West Coast cruises 2026–2027: Pacific coast routes, ports and lines

Cruise lines sell these trips under several names: Pacific coast, Pacific coastal, West Coast, California coast and Pacific Northwest cruises. They are the same idea. A ship sails along the coast between California and British Columbia and stops at cities on the way. This page covers those coastal sailings. For Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska trips from the same ports, see our guide to cruises from California.

Best time for a West Coast cruise

The calendar is set by Alaska. Ships spend the summer there and the winter in Mexico, Hawaii or farther away, and they sail the coast when they move between the two.

• April and May: the main season. Ships head north from Los Angeles and San Diego toward Vancouver. Most of the sailings in our price data leave in these two months. See our April 2027 and May 2027 guides.
• June to August: almost nothing. The ships are in Alaska. Santa Barbara does not schedule cruise ship visits between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
• September to November: the return trip south from Vancouver. Princess’s 2027–28 West Coast season starts in September 2027 and runs to April 2028. See September 2027 and October 2027.
• December to March: very little. The ships based in California are sailing to Mexico and Hawaii.

Pack layers in any month. This is a cool-water coast, and nobody books it for the pool deck.

West Coast cruise lines compared

These are the lines with Pacific coast sailings announced or on sale for 2026 to 2028.

• Princess CruisesThe most choice. Its 2027–28 California and Pacific Coast program has 17 departures on nine itineraries from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, with late-night stays in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle and Victoria. Ruby Princess has 7-night Pacific Northwest sailings from San Francisco in April.
  From $89 per personChecked October 2026
• Holland America LineEurodam, Koningsdam and Zaandam sail between San Diego and Vancouver in the 2027–28 season. Eurodam has 4- to 6-night trips that call at Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Astoria or Victoria. Calmer and older-skewing.
  From $264 per personChecked October 2026
• Virgin VoyagesAdults only. Its 2027 program has an eight-night Pacific coastal voyage from Vancouver to Los Angeles, with stops at Astoria, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island and San Diego.
  Fares change daily; check current prices
• Celebrity CruisesCelebrity Summit has a 6-night Pacific coastal cruise from Los Angeles in May 2027 in our price data.
  From $648 per personChecked October 2026
• Royal CaribbeanFew coastal trips. Our price data has one 3-night sailing from Los Angeles to Vancouver on Ovation of the Seas in November 2027.
  From $128 per personChecked October 2026

Norwegian also lists Pacific coast trips among its repositioning cruises, and Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Jade were both on Astoria’s 2026 schedule. Ship guides: Royal Princess and Celebrity Summit.

For most people the choice is between the first two. Princess has more dates, and its 2027–28 coastal sailings are round trips. Holland America’s ships are smaller. We compare them in Holland America vs Princess.

Typical length and price

• 3 to 5 nights: the most common length. Short hops between Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, often with one or two stops. Princess calls its shortest ones getaways and sells them from Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco, one way or round trip.
• 6 to 8 nights: the full coast between Southern California and Vancouver, with three to five stops, or a round trip from San Francisco to the Pacific Northwest.

Fares per night are usually among the lowest you will find from a West Coast port, because the lines need to move the ships anyway. The cost to watch is the flight. On a one-way trip you fly home from a different city, and Vancouver is in another country. Our short cruise guide covers the 3- to 5-night trips, and repositioning cruises explains why one-way sailings are priced low.

Pacific coast cruise deals are mostly the short trips. The lowest fares in our price data are on 3- to 5-night sailings, and there is no peak summer week to avoid.

Departure ports

• Los Angeles: where most of the California sailings in our price data start, on Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.
• San Diego: Holland America’s base. Its spring trips to Vancouver start here.
• San Francisco: Ruby Princess is based here, and Princess sells round trips from San Francisco in its 2027–28 season. That makes it the easiest port for a coastal cruise with no one-way flight.
• Seattle: a few short sailings at the start and end of the Alaska season.
• Vancouver: where northbound trips end and southbound trips start. You need a passport to fly in or out.

Why so many West Coast cruises are one way

A U.S. law, the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, bars foreign-flagged ships from carrying passengers between two U.S. ports. Nearly every big cruise ship is foreign-flagged. So a ship can’t sell a trip from San Diego to Seattle. It can sail a round trip from one U.S. port if it calls at a foreign port on the way, which is why round trips on this coast include Victoria, Vancouver or Ensenada. Or it can sail one way between a U.S. port and Vancouver. That is the shape of nearly every cruise on the West Coast of the United States.

West Coast sailings snapshot

Ports of call

• San Francisco: the main stop, and a late-night stay on some Princess sailings. Princess sells Napa and Sonoma wine country tours from here. Terminal and transport details are in our San Francisco port guide.
• Victoria, British Columbia: ships dock at the Victoria Cruise Terminal at Ogden Point, in the Breakwater District. You can walk or take a shuttle into the city. The port had 311 cruise ship calls in 2025.
• Astoria, Oregon: a small town near the mouth of the Columbia River. Twelve large ships were scheduled for 2026, between April and October. A shuttle runs from the pier to downtown every 30 minutes while a ship is in port, and the Columbia River Maritime Museum and the River Walk are the main sights.
• Santa Barbara: on Holland America, Princess and Virgin Voyages routes in spring and fall. The city’s 2026 schedule lists 11 visits.
• San Diego: a stop on trips that start in Los Angeles or Vancouver. See our San Diego port guide.
• Catalina Island: on Virgin’s Vancouver to Los Angeles route, and on many short Baja trips.
• Ensenada, Mexico: the foreign stop on weekend round trips from Los Angeles. More in our Mexico cruise guide.

Pacific Northwest cruises

A Pacific Northwest cruise on a big ship is a coastal trip that goes as far as Victoria, Vancouver or Seattle, such as Ruby Princess’s 7-night Pacific Northwest cruise from San Francisco. Two other kinds of trip use the name. An Alaska cruise from Seattle or Vancouver sails the Inside Passage in summer. And small river ships from American Cruise Lines and National Geographic, which carry up to about 200 people, sail the Columbia River and visit Astoria about 200 days a year. We don’t have prices for the river ships.

West Coast cruise FAQ