loriva

Thanks to all sailing on the Regal for providing updated information to those of us waiting to board.

CC.com now says Princess hosts a Meet & Mingle for all cruises.  Here's the language:  "Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle parties will be held on all Princess Cruises sailings. Please check the daily activities program, called Princess Patters, for notification regarding the day, location and time of the event. Should you wish to pre-arrange the Meet & Mingle for your sailing, please contact Princess Cruises Customer Service at 1-800-PRINCESS. Please make sure your efforts are coordinated so that only ONE person contacts Princess Cruises."

Can anyone confirm Princess is doing this?  When was your M&M arranged?  I called Princess to see if a date, time, and location for our Western Caribbean sailing in early December had been set but the customer service rep said they did not have that info.  We'd just have to find it on board.

Many thanks,

Thanks for your posting and photos, Lynzchat.  We'll be on the Regal for the first time next month and hope to do the Winemaker's dinner.

Gracie115,

For the Regal, the DR that should be open for lunch on embarcation day is the Concerto Dining Room, Fiesta deck 6. ClubClass entrance is on port side.

Enjoy,

The product made from concentrate should be called covfefe. It is not coffee.

 

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Thanks so much for clearing up TWO mysteries! :evilsmile:

Take care,

Yep, bridge cam feed even says Endicott Arm due to ice accumulation. Sure looks pretty, however! Looking forward to it being my turn on the Grand next.

Two_UW_Badgers--the Grand does not offer that excursion. You can book a small boat excursion from Juneau to Tracy Arm reportedly--the smaller ships have made it into the fjord this year. (BTW, I'm a UW-L Eagle from way long ago.)

Take care,

Hi carqueen44 -- They are in Skagway today so should be going to Tracy Arm (or Endicott Arm if they can't get in) tomorrow. See you on Wednesday!

To complete the information on this, the second shuttle provider--Juneau Tours aka the "white bus"--responded to my query later in the day. They do have an option to purchase on the spot by paying the driver $20. A little more expensive than the "blue bus," but you do not have to plan ahead to buy a ticket.

It still would be helpful to others if anyone has any actual, recent experience with purchasing a one-way way. Please post if you have.

Many thanks,

So, I did as mapleleaves suggested and received a very speedy response in return to my note from M&M tours (the operator of the "Blue Bus"):

M&M Tours of Juneau replied to your message:

Good morning Lori,A one-way ticket would have to be purchased through me at 907-500-5186. Our website can't tell that it's one way. The rate for a one-way ticket is $15.75 which includes tax. Thanks,Tammy

Still debating if it would be better (more time-efficient and cheaper) to take a taxi as there will be two of us. There will be five ships (more than 10,000 pax) in Juneau that day, however, so may do the one-way just to ensure we have it in hand.

Many thanks,

Does anyone have any recent experience with this, please? It is possible to just buy a one-way fare back from the glacier to the cruise port area on either the blue or white shuttle buses? (We booked a drop-off at the glacier from Adventures in Alaska after our whale-watching tour.) Or should we plan on needing to call for a taxi?

Many thanks for your help,

Thanks again, Party Barbie!

I am just home from the 5/8-5/18/17, sailing on the Grand Princess. On our last night, we had dinner at Sabatini's. I asked about the new menu, and our waiter said that it was to be rolled out on the May 18th sailing. We did get to try one of the new pasta dishes. It was a ravioli stuffed with ground lamb. The lamb was very mild, but delicious. The pasta wrapper was similar to a won ton wrapper and made of a spinach flour. The sauce was a delicate blend of Parmesan cheese and mint. It was quite possibly the best ravioli that either of us had ever eaten. My husband said that he was ready to send his lobster back for more ravioli.

 

We will both miss the old menu, but if the new dishes are as good as the one we tried, I think it will be okay. We will be back on the Grand in October, so we are looking forward to going back then.

Thanks, partybarbie, for your update on this. We'll be on the Grand on the sailing departing on 07 June and looking forward to it. I'd really welcome your comments on the menus overall on your sailing--which ones were hits or misses--to help us plan which nights we should plan on dining outside of the MDR. Will you be doing a full review? Since you were the first Alaska sailing of the season on the Grand, inquiring minds want to know!

Many thanks,

Hi h20skibum,

Thanks for your posts and lovely photos. We will be on the Grand for the first time in three weeks for the Alaska cruise. Two questions for you if you happen to know:

--Did any of the ship's officers say if they were staying on for the Alaska season or changing out? The CD or chef or Maitre d' in particular.

--I did not see lunch in one of the dining rooms listed in the embarkation Patter you posted. There have been several posts on the Princess board that this option is going away. Do you know if there was lunch in the MDR--should have been Da Vinci, I believe.

Glad you had a good trip and thanks again for the information!

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kennicott--thanks for the very helpful information on salmon season in Alaska! :)

We did it May last year on Island Princess. We had fluke weather the first sea day, it was incredible 75 degrees, and thought why not hit the sanctuary. It was us and 2 other couples. Quite surreal drinking tea and eating cakes, whilst sunbathing and whale watching.

 

On the Glacier Bay day, they were doing a special Glacier day. You had to sign up in advance $60 i believe. Well worth it, we started off with rain, but me being me decided to go there anyway at 8am (get my moneys worth) - they werent going to open it due to the weather, but soon came around as others started to pile in. As is the sanctuary you get that little bit of extra service, breakfast sandwqiches brought round, hot chocolate, coffee etc. Champagne and cakes in the morning, tea in the afternoon.

 

We also had the nature specialists back there with us, so easy access to talk to them which was interesting.

 

The main reason i was so keen to go to the Sanctuary, is its positioning on the Island Princess - its aft, and gives you great visibility in most directions. The ship will turn whilst in front of the glacier and you get plenty of time wherever you are, but at the stern you get even more time.

 

Fot those who did find it cold, there were plenty of blankets and headgear that was given out. They also threw in free photos as part of the experience, with you in front of the glacier etc.

Thanks for posting your experience, scrosso. We had the same question about the Sanctuary and Alaska as we will not have a balcony on our Grand Princess cruise in early June. We were wondering, specifically, if they would open it for the scenic cruising day on Tracy Arm. That is scheduled for 0500-1000 hours. Anyone have any idea if the Sanctuary would open early for this?

Even if no one has experience and knows the answer to this question, we now know from scrosso's experience that, at least on one Princess ship, they have offered a special scenic cruising opportunity. So we'll pay a visit to the Sanctuary on the Grand upon boarding and ask. Thanks as always to CC.com members for sharing great information!

We used both the Lotus Pool and its two hot tubs several times on a Western Caribbean cruise on CB over New Year's this year. The pool was cool--it probably was heated, but not much. The location is sheltered--down a level from the Sanctuary and Sun deck--so it does not receive a lot of direct sunlight to warm it. The hot tubs were nice and warm, however. They are right next to the pool, so some people would hop over the tub/pool wall to cool off after the tub. We did not use any of the other pools on board, so cannot provide a comparison of the temperatures.

Did anyone who has sailed on the Grand since its dry dock notice any changes or talk to any of the crew about the work completed? Would love to hear your experiences.

Many thanks,

Also just off CB on Friday. I asked an officer (sorry, I failed to notice his exact position) about the upcoming dry dock. He said they would have a complete swap out of soft furnishings throughout the ship plus updates to the engines and electronics (ship built in 2004). No major structural changes (i.e., Skywalkers is not being removed for more cabins--I asked specifically about that.)

Agree with other posters that CB needs some new furnishings. But also agree with the observation that crew were working all over the ship--cleaning, scraping, painting, and putting new varnish on wood railings. Except for some windows that never had the salt spray washed off of them, the crew seemed not to be slacking off in anyway in advance of the dry dock in a few months.

The other consistent problem did seem to be with the plumbing system. On both days I was in the spa/gym, both of the toilets in the ladies' locker room were out of order. My husband said one in the men's locker room was also out. Crew was working on them and one was fixed in the ladies' room.

Thank you, NJ Fred, for posting this information and also all the condolences to the victims and testament to the goodness of the much-greater majority of people who responded to this tragedy.

We debarked CB yesterday morning and spent four hours in American's terminal until our flight. We started boarding at 1250 hours, just before the shooting incident. We were still boarding when passengers started receiving the news on their phones. The lead flight attendant was also aware of the incident as was the captain, but no general announcement was made on the aircraft. We finished boarding and took off about 1330 hours. The flight attendant later told a passenger near us that ours was the last flight allowed to depart before they closed FLL. I would have thought there would have been some sort of official acknowledgement by the captain, but perhaps that is against American's policy--or they assume everyone on board already knows given the aircraft all have WiFi.

I'm so sorry to hear about the five lives lost and the others injured in this incident. I'm heartened, however, like NJ Fred to hear about the competence and thoughtfulness of the Broward County authorities, FLL, and all those associated with the cruise industry in Port Everglades. We will never be able to prevent all of the bad, but as long as most are committed to the good the human spirit will prevail.

Hi WillyBear,

The schedule on the Port Everglades website shows the CB departing this Friday, 30 Dec, out of Terminal 21. The larger ship, the Royal Princess, gets precedence over us and departs out of the main Princess terminal, 2.

We have a roll call going if you want to pop over. We have an informal sailaway party planned for the Outrigger on the Lido deck.

Happy sailing,

We will be on the NYE's edition of this cruise on the CB. We'd love to hear your concluding thoughts on the cruise as well as how you discovered the wines.

The review is packed full of great information, lovely photos, and fantastic humor and insight. Yes, we will never look at Princess signage in the same way...

Take care,

Does anyone know if any other ships have been upgraded in the past year with this VOD system? I tried searching on the Princess website, but could not find any information. We are sailing on CB in December and curious if it has it or will have it then.

Many thanks,

A question on this thread--this time from a real dance newbie.

I'm going to try to get DH to take some social dance lessons with me over the next three months before we sail. We are both complete beginners. So, I would like to focus on one or two dances that would be the most useful and, ideally, the simplest to learn. One slow style and one fast. From reading this and other threads it appears we would usefully focus on the waltz and social foxtrot (called rhythmic foxtrot here in the UK). Does this sound correct? Welcome confirmation or other suggestions.

Two protocol questions:

--We either get good enough to keep up to pace with the "line of dance" around the perimeter of the floor or head to the center of the floor--correct?

--If I fail to convince DH to attend anything beyond the first lesson, I may dance with one of the hosts--but DH is supposed to ask him to dance with me, yes?

Many thanks,

Anyone have an update on this?

Many thanks,

fancyclanc:

There is a waiting list and cancellations do happen. We just received one for a sailing in May. Send an e-mail to kennels@cunard.com or call them and hope for the best.