karatemom2

As a long time and frequent Princess cruiser I can assure you that you do not need the Plus package. Unless you are heavily invested in the alcoholic beverage part of the package, you can easily save money by not purchasing it and just buying what you actually consume alacarte onboard. Your main dining, water, lemonade, iced tea and coffee are all included. If you want to pay for sodas or cocktails on an as wanted basis it will end up costing you a lot less most likely. You could even just pay for one specialty meal if you want and be money ahead. Bottom line is seeing Alaska, and Princess is a great choice for that as well as the onboard entertainment you enjoy like piano bars, trivia, karaoke, etc.

Grateful that I saw this discussion. I just went on my app and purchased in advance with our Elite discount for our upcoming summer cruise. I feel like Princess is trying to bully those of us who opt out of the packages - at some point we will just give in and decide it is the most affordable option. Maybe instead you will just bully me over to another line once my Elite benefits aren't as attractive as they once were. Already looking at some Celebrity and NCL cruise options this year. They have some nice casino offers as well.

Yes, no problem. Princess all aboard times are 30 minutes to departure when you are docked and an hour in advance when tendering. Your all aboard time will be 3;30 pm.

We did the British Isles cruise on the Emerald Princes in 2022 and it still ranks as one of our top 5 cruises in my estimation. They are port intensive, so you need to be prepared for an energetic vacation as there is so much to see and do and each destination. Here is an itinerary of what we did on our 4 day stay pre-cruise in London, and then at each port on our cruise: London: Buckingham Palace Westminster Abbey Tower of London Churchill War Rooms Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre St. Paul's Cathedral Maritime Museum at Greenwich Southampton Departure - transfer and tour vis International Friends: Windsor Castle Guernsey - Private Tour: Castle Cornet WWII Sites and Museum Cobh - Princess Tour: Rock of Cashel Dublin - Princess Tour: Glendalough Monastic City Christchurch Cathedral Belfast - Odyssey Tours: Giants Causeway Dunluce Castle Titanic Museum Liverpool - Wales Tour via Busy Bus: Conwy Castle Snowdonia Park Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Invergordon - Private Tour: Dunrobin Castle Cairn Liath Falls of Shin Dornoch Cathedral Glasgow - Discover Scotland: Sterling Castle Doune Castle Village of Luss Loch Lomond Trossachs National Park Edinburgh - used local taxi: Edinburgh Castle Royal Mile St. Giles Cathedral Royal Yacht Brittania Le Havre - Normandy via Overlord Tours: Omaha Beach American Cemetery Bayeux - for Cathedral and Bayeux Tapestry Honfleur Southampton Departure - transfer and tour via EC Minibus: Stonehenge It was a busy and action packed cruise vacation, but one I highly recommend!

Avis has not had their office in downtown Juneau open for a number of years now, at least it hasn't. I would call them to verify, but I believe the only Avis rental location now is at the airport which would be very inconvenient. The service we have used on all of our most recent cruises is Juneau Car Rental Company which had a space at the port until I believe they lost it recently, but as of our last visit they would still deliver and pick up your reserved vehicle at the port. Here is a link to their web site: https://www.juneaucarrentalcompany.com/

The kids on our recent New Year’s cruise were great. I love seeing families sharing special times together. The kid’s club staff did a fantastic job keeping them occupied and entertained, including a family fun fair in the Piazza. I have seen much more bad behavior by adults. Some of the rude, obnoxious, drunken behavior we witnessed on our Super Bowl weekend cruise last year and our recent Nee Year’s cruise have convinced me to avoid certain cruises on certain holidays because of the horrible antics of the adults. I will take a bunch of kids over that any day.

Happy to share some information. For our Windsor Visit, we shared the tour with another couple boarding our cruise and it was with a company called International Friends. They picked us both up at our respective hotels in London and we had about 2 1/2 hours at Windsor Castle. We got there just in time to watch the changing of the guard and had time to go through the whole castle tour and St. George’s Cathedral. I felt it was enough time for a first visit, although the town is so charming it would have been nice to explore there a bit. But I’m glad we didn’t shortchange any of our full London days because we really wanted to make the most of our time there. We got to the port just after 2 pm on walked right on the ship. Our Stonehenge tour was with EC Minibus. They picked us up at the port and we had about 90 minutes at Stonehenge which felt like ample time. We walked the grounds and all around the stones taking photos and explored the museum and exhibits and still had time to grab a quick cup of tea in the cafe. Then he took us right to Heathrow in plenty of time for our 5:30 pm flight home. It all worked out quite well. They were so great we booked with them again leaving our ship at Southampton this past summer when we got back from our Med cruise to visit Hampton Court Palace before heading to the airport.

Do any of the things on your wish list align with a ship excursion? Maybe even something as simple as a water taxi tour to Arch Rock and Land’s End. The nice thing about Mexico is that the ship excursions aren’t quite as overpriced and if you booked one scheduled at or near your arrival time, you can guarantee being in the first groups shuttled off the ship. Otherwise, plan to be in line at the lounge at least 45 minutes to an hour prior to the announced ticketing time with your entire party. If you are toward the front of that line you should get shuttled fairly expediently.

We visited the Royal Yacht on our Edinburgh port day and it was well worth the visit. We spent the morning at Edinburgh Castle and Royal Mile and then Ubered from there to the Yacht. After our visit we headed directly back to the port - also via Uber. It was easy and reasonable in cost - worth it in my estimation when we had limited hours to fit in all we wanted to do and going direct from point A to point B without a bunch of other stops or detours saved a lot of time.

It is confusing. I was experiencing the same thing. But then I figured if I go to the list of dining venues I can pick the one I want. It shows the available dates and times and you can select one and then confirm the booking. I just reserved each night of our June cruise yesterday and ordered our medallions.

First I’d like to say how very sorry I am about your husband. I think it’s wonderful that you are doing this for him to make his Alaska dream come true. My recommendation would be to look for cruises that are round trip out of Vancouver. It will make flying in and out much easier for you. Both Princess and Holland America do a good job in Alaska and the ships they have going on these round trip itineraries will traverse the very scenic true Inside Passage each way. Another great option I noted if you can devote longer than a week is an 11 day cruise on the Queen Elizabeth by Cunard. All of the itineraries include two full days of scenic cruising in places like Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier, so you might get more opportunity on a cruise like that to see a great deal from the ship. I would also encourage you to review the shore excursions to see your options for things that might be very low key - mostly on a tour bus. A good travel agent might be the best person to help advise you. Wishing you and your husband the best!

Reservations aren’t required but they do make it more expedient. We prefer a table for 2 and try to reserve for a specific time each night so we can try to get the same table and waitstaff. Then we can just walk into the dining room at our reserved time and not wait in a long line or have to be on a waiting list with a buzzer.

Not the OP, but we were on Discovery last week. We saw a few passengers wearing masks and some of the staff, it seemed to increase as the week went on, probably due to the amount of people coughing everywhere. My son and husband both tested positive on the last day of our cruise. They ended up staying isolated in our cabin for the day and evening and we masked up and walked off first thing the next morning so as to try to avoid exposing anyone else. But honestly, it is everywhere right now. I work in healthcare and our census of positive patients is quite high - also the Flu and RSV. Several people in our Facebook group have similarly reported positive tests since coming home. So, you just have to do the best you can to protect yourself - anyone who is higher risk should probably consider wearing a mask, especially in elevators and crowded venues. I ended up catching it from them and tested positive a few days after we got home. Not fun - but it won't deter me from cruising. We will likely mask up a bit more and get another booster for our cruise this summer.

Yes, the new app has the Locate friends/family. We used it daily on our Discovery cruise last week to find our family members - it's a nice feature.

It will not take three hours to get a ticket. It’s up to you if you don’t want to get off and enjoy the ship instead, but likely at most you would wait for an hour to 90 minutes max. They were moving pretty quickly and they usually have two gangways with two tenders running at all times.

On our cruise last week the Vista lounge was being used for regular ticket distribution. The tickets are numbered and you and your full party need to remain in the lounge as they call out number sequences in groups to let you know when you can proceed to the gangway. We were off the ship by the time it had slowed down, but I would imagine if they announce there is no more waiting and you can go directly off the ship you would not need to stop to get a ticket.

Most of these activities that are sponsored by the spa or the stores are upsell, but if you don’t mind saying “No” you can sometimes enjoy some light services like a free neck and shoulder massage or mini facial (Ladies Pamper Party). I would totally avoid the acupuncture or weight loss talks and despite sometimes walking away with some cheap freebies like a charm bracelet, I’m not a big fan of the shop promotions. Things like the morning group Zumba or Yoga and dance instruction classes usually don’t come with a sales pitch. Arts and craft projects and onboard demos like cocktail making, fruit carving, towel animals, etc. are similarly free from upsell. Port lectures may have an upsell for shore excursions, but some are just informational or cover nature or history topics which can be quite interesting. The good news is you can always hang toward the back if you are unsure and sneak away if it ends up being not to your liking.

That had been our experience as well, however, it may depend on what ships are in port with you. On our most recent trip last week we were in port with a Carnival cruise ship. It appeared they had exclusive use of the Cabo port tenders that day and Princess was only using its own water shuttles.

I don’t believe you are on the same cruise as the OP. They are on a 7 day itinerary leaving Feb 3 and are only in Cabo for one day from Noon to 8. You must be on the 5 day cruise departing Feb 10 that overnights in Cabo. We did that itinerary last year and really enjoyed it. You do have a little more flexibility in timing getting off and on the ship since you are there overnight and people seem a bit less anxious about getting off since you are there for two days. The line will still likely be longest the first day on arrival though.

We just did this same itinerary on Discovery over New Year’s and I will share that the line up for those getting tender tickets as we were coming into port was very long by 11:30 am - a full half hour prior to our port time. We are Elite so went to a different lounge for the priority tendering, but we passed the line of people heading into the Vista lounge for the regular tendering tickets and there were a lot of people. If you want to avoid the crowds and are flexible about when you depart the ship, you might wait until between 1 - 2 pm to allow the initial rush to subside and you will likely get off fairly quickly at that point. Last tender back will be 7 pm and just know the line to come back will be long as well. It moved quickly, but it still took us a bit of time heading back.

I don’t think so unless it relates to a special activity that is planned. I can’t recall my kids getting snacks or drinks, but I think I was able to send a water bottle with them. It’s been awhile as they are all grown up now. Maybe someone with more recent experience will answer.

I don’t remember meals being offered as part of the program on sea days. It seems we needed to manage meals on those days. I think the buffet is far too busy on those days for the staff to try to herd the kids through while it is very quiet on port days which makes it manageable. The clubs close for an hour at lunch and dinner on sea days so I think parents are expected to feed the kids during those breaks. It stays open on port days when parents might be on shore so they need to make sure kids get lunch.

Kids staying on board on port days while parents are onshore will be taken by club staff as a group to the buffet for meals.

Haha - afraid that won't fly. Casino is strictly pass through for the kiddos. You and your hubby will have to take turns, or maybe get some of the family you are traveling with to do some babysitting.

Princess is very firm on the age requirements and the kids club has a manifest of all the children onboard with their age, so you will not be able to lie about the birthdate. As Kerry's Girls mentioned, it has been the case that a younger child could use the facilities at certain times when accompanied by a parent who remains with them, but you would have to verify that with the staff when you get onboard.