Paula_MacFan

Nonetheless I'm pretty sure people knew which ship you were referring to since this thread asked specifically about the Caribbean Princess 🙂 We've sailed on CB twice and have another cruise booked for 2026. We tend to choose trips based on itinerary, so if that's the ship sailing it then away we go. All ships have plusses and minuses, and you can get sick on any of them as well. For our upcoming Alaska cruisetour we chose Sapphire for a myriad of reasons, but we had many options for that destination. We leave in 3 days for the Regal since we can drive to the port. It will be our 3rd Regal cruise. If the CB was sailing on an itinerary I wanted, I wouldn't hesitate to go.

I thought I was saying that too but you said it with more facts and authority so thanks 😊

Don't want to hijack the thread but we are also huge fans of smart tags! You can see bags at all times and when they get loaded on the ship it looks like they are floating in the water on the map 😀 I also recommend using the airlines apps as you can track your bag there too and see as soon as it's loaded on the plane.

The Princess map I posted in #36 shows Royal class ships sailing from Vancouver. The map key shows the black dotted line and 'Royal Class Ship Route'.

I've taken Grand class ships from Seattle too so I'm aware they go west of Vancouver Island. But I thought from numerous reviews and the Princess map that all Royal class ships go west regardless of originating point. I only responded about Royal class since that was the question, and if you want to sail east of VI then don't chose a Royal class ship.

I haven't sailed a Royal class ship in Alaska, but doesn't this Princess map indicate that all Royal class ships travel west of Vancouver Island even from Vancouver? I thought it was due to the Royal class ship size and not what port they sailed from. I could be wrong.

We got our Medallions this week, 11 days prior to our cruise.

If that happens they issue your medallions at the pier when you check in for boarding.

Package terms & conditions from Princess website. See third bullet point.

I looked at our Patters from October and these were offered on a 12-day cruise: paper quilling, SeaCrafts cross stitch pendant, paper flowers, SeaCrafts life saver ornaments, card making, and SeaCrafts nautical paper crafting. This was a port-intensive cruise so they weren't offered every day. We leave next week on our next cruise and I don't currently see any art and crafts listed in the Journey view yet.

We avoid any up-sell 'seminars' like the plague, but we do enjoy the fruit and vegetable carving, ice carving, and galley tour offerings. To me those are just 'activities' and not up-sell opportunities like the ones in the spa, shops, and art auction. We've also enjoyed talks given by naturalists and ship officers on various sailing topics. Again, those are in no way 'sales' opportunities.

I can't answer your question about the train from Whittier to McKinley as we are doing a different cruisetour, but for travel between McKinley and Denali our Travel Summary says it's 2 1/4 hours or 112 miles.

I don't know but I noticed the same perk listed in the Reserve Collection benefits as well. How many people can they accomodate with 'priority specialty dining reservations'? https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/ships/staterooms/reserve-collection

Welcome! Not a silly question at all. On Princess hair dryers are generally found in the desk area and not the bathroom. She should be able to sit comfortably at the desk and you can dry her hair. Here's a representative picture I found online -- it's not specific to the Caribbean Princess but is representative of the general set up on Princess cruises. The actual hair dryer may look like the second picture as the Caribbean Princess is an older class ship.

Agreed! Reserve Collection is not worth it for us given the cabin up-charge. We rarely eat in the MDR and would rather spend the money on specialty dining or some other cruise perk. For one of our upcoming cruises we chose a window suite for less money than a Reserve mini. We usually wouldn't consider cruising without a balcony, but decided for the money it made more sense in this instance to get full suite perks while paying less than a Reserve mini and only $11 more than a regular mini. Everyone has to weigh what perks are worth it to them 🙂

Princess website per Google: https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/ships/staterooms/reserve-collection

No experience with NCL in Alaska but Sapphire gets rave reviews for Alaska and especially in a suite as you have on hold. We have Sapphire booked for our 2024 cruisetour. We have cruised Princess 20+ years and they have a long established presence in Alaska.

Look at this Princess cruise map, it shows the Inside Passage. The larger ships go to the west of Vancouver Island and the smaller ones sail the calmer & more scenic east side route. You can see on the map key for Princess that 'Royal class' or their larger ships sail west of VI. As already mentioned a one way cruise to or from Vancouver would travel this route.

Oh yeah, I didn't mean to imply they were changing on existing ships. Just that Princess management is aware people hate them and going forward they won't use them. 🙂

On our last cruise while attending the Captain's party they gave an update on the new ship builds and announced 'no more dreaded shower curtains!' to which everyone loudly clapped. 🙂 Glad you had a good cruise and thanks for taking the time to write up the review and provide pictures. Very nice.

Princess used to have happy hour and buckets of beer -- we took advantage many times to stock up our cabin fridge to enjoy later on our balcony 🙂 However, we haven't seen this in several years unfortunately. Those options seemed to go away when they started pushing the packages with drinks included.

I grew up watching The Love Boat and I'm 54. Glad to know I'm 'nearing my end'. LOL 😛 According to Google it aired from 1976 - 1990. The Dark Ages apparently!

I'll be following along as we board on the 21st when you disembark. Have a good cruise!

This doesn't answer your question (sorry I'm stumped on that one too) but we just visited Oslo on our Sept/Oct Island Princess cruise and it was a very easy port to do on our own. For other ports where we had to travel a long distance to our preferred activity (Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam) we used Princess excursions. But for Oslo I couldn't find a tour that covered everything we wanted to do, so I made our own. I used Google maps to make an itineray for our day and we had a great time. So given that I don't know what you had in mind there, I'd suggest you consider exploring on your own. Oslo has good public transit and tourist transport options, and it's a very walkable port. Good luck in whatever you decide and have a great cruise! 🙂

The last time we had a full suite we still had the option of full room service breakfast on disembarkation day. We ordered omelets and other expanded menu items. That seemed like a nice compromise to us. Every other day we enjoyed the mimosa breakfast at Sabatini's!