 3 nighter to Van, then head to Seattle for the overnighter back to Van. 3 cruises for about the price of 1, sample 3 ships, and get to platinum status all in a week LOL. She said it sounded a little busy for her LOL.

[mrcruzer]

Wow! thank you all for your quick responses! :)

 

We live in Victoria, and have been to Vancouver on several occasions, so we are trying to get a northbound one, so that we can stay in the city before heading on the cruise up north. Of course, it could work in the reverse way too, with the hotel at the end of the holiday, but our last cruise we did was a 3 day Disneyland and then a 7 night mexico cruise, and we found we liked having the hotel first, then settling down on the cruise.

 

We have looked into the longer ones, but as a group, we decided we want to just make it a short, "cheap-ish" holiday. That's why we are hesitant to book a cruise that is 7 nights or longer. I think the ideal length for the entire holiday would be 8-9 nights.

 

DanJ: That sounds a bit busy to me too, but I know i'd likely be up for it. However, not sure what my group would do to me if I suggested something like that! ;)

 

greatdanemom: Where are those itineraries? I looked on the two Cruise line's websites, but I was unable to locate those itineraries (For the Fall RCI and Celebrity cruises)

 

 

 

If we were to stay in a City in California before departing, what would be the best city (San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, etc.) to explore in the few days we spend there first? What are some good sights?

[critterchick]

RCI bills the Radiance and Serenade cruises as Alaska itineraries on their websites. They are each 14 nights, though, which would be too long for you.

 

Last year we took the 3-night Diamond cruise to Vancouver, spent 3 nights in Vancouver and then took the 3-night Sun Princess R/T Vancouver cruise. It wasn't quite as busy as Dan's since there was only the flight home to deal with. It got us to Platinum, too. I don't know if Princess is going to do any mini-cruises like that in 2007, though.

 

As for which city to stay in, I think I'd say San Diego or San Francisco, but maybe that's because I already live in LA. Royal Caribbean should have a couple of ships heading north from SD, but they would likely be 6 or 7 night itineraries. But SD has a fabulous Zoo, Sea World, baseball if you're into that, and a cool downtown area. LA is huge & sprawling, but offers more cruise options, with Santa Barbara about 2 hours to the north. San Francisco is a jewel of a city, but I think any repo cruises from there to YVR are likely to be only 2 nights. You could go to Alcatraz, take a trip to Napa Valley if you like wine (you could also visit the central coast wineries from LA if you stay overnight up there and there's wine country just north of SD for that matter). So many options!

[greatdanemom]

mrcruzer, the itineraries on both RCCl and Celebrity cruises that I listed are under Alaska just as critterchick said. Unfortunately they are all longer cruises. But I agree with critterchik that the Radiance Ultimate Alaska is a great price. We compared it to a 7 day Northbound Alaska and were quite surprised. It convinced us to book!

 

Cheryl

[mrcruzer]

Yes, RCI has Radiance OTS departing from San Diego on a 6 night, while Serenade OTS departs from San Francisco, for a 7 night cruise.

 

San Diego sounds like a fairly good city to sail from, we have 3 familes going, so the Zoo and Marine world would definitely be must sees.:)

 

I think that another major attraction would be to tour a wine country, and I would almost say if San Diego has that too, we'd be hooked! :rolleyes:

 

That being said, we are still scouting all the options, and waiting for the spring 2007 cruise and stay specials to come out, to see what sort of deals there are. About what time of the year will these begin to come out on sale?

 

Just out of interest, I briefly looked into the Ultimate Alaska Cruises, WOW! They are great prices! If we had more time, I would definitely push for one of those, but it won't suit what we would like this holiday.

 

IF, we were to stay in SD before the cruise, do you have any reasonable hotel recommendations? Or perhaps an area of good hotels (in terms of price, location, etc.)