Koliver63

1 hour ago, hcat said:

we have enjoyed Raw on 5 for dinner on BEYOND and lunch on ASCENT

It  has a great menu including beef and some nice cocktails. My husb tried a roll on ASCENT  .1st time and loved it.

 

fine cut was excellent..but it is a steakhouse not unique like EDEN

 

Do you know…does Raw on 5 serve any cooked food…like a Japanese stir fry with rice? We purchased the 3 night Specialty Dining Package so we may be eating at all 3 nights 😂 I love exquisite food! But mom loves a good hefty steak so may end up at Fine Cut too! 

We are doing Alaska Inside Passage on Celebrity Edge in June…our first time in Alaska. We have excursions booked through Celebrity in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. Was planning to stay on the ship in Endicott Arm and Victoria. If we don’t do an excursion, will be still have some amazing views of Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier from the ship? Thanks if you can advise! 

27 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

We’ve sailed on Royal class ships numerous times.  We’re just using up a huge amount of FCC. For Enchanted we’ve booked all 7 nights in specialty restaurants.  Four in The Catch, two in Crown Grill and one in Sabatini’s.  Absolutely hate the smoke in the casino, which is why we’re going back to Celebrity.  With the Premier package, we will enjoy our coffees and cocktails.

We tend to book them a lot too. I’m a big fan of specialty dining! If you get a chance to try Chef’s Table or 360X - they are both one of the best meals I have ever had. And I have had some meals in my life, lol. Enjoy! 

Just now, Koliver63 said:

I think you will love Enchanted 🙂. We sailed on her for 2 weeks in the Med last spring…it was perfect. Clean, beautiful ship with awesome, happy staff, very good MDR food (Not to die for excellent but still quite good), amazing production shows (5 Skies and Rock Opera), beautiful classical music in the jazz bar, really fun shows in Princess Live area, fun dance band in the piazza, hubby loved the buffet - food was fresh. The Enclave Thermal Suite, International Cafe, Chef’s Table and 360x Dining Experience were all stand outs for us. I hope you love it as much as we did! 

Don’t forget to try Crown Grille and Sabatini’s…both reasonably priced and a nice, more upscale experience. We have always enjoyed our meals there! 

On 1/3/2024 at 10:12 AM, Lady Arwen said:

 Currently on  Celebrity Ascent.  Wow!  10+ out of 10!  Gorgeous ship, spacious cabin with the absolute best bathroom, great food in all of the MDRs, service is stellar, as usual.  Not even getting off the ship this time.  
 

Princess, unfortunately, can’t hold a candle to the Edge class ships.  We’re sailing on Enchanted this summer to use up huge FCC, but I fear we’ll be disappointed.  However, we’re going with an open mind and the Premier package, so we can drown our sorrows in a few adult beverages.  

 

Happy New Year!

.  

I think you will love Enchanted 🙂. We sailed on her for 2 weeks in the Med last spring…it was perfect. Clean, beautiful ship with awesome, happy staff, very good MDR food (Not to die for excellent but still quite good), amazing production shows (5 Skies and Rock Opera), beautiful classical music in the jazz bar, really fun shows in Princess Live area, fun dance band in the piazza, hubby loved the buffet - food was fresh. The Enclave Thermal Suite, International Cafe, Chef’s Table and 360x Dining Experience were all stand outs for us. I hope you love it as much as we did! 

1 minute ago, Koliver63 said:

I’m so sorry it was such a bad experience. Ugh. I have only been on 3 cruises so I am no expert but all 3 were on Princess. We did the Crown Princess as first cruise to the Med in 2018 and it was really great. Ship was a little older but elegant and we loved everything except the entertainment seemed a bit dull. We did Crown again in 2019 to the Caribbean - exact same suite and absolutely hated it. Food was horrible, ship was dirty and rusted…it didn’t even feel like the same ship. We sailed on Enchanted to the Med Spring 2023 and fell in love with Princess all over again. Newer ship, amazing food, heavenly mail suite spa, Chef’s Table, Incredible production shows and live music… entertainment was amazing…everything was perfect. So I think I learned to only sail on the newer ships with Princess. All that said, I am sailing on Celebrity Edge (first non Princess cruise!) in June in a sunset verandah cabin on deck 8 and am excited to see the differences. 

Correction..heavenly thermal suite spa 🙂

On 1/2/2024 at 1:40 PM, SaltyDoggg said:

I knew of the reputation of Princess cruises was pretty legendary in the cruise world. They are the Love Boat after all. But I didn't know if they could stand up to the stellar track record I had previously sailing with 2 of the leaders in the industry, Disney and Celebrity. Let me cut to the chase... they do not. They're not even in the same stratosphere.

 

I chose Emerald Princess because it was an older ship, which I love and the Itinerary was epic! I watched every Emerald Princess ship walkthrough video, read all the reviews and I was sold that Emerald Princess was a great ship to try. I ca't begin to tell you how disappointed I was.

 

The food overall was awful, even putrid, but the food at the buffet was just horrific. The crew overall were great but everyone really lacked basic training and that rolls over to a bad guest experience. There is also a major communication problem between the crew and the guests. The language barrier is really frustrating to overcome.

 

Buffet. They were serving powdered eggs for breakfast at the buffet. You had to wait 20 minutes at the omelet station just to place your order, then another 15 minutes to get your omelet. And the Omelet was mediocre at best, not worth the wait. By day 2, I resorted to cereal and fruit for breakfast because everything else was just so awful. Same for lunch and dinner at the buffet. Items on the line looked gray and unappetizing. I ended up eating pizza and burgers outside at the Salty Grill and Slice for lunch because oddly, their pizza was phenomenal and that's coming from a NYC pizza snob.

 

The operation on how they managed that burger line at the salty grill was a joke. The idea of hot dogs and burgers are so you can get a bite quickly. It was literally keystone cops behind that line, trying to get food out to guests waiting 20 minutes for one burger with only 3 guests waiting. I would show up exactly when they opened at 11am, first person in line and still wait 20 minutes for a cheese burger because they were cooking everything to order. Not because they weren't trying, because they had no training and no backup. Management was oblivious. It was a joke. Ridiculous. No idea on how to deal with volume on a grill line.

 

Main dining room's food was Tasteless. Presentations were great but the food was just not good. Service was decent and crew were great. I only ate in the main dining room 3 times on a 14 night cruise because I was continually disappointed in the quality of food. I did an up-charge steak one night and it was terrible. You could taste the char on the steak and the vegetable, plus the texture of the steak was like mealy. The kicker??? The mashed potatoes were obviously instant. No butter, no salt. What kind of company does this?

 

Specialty restaurants were better, but bot great. Casual specialty restaurants also were better, but again. Nothing memorable. Thank God I had the Premium package because I could eat at the casual restaurant were were somewhat better but again, they had allot of issues with the quality of the food

 

Does Princess even have a corporate culinary program that ensures consistence across their entire fleet? If they do, they are failing. One ship's mistakes affect how their entire brand is perceived.

 

Entertainment sucked. Steel pan player was trying to play to backing tracks and all you could hear was steel drum with so much treble it was like sticking an ice pick in your ears. This guy was all over the ship too. I was running away from him because it was just not enjoyable. Could not find one band on the ship that played good ole rock and roll. This party band who just joined the ship with us did an 80's night on the pool deck and they were playing air guitar and lyp syncing because they did not know the material. It was pathetic. Even the guys who were mixing the band were embarrassed.

 

The constant upselling. The cruise director is so in love with himself that they have thing they do on the big screen called the wake show. Like a Good Morning America where they are constantly trying to get you to go to the art auctions, the jewelry sales, etc.. It's so in your face and obvious and ruins the chill pool deck vibe Between running from pool deck to pool deck to avoid the steel pan player and having to endure this Wake Show on the other pool deck. It was really annoying.

 

Mechanics. Everything is broken on that ship. Elevators were not working. Auto doors would close on you while you are half way through. Light sensors in the room going off for no reason in the middle of the night. etc. etc. etc.

 

Pool decks. There are 3 of them, each very narrow. It's challenging moving through those areas because all the loungers take up the space needed to walk from one end to another. Why do you need 3 small pool decks? They pack it in so tight, you cant navigate.

The ports were the best part of this cruise. Everything went off without a hitch. The excursions were so great. If it weren't for the ports and excursions, this cruise would be an EPIC fail. It's the only thing that kept me from rating it a 1.

 

In short, I would never sail Princess again. I took a chance and it really disappointed me. This cruise was not cheap either. Traveling as a single, I was paying double occupancy on a 14 night cruise in a balcony cabin. Do the math.

 

Princess does not know who they want to be either. They have this Duffy the bear character that walks around the ship waving to guests. What is that?? You're not Disney and you don't have Mickey Mouse. Plus there are hardly any kids on the ship, by design BTW. What are you doing with this character? Do you really think thats what people are looking for?

 

Also I spent allot of time getting to know some of their Elite guests with 15 or more Princess cruises under their belt. They seem forgiving of the inconsistencies on Princess because of all the rewards they are earning. That's a dangerous place to be for a brand. Princess feels their guests are happy, but they are really just complacent. Most I talked to are so brand loyal they they would never consider sailing with anyone else. Why should Princess try if their legacy guests don't care? I think Princess knows of the complacency and allows the ball to drop. It's so obvious for me where they are failing.

 

But what they are really doing is alienating the new generation of cruisers. Your legacy guests are gonna be gone someday soon and you will be left at the mercy of pulling in new blood, but i think it will already be too late by that time.

 

I'll be back on Celebrity and Disney if you need me... cheers!

I’m so sorry it was such a bad experience. Ugh. I have only been on 3 cruises so I am no expert but all 3 were on Princess. We did the Crown Princess as first cruise to the Med in 2018 and it was really great. Ship was a little older but elegant and we loved everything except the entertainment seemed a bit dull. We did Crown again in 2019 to the Caribbean - exact same suite and absolutely hated it. Food was horrible, ship was dirty and rusted…it didn’t even feel like the same ship. We sailed on Enchanted to the Med Spring 2023 and fell in love with Princess all over again. Newer ship, amazing food, heavenly mail suite spa, Chef’s Table, Incredible production shows and live music… entertainment was amazing…everything was perfect. So I think I learned to only sail on the newer ships with Princess. All that said, I am sailing on Celebrity Edge (first non Princess cruise!) in June in a sunset verandah cabin on deck 8 and am excited to see the differences. 

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Where to start (sigh).  To book the Sanctuary you need to head directly (as soon as you board) to the Sanctuary and just hope that those who have boarded before you (and those on the previous cruise) have not already booked all the available slots.  The Sea days are the most popular not to mention that some folks will book for the entire voyage.  The reality is that if you do not have some kind of priority embarkation, it is likely you will not get your slots...but good things sometimes happen.

 

As to the dining with the captain, this just does not often happen on mass market lines (like Princess) anymore.  The captain may opt to dine with some VIPs, but this will generally be done in a private dining area.  If you truly want to dine with a Captain, you can generally do this on some small ship upscale lines such as Seabourn, where the crew still interacts with passengers on a routine basis.

 

But when it comes to dining with Captains (which we have done quite a few times) I cannot post without relating this old cruise line tale.  Many decades ago, a Lady was invited to dine with the captain on the old Queen Mary!  Her reaction was, "Sir, I do not dine with the hired help!"  DW and I have had numerous opportunities because we have been cruising for over 50 years and times used to be different.  In fact, at one time Celebrity guaranteed that those with "Elite" status would get an invite to dine with a "Senior Officer" at least once per cruise.  This is no longer done.  These days, most Senior Officers on mass market ships prefer to avoid many passengers (the theory is that they got tired of hearing all the complaints).  

 

When we recently cruised on Seabourn and got invited to dine with the captain (a charming Greek gentleman) we were surprised that it was a dinner in their Thomas Keller Grill at a table of 6.  There was only one other couple (from Whales), us, and the captain.  He told us he actually enjoyed dining with passengers since it can get boring dining with the same few senior staff every day.  He also explained that Seabourn "encouraged" all their senior staff to dine with passengers at least twice a week (several we met did it more often).  But this is truly the exception in an industry where the sheer numbers of passengers and increased workload on senior staff have made interaction much more difficult.  

 

Hank

Thank you so much for sharing your story! We do have priority embarkation with club class so we should be able to get onboard quickly and RUN to the Sanctuary and hope there are available loungers. There will be cruisers on board from the week before we get on so hoping we can get lucky!  I mistakenly called the Chef’s Table the “Captain’s Table” so I apologize for the confusion. But I at least got to read your Captain story!! 

39 minutes ago, memoak said:

What the heck is the captains table ?  The captain does not eat in the MDR

I called it by the wrong name…it is the Chef’s Table experience…not the Captain’s Table. Thanks. 

56 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

360 is invite only at this time (we were contacted prior to our cruise). May be something you can book in the future. 

Thank you so much for the info! 

Oh ok! yes…it’s the Chef’s Table! Thank you so much for the clarification! We are so new to cruising…I’m not even clear on what it is called, lol. Thank you! 

Hello friends who have cruised on the Enchanted Princess! ! I apologize if this has been asked/answered before…we would like to book 2 full day loungers for the 3 sea days on the Enchanted 4/22-5/6 sailing to Italy, Turkey and Greek Isles. We would also like to reserve a seating for 2 at the Captain’s table for one night during our 14 day cruise.  I am also intrigued by the new 360 Dining Experience as well!  I think I understand that these experiences need to be booked once you are onboard? We have priority embarkation with our Club Class Mini Suite booking if that helps. Guide us as to the best way to secure these reservations. 

We are fairly new to cruising as we have only done 2 prior cruises…both with Princess on the Crown in 2018 and 2019 and both were in a Club Class Mini Suite but I am pretty sure we didn’t know what we were doing, lol.  We kinda just showed up and loved it! I’m trying to plan a little ahead for this 3rd cruise! We did have a hard time finding loungers by the pool on sea days on prior cruises and have a ton of OBC for this cruise so thought it might be best to just reserve loungers for the day at The Sanctuary.  I didn’t even know about the Captain’s Table back then but now I know and it sounds amazing! Would love to experience that and also the new 360 Dining Experience that is supposedly brand new to Enchanted! 

Can we just go to the main customer service desk (not sure what it’s called) once we are onboard to book these experiences? Or do we need to go straight to the Sanctuary itself to book the loungers and then perhaps go to the desk to ask to be put on the list for a Captain’s Table waitlist for a  reservation and also the 360 Experience during our cruise? Thanks in advance if you can share any advice!

12 minutes ago, memoak said:

Again put your voyage number into the Princess health tool and you will get the current protocol or they will tell you it is not decided yet

Thanks for the reply! So far - on the Cruise Health Tool - for Enchanted Princess, it only shows 2 voyages which are in  March. So maybe they haven’t decided yet for April or haven’t posted yet? But we will keep checking! 

Hello all! We are on Enchanted Princess for 14 days departing Rome, Italy on 4/22/2023.  We are fully vaccinated and have each had 3 boosters (and might get another booster for the latest variant of Omicron before we leave the US on April 15th - undecided on that). We are going to be in Rome for 6 days (on our own - not through Princess) before the cruise departs. Does anyone know if we will have to have a Covid test before we board in Civitevecchia port? Or do we just self attest on the app at this point? If we do have to have a test, can it be a self test or does a medical facility in Rome have to administer the test? Thanks if anyone can protocol as it stands today. I know things can change before we leave in mid April!  

Just now, Koliver63 said:

I wonder…if you aren’t pleased with your steak…could you just tell your server and maybe receive a different cut? Do they let you do that if you are underwhelmed by your meal or it is overcoooked? I know you can change your mind in the MDR…not sure how it works at the speciality dining venues? 

Also…we have eaten at CG a few times on Crown Princess in 2018 and 2019. Really enjoyed our meals there! The food was great and the service/pace were lovely. We enjoy high end restaurants with generous portions at home and it was awesome to get to experience that while watching the sun set over the ocean as you cruise by the coast of Italy 🇮🇹 ❤️

I wonder…if you aren’t pleased with your steak…could you just tell your server and maybe receive a different cut? Do they let you do that if you are underwhelmed by your meal or it is overcoooked? I know you can change your mind in the MDR…not sure how it works at the speciality dining venues? 

7 hours ago, mevs904 said:

Hi Koliver63!  I’m so sorry about what happened to you.  We are on your cruise in April and haven’t booked our flights yet, so I really appreciate your taking the time to let others know about your experience.  We are in the process of deciding whether to do EZAir or not.  We used it in 2019 on our Baltic cruise and it worked out very well.

     Are you booking your pre-cruise hotel through Princess?  We were in Rome in October and stayed at the Hotel Smeraldo.  We would happily go back there, but think that since we’re only staying one night before the cruise it might be easier to make arrangements through Princess and use their transfer services.  We’ll definitely be carrying larger suitcases than we did in October so we’re looking to make things a little easier.

     Thanks for starting the Roll Call for our cruise.  I do check in from time to time.

Hi there! I am happy that me sharing my misunderstanding of EZ Air might help you make a good decision regarding flights! Although I have only been on 2 cruises…I used to travel extensively for work so tend to just make my own arrangements. I don’t book tours through Princess…we really love small group tours with 1-3 other couples max so I use private tour companies.  I usually find a hotel for us on my own.  Most hotels or even VRBO’s will make arrangements to take you to the port. I know there is someone else from our sailing staying at Hotel Smeraldo…it looked nice! We are staying at Hotel Barocco over near Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps. They have stated they will arrange transfer for us from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel to the port. How does it work with the Princess hotel? How do you know which hotel they use and how to get transportation to the port? 

Just now, Koliver63 said:

I will definitely just book with adults from now on 🙂

Delta, not adults lol 

2 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

That is my understanding of how early ticketing works. Once you pay and are 'ticketed' it basically becomes non-changable and non-refundable.  Had you not paid to have early ticketing it would have remained flexible.   Now that many airlines have relaxed change fees and cancellation penalties post-Covid  we prefer to book directly with the airlines. 

I will definitely just book with adults from now on 🙂

52 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

 I'd be afraid that I would trip near the top and simply roll all the way down! 😄

So the story gets worse, lol. I had on these cute Grecian style sandals (I’m in Greece….why not??) 😂 the bottoms were very slick. I started down those down steps and got about 1/4 of the way down and realized that my footing wasn’t great and I was slipping in those sandals. At that point, we were too far down the steps to go back and I don’t think I realized that we had another 2 hours of going downhill on a steep incline. I was so afraid of slipping and falling that I wound up taking off my sandals and going barefoot the rest of the way down. There was fresh and dried donkey poo on the steps along with some hay they had strewn about to try and make it easier to step in. I cringed and basically grossed out every step for about 2 hours we until we got to the bottom. I raced to our room and thank god we had a mini suite with a tub because I soaked my feet and scrubbed my feet with every soap I could find for about an hour 😂 it all turned out well in the end and it’s a memory for sure, lol. But we are seriously wearing hiking shoes and taking the tram this time around!

15 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

You will LOVE Santorini!  Probably my most favorite port stop ANYWHERE!  But be prepared for a long line for the tram up the side of the ridge/mountain.

I agee! We did Santorini in 2018 and I think that’s where Greece stole my heart. ❤️ That tram ride going up was insane! Such views! We were lucky enough to get to do a tour with the same guide who provided a tour for Rick Steve’s for his Med Cruise Ports book. It was hands down our favorite tour of that trip. We didn’t want to wait 90 mins to take the tram back down at the end of the day so we walked down the Santorini Steps.  This time, we will be waiting for the tram 😂 

3 hours ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Don't feel too badly. We're about to take our 20th cruise with Princess this month but have only used EZAir once before and it worked out beautifully. We booked very last minute for the upcoming cruise and also bought the flexible fare tickets and paid almost immediately thinking that we should do that so that we would be booked with the airline and then be able to upgrade. Sure, we made a mistake as others have pointed out that EZAir buys bulk flights. What did we know ~ didn't give it a minutes thought and now we know we can't try to pay for the "normal" upgrade. BTW, tickets were NOT cheap as they were purchased about 3 months prior to the cruise. For us, it's just a matter of upgraded seats (for a 17 hour flight would be lovely...) on the same day and am sorry for your experience. Enjoy your trip and don't look back. We've all made our own travel mistakes but how you handle/face it makes all the difference.

Thank you so much for your post. I’m going to just look forward, chalk it up to a lesson learned and just enjoy the cruise. We will have 3 days in Rome and then an unbelievable 14 day cruise to Italy, Turkey and Greece. I’m just going to focus on that and be thrilled and thankful that we get to do the trip. We are truly one of the blessed in this world to even be able to go on a trip like this. ❤️ I won’t sweat the 3 days that might have been! 

35 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

What a shame.  These are deeply discounted fares and the rules are different than the general main cabin fares.

Did you ask Delta if you could change?  They should tell you that you must go back to the TA/EZAir for any changes.

 

If you booked with DL, the fare would have been a lot higher. Then, if you wanted to change the outbound date, they would have to reprice the whole ticket.  Yes, you could change it, but it would be plus the difference in fare.

 

 

 

 

I checked the flights if I booked today with delta directly…it would be $200 cheaper than what I paid for EZ Air tickets last year 😔 same flights…non stop flights there and back. But I’m going to call Dekta to see if they’ll change us but I think they will just tell me to contact Princess and I already know what they will say. I think I’m just chalking this up to a really big lesson learned. 😕 and trysting the universe that for some reason…I’m just not supposed to travel the earlier day or maybe there is a reason I’m supposed to be home those extra 3 days. 🤷‍♀️

Just wanted to share a recent experience with Princess EZ Air in case it helps others and also check to see if any of you have run into this before and maybe have some advice as to how I might rectify the situation?
 

I’ll start with the fact that we are novice cruisers who have only been on 2  cruises… both on Crown Princess. We did the Med in 2018 (used EZ Air) and the Southern Caribbean (booked directly with airline using points) in 2019. Haven’t traveled since then due to Covid. 

We are cruising the Med again this Spring on Enchanted. I booked airline tickets through EZ Air in June 2022 and got great prices.  I purchased flexible fare and they were more costly than the “restricted fares” just in case we wanted to change our flights as we got closer to the trip. But in September 2022 - in trying to do the right thing and just get some of the trip paid for so it isn’t such a big cost all at once right before the trip - I did early ticketing for the flights and went ahead and paid for them. Doing this changed my tickets to restricted and non-refundable! 

The Princess representative said “it’s in the fine print of the terms and agreement from when you paid for the flights”. 

Sure enough…we now have an opportunity to fly on Saturday 4/15 instead of the Tuesday 4/18 flight we originally booked which would give us 3 extra days in Rome pre cruise (for a total of 6 days to see Rome before embarkation on 4/22). Basically, I am being told I can’t change the flights without a change fee because I have already paid for them.

Changing to a Saturday flight at this point would cost $550 per person just to change the one flight. I advised the supervisor that I felt like I was being penalized just because I did the responsible adult thing and actually paid for my flights instead of waiting until the last minute to pay. So basically - if I had reserved through EZ Air but hadn’t paid for them yet, I could change the tickets as often as I wanted. Once you pay for the tickets - you are stuck with them. 

The odd thing though…Princess told me yesterday that THEY get charged a $550 per person change fee so they have to in turn charge me. But the Delta website says that you can change your flight for no cost if you are in the Main cabin or higher.
 

I feel like it would take me months and months to get Princess and Delta on the same page on this one. Ugh. 

We obviously aren’t going to pay an extra $1100 just to change our flights but if you are new to cruising with Princess, please just know this about using EZ Air for your plane tickets. Don’t pay for your plane tickets until 45 days before your trip just in case your travel dates change!  If I had booked directly with Delta, I could easily change my flights no problem. 

While I love Princess and still feel extraordinarily lucky to be going on this trip, I have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth regarding their unwillingness to work with me and just let us reschedule the outbound flight to an earlier day with the same airline. 😕 So it’s a very costly lesson for me to learn about using EZ Air - costly in that we won’t get to enjoy 3 extra days in Rome. 😢 

Wonder what everyone’s experience has been with early ticketing with EZ Air and if anyone has helpful advice? 
 

Thanks! 

We did Spain, France, Italy, Greek Isles and Montenegro at the last 2 weeks of April in 2018 and the weather was spectacular!  Brilliant sunshine with highs in the 70’s in ports with a light breeze every day and refreshing lows in the 60’s on the ship at night. Heaven! We are going to Italy, Turkey and Greece April 18 - May 6 in 2023 and chose this same season because of the crowd size (low) and beautiful weather. We love traipsing around old towns and ancient ruins and I can’t imagine doing that in the blazing heat of August. June, July and August are the hottest, busiest and most expensive months in the Mediterranean months and many Europeans will take the entire month of August off for their holiday so restaurants and attractions might be closed or limited. Have never been to Alaska - it’s on my bucket list but when I do - it will be on Princess and during a time when kids are in school. And I will add some sort of land tour to Denali or somewhere like that in order to have that whole “lodge” experience 🙂 good luck on your decision…it sounds like you are in for a lovely vacation either way