During the spring and fall, ships transition to different locations due to the season. Right at the moment, all sorts of vessels are heading here for this summer's Alaskan cruise season. The itinerary allows the ms Noordam to waste a little time before starting its regular cruise season. We sail from downtown next Tuesday and return on Sunday.
There are two main reasons we thought to pick up this inexpensive trip. First, Jay and I need only ten more nights at sea to achieve the HAL 4-Star Mariner rankings. We want that status to kick in before taking a future, long-duration cruise because laundry and ironing become free services at that loyalty program level. There are other perks such as priority boarding as well. Secondly, it's been forever since we travelled locally. COVID closed the border south for several years and the ferries over to the BC capital have become very costly. As you can see below we spend one day in three different nearby cities.
Plus, there's the added benefit of having someone overfeed and clean up after us for a few days!