tiller

Are you doing the Auckland to Fremantle on Feb 14? Or the cruise before? Either way go here. http://www.celebritycruises.com/plan-a-cruise/shore-excursions scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on the link which says download shore and land brochure and then put in the info about your cruise. It gives you a download of all the shiptours available.

 

We are on the Solstice on the 14th and have a very active rollcall if you are on that cruise.

 

And to continue with the thread. My reservation is back but I still can't log in and all I want to do is see what room we are in and possibly book another tour.

On the cruise right before. I will try that, thank you!

Glad to see this thread. I'm on the Solstice in February and trying to research shore excursion options. It worked OK for a while yesterday but now I get the dreaded "your reservation is being modified" message. I'm trying to find out departure times for excursions, and I think you can only find that when you're logged in.

I think I'll try the "already booked" approach. Can't hurt! I have to say, I have never encountered this many website issues with any other cruise line.

I think the Triumph has these new menus? Glad to see they brought back cold soups, I always enjoy those on cruises.

Thank you for posting!

Thank you for all your answers!

My family is going on the Carnival Triumph in December, and I was wondering how the transportation works for the Salsa & Salsa excursion. I understand that you have to take a taxi to an from the resort. Does Carnival arrange the taxis, or are we on our own? This is for both coming and going.

I most likely will be going on the excursion with just my mom, and I don't want us to worry about being safe or getting stranded.

Thanks!

I was on the Inspiration this week and made a few creations.

First, make iced coffee. Just fill the water/iced tea glasses all the way up with ice, then add coffee. The coffee gets cold pretty quickly. You can add cream or sugar if you like. I drank that several times.

One morning I took a carton of chocolate milk and poured some of it into the iced coffee, to make a kind of iced mocha. I added more chocolate milk as I drank more of the coffee, so it was really chocolatey by the end.

Another day I got grits and then took a slice of cheese from the meat and cheese display in the salad bar. I tore the cheese into pieces and stirred it into the grits with a pat of butter and salt and pepper to make pseudo cheese grits. Next time I'll make smaller pieces so the cheese melts more quickly.

A California Burrito is technically a Carne Asada burrito with fries on in the inside of the burrito. They are really yummy.

I had a California breakfast burrito once. It was amazing.

I'll be on the Imagination in a couple of weeks. Sadly, it does not have a BIC. If it did, I'd make a burrito with beef, cheese, guacamole, and salsa, and then get some fries to make a California burrito. Or, skip the tortilla and make carne asada fries.

They were on the Grand but my mom and I never got around to trying them. One of my few regrets.

Getting the red X :(

I fixed it. Sorry about that, first time posting pics on CC!

Thanks to everyone who has read and commented. Here are a couple of photos from the morning cruising through Tracy Arm:

Yes, Crooners is always packed. Once I saw them put folding chairs out in the walkway because there were so many people trying to hear the entertainer. It's not a very good use of space.

I agree about Crooner's, but we only sat there when we wanted to drink. I'm thinking more about by the pools or in the Explorers' Lounge. Those have plenty of seats.

Sounds like it was a nice cruise overall. Nothing prettier than Alaska.. As far as the elevators, we try to book up front and that usually puts us close to the front elevators and stars and never a problem. It is strange that Princess didn't see the need for more center access.

 

The waitstaff on several different Princess ships have told me that if you will allow them to place an empty napkin in front of you, this indicates to other staff that you have been asked and requested no bar service. I have seen this work in Crooners, the Piazza bar and the Wheelhouse. You might try that in the future.

That's a great tip about the napkin, I'll definitely remember that!

Nice, concise review! We did the same cruise on the same ship in May, but we had to go to Endicott Fjord instead for some reason. I'd love to see pictures of Tracy Arm if you have some. I agree about the maze-like decks.. On one floor.. 7 I think, there was an odd flight of stairs that went nowhere. If you go up and through the doors (I don't think you are supposed to, but my husband sometimes seems to need a leash), it just ends up on the main stairs right next to the odd ones.

I saw the stairs that ended at "Crew Only"--were those the ones your husband went through?

Still need to go through my photos, but did take many of Tracy Arm. Will try to remember and post those.

My mom and I took the Grand Princess from Seattle to Seattle, with stops in Ketchikan, Tracy Arm/Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria. It was our second time on Princess (we took a California coastal cruise on the Sapphire Princess in May 2012), and we had a wonderful trip. I wanted to share some of the highlights and the very few lowlights.

Embarkation: Princess picked us up from the hotel in the late morning. Even though it seemed like we were going from endless line to endless line, we were on board by 12:30 p.m., giving us plenty of time to walk around before going to the HC for lunch. However, while boarding, we did have to dodge photographers for the first of many times (having to walk around photo ops getting on and off the ship is bad enough, but when you're trying to enter the dining room? Too much, Princess).

Cabin: We originally booked an oceanview stateroom and were on Deck 5. However, we were upgraded to a balcony on Deck 12 (Aloha). Our cabin was mid-ship, and we felt very little movement. Also, even though we were below the Lido deck, we never heard any noise. The one oddity was that the mid-ship elevators didn't have corresponding stairs, so we'd have to walk down the hall in either direction to walk up or down.

Having a balcony was great when we were in Tracy Arm, and just in general to see the beautiful scenery. You don't see that much green in Southern California in August (I live in San Diego and my mom in Palm Desert). Our steward, Sawang, was excellent. We had plenty of storage, but a sofa (so common in most staterooms) would also be nice. Our beds were comfortable, though I kept waking up before the wakeup call.

Dining: We thought the food was very good. Some of the highlights were the fried calamari, veal, and penne with short rib sauce at Sabatini's—we had a complimentary dinner but felt it was definitely worth the surcharge; the albondigas soup, pastries, and Greek salad at the International Café; the pizza at Alfredo's and Prego; the reindeer chili at Prego when we were in Juneau; the miso soup, omelet, and muesli at the HC; the scones at tea; and the escargot, fried chicken, chocolate pecan pie (lunch), and crème brulee in the dining room. Other than one or two missteps (my mom felt her pheasant was dry, I thought the banana chocolate parfait in the HC was better in idea than execution), my only real criticism was that some of the food could have been warmer. But that's the nature of buffets and large dining rooms. Service was excellent across the ship, except for a few servers who were too eager to take my plate away when I hadn't yet finished.

Entertainment: We played as many trivia games as we could, and after being shut out on the Sapphire, finally won on the Grand, thanks to a tiebreaker. I found afternoon trivia to be much harder and quite frankly, too dependent on geography questions. My strength is pop culture and American sports. We both enjoyed the shows by Garry Carson and Bobby Brooks Wilson. I liked the British Invasion show better than my mom—the singing was variable but there was some nice staging and costuming, especially during "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Naturalist Mark Harris gave a few talks with some interesting info but honestly, I really don't care about what his kids or neighbors are up to. Also, when he would mention instances where an animal killed a human (incidents at Sea World, Timothy Treadwell and grizzly bears), I was never quite sure who he wanted us to feel bad for.

We would have liked to have seen the talk by the woman who won the Iditarod but it conflicted with our reservations at Sabatini's. I wish Princess re-aired talks and shows on their ship channels. Overall, we had no trouble staying busy.

Layout: The Grand Princess is not the largest ship I've ever been on, but it is certainly one of the trickier to get around. Even after a week we still ran into problems on the Promenade Deck. Between elevators and stairs that stopped on Deck 7, running into dead ends, and having to backtrack to find a way to get to the lower decks, I've never been on a more puzzling deck. Although the Lido Deck came close. I never understood why the pizza and grill have to be so far from the buffet.

Ship in general: Although I had read complaints about the condition of the ship, everything looked perfectly fine to me. I regret not exploring the top decks earlier, as it wasn’t until the second sea day that we discovered a lounge on Deck 15 with couches and wicker furniture.

Excursions: My first cruise was to Alaska when I was 10, and this was our first time back. Other than Skagway, we had been to all the ports prior, and we avoid the lengthy/expensive/overly active tours, so my mom and I kept it simple. Did the "duck" tour in Ketchikan, a bus tour/Days of 98 show in Skagway (silly but fun), and a horse-drawn trolley tour in Victoria. All of them gave us a good view of the city, and except for a little rain and cold in Skagway we had mild weather in every port. We just walked around Juneau. Skagway was my favorite port. If the weather had been nicer, we would have stuck around longer after the tour.

Disembarkation: We learned about EZ Check-in and it was $40 very well spent. Disembarkation was the smoothest I've ever experienced. Our group was called around 7:45 and we were at the airport a little over an hour later. Our bags were waiting for us when we got back to San Diego, no hassle of having to find them in the cruise terminal in Seattle or lugging them into the airport. If you can do it, I highly recommend it.

Complaints: As noted above, some of the photo opportunities were too intrusive. We also wish that the cruise wouldn't just push jewelry stores on us in their port talks but instead highlight local craftspeople. At least we could skip those talks. My biggest complaint was the bar service. I cannot recall being on a cruise where if you just wanted to sit in a lounge to relax or watch a show, or eat by the pool, one bar steward after another would come by and ask if you wanted a drink. It was definitely the worst I've seen. There should be a sign you can put out to indicate you don't want to buy a drink. Other times they'd hover over us while we pored through the drink menu. I'm sorry, but I can't read the martini menu at Crooner's in 15 seconds. Ironically, there were other times when we couldn't get service and I'd have to go up to the bar. The bartenders were great, by the way. I liked my drinks, I just think Princess really needs to train its bar staff to not be so pushy and learn how to read cues.

But really, that was my only significant complaint. Overall it was a fantastic week away, and we would certainly take Princess a third time.

I was on the Grand last week and was able to get free hot chocolate in the HC at breakfast from one of the waiters.

Those are great photos! I'll be on the Grand on Sunday and am already planning what to eat. That hazelnut semifreddo in particular looks delicious.

We're not in a full suite, so this must be the 3 for Free promotion (that doesn't ring a bell, I'll ask my mom). I'd rather make our own reservation, so hopefully that's the case. Thank you for the info and menu suggestions!

Tiller - how did you find out that your dinner is on the first night? We are expecting an assignment for our cruise, but the instructions say we'll find out later. Just wondering...when is later compared to one's cruise?

Our travel agent told us it would be the first night, but didn't have any other details.

My mom and I are sailing on the Grand Princess in August and are getting a free dinner in one of the specialty restaurants on the first night. How does it work--do you get a card in your cabin telling you which restaurant and the time? Or do you call to make the reservation after you board? If there is a card, can you change the restaurant or time?

Any info is welcome. Thanks!

Glad to hear! I'll be on it in 3 months.

My mom and I just got our cabin assignment, and I immediately went to the site to check out our view--for an "obstructed view," I could still see plenty of ocean. Thanks!