karatemom2

Yes the balconies have the standard furniture. They are large enough to accommodate more and we were actually able to get a couple of extra chairs on one of our Alaska cruises since we had family traveling with us. Our room steward arranged for that at our request - not sure it’s always an option. But worth asking if you need it.

This is why DH is so interested. We have a friend who lives about 20 minutes from the port in San Pedro and she has been sailing with Princess since she was a teenager. Suffice it to say that was a long time ago and a lot of days so she regularly is a guest at these meals. She has shared the photos and how outstanding the food is, so it would be nice to try. Meeting officers would be pleasant, as well I guess. The bragging I would prefer to avoid. I’m embarrassed to even talk about our number of cruises and try to avoid it when friends or family ask “Are you guys going on ANOTHER cruise?” Not that it should be embarrassing to have a form of travel you love, but people get weird about it so I don’t really discuss it - outside of this forum of like minded people! 😊

On our cruise last summer our medallions worked without issue getting on the ship, but they would not open our door. It took 4 trips to guest services and we were not happy campers. They kept telling us they were”resetting” them but no luck. Our poor room steward kept having to let us in our room. Finally, when it still wasn’t working after dinner I went back down to guest services and pretty much went full on “Karen” on them. Not my proudest moment but I was so annoyed that after multiple trips to the desk we still couldn’t get in our room. Finally they sent someone from IT up and he reprogrammed our door panel - which was where the problem was, not with our medallions. In general, we have had great experience with them - that was the one exception.

Roll calls are hit and miss - we have a super active roll call for our summer cruise, but the roll call for our recent New Year’s cruise was virtually non existent, even though the ship was full. In our recent experience it seems our longer cruises and those to more distant places where shared excursions are a desirable option seem to get better participation. Very glad the one for our June cruise is so great. We have made many friends from our roll calls, a number we still stay in contact with many years later.

Well perhaps a Vancouver B2B is in our future at some point. We did that several years ago when our kids were younger and it was nice having all that extra port and glacier time. Honestly, I never get tired of Alaska.

Well we do love Alaska! Considering a cruise in September if we can make it work - it's between that and a New England cruise, but we do love going out of San Francisco and saving the flying part. I'm not holding out much hope for our Norway cruise this summer - it's looking like a very popular choice!

Question for those that have attended a "Most Traveled Passenger" Luncheon - I'm guessing there are a number of you here who have based on being loyal Princess cruisers for many years. My DH is really looking forward to getting the invite one day - we will go over 350 days with our cruise this summer. That seems like a lot to us, but then we attend the Captain's Circle parties and the top Princess cruisers usually have days in the thousands. So, one wonders if we will ever make the cut, no matter how many cruises we manage to take. Mind you, we intend to keep cruising with Princess for many years to come - I'm not even retired yet. But will we ever catch up? Who knows? So, for those of you who have attended, what was the number of days you had when you first were invited? And, what was the lowest number of days for anyone that you know made the list? DH is so hopeful, but perhaps I need to manage expectations!

My daughter is Elite and her husband isn’t, but they allowed them both in the lounge and she was able to order cocktails for both of them. This was on Enchanted last August for their honeymoon, so I can’t guarantee this would always be the case on every ship, but in our general experience with the Elite lounge benefits if you have a non Elite travel companion you can include them within reason - just not abusing the privilege. By the way, if the menu is the same I highly recommend the Deep Sea cocktail - my favorite!

Yes, June 15. Sounds like they are holding to the 6 month time limits again. It seemed for a little while they were just accepting it even for cruises that were further out, but I guess they are tightening back up on that. But, you will be at the mark soon!

Agreed, the new system is better for people who use the internet more frequently onboard. I know for me with my work demands it’s definitely easier and I do like not worrying about logging out or running out of minutes. But for those like the OP who just want to do a few brief check ins, a package with a finite number of minutes would be a nice option. It’s too bad Princess can’t offer both and let people choose what works best for their personal situation.

I think for some with the sofa beds it’s not so much the space, but comfort of the mattress. Both my adult kids have used them in rooms with us, and both have found them somewhat less than comfortable. If you use the sofa bed, you can ask your room steward for a foam cushion or extra comforter for more padding which my kids found improved the comfort for them.

Yes, it was nice in the past how it worked with minutes you could purchase and use up, but sadly that is no more.

We just submitted via the app again for our Norway cruise this summer and now that we have our account set up from our last submission it was super easy. Basically just log in, enter your cruise booking and you’re done. We did it yesterday and already got confirmation this morning that our $250 OBC has been applied.

We were just in a mini suite on Discovery over New Year’s and our adult son was in the room with us. He used the sofa bed which our room steward pulled out and made up each evening. I certainly don’t know the exact dimensions, but based on the size of the space I think you could make it work. It may take up the whole space, but so does the sofa bed when it’s pulled out. So you should be ok.

Sadly haven’t seen this for a few years. It was a fun idea but never seemed to gain traction. I participated once for one of our Alaska cruises and the book selection was “The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah. Wonderful read! But your post gives me a thought - certainly one could do something similar within a roll call. We have a really active roll call for our Norway cruise this summer - maybe I’ll look for a book to recommend.

Or the Piazza tables by the International Cafe. It’s so inconsiderate when people park themselves there for hours to play games while people getting food and drinks have nowhere to sit.

We like to play cards in the Explorer’s Lounge on the Grand Class ships when it isn’t being used for some other event like trivia or art sale.

When were you on the Discovery? We have been on it a number of times since it launched just a few years ago. The juice bar has always been located in the Pastry Shop of the World Fresh Marketplace on all of our cruises.

You will see whales for sure in either place, but I would choose ISP over Juneau as there are less other options in ISP, while in Juneau there are other interesting things to do.

Wow! That’s awful. We have always had a good experience but I don’t blame you for not wanting to use the service after that. I hope you were properly compensated!

Tatting is a virtually lost art of making lace from fine thread. My Grandma used to do it and made gorgeous pieces. I still have her tatting hook - I wish I had learned more from her. @Thrak I am so impressed that your wife has that skill. You just don’t see it much anymore. Very cool!

That’s a great area in general. Easy access to the aft bar and buffet just up the steps with the nice back deck area. We often get balcony cabins in that section as well because even with a balcony you sometimes want more expansive views - like on glacier days in Alaska. If you have a room in that section it’s an easy hop out to the aft deck where you can take in all the views. Great choice for inside and outside cabins!

The other thing you can request is press only. Although we generally pack our nicer clothes like suits or dresses in a garment bag, they still get wrinkled. So, we often will give them to our steward right away after boarding to go to laundry for pressing only. We usually get them back next day which is super helpful if there is a formal night on one of the first sea days.

It seems to vary by ship, but the one theme night we seem to see constantly on all our Princess cruises is 80s night. Our recent Sky cruise featured a big 80s deck party. It warms my heart that my demographic suddenly seems to be such a target market!! I guess we have aged in. Haha!!

So kind of you to share this information! It’s interesting that they have started to provide these overviews of the food themes in the buffet at the beginning of the cruise. We got something similar on both of our recent Princess cruises on the Sky and Discovery. Must be a new thing. We don’t eat in the buffet much but it was nice to know. They had a German night one evening and we decided to try it out. The schnitzel and sauerkraut were quite good!