Coastal - West Coast Cruise Reviews

We loved the free unlimited beverage package!  We only had to give them our card, nothing to sign when they returned the card with our order.  When I sailed in 2015, they brought a check to sign and passengers were mistakenly adding tips when those are all prepaid with the package.  A great solution in practice now!  Out of curiosity, I would have liked to see the drinks listed on our final cruise bill (with no charge).  

Some of the food was disappointing.  But the crab cakes in Azura, Indian food (Garden Cafe), chocolate croissants (everywhere), bacon, mai tais, red Sangria, tiramisu (Tsar's Palace) and Fish & Chips (O'Sheehan's) were fantastic!  Grandson ordered pizza for every lunch and dinner, so I guess it was great, too.

My husband always rates the hot tubs NOT hot.  Grandkids (9 & 13) really loved the waterslide, even when it was really too cold to be out there.  Several fathers with toddlers were having a lot of fun on it, too.

The drinks were free flowing at the 2 receptions we went to, but the food (invitation was for appetizers) was very hard to get!  Definitely need a full lunch afterwards.

Son's cabin for 4 (5553) had a rollaway rather than 2nd bunk, which was ridiculous (wall to wall beds); we were told NO cabins had 2 bunks.

A short, uncomplicated vacation at sea.  Interesting and familiar ports, good food, GREAT entertainment and a friendly and competent crew ,all at a reasonable price.  Couldn't ask for more.

The weather was perfect.   Very smooth on the water.   Full ship, so anytime dining with a reservation was still a wait.   Food and entertainment were great!

The friendly employees.  The ease of getting on and off the ship.  Food and selection in the dinning room.  (All very good.)  My only complaint is that when I had my teeth whitened at the ship's spa, the girl from London burnt my lower gums so very badly.  I am still recovering.  She needs more training!

For the most part the weather was great.  We were not very happy with the food choices and the food in general as well as the service.  Seems like most of the cruise crew did not want to even be on the ship.  We were not informed about the drink packages until the 2nd day of the cruise.  I felt like this should have been told to us when I made the reservations.  We were there to celebrate our anniversary and honeymoon and we were asked to leave our room for a few hours while they came and changed the carpet in our room.  I would not take this cruise again.

We had great dinner companions, however dinner selections and service were disappointing.  Not up to standards we have experienced on previous cruises.  We never had any contact with the Maitre'd, our waiter was snippy and rude, even with the Classic Beverage package we had poor beverage service at dinner.  We did enjoy the Ports we visited, the entertainment was outstanding (best troop on any cruise I've been on), and the programs presented by the Naturalist were excellent.  While we enjoyed ourselves, I would not recommend the Infinity...

That's just about the best opportunity to visit the West Coast from top to bottom. No transportation hassles when the ship captain does all the driving and interesting places to visit where the people speak your language and like you, and everything feels familiar, like the money or even the measurements. Your cell phone works fine, and you feel comfortable. Planning what you want to see on land is much easier, and cheaper, so the experience can be quite good. Your can use AAA TourBooks to plan every visit, as I did. 

Our favorite part of the cruise was Victoria, B.C.  It is a beautiful place.  We would like to recommend that you spend more time in this port.  Overnight, or at least until 9 p.m.

This was the third time that I sailed on the Explorer of the Seas.  While the Explorer is a great ship I enjoyed it better before they did the recent changes.  While the outside theater is a nice idea,  it does not always work when there is high wind or rain.  The inside screening room was nicer. I liked that they made more use of the Palace Theatre.  I missed the little private areas throughout the ship where you could just relax and read. They eliminated the card and board game room and combined it with the library.  This made the library very crowed and it was difficult to find a book with all the people in the way.  The main dining room did a nice job and the waiters that took care of us (Ieka and Oka) were excellent.  The room and balcony and bathroom and closet were excellent.  Only the mattress could have been better.  Lunch in the main dining room was a little bit of a disappointment.  We had eaten there on our last two sailings on this ship, and thought that offerings were better on the previous cruises.  There needs to be more communication between the shore excursion people and the food staff..  In San Francisco if you went a night excursion you had to leave the ship before supper . The wind Jammer Café close early after lunch and opened too late for people who had to go on a tour. In our case the tour was bus tour that did not stop to allow a meal.  Something must have happen on the last day in Canada because at lunch there were no vegetables to be had at lunch.  We were not the only ones to notice this.  I also missed some of the seminars such a music appreciation or music history as well as just some general history.  Also any possibility of having some additional channels for the tv.  While we did have some disappointments, we did enjoy our cruise.  The staff was great and friendly and very helpful.  The ship handled very well in the seas. One area I was worried about was the fact that in order to make connections to get home we needed a very early flight of 9:50 a.m.  The staff helped me by telling us we could use the express departure and  told us there would be cabs available.  That gave me great peace of mind.  We were able to get to the airport in plenty of time. Just a though.  We had to leave our cabin around 600 a.m. but all the eating areas were still closed.  Perhaps one dinning area could be opened with a continental breakfast fir those who leave early.

a great cruise west coast cruise was one of the best cruise i have taken , food and service was super,going to san franciso for 2 days was great . the shows were super .the service was great all over the ship.the pomanote deck was the place to be.

This was a great cruise for relaxing and getting away from it all. Two full days in San Francisco was nice, especially since the weather was perfect.

With so much going on on other cruises (day tours) this was nice in that they were limited so everything was more casual and not as rushed.

This is the secind time we have taken this cruise and it was a nice break from the usual Med cruises.

I have taken three of these vital cruises. Very relaxing and plenty of entertainment options. Would do this again. Service was excellent. Wish more specialty restaurants were open an available. 

It was our 1st cruise - and I'm happy to say - it was just wonderful!

We had diversity of food at buffet and in our dining room - delicious:-)

Excellent  service - our stateroom steward was very nice guy and all staff were very professional and useful.

We had different entertainment at any moment at somewhere at ship - and we can participate in anything - all were beyond all our expectations!

We bought some jewelry - very beautiful and good price :-)

We recommend this cruise to everyone!

The cruise line was awesome!!  Our first time on Princess and we had a great time on the ship.  Lots of fun things to do, Dan the Cruise Director was GREAT!  Lots of good food choices and our service was outstanding.  The excursions on this cruise were below average.

  excellent service     this is the time of year to do this one    less people    less children   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Explorer of the Seas is a Hugh, beautiful ship that is kept spotless. We opted for the My Time Dining. We made reservations before we left home. The two servers we had each night, Michael and Jeffrey were the best. Always cheerful, polite and just plain nice. The dining room food was incredible. Our room Stewart, not sure of his name but we were in cabin 6525, kept our room clean and always managed to do that while we were out of our room..

San Francisco & Victoria,British Columbia were beautiful and fun. Astoria, Oregon was pretty small and shops old. Not much to do there. People there friendly.

This is my fourth cruise trip. I've cruised with Carnival and Norweigian before. A strong feeling is this ship only cares about getting more money out of your pocket, and it can be reflected by having only one complementary dining restaurant, more strict dining policy and shorter dining time. As for the the buffet place, its dining time is also shorter than other cruise ships, and out of the three food sections, almost always there's one of them closed for cleaning. There's no free barbecue food court or free fountain drinks on the deck either, but there're at least a dozen bars. Be careful with the menu they offered on their website, we found out later that not all the dishes are free even in the complimentary dining restaurant like you thought when looking at their website info. Als be careful with their last day's breakfast time, they closed off food section way before the schedule. Overall, it feels like a military dining room, not a relaxed vacation restaurant. Blame the short-sighted management. 

We (my older and younger brother, their wifes and my niece and her husband) took this cruise because we grew up on the Oregon coast and hadn't spent much time together in the past 10 years... we wanted to spend quality time together and my brothers (younger dealt with cancer in the last year) (older has diabetes) so we needed to do something that would be close to Seattle.  This cruise was perfect.  We got to spend time together, enjoy wonderful dining and great entertainment.  Thank you so much for a wonderful time together and great memories...

The ports were awesome.  The ship made changes since we last cruised.  Johnny Rockets is not included for free.  My dining needs reservation time.  Windjammer does not have much of a variety from day to day.  Grilling outside is gone.

Everything was good. Staff helpful, nice and fun to be around.  This itinerary was OUTSTANDING. Staying overnight in San Francisco was such a treat. You need to offer this cruise more often.

Your dinning room staff appeared to be under staffed. You are trying to cut cost too much. They did an outstanding job with the number of people they had.

I would suggest better maintenance on the men's steam room. It was broken too much during the cruise and I would suggest keeping the steam room open longer hours, tell 10:00 or 11:00 pm would be nice.

Thanks and I will see you soon!