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Fri, 18 Aug 2006

Berch on Cruises, part 1: the departure

I just returned from a week-long cruise to Alaska (plus an added land tour) with my sweetie Maggie and her family, on Princess Cruises. It was my first time on a cruise ship (hers too), and it was a grand time, notwithstanding the vagaries and exigencies of packaged group travel. The glaciers and fjords of Alaska rate pretty high on my lifetime list of great sights. What's more, the food was good.

The following is a detailed recounting and review of our trip, not limited to the food and drink, but it should come as no surprise that they're pretty central to the cruise ship experience.

The journey began with a flight to Vancouver on Alaska Airlines. Unlike Maggie and family, who had to leave their house at 4 AM to catch a Northwest flight from Omaha at 7:30, I had a very reasonable nonstop from San Francisco. I got the exit row, an empty seat next to me, and the plane was Alaska's well-known "Salmon-Thirty-Salmon" logojet, advertising wild Alaskan seafood.

We all met up at the Four Seasons Vancouver, which was a good choice for cruise passengers (which it was full of), since it's close to the cruise terminal at Canada Place, and, well... it's a Four Seasons. Since we were too tired to explore, and had a big day coming up, Maggie and I ate dinner at Chartwell's, the hotel's main dining room. It had aspirations, but I would not call it a destination restaurant. My ambitious first course of bacon-wrapped figs stuffed with foie gras was not entirely successful: the delicate interplay of the fig and the foie gras was overpowered by the smokiness of the bacon. The steak and side dish of chanterelles and asparagus were fine, though, as was a 2002 British Columbia cabernet from Sumac Ridge.

We reported to a meeting room the next morning to check in for the cruise. It's a good idea to come a day ahead for a cruise, since you don't have to worry about a delayed flight, you're not rushed (as much), and if you check in at the hotel, your luggage is whisked away and you can board, theoretically, at your leisure. The logistics of getting the people and bags onto a bus to the pier were somewhat confused and disorganized; this is not Princess's strongest suit. But they got us there in plenty of time, and as promised, we walked right on board.

So there was our ship: the Diamond Princess, the largest cruise ship in the Pacific, capable of carrying about 3,000 passengers and a crew of 1,000. We were in a maze of corridors in the cruise terminal, so didn't really get any impression of the ship, except that it was huge. The public spaces were grand and well-appointed, in natural woods, granite, brass, and etched glass. Nothing looked cheap or makeshift. Even the corridors to the staterooms were wider than I expected, although they are vertiginously long.

We got to our stateroom, a balcony double on the Baja Deck (deck 11), forward. I'd never been on a cruise ship before, even to visit, and the diagrams and photos and statistics on the ship's web site don't really communicate what you're getting into. It's a small space, but very well laid out. It was not at all claustrophobic, at least for me; the sliding door and balcony make all the difference. Except for the tiny bathroom with a tinier shower, it would be an entirely reasonable single hotel room in most big cities; for two people who like their space, though, it was a bit cramped. But such are the economics of cruise ships: all that grand public space has to come at the expense of personal space for the passengers. Maggie's parents, who were celebrating their anniversary, had a suite in the forward starboard corner of the same deck, with much more space (and the largest private balcony I've seen), but there are only a few suites like that on each ship. (They generously invited us, as well as Maggie's sister, brother-in-law, and their kids to join us in their suite and balcony whenever we liked.)

Since it was about 1:30 in the afternoon by the time we got settled, it was time for lunch. On the first day of the cruise, before leaving port, only the buffet is open for lunch. It was, of course, packed, and we stood elbow to elbow at the buffet lines. Happily, this was the only time I stood in a significant line for food -- or anything else -- for the entire voyage. While the buffet food was not nearly as good as the dining room food (which was as expected), it got better and better during the week. That first buffet lunch -- a caesar salad, some roast pork loin, beef stew, fried scallops, and fresh fruit -- was unexceptional, but still well above the quality of typical shore-side buffets.

We returned to the room, and I began wondering where the luggage was. It was 3:00, and the ship was due to sail at 4:30. Our cabin steward introduced himself, pointed out the card on the desk with his pager number, and explained a few housekeeping items. A passing luggage handler said to me, "your bags are coming soon!" Then 3:00 became 3:30 and 4:00, only one bag (Maggie's) arrived, and I wondered if perhaps mine had been left behind or misdirected. I asked the steward to look into it, which he promised to do, and figured there was nothing else that could be done. The ship's departure was delayed until 5:15, which I guessed was due to luggage issues, and the missing luggage finally showed up at 5:30. This was not a big deal, but a note in one of the various welcome/instruction messages in the room to the effect of, "hey, you might not get your luggage for 5+ hours; don't worry" would have been reassuring.

We walked around the open upper decks and enjoyed the sunshine, inspecting all the mysterious and arcane navigation and communications equipment, and took a bunch of photos. Finally, we cast off, and I was surprised at how quickly such a huge ship could accelerate. Wow! Thrusters are a pretty impressive nautical innovation: megaships can move sideways and turn in place.

Next came the required safety briefing and life jacket drill, conducted in the main theater, which is pretty impressive in its own right. After that, and some simple enjoyment of the Vancouver and Georgia Strait scenery, it was, well... time for dinner.

We were able to get a reservation for the Vivaldi Dining Room for our table of 8. Unlike some other cruise lines, Princess offers a choice between Traditional Dining, where you eat in the same dining room at the same table (and with the same table-mates, if applicable) every night, and Anytime Dining, where you eat dinner where and when you like, and can get smaller tables for 2 or 4. This was one of the best features of the cruise. Neither Maggie nor I wanted to be tied down to a particular dinner time (neither the 5:30 early seating nor the 8:00 late seating are particularly convenient), nor did we want to be stuck with 2 or 3 other couples for artificial companionship (although as a party of 8, we probably could have gotten our own table for the whole cruise).

The four Anytime dining rooms on the Diamond Princess have different decor themes (Vivaldi: Italian; Santa Fe: Southwestern; Savoy: French; Pacific Moon: Asian) but they all serve an identical menu save for a single main course "specialty" which remains the same in each room for the whole voyage. Dinner at the Vivaldi was lovely: I began with a lobster and rockfish terrine, a salad, and the main course was prime rib -- perfectly medium rare -- with bacon-wrapped string beans, followed by a chocolate mousse and a cheese plate. We had only planned to order only single glasses on wine, but the waiter explained that if you order a bottle and don't finish it, it's kept for you in a wine cellar and you can finish it the next night or any other dinner. So we got a bottle of barolo (Stefano Farina, 2001) which was not the best barolo I've had, but was adequate though a little rough, like a rustic sangiovese or nebbiolo. It was not terribly expensive, though; wine is marked up but not as much in equivalent restaurants. (On most cruise ships, food in any quantity is included, even multiple portions, special desserts, and other gluttony, but every drop of alcohol is an extra charge.)

The dinner was very satisfying, and I figured if they kept it up all week, I would be one very happy cruise passenger. By meal's end we were about ready to spend a little time on the balcony and then try to erase the previous day's sleep deficit. In the meantime, it became foggy and cooler, and our ship motored up the Georgia Strait and into the narrow passages that separate Vancouver Island from the mainland. I stayed out late on the balcony and watched as another cruise ship passed us going south, a brightly-lit but spectral apparition in the fog. We slept well.

Posted at 19:18 | permanent link

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