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Alaska, June 2022

 
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Rating (out of 5):     Ship    Food    Service    Itinerary

With the Covid-19 pandemic winding down, we decided to try a short cruise to see what post-Covid cruising would be like. It had been almost 3 years since the start of the pandemic. Note: The last ship we were on before the cruise industry shutdown was the Crystal Symphony. This same ship ( and cruise line) was one of the pandemic's early victims and declared bankruptcy during the lockdown period.) We decided to take a short cruise to test the waters. Marjorie found a five day Pacific Coast cruise aboard the Discovery Princess from Los Angeles to Vancouver. There were just two ports of call (San Francisco and Victoria) During the pandemic I was diagnosed with Parkinson's so we needed a cruise that wouldn't tax me too much. This met the goal with two short flights and lots of "at sea" time.

In order to spread out the travel hassle we decided to go a day early and overnight in an LA hotel. This worked well and we had a nice Thursday afternoon in an LA suburb near the airport. In the afternoon we did a walk around the hotel area and discovered a wonderful Greek restaurant. I had shrimp kebobs and Marjorie had pastitsio. Yummy!! The next morning (Friday) we shuttled back to the airport to catch the bus to the cruise dock. The ship was brand new (well, two weeks old) and we were delayed a bit in boarding as there was a "naming" ceremony" happening. Lots of big wigs and media on the ship. Once aboard we went to our stateroom and waited for our luggage. Then we did a short walk aound the ship to see the general layout of things.

The ship seemed rather empty and we discovered that the ship of 3,660 capacity had only 2,220 passengers for the sailing. That was fine in that we encountered almost no lineups or waits anywhere on board. The ship was gorgeous and very familiar if you have been on any of the "grand class" ships. I checked out the loyalty club benefits to find that a number of the benefits had changed from free whatever to 50% off of whatever (at least for "elite" passengers). For example what used to be free internet access was now 50% off of the premium package. This was still too expensive, so we lived with no internet for 5 days. Another ship-wide change was the new electronic door keys. What used to be a door pass card (like a credit card) is now a digital button on a lanyard. Now when you approach your cabin, the lock senses you several feet away and turns the door handle to green and unlocks the door. No more fumbling with a card. Likewise around the ship the restaurants and shops all recognize you as you approach the restaurant entrances or shop cash registers. No more needing a keycard lanyard that is of sufficient length (and availability) to reach the card reader - any length lanyard will do, even under clothing!

Another change was to the daily event guide. It is now just a single page listing events and restaurant times. Gone was the daily info pages that gave interesting info on our ports of call, weather forecast, bios of nightly entertainers, etc. We really missed the daily info. Also gone is the ship's library. In the olden days they had actual librarians and a wonderful library. This has shrunk over the years to smaller self-serve library and now it is gone all together. We didn't attend any of the entertainment, but touring ourselves through the theatre showed that the front section of the guest seating was flat and only the balcony section was slanted. This meant the lower seats provided a great view of the heads in front!

On our sea days, we wandered the ship and participated in several trivia sessions, generally just enjoying ourselves. At San Francisco (a beautiful sunny and warm day), Marjorie headed ashore and did the HoHo bus while I just stayed on board reading my book and playing trivia. Marjorie had a great time on her tour and I enjoyed myself just vegging. We had a late stop in Victoria (sched for 1 PM docking, 8 PM sailing)) but docked even later due to heavy seas and high winds through the previous night. We eventually docked about 3:30 and Joan & Dave were there to greet us. We hopped in their car and drove to Il Terrazo in downtown Victoria for an early dinner. Wonderful! Then Dave took us on a driving tour of the Beacon Hill area before dropping us off back at the ship. So great to see D&J again!

We arrived in Vancouver at the Pan Pacific about 6:00 AM. It was cool and cloudy. We had breakfast and then went to wait for our turn to leave the ship. We got the call about 9:00. Our bag was waiting in the terminal area and we went through Canadian customs. We had a short walk from the dock to the Canada Line station. The train was right there, so we were at the airport in about 1/2 an hour. There, we walked to the arrivals level and caught the van to the long term parking. We were in our car by 2:00 PM.