PescadoAmarillo

Yes, but…TIPWTA.* *Pronounced Tip-wit-a at our house. Because it’s used with some frequency.

The $14.99 OceanNow access charge was reversed overnight. We have $60 Princess Plus

I had it again for lunch today!! I’m glad you like it!

I recall Platinum and Elite Lounges well before 2019. As in, at least 10 years before. Did I miss your mention of the elimination of Elite toiletries? Because I keenly miss those four QTips for two people on a month long cruise.

I would only do the Panama Canal cruise for the first time on a ship small enough to fit through the old locks. On Princess, that means the Island or Coral.

A charge has appeared on my account. According to Guests Services, it will be reversed later today.

On the Sapphire Princess right now. Just placed my first Ocean Niw order of the cruise. I have Princess Plus. It never mentioned that the $14.99 would be waived but it was.

B2B on the Sapphire. On today’s turnaround day, we received this letter in our cabin.

I wouldn’t be too upset about it. Ours were shipped to us and both of them needed to be replaced within 24 hours after we boarded the ship because the batteries were dying and they wouldn’t open our cabin door. The Guest Services associate looked and saw that they had been shipped exactly two weeks prior to the start of our cruise. She then said there was no way they would have lasted the full two weeks of our cruise.

I’ll let you know next cruise what happens in vVnes and Alfredo’s. Lucky you, going on the South Pacific cruise! We waited one day too long to book it, and any cabins we wanted were gone. G kept asking if I was sure I wanted to cruise that long, but to get anck to Dravuni Island without a long flight, I would.

There is a Baked Alaska martini and the Alaskan beers, but I haven’t run across any other special drinks. If I encounter any, I’ll make sure you’re aware.

Definitely a Princess excursion. $259pp plus the cost of an Alaska fishing license. And do make sure the salmon are running before you pay that kind of money. King salmon have a different season than Coho, and you have to have a special King Salmon license no keep it, but that season ends at the end of July.

Yes, it was the cocktail party. I’ll try to get the cut off. It was on a night we had the fresh salmon, and I didn’t eat any food there at all. I *think* I might have ordered one drink, but with the drink package, that’s not a big deal. I did greatly enjoy the conversation because we knew the Safety Officer from prior cruises.

Exactly this. I am fairly burned out on alcohol after 3 full days. But it’s 9am and I’ve already ordered 4 Perriers from Room service, and drank two cappuccinos and two fresh squeezed juices from the juice bar. That’s about $32 or so of beverages if I had ordered them a la carte. The Plus package is well worth it even without a single alcoholic beverage. But the best part is the change in mentality about drinks. When I’m pre-paid, I don’t feel impelled to finish anything. I just want a taste of things; I’m not looking to get wasted.

Thank you! And thank you again.🙂 I just published a post that I will amend when I find different menus around the ship. http://pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com/2023/07/current-sapphire-princess-drink-menus.html I know I said I wasn’t going to get involved with this impending dining change thing but we were just in Alfredo’s having lunch and the Assistant DRO came to talk with us and it was easy enough to just ask her about it. On the Sapphire Princess, the two affected dining venues are Alfredo’s and Vines. They will no longer offer free food in either venue but instead a three course prix fixe menu for $14.99 pp (starter, entree, dessert). Again, what we have already done for the two port days this cruise, just stop in and have pizza and a beer, will not be available. The options will be, with Princess Premium: unlimited visits for free each cruise; for Princess Plus: two visits for free each cruise, regardless of cruise length, and unlimited further visits for $14.99pp; for Princess Standard, unlimited $14.99 visits per person. What hasn’t been worked out yet is how guests doing B2B cruises that fall over August 2 (ie us) will be handled, based on whether they have Princess Standard, Princess Plus or Princess Premium. She us going to get back with us when that gets figured out. And that’s all I will say say about that. Because any program that offers two of anything per cruise regardless of whether the cruise is 3 days or 33 days is just silly.

I just had a convo with Associate HGM Eunice on the Terrace Deck. To the best of my recollection, here are the answers to your questions for the Dec 1 cruise to Antarctica. Captain: Paola Ravera HGM: Miguel (yay!)) DRO: she *thinks* Mario will be back but not for the LA to Santiago portion Bus and Brand: Yolandi Exec chef: not Remo but she’s not sure who it will be.

Here you go. This is what Rick provided to me. Sorry for the delay. I only have a “one device at a time” plan and not everything is on both devices. There is an escalator in the lobby of the hotel (eta Pan Pacific), near the doors to the street, that takes you down to the mall. I assume there's a nearby elevator. Following the signs will take you to the main Waterfront stations (where the Expo/Millenium lines end); it is also the regular train station. You then walk the entire length of the Skytrain to the opposite end where you go up the escalator/elevator. Turn right into the main station, diagonally cross the station lobby to the right, and take the escalator/elevator down to the tunnel that will take you to the Canada Line station, where the train will take you to the airport. If you get lost at all, there should be plenty of signs, or people to ask.

We definitely have similar cruising styles. But I will make a point of visiting Alfredos next cruise fire lunch on a port day and will take note of the changes. They say the opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s apathy. I think I can safely say I’m in that stage of my relationship with Princess. Each vacation decision is measured on its own merits. These changes are just another criterion, as were OBC and milestone losses.

Yeah, I read something about it, and thank you for spelling it out for me. I’m sure it’s hot news here on CC but I’ve heard nothing about it on the ship and am not going to be researching it. We have Princess Plus, so I’m not sure I’ll even notice a difference. Here’s the thing…we will probably never cruise for long periods again. I can’t imagine paying for a Plus or Premium package for 120 or 150 nights. I’m a day and a half into this “drinking thing” and I’m already burning out, but then I can go weeks at home without touching an alcoholic beverage. As for dining, we are traditional cruisers. Give us a good table in the dining room and we’ll eat every meal we can in there. The buffet on port days rounds it out. Alfredo’s is nice but before we had it, we didn’t miss it. We never order room service. We don’t order snacks in the cabin. I like my coffee hot and room service coffee has never passed muster. I’ve used Ocean Now food delivery perhaps four times, and all but one of them were when I was limited to dining in our cabin. I don’t even know what the new dining venues on the new ships are and don’t particularly care. I have zero FOMO. So, if we did ever cruise for more than a couple of weeks, the Standard pricing is fine. And if we cruise for just a couple of weeks, we’ll always get Plus.

I will post it today. We haven’t yet done it ourselves but intend to try when we disembark the ship.

He enjoyed meeting you and your wife on the Ruby! I think he was surprised when he told me he had and I was quite excited about it. “Thrak? You met Thrak?” 😉 I’m lucky in that he never guilted me into cruising when I didn’t want to. He knew I would cruise when/if I was ready and when I made the decision to cruise, I would decide to enjoy it. And I never made him feel guilty for wanting to get away from winter. Ours was a military marriage. Separations have been part of life.

Thank you!

Thank you! Thanks!

We’re in Vancouver and are boarding the Sapphire Princess today for a two week cruise to Alaska. I’m not doing a Live From as I’m not certain about onboard WiFi speeds, but I am blogging about our trip at http://pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com/2023/07/an-anniversary-cruise-to-alaska.html

You do brief very well! Thanks for bringing us along.