Aren’t girlfriends the best? I hope you all have a group of people who you get together with regularly and share your lives together. It’s a blessing from God!
I just took an amazing trip with my girlfriends (other than being sick for a couple of days secluded in my room on the ship… I’ll explain that later).
I highly recommend this trip to anyone who wants to get away with a group of girlfriends, family, or any other group that is looking for time to just hang out, have fun, and rest!
Princess Cruise Line does “repositioning” cruises. This is when they are moving their ships from one location to another for the season. They do a one way cruise from Vancouver BC to LA (really Long Beach). The price is right and it’s a great way to spend time with friends.
The 2027 dates are September 14 - 18 (4 nights) on the Emerald Princess and September 21 - 25 (4 nights) on the Royal Princess. These two ships will go from Vancouver BC to LA. There are other ships who make stops in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and San Diego… then on to LA. They are longer cruises and cost more. Truly, if you duplicate the trip I took, 4 nights on the ship is enough. However, if you’re not sure about spending so much peaceful, quiet time on the ship with your friends, you can add a stop or two to break it up.
I’m excited to tell you about the exact itinerary I had, but I’m happy to help you change it up if you want something a bit different.
We decided to drive to Vancouver instead of flying. It basically took the same amount of time from leaving the house to the hotel as it would have if I had to drive the 1 ½ hours to the airport, check in, wait, board, fly, pick up luggage, then Uber to the hotel. The husband of one of my girlfriends drove us in their big Sprinter van and it was a wonderful drive ~ thanks Mike!
Here’s the itinerary… then I’ll do some explaining later.
Day 1
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Drove from Newberg, OR to Vancouver, BC.
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Stopped at a cute little coffee shop, Fiddler’s Coffee in Centralia, WA.
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Had a seamless border crossing experience.
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Checked into the Barclay Hotel.
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Had a terrible lunch at Cora’s next to the hotel (the only bad meal we had).
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Got on the hop on hop Big Bus at 3pm and did one lap to scope out the stops.
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Walked to Joey Burrard’s for an amazing dinner!
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Walked back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Day 2
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Walked to 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters for an amazing coffee and breakfast.
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Walked to Canada Place to check out where we would be getting on the ship the next morning.
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Walked to Gastown for shopping time.
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Hopped on the Big Bus and got off at Prospect Park stop at Stanley Park for some great views.
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Back on the Big Bus (this time our driver was Sherry, like the Spanish Wine as she says). Got off at Granville Island for a great time of shopping and food.
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Took the very small ferry across the water to the other side (just for fun), then walked back to the hotel.
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Of course, hanging out in the “big” room with the girls.
Day 3
OK… back to the part about me being sick. I made it through our Vancouver BC touring but started feeling it the morning we were to get on the ship. I actually contemplated not going the rest of the way (thank God I had travel insurance in case I decided to do that), but figured it would be harder to get home if I got real sick versus being on the ship. I happened to have my own room so I went for it. Once on the ship I actually called my insurance company and they were so helpful and offering me help if I needed to disembark before ever getting started. They even called and emailed me the next day to check on me.
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Packed up and walked with luggage to 49th Parallel Coffee, then to the cruise port.
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Got on the ship (took a while), then had a nice lunch.
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This is when I went to my room to rest… and thought “maybe” I’m actually sick.
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The other ladies had a nice dinner then enjoyed a show on the ship (which they said was great).
Days 4 - 6
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By now two of us were sick and stuck in our rooms until the last day.
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Everyone else enjoyed the ship, entertainment, and food. Our favorite entertainment was the last day’s “Cooking” show and galley tour.
Day 7
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Landed in Long Beach at 7am. We had breakfast on the ship before disembarking, which was a breeze!
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Took an Uber to the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, CA.
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Dropped off our luggage, then walked to the pier’s end, then down Main Street.
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Enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Tacos El Carbon.
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We walked back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool until our rooms were ready.
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Had a nice evening walk to dinner at Mendocino Farms, walked around some more, then back to the hotel.
Day 8
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Walked to a local coffee shop before we had to head out.
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Took an Uber to SNA ~ John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana… well, I stayed in SoCal with my sister for a visit.
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Everyone else flew home… Thanks Mike for picking everyone up after the trip.
Keep reading if you’re interested in tips and more information on the particular hotels, Princess Cruise, and places we visited.
BARCLAY HOTEL
I would definitely recommend this hotel in Vancouver. The price was on the low end of the other hotels in the area but it wasn’t the finest. I would stay there again though! The staff was helpful (other than recommending Cora’s for lunch). There was no elevator and we were on the 4th floor, but they offered to carry up our bags if we wanted them to do so. The location was perfect! We could catch the hop on hop off bus easily and it was close to plenty of restaurants we could walk to. It was in a good part of the city and us girls all felt safe to be there and to walk around. It was a “store front” type of hotel. No access from the sides or back so that helped in the safety feeling.
If you want a higher quality hotel, I would recommend the Pan Pacific Hotel. It’s right on the waterfront, has first class restaurants and views, and has the same walking accessibility as the Barclay. You’ll pay about double or a bit more as the Barclay, but it’s that much nicer! There are plenty of other places somewhere in the middle… price and location.
BIG BUS
What a great way to get around the city. We purchased a 24 hour ticket starting on the day we arrived and saved 10% by booking early. You have to do your first ride on the day you said, so we decided to take the entire tour. It took about an hour and a half. By starting at 3 one day, that meant that our last boarding time the next day needed to be by 3pm. Well worth the money to see the town and sights… but being on Sherry’s bus was the best part!
JOEY BURRARD
This was a great restaurant! The atmosphere was wonderful, the people were so friendly, and they gave us champagne when we checked in. We made the reservation just before arriving so it wasn’t hard to get in. It was definitely one of our best meals on the entire trip. Oh… and the prices were very reasonable!
49th PARALLEL COFFEE ROASTERS
This is a must when in Vancouver. They have a few locations, but we went to the one closest to the cruise terminal. The coffee was amazing, and the food was not only beautiful, but so tasty. It was so good we went back the next morning. I’m not sure it’s worth trying any other coffee shop!
CANADA PLACE / PORT OF VANCOUVER
What a great port! It was a beautiful place to just walk around and see the water and everything that was happening around us. We definitely could have stayed longer, but we had lots of other places to go. Of course, we had gotten the info on the bus the day before so we knew a little bit about it before we arrived.
TRANSPORTATION IN VANCOUVER
Although we drove to Vancouver, if you fly there, it’s easy to get to the downtown area. The Waterfront Station is just across from the cruise port and walking distance (as long as you don’t overpack) to the Barclay and even closer if you stay at the Pan Pacific.
GASTOWN
This was a super cute part of town. Gastown is Vancouver’s oldest and most historic neighbourhood, famous for its cobblestone streets, Victorian architecture, and the iconic Gastown Steam Clock. We loved the shops and had a nice time there.
STANLEY PARK
Due to time, we chose to just stop at the Prospect Park stop at Stanley Park… I believe it was the 2nd stop there. We had ice cream, enjoyed the sunshine, beautiful flowers, and great views. A couple of the girls almost missed the bus because they were enjoying their walk. Pay close attention to the time. The busses run every 25 minutes or so.
GRANVILLE ISLAND
Granville Island is a peninsula and shopping district that was formerly an industrial manufacturing area, it was named after Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville. We had so much fun here. There was so much to see that we ended up staying here the rest of the day. We enjoyed an afternoon meal at the Vancouver Fish Company after we did some shopping… then we did some more shopping! We all found something to buy and bring home with us and Stacey found an amazing coat of many colors. She also found the pottery store that her uncle started and some of his artwork is still on display and for sale. Instead of taking an Uber back to the hotel, we decided to take a cute little ferry ride across the water. We were surprised when we got there that we were only a mile away from the hotel so we just walked (up hill most of the way).
PRINCESS CRUISE
How exciting it was to get to the port and see our ship, the Island Princess. Princess Cruise Line is a great option for people who don’t want thousands of people, water slides, lots of noise, or lots of craziness. This ship was great. Although it was a full ship, you didn’t feel like it was crowded. School had just started so there were very few kids on board (probably home school kids, ha). The food was good, service was excellent, entertainment was good… did I say the service was excellent? This ship was perfect for a group of people to go hang out together, or split up and do things outside the group too. There were amazing musicians all over the ship and it was great to hear them when you were walking by. It was hard not to just stop and enjoy! I guess that’s the point. The cruise experience was everything we had hoped for (except the sick part for two of us). The good news is that we had balcony rooms and with Princess, the room service was at no extra charge. It wasn’t a bad place to be sick. I definitely have some “new to cruising” tips that would be helpful if you’re actually new to cruising.
