Repositioning cruises offer great value for the money. People tend to not like flying one way and rarely does one live out of the city the cruise leaves or arrives from. Got a great deal with a week to go! We live in Vancouver area so we parked at the long term YVR lot, then took Skytrain downtown to Waterfront. Sadly NCL doesn;t park at Canada Place, instead they are at Ballantyne. The silver lining was only one boat and easy access via cab. Got in line early, around 11:30am and had a very short wait till they actually started processing the line. We were on the ship having lunch by 12:30pm.

Our cabin was immediately accessible with our luggage arriving by 3pm. Sat on the outside deck as we sailed out of Vancouver harbour and under the Lions Gate Bridge. Astoria was a quiet old fishing village that offered very little to see up and down the main street. The old trolley is fun but gets packed with the cruise in port. Easy walk to and from town which would have saved us $7 each for the trolley / bus. Day at sea is always fun to sleep in, eat and do whatever. We managed quite well to spend the day doing not very much.

Much like Vancouver, NCL does not use the easy yet expensive ports so upon arrival in San Francisco we found ourselves south of the Bay Bridge and an $12 cab ride to Fisherman's Wharf. Dress for cool weather in SF even if everywhere else it says hot. By mid afternoon things warm up but till then it's cold. Fishermans Wharf is always fun to snoop but nothing is cheap. Another day at sea and we ended up in San Pedro, Los Angeles. Read more