My wife and I decided to take the Wine Country Coastal about 2 weeks before sailing. We decided to take an ocean view obstructed on Emerald deck. The price was irresistable compared to the balconies which were almost sold out except for the most expensive ones. Given that this cruise was not in warm weather for a lot of the sail, we felt happy with our choice. As it turned out, the view was not obstructed at all because the tender in front of us was a low profile design and there was no obstruction at all so are view was wonderful. The room, while not large was very space efficient and the bed was against the window which meant there was no wasted space width wise. The desk is much wider with this design and more useful. My only complaint was the edge of the desk seemed marred and scarred and while my wife felt I was being overly critical, I felt that it was not commensurate with the quality of the rest of the ship.
I have been on 4 Princess cruises and my wife 8 therefore she is a platinum loyalty member. We embarked Vancouver and even though we are Canadians we felt that the embarkation is much better and smoother ex LA and Port Everglades. The lineup to go through security was very long and we felt that there should be separate lines for platinum and elite status as there is in the US ports mentioned. We don't feel like we are any better or worse than anyone else just that what is the value of loyalty to the cruise line?
Once onboard we went to Skywalker's to watch the ship navigate to sea. There was a nice buffet for elite and platinum guests and a reserved area for us to watch the ship leave the Burrard Inlet. There was biblical rains off and on from Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. We didn't get off the ship in Victoria because of the wind and rain and we were so glad we did not book any excursions. We did watch the brave souls getting off the ship and although we admired there moxy, we were content to enjoy life shipboard.