Stealthdog

Its only 1 min, 30 seconds long. It was posted in June - I assume it was also taken in June? I was on the Beyond in December 2022 and they definitely had those shows in Eden (I think there were a total of 3 of them) - I posted them in my live review.

That must be really new. I just saw a youtube clip from June 2023 with an Eden show that included the acrobats, dancers, singers, and other live performers. That "Alice in Wonderland" show they posted was different than ones we saw last year.

This is good news to me - I love Coco Cay - its my favorite Cruise Line Island. I would go on a cruise that does a 3 day, 2 overnight stay at Coco Cay. Celebrity has huge competition if they are rebranding to a younger market - not sure how well they would compete with Virgin (haven't gone on one yet, just heard and its on my list to try). And, local Floridians have a much, much cheaper option for short party cruises with Margarittaville (also on my list). That said, I'm all for Celebrity adding Coco Cay to its list of ports.

The Edge Class entertainment is completely different than the rest of the Celebrity fleet. Its like comparing RCL Oasis Class to Radiance Class entertainment. Celebrity stepped up its game with entertainment with Edge Class. Outside of Edge Class, I am not a very big fan of Celebrity's entertainment. I loved Eden - its something you don't experience on any other cruise line/ship. The Beyond and Symphony of the Seas are my two favorite ships. To me, the Beyond had a much different feel than any other cruise ship I've been on - it felt more like a land-based resort and every once in a while you go outside to be reminded you are on the cruise ship.

The December cruise for me. Holiday cruises tend to have more children on board. Though, I’m not sure how many would be on board for a 15 day cruise regardless, so it’s probably not an issue with either cruise. The December one also has an extra port stop - there are enough Sea Days that I’d prefer the extra port stop. The difference in weather will probably be marginal - it will be great in November and December. The only other consideration would be travel. I’d rather fly to California for the start and end in Florida, since I live here. But, the first cruise leaves the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so that will probably be a really busy travel weekend.

We just sailed our first Princess sailing on Majestic. It’s hard to compare lines based on one or two experiences. That said, to us Celebrity is a generally a higher end line than Princess. Food and entertainment is always subjective. We were very disappointed with the food (MDR and some specialty restaurants) on Princess. The only exception was The Catch, which was fantastic. Princess has a lot more in common with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. Not that there anything wrong with that. The entertainment was standard for a cruise outside of Oasis Class or Edge Class ships. We would sail Princess again depending on itinerary and price - but to us Celebrity is clearly the superior brand.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We are on the Escape in Dec for a back-to-back. If you try any of the specialty dining restaurants, I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts. Hope you and your Mom have a great time!

Eric and I (JC) will be on board. We are actually doing a B2B on the Dec 16 sailing as well. It’s been several years since our last NCL as well:

We just did Kenai, McKinley, and Denali last month. McKinley was the our least favorite lodge of the 3. For us the packing/unpacking wasn’t the issue, the amount of time there was - like you mentioned. You get there late afternoon and have to leave the next morning. There really wasn’t much time to do anything except explore the lodge area. We did get lucky and saw a moose on a trail though! If we do a land tour again, we would avoid any one night stops. Denali was wonderful - we had 2 days there and would have loved an extra day.

Look - you clearly have your thoughts. Good for you. Don’t know why you are making this personal. I stand by recommendations to the OP.

My recommendation was specifically to a Floridian who is accustomed to warm weather, apprehensive of Alaskan weather, and prefers the ship over excursions. I loved my land portion too. But, I'm not telling him to do what I like. I am giving him a recommendation based on what he says he likes and is concerned about.

A little late to this topic, but wanted to chime in. We just got back from a June Northbound sailing on Majestic Princess, followed by a 5 day landtour in Denali. Up front - I would highly recommend anyone who has never gone to Alaska to go. This was our first time there and it was amazing. Depending on your line and itinerary you might never even have to get off the boat, if your sailing sails through the Straights and past the Glaciers and Fjords. I’ll punt on the specific ports because we haven’t been to all of them and the ones we did, this was our first time. As someone who also lives in Florida, we thought we were preparing ourselves by buying a bunch of long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, and hiking pants. Even with all that, we were unprepared for the ~ 40 degrees drop in temperature. I was cold every day on the ship. But, seeing wildlife in their natural environments (gators and turtles aside), and the nature of the Alaskan wilderness was worth it for me. The inconvenience of flying cross country, when you can just drive, or even Uber to a Florida port for a cruise, was also a pain. My recommendation specifically to you is do an Alaskan cruise, but don’t do any landtour add-ons. I probably wouldn’t recommend the specific one you are looking at if you aren’t going to experience the ship sailing into the bays to see the glaciers because it’s too early in the season. Those cruising days were one the bigger highlights on our trip because we could experience Alaska while still being on the ship in a warmer location. The experiences of Alaska your first time is worth the effort. That said, now that I have experienced the awesomeness of my first Alaskan cruise, I’ll pick any Caribbean cruise over a second Alaskan cruise primarily because of convenience and cost of getting to the port, not needing to pay for a hotel before the cruise, and the weather. But, go to Alaska if you haven’t done it yet - you won’t regret it.

We booked through Shore Excursions Group for our Princess sailing last month, and the local vendor they used for Juneau was Coastal Helicopters. They were fantastic.

They will be posted in the fitness center. Here is an example from the Majestic a couple weeks ago.

OMG....who knew? I didn't really provide any reviews of the Pagoda. The soups that came with the lunch special were really good. They do the traditional style tea you see from older Chinese food restaurants, which is nice. The Mongolian beef was really nice.....the General Tso chicken was really weak. It tasted like basic fried chicken dipped in a sauce. I'll have to take a look at the Guy Fieri episodes!

Hope you two have a great time!

I hope you have a great time!

Hahahaha. That was not Eric. He wanted nothing to do with the crevice. 😂

Will we be getting a review in Sept? 😁

I dont think I had meal options when I booked….at least it wasn’t presented as an option. I originally booked direct with Princess in 2021 and then transferred the reservation to my TA with the rebook in 2022. Neither Princess nor my TA offered meals as an optional add-on for the land portion. I just looked at the FAQs on the Princess site and it looks like there are food package add ons for tours. Every lodge asked if we had vouchers when we were sat. Maybe it was an oversight.

Overall, had a great time on the Majestic Princess and with the CruiseTour, and we are happy with our choice. In my mind, there is no such thing as a bad cruise. The ship is a really nice looking ship. The floor plan is laid out well and it’s easy to get around the ship (with the exception of the weird placement of the Allegro Dining Room on Deck 6). Having 3 areas of elevators is great for people with mobility issues and allows them to get around the ship easier. A lot of the cruise lines appear to be going to 2 areas of elevators vs 3. The 7 day sailing felt like a port-intensive cruise because 2 of the sea days were port-like with the scenic sailing. So it felt like we were always doing something, and not as relaxing as I thought it would be. If given the choice, even knowing that, I’d still pick the same itinerary. We are happy with doing the landtour part our first time to Alaska. If we sail Alaska again, we will skip the landtour and plan our own land portion. The food on board was a little disappointing. But, that is a consistent opinion we have with all the cruise lines post COVID. We don’t like going to MDRs anymore and would prefer to eat all dinners in specialty restaurants because the quality is so much better than MDRs, or buffets. The entertainment was better than expected. I like that Princess is integrating technology and innovation into their shows. They still have to ways to go IMHO and are being outpaced by other lines. It’s probably really challenging with a cold weather cruise because there are no outdoor activities, which limits what the activities staff can do. They were probably my favorite activities staff I have seen. The service on board was great - from waitstaff, bartenders, and room stewards, they were all awesome. And, I thank them for all they did to take care of us. That said, Eric and I would like to thank all of you who joined us on our vacation. Thanks for participating! Our next scheduled cruise is a Back-to-Back on the Norwegian Escape in December out of Port Canaveral. Who knows….maybe we will get on a last minute sailing out of Tampa or Canaveral before then! I wish all of you great sailings. If you have any additional questions don’t hesitate to ask! 😁

The Princess App. I think this was my least favorite of all cruise line apps I have used. I really didn't like it. On embarkation day in Vancouver the app was often glitchy (which was a problem with trying to make dinner reservations or watch the muster drill video). After we set sail I didn't have any additional problems accessing the app. Navigating the app was too time consuming. I want something that I can have immediately and not take minutes to try to find. I particularly didn't like the "reservation" system for activities and how it affects personal schedules. Once activities reach a certain number of people who select it on the app, you can no longer add that activity to your personal schedules, making that aspect of the app useless. Thankfully, Princess still provides the daily events to your stateroom in paper copy, so I didn't have to waste time trying to find activities and events on the app. Princess should hire a couple of 7 year olds to do app testing and completely revamp it to make it much simpler.

Internet on the Ship. No complaints at all. It seems like all the cruise lines are getting much better with internet at sea. The wifi is included in PrincessPlus (we had a free upgrade to Premier). One device each was all we needed. Often, I'll bring my laptop on board a cruise ship, but with a pre-cruise stay in Vancouver, the cruise, and the cruisetour, I didn't want to bring my laptop everywhere, so left it home this trip. When I bring my laptop, I'll log onto a server of a MMORPG (online game) to check for lag or disruptions in connection. For personal, general use (checking email, web browsing, texting, and video chatting), we had no problem with the wifi and it was always operational. For people doing work while on the ship, sending large files, or streaming content, I'm not sure if it will be same experience. Internet on the lodges. - All of the lodges have wifi in the main lodge. Sometimes that wifi extended to your building/room (probably depending on how far you were from the main lodge). At both Kenai and Denali, we were able to maintain the lodge wifi from our rooms. At McKinley, we weren't at our original room, but were after we were moved into the main lodge. And at Fairbanks, you are in the same building and the wifi extends throughout. - Without wifi, you would still be ok at the Denali lodge and Fairbanks. We switched wifi on and off and didn't notice any difference in speed. At Kenai, the internet speed was a little slower without the wifi. At McKinley, we couldn't access any internet service from most of the lodge areas, so without wifi, you will have internet challenges there. Internet in Alaska. None of the buses or rails we used (both excursions from the ship and cruisetour) had available wifi. The areas between towns, you probably won't have access to any internet or phone service. So, look to download movies, shows, games, or whatever you want before leaving a lodge for your bus/train rides.

The Medallion. I am really split on my feelings about the medallion. I like the concept of the medallion being your room key because I've left my card key in my room and locked myself out so many times, that having a lanyard with the medallion is great for me. I also love how its customizable. Its fun. If I was a market researcher, I would love the medallion, all the information it provides, and how that could really help optimize renovations and changes to the ship based on GPS tracking usage of various areas of the ship. Its also great for room stewards, because they will know when you are not in your room and can clean. I can also see how it is great for people in the security area with the information the medallion can provide. I don't know how I personally feel about a business GPS tagging me and knowing where I am, and what I am doing, at all times. The first time I saw my face on the screen the bartenders use to ring up the drinks when I walked up to the bar, and without me giving them my room number, I was not ready for that. Part of it feels really invasive. One aspect I didn't like with the medallion is when you leave a slot machine, it loads your balance back to your medallion. I prefer the paper slips because it helps me track how much I have spent (I'm not a big gambler) better. I imagine people have forgot they have a balance on their medallion and didn't cash in the last night. I wonder how they get their money in those cases. There are alot of pros and cons to it, and I like the innovation that Princess has with a concept that is so different from every other cruise line. It does feel a little like Big Brother. Will it stop me from sailing with Princess again? No, but its something that I am really torn about.

I'm going to backtrack to the ship portion for a few topics. The Casino. For a ship as large as the Majestic, the casino is really small. Its likely due to the ship being built for the Chinese market, maybe? You could tell which of the slot machines are the favorites because they were always occupied. We didn't play the tables this time, but those also looked to be limited. I think there was only 1 craps table. None of that stopped us though! Eric got a letter from the casino a couple nights before the end of the cruise portion, and it looks like he will be getting some casino offers. Overall, I was up $150, Eric was down $200, so hours of entertainment only cost us $50, so I'll take it! Next to the Casino, there is a large room with a bar (I think it was called Casino VIP lounge, or something like that). This was another place that was empty most of the time and quiet. So if you are looking for a nice place to relax that many people don't use, check out the lounge next to the Casino.