lstone19

Included, not free. You paid for it in your cruise fare.

If you’re a U.S. citizen, it’s taxable. Whether Princess has to report it is a separate matter. We were in Canadian waters at the time either still being in or just passed through the Hecate Strait. Another cruise line’s website seems to say it’s only reported to the IRS when near (for some definition of near) the US.

2nd night. This itinerary lends itself to the classic second and next to last nights formal schedule.

She didn't ask but it sounded like it would be a check from Princess later. Which if it were me might well have had me ask for cash. Oh to have to make that choice. She talked about merely transiting San Francisco so I assume she's from another country. But she will need to legally enter the U.S. and declare it and then enter her country and probably declare it again.

Speaking of which, I heard the casino manager offer her a choice of check or cash (or a mix) and she opted for all cash. I was near her and immediately told her to make damn sure she declares the cash to US CBP. Trying to bring more than $10,000 cash into the U.S. without declaring it is major violation and can get the cash confiscated (almost all countries have a limit and to my knowledge, they're all somewhere in the vicinity of USD 10,000 (e.g. Canada CAD 10,000, EU 10,000 Euros)). It's not illegal to bring more the $10,000 in cash, it just need to be declared.

Until 7:00pm (we've been closing it most nights). Personally, I don't think it's as good as it used to be with scaled down choice and some items pre-portioned items in their own dishes. Not that there's any lack of dining options on the ship.

Quite a bit of excitement in the casino very early this morning when a woman playing blackjack with the Lucky Ladies side bet won $25,000 plus a cruise. She had the maximum $25 on the Lucky Ladies side bet, received two Queens of Heart, and then lost to a dealer blackjack to trigger the 1,000 to 1 payout. If you're wondering, things came to a halt at the table. The casino manager needed to be called, then a chip fill since the table didn't have that amount on it (surprise, surprise - they do have larger chips than the $100 black chips that were the largest seen on the floor until then - the $25,000 was paid in $500 chips). Note that Lucky Ladies has a huge house advantage (more than 25%) so it's a good way to donate to the casino. I do not advise anyone make that bet.

A refund of the port charges for Juneau as we did not go to Juneau due to the medical diversion.

Following up on this, last night (8/20) had the production show originally planned for 8/22. The CD said all the entertainers that were to join in Juneau will join in Ketchikan and tonight's show is an entertainer originally scheduled for one of the nights between Juneau and Ketchikan. Beyond that, I don't know other than the final production show is, or at least was originally, scheduled for the final night (8/24).

We had Corinne on a three-night cruise on Royal Princess in April. I found her better than average. That said, I'm finding that since the ED/CD split, CDs tend to be more pure entertainer types since management skills are no longer essential to the position. Unfortunately, it means the ED is less visible and frankly, when I have feedback about the entertainment, I'd rather talk to the ED than the CD.

No difference. All about the same size. Botticelli is at the rear so more susceptible to motion when at sea. Best to think of them as three separate entrances to "the main dining room" as it's the same menu and service style in all. Note that normally, only Da Vinci (deck 6 mid) is open for breakfast and on sea days, lunch and tea.

We are in berth 3 (of 4). Hardly the furthest. Sapphire Princess and Volendam are ahead of us and Majestic Princess behind us. But Seven Seas Explorer is also in town but is anchored in a bay a few miles north of town. For them, it is not walkable to town.

Princess has no ship with Enchantment in the name. Did you mean Enchanted Princess? Or a different cruise line that has a ship with Enchantment in the name (I believe RCCL has such a ship)?

Fun21 is hand shuffled.

The Patter has a movie in the Princess Theater tonight. So no big live show tonight. It's an 8:15 All Aboard tonight.

Making lemonade out of lemons, we’re now enjoying our rare daylight passage of the Clarence Strait and soon Sumner and Chatham Straits. I believe all our previous cruises had had us here after dark northbound and middle of the night southbound.

What of they keys to keeping it in fine shape is doing the constant maintenance a ship requires. And some of that requires that ship go into dry dock so the hull can be inspected below the waterline. Going into dry dock does not mean there is something that needs to be fixed or change. Think of it as like your 90,000 mile maintenance on your car that is needed to keep it going another 90,000 miles.

We're currently on Ruby Princess. The second table game pit (including the craps table) is only open after 8pm. So it's largely wasted space. I only play Craps on the ships as I will not play 6:5 blackjack and to get 3:2, you need to be at the $25 minimum table which is more than I want to risk. Of course, reconfiguring the casino is not something the ship needs to be in dry dock for. Dry dock is for below the waterline work although you can do above the waterline work at the same time. If they really wanted to reconfigure the casino, it could be done on a turnaround day or even overnight while underway (just like a lot of the painting and other stuff happens).

Also, while I agree private details are nobody's business, knowing about it does explain the obvious course changes anyone tracking the ship can see. I posted above that we're now diverting to Ketchikan but I saw the course change four hours ago and wondered why we now going inside Haida Gwaii when our original course had us going outside. I assume the captain and Princess were working out details and the captain said they tried to see if a port swap could be arranged.

I'm also onboard Ruby Princess. It was just announced that we are now diverting to Ketchikan for a second medical evacuation expecting to be there tomorrow morning, then will skip Juneau and pick up our schedule in Skagway on Saturday.

Thanks. Found it. They must have had it blocked or something else on the screen yesterday during embarkation. Changes for Ruby Princess (unable to edit the list right now): Ruby Princess Captain Steven Lewis Restaurant Operations Dir. Giuseppe Gelmini

Currently on Ruby Princess and cannot find where they have the board with the officer pictures on it. Anyone know where it is on Ruby? I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone on board who might know.

I concur with Thrak and that applies to captains as well. While some people take the view that the captain doesn't matter as the captain is there to steer the ship, when a captain is keeping an eye on the entire operation, people below him notice and things are better. I've been on a cruise with a captain whose eyes were never inside the ship and only looked outward at the ocean and service was not all that great. The Hotel GM knew he wasn't being watched by the captain so he wasn't watching his department heads, and so forth and it showed in the service. I don't really care how personable the captain is on the daily announcements or at the CC reception but I do care that the captain is watching the entire ship and not just concerned about navigating the ship. I've been on two cruises with the same person as captain (have not seen his name post-COVID so he must have retired) and both had service issues because the captain and his senior staff wasn't paying attention inside the ship (did the Ultimate Ship's Tour on one of those and he didn't even show up for the bridge reception that concludes the tour leaving a cadet (student) to host it (I believe the captain is who is supposed to host that reception as when I mentioned it to the CC host on another cruise, she was shocked that the captain had skipped a UST bridge reception).

We were on the Regal Princess TA at the end of the Baltic season in 2017. Due to a hurricane, we skipped two ports and arrived in New York a day early. We first went to Manhattan for our added port day, then re-positioned overnight to disembark at the Brooklyn port. And they did have tours for our Manhattan port day including the “walk the Brooklyn Bridge” for a ridiculous $80. But it sounded like fun so I did it … but on my own as having grown up in northern NJ and knowing they NYC subway very well, I knew I could do it for $5.50 (two subway fares) plus the time to walk to/from Times Square.

After our next cruise in August, I intend to send Princess a big thank you for the changes ... ... because it is giving us a good reason to check out other cruise lines rather than remaining loyal to Princess.