karatemom2

Royal Princess is a beautiful ship and Princess does a fabulous job on Alaska cruises and tours. You will have a wonderful trip.

We generally prefer the Soleil or Estrella on decks 5 and 6 as they are closer to the action so more convenient to most of the pre and post dinner activities we enjoy. But in terms of windows decor and service, there really isn’t much difference. We like to try to find a table and wait team we like the first night and stick with it through the cruise.

There is no longer a dress code, only recommended dress. Most evenings it is smart casual which runs the gamut from men in khakis and button down shirts to jeans and a t-shirt to shorts with a baseball cap. Ladies pretty much get by in anything that isn’t swimwear or a robe. Formal evenings may find tuxes, suits, cocktail dresses or gowns but more often than not these days even those nights are very relaxed. No ties required! Seriously, just wear what makes you comfortable and happy and you will be fine. No one really seems to care anymore. With that in mind it’s still considerate to not abuse the privilege by pushing the limits too far outside the bounds of societal norms.

My 24 year old daughter has been cruising with us since she was 4 and has a lot of days. She and her new husband honeymooned on Enchanted in the Med last summer and she shared that they got a lot of funny looks whenever accessing her Elite benefits. She found they were often a little dismissed until it was noted that she really is a very well traveled passenger. No one seemed to believe it was possible for someone so young to be a seasoned cruiser!

I'm also curious about the references to flying into Quebec. There are a couple of good flights for us from LAX that fly through Montreal and connect to Quebec, both are just $17 more in price than just flying into Montreal, so it seems to make sense. Just wondering if there is a reason for concern? When you are flying through to Quebec as your final destination with your luggage checked through, would you go through Canadian immigration in Montreal before your connecting flight, or at your final destination in Quebec? Just wondering in order to assess the timing of the layovers.

Wow, very beautiful! I’m sold!

@Rick&Jeannie what months did you travel on your cruises?

Please come back and share your experience and what you opted to do in your ports of call! I think we are going to book the September trip, so it will be nice to hear about your experience on the June/July cruise.

We swap ours out for bottled water and Diet Coke. We get 10 each - for a total of twenty items.

Great photos. Thanks so much for your feedback!

We are considering booking this 10 day itinerary in September and I would love to hear from those of you who have done this cruise. It looks like an amazing itinerary and we love the Emerald. We have visited a couple of these ports before on a summer New England cruise, but the idea of doing the one way from Quebec and ending in Boston is very appealing. Unfortunately, due to our work schedules, we just can't go any later then mid September, so I'm wondering if we will see any beginning stage maybe of the fall colors? I know October is peak, but hoping we might catch some glimpse of the start of the season. Any feedback you can provide on this particular itinerary would be welcomed!

There are still cabins to be had, but if you think waiting will provide a cost savings, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. In fact, with Alaska, generally it is the opposite. The longer you wait, the higher the price. These cruises will sell out and as inventory falls the price will creep up. I would suggest booking sooner rather than later.

That really depends on a lot of issues. The day we were there, the weather was not ideal and the ship had some difficulties anchoring, so the start of tendering process was delayed. You will need to go to the lounge and get tickets, and there is always a crush of people who want to get off the ship as quickly as possible so the line for tickets can be very long and wait times for your tender group to be called can take awhile. If you are Elite with Princess or booked on a Princess excursion, you get priority tendering, but otherwise you just have to wait your turn. Another thing to consider is that the tender ride itself is pretty long - about 20 minutes, especially if the weather is not great, so you have to allow for transit time as well. All this to just say that it is very difficult to predict exactly what time you will be at the dock, so you need to build in some flexibility with your pick up time if possible. You might just want to wait until you are onshore and then get a taxi or Uber. If you want to try to be on one of earliest tenders, my advice would be to go to the lounge where tender tickets are being distributed at least 30 minutes to an hour prior to the time distribution is scheduled to begin so you can secure a spot at the beginning of the line.

You will not regret booking one of the forward balcony cabins - they are our absolute favorite. The spaciousness and complete views they offer is amazing. We managed to nab one for our Land of the Midnight sun cruise in Norway this summer and I am so excited about seeing the fjords with our expansive view. If we are on a Royal class ship, those cabins are always our first choice.

I would always recommend selecting an itinerary that includes Glacier Bay, especially if you are a first time Alaska cruiser. Glacier Bay is a full day of scenic viewing with guaranteed glacier visibility. Endicott Arm is often too full of ice for the ships to get through and is frequently missed, or proceeded into very minimally with little or no chance of seeing the glacier.

We paid for our family of 5 to do it on New Year’s Eve on Discovery. It was amazing and we loved it! Very pricey but worth every penny. There is another thread here that indicates it is being discontinued as a suite perk for anyone booking after the end of Dec 2023. So they must be selling it well enough now to fill all the seatings.

When calculating your transit time also keep in mind that the tender ride at Dun Laoghaire is quite long compared to your average tender ride. It’s a good 25 to 30 minutes from ship to shore.

They have a Mariachi band onboard that plays in the Piazza and by the pool.

Were the other excursions you booked also through Princess or through private tour operators? Rules may vary and the note about the car seat could apply on the Princess tour as it requires a bus ride. If the child is taking up a seat that could be used by another paying passenger, there would be a charge for that. Princes usually offers a child rate for their excursions, so at least you would be paying a lesser amount.

We try to schedule our MDR reservations for 6 to 6:30 now, but there was a time when we were traveling as a family with kids that we regularly headed to the MDR between 5 to 5:30. It left us free to enjoy evening fun on the ship and for them to have time in the clubs if they wanted to participate in any of the planned activities. So definitely not just a senior thing. More just a personal preference I think.

On Discovery a couple of weeks ago it was Vista lounge for the masses and one of the main dining rooms for Elite and Suite passengers. Your entire party needs to be present and each person gets an individual ticket. The line up heading into the Vista lounge started a good 45 minutes prior to the announced time when ticket distribution was to begin and snaked all the way down the walkway past Princess Live. It was chaos. Priority tendering is still one of the Elite benefits that offers real value!

We used EC Minibus last year and were quite pleased with the service.

We stayed at the Harbour Hotel Southampton just this past September on the night before our cruise. It was lovely - great room, wonderful setting in the harbor and nice breakfast. They are very convenient to the port and offer shuttle service - just be sure to sign up for your time when you check in. We didn’t realize that was necessary and it was quite busy in the morning with many pre cruise guests staying in the hotel. We opted to just Uber over as we didn’t want to wait for the next available shuttle time which was Noon. I would absolutely stay there again. We are visiting Portsmouth prior to our cruise this summer, but otherwise I would definitely be booking at the Harbour Hotel.

We have been on the Discovery twice in the past year. In fairness, both were high volume trips - one last year for Super Bowl weekend and just a few weeks ago for New Year's. The ship was obviously filled to capacity both trips, so we proactively knew that we would need to be patient. However, Discovery seems understaffed. Bar service in particular was really slow and dining times were quite long. We also left before dessert on a couple of occasions. We had the exact opposite experience on the Sky Princess this past September however. Service was stellar and prompt across the board. So I have to believe this may be an issue with Discovery. Perhaps they need more crew and more training.

Yes, you should be able to stay together for boarding and debarkation, but your suite benefits and perks onboard will only be available to those booked in the suite cabin.