Small Ship Cruising

In order to add another "notch" to my Princess cruise "belt", I took a one-day cruise on the Pacific Princess from Seattle to Vancouver, BC this week with my friend Carol. Okay, perhaps that wasn't the only reason: I also wanted to experience was Princess calls "Small Ship Cruising" and basically, the boat was here, as was I, and it seemed like an adventure in the making (also a great opportunity to "test drive" the concept of one-day cruising which we were already scheduled to do on Saturday!)

We checked in around 1 pm on Thursday at the new (this year) Pier 91 terminal in the Magnolia area of Seattle. I almost felt as if we were going to be the only two on this ship as the number of employees waiting to assist us with luggage (we really didn't have any), checking, pointing us to the gangway (as if we could miss the ship!) clearly out-numbered the two of us. We were told that although this ship can accommodate 670 passengers (yeah, you read right - 670 passengers!) we would be sailing with only 450 fellow passengers this trip.

Once across the gangway, we noticed the difference from past sailings immediately. There was no glittery lobby/atrium to greet us. There was only a small set (and I do mean small - I thought they were for the crew use!) to our left and a "bank" of two elevators to our right. We elected to use the elevator since we had our "luggage" with us to get us to our room most efficiently.

As soon as we entered our balcony cabin, I was immediately appreciative of the fact that we hadn't opted to try out the much, much cheaper interior accommodations! The room was spacious (if the beds were not) with the outside wall being entirely glass with a larger slider door (that took a couple of tries and actual instruction from our cabin steward in order to master!). The decor was from another era (ala Titanic - there was a lot here on this ship that was reminiscent of the movie). The balcony itself was a bit crowded with four chairs and a table but the view was lovely (since the weather was amazing!) and overlooked the marina and the Palisades restaurant.

Once we dropped luggage, found our location on the map (and reviewed the health hand out regarding Swine Flu and Norovirus with our cabin steward), we were off in search of lunch. We walked up the one floor to the Panorama Buffet and were immediately impressed by how cozy it is. Having only sailed before on some of the largest ships (the Disney ships, the Diamond, Sapphire and Island Princesses each with somewhere between 1900 and 2600 passengers!) it was unbelievable to see such small seating areas and yet never once was it ever full to capacity! Each table here, and in fact in each of the dining venues on board, enjoyed a window view. We filled our plates and elected to enjoy the weather at the small outside dining area situated at the back of the ship.

After lunch, we participated in a "scavenger hunt" that claimed a $1000 prize. Not terribly good at math, I calculated our odds of winning were probably along the lines of 1 in 200 - not too bad! So off we were to explore the Lotus Spa, the Club Restaurant, the Casino (which would remain closed this trip since we would never really get out to international waters as required by law). The closing of the casino did not seem to be as big a loss as one might imagine - there were only 5 small tables, one roulette wheel and if there were more than a dozen slot machines I would really be surprised.

Then it was time to grab our "fashion statement" orange life vests and head to the Club Restaurant (our muster station). The signs on a small ship are not as easily navigated and it took a couple of tries for us to find which way we were supposed to head - good thing we would be sailing within sight of shore the entire time so any emergency could be easily handled without "survivor craft" if it came to that...I'm not sure we would have made it to muster!

Now it was time to head up top for the "sail away" party. Great views of the Seattle skyline, Qwest Field, Safeco (where the M's were already playing) and Mt. Rainier. We were going fairly slowly but I assured Carol that was because there was a "no wake zone" in the Sound and we would probably pick up speed once we were safely past that point. Turns out the "no wake zone" extends all the way from Pier 91 in Seattle to Canada Place Pier in Vancouver! We traveled at a speed of 9 knots and I don't know much about sailing or converting that but let me tell you we were passed by people in a canoe!

Dinner was supposed to be in the Club Restaurant and it was Italian night. We surveyed the menu and thought it wasn't all that Italian (no pasta?) and just didn't really tickle our fancy so we wandered up to the Sterling Steakhouse on the 10th Deck. Though they were fully booked for 7 pm on, they could easily accommodate the two of us at 6 pm and we could have just about any table in the house. After a couple of tries, we found one that was "just right" and had a most fabulous steak dinner there while watching (slowly) the coast go by...

I didn't know what to expect on a one-day cruise entertainment-wise, but we were not disappointed! The cruise director staff knowing that many of us were just one-day cruisers, had scheduled a trio of entertainers in a variety type show. First up was Duncan Tuck, a comedian/guitarist. His repertoire was pretty varied - first he played "Malaguena" (no mean feat on the guitar!) and then segued into a rousing rendition (complete with all the words) of the theme song from "Bonanza!"

He was followed by the musical stylings of Tony Cherry (Joan Rivers opening act for 17 years). Not too bad - he opened with a set of Neil Diamond songs and ended with a set of Paul Anka songs.

The closing act was really hysterical - the comedy magic of Michael Finney. He wound up pulling two assistants from the audience and as (his) luck would have it, they really made the show! (Not unlike Lyle's appearance on the Disney Magic - but that's another story!)

We finished up the night with a visit upstairs to the Pacific Lounge for a game of Trivia. We really missed the rest of our gang (but I'm not sure they would have been able to come up with some of these answers - they were really tough questions) and finally tumbled into (our rather tiny) bed around 11 pm, leaving a wake up call for 5 am as they were determined to kick us off the ship by 8:15 am!!

The phone? rang promptly at 5 am as instructed and then again at 5:02 am just for good measure (they really were determined to get us off that ship!). I'm not sure but I think Princess might want to reconsider that ring tone - I think it really was 7 short bursts followed by one long blast (for non-cruisers...that's the emergency signal to prepare to abandon ship!) We were ready by 6 am but the full-service dining room wasn't so we went to the Panorama Buffet for a pre-nosh and Carol's coffee. She got a latte but since our account was already closed out they had no way to charge her (okay cash would have worked but we never actually carry cash with us while on the ship) so it was on the house!

After breakfast we watched the float planes take off and land (in rapid succession) from Coal Harbour Marina and she pointed out the one that we would be taking on Sunday - YIKES (but that will be another blog entry!) An all-call announcement was made over the PA telling us to basically get off their ship NOW please and we headed out to line up for the (not-so) QuickShuttle return to Seattle.

If this had been their first attempt at getting 300+ passengers loaded onto shuttles for the trip to Seattle, I might have been a tad more understanding. But on September 18, they are at the end of the season...there will not be many more cruises coming into this port with passengers needing to be taken directly to Seattle or SeaTac airport. By now you would think they would be prepared. It was total and absolute CHAOS! We were scheduled for a 9:15 am bus and arrived in plenty of time for that and not really too far back in the queue. That didn't seem to matter at all and the few employees there (along with the one Princess employee and the one Port Authority personnel that I could identify) were each telling us a different thing to do, place to stand, action to take. We didn't get to a bus until nearly 10:15 and even then it was taking approximately 30 minutes to load a bus. It was ridiculous and we were ever so glad that our hubbies weren't with us as they would have not been pleasant about the situation at all (and that's about as nice as I could ever put that!)!

In any event, the ship was fabulous and the adventure well worth it. I'm definitely looking forward to our cruise on Saturday, a small ship cruise and just future cruising in general!

~later, tw