5/9/09

By mrball1122

• June 1, 2009

We have cruised with Princess 5 times. We thoroughly enjoyed this coastal cruise! We started in Los Angeles, with stops in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. Very relaxing trip with good shore excursions at each stop.

I don't know if being a repositioning cruise or not, but the ship seemed short of staff when it came time for diembarkation for the shore excursions. We were told when to be on the dock to pick up our bus---then it was a free-for-all. There were no tour guides with signs to direct us, we basically had to find a bus and ask if they were going to our destination. Passengers were in long lines trying to exit the ship with no direction, and most were afraid that the line was so long that they would miss their connection on the dock. Previous cruises on Princess and other lines, we had always gathered in the theater and they would call our tour and direct us to leave together. Once off the ship, there would be a tour guide with a sign with our tour number on it to lead us to our transportation. Not this time! It was chaos.

The evening shows in the main theater were very popular and of a good quality BUT you had to get a seat 45 minutes prior to showtime or stand in the back. We missed two shows because the theater was at capacity 15 minutes prior to curtains up.

Otherwise, a nice cruise and a fabulous ship---very clean and well maintained. We especially enjoyed the band Wavelength who performed at the Sail away Party in Los Angeles and throughout the cruise.