Dani24

 

 

1

7 hours ago, fishywood said:

...but really, if you are going to take the same itinerary on the same ship for the fourth time this decade you had better be able to live with lots of repetition and redundancy in all aspects of the cruise. If you truly do LOVE Alaska perhaps you should try a Voyage of the Glaciers open jaw cruise--or even two back-to-back to make a 14 day round trip Vancouver sailing. But that would probably cause you to regret having sailed round trip San Francisco more than once with its dreary wasted sea days at the beginning and end.

Such an "eye of the beholder" statement. Personally, I LOVE the sea days on the SF R/T. It helps that we live near the port and don't have to fly to get there. If we did one of the other itineraries, we'd spend those 2-3 sea days traveling to/from the port anyway. And have to hassle with luggage restrictions, TSA, airports, hotel stays, finding our own food, etc. Stuff that's all fine in certain circumstances, but when compared to relaxing on a ship with all of my food, entertainment, etc. all laid out form me for those 3 days, and knowing I only had to check in to a room once, there's no comparison! 🙂

6 hours ago, Nightowl11 said:

Is this a new game to Princess?  I don't see any other posts about it.  It would be great if all ships could add new entertainment like this.  I'm so tired of Bingo, Trivia, Bingo, Trivia, Bingo, Trivia and the same production shows for years and years.  We will be on the Grand this summer again and someone just posted the May Patters.  Stardust....again.  British Invasion.....again.  Uuuggghhh.  Those shows aren't even on Princess's website anymore and haven't been for a long time. I really thought with booking a cruise this year, I would finally be able to see a new show like "Born to Dance", "The Secret Silk" and/or "Encore."  Is it up to the cruise director if he/she wants to go beyond the basics?  When will they change things up on the Grand?

This activity is listed on the Patters for the Grand this summer. It looks like the “kickoff” is on the 2nd sea day at 2:45 pm (on the patters that Mastersty posted).

I've seen this listed in the Patters. Is there a way to get new clues or check in tasks if you miss one of the scheduled ones?

On 5/26/2019 at 9:20 PM, aimee0715 said:

We have done this twice on Grand.  We stand at the very front of the ship on deck 15 (or 16?).  We did it in November and we did it a couple weeks ago.  I just have to warn you that it is unbelievably windy and cold. Very cold. I thought it might be slightly warmer in May, but no. Also,  anyone with long hair needs to have it fully secured.  Any loose hair will be an absolute rat's nest by the time you get under the bridge! The first time we did this, it took my husband and I both working on detangling my hair for 45 minutes to get it presentable for dinner.   It's totally worth it, but you need to be properly prepared.  

San Francisco typically has its warmest weather in September and October. During the summer months it'll definitely cool down in the late afternoon, and Karl (the fog) could roll in. Even if it was a beautiful day earlier. 

The locals joke that you can spot a tourist in San Francisco because they're wearing shorts and a San Francisco fleece they hastily picked up at a souvenir shop because they weren't prepared for the cold. 🙂

Instead of Whole Foods, I’d suggest heading down the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building to get local, quality foods. You’ll be able to find some packaged items there, in addition to lots of yummy fresh things to sample.

Not sure if you know this, but as a suite passenger, will they allow you to order pub lunch menu items for room service, like with the MDR menus?

And thank you again for sharing all of this! It's been really awesome "tagging along" with you on your cruise, and getting a preview of what's to come!

You can order from the MDR as room service in a suite, which can be enjoyed on your balcony as a sort of DIY Ultimate Balcony Dinner. Couple that with the free minibar (or sub wine) for beverages, and move your stateroom flowers out there, and voila! 🙂

29 minutes ago, CAZephyr said:

Most comfortable chairs on the ship are found in the back wall of the Library.  If you like community puzzle they are found in the conservatory above Calypso Cove.  Sheltered ping pong also there.  One of our favorite ships because of covered pool area and wrap-around Promenade.

 

Can you elaborate on what the “community puzzles” are? Are these jigsaw puzzles?

Yeah, all schools should be back in session by the day after Labor Day too. Traffic always gets a little harrier in the Bay Area shortly after school starts back up.

37 minutes ago, Cruisen'Susan said:

Hello cruise friends,

 

 We are new to Princess and taking our first Alaska cruise from San Francisco.  We will be spending a few days in SF beforehand,  so our flight getting there is fine.   My question is for the return flight.  Would 10:40am be too early to make it from the ship to the SF airport in time?   We will be in a suite, so we will have priority disembarkation, if that helps.  If not,  the other flights to Philadelphia would have us at the airport until late in the evening.

 

I appreciate your advice!!

 

Susan

 

I wouldn't do it. There's a lot of potential for things to go wrong.

What day are you coming back? I know the Grand returns at around 7am, on either a Sunday or Thursday.

Traffic from the port to SFO could be really bad on a weekday. The Embarcadero is right along side downtown San Francisco, so it's going to be rush hour (and Bay Area traffic is TERRIBLE). Even getting onto the freeway from the port could take way longer than you'd think. Then you have business travelers that will be flying out of SFO in the morning, making check-in and security lines longer. Even on a Sunday it would make me nervous though.

Plus, you aren't guaranteed to dock at 7am. If it's late (fog could sock in the Bay, slowing arrival), or there's a problem with customs (which could add a significant delay), or lots of people also want early disembarkation (which definitely happens), it'll slow things down.

You'd also have to hang on to all of your luggage and carry it all off yourself. Waiting for your luggage to come out can take some time too. 

Then trying to get a cab or Uber at the same time everyone else is. 

Honestly, it's not worth the stress. One time we almost missed our flights (not off a cruise). I thought I had planned it out well, and left plenty of time (we left 3.5 hours in advance). But a couple of unexpected delays and a long/slow TSA line caused us to nearly miss the flight. 5-10 minutes later and we'd have been left behind. We're going to that same destination this year and I booked later flights, even though it means getting home super late because the stress of nearly missing the flight is something I never wish to repeat.

 

 

 

 

 

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On 5/21/2019 at 7:32 AM, jondfk said:

Personally, I see many positives.  And I can imagine scenarios where the feedback is two way.  For example, we often find ourselves a bit frustrated when we arrive at a favorite place, let's say Crooners for a pre dinner drink only to find the place 'sold out' every seat taken.  We always have a backup venue, but if we could click on the app and know when we leave our cabin that there's no space in Crooners we could go directly to Adagio instead for example.

 

In my mind Princess already knows everywhere I've been.  They know I signed up for Sanctuary for certain days, they know I always get a coffee between 0530 and 0600.  They know we have two cocktails for dinner (rarely 1 and never 3).  They know I hit vines for a favorite glass of vino as I walk into the dining room.  Having them use a bit of this info to improve the service provided strikes me as a reasonable compromise for allowing them track my movements onboard.

 

Given that we're all tracked by hundreds of companies on a day to day basis the incremental data being sucked up by Princess isn't even a drop in the bucket.  At least that's what I tell myself 😁.  If there was any doubt, I'm being shown an at right this very minute on cruise Critic that is selling me  . . . Ocean Medallion, that's no accident, they're tracking what threads are appealing to me. 

I think it would be great if I could pull up a venue on the app, like the theater or Anytime Dining, and see (courtesy of Medallion data) whether it's full or there might be seats left. Then I could save myself the time of walking all the way over there only to find no seats or a wait, when I could have just headed over to my second choice instead. This could be used to show really good "wait time" estimates for various things, like the Pub Lunch, or which formal night photographer backdrop is free, or how ridiculous the line is for Puppies in the Piazza or whatever. It gives me more freedom to choose where to go and what to do, with less frustration.

 

On 5/21/2019 at 12:39 PM, Mike45LC said:

 

I was a captive audience to CNN's HLN (I think that is what it is called) and a "true crime story" was on.  There was a cold case that was solved by running old DNA from the crime scene against the DNA databases that one of the private ancestry  genetic companies maintains.  The criminal's brother (I think it was the brother) had sent in a DNA sample for fun, and the database kicked out the brother's info as a closely related match to the criminal.  So the authorities ran a family background on the guy who did the genetics check, and found the criminal.  Thanks, Bro!!

 

I'll bring an extra roll of aluminum foil for my next cruise.

 

I've resolved that issue by choosing to just never murder someone. So far, so good!

But "yay" for those creeps that do get caught, like the Golden State Killer who was found last year thanks to a distant relative submitting their DNA to GEDMATCH. In fact, that inspired me to submit mine to GEDMATCH too. I would be proud to have my DNA solve a cold case and bring a grieving family a little closure.

We are going to end up with an extra set of specialty dining credits (meaning we have enough to cover Crown Grill and Sabatini's on the Grand already, plus two more). Can those $29 vouchers be used for the Crab Shack or any other special dining outside of the two main venues?

1 minute ago, dearinger said:

Thanks, that gives me hope that we should get in. I did pre-schedule dining in two of the on-board restaurants. Hopefully the assigned night doesn't clash with our existing reservations. I guess I will find out June 1st.

Thanks again!

 

If it does, you should be able to easily reschedule the specialty dining to a different night. 🙂

47 minutes ago, dearinger said:

What are the odds of a couple being able to book the Chef's table if they don't have priority boarding (first time cruising on Princess)? I planned to call the Dine line as soon as we boarded to try and reserve a spot, but wasn't sure of my odds of success. I am married to a Chef/Butcher and a behind the scenes tour (and great meal) would be awesome for us. 

It really depends on how many other people sign up. But DH and I have done it twice now and had no problem getting in. We did not have priority boarding. But we do get the port as early as we can. That said, both times I still waited until we got into our rooms (at about 1pm) to call the DINE line. So priority boarding wouldn't have made a difference in either case.

9 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

I guess I just do not understand the big deal about stuffed animals.  My kids had stuffed animals and my grandkids had stuffed animals but they all gave them up very quickly when they grew past 5 or 6.  

 

DON

Everyone’s different, and likes different things.

My daughter is nearly 7, and still VERY much into stuffed animals. Quite a lot of her friends are too (especially the girls, but I know of several 7-8 year old boys that still have a few favorite stuffies). Kids at this age are still heavily imaginative, and most still believe in things like Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc. They also are often very enamored with characters from TV/movies, and boys and girls alike at this age will get excited about seeing a giant costumed character, and getting to interact or take a picture. Certainly, some kids will have outgrown it by this age too, and that’s perfectly normal as well. 

Duplicate post

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

Do you really mean breakfast w a stuff bear?   You can't be serious.

 

DON

If you have a young child, why not? 🙂

On 5/19/2019 at 11:38 AM, Coral said:

Got it. Please report back. It probably is a special item they tell you about and may not be on the menu.

 

I know they have Tracy's Crab Cakes on deck, reindeer chili on deck and at least one night they have an Alaskan menu in the dining room.

Do you know where on deck they serve the crab cakes and reindeer chili? Is it from the grill or the buffet? Do they have it on certain days?

Just checked again and now I do see the breakfast with Stanley in the Cruise Personalizer, under the Specialty Dining tab. However when I try to book it for 2 adults and 1 child the "select a date" option is empty. Oddly, if I change it to one adult and one child, it says "no available date". I can't imagine it's sold out more than two months out. How many people really know about this? 

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

Only when our local restaurants are known to have had noro outbreaks.  

Your local restaurants like DO have noro outbreaks. However, people don't get sick while still in the restaurant, where they're all contained with each other, like on a cruise ship. So a bunch of people might get ill eating at Denny's on land, but they're going to suffer privately at home and nobody will be notified or taking reports of it such that it would be classified as an outbreak.

Conversely, on cruise ships they are actually WAY more responsive to these things -- both in terms of higher reporting requirements, and in taking more thorough steps to control the outbreaks.

Norovirus outbreaks are incredibly common at schools, hospitals, retirement homes, restaurants, and other heavily populated places on land. But if you pick up noro from there you likely won't know where it came from (unless you know of a bunch of other people getting it from the same place). Believing that cruises are somehow way worse than any of those other places is not warranted.

41 minutes ago, masterty said:

The location is the best cabin location on the ship. IMHO. If not in a suite we would be on deck 5 mid-forward. Second best location on the ship IMHO. 

We have stayed in aft balconys before for great wake views but it is such a long way back there that it makes using the room arduous. Mid ship deck 8, 9, 10 are great spots but with M1's going for ridiculous fees and even BA's being overpriced we will usually opt for a interior and if we want buy the sanctuary and Crown Grill for the voyage and still have savings for the casino. The S7 is a treat to my wife as we are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary on this trip. I surprised her with the room. The escort at embarkation blew the surprise. A surprise none the less. 

As for Crown Grill we tried it twice. We both have the pbp so no benefit there. Surprised the Crown offeres only the same comfort food menu each day. My knowledge of the MDR breakfast is that it offers a different option each morning. So on day 4 we are going to the MDR to see which on we like more. I'll try to get a crown grill breakfast menu so you can see what I mean. 

We had looked at one of the aft balconies as well. We were also considering a mini suite (not Club Class though). The window suite popped up, and it was actually $1000 less than a Club Class Mini Suite, and almost the same price (within <$200) of the mini suite I was looking it. So I jumped on it. My husband gets motion sickness, so I'm hoping the low and somewhat mid-ship location will help with the first couple of days out of SF. Normally we wouldn't splurge on a suite, but I had $4300 in credit card points from our Princess Visa that we've been saving up for 9 years, and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to indulge.

Do the menus they give you indicate what the special offering is in the Club Class MDR? Or do you have to go to find out? 

I read an article that one of the survivors is a retired cop, who once received the Medal of Valor for saving a woman’s life while on duty. And after this plane crashed, despite her own injuries, she swam out to rescue several of the people on board — many of whom had injuries that prevented them from swimming. Definition of a hero!

We're in a Window Suite as well. We got F301 - the smallest one - though we're excited in any case! First time in a suite for us. 

How are you liking the room and the location?

Are you doing the suite breakfast in Crown Grill?

We’ve done 4 cruises on Princess and one on Disney. And while Disney was a great cruise in many ways, there were many other ways in which we felt Princess was MUCH better or at least equal.

I had noted, when we booked it, that Princess had the same itinerary (with one extra day) for less than half the price. We decided to splurge anyway, since it was a bucket list item, and we wanted to take our daughter (who was almost 5 at the time). We don’t regret going at all. But, in the future we’d rather take the same vacation dollars and do a cruise on Princess AND take a trip to Disneyland the same year (we love Disneyland, and go once every year or two). 

I think it charges more because it has a somewhat unique product (due to being Disney), and it caters very strongly to families with young kids. And people will pay for it. If they didn’t, DCL would lower its prices. But, at the end of the day, it’s all about branding. You and your kids can have fun experiences on another cruise line too, for cheaper. But it’s not “Disney”, and for some people that matters a lot. It’s like people who will pay top dollar for a purse with some designer logo on it, but would never consider buying a purse that looked pretty much identical except without the logo. Brands are status symbols, and some people feel certain brands give them a certain experience or feeling, and they’re willing to pay for those luxuries. Disney is no exception.