Spideysmum

I called our TA when the sip & sail was added to our British isle cruise for next May - however the price had gone up about $200 each from when I first booked. I figured the bev pkg was marginally worth it but my TA got us the sip & sail without base price increase and we kept our chosen cabin. I'd say go for it[emoji7]

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Ummm, why did you do an Alaskan cruise? Were you interested in Inuit art or architecture? (Or was the AK cruise your husband's idea? ;))

 

Of course, I was going to ask if the sea days were unpleasant for you because of high seas ...guess not!

Ok. Now I'm getting a tad annoyed. Why would it matter WHY I chose an Alaskan cruise? I'm not a scenery person. So what? I like whales and orcas. My husband likes all kinds of beers. My brother in law is a noted wildlife photographer who spends weeks in Alaska but neither he nor my sister enjoy Europe the way we do and frankly I've been over exposed to his excellent wildlife photos.

I liked the PORT stops. I even enjoyed the broken down bus incident on our Haine's excursion. I don't like hours on end playing bingo or gambling or going to silly art auctions or playing trivia pursuit I already said the fitness center was excellent but I can't spend ten or twelve hours on a treadmill. Is that enough??

I don't think my post was derogatory towards any part of the journey and I'm glad there are so many who enjoy sea days. Why would it bother anyone that I don't?

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Would you recommend your mini suite? Was the balcony covered? Did you have much rain? We are considering the Coral next Sept for Alaska.thanks

Our mini was on the dolphin deck and not covered We did have some rain - not a lot - but even still it was pretty cold sitting out in the deck. It was nice to have the large glass door to watch out even if we didn't open it too often.

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Stumptowngal - I assume you will be cruising Alaska. Hope you love the beautiful Coral Princess. I may have been bored on sea days but being in such lovely surroundings made it so tolerable. The staff seemed so happy and cheery; the food and drink venues were over the top wonderful and the ports were fun. Have s great time!!

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Working 2 cruise. You are correct. A Mediterranean cruise may fit us. We try to DIY or Rick Steves organized tours most of the time but the Greek islands are a bit hard to do otherwise. We will see after the BI cruise. I've forbid hubby from driving in Scotland again so this cruise will give him the Orkney Islands. And oh yeah. The Hawaii cruise just would drive me crazy

Thrak. I will add that hubby even wore a tie to formal nights. Something he hasn't done since he retired. Not sure about river cruising. Considered it but we usually train it or drive in Europe. Will look into it, however. Thanks. [emoji76]

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I'm sorry you didn't like the sea days. What did you not like about them? We're you bored?

 

 

 

I have told admit that I love sea days... just relaxing, watching the scenery, reading a good book, gambling, watching a movie, there's so much to enjoy! But I understand that cruising isn't for everyone.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy your British Isles cruise!

LOL. Yeah. Bored silly as I don't relax well at all. I would spend two hours in the fitness center and I did finish three books. I don't gamble and it was too cold for MUTS. Husband hates having television going in cabin I'm seriously not into scenery ad nauseum and every glacier by the afternoon of the first day looked like the one before. I'm more of an architectural and art nut. It was fun, however, meeting new people.

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Just returned from our first cruise -Coral Princess northbound from Vancouver. We figured it would be the only way to see Alaska and a one and done for the 49th state.

I've been following comments for months about cruising so will add a few of my own

Ship was immaculate in every area Our mini suite was overseen by a wonderful steward. The fitness center was better than my gym. We had ATD and never had to wait even by showing up seven-ish. Formal nights saw few in tuxedos and long dresses. Maybe because it was Alaska in September, as one of our dinner companions said. Suited me fine as my usual attire is jeans or workout attire. I did try though and so did my husband who wore a sport jacket and said he felt over dressed.

I'm not much of a foodie and usually just happy someone will feed me. The MDR was great and I got to try pheasant and escargot. The buffet had a great salad bar and a lot of selections for lunch. Breakfast was usually also there (hubby not big on pastries at the IC so I only went for elevenish cappuccino and croissant by myself). Sabbatinis was awesome one night - steak and veal and when it morphed into Alfredo's for pizza lunch I was in heaven.

We had the everything beverage cards which were thoroughly used from coffees to sodas to wine. I love coffee anytime and I don't object to the much maligned buffet coffee. The wait staff were very efficient and every staff member seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.

The only downer in our entire cruise came from a fellow passenger who shopped in Skagway and came back to ship to drop his purchases before heading out. I was at the security scanner when he jammed in front of me and pushed his stuff through yelling "I'm going before you because I've got to catch a train". Then he forgot to take his cell phone out of his pocket and jammed back, stepping on my foot and startled me. I said "no" and then he started shouting at me "you don't tell ME no!!" OMG what a jerk.

We took three excursions through Princess - one of them turned out to be an adventure as the rickety old bus broke down on Haine's evening wildlife hike. A few anxious moments but we made it back to the ferry and then back to the ship on time. Didn't really see a lot of wildlife - just a couple of bears and a few Eagles. Whale watch much the same - a couple sightings. It's late in the season.

I really DIDN'T enjoy sea days. That's when the beverage cards got put into play a lot. In fact, if we hadn't signed up for the British Isles cruise next May (another case where there are two ports we'd probably never get to see on our own) I think that sea days would off put us so much that, in spite of our Alaska cruise being so great otherwise, cruising could have indeed been one and done.

But all was mostly great. [emoji7]

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Hpeabody - BP says nothing. Just sail time is 4:30 pm. I was waiting for a personal invitation.

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Thanks JF. Found the elusive Travel Summary. A little ambiguous. Says to arrive either between ten and noon or two pm and three pm. I'm blue status and never cruised. Not even hoping for lunch aboard...but what the heck, getting there elevenish will let us sleep in and maybe the terminal will provide interesting people-watching. [emoji7]

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I've followed cruise critic for enough time to discern that Princess send notices of a suggested board time....which many posters seem to say to ignore. I am a newbie cruiser and a stickler for rules (even suggested rules) So then, here we are in Vancouver - two days before embarkation - and nothing except a check list of things not to forget. I have no idea when we should head over to the terminal.

This is hard for any neurotic rule follower. On the other hand I've decided that I could stay forever in Vancouver. Can't imagine ship life could be more fun than this enchanting city.

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Ok. Texted kid last night and sent her a copy of this thread. She got back to me by saying that as long as she would fly into Dublin she thinks she would rather hang there for a few days and then push on to London anyway. Also said her idea of cruising involved lots of Mexican beaches and tropical drinks.

Why do I even try? So won't embarrass myself by contacting Princess. Thanks all who contributed. It was a nice thought for a bit. [emoji7]

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Wow guys. That's a real education you all just gave. Thanks. Don't think I'll bother contacting Princess after all. Just too complicated. I'll rest on laurels just to get the permissions for us to disembark early. [emoji56]

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Thanks everyone. Agree we won't know for sure until we contact Princess it sounds much more complicated than our getting off early. As mentioned we won't know for sure if she actually would want to try until a bit further down She is planning to spend some time in London afterwards so maybe she'd just skip the cruise altogether. We will see. [emoji2]

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I will contact Princess to inquire but thought I'd ask here first, as this is all up in the air right now. Hubby and I are booked in a balcony cabin for a British isles cruise next May. Our daughter has expressed interest in joining us and we would try to book a mini suite then to accommodate the three of us. The problem is that because of a work commitment she couldn't be at the embarkation in Southampton. It looks as if she could fly to Dublin and join us at that port.

Does that look possible? Of course she would pay full fare. I know that to leave the ship early (as her parents are doing at the last port) there must be permissions in writing from the company. So just wondering if anyone else has done this.

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You might check your particular cruise on the website. I had my BI cruise booked months ago for May 1, 2017 which to me is spring. A few weeks ago I looked at it online and it was advertising the sip&sail. I called my TA and now have it on our cruise personlizer. I'm still amazed

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I've made getting mileage flights an art over the past few years. Yes we both got Alaska airline cards and immediately booked our flights to Vancouver and out of anchorage with miles. We go to Europe every year on miles from our united cards and our chase sapphire cards. Miles collecting has become my post retirement job. Lol

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We are planning exactly that route deviation on our May 2017 BI cruise Our TA said we can't get the letter before full payment but said its done all the time. It's a good plan because it's only 90 minutes to Paris on the train Fingers are crossed that all goes well as I've already booked our apartment beginning the evening of our early departure date. [emoji3]

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You probably would not want to schedule a special dinner if the ship is sailing late evening..[/mQUOTE]

 

 

Uh please forgive my neophyte question....but why not ? LOL I'm intrigued now. [emoji3][emoji3]

 

 

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Lol JimmyVWine -what you described on the Disney cruise is exactly what I pictured (same thing during the race weekends at Disneyland trying to get fast passes for Racers) and that's what I try to stay away from.

JF - thanks that clears up the mystery of who gave us those nice things. [emoji106]🏻

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Thanks everyone. I had read on another thread a question about what people do first thing on a cruise and a lot of answers were to make specialty resto reservations so I pictured a rock concert mentality.

That said we aren't really "foodies" and pizza is pretty much our staple so don't really care where meals are served. However it will be great when and wherever. If I'm assigned a time all the better. Lol

Maybe it is a princess perk as we also get a bottle of wine and paid gratuities. Husband made the booking so long ago and I never really looked at it until I was putting details into Tripit the other day.

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Newbie cruisers here who have just discovered that our TA gave us a night at a specialty restaurant. It's fine, whatever it is but will we have to call for reservations or since its "free" do you think we will just be assigned a time? I hope I hope

I, personally, hate mad rushes and scrums to get in line for reservations and would probably have forgotten all about it if I hadn't seen an old email about it.

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Thank you for your report. We will be doing nearly the same cruise next May (exception no Liverpool ). Glad you had such a wonderful experience. Your Normandy tour sounds outstanding. You saw in a few hours what it took us three days to see ).

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M m m

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I've booked and subsequently prepaid two excursions for the Coral I didn't have to but since it didn't matter one way or another I prepaid after a couple weeks So after reading this thread I decided to book another one. Am offered a prepay option but nothing forcing me. What am I missing here? Are prices likely to go up if I just leave it?

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Ok but the excursions are refundable up to 72 hours in advance, so as a newbie nonstatus passenger who obviously would have no OBC ...there doesn't seem much incentive for me not to prepay. Right?

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