HaveDogWillTravel

In 2023 I tried to work with the sommeliers on Sapphire and Emerald. I knew far more about wines and the proper glassware for different ones than they did. The most frustrating discussions were when they blathered on stating absolute nonsense yet insisted they were correct. After two sailings I just gave up. They did not have real sommelier training and did not wear pins. While I do enjoy a real sommelier’s input it’s pretty low on my wish list for Princess. My wish is just stock and sell a variety of good wines…….in particular dry whites & roses. They typically have only one good white and one good rose by the glass. I hate drinking the same wine for 14-30 plus days. I’m really tired of bringing my own too.

We met the family in the other sky suite (wonderful people too!) and I think they beat you out by a minute. One of the first things they asked me was how did I beat them to the sky suite? Mine was the first to be booked followed a second or two later by their booking. And the rest is history. I won’t lie, in the beginning that expense was pretty difficult to justify but in the end I wouldn’t have done it any other way. We had 14 friends and 5 new friends ( @Thrakand his other half among them) to share that incredible space with. We made memories that will be treasured for a lifetime. Absolutely priceless. I have an excellent Princess CVP not a TA.

@ReadyToCruise2 gave the most complete & correct answer. They are absolutely spot on. Book the standard fare and then add any extras once onboard with OBC. The only thing that you might want to buy before boarding is the cases of water if you are not getting a package and want bottled water. It’s $7 for 12 before boarding and then $2.50 a half liter bottle onboard if you don’t have a package. And yes a good Princess CVP can remove a Plus or Premier package if that’s the fare you booked and revert it to a standard fare. If you’ve already made final payment the refund will be $60 or $80 per day depending on the package back to the credit card used to book the cruise otherwise you’ll just get an updated travel summary with a the same booking number. Go to your CC meet & greet and ask for recommendations for a good Princess CVP. Will they sell out? I would say no after my recent experience on the Discovery March 31 of this year. Our little 3 day Easter weekend sailing out of San Pedro was oversold with 4200 passengers (3600 is considered a full ship). My friends boarded and were able to purchase the premier package (drinks, specialty dining, grats, WiFi, blah, blah blah…..) without issue. If ever they were going to limit the number of packages (especially premier with that specialty dining benefit) it would have been on this 3 day, oversold ship.

The disembarkation perk was one of my favorite perks of all. We did not put our bags outside the night before. Instead Ivan came and picked them up at 6:30 am on disembarkation day. We had a nice relaxing breakfast in Sabatini’s then waited in the Sky Suite until Ivan came to escort us down around 8:15. We had a dedicated elevator, a special immigration clerk with no line, a dedicated porter with all our luggage already loaded and he walked us behind the scenes where no other passengers could be to the street. It was seriously such a no stress way to end the cruise.

Yes we did! I do hope you are able to take your sky suite sailing. Our farewell tea had to be held inside due to weather. I was a little concerned about space for 15 people but it worked out great! We all shared what we loved best about the cruise (besides the eclipse of course!). We couldn’t believe it when one of our group won the free 7 day balcony cabin sailing on discovery from having the premier package!

I just requested a refare on a little 7 day Rome to Barcelona Wind Spirit sailing for this fall. I will lose $100 pp OBC but gain the All In package, grats, WiFi and drinks, at no additional charge. IOW my cruise fare is the same but now I have the All In. The sale lasts thru June and seems to apply to many (if not all?) 2024 sailings.

We usually send our laundry daily. we take pictures of what we send as well. Smaller batches are easier to track if something goes missing. Which btw has never happened to us. We’ve used the laundry service many hundreds of times without issue. I do not send anything I would be truly sad to find ruined or lost though. There is no limit to how much or how often you send. Of course we have never sent anything but our own clothing. I’m not sure what happens if someone tries to send friends/family members’ clothes. Not that you would. But it’s the only instance I can think of where a limit might be imposed.

Just luck. We were on the port side and the captain had the ship positioned for starboard viewing. If you look on the deck plans for Discovery you’ll see those Sky Suites on Deck 18 have 270 degree balconies. The sun was so high in the sky we were able to see totality from the forward and aft sections of our balcony. We were so fortunate because the port side section was entirely in shade providing great relief from the heat. I don’t think there’s any way to really know with any certainty how the captain will position the ship until you are either onboard or really close to sailing. We just picked the cabin we wanted and figured we’d work out the rest.

There’s a link in this thread to all the Cunard 2026 eclipse sailings

Captain Tony also delayed moving our clocks ahead. That’s why our eclipse was at 11:02 ships time instead of noon. He did not want the eclipse to conflict with lunch service. And he gave the crew the time on upper decks to also experience this amazing event. I LOVE Captain Tony!

We received this great letter on nice cardstock when we embarked explaining where we’d be and how to best view the eclipse. And then we were given this lovely certificate afterwards. Princess delivered solar glasses to all cabins the day before.

On Discovery, we are all having way too good a time to focus on a live from. But I did think about it! The Captain and crew made the eclipse the focus of our life on board with enrichment lectures, themed trivia, games, star gazing nightly and special events like the planetarium set up in the theater. Our ship was so stable during the eclipse that our telescopes gave outstanding views. We set them all up on our balcony, not on the public spaces. Two nights ago we also had amazing clear skies and had excellent star gazing with our own telescopes. Service, food and entertainment has been outstanding. I would definitely choose Princess for another eclipse cruise. I would be shocked if Princess did not continue to offer these. I’ll post some pictures if they will load.

Ivan continues to exceed all our expectations. This is amazing as we had very high expectations to begin with. Our UBD for 12 was executed perfectly. We had 4 crew to serve. It was a bit windy but quite manageable. I was so impressed that Ivan had the beautiful Bellini champagne glasses sent up. Unfortunately the wind took out 3 of them so we decided to have them removed. He had Riedel red and whit wine glasses sent and those did fine. Ivan gifted us 2 bottles of a nice cab and 2 bottles of nice Chardonnay. The Chardonnay was the favorite of one of our guests and he went to a half dozen bars before he found 2 of the few remaining bottles on board. We traded the 6 half bottles of canyon road wine that I don’t care for with 2 bottles of a nice Sauvignon blanc. I brought 3 bottles of champagne on board so the quality of the wines now matched the quality of the food. Getting all 12 meals from deck 5 (or 6 ? I forget which he said) to deck 18 hot was certainly a logistical challenge that the crew absolutely nailed. We were blown away by how perfectly cooked and hot each course was. I will post some pictures. Unfortunately the salad did not get a picture but it was stunning. Greens, caramelized pears, creamy mild goat cheese, walnuts with a delicious specially crafted dressing. We also had small tapas to start that were amazing.

@safarigalWe were wondering why the Emerald had the aft facing the sun. Our captain said your class of ship was best kept stable in that position. I’m glad to hear everyone had a great view. I too am wondering about ease of viewing with an 8:30 of so totality. Sunset will be around 9:41 so the sun should be reasonably high but not as good at yesterday!

Here off the coast in Mazatlan we had scattered clouds but none blocking the sun. The captain kept the ship steady and our telescopes worked great! The 360 sunset effect was really spectacular at sea. Four minutes went by so incredibly fast. Comparing this to 2017 when we were on land and on a farm I did miss the silencing and then reawakening of the birds, roosters, cows and so on. But I loved not having to deal with traffic or crowds after the eclipse. This was so relaxing and comfortable. I will definitely want to book cruises for my future eclipse viewing. IMG_2458.mov