cruzin4us

Dinner at Ketchikan Dining room at 5:40. Had a reservation and was seated immediately. Had wahoo ceviche (excellent), hearty seafood soup (ok), crawfish stew (good) and raspberry sorbet

Smoked salt

Charro was in the casino. She’s a little thing and looks great

I’ll post some pictures of misc things, with some commentary as the Wi-Fi allows. Embarkation was a breeze. Got to the port of LA at 10:15 and was on the ship by 11:00 I have a balcony room on the Dolphin deck right above the lifeboats. Room is nice, lifeboats beneath the balcony prohibits looking straight down at the ocean. It’s room D306 for reference. I booked late due to the Diamond cancellations, so I’m happy just getting any balcony. Flying solo for 3 B2Bs. The ship is now leaving port at 10 instead of 4 due to a Corporate event (Real Love Boat Party) I’m now snuggled up to the Good Spirits Bar with my favorite drink, the Sandra en Fuego. All the Good Spirit Cocktails are priced at $12 more later if I don’t drink too many of these….

Well, I knew something was up when our sail away was postponed until 10pm. Only a small notice was sent to us a couple of days basically telling us due to a corporate event the sail away would be at 10. Now that I’m on board, many areas are roped off such as the Wake View Pool. Deck 17 aft, the area around Churchill’s, most of deck 7 promenade. Everywhere I turned it was blocked off for a VIP event. There are photo stations set up everywhere for this event. Finally got frustrated trying to navigate the ship, I just went to my room. I asked the crew what the scoop was, and they said not to worry they are getting off in San Francisco in 2 days. Oh, joy It has something to do with the Real Love Boat reality show.

Makes me sad things aren’t up to par

I would think......unless you are into the photographs, Princess Prizes and the 4 devices of Wifi, the Premier package does not make sense. From reports from others, many of the "Premium Drinks" aren't even available (stocking issues). Just buy the Princess Plus and pay the difference if you find a cocktail that goes over the $12 limit. Even the Specialty Dining has it's woes.....unless you book it online, half the time the desired time slots are gone by the time you board. Princess Prizes.....I haven't heard of many people winning anything important. Like others said, "maybe" if you are going to go on a short cruise it would be worth it. Drinking fresh OJ, coffee or mock-tails only would not make the Premium Pkg pencil out in my opinion because you can get those on the Princess Plus Pkg.

I'm no stock analyst by any means, but I would think as the covid vaccine restrictions are being lifted left and right.....There will be more and more people cruising, thus increasing revenue. Gone are the days of 40% capacity sailings.

I'd sign up for these 🙂. They also have roughly the same itinerary in 2024. (We'll be on the 1/4/24 South America/Antarctica). They are on the Sapphire, leaving LA and ending up in Buenos Aires

I agree.....they have been showing up really quick. I also email my requests to: sbpcl@princesscruises.com. If you don't receive it in a couple of days, be sure to resend it and put "2nd request" in the subject line. Make sure you check your cruise personalizer under "credits". They don't send you an email telling you it's been done. At least that's been my experience as of late.

There are usually more pant/skirt hangers in my closet than regular hangers 🙂

I agree with what others posted above. If you want to make sure there are more kids/families aboard, I would definitely suggest cruising mid June thru August. In May, late August and September, there will be much fewer kids on board. If you don't want a bunch of sea days, I also suggest the 7 day cruises out of Seattle or Vancouver.

lesson to be learned here......Never, ever, ever go on a 3 day cruise 😂

Simplicity speaking here: Carnival tends to be more of a party ship and the age of the average passenger less than that of Princess. Carnival seems to have more activities such as hairy leg contests, belly flop contests, etc. Princess typically doesn't do this. Princess tends to be a bit more subdued. The average age of the passengers is a bit older than Carnival. I've cruised both lines numerous times and now being older I guess, I prefer the more quiet atmosphere of Princess. Both are fun to cruise on and I'd sail on Carnival if the price/itinerary was right. But if all things were equal, I'd choose Princess.

As a general rule we don't, however that's not to say "always". Sometimes we get superior service, I mean the above and beyond type service that you wouldn't expect......then we tip a bit. When I have to continually ask for more water as an example, then no, we don't tip. If our waiter anticipates our every desire and goes above and beyond, then for me it is worth a tip for outstanding service.

Please keep your posts separate, it's easier to distinguish your live report. I enjoy reading both!

25-50% discount for elites on Specialty Dining.

if drinking higher priced liquor is one of the things that interests you, be prepared for them to be out of many choices. I opt for the Plus pkg, because I can just pay the difference in price. Pictures are of no interest to me and I can buy a specialty dinner and be much farther ahead. Prizes.......you could win.....maybe

Right now cruise lines are still sailing much below capacity and it's in their best interest to offer free cruises to gamblers. It's a way of generating revenue from us that choose to gamble. It's not rocket science. They aren't going to offer cruises to those who don't. As cruises start to fill up again, I expect the offers to become less frequent. The logic is simple, give the empty rooms to casino players and we will at least be generating some income that we wouldn't get otherwise. No sense giving empty rooms to people that don't. Regarding the payouts: Let's take the Lightening game which has the Grand capped out out 10k. Land based casinos (Indian casinos as well) have an unlimited cap and the jackpot starts at $10k and grows as the machines are played. Keno is another one that has horrible odds on the cruise ships. Even the drink package is designed to make money. Very rarely do people drink the 6.5 drinks to break even if they purchase the pkg. Some do a few days, but most don't over a period of time. Especially if you have one drinker in your room and the other not so much. The last cruise I was on, as I sat playing my $.80-$1.60 on my machine, a gentleman sat down and played $50 a hand on Buffalos. Yup, 2 that's two spins every $100. I promise you, the casino made money on him. Behind me 3 people played $20 on every VP hand for hours.....casino made lots of money on them too. Of course, why wouldn't they be offered a free room and a bunch of perks? So, @FrugalVoyager, unless you gamble, you shouldn't even venture your opinion on this subject. It would be like me trying to suit up and pretend to be neurosurgeon. The only time I came home ahead was when I played 3 card poker and had some really good luck, but that's a rarity. This cruise was on Celebrity and I never received any casino offers from them.

I brought on beef jerky in April....2 pkg worth. Both were sealed/unopened. I brought them on in my carry on.

Thanks for your live review on the Sapphire! It's been a long time since I've seen one. Enjoy your trip, I'm living vicariously thru you.....

I guess I must have missed the memo on this. I'm either on a ship that doesn't have Alfredo's or I'm on on that has the full menu....

I Googled Los Angeles Port Cruise Schedule and found this:

or San Diego.....it's just a hop skip and a jump from the pier