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Pacific Northwest: outstanding scenery plus intriguing ports-of-call add up to a first-class cruise region, conveniently close to home.

Article Excerpt
Sometimes the best vacations are enjoyed right in your own backyard. This became all the more evident to me last fall as I tooled around the Pacific Northwest on a short sailing out of Seattle aboard Celebrity Cruises' Mercury.

This corner of the North American continent--roughly defined by Northern California in the south and Prince Rupert, BC, in the north--is becoming a hot new cruising ground for the major cruise lines. And so it should, for many obvious reasons--but so often we overlook the obvious.

Consider that this coastal area includes some of the most beautiful cities on the continent (San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver), a host of charming port towns (Astoria, Oregon, and Nanaimo, British Columbia, to name two) and outstanding scenery (such as Oregon's famous coast and the Inside Passage). Combine all this with the convenience of staying close to home, and you've got one terrific region for a cruise vacation.

Cruise lines are offering more and more itineraries in this compact area as they realize its potential as a new destination with a lot to offer, all of it accessible by sea. Pacific Northwest cruises originally began as fillers between the summer Alaska season and the winter tropical season. By mid April. demand for warm-weather cruises wanes, while it's still too cold to head for Glacier Bay. The same is true in fall with mid-September and October weather too chilly for Alaska cruises, yet not cold enough to drive sun-worshippers south.

The solution was to fill these shoulder seasons with one- and two-night "try me" cruises out of the big cities of the Pacific Northwest. This is an important strategy for coaxing first-time cruisers aboard since the cruise lines know, as do readers of Cruise Travel, that most people who sample cruising become hooked on it Those quickie trips are still offered, but in...