Wow! You guys have been busy! Gone 2 days and talk, talk, talk!
What a weekend!!! I will give you a trip report of our 1 night Princess Cruise and you all will appreciate Disney and Port Canaveral even more!
Friday morning DH and I left town @ 5:00 am to drive to Seattle. Drove to the Pier and parked our car. Went in to use the restroom and the buses arrive early. We loaded and were off to Vancouver, B.C. by 8:30 am. Drive was nice. Got through customs farely quickly and headed to the Pier. This is where the night mare began! The entire downtown area is under road construction. Apparently with the 2010 Olympics coming the city is building a mass transit to the airport. Literally if the road is opened it only has 1 lane. The bus we were on almost took out a traffic light trying to turn a corner. The pier parking was wall to wall people. Total Chaos!!!! We found out this morning why it was so chaotic but yesterday was a nightmare!!! After we got off the bus all we saw were people!!!! We got in a line that snaked so many directions you were just hoping you were in the correct line. After standing in line for 3 1/2 HOURS (YES, HOURS) we finally got on the ship. We were supposed to sail @ 5:00 pm and we did not leave until 6:30 pm. To find out this morning there were 3 ships all leaving at the same time from the same pier. Well, two of the ships did not arrive until 10:00 am and people were getting off the ship until 2:00 pm. No communication with passengers waiting in line. Anyway, after we were on the ship and got to our room the balcony was BIG enough for a table with 4 chairs. The bathroom was the size of 1/2 of the split bathrooms on Disney. The shower barely had room for 1. I could sit on the toilet and spit in the sink at the same time (tiny bathroom). Big closet and the room was the size of a Disney inside category 11 stateroom. I really appreciate the Disney rooms and bathrooms even more!
Dinner was interesting. The waiter never spoke. He did not bring my ice tea, butter or coffee I ordered with dessert. Very long dinner too! The show was kind of boring. We actually walked out of the show half way through. The smoking in the casino, bars and lounges was very yukky!!! Breakfast was interesting too. I ordered a mushroom omlete (it came with no cheese, I guess I needed to order the omlete with cheese too
). I ordered hash browns and received ham
. To top it off when we left the room @ 6:30 am we put the privacy notice on the door. We came back a 7:45 am to twin beds (we had a queen) that were already made. HUH? Our steward was in our room while we were at breakfast and we had the privacy notice on the door.
Another agent in my agency had about the same type of experience. We are going to write Princess and let them know how our trip went. This was my first Princess experience and first embarkation in Vancouver, B.C. I was so glad this did not happen to a client because I am sure I would have lost their future cruise travel. I apologized to DH for taking yesterday off from work to experience this cruise horror!
Port canaveral has the best embarkation and deparkation process we have found so far. You pay more for Disney and I think you get what you pay for. What a weekend!
