Guindalf

Seattle was a complete cluster! It was unorganized with long lines and no consideration for rhse in suites or with higher loyalty status, as with other lines. We loved the Apex, especially the theater. Eden is a step above for a specialty restaurant, but Le Petit Chef pales compared to 360! Agreed. I wouldn't say 'never', but it's not as obvious for sure. The pressure to give wait staff (and even the restaurant manager) a five-star review was extremely pressured on Princess. We never noticed it before we started the suite life. The experience without the Retreat is so good, it's not an issue. Thanks to my company asking me to come back and work for them at a good rate means we can take advantage, but we'll be back to 'regular' cruising once it ends. Surprisingly, the air scrubbing was very good on Discovery. We weren't in there during a busy evening, but unless someone was directly smoking near us, we never even noticed a smell! Of course, Celebrity is non-smoking, so this isn't an issue. Never sailed solo, so it's not something I can comment on. There are lines like NCL that have solo cabins, so they may be worth a look. After this cruise, I would put Princess fourth in my list of cruise lines I've sailed, which would be Celebrity, NCL, RCCL and then Princess, with just about every other line coming above Carnival! Of course, I've never sailed Holland America, MSC, Costa or any of the super-luxe lines except for Oceania.

Another option to consider is Celebrity. It's considered slightly upmarket from the others, but has stellar entertainment (especially on the Edge class ships), non-smoking casinos (which can affect the whole ship) and also offers an 'all-inclusive package, If you book before October 4th, that includes OBC and gratuities. The one down side is that deposits are non-refundable unless you pay a higher rate.

I concur with just about everything above! If you want some color commentary and more detail, read my review in this forum.

You will never have to bear the cost of a ship-bought excursion if the port is cancelled. If you've pre-paid, it will be refunded to your ship-board account and any surplus will be returned to you after the cruise. Again, if the port is changed to a tender and you're unable to attend due to a handicap (I also use a scooter, which can't go on a tender), your payment will be refunded. Both of the above are circumstances beyond your control and can be deemed as the 'fault' of the cruise line. As for your comment 'it seems there have been a lot of this going on this year', no, it's no more than other years. It's just that no-one comes here to post that they went to all the ports they were supposed to!

Like Ken, I;m sorry I have no experience of either. Although I'm diabetic, I don't have a sweet tooth, but I try to consider what I eat, but I'm a little more lax when on vacation! Personally, I've never understood putting a.gym on a cruise ship 😉 Anyway, someone once told me that vegan is native American for bad hunter! 😄

Conclusions and final thoughts: I'm not going to rate each item out of 10 or anything as it's the overall experience that counts. This was our 22nd cruise and first on Princess. It was our fourth in a suite on any line (one being on the NCL Dawn, one each on Celebrity Apex and Solstice). I have to say, and others told us before we sailed, that the suite experience on Princess is a LONG way behind that of Celebrity (our first, on the Dawn, was in 2015, and was not an equal comparison). The Retreat lounge is a real benefit, especially on the Edge class ship. Michael's Club is similar to the Concierge Lounge, but slightly better. On Solstice, we even had an exclusive close-up magic show in the Club one afternoon. We didn't NOT enjoy our time on Discovery, but we didn't rave about it either. To use my theme statement, it was... Good, but not great. Our next cruise is to the Caribbean in February. We are booked on the Norwegian Breakaway in a Courtyard Haven Suite. We'll drive down to New Orleans, so avoiding any airport frustrations. After that, it's likely that we'll return to Celebrity as our line of choice. We're also just become Elite on that line. DW turned 65 on the Saturday before we sailed and I reach that landmark next month. I had retired until a couple years ago and going back into the workplace allowed us to have a small amount of spare cash, hence the suites, but I suspect that before long, we'll return to balcony cruising. In the meantime we'll enjoy the suite life! Would we sail Princess again? Yes, if the itinerary suited us. Would it be our first choice? No, not even our second or third. Would it be in a suite? Absolutely not. What we paid for what we got just wasn't worth it.

So in your opinion, every area should have live music 24/7 - or just silence when the band is asleep?

Never having used a lounge before, I didn't know if there were any reciprocal arrangements.

If it were true, I may agree with you! I've NEVER heard canned music on a Celebrity ship that I can recall. If it's been used, it's very subtle and at 7:00AM on the pool deck or something.

OK, time to finish up... Day Six - Victoria, B.C. (continued). I realized I got sidetracked and didn't say anything about this charming stop, used to include a foreign port to the itinerary to meet legal requirements. However, if you think of this as a throwaway and stay on the ship, you'll miss out! Following leaving Skagway late, due to a medical emergency, we arrived a little late in Victoria. We took a bus tour that didn't require us to meet until 8:50pm, so we were unaffected. We had a charming hour and 15 minutes touring the city and stopping along the way for photo ops and Tim Horton's (Canada's version of Starbuck's, but with drinkable coffee, IMHO). for a drink and some 'Tim Bits' - donut holes to us from south of the border. Fun. Day Seven - Disembarkation, etc. Unlike our embarkation experience, leaving the ship was comparatively easy. We chose to use a service called Port Valet (https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free), which meant that our luggage was picked up on the final night and we didn't see it until we arrived in Atlanta. This meant we we unencumbered and able to comfortably do something in the time between getting off the ship and our flight at 4:10pm. I don't think I'll ever understand the posts that ask 'can I make a 9:00am flight' or whatever. Why stress after a week of de-stressing? Anyway, I digress. Back to leaving the ship. We had breakfast and, without luggage to worry about, we could leave when we were ready. I had pre-booked tickets for MoPop (Museum of Popular Culture) for when it opened at 10:00am, so we set off to get an Uber. The area for ride share pickups couldn't be further from the ship if it tried, so off we set. I wasn't too bad because I had the scooter, but my DW had to walk it. I'm only thankful we didn't have two large suitcases to lug all that way too! The museum was great. We arrived a little early and had enough time to see what we wanted to see. Then we Ubered to the airport in plenty of time. We had access to the Alaska Air lounge, which was a comfortable place to wait, as we still had a couple of hours before our flight. The lounge provided us with food, drink (alcoholic and otherwise) and a relaxing place to watch some football while we waited. We were airborne 50 minutes after our scheduled takeoff time, but we landed about 50 minutes earlier then planned. This put us in Atlanta at 11:0pm instead of midnight. Due to the building work in the airport causing us to have to leave the train one stop earlier, and being led to the wrong terminal to find the right carousel, the frustration level was through the roof! A lost email and an extra $45 later we left our parking garage at around 2:15am and headed home, minus my $400 headphones, which got left on the shuttle bus! We flopped into bed at close to 4:00am, glad we had both planned to take off the next day. I have to give kudos and a huge shout-out to Peachy Parking in Atlanta. We both emailed their customer care and, within two days, the overnighted the found headphones back to us and even issued a credit for the full amount of the parking ($180), not just the extra $45 we had to pay so, recommended, and will most definitely use again! I will separate my conclusions as this is a very long post. Final part to come.

Apart from the wrong name, this post is just plain rude and ignorant! If you (and others) insist. There are plenty of musicians around the ship in the various bars and, of course, in the Atrium. Yep, some good shows. The Edge class ships have huge screens that enhance the production performances. I have yet to be on a ship without a track. I didn't experience any closed MDRs, but that doesnt mean it didn't happen. Agree 100%. MY critique is just that, my opinion. We didn't have a bad time, just not quite as good as expected. Agreed. Discovery in Seattle was chaotic at best! As for space in the shows, we had a pretty full ship but didn't experience any problems finding room for the shows. They did get busy though. I would have to agree. We were on Apex last year and it was the first ship we sailed on 'for the ship, not the itinerary', and we loved it. I Would have to give the edge (pun intended) to Celebrity here, especially in the Edge class ships. We enjoyed most of the entertainment on Princess, though, even if the magician was a little cheesy! The production shows, especially Rock Opera, which was basically a series of rock/pop songs, was well done. We experienced this on both lines equally. The Retreat is there for suite guests as stated. There are still plenty of viewing areas for non-suite guests. You get the option of paying more for business/first class at the airport which gives you use of a lounge. Should this be banned too? Very true and one of the reasons we switched to Celebrity when I quit smoking in 2015! However, I must admit that we passed through the casino many times on Discovery and rarely even smelled smoke, let alone were bothered by it! I put that down to a very efficient cleaning and air purification program! Celebrity's rates have been up and down lately. Many people on the boards have been complaining. I can only think (hope) that they are making them high so they can make offers down the way, but not making excuses. Well, apart from on ignorant reply from someone who obviously was starved of attention as a kid, thanks, all, for the positive replies. I will finish my review soon.

I guess no-one was interested in my review, so I won't bother to finish it. I came to the conclusion that this cruise line was ok, but not great, and I guess the apathy proves it.

We're asked not to reveal anything about the experience as it could ruin it for others. Dietary requirements will be met, though.

Day Five: Extra: We did not leave Skagway at the advertised time. The Captain made an announcement that due to a medical emergency, we were waiting for a helicopter to arrive from Sitka. There were issues and delays and we ended up leaving the dock at around 8:15 pm, over four hours late. The delay put us in Victoria about an hour late at around 7:00 pm Saturday, but our excursion wasn't until 8:50 pm, so it didn't really affect us. Day Six: All At Sea: Once again, the entertainment team did a mostly excellent job of keeping us engaged, although surprisingly, the amount of trivia was reduced from other days! Still, we were kept amused. We're due to be at sea until 6:00 pm on Saturday, when we spend a few hours in Victoria, B.C. This slightly changed, but more later. Our concierge secured us a 100 pm lunch booking for the Crab Shack, which was a pop-up restaurant situated in the Salty Dog Gastropub. For $30, we started with popcorn shrimp and hush puppies, Mains were a choice seafood bucket, focusing on either Snow or Dungeness crab with mussels, shrimp, clams and other ingredients. The best choice, however (which we didn't get but saw others enjoying) was a cold bucket for two containing various seafood items including lobster tails. Best meal of the week, and we had Reserve dining as well as eating in Crown Grill and Sabatini's! This was formal night and the menu included Escargot and Filet Mignon and Lobster. Our 'secret' menu had ribeye, so I was able to order that with the lobster. This steak was head and shoulders above the ribeye served in the Crown Grill on the first night! Day Seven: Final Day and evening in VIctoria, B.C. Our final day included more trivia and the funniest Entertainment Crew performance of the week - Movie Mishaps! If this is on the schedule for your sailing, DO NOT MISS IT! It's a shout-out game show (with no winners or losers or prizes), where the CD and staff act out scenes from popular movies. It's the funniest thing I think I've ever seen on my 23-odd cruises! A note about the entertainment crew. All were engaging and fun, although it seemed that the more a command of the English language was needed, the more we had someone reading the questions with that as a failing! We had people from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Brazil, who were all wonderful, but difficult to understand at times. Shout out for Margaret, who was English (like me!) and great.

There's more to a suite than being 'treated and fed like royalty'! If you're happy sitting around sipping brandy and listening to a 90-year-old pianist, then the ultra-lux lines are for you, but if you want 'mainstream' entertainment, then you need the large line experience. Once you leave your suite, designated restaurant or Concierge Lounge (Retreat on X), there's no difference between you and someone in an inside cabin. You have no greater chance of winning trivia or the belly-flop contest! All I want from a suite is more room and somewhere to escape the noise and crowds.

My handicapped experience with the two cruise lines is just about identical, with Celebrity having the edge, if only for the automatic room door. This has been a feature on the two accessible suites we've had in the past and, although we loved the medallion (once we got used to the 'creepy' factor!), there was no automatic door in our suite this trip. My comments have pretty much all been based on excursions, which are not cruise-line exclusive.

Short answer is no.They don't advertise the pay venues on any ship/line I've sailed on. I guess they hope you'll decide to pay rather than go elsewhere when you get there! Gelato is NOT free, but it is reasonable ($2.00 for one scoop, $3.99 for two and $4.00 for three). There's always a line, so we never tried it. We think we were entitled to two free premium desserts, but the lines never seemed worth it for us.

Should be the same or similar options, but there will be some things missing. You are unlikely to see lobster tail, for example.

We had an air evacuation on the Discovery after leaving Skagway last week. The helo came from Sitka, but there was a delay and it took a few hours! We arrived in Victoria a little late the next day, but the important thing is that the patient was reported to be doing well in the hospital! As for insurance, just about any travel insurance coverage should include emergency evacuation, from Alaska or any foreign port. If it doesn't, you've been robbed.

Day Four: Supplemental - Endecott Arm and Dawes Glacier We entered the Arm at 5:00am and on to a (distant) view of a small-ish glacier. A late-sleeper could easily have missed it all! After our first trip to Glacier Bay in 2009 and the Hubbard Glacier in 2019, not to mention the Misty Fjords earlier in this trip, I have to say this was underwhelming. I'll just leave that there. Day Five: Skagway. We had an early afternoon booking for the train, which is a must-do for anyone visiting for the first time. However, this was our second ride on the White Pass and Yukon Rail Road, the first being back in 2009. The accessible version was sold out, so we booked the regular trip, knowing I could leave the scooter there and walk the few steps into the carriage. However, there was plenty of space and I was easily accommodated. It was a little funny when a group of people decided they were going to take seats in the handicap coach and were quickly hurried out! The communications have (obviously) been upgraded since 2009 and the commentary was excellent - much clearer than the first trip. Last time, we disembarked the train in Carcross and bussed back to the ship. This tour did a loop at the top and came back, so it didn't matter which side you chose to sit on, you were able to see everything. Some of the stories of endurance for very little reward were stunning, not to mention those who perished. There was a shuttle running the 7/10ths of a mile from the ship along the pier due to two landslides. these were provided free of charge and were able to accommodate the scooter. I will have more to say about handicapped cruising and the differences between the two lines at the end of the review. Save to say, one experience outweighs the other by a LONG way, including some minor differences. (Gotcha now 🙂 You have to read to the end!).

We are not big drinkers, even less so wine, so no, we didn't do the Winemakers dinner. In our opinion, it's impossible not to enjoy Alaska. This was our third trip and although it's our third favorite, the region never ceases to amaze!

I agree that some itineraries are unique, and for those, I would choose that first and the ship/line second every time. However, for the cruise in question, the destination was one of the most amazing places on earth (IMHO), and th route was similar in both cases. We happened to have a future cruise deposit credit for Princess following our cancelled cruise from May 2020 (can't think why it was cancelled ;)). Our cruise to Alaska in 2019 was on the Celebrity Eclipse, so happy to try something a little different.

I'm loving everyone's responses to each other as well as to my own posts. Please keep the comments coming. As long as they are open for discussion as they have been, they're great! I don't think there's a disconnect between myself and @Gracie115 though.

Day Four: Juneau: Last time in Juneau, we were on the bus going to the salmon bake when my DW said 'We'll probably never be here again, so let's forfeit the salmon in favor of a float plane flight. Best.Decision.Ever. This trip, we made our minds up to go the salmon bake, so we did. What can be wrong with Alderwood baked salmon and beef ribs - all you can eat! They had a guitarist near the seating area who was pretty good and a creek running from a gorgeous waterfall. The creek was chock-full of sockeye salmon. Unexpectedly, I was able to take the scooter, which made the trip much more enjoyable.