harryfat1

Greetings! This is my trip report from our family’s vacation on the Majestic Princess cruise to Alaska from August 6 to 13. I called this posting “trip report” instead of “cruise review” because in my opinion I am not qualified to do a professional review. This is just a summary of what our family experienced during our vacation time – Days of our lives, so to speak. Keep in mind when I say “trip” report and not “cruise” report. Meaning you will be taken along for a ride for the entire trip process, not just the cruise portion. It’s the mailmen version of the vacation report, stopping off at each and many detailed points that may be of no interest to the veteran cruisers. So skip sections that don’t interest you. Background – We are an extended family of 6 on this cruise consisting of my wife, 2 boys, myself and my in-laws. My wife and I are both CPA’s (aka bean counters – we have very boring dinner time conversations) so I will probably have more numbers related discussion than most people care to read. Bias – Everyone has bias on their preferences when it comes to cruises & life in general. The key is to identify the bias and discount the bias versus fact. We like the big ships, the bigger the better. Our best cruise was on the Allure of the Seas – an Oasis class mega ship. You will see that bias in my report. That’s just our preference, but certainly will not be everyone’s preference so discount it anyway you deem necessary. I typically throw in some random pictures in first few introductory posts in what I considered highlights of the trip. Similar to movie trailers that gives you a quick overview of the cruise but not giving you any details. For that, you would need to stick around for awhile to read through my various posts. On the other hand, if you think these pictures sucks, then go ahead and hit return arrow on your browser as the future pictures won’t get any better than these few sets. +++++++++++++++ Dude, who cares about your background? I’m not interested in hiring you for a job. Hurry up and show us your cruise pictures already. Some of us have been stuck working from home the past two years with no future cruises in sight. The only view I have from my bedroom window is my neighbor’s fence as he mows the lawn and uses the blower during my Zoom meetings and I can’t hear a dang thing… +++++++++++++++

Very nice. You made it to Skagway. We were diverted to ISP instead. Enjoy your drink and have a great vacation. Cheers, H

We were in Juneau couple of weeks ago. Just walk down the pier toward Mt. Roberts tramway and there will be many vendor kiosks there. We booked it after getting off the ship just in case the weather is really bad that day, then we could have back up plan. The blue bus kiosk is the guy on the far right that has sign that says "Blue Bus - Every 30 minutes" It runs at the top and bottom of every hour. They will tell you when is the last bus for that day.

Yeah, unlimited 500ml water with drinks package. We were on the Majestic Princess couple weeks ago, they will give 2 per person at a time. Just walk up to any bar with your medallion and they will see your info on their ipad and if you have the package, they will just give them out to you. We stored few extras in the frig in the cabin.

Huh. Thanks for reminding me. I just remembered the Princess congee from 20 years ago. I had to go back to my 2009 Celebrity pictures to look up what I ate back then (also happened to be Alaska cruise) and sure enough, found a congee photo on a breakfast day. The Celebrity version is more standard and we just added a boil egg with it as you can see it's not as elaborate as Princess allows you with their choice of condiments. So while I was back at the photo album section, I found few pictures worth sharing from the "good old days of cruise life". Doubtful if Celebrity still does this nowadays but back then on the one Glacier day, they had an elaborate "seafood lunch" setup in the MDR. Not the best photo quality but digital photography 13 years ago isn't the same as now but we get the idea Dude filleting salmon like it's going out of style: My lunch: Desserts: Back before there was social media, people give you the evil eye when you try to take pictures of food displays. Nowadays, nobody blinks an eye when all the cell phones are out and people updating their Instagram or Facebook pages Besides this special lunch, they also had a "dessert extravaganza" at 11 PM on another night for people to indulge.

Very nice. Yes, congee is the correct answer or others call it rice porridge - maybe not exactly what Goldilocks ate with the 3 bears but similar. Basic Asian breakfast staple - similar to Americans eating Oatmeal. Princess makes it with ginger and chicken. Warms you up in the morning. Great for Alaska excursions to get you going. Maybe won't be as popular in Caribbean in August... We have only seen this previously on Princess cruise 20 years ago and saw it again this time as Princess sails worldwide so they are most accustomed to serve non western food taste. Maybe Ovation of the Seas might have it when they are over in Asia. The worker hand you a bowl and then you add whatever condiments you like. The fish - bonito - flakes deserves its own explanation. It's used on various Asian dishes. It's shaved paper thin such that the heat and steam of the food will make it sway. Very mesmerizing to watch the movement.

In my previous upload, I posted just MDR food. Tonight will be buffet food. For our sailing, Princess still has not brought back self served buffet. Any hot food items will be distributed by the staff. Just point and they will serve. You help yourself on the self served items like pre made juices and desserts but you are not allowed to be at the coffee/water area to pour your own drinks. You just request all your buffet drinks with the servers. Most food is served by workers only Note all the serving utensils are pointed away from the passengers so only the workers can serve you. But self served on premade cups Bonus point if anyone can guess what this is: Desserts are also self served: But you can't go to water station on your own. Can't even grab napkins/utensils on your own. They hand it to you via tongs.

What is the cause of the hesitancy of the husband in not wanting to cruise? The answers others will give you are from cruise lovers so they will just talk about various cruises to take to maximize your trip experience but may not address the issue your husband has against cruises. The bigger ships (Quantum class from RCI) and NCL Encore will only sail round trip from Seattle and have plenty to do while on board. Many first time Alaska cruisers picks the Seattle round trip as it's easier/cheaper to fly into Seattle instead of Anchorage/Vancouver one way cruises. The drawback of round trip Seattle is that you give up on seeing the some of the bigger glaciers being offered on one way trip. Many of the purists on the boards will say to pick itinerary first and then pick the ship but most of them are cruise lovers not having to worry about family member's hesitancy. I suspect in your case, you may want to find the ship/cruise company that will make all 3 of you happy first and then find the Alaska sailings that fits your schedule within that cruise company.

My best guess for the long pants is mosquito protection. We have only been to the Chacchoben ruins in Costa Maya back in December 2016. Had to dig down to archives to retrieve some of these pictures. I know for our excursion, they made a big point on telling everyone to get insect repellent prior to the cruise on the excursion web page. At the gift shop area at the beginning of the tour, you can pay them to spray the insect repellent on you for a fee. So maybe if you have more clothes protection, harder for insects to get to you? Most people from our tour wore shorts as even though it was in December, it was still pretty hot and humid as it's pretty far inland but we brought our own insect repellent. Mostly shorts in our tour group from the ship: Most of the path is pretty flat but there is one step set of stairs to climb: Tip - most people congregate at the beginning wanting to take the picture. Wait until the end of the tour when many of the bus tours have departed and you can have the place to yourself: Before: After:

Went to Costco over the weekend. Saw the holiday displays are up. Y'all ready for the holidays? How many more shopping days until Christmas? HO, HO, HO...

Yeap. We took the online proctored test for $15/pp for our Alaska cruise couple of weeks ago. Speaking of Canada, you also must complete the Arrive Can app on the phone that nobody at check in at the port even looked at...

First of all, welcome to Cruise Critic as I see this is your very first post. Here is the 2023 Alaska port schedule. If you are interested in one way sailings that starts/end in Whittier/Seward, take a look to see a list of ships. https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1250 Princess/HAL/NCL have the largest number of ships that does the one way sailing. The more popular route nowadays are the roundtrip Seattle but they don't go where you want to go. Not sure what you meant by Grand/Sapphire Princess being "safe bet"? Hard to recommend any cruise line/ship as I don't know your preferences. You would need to go to each cruise line's boards to read some reviews to see if what the cruise ship has to offer fits what you like to do. There are tons of YouTube videos out there on every cruise ship going to Alaska so you can get a feel of the ship. Many folks on these Alaska boards will recommend an itinerary that covers at least 2 of the 3 big name glacier places (Hubbard/Glacier Bay/College Fjord) that you might see, depending if you sail north or southward.

But you do realize Princess will want you charge you a penalty of 2X your basic cruise fare in order to for their entire elite Medallion app team to reprogram your sailing info? Like the song Hotel California says, "you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave..."

My older son is also deathly allergic to peanut/tree nuts. We just came back couple weeks ago on the Majestic Princess and like others have said, we booked the same dinner time each night in order to secure the same waiter/table. As you said, it's much easier to just explain to one waiter the various allergies. That's what happened to us as after we told the waiter of the allergy on day 1, for the rest of the cruise, our waiter would check with the kitchen prior to us showing up such that when he provides us the menus, he spells out what items on the menu is off limits to my son. That way you are ahead of the curve in what you plan to order. Oh, yeah, the phone app and online allergy request info - been there, done that. Basically useless I don't think anyone has time to read it. Not one person ever approached us on the allergy even though it was on the app and in theory ties to the medallion that he wore the entire cruise. We submitted the allergy info via the web page and you will receive the following email. Yeah, OK, thanks for replying...

That's because not all the sailings goes to GB. OP was very specific in picking two cruise sailings for comparison that fit their schedule so if they wanted GB, then they would need to look at different ships/sailings. It sounds like OP already decided on HAL and Endicott Arm/Dawes Glacier. Although from various YouTube videos, most ships have not been able to get closed to the Dawes this season. Maybe next season could be different. Someone post this today:

Food is subjective and your preference may be different but in my opinion, you aren't really missing much on the lobster. We had them last week on the Majestic Princess. The sauce they had on the lobsters made it too salty for my liking. Their had offerings on different nights were better but I understand idea of wanting lobster on a cruise.

My best guess is no as on a 7 night cruise, lobster is served on second formal night, which is typically day 6.

You mean they're not like breath mints that I can just pop them in my mouth regularly?🤪 We were traveling as extended family of 6 so I figured having extras in case we run into a major storm. It's good for couple of years to have for future trips.

We bought these online from Amazon - generic Bonine - for our Alaska cruise. I ordered them in case I needed them as I was major league sea sick 20 years ago on another Alaska cruise so I was prepared this time. But the weather was fine. No rain to speak of going from Whittier down to Vancouver with calm seas and having fresh air of balcony helps so I never had to use them. Here is the link in case someone needs them and can't find them at their local pharmacy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XGJZPQ5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Yeah, I get motion sick easily myself on various modes (car/ship/subway). Even watching some poorly filmed YouTube travel videos where the dude moves the cell phone too quickly will give me a buzz headache. We were in cabins Emerald 501/503/505 on the Majestic Princess in Alaska last week - same deck as what you are looking at but more toward mid ship and had smooth sailing the entire week. I would aim for the cabins in the 400 to 500 series on deck 8 to be safe . You won't appreciate any of the extra balcony spaces/amenities when you are feeling sea sick. No one can predict the weather/wave condition of your sailings as you can run into late season storms in April or early storms in October (west coast storm season starts from July to June) and that could cause you problems if you are sensitive to motion sickness.

We were on the Majestic Princess Alaska cruise last week with 3 cabins as extended family of 6 and 2 of which are inside connecting on Emerald deck (501/503/505) on the same BW category you are thinking about. Not sure what your budget is, but having 2 connecting cabins for family of 4 (double/double) makes things go so much faster especially when you are in a hurry in the morning for those Alaska excursions. 4 people sharing bathroom can be challenging. Can't help you on the pics of the pulldown bed as even though we were technically in a triple but we didn't need the 3rd bed. But I think the first picture will show you where the bed is stored when not used - next to the balcony in the rectangular box in the ceiling. So I would guess once that bed is pulled down from the ceiling, your access to the balcony will be compromised and I think that's what the website is trying to warn you. Looking AFT at rest of the obstructed balconies: Here is the deck plan for our cabins: With the icon that says balcony door is blocked: But not all cabins have this restrictions so you might need to check out those other categories. Depending on the weather conditions on your sailing next year and your tolerance for cold, I'm not sure you really want to open the balcony door at night as it might be rainy/cold outside in the 50s. Picture of cabins opening - 501 on the left and 503 on the right. You can request the cabin steward to open the outside partitions if you decide to get 2 cabins to have more space. This is what it looks like with 3 cabins opened: Glacier Bay is a whole day event with park rangers coming onboard and the ship typically spends 9 hours in the area so if you have a choice to go there, that's a definite winner.

Ship: Majestic Princess Class: Royal Class Deck: Emerald (Deck 😎 Stateroom: #E501/503/505 Category: Obstructed Balcony (BW) Port/Starboard/Bow/Stern: Midship Starboard Connects With Cabin: 501 and 503 connects Accessible: No Quiet: Very quiet even though it's near the mid group of elevators. Only heard occasional people talking as they walk by Balcony Size: Typical of BW class cabins View: Obstructed (See various pictures below) Privacy Issues: Nothing bad per se but technically being lowest balcony people above to the side can see you Wind: Nothing special noticeable but we were in Alaska so you would expect cold wind on most side balconies Soot: N/A Problems: None Comments: We booked 3 back to back to back cabins for the Alaska cruise with 2 of the 3 connecting inside. With the outside partitions opened, it provides a long balcony but not very deep as these basic Princess balconies are fairly shallow. We liked the mid ship location as it's just off the middle set of elevators and stairs. Being on deck 8, it's just 1 flight of stairs down to deck 7 where the atrium starts and 2 flights of stairs down to MDR. These obstructed balconies are substantially discounted versus regular balconies on our Alaska sailing. If you don't mind looking beyond the life boats, you can save yourself couple thousands of dollars for a family. Any follow up questions on the cabins can be email to me at my signature info below as this thread does not allow questions. Cabin location on deck 8: Basic cabin pic most have seen many times before: View of obstruction from the inside: Inside connection. Cabin 501 is on the left. 503 is on the right. With Princess, both sides can open the connecting door right away. With other cruise lines, we had to wait for cabin steward to open for us as they are locked at first boarding. The cabin steward also was able to open the outside partitions right after we met him in early afternoon. With other cruise lines, he had to wait for "permissions" from supervisors if they allow openings due to potential winds. Once opened, 3 back to back to back balconies looks like this: View of Skywalk at night from balcony: Looking aft at other obstructed balconies on this deck: Misc. Glacier Pics with lifeboat in foreground:

Instead of reporting on Alaska ports that most people don't care about, let's switch it up to see some Princess cruise food from MDR: Princess Love Boat Dream Heart Shape Dessert. Available Nightly. Everyone gets a personal sized Baked Alaska

Ship wise, they are both Royal class ships so you really don't have that much of a difference in terms of size. You are basically deciding between itinerary of #1 being more of a classic Eastern Caribbean cruise or #2 being Southern Caribbean. If you have the time and the budget allows, I would do #2 as you would be going to "BC" portion of the "ABC" islands. Those can't be reached in a regular 7 day cruise from Fort Lauderdale. #1 seems to be more generic Eastern Caribbean cruise you can take any time of the year (maybe minus 1 port on the list as it'll be 7 days),

I have been to St. Maarten couple times before and I have only heard of the Orient Beach (French side) being clothing optional. Unless something has changed recently since this article was published: https://www.sint-maarten.net/place/beach/nude