Torfamm

23 hours ago, Kruzkrazy said:

DW and I are elite but haven't cruised since before medallions were introduced, so please forgive my ignorance about this: If I use a Medallion, does that mean I have to keep my smartphone with me at all times? DW and I would rather not have to do that. Thanks. -- KK

The medallion does not require a phone. It can be used exactly the way the old key cards were

In my experience about half of men wear at least a jacket on longer cruises. There should be 2 Chic Nights on any cruise of 7 nights or more

https://www.celebritycruises.com/faqs/onboard-dress-code

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

And as long as they do not enforce their own rules, there will always be passengers who do not comply.

This is true. There are lots of people who will only do what they are told is required if someone makes them do it. 

8 hours ago, MissP22 said:

And what were the approx. percentages of people who complied?

 

If it was anything like our cruise where it was mandatory in the theater and elevators- not many. 

It was certainly the majority that complied.  Masks were required everywhere except in your own cabin or eating or drinking and "Sip and Cover" signs were up in the bars. There are always people who refuse to comply though.

I was on the Grand two weeks ago and masks were required.

1 hour ago, SAKay said:

Are kids allowed to wear shorts to the main Dining Rooms for dinner?  Boys aged 8 and 10.  How about on Formal nights or whatever it's called now ! 

I mean nice shorts and shirt, not athletic looking ones and T-shirts.  

Thanks for the info ! 🙂 

No one can predict if the dress code will be enforced on any given ship on any given night. If eating in the MDR is important to you, I’d suggest having them at least follow the smart casual dress code of long pants and shirts with a collar each evening. Even adult men are not normally asked to wear a jacket and tie on formal nights so I wouldn’t be concerned about that if dressing up is an issue

6 hours ago, Crow9 said:

I would only do this if it were bidding on specific room numbers, but when bidding on a type of room, that room could be anywhere.

In some cases it’s not too difficult to see what the options are - higher level suites, forward facing club class mini and club class mini have all been discussed as identifiable. Otherwise, I’d need to feel that even the worst cabin in a category would be worth it. 

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Hmm... 60 miles.  I see what you mean.  Isn't there another option besides a Princess bus?  Seems odd there would only be one bus going.  Anyway, we have not done Alaska yet, so I forget the distances.

There are private transfers available but booking one on the spur of the moment at 11:00 could be pretty tough. It’s not a straightforward 60 mile trip. Having the one-way tunnel shared by trains and cars makes timing tricky. We had a great experience with Salmonberry Tours this summer, I would definitely recommend considering them if you go.

https://www.alaskatravel.com/transportation/anchorage-whittier/

16 minutes ago, Belle Belle said:

This is our first Princess cruise. We have sailed many times on Royal and are given a specific arrival time. Does Princess do something similar, and if so, when/how will I know what time to arrive? Thank you

You can usually choose your arrival time in the app by selecting Personal Information and Documents then scrolling down to Suggested

1 hour ago, partybarbie said:

I also received an email for my October cruise. We booked with a TA, so I don’t think it makes a difference whether one books directly with Princess or uses a TA. 
 

There doesn’t seem to be any way to pick your cabin. I don’t get why someone would pay for an upgrade to a random cabin that could be anywhere on the ship. I guess if cabin roulette is your thing, then go for it. I don’t see myself ever using this.

I’d have to be convinced that any cabin in that category would be an upgrade. For example, moving from an inside cabin to any suite would probably be a risk most would take at the right price 

7 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I can see changing/adapting if necessary - and wouldn't mind random dining in certain situations I suppose.  But we are on a ship for 25 nights and it's just more convenient and comfortable to be at our same private table with our friends and have the same waiters (assuming they aren't bad and we have not really had a bad team yet and have had many wonderful ones). 

 

I’ve been on 4 cruises since the restart and on all but one it was easy to get the same private table every night if we booked the same time each night. There’s a good chance it will work for you.

I think what’s difficult for modern ships to accommodate is shared tables of strangers who will commit to eating in the MDR at the same time each night. It was much easier in the days before dinner was offered in the buffet, poolside stands or in specialty restaurants leaving empty seats in traditional dining.
 

I’d be curious to know what percentage of today’s passengers eat all of their dinners in the MDR and how that affects the design of new ships.

18 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

 

This seems to be the general consensus.  I am wondering why.  I am wondering if they were tested prior to boarding by Princess?  

Yes, but probably exposed too recently to test positive. Tours involving daily bus and train travel are pretty high risk for exposure.

On 9/3/2022 at 1:26 PM, antsp said:

Simple solution is never never ever tell Princess you have covid......... 

That would also require never allowing them to test you - no cruise tours, no cruises that stop at ports requiring testing, many back to back cruises.  It’s limiting but doable not being tested as a contact of someone who is ill would be unavoidable 

7 hours ago, gunnywife said:

Just talked to friends on the Alaska cruise on the Grand.  It's rainy and cold.  They said the food is good and the crew are wonderful.  Helpful and friendly.  Tomorrow they  will be in Skagway.  So that port is open again.  But no train ride. while there.   So far there aren't shows as we knew them.  And some of the amenities are gone. but those are just little things.  They are enjoying themselves and having a good time.

We got off the Grand Wednesday. The train was running in Skagway. Not sure what shows you knew in the past, but there were production shows and comedy when we were aboard

On 9/2/2022 at 1:59 PM, MissP22 said:

That seems about the same when we cruises in March. Not many people were interested in wearing a mask back then either.

I suppose it's just not the right time for people to cruise if they still have any reservations about catching Covid. 

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have reservations about spending their cruise in quarantine 

10 hours ago, SbbquilterUT said:

We discovered that even with reservations it was still first come with no line for those with reservations, and the first night was a bit of a mess with very crowded lobby.  After that we cancelled all our reservations and went at about 7:15 and always got seated quickly as folks were leaving for the 7:30 show.  

We didn’t have that experience at all. It worked like any restaurant on land - one line to check in then those without reservations have names and stepped aside to wait, those with reservations were seated pretty much right away

2 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Covid isn't going away. Its part of life now, but for the most part, its like a bad flu for some, a minor cold for others. To be honest, I wouldn't be concerned about getting Covid, just wound't want to get sick . 

The problem is that getting COVID can be horribly disruptive to travel plans even if you don’t get sick. I don’t want to be unable to travel or end up in quarantine.  

I would want the deeper balcony for the extra shade on a cruise with weather as hot as the Panama Canal can be.

I can’t say enough good things about Jayleen’s. Our experience was amazing. The personal touch you get with them sets them apart from any other tour. 

19 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

That would be great I tried to get the International as it is straight down from our cabin but did it wrong on the web. When I realized it the private tables were gone except on three nights which I grabbed. Do you know anything about the Savoy on the Sapphire? First time on this ship.

I like Savoy best. It’s always my first choice. I especially like the location near Vines where we usually are right before dinner

5 hours ago, MickeysTown said:

Princess networking (MedallionNet) is configured to disallow access to Apple's email, iMessages, And iCloud.com. 🤢

So if you are cruising with Princess you will not be able to access any of those services until you have access to land services.  

Tested on the Majestic Princess Alaska cruise. 

 

(They do allow access to What’s App and gmail)

They all work perfectly on the Grand Princess 

6 hours ago, Cbtours said:

I’m really interested in your experience re the land tour portion yiu did. Do you mind telling me but more?

 

eg I see on the princess site that there are cruise tours “on your own”, or Denali explorer” or “connoisseur “ fully escorted. Which one did you do etc? Or do they all operate as you describe? (Which I’d be more than happy with). 
mim trying to work out if any direction is best, some land tours are 6 days so two in each place. 
Are the princess lodges comfortable?

Any info and pics would be great.

TIA

 

We booked our land tour with Princess lodges separately from our cruise. It was a 6 night Southbound Explorer starting in Fairbanks and ending in Anchorage. We stayed an extra night on our own in Anchorage for some sightseeing there then booked a private transfer with tour to get from there to board a cruise in Whittier.  I don’t know how the cruise tours work beyond what is on the website

It was the 3TS tour but there are other options. They haven’t released information for upcoming seasons yet but you can ask to be added to a mailing list.  We removed an included activity and the transfers to the airport so I know that it is possible.
 

If you are interested, each lodge does offer excursions just as Princess does in cruise ports and you can see them on Princess.com under excursions for Alaskan destinations. You of course can also plan your own. 
 

We really enjoyed it. Having train tickets and hotels booked as well as just leaving bags outside our door to meet us I. The room at our next lodge was great as it left us free to do as we wanted before we had to get on a train on days we moved from one place to another. Being greeted  on arrival and just handed you room key without having to check in was also a timesaver.

Hope those details help! 

https://www.princesslodges.com/alaska-rail-tours/rail-tours/

https://www.princesslodges.com/alaska-rail-tours/explorer-tours/?tourType=explorer

https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/haines-alaska-excursions/

On 8/21/2022 at 9:59 AM, donaldsc said:

I have been to AK many times and I have never taken a cruise line tour.  I look at the itineraries of the land tours and I feel sorry for the people who take them.  After all they do speak English in AK.  That said it basically depends upon how much hand holding you need and how much effort you are willing to do to set up your trip.  A perceived advantage of the cruise tour is that Princess knows best (they really know what is best for their bottom line) and all I want to appear at the place and time that Princess wants me to be.  Or else you can do a DIY w/o any planning and go into the figure-it-out-as-you-do-it mode.  That said Princess does lots of cruisetours so some people must like them.

 

In my opinion if my only choices were to do a escorted tour or staying home I would pick staying home.  

 

Another thing about doing a cruisetour is that you are stuck on a bus with 40 of your new best friends for the entire length of the tour which to me is a fate worse than death - both the fact that you are stuck on a bus and are in a group of 40 people.  I hate bus tours.  I did a Road Scholar trip to Cuba once since an escorted trip was my only option at the time.  Eating dinner with the same group every night was excruciating.  The first time I wanted to go out to dinner alone with my wife a couple of the group heard us talking about it and unwantedly invited themselves to go with us.  In the end we had to sneak out when we wanted dinner alone.

 

I guess you now know what I think.  

 

DON

I would agree that what you describe sounds awful. The land tour I did with Princess Lodges was nothing like that. Lodging was pre-booked, as well as reserved seats for train travel from place to place in cars with large glass domes that allowed both of us to enjoy the scenery.  We never had any idea if the other train passengers or hotel guests were on our tour, a different tour, or were traveling independently. The only coaches involved were transfers from train stations to hotels. We simply were given a packet at each destination with our room key and itinerary details for that destination.
 

There were no included meals, excursions, or shopping stops. It was probably the best of both worlds. We did what we wanted, ate where and when we wanted, but had a planned itinerary. I did find it convenient to skip the check-in process at each location though.

Those rail tours can be booked independently of a cruise too. It was much different than what you experienced 

7 hours ago, Cruisingrampy said:

Have only ever done celebrity. How do.princess ships.compare? 

They are more alike than different in my opinion. On the positive side Princess has savory food as well as pastries at the International Cafe, their equivalent to Cafe Al Bacio and they offer self service laundry which is fantastic on long trips. They also still have formal nights.
 

The biggest negative for me is that Princess allows smoking in the casino on most itineraries while Celebrity has no indoor smoking at all on any ship, any where. Celebrity also has better food in the MDR

On 8/21/2022 at 2:19 PM, Murray's Pop said:

When did this begin?  Our last Princess cruise was 2019 and I never saw her on any of our previous  cruises.

I first saw her in January, 2022.  I believe bingo is hosted by that character on all Princess ships now. The same actress plays the part of the female pirate who hosts poker games in the casino

https://www.princesscruisesentertainment.com/invitedcall-140-80