Knowing that after spending three weeks on the road in the Canadian Atlantic Provinces with my husband doing all the driving on pot-holed roads, I would probably need a vacation from my vacation so I went looking for a nearby solo cruise bargain. What I found was Princess’s Pacific Coastal Wine Country cruise out of Vancouver at a rate that made the 100% single supplement at least not awful (a rare thing these days). Although it started only three days after my other trip, at least it was only a $10 Bolt Bus ride away from home.

The Bolt Bus turned out to be a very good idea; it runs from Portland to Seattle to Bellingham to Vancouver. Even with our stop at the border to clear Canadian customs and immigration during which you had to drag everything off the bus and then reload, it was a smooth ride and we arrived 10 minutes early at the Vancouver bus station. From here you just walk across the little park to the Skytrain Main Street/Science World station, where for $1.88 CAD senior rate, you ride directly to the Waterfront Station. From there just follow the signs to the Canada Place exit and you are right across the street from the cruise terminal entrance.

I had read on Cruise Critic boards that Vancouver can be very crowded and slow for embarkation, but it wasn’t too bad. There was only one person in front of me at the luggage drop-off point. The one really long line was for security as they were having both the Princess and Holland America passengers all go through together. Once that was done we were separated by cruise line. Fortunately, there was a separate line for Nexus pass holders to go through U.S. immigration (all our future ports were U.S.), although I noticed the regular immigration line was not bad. Next came check-in, but as a Platinum member I had priority boarding and waited all of two minutes to get to the check-in desk. From here it was to the elite lounge to await the boarding which began at 11:30 am by row in the seating area. And our cabins were ready so I dropped off my carry-on bag and was sitting in the Horizon Court with my lunch by 11:50 am—you can’t beat that for smooth embarkation. Read more