toescat

I love the Grand and have sailed her a few times.  She is a very comfortable ship and am disappointed that I will not be sailing on her on upcoming3. cruise to Alaska. I would sail on her again in a heartbeat!

Yes

On 4/5/2021 at 9:33 AM, jondfk said:

 

I was (Grand / Travis) and I will.  Not only that, I'll cruise on Princess and even Grand again, in January assuming things kick off by then.  

 

It's not that we don't fault Princess for any part of our disaster (we do, there were many mistakes made) but we do so enjoy cruising that we're willing to go again.  

 

We will of course make adjustments like:  I don't thing we'll ever travel again leaving any meds at home, and I think we will for a long time hoard a few provisions immediately upon boarding, we'll also have a plan in place for keeping the house going "what if" - all to a far greater extent than we ever did before.

 

But we will cruise again and in fact are eager to do so.

I have good friends that were on the Diamond and after sixteen days of quarantine their test came back positive and they were shuttled to a hospital in Japan.  They received great care and they are so eager to cruise again.  They have nothing but praise for how Princess and the Diamond handled the situation. They spent 5 weeks in the hospital before flying home.  

I had friends on the Diamond in Japan that was quarantined in the Bay of Japan.  After testing negative for 16 days they both tested positive on the18 day and were put in a boat and sent to a hospital in Japan.  Very Sick and they plan on cruising again.  I would also cruise again!

Yikes, we have come in late in to Los Angeles several times.  One time it was not until 1:00 in the afternoon, two times it was around 8:00am.  You never know what could happen, the 1:00 in the afternoon return was due to a staff member jumping off the ship in the middle of the night.  The ship circled around for hours. If your cruise returns on a weekday, it could take you 2 hours to go 5 miles.  I would definitely try and fly out of Long Beach.  We always book our flight home after 6:00pm or the next day.  

That would be a NO, the speed to just open Google is slow and loading Yahoo is like watching the clock move.  

I have sailed on both ships and love them both!!!!  You cannot go wrong with any ship sailing to Alaska! I sailed on the Grand 3 times to Alaska and she was great with the last sailing after the refurbish in 2019.  My 2020 cruise was scheduled to be on the Star but as we all know those were all canceled.  Both my husband and I are now fully vaccinated and hope we can hop on a ship late fall this year.  I don't care if it just goes around in circles I will still have a good time.

5 hours ago, MamaFej said:

At the risk of having my fellow Californians throw things at me, I’ll report back from lovely, non-currently-on-fire NW Montana. We did venture out from the RV park yesterday to go to the outdoor farmer’s market. Everyone in the uncrowded market wore a mask. We got some fresh garlic and tomatoes for bruschetta. Our son contributed some basil from the plant he bought at the market when he first moved here in early July. It was delicious!
It gets into the mid to high 80s F in the afternoon, but in the mornings, it’s so cool that we snuggle up under a blanket in front of the electric fireplace while watching the news. 
I will never again disparage a fireplace in an RV as excessive. This thing is really nifty. It significantly warms the area without heating up the whole coach, causing us to need to turn on the AC earlier than usual. 

I am feeling more than a bit spoiled, being able to be distant from other humans in such a beautiful place. 

That is awesome and I would never throw anything at a fellow cruiser.  Send some cool air California way, pretty please.

1 hour ago, rogueriver said:

 

In our household we are HUGE U of O fans, so exciting to see that your grandson will be one of the quarterbacks we will be watching (if football ever starts again!!).  Go Ducks!!

Yes his name is Jay Butterfield and he was the biggest recruit of all time according the the news paper in Eugene.  At the time  he accepted he was the number 2 pro style quarterback in the nation.  He is a good kid who can play with out thinking he throws dimes (quarterback term) all the time.  His dad played for Stanford and the NFL for a short time.  Great family.  Right now football is schedule for spring but that is a HUGE IF.  

23 hours ago, Ombud said:

at least we aren't evacuated anymore

That is good because that had to be scary.  My office at work is at the top of Willow Pass facing Mt Diablo and today I can hardly see it.  

On 8/19/2020 at 6:22 PM, Thrak said:

The sky is weird today and there are ashes on the cars. The air smells of smoke. The sun looks weird. Deja Vu....

 

Ours looks the same for the past week.  It was so Smokey I could barely see the house the street. We are in the middle of the Contra Costa, Santa Cruz, Hennesy fires.  Today we can go outside without choking the skies are somewhat clear.

Besides the Virus and the state of California burning up I am doing great!  Not just the fires the 100 degree temps every day.  Took a ride up to Eugene Oregon to pick up my grandson from school as College Football was canceled and his mom did not want him driving home to Brentwood Ca by himself.  He is a freshman and their #2 Quarterback he started at U of O in January of his Senior year of high school and had to fly home in March then they were cleared to go practice football in July and was there 4 weeks and back home.  At least he completed his first two quarters of college.  I would rather have him safe and so would his parents.  Plus his roommates all went home too.  It was very nice to get out of our area and see some beautiful green.  I would rather have it be beautiful blue sea but......  I want it to be safe when we cruise.

They will require a deposit of $500 dollars.  I just got off the phone with Princess as my daughter does not have a credit card only a debit card.  Princess said that was same as cash and they will charge the $500 on day one.  If does not purchase anything on board the card will be credited back the $500 within 24 hours after the end of the cruise.

On 12/11/2019 at 11:03 AM, bubbapuck said:

Hello Everyone! I had a post removed for some reason. Not 100% sure why but I read the rules and am rewording my post to get the info I need. 

 

My wife and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2021. I want to surprise her dream cruise to Alaska for Christmas. I have looked at the prospective itineraries and have narrowed it down to two options... which I am struggling to pick one. I will list the cruises and explain why I like/dislike and would like anyone's opinion. As a single family income, cost is important but both of these are in our budget.

 

1) 14-Day Inside Passage (Roundtrip Los Angeles w/ Hubbard Glacier) out of Los Angeles in July 2021. This will be on the Sun Princess. It hits Ketchikan, Skagway, Icy Straight Point, Sitka, Juneau, Victoria, and the Hubbard Glacier.

• Los Angeles is our home port and would not have to pay for flights, hotel, or transport to the port.
• No Glacier Bay and we don't go up to Anchorage.
• We love sea days and this gives us 5 or 6 full sea days. This cruise doesn't seems as rushed as there are not as many port days where we may feel obligated to get off and do something.
• I have a feeling the cost of this cruise may lower in the future and thus save me on the cruise cost. The itinerary is not as good as the other cruise. Since there are only 4 cruises from LA in 2021 on a smaller ship, the demand may be higher and the price may not lower as much as I think.

 

2) 14-Day Voyage of the Glaciers Grand Adventure out of Vancouver in May 2021. This will be on the Star Princess. It hits Ketchikan twice, Juneau twice, Skagway twice, Glacier Bay twice, Hubbard Glacier, Anchorage, and College Fjord.

• We would have to fly to Vancouver. The cruise and flights match the cost of the LA cruise but the hotel, extra meals, transport, etc may cause the cost to be higher.
• I THINK I like this itinerary more as we go deeper into Alaska and hit multiple Fjords/Glaciers. Would you prefer Anchorage over Icy Straight Point/Sitka?
• We love sea days and this doesn't have as many. It does have cruise ports multiple times so we can have extra "sea days" on days we hit ports already visited.
• More port days means more $$$ spent in port. Excursions, meals, souvenirs, etc. 
• I am not sure if this cruise will lower in price. it seems to be a more popular cruise but there are many more Glaciers Grand Adventure cruises that has more supply than the 4 LA cruises.

 

We are honestly not that picky which one we pick. The main things we want to do are the train up the mountain, visit the state capital in Juneau, and eat some quality sea food. It is a dream to just visit Alaska and enjoy time together, we will be very happy with either. Either cruise achieves all of these goals. Also, I have the budget for both cruises now.... the basics and a few excursions (I know they are much higher in Alaska than other cruises).  Any sort of future cost savings are great but I just want to make sure any hidden costs may cause the costs to go much higher. 

 

I would just love anyone's feedback. The more conversation, the more I learn and can make the best choice. Please do not discuss anything that may have this post disappear. My previous post has good advice from people that is now gone. 

 

 

 

Take the sea days as they are the best part of cruising.  Our home port is San Francisco so we like to leave out of there but we have left out of San Pedro 20 other times.  My co-worker left out of Vancouver and was upset as she felt her cruise was just getting in port, getting off of the ship, getting back on the ship and sleeping to wake up in a new port the next day.  This last year she took the one from San Pedro up to Alaska and loved the sea days, she said it made up for the floating hotel experience.  

On 11/13/2019 at 7:50 AM, PoohUnderstands said:

Guess I have been lucky.  Only be to Cabo three times, but each time we were the only ship in port that day!

 

Pooh

It has never been an issue as when there is only one ship in port the ships have to use the port authority's little boats to tender people in.  I would have never ever known that except we have flown into Cabo a few times plus the lucky first ship in port get stuck with the small old tender boats.  The other ships used their own tenant boats that can handle 150-250 people.  We love Cabo and being from No California it is just a short flight for us.  

I have been on 23 cruises to Mexico with a stop in Cabo on each one. I have never been there with less than three ships in port.  Never an issue either getting back on this has always been easy with no lines as there is a section for each ship as it is the ships security that makes sure you are getting on the right boat.  I would not worry about.  They do call numbers for those getting off the ship as they cannot handle 2000 people at once.  If you are on a ship sponsored tour you will get off first.  We take our time and usually get off when they are no longer passing tickets out and we basically walk of the ship into a boat and not have a line.  

11 hours ago, thewhip said:

We are booked on the Crown for B2B from Feb 5 to 25, 2020.  First time on this ship.  This is our 8th cruise with Princess.  Have sailed 2x on Island, 1x on Coral, 1x on Star and 3x on Royal.   Our favourite is Royal, but really had no major complaints about the other  Princess ships we have sailed on.  Have also sailed on RCL and MSC. 

 

We have read some pretty awful reviews on CC recently.  Are now wondering if it was a mistake booking this ship, especially since this is our first 20 day cruise. 

 

Can someone who has sailed recently on the Crown please give us some feedback on this ship?  Did we make a mistake?

 

The Whip

I sailed on the Crown three times and loved my cruise and the ship  The ship is beautiful and no you did not make a mistake.  I think some people can't see the beauty or a good time if it was taped to their face.  Granted everyone experiences things differently but to me a ship is a ship and a cruise is a cruise.  We have sailed on old ships and brand new ships and found our fun level has been the same HIGH!  I love the older ships as they have charm but the newer ships are great too.  Everyone told me to not go on the Grand and I have sailed her four times now and love her as a matter of fact we were hoping to sail on her again to Alaska this coming June but she change course so now it will be the Star.  

Until 2003 we sailed on Carnival only and we loved Carnival and we only ventured to Princess as our son was getting married on the Princess Sapphire. We had a blast on Princess but we found that they did not have the nightclubs that Carnival had, and half the time the bars were closed (we are not big drinkers but sometimes we like an afternoon drink).  We swore we would never take another Princess cruise again, but our son wanted to go on another cruise for his anniversary and again we went Princess.  Then Princess started sailing out of San Francisco our home port so again we went on Princess and have sailed Princess every year since 2003 has our goal was to become Elite then we would go back to Carnival.  We never went on any cruises that were under 7 days so we were never on a party ship.  If we listened to all the people who said Carnival was bad we would never have cruised.  Experience for yourself you will be happy you did!

The Grand has Alfredo’s and the Star does not otherwise they are fairly the same. We don’t choose the ship when we sail we choose ports. We have sailed out of San Francisco our home port several time and about 23 out of San Pedro.  If you have to fly to the port to get to your ship then I would go with the cheaper fare.  I would go with the Star because I don’t have to drive or fly to So Cal.  

 

53 minutes ago, scott4020 said:

I love the High Sierra luggage. 

I travel a lot for work and I was replacing bags every six months. Bought High Sierra and I have had the same bags for five years. 

They are great after 10 years one of our wheel broke and I contacted High Sierra and they sent me a new wheel assembly and my husband replaced it easily. For cruises what I really love is they slide right under the bed and we don’t see them again until it’s time to pack and put outside our cabin door!

I my DH and I have tried many different suitcases over the years we’ve been cruising since May 1984 and together we been cruising since 1996. For the past 10 years we’ve been using a rolling duffel bag that the bottom half of the bag is zippered separately and you open it up and it’s a garment bag.  When you zipper that close then you can unzip the top portion of the duffel and place other items that do not need to lay Open and flat. I have an example of one of ours in the picture below. Ours are slightly different as we have pockets on both sides where my husband puts his socks on one side and he puts his undergarments on the other side. Believe it or not his suit or tux fits beautifully along with several shirts in the garment portion of the bag. We used to use the hard sided but they weighed too much and we once we got a note that we had to go to security to get our bag. We were told that the bag was too heavy and they needed us to open it and remove some of the other items in it. I also think they just wanted to see what was so heavy in there it was my suitcase and of course I am a typical woman who never knows what she wants to wear.

Both my DH and I purchase the coffee package and some times I will order two coffee's and they put them on one card even though I have the second card in my hand.  We both drink Americano's and I like a Frappuccino so we never use all of the coffee's but to us it is worth it.  Since we get up before the sun and chickens the staff in the international café remember us stupid people on vacation that get early and a lot times they don't even take our card.  They say they remember us, who knows>

5 hours ago, TheJurea said:

Question, not snarky just curious, was the wife dressed appropriately and did you offer to escort her with you both?

 

 My husband and myself are celebrating our 40ieth wedding anniversary on a cruise thru the Panama Canal, if he chooses not to dress for the dinning room, fine.

If the menu is good, I’ll go without him just fine too.

 

 

 

Actually my friend B was dressed in a very nice dress.  The problem was her husband had slacks and polo shirt on. The Maitre D did not find that acceptable and it did say formal attire in the dinning room in the patters.  What bother me over the whole incident was two things, one he brought a suite so he could have easily gone to his cabin and grabbed a time and his jacket.  Also that same night while my husband and I were eating we saw other men come in with jeans on and a jacket with no tie and they were allowed in.  I think is was my friends husband who had to make it a big deal and scene that made the Maitre D mad.  

4 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I'm sure it has happened in the past but I've never seen it happen to anyone in the past 15 years on the dozens of Princess ships we've sailed on nor to myself or my DH. We gave up the formal clothing around 2000 & have never been questioned yet.

Wear what makes you feel comfortable. 

This happened on our August 28 2018 cruise to Alaska on the Grand.  As I stated I have seen many times people in the dinning room on formal night with casual clothes on.  I really think it depends on the guards at the gate (Maitre D), this last cruise on May 6 2019 one gentleman  in front of us had on dress slacks, white shirt and tie and he was told he needed a dinner jacket to enter the dinning room.  The princess staff told him it was written in the Patters each day since he boarded.  I personally don't care as we usually dress up but that is our choice and I don't think my choice should be forced on someone else.  I have been cruising since 1984 and we go on at least one cruise a year and mostly Princess. We only dress up the first formal night and not the second night and we did not have an issue going into the dinning room.  I think last year we had an old guard.

I really depends on the ship and the Maitre Di. 

Formal night over all:

I have seen where 20% of men in a Tux vs suite and tie to the next cruise having 40% men in Tux's.  As for the ladies I have seen full length gowns to a nice dress on Formal night.  I have sailed a lot of Christmas and New Years cruises and I have found that there are more women that are wearing very fancy formal dresses than normal. It is a hit and a miss.

Dinning room: I have seen a lot a men turn away from the dinning room on formal night because they did not have a tie and a suite jacket on.   We sailed with a couple who the husband refused to bring his suit and had the attitude I paid for the cruise and they have no right to tell me what I can and can not wear to the dinning room.  My husband had a tux on and I had a cocktail dress on and we were allowed to go in and the other couple were told they could go to the buffet or change into formal night attire.  I sure thought our friends were going to walk the plank that night.  Security was called and I wish I could blame drinking on our friends behavior but he had not had anything to drink.  I have seen people in the dinning room on a formal night in casual clothing too so I think it really depends on who is bossy and who is not.    We have never cruised with our friends again.  

Bottom line, do what is comfortable for you, if you don't want to dress up no big deal as there are plenty of options for food and fun.

I will check my photos to see if I can find a Bar Menu from last year.  I do have the Crown Grill menu's and the Patters.  I love Crooners Bar as they have about 75 different Martini's from the real Martini to the fluffy Martini's.  The only time I have seen a difference in the menu's is when the itinerary is different, ie… Mexico vs Alaska or Caribbean so for the most part they are the same on all the ships.