Not much to say, overall we liked our room, the staff was good to great, daytime entertainment was a bit poor for us, food was mostly good to great, and we had some rain on boarding day but beautiful sunny days the rest of the trip. And overall a great relaxing trip up to Whittier.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Taxi to parking lot was slow, three ships in but they did have traffic control. Getting to the check in area from the lot was confusing, especially if you needed an elevator, but the occasional staffer was able to help everyone out. Going through the checking was odd, you kept crossing lines you were just in (or were going to), but there were staffers keeping you straight. Had to go through a cursory US immigration passport check before heading to the ship. A moderate walk, and then on the ship, scanned in, , lunch in the MDR, then off to the muster station. Room was a problem, more later.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food and Drink category was about 4.5. Having Orange Club was nice since I think the special entree at dinner was better prepared, an example was the duck breast. In the Orange menu it was great (5), but the next night in regular menu it was dry and tough (2.5). For dinner I would rate the MDR as 3 to 4.5 overall since the waiters seemed to be still learning and we had a hard time getting seating where we wanted. Also the food was varying, I had some food that was not very good (a Chicken Cordon Bleu that was a 1), but the wife had something different that at the same sitting was great. Also, no lobster anymore in the MDR, shrimp now. Breakfast was very good though, no complaints and we ate there every morning.
Buffet for lunch was mostly good, but the salad section was not as good as before. Ate mostly Asian with couple of days at some other locations and most of the servers were very good. I like the buffet because they serve you and listen to what you ask for. Also, the buffet has real ice cream, in a bowel or in a cone!
Specialty restaurants, the Italian (Canaletto), was great. The staff and food were the very best we have ever had (compared to Carnival and Princess). Highly recommended and reasonable cost too at $19 PP.
Wife liked the Dive In for most lunches and the pizza place was very tasty.
The bartenders made several mocktails that I brought the recipes in for, some had to be modified due to lack of ingredients but the pool bar had a guy who liked to do that.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
During the daytime not much going on for us (exercise, bingo, shopping shows), but the naturalist Christie was enjoyable and had very good talks. Rated a 3 partly because I like more daytime music venues but the history and naturalist talks brought it up to a 4.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
After dinner the pianos (Billboard) were good and we did them a lot. The Lincoln center was a disappointment, while they were good, it was usually some combination of piano, violin, and viola, not the 5 piece group we had precovid. Although we just listened for a bit from the door since it was crowded, the BB King had some great talent this trip. The stage shows were not really stage shows, some environmental movies with background music and a couple of feeble attempts at a stage show, a whale talk by Christie was good, there was a show that had the BB King lead singer and she was very good.
B.B. King's Blues Club
5 out of 5
Did not get to see much, but every time we walked by and listened, they were ROCKING!
Children's Programs
No kids
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Most of the staff were good to great, our room steward was good but not great, many general staff were great, but as noted the MDR was a bit rough. Also, on embarkation we got a runaround on our room until about 3 PM. More later in cabin.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Seemed good to me, but I am a retired sailor.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
This started out bad. When they announced rooms open at around 1 PM, we went our room, not ready they said. Come 3 PM and we started to get scared, no baggage and it looked like it was all delivered to other rooms, room not cleaned and ready to go, bed not made, etc. Went to the desk and found out we were moved to under the pool deck due to a “maintenance” issue (suspect the toilet since we had issues several times with it). I flat stated that was not workable, I deliberately do not get rooms (and yes, you could hear the pool noise there) under the pool due to noise. Either upgrade us or get the room fixed. Well, no upgrade, but by 8:30 PM when we came back from the evening entertainment, it was ready to go and a few minutes later the staff brought our luggage from the other room.
The room, aft balcony, a bit longer room due to location so we had some empty spots to easily store our bags, comfortable, balcony was nice to sit on when the sun was right (warmth). I would do this room again, wife prefers a more central room. Bathroom was fairly standard.
Ship tip
Be flexible, Covid has hit the industry hard and some things are missng or different.
Airport was bad, had a confusing and boring 30+ minute walk to the immigration, long line at the immigration terminals due to all they wanted you to do, then a very large and confusing luggage area. Vancouver is just another big city to me. The port was actually not bad, other than getting to the first check in area, but they had good guides and it went smooth, even the US immigration desks were fast.
I like walking around the town. They have a good used book store I like to hit and a chocolate factory I like (two, but I prefer the second one down the street from the piers). Lots to do if you look around.
This was our turn around point for a B2B. I went out and walked the "town", then ended up at the creek above town and walked back along the creek, a nice day.
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