Sweet reward pinching pennies on the Pacific

Conventional wisdom about travel -- indeed, about life -- suggests that you get what you pay for.

On a five-night repositioning cruise north along the Pacific Coast this month, conventional wisdom was proved wrong. I didn’t get what I paid for aboard the 1,700-passenger Norwegian Wind. I got much more.

The ship ticket was $199 per person for the lowest-category stateroom, a special I found while cruising the Orbitz website, plus about $150 to fly home from Vancouver. Add taxes and fees, and the total came to just less than $500 a person. To avoid the single surcharge, I invited a roommate, who promised to behave and not drink up all our savings. And if you can’t trust your 83-year-old mother, whom can you trust?

So we set off for Pier 91 at San Pedro on a Monday, both of us fearing we’d made a deal with the bargain devil.

We need not have worried. Norwegian Cruise Lines didn’t know me from Adam, and I never told them I was a travel journalist, but we still got an upgrade to an outside stateroom, albeit on the lowest deck. Our twin-bedded cabin came with a small sitting area that was just right for reading or playing cards. It wasn’t the lap of luxury -- 152 square feet is hardly even a lap -- but maybe that was the key: Our expectations weren’t high, so it didn’t take much to meet them.

If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it isn’t meant to be. This was my ninth cruise, so I’ve seen some good, some bad and some ugly. This was infinitely better than my most mediocre journey, and at these prices, I was practically tap-dancing for joy.

Which would have been a good idea, because, by the time we rolled into Vancouver, I needed the exercise.

It was hard not to indulge. This was a “free-style cruise,” which meant we could eat whenever and wherever we wanted. Dress was also casual -- “slovenly,” according to my maternal ancestor -- but ditching the dress-up stuff didn’t bother me.

Feeling festive, we dined the first night in Le Bistro, the French-Mediterranean “alternative” restaurant that usually carries a $15 per person cover charge but was $7.50 a person the first night. If there are better ways to start a journey than with escargot, chicken breast stuffed with tiger prawn mousse and cherries flambe for dessert, I don’t know what they are, and neither did my roommate. It was going to be hard to top that.

But we did -- several times. We tried the Terraces the next night and felt equally enthusiastic about our beef Wellington, and the Four Seasons the night after that, where I was perfectly happy with my snapper, and Mom with a chicken breast. Neither were we disappointed in the lobster tails the following night at the same place, nor with the lasagna the last night at La Trattoria, the Italian restaurant two decks above the others.

Plenty to do

During the day, we found plenty to amuse ourselves with, although I confess we are easily entertained. A couple of good books and two full days at sea kept us happy.

This wasn’t true of everyone. As we waited in line for breakfast one day, we overheard a couple of women griping about the ship. It wasn’t new, they said, and that’s true. The Wind was launched in 1993 and got a whole new midsection in 1998 -- and it is imperfect: That super-sizing means some passengers have to cut through the dining room to get to the bar. Furthermore, they said, the ship rocked and groaned. Right again. The winds were so strong that I was sure my slip of a mother was going to take wing out on deck.

She may be a lightweight but not when it comes to assessing people and situations -- and the chronic complainers got her goat. She said, “Some people would kick if they were in swimming.” Not wanting to fall in that category, I forced myself to relax and enjoy the shows -- magician Drew Thomas and the Jean Ann Ryan song-and-dance troupe, and the duo Patti and Jose in the Observatory Lounge. When we weren’t being entertained, we talked politics, clucked about the latest family goings-on and tried to go with the flow.

That strategy worked with everything but the elevators, which were not there when you needed them. For those who have replacement parts, lifts aren’t just for looks, and getting the bionic mother down six flights of stairs for our shore excursions was touch-and-go.

The effort was worth it, though, both in Seattle and Victoria, where we chose packaged excursions just for the ease of it. Between those trips and the bar tab (an Amstel Light was $3.75 and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc nearly $5), the odd purchase (when you need Ben-Gay, $10 a tube seems reasonable), a manicure and pedicure for Mum (about $75) and the tips ($10 per person per day), we ran up an on-board bill of more than $600.

Small extravagance

So did I cheat on our budget? Maybe a little. In other circumstances, I might have skipped the shore excursions, but then I would never have had a chance to see my mom marvel at the Eden known as Butchart Gardens, about 17 miles outside Victoria, our second stop. It was a floral frenzy, and my mother, horticulturally in tune with her world, said more than once: “I just can’t take in any more.” It was nice to be overwhelmed with something positive for a change.

We capped that day with tea at Victoria’s venerable Empress Hotel, another highlight I wouldn’t have bothered with if I’d been alone. But the day had turned rainy, so it was lovely to cozy up to a cuppa and down a few cucumber sandwiches, scones with cream and an assortment of mini pastries before high-tailing it back to the Wind.

The ship seemed to crawl along that night, and perhaps it did; it’s only 45 miles from Victoria to Vancouver.

All too soon, we were docked, and it was time to relinquish our cut-rate cabin. Perhaps, as the adage says, I was penny-wise and pound-foolish, but looking back, I’d tell conventional wisdom to take a hike.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Budget for two

Expenses for this trip:

Tickets

Norwegian Wind $398.00

Taxes, port fees $156.58

Booking fee

Orbitz $15.00

Airfares, one way

Vancouver-LAX $291.94

Tips $100.00

Vancouver airport

Improvement fee $16.00

Final tab per person $488.76

CONTACT:

Norwegian Cruise Lines, (800) 327-7030, www.ncl.com, or see a travel agent.

Orbitz, www.orbitz.com.