HaveDogWillTravel

When I sail in cabins that are not full suites I always write in whatever I want on the card and to date have always gotten it. Bowls of berries, bacon, sausage, cheese omelets, hash browns….. most recently on the Sapphire last December.

We’ve seen them twice sailing out of Skagway. Like you we book the aft facing suites for Alaska. Set our alarm for midnight after going to bed early and then bundle up on the loungers that are facing north for that long sail down the fjord. Good luck! I hope you get to see them.

Last year 4 of us flew in the day of the sailing from SFO and took the sky train. We all had one large bag with a smaller bag on top and a backpack. It was really easy and cheap. we had no problem walking our luggage from the station to the pier. We even stopped and bought wine on the way to the ship.

I’m hoping this will be the case on the Ruby when I start sailing her out of SF this Nov. (& then January, & June). But I’ll still pack mine for my room.

I sailed Sapphire for 34 days this past December (and into January). Agree completely about the Plus wines. There is one blend called Aqui that is drinkable. If I remember correctly it’s on the room service menu. It should be available at one of the bars. You can order 4 glasses of it at one time on room service. And it was so very annoying that you could not get a decent glass without a rolled lip on it without begging. I really really really hate that about Princess. I always pack my own glasses because of it but that is getting so old.

The train turns around at the top. No need to change seats as the folks on the right side are on the outside rail going down. Also some people don’t like to sit on the outside (left going up and right going down) as there’s some really steep drop offs. If you are not a fan of heights don’t sit next to the window on the scenic side. I’ve taken the train 5 times and everyone has always been super polite and accommodating. People share the spaces well in my experiences. Safe travels and Bon voyage.

It was so weird wasn’t it? I feel the same way.

Neither Adam nor I have gotten the refundable OBC back from the Sapphire cruise that ended Jan 4th! On this eclipse sailing I went to GS and had them combine our folios. Hope you get the prize thing worked out.

This will be a very different experience than July. I did one trip in August and while I appreciated many facets of a summer trip to Alaska I greatly prefer the less crowded & colder early spring experiences. The best side depends on which way you’re headed. Going up out of Skagway sit on the left. If you do the Yukon tour that drives you up into Canada (they were doing that again last year- we saw Dall Sheep 🐑 on the mountain at the Yukon border. Close enough to see with the naked eye but fortunately we had our binoculars that put them up close and personal) then sit on the right heading down back to Skagway. Of course be sure to spend some time on the open area at the back of the cars. I also prefer sitting in the last car. Best views out the back! You also get nice views of the rest of the train as it goes over bridges and into tunnels. We were on the train May 5th. We were at Hubbard Glacier May 2 and it snowed on us! I grew up in the snow in NY and while I do not miss living in it I do sometimes miss those snowy silent fluffy flakes days.

@Ken the cruiserthis will be a fantastic journey and I will definitely love following your adventures. I sailed an 11 day RT Vancouver Sapphire itinerary that left April 29th last year. I’ve sailed the early May trips often but last year leaving those few extra days earlier really made a difference. In particular the White Pass Railway out of Skagway was even more stunning than usual. When we went thru the tunnel the waterfall that is usually flowing was frozen solid. It was spectacular…everyone was surprised and oooohing and ahhhhing. We didn’t get pictures as we were just so gobsmacked by how pretty it was and didn’t want to take our eyes off what we were seeing. FWIW we sailed between Vancouver Island and the mainland during the evening last year while still light. It was such beautiful scenery. I just checked my photos and we entered around 4:30 and were at the south end around 8:30. I’ve sailed it at 3 other times and it was always during the daylight hours. At least on my sailings the naturalist always let us know where we’d be when and what to look for. Do you already have the Alaska book Princess sells onboard? The big foldout map inside is worth the price. Have a great time and thanks for taking us along.

That’s great!

Oh and no folio for me either. I last disembarked a princess ship Jan 4th of this year and the folio was in an email before I got to my hotel after the cruise. I had a balance due at the end of this cruise and it has been correctly billed to my card (I always take a screen shot of my folio last night of the cruise). @Cruise RaiderI am sorry you are having to chase down that spectacular prize. We have enough videos and photos to remind corporate of it though lol. They made a huge production about giving that prize! @beg3yrs We saw you at the Marriage show! You two were adorable! I will not tell your secrets. 😇We didn’t stay for the second half so I don’t know if you won or not.

@Cruise Raider my dear friend, thank you for doing this review. As always a beautiful job. I agree with everyone’s comments regarding Captain Tony. He even graciously signed the Stanley Bear I gave the 11 year old in our group who was on her very first cruise and saw her very first eclipse. We also had an 80 year old in our group on his first cruise & first eclipse! Renee was simply as charming and lovely as @Hulagirlsaid. It was lovely to meet @Hulagirl @dreams_of_travel @SharB @Fun4sure @rheathslc and @Thrak I do wish I had been able to meet others as well. The concierge lounge on Discovery was quite nice. They had wonderful food and the adult beverages in the evening were great quality. They even threw @Hulagirl a birthday party with the Mariachi band and a big buffet set up in the adjoining chapel! LOL. Yes it really was just a coincidence that the Mexican themed party in the lounge coincided with your birthday….nice all the same. 🙂 Woz gave a great talk. As the theater was packed we were really happy to find his talk on the TV later. Ivan said he was a very low maintenance passenger and did not want any special treatment. After hearing his talk it became clear that it really never was about money for him. It was always about the excitement of what technology could do and become. He was very transparent about his abilities and the stories he told about how he used them were amusing. As we disembarked Ivan told us that Woz had hacked into their satellite system. The gist of it was something about a game he wanted to watch and whatever he was using to watch it was not working so he just hacked into the satellite to watch it. That fit right in with the mischievous techy boy attitude (which btw is a compliment) I witnessed during his talk. He is just like all of Adam’s friends in the tech industry (he’s been in that industry for 24 years now). Just a down to earth guy who sees himself as very talented nerd. There was definitely a palpable excitement among everyone, crew and passengers alike, leading up to the eclipse. And the shared feelings about the experience afterwards were simply amazing. The only other experience that comes close to this would be the Inaugural sailing on the Majestic following the Pause back on July 25th 2021. @Cruise Raider was with me on that one as well.

Whenever I need a refare like this, my Windstar consultant sends it off to corporate and then I get sent a new set of documents. Same booking number. So there is no need to cancel and rebook.

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.