SCX22

The Class of ship will determine the whether or not your itinerary will sail the most scenic parts of the Inside Passage. Royal Class ships sail west of Vancouver Island (the dashed line) skipping the most scenic parts. Grand Class ships sail east of Vancouver Island (the solid lines) through the straights of the Inside Passage. How do can you tell if your ship is a Grand Class or Royal Class? Research the maiden voyage of your ship. If it's maiden voyage was after 2009, then it's a Royal Class ship. Sun Class ships haven't made it to Alaska yet. People recommend doing the land portion before the cruise so that they can use the cruise to relax. As a matter of personal preference, I choose which one is cheaper, given all things are the same. The Royal class ships skip Skagway on the Southbound and replace it with Icy Straight Point. In this case, I would definitely do a Northbound voyage. I prefer College Fjord because there's more glaciers to see. There's a local cruise company in Whitter that sells a 4 hour 26 Glacier Cruise to College Fjord on a catamaran. By being having College Fjord a part of your itinerary you get to see it for "free." Hubbard Glacier isn't as impressive as it used to be and the ship doesn't get very close to it (at least it didn't on my cruise this past June). You have the weather to contend with. Day/evening cruising is the least of your worries. If it's foggy or stormy you won't be seeing much of anything. There's also a chance that the ship will skip cruising scenic areas like Glacier Bay if this is the case. This is only true for the Northern latitudes, like Whittier. In the summer, it get darker, but there is still traces of the sun even at midnight. It never gets completely dark. In the other ports, sunset is usually around 22:00 and 23:00, but sunrise is early between 04:00 and 05:00. It's also this reason, I don't mind an inside room Alaska, after having completed 8 cruises, because my circadian isn't all messed up and I can get sleep. Still recommend a balcony for first timers. Activities and shops in port stay tend to open while the ships are in port. Honestly, I think you're setting yourself up for failure by over thinking this trip. Remember you're going to Southeast Alaska; most of which is considered to be rain forest so the likelihood of rain is high. Ketchikan is one of the rainiest cities in the U.S. Passengers don't/can't control the weather.

Agree with the overuse of starches to thicken desserts. Puddings/panna cottas are like wallpaper paste instead of being a luscious texture. The pies are too firm for my liking are sometimes still cold/frozen in the center. I guess they are chilled so that they slice neater.

I still think it's a disputes problem. I've noticed that the logo, trinkets, beauty & fragrance shops use the new POS and give out printed slips. The fine jewelry/watch and Effy shops still hand write tickets and make the passenger physically sign. Purchases from those shops are large sums to be disputing. Having the physical ticket allows for there there to be a trail and a way to reconcile the transaction.

Kind of sorta. My problem with the Medallions is that there is no trail. When you go to Guest Services, it's your word versus the electronic record. With the tickets there's a way to reconcile all the transactions. I do appreciate that Guest Services is usually on the guest's side when removing unauthorized charges. The Shops at Princess has switched to a new POS where it actually produces a printed transaction receipt instead of the hand written tickets. I guess Princess was/is having problems with disputed charges at the Shops.

The "non-American" crew and officers have always outnumbered the American crew, virtually nil. It was and still is hard to find Americans working on cruise ship except on the entertainment team. Don't see the connection. Care to elaborate?

There are cameras in all those areas on the Royal, Sky, Enchanted, and Discovery. I assume they will also be installed on the Regal and Majestic when they go in for major refurbishment. I was surprised when I got onto the Royal after the restart and looked up at the ceilings. I didn't remember there being this many cameras when I first got on her in 2015. It's hard to miss the security camera domes.

True, but the range for pick-up is much narrower. It's the same as a the range in a credit card. Near Field, such as credit cards or cruise cards, have to be within inches for it to communicate. That's why the cruise cards can't open your door from a few feet away like the Medallion can or the credit card processing terminals at the store can't pick up the credit cards of everyone in line. The Medallions are Far Field, which means they can make communicate farther away. The Far Field component is why the Princess devices are picking up the Medallion information of all the passengers within range and the crew has to narrow down which person they are serving by matching a face to a photo.

The way the folio populates on an iPhone (at least on my party's iPhones) doesn't allow you to take a screenshot it in it's entirety. It's super magnified and you can't use 2 fingers to adjust the zoom; zoom can't be adjusted at all. I could take a screenshot of it but it would only capture bits and pieces. The description column shows, but because of the preset magnification of the App, I have to scroll to the right to see the amount. For this reason, I still have to get the print out if I want a hard copy.

There's a trade off in the location of the Pinnacle. While you'll be further away from the downtown shopping area, you'll be closer to the Canada Place the next day. If all you're going to do is eat and sleep for a few hours and walk to the Canada Place the next day, the Pinnacle will be great for that purpose. The only other Marriott property that is close to the Canada Place is the Delta Suites. Nice hotel and close to the Canada Place, but you're getting closer to the seedy part of town. The location is near the Waterfront Station as well which makes it convenient if you plan on taking the Canada Line to your hotel.

But there is...not a deck, but a room. On Royal class ships, the surveillance room is on Deck 6 underneath the tiered seating of Princess Theatre. The monitors for the CCTVs on the ship and the security crew who monitor them are located here. We were shown this area on the All Access Tours when they were still offered. Like has been stated before, as long as you haven't done anything wrong, nothing to worry about.

I wish Princess allow guests to program a PIN to go along with the Medallion. The guest would have to enter their PIN as a verification layer when ever an order or purchase is made. In case you have a lot of time on your hands, here's the link to the patent Carnival filed for the Medallion: https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/10037642 Low and behold, John Padgett is first on the list for the inventor. On PDF page 47, Column 33, it basically says the only form of verification for the Medallion is the crew matching the photograph on file with the face of the guest ordering.

Always better to make the EZ Air changes yourself through the Personalizer pre-cruise. Glad you were able to save.

Around 9:30 a.m. longshoremen will appear on Level P2 to start accepting luggage. Best to take the elevators inside the Pan Pacific (really the Convention Centre elevators) down to P2. We had the same idea as you when we left on the Majestic in Vancouver this June. We dropped our bags at 9:45, walk around, had lunch, and came back at 2:00 p.m. to check-in. It was a breeze because most everyone had already checked-in. Bags were already delivered to our cabins by the time we got onboard. Can't speak to how the current longshoremen strike in Vancouver is affecting this.

Or Canada.

That area is too business for my liking. It gets really quiet in the evenings and the walk back to the hotel is eerie, but not unsafe, because it's pretty deserted. The downtown retail area is nearby

Won't change anything on the cruise portion of your reservation. If you have already made full payment, you will have to call Princess or your TA to have the process the refund due back on your card.

All a bunch of bologna to sell more Princess Plus/Premier packages. Pre-purchase a package and get your Medallion shipped to your home (which sometimes might not make it in time) to get into the Green Lane. Often times, the Blue Lane moves faster than the Green Lane because there are more agents assigned to the Blue Lane. Also, there are ports like San Francisco where there is a separate line to pick up Medallions after checking in, so both lines move equally as fast. P/E/S (with the known exception being Vancouver) have a separate line for them anyways. Are the port agents going to start checking QR codes now? If not, Princess should get rid of the QR codes too because they are as superfluous as the Arrival Groups.

The D and F gates are the only gates capable of handing international arrivals because they are the ones connected immigration, so you will most likely have to change terminals. Luckily, Honolulu is a very compact airport. No choice but to exit the secure zone after re-checking checked baggage, so you will have to re-clear TSA to get to your connecting flight's gate.

I have done this connection before, but to SFO. I had a scheduled 1.75 hours for my connection per the Hawaiian schedule. My flight to SYD was late in arriving and I only ended up having 45 minutes for my connection. Long story short, I didn't make it to my SFO flight that day and because the flight to SFO was sold out the following day, I had to be rebooked on the flight to OAK. The up side was that Hawaiian put me up at the Marriott in Waikiki for the night. Ditto on the busiest TSA checkpoint times. Hawaiian (and most other U.S. airlines) has large bank of flights to North America departing between 12:00 and 14:00. Hawaiian recommends a 2 hour transit time in Honolulu for international to North America flight. Not sure why they are selling this as a legal connection.

That's a great area within walking distance to the main downtown shopping areas. Don't walk past Seymour Street unless you plan on going to Gastown, and this case walk along Cordova Street. Vancouver gets pretty seedy past Seymour. The park you speak of isn't really a park; it's more of a town square--mostly concrete with planters. You'll be able to walk the Canada Place the morning of your cruise. Can't speak to next year, but when I was in Vancouver this year, the effects of the pandemic weren't as bad as other west coast cities. The shopping district was still bustling and people were out and about. There are some homeless people around, but it no where near as bad as the urban parts of California.

At bare minimum program the Princess Enroute number and the local number for the Princess transfer reps (given in the transfer instructions) into your phone. If you are delayed, call the Enroute number straight away and advise them of your delay. The arrival window for Princess Heathrow transfers is 07:00 to 11:00. If you get to the point where you are cutting it close to 11:00 upon arrival into Heathrow, call the local Princess transfer rep, give them your terminal and were you are in the arrivals formalities, and ask to see if they can wait for you. Heathrow is quite the beast to walk through.

The length of the cruise doesn't affect the number of cruise credits earned. It's the number of segments that make the entirety of your cruise that counts. For example, your 14 day Med cruise was 2 segments sold back to back as one cruise, so you got a total of 4 credits (1 for each segment x 2 segments x 2 for being single = 4 cruise credits.) You could be on a 32 day cruise, but if it's only one cruise segment, you would only earn 1 cruise credit (or in your case 2 credits because you sail single).

Princess wanted to continue on the itinerary that was set out originally, even if it meant scrapping all but one port in Alaska. Part of it is to make is the distances to make it back to San Francisco by 07/16. Princess has another set of passengers coming on board. It might have also been to there not being enough berths available in the other Alaska ports. If the ship did make it to another Alaskan port, the ship might not have shore excursions to offer. The tour operators in Alaska aren't infinite and it would have been a logistical nightmare to try and organize these on a whim.

Wasn’t a passenger, so couldn’t have heard anything on the ship. I can say with confidence that the passengers weren’t being let off the ship and the reason they were being given is that the ship might get Coast Guard clearance to set sail that night. How they were going to get clearance that night without repairing a gaping hole, I have no idea.

My friend and his family were on this sailing. He texted me asking me if I could come pick them up from the the pier so we could go to dinner after all of the hiccups that day. Come to find out that passengers weren’t being let off the first day in case the coast guard cleared the ship to sail. There was some false hope being let off by the announcements that the ship would be leaving Thursday night.