Alaska Airlines and Seattle

Our trip started out in Charleston, SC, with a nonstop flight to Seattle, Washington. We had been booked on Air Canada, but with four flight changes the first month, we decided to change airlines. Alaska Airlines didn’t change once, so we were glad we changed. Our flight left on time, and we landed in Seattle on time.

In Seattle we caught the Days Inn shuttle to our hotel. The Days Inn Sea-Tac was okay for a one night stay. It was clean, but there were tiny ant like bugs all over the bathroom. Plus, the breakfast was ridiculous. Coffee was bad, everything else was sugar. We’re staying there again after our trip, but we’ll eat at the nearby Denny’s.

QuickShuttle to Vancouver

We got a shuttle from the Days Inn back to the airport the next morning. The shuttle drivers were great. Once there we figured out where the QuickShuttle/Traxx bus would pick us up to take us to Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver. When it arrived we started out for a very long bus ride. Traffic was very bad, and there were a few accidents on the way. Then we had to stop for Canadian Customs. The bus driver got kind of grumpy, and we were glad to be off of it at the hotel. I will do a review of QuickShuttle later, after we get home.

Pan Pacific Hotel, Vancouver

Pan Pacific Hotel is very expensive, everything in Vancouver is Expensive. But, I’m glad that’s where we stayed. It’s right at the Cruise Port, and there is a food court attached to the hotel. Plus, there is a Tim Hortons. This is a really nice hotel, and right at the cruise port. They will even check your luggage into the cruise port for you so that you don’t have to lug it yourself. The only drawbacks is that it is very expensive, does not include breakfast, and the water pressure is practically non-existent. But, it is convenient, and after the flight and bus ride to Vancouver, I wanted convenient.

Embarkation

Since the Bellboy at Pan Pacific took care of delivering our large suitcase to the ship, it was so easy to embark the ship. You can go to the ground level of the hotel to get to the embarkation area. Princess has made some unpopular changes so we ended up having to go upstairs to get our Medallions and check in, and then go back downstairs to get our bags checked and go through the metal detector and then Customs.

After that, we were shown to the Elite Lounge to wait to get onto the ship. Now, this was our first cruise on Princess, but since I took the Travel Agent Princess training, I am considered Elite. Elite has some nice perks. We weren’t in the lounge for five minutes, and then we were the first onboard. It took about half an hour from start to finish.

First Impressions of Crown Princess

Crown Princess is a beautiful ship, and it looked like it would take quite a while to figure out where everything was. Another Elite perk is that we were able to drop our carry on bags into the room so we could explore unburdened. Very nice! We dropped off our bags and met our room Steward, Marte. Then we took a walk around to get the lay of the ship.

For those wondering, there are two, maybe three plugs if you use the one by the TV. No USB ports at all. I took a non-surge protector extension with plug and USB ports. I had no trouble getting it on the ship, since it was not a surge protector.

We finally ended up at the buffet and found a window seat. I really tried to eat healthy, but it’s so hard on a ship. I’d been living on junk food the whole trip. I did start with a salad, but ended up with a parfait. It was all good.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur, I was so tired. We wanted to watch the sail-away, but I guess that the refueling boat had a technical problem and they had to send for a new one. And that one had to first fill up with fuel before it could refuel the Crown. Sail-away was delayed, we had no idea how long it would be till we sailed.

Dinner in the Michaelangelo

We had an early dinner so that we could see the evening comedian, Ken Boyd. Dinner was really good, compared to Carnival. The wait staff were attentive, and food was served promptly. I had some Salmon, plus antipasto, and then Pork Medallions with sweet potatoes. I forget what the dessert was called, but it had blueberries in it, and was so cute. It looked better than it tasted.

The comedian show with Ken Boyd was pretty good. He mostly interacted with the audience, it wasn’t really a typical comedy show. Just don’t come in late or sit in the front rows if you don’t want to be singled out. This theater is different then most. You can enter on deck 6 if you want to sit close to the stage. Deck 7 has the main entrance, and you would use that if you want to sit higher up.

After that, the jet lag got to me, and we went to the room to watch TV and relax for the night. Princess has movies and TV on demand, which I love, so we started to watch Whale, with Brendan Fraser. Didn’t make it all the way through, and we still had not set sail. I guess that we finally left Vancouver at 1 am. I was asleep and didn’t hear the anchor raised. And it was time to get ready for the next sea day.