Ken the cruiser

For those interested in following along on our upcoming 22-day Alaska cruise on the Grand Princess, which we will be leaving for next week, I just started my Live From thread! 😁

It appears the closest we will come to seeing a “pigeon” might be if we are lucky enough to see a Rock Dove. However, it appears there are plenty of other birds flying around up there to keep us entertained! 😂 https://www.alaska.org/expert-advice/birds We will be in an aft-facing VS on this cruise, so our breakfasts will be in Sabatini's. But I have no doubt the service as well as the menu options in both dining areas will be awesome as usual! But if that’s not the case, I’ll let you know. But as with my other blogs, don’t expect any food or drink pictures! 😁

It’s time to start getting super excited about our upcoming cruise to Alaska on the Grand Princess! We have cruised to this part of the world a few times before and are looking forward to visiting this awesome place for the first time with Princess. We have booked some pretty cool wildlife excursions and will be visiting Glacier Bay National Park three times! 8-Day Inside Passage 14-Day Voyage of the Glaciers Date Destination Arrive Depart Date Destination Arrive Depart 4/29 Fly to Vancouver BC 10:30 PM 5/8 Port of Vancouver 7:30 AM 4:00 PM Fairmont Hotel 5/9 Inside Passage 4/30 Port of Vancouver 9:30 AM 4:00 PM 5/10 Ketchikan AK 6:00 AM 2:00 PM 5/1 Johnstone Strait 5/11 Juneau AK 8:00 AM 9:00 PM 5/2 Sitka AK 10:00 AM 6:00 PM 5/12 Skagway AK 7:00 AM 8:30 PM 5/3 Juneau AK 8:00 AM 9:00 PM 5/13 Glacier Bay NP 6:00 AM 3:00 PM 5/4 Skagway AK 7:00 AM 8:30 PM 5/14 College Fjord 6:00 PM 8:30 PM 5/5 Glacier Bay NP 6:00 AM 3:00 PM 5/15 Whittier AK 12:30 AM 8:30 PM 5/6 Ketchikan AK 9:00 AM 6:00 PM 5/16 Hubbard Glacier 3:00 PM 8:00 PM 5/7 Inside Passage 5/17 Glacier Bay NP 9:15 AM 7:30 PM 5/8 Port of Vancouver 7:30 AM 4:00 PM 5/18 Skagway AK 7:00 AM 8:30 PM 5/19 Juneau AK 6:30 AM 4:00 PM 5/20 Ketchikan AK 10:00 AM 6:00 PM 5/21 Inside Passage 5/22 Port of Vancouver 7:30 AM Fairmont Hotel 3:00 PM 5/23 Fly Home 9:15 AM Some of the wildlife we are hoping to see along the way includes migrating Gray and Humpback whales & resident Orcas, various seals & sea lions, a wide variety of birds to include Bald Eagles, and if we’re lucky maybe even a bear or moose, all the while surrounded by awesome scenery everywhere! Reference links: - Grand Princess Current Location - Alaska Current Weather Forecast - Northern Lights 2 Day Forecast - Northern Lights 30-90 Minute Forecast As always, please feel free to follow along and if you have any questions, let me know and we will try to find the answer.

We have always picked up our medallions at the cruise terminal as part of the check-in process and have never had to wait any noticeable extra time because of it. For us it’s just one less thing to worry about when we’re getting ready to go on a cruise.

Have a great time @Host CJSKIDS on your Eastern Caribbean cruise! We’re counting down the days, 9 and a wake-up, before heading to Vancouver to get on the Grand for an Alaskan cruise.

We are in our early 70s too and did a 17-day Princess Canada/New England land-cruise last fall, which included 5 days traveling from Toronto before embarking on the Caribbean Princess in Quebec City, and had an awesome time (see my Live From thread in my below signature). Here are the details of the land portion of your cruise which looks pretty cool! https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=U436&resType=T&tourCode=T4F02D

Just in case someone is running into the below App issues we have been encountering for a while now. We had the same issue last week, only my DW's PCL account as well as her App profile had my email address, and my PCL account and App profile had her address. That was not the case a few weeks ago. Another issue we had was that my DW's "Elite" status would not show up in her App, even though it reflects Elite in her PCL account. App Problems: We first got on the Live Chat on the PCL web page and the Chat POC told us she couldn't help but gave us a phone number to call to get help with the App profile "email address" issues. The new App POC resolved the email address mismatches. However, she was unable to fix the App Loyalty issue. So she created a "ticket" for someone to fix my DW's Loyalty status display on her App, which was magically resolved two days later. PCL Personalizer Problem: Once the email addresses in our App profiles were corrected, the App POC switched us over to someone who could fix our online PCL Personalize email mismatches. To fix that issue, once he corrected the email addresses, the new Web POC had to reregister our accounts with different userids, basically giving each of our online accounts a new login entry. But no worries, all else stayed as it was in our respective accounts. That took all of 2 minutes and all was fixed. Funny thing is once he created those new PCL logins, we could subsequently log onto the App using the new login/password combination. Prior to this, we always had to use the booking number process as the login/password combination never worked. And so far all of the above fixes have remained in place! 🤞

We had the same issue last week, only my DW's PCL account as well as her App profile had my email address, and my PCL account and App profile had her address. That was not the case a few weeks ago. Another issue we had was that my DW's "Elite" status would not show up in her App, even though it reflects Elite in her PCL account. App Problems: We first got on the Live Chat on the PCL web page and the Chat POC told us she couldn't help but gave us a phone number to call to get help with the App profile "email address" issues. The new App POC resolved the email address mismatches. However, she was unable to fix the App Loyalty issue. So she created a "ticket" for someone to fix my DW's Loyalty status display on her App, which was magically resolved two days later. PCL Personalizer Problem: Once the email addresses in our App profiles were corrected, the App POC switched us over to someone who could fix our online PCL Personalize email mismatches. To fix that issue, once he corrected the email addresses, the new Web POC had to reregister our accounts with different userids, basically giving each of our online accounts a new login entry. But no worries, all else stayed as it was in our respective accounts. That took all of 2 minutes and all was fixed. Funny thing is once he created those new PCL logins, we could subsequently log onto the App using the new login/password combination. Prior to this, we always had to use the booking number process as the login/password combination never worked. And so far all of the above fixes have remained in place! 🤞

We're hoping sometime in the June/July timeframe based on this earlier thread.

One thing Princess has over Celebrity is their longer, more unique 3-5 week itineraries. Other than that, we have a great time cruising on either, as long as we can get a real balcony cabin when cruising on Celebrity E-class ships and a Reserve Collection mini-suite when booked with Princess.

I have to admit that even though we have been on 10 Oceania cruises spread across 3 ships, the Riviera, Sirena, and Nautica, our last cruise with them was in 2018 and have no plans on ever cruising with them again for a variety of personal reasons. But then we’ve also determined that we are not small ship cruisers but rather enjoy being on ships with a 1500-3000 passenger capacity. As far as luxury cruise lines go, Crystal is the only line we would even think of booking a cruise with and the itinerary would have to be super awesome to offset what they would be asking for one of their veranda cabins.

I don't know, Oceania isn't all that bad. It's just different. They have a theater show every evening, trivia and professional lectures on sea days, an awesome outdoor dining area up at the Terrace Cafe with pretty tasty food to include a grill where you can get steak and lobster every night, and some pretty unique itineraries.

Understand. For us in our case the longer the cruise between the two 14-hour flights between Dallas and Tokyo the better, especially when there is 10-hour time difference as well triggering some serious jet lag in each direction. But then we’re in our early 70s, so what can I say. 😂

Any aft-facing cabins left? If so, that’s one way you can see on both sides of the ship. 😁

Then there is this pretty awesome 22-day Princess cruise that starts Nov 3 that checks all the boxes, and there’s an aft-facing Vista Suite still available! 😃 https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=M533A

When I log onto my HAL account, this is what's listed under my Profile in the Future Cruise Credits section (minus the Credit ID which I purposely omitted). I'm guessing the $100 entry is the AARP credit, as it expires at the end of the current year, and the $50 entry is the Military credit, as I applied for military status through Sheer ID in Sep 2023, which I guess means it will expire in 4 years. Is anyone else seeing this, or more importantly am I guessing correctly?

Just to get you past the Live From pre-cruise "boring" warm-up stuff, go to Page 4 starting at post #83 in my below thread where we arrived a day early and stayed at a pre-cruise hotel reserved through Princess. The thing about the Diamond Princess, which was built in Japan, is that is has been tweaked to give a more Japanese culture-based experience, to include dual Japanese and English-speaking CDs, Japanese menu selections, a Japanese Bath and Japanese "electronic" toilets in most cabins! Here are some pictures of the 2 Men's Japanese baths. The women have 4. and shower area. As well as a pretty cool covered hot tub area on the back of the ship. BTW if it was us and we were going to book a suite on a Grand class ship, we would book an aft-facing Vista Suite on the Dolphin deck which has a huge fully covered balcony.

We were on the Diamond on a 17-day B2B around Japan in July 2023 and had a great time in a Reserve Collection mini suite which allowed us to eat in the Reserve Dining Room where you will be dining. If you look in my below expanded signature area you’ll see my Live From thread which pretty much covers what we experienced. If you have any specific questions after reviewing it, please let me know.

One advantage booking a cruise with 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula rather than just 2 days like Celebrity and NCL offer is this new 10 kn speed restriction. In 2021, IAATO Operators strengthened the measures by committing to a mandatory 10kn speed restriction for vessels operating in IAATO geofenced time areas, and whale watching and whale avoidance mitigation training by all bridge teams while operating in any areas where whales are routinely seen. This slower speed can definitely reduce the distance a ship can cover in just 2 days. https://iaato.org/iaato-set-to-begin-2023-24-antarctic-season-with-new-and-enhanced-responsible-tourism-measures/

We were on the Xpedition back in 2015 on the Southern Loop itinerary and had a great time, as everything was new to us, plus we were able to upgrade from an OV cabin to the RS for an additional $650 total, which was a once in a lifetime deal! 😁 We just went back to the Galapagos in Dec 2023, but on the Flora this time and were totally wowed by the ship as well as the Inner Loop itinerary (see Live From thread in my expanded signature). However, I will say when we booked the Flora cruise back in Dec 2021, the price was about the same for either an Xpedition Suite or a Sky Suite with Veranda on the Flora on similar Dec 2023 itineraries.

Great article and quite on target IMHO as we were on the Sapphire for 30 days in Jan/Feb and experienced much of what Tim Johnson discussed in his article. 😁

Just for the record when comparing prices back in 2019 with now, we were on the Maasdam on a 30-day Australia Circumnavigation cruise in a veranda cabin that ran $372 pp/day (with no extra booking perks). I just checked and a similar veranda cabin on the Nov 2024 Australia circumnavigation cruise on the Westerdam is $294 pp/day (without HIA). Like I said, one big reason we're looking at HAL again is because their costs have definitely become more competitive.

Thanks everyone! I just figured out that I had to tap on the July itinerary a little harder than I originally was and was then able to order the 4-device Wi-Fi plan at the reduced Elite fare and have it charged to the credit card on file, which was a little cheaper than if each of us had pre-purchased the 1-device plan.

Unfortunately, we have the Plus package booked on our next cruise, which is in a couple of weeks, and I can't seem to figure out how switch to our July cruise in the App. This is what I'm seeing in the App on our upcoming itinerary and don't want to click on the UPGRADE button for fear it may book it again for some reason. But from your experience if I do click on the UPGRADE button once we are able to access our July booking, will we be given the option to pay the 50% Elite charge with a credit card prior to boarding or will it just show up in our shipboard account?

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I couldn't find the answer. If we each pre-book the unlimited Wi-Fi package at the full price, we understand that we will get the 50% Elite discount in the form of OBC once we board the ship. However, if we wait to purchase the unlimited Wi-Fi package until after we board (via the App hopefully), will we only be charged at the 50% rate rather than paying the full price and getting the difference posted as OBC to our account? Is this correct?