karatemom2

Looking at your screen shot it doesn’t appear the $900 OBC had anything to do with the package you opted for. It’s listed at each level including standard. It should be reflected on your travel summary for your cruise. If you aren’t seeing it you need to check with Princess or your TA. You should have received a booking confirmation that reflected the benefits of whatever promotion you purchased through.

Seeing the reference to the Majestic and Asia based cruise markets reminds me of one of our cruises without a Craps table - poor, sad, DH! We love the Diamond and Sapphire and had cruised on them a number of times on West Coast and Alaska cruises before they moved over to Asia based cruises. We happened to be on the last Sapphire cruise before it transitioned - it was a Pacific Coastal out of Los Angeles. They were already heavily prepping for its new market and a number of things on the ship were changing, including in the Casino and the games offered. There were new tables and machines with completely unfamiliar games. But to the absolute horror of my DH, the Craps table had been unceremoniously removed and he was bereft! Funny enough, he had to focus on poker and blackjack that trip - came home a winner and got a nice FCC from the casino host as an apology for the lack of the Craps table, so all was well as far as I was concerned. But he still complains about that one!!

There is no longer assigned dining on any Princess ships. It is all basically “Anytime” dining now. If you prefer to have a regular table assignment and wait team, you can still accomplish that but you need to arrange it with the dining room host once you are on the ship. The Princess app has a reservation system that allows you to make reservations for the dining room of your choice for each night if your cruise. We generally pick one of the midship dining rooms on 5 or 6 - on the Sky that would be Estrella or Soleil. We like to pick a time around 6 generally. You can also just walk up to whatever dining room you want each evening without a reservation but sometimes the non reservation lines get long and there is a wait. We sort of prefer when possible to establish a regular table and wait team and found a great one on our Sky cruise last summer. If you set it up with the host on your first evening you can just return to the same table each subsequent night of your cruise.

Yes, there are still generally two shows in the theatre - either production shows or some other featured entertainer. We have found lately they are usually scheduled for 7:30 and 9:30 or 8:00 and 10:00 and last about 45 minutes.

We have noticed this too along with the fact that even though they may actually have more square footage, the casinos on the Royal class ships just feel smaller and more cramped. Maybe because they have more slot machines? I never win much either! DH is the gambler on our team and he sticks to the tables, but I occasionally hit up a machine. Never goes well! 😂

Here is the link for the Discovery Roll Calls and it doesn’t appear there is one for your sail date yet. Guess you will have to start one! https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2469-discovery-princess-roll-calls/

So sorry about what you went through. I once had the misfortune to come down with Norovirus on one of our cruises and seriously could barely walk the first day I was so weak. I remember thinking that if we had to disembark that day I would have needed a wheelchair. It is hard to fathom that literally within hours of providing you with IV fluids in medical you were being unceremoniously dumped on the curb. Sadly, I seem to remember a post from someone last year sharing a similar story about her experience disembarking one of the Princess ships in Los Angeles while she was quite ill with COVID. She also spoke of basically being escorted off the ship and pretty much abandoned when the promised transportation for the group of sick passengers never showed up. I remember her comment was something to the extent that she felt they just wanted her off the ship and didn't seem to care about her well being at all. This is a very bad look for Princess and absolutely inexcusable way to treat a customer who needs care and assistance. I do hope you pursue this with Princess and that you get some satisfactory response as well as the medical records that you need. Best of luck and I hope you are feeling better.

Good to hear! We had our doubts about it at first as well when Princess made the switch to applying for the benefit through the app, but we had a similar experience and found it pretty user friendly and got our OBC applied promptly.

My husband and I also prefer our own table for two in the dining room. On the Princess app prior to your cruise, you can select your dining room, dining time and table size for each night of your cruise. We usually use this to make a reservation ahead of time and designate our preference for every night of our cruise. One thing that has worked well for us is to hopefully scope out a good table and wait team the first night of our reservation when we go to whichever dining room we have scheduled. We like a two top table that isn't crammed in a line with other two tops where you feel like you are still sitting with other people. There are plenty of tables for two that are more by themselves. If we can get a good one with a nice wait team that first night, before we leave the dining room we speak to the host and lock that table and team in for our dining time for the rest of our cruise. It really makes our dining experience so much better as we can then just walk right in the rest of the time and we have a wait team that we get to know and who gets to know us and our preferences. The dining team is usually really happy to help you get this all set up, because ultimately it makes their jobs easier as well.

Just some additional cost info if you liked sodas or bottled waters. Based on our most recent cruise at New Year's final tab with gratuity for canned sodas was $2.95, fountain sodas were $2.50 and bottled water was $1.75.

Unless you are an Elite or Suite passenger, your fridge will be empty except for an ice bucket that your room steward will happily refill with fresh ice daily if you like. We like to preorder the bottled water package to be delivered to our room along with our Elite mini bar set up. If you plan on purchasing one of the packages, it likely doesn't make sense for you to pay extra to preorder any beverages. You can always pick up bottled or canned items you prefer at any bar and bring them back to your room to keep in your fridge.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience on the Crown. We live in Southern CA and love cruising out of San Francisco. We have been considering another Alasks cruise in September but have been a little hesitant about going on the Crown. We did not have the best experience the one time we cruised on that particular ship before - got the dreaded Norovirus that the Crown in particular seemed to struggle with for a few years. It is really encouraging to read your honest and positive thoughts. We might just give the Crown another try!

We have been fortunate enough to have cruised on most Princess ships over the years with the exception of Majestic, Regal and Coral. My husband would probably respond that the best casino is always one with a Craps table. We have been on a couple of Princess cruises that didn’t have one, but that has been a long while ago. Most are pretty similar - actually perhaps a little nicer and roomier on the older ships. The casinos on the Royal class ships tend to feel smaller because they have a lot of slots very tightly packed. As a slot player I’m sure you would not be disappointed by any Princess casino because you will have lots of options. But when I really pressed him for an answer he said if he had to choose his favorite it would be the Diamond Princess. Both the Sapphire and Diamond have very spacious casinos and the Diamond has a cool jungle theme with “trees” growing in it that makes for a unique environment.

This is just a guess but I imagine they only allow so many slots on a waitlist. My DH and I have waitlisted in the past on a couple of excursions. In both cases, at some point the option to waitlist disappeared and it just said sold out. I know this because I tried to add my daughter and her husband to a waitlist we were on and the option to do so was no longer available. So perhaps they limit the waitlist to a certain number of people. Regardless, we were not successful in getting on either excursion we waitlisted for as apparently no one ever dropped.

There is a ports of call board here at Cruise Critic with an Alaska section where you can find helpful information for your cruise and there just happens to be a discussion on this very topic there right now. Here is the link:

Well on the upside you get to experience all four seasons there, probably don’t spend hours in traffic and I bet people don’t lose their minds when it rains! 😊

On the new Royal class ships it is not as ideal as they always use berth 92 which enters through what is in the nicest terms a quonset hut and in harshest terms a glorified tent. They have to crowd people into a smaller space than the nice entry building at berth 93 where we always used to be for embarkation. There is no room for a separate Suite/Elite line like we have enjoyed in the past and people, especially those in the blue lane picking up medallions, are all squeezed into a single small, poorly ventilated and unappealing space where the line winds through a set up reminiscent of a theme park ride. On the upside the parking situation is great and it’s always fun to see the USS Iowa. And for us it’s a 1 hour drive from home.

Mostly just the basics now of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry - although there still seems to be one special flavor offered generally. Princess ice cream used to be one of my favorite desserts - I’m really dating myself but I remember when they used to have an ice cream sundae bar every afternoon in the buffet with all the toppings. One of many things gone by the wayside - along with the warm cookies and milk team. My very favorite ice cream used to be the rum raisin - haven’t seen that in a long while. I would love it if they brought that back. Anyone see it offered on any recent cruise?

Agree with both! I used to puff up like a blowfish but have taken several measures that seem to help including switching to bottled water and canned sodas, limiting some of the super salty items like the cooked veggies, soups, fries etc., limiting my alcohol intake, and walking as much as possible. It all seems to help.

One parent can handle the registration - in fact I think Princess has now set up a way to do it online now in advance of the cruise. You can designate on the registration what other people are allowed to do pick up/sign out. Not sure what the current requirements are, but I believe if granted permission the 11 year old could be given self sign out privileges. Our kids are 5 years apart in age, so we used to grant her older brother permission to sign our daughter out and then eventually granted her sign in and sign out privileges on her own as a preteen as long as she called us when she got to the club and was leaving so we could keep track of her. It must be much easier today with the medallions as you can see where members of your traveling group are on the ship. Probably no more need for beepers anymore. I would have loved that when my kids were little.

That must be a super popular cruise. We looked at it as well but it seemed firmly sold out. I know sometimes things open up around the final payment deadline, but I’m thinking that has probably passed for that cruise. Good luck getting a cabin - looks really fun!

Yes, booking direct is the best option. Most of the people on our roll call booked the train in Flaam directly, although it is now showing sold out for most times via direct booking as well. We are doing a Princess excursion there because we wanted to go further to Voss and it was the only viable option.

This is a really interesting observation and makes a lot of sense related to supply chain issues as we have also found the beds on Discovery significantly less comfortable then other Princess ships and were seriously baffled as to why we noted such a difference. In general we love the comfort of Princess mattresses!

We have experienced the same with the casino booking department - hard sell tactics that rival the extended warranty pitch at a car dealership! 😂 We also politely, but firmly, let them know we can skip that conversation!

We had a similar experience in San Pedro a few weeks ago - waited in line more than an hour to pick up our medallions while my daughter and her husband who had received theirs via shipment in advance walked right onboard. We learned our lesson and will always get them shipped from now on as you really don’t know what the situation will be at any particular port. People have reported similar long waits in San Francisco. It’s worth the $10 in my estimation to avoid a long line and start my vacation hassle free.