5:00_Somewhere

Good point. I have been disturbed to read on social media, and in conversations onboard, the numbers of people who suggest ill passengers simply "keep quiet and don't go to the medical center" so that they can avoid quarantine. There's a reason people who are positive are quarantined: so that they don't spread the disease to fellow passengers and crew!

Probably true. Thanks, that's why I was asking though, due to the similarity in the number to the CDC guidance.

I Good thought. I recall in years past, our Princess "consultant" was referred to as a "Princess Vacation Planner" but in recent years switched to "Princess Cruise Vacation Planner". We also have a similar consultant with Celebrity, who also refers to himself as a Cruise Vacation Planner. So, the generic reference these days seems to be CVP.

I appreciate this topic, as I'm interested in keeping up on this information, especially in light of our upcoming Summit cruise. Just want to clarify regarding penguin's comment: is the relevant case level 3% or 0.3%, which is the CDC guidance? As an aside, but somewhat related, we were just on an Alaska cruise 2 weeks ago (on another cruise line). Masks were not mandated, but we wore them (KN95) in all crowded public spaces and elevators aboard ship, as well as on enclosed transportation (such as vans and buses) and in airports and on planes. We know at least a dozen people who came down with Covid on the cruise or shortly after returning home, including members of the party we were traveling with, and received texts from 2 different state health departments advising that we had been in contact with people who had tested positive (we believe on excursions, based on the states that contacted us and info shared by our fellow excursion passengers). We tested ourselves twice after disembarkation over the course of 10 days and continue to be negative. Masks may not be "perfect", but we believe they help and will continue to wear them, mandate or no.

Princess changed Formal Night to "Dress to Impress" some time ago. I know it was that designation for our December 2021 cruise on the Sky Princess, and I thought it was the same on the Sky in 2019. We found DTI in the Caribbean to be less formal than in previous years, with most men wearing slacks and a collared shirt, some adding a tie, some adding a sport coat, and a few wearing suits, with fewer still wearing evening wear/tuxes. We do still see a lot of women in dresses and some in gowns, but definitely fewer than in past years. In Alaska DTI night was even more casual, with many men and women wearing "nice" jeans (usually dark) with a collared shirt or blouse or sweater. Again, there were a few wearing more "dressed up" attire, but very few on this cruise. I'm sorry, we did not attend either event, so I cannot comment. Perhaps someone else can answer your questions. I did find a Bingo dauber in a lounge chair on Deck 7 when I sat in it one afternoon, so assume there must've been Bingo somewhere. 🙂 I can't speak to that the influence of ships officers (though I find that a little unlikely, personally), but know that many passengers have been sort of "rebelling" against formal wear for some years, partially due to airline luggage weight limits. But, even when it was still called "formal night", we have noticed many passengers (ourselves included) forgoing the traditional formal attire we had worn in years past. You are probably right. I was merely passing on what was reported to me. It was a text message, so probably merely a shorthand, simplified description.

Ship Discovery Princess Class Royal Class Deck Sun (Deck 17) Stateroom # 222 Category Standard Balcony (BC) Port/Starboard/Bow/Stern Port side Forward Connects With Cabin # n/a Accessible No Quiet Mostly Balcony Size Larger than standard on Royal Class ships, approximately twice as deep View Unobstructed Privacy Issues None (balcony fully covered) Wind No Soot No Problems Minor: between 6:00 and 6:15 am there is noise from above when the deck crew is putting out loungers on the deck 18 sundeck directly above the cabin. Otherwise, completely quiet. Comments We loved the location, directly adjacent to the Retreat Pool (and bar), one deck up from the Lido Deck pool, food venues, and one deck down from sun decks, hot tubs and The Sanctuary. We also loved the slightly larger than standard balcony size, and the fact that when we opened the cabin door, the hallway was full of natural light coming through the windows overlooking the Retreat pool. There were plenty of electrical outlets in the desk area, as well as standard USB ports in the base of each bedside lamp.

We are just off Discovery Princess and I have a couple of comments. First, Princess does drive passengers to use the Medallion App on a SmartPhone for nearly everything related to a cruise these days, from checking in and preparing in advance for embarkation to scheduling your nightly dinner reservations, planning excursions, viewing your onboard account, ordering room service, etc. Princess recently added an option on their website for your pre-embarkation preparations, so you can do everything there instead of on the app. As for the app, when it works it's pretty convenient, but there are frequent glitches with the app. And, as others have said, you can still do things "the old fashioned way", although it's a little like fitting a square peg into a round hole at this point. But, it'd doable. As for menus, at least on Discovery, there were physical paper menus available at all dining venues, although there were also Lucite holders with QR codes that you could scan with a SmartPhone to get menus as well. At bars and in the Horizon Court, there were also stickers on the countertops with the QR codes. But, yes, you should have paper menus available at most, if not all, locations; and I suspect you could ask if they aren't initially provided.

You must complete the ArriveCan questionnaire before boarding the ship in Seattle. It's a requirement for boarding, even if you do not plan to leave the ship in Victoria. They check this during boarding, along with your passport, vaccination record, and Covid test results. It's a pretty simple process (just make sure you have your passport and your vaccination card handy to upload to the app). But I recommend taking a screenshot of your ArriveCan "receipt" once you get it, as there is no Wifi or cell signal inside the terminal building, which will make it impossible to access the ArriveCan app when you're actually checking in for the cruise.

Also, because a few folks on our rollcall for this cruise have reported testing positive for Covid-19 after the cruise, I thought I'd comment on that a bit. We were travelling with a small group and, on Saturday morning (Victoria Day) one member was not feeling well, went to the medical center, and tested positive for Covid. She notified us all at once. We were feeling fine, but administered self-tests that day and tested negative. Once we returned home, we received text notifications from the Colorado and Washington State Departments of Health advising that we had been in close proximity to people who had tested positive for Covid. We were on an excursion in one port with people from Colorado, so assume it must have been them. Of course, for Washington, it could have been anyone on the ship, in the airport, on the plane, etc. We tested again this past Thursday, the 4th day after returning home, and were still negative. Interestingly, our friend who tested positive was permitted to stay in her balcony room for that last day. She was then disembarked separately from all other passengers, and put up in a Seattle hotel, at Princess' expense, for 5 days before flying home.We wore our KN95 masks at all times at all times in airports, on planes, on any group transportation such as vans for excursions (including with the folks from Colorado), Princess transfer to the airport, in elevators, the Horizon Court and any other crowded indoor spaces when we were not eating or drinking. Plus we were double boosted. I can only assume this practice is what prevented us from contracting the virus. Just sharing in the hope that this information might be helpful to others.

I just remembered that I meant to post the rest of the Princess Patters, in case they're useful to folks taking this cruise in the future (Day 1 is posted above).

Yes, that's what we were told on board.

Discovery Princess made all ports as scheduled during our cruise last week. The issue with the Crown is that there is a mechanical issue with their propulsion system. According to someone I know at Princess, they have not yet been able to repair her because there are supply chain issues causing problems in getting the necessary parts Then, once they have the parts available, they have to find a dry dock that can take the ship and arrange repair personnel to actually make the repairs. So, because the ship is functional and safe to operate, if slower than it would normally be, they decided to alter the itineraries and continue sailing until repairs can be made.

Thanks for the heads up. I will definitely be following that.

Unfortunately, not, and I didn't see your question until after we disembarked. Perhaps someone else can help.

Hello all, I have tried and tried and tried to respond to questions and upload Patters all week, but have had repeated issues. I don't know if it is the ship's WiFi, the Cruise Critic site, or both. I will try this one last time. First, the "not ideal" (I don't want to say "bad" because the cruise has been amazing for the most part): but, the wifi is pretty terrible and the Medallion app remains very glitchy. I note this only so that people will have realistic expectations and so these issues hopefully don't overshadow all the good. That said, this cruise has been amazing! We have had spectacular weather, the ship is beautiful, the service has been outstanding, and we've had fantastic excursions. One of our best in a long time. 😍 To answer a couple questions, they ARE doing both the Chef's Table and the Winemaker's Dinner. Also, the Captain reported 2253 passengers on board. I've asked about next week, and the best I can get is "somewhere over 3000". Since my longer posts with more info refuse to post, I'm going to stop here and cross my fingers. Oh, as for menus, I'd recommend googling it or looking on Princess.com. This wifi connection simply won't let me upload anything, unfortunately. Hope this info is helpful, and happy sailing.

As I mentioned, that works, but only temporarily, unfortunately. I have to log out and back in everytime I want to use the app. It really is a beautiful ship. We saw whales spouting a little while ago. 👍

Here is the one for embarkation day. I will upload others later, but it's taking forever to upload a single image right now.

We have always had ours delivered to our home until this cruise. And, while it's fun to look forward to receiving them before leaving for vacation, it's always a little anxiety inducing wondering if they'll arrive on time before we fly out. For our Discovery Princess Alaska cruise, that we boarded yesterday, we chose to pick them up at the pier because we were traveling for the week before boarding. It literally added 30 seconds to our check-in process. We simply did our check in as usual (which also only too about a minute each) and then they sent us to a second counter where they gave us our medallions, and we were free to board. It was so quick and easy that I may well do this again for future sailings.

We boarded the beautiful Discovery Princess in Seattle, pier 91, Sunday, May 22, and I thought I’d offer a few thoughts throughout the week. This will NOT be a true “live from” thread, both because I try not to be online a lot while I’m on vacation, and because the MedallionNet internet service is already proving to be extremely slow and choppy, and it seems especially bad with CruiseCritic. First, despite early forecasts, Sunday turned out to be an absolutely beautiful, sunny, warm day in Seattle. We were visiting family so didn’t board until 1:00. There were lines inside the building (none outside), but it only took us about 10 minutes in the Priority/Elite line. I heard others who were Green Lane but not priority say it took them almost 45 minutes. One tip: there was no internet and no cell reception inside the port terminal, so we could not access the Medallion App, ArriveCan, the Novica app our email with our eMed covid test results. So, I strongly recommend doing what we did and either take a screenshot of or print out your Green Lane QR code, your Negative Covid Test Results and ArriveCan receipt with QR code. They were fine with screenshots from our phone. Once on board, we found the ship absolutely beautiful, the staff friendly and helpful, and the service very, very good, as usual. Sail Away from Seattle and through the Puget Sound was spectacular. We spoke with an officer who said there were 2,143 passengers on board, or a little less than 60% (rated for 3,660). The ship seems lively and active, and comfortable, but not “packed”. We have a standard balcony cabin on Sun Deck (17) forward, which we quite enjoy. The balcony is somewhat larger than the majority of standard balconies on Royal Class ships, and our front door opens onto the windows looking over the Retreat Pool, which is very nice. We dined in the Skagway MDR and, again, found the service great, and the food tasty – with the exception of the Bananas Foster dessert, which was shockingly inedible, but our waitress brought the chocolate soufflé which was a wonderful replacement. We enjoyed the Jazz trio in Take 5 after dinner and had a sound night’s sleep. Today we are cruising the inside passage, and it’s gray, windy and cold (45 degrees f) with high ocean swells. The ship is rockin’ and rollin’ quite a bit, and the pools are sloshing. They have closed the Retreat Pool and The Sanctuary. There seem to be a lot of indoor activities throughout the ship today, from bingo and trivia to the art auction and various classes, games, music, etc. One odd thing I wanted to report is that, all over the ship, we hear more creaking and squeaking – especially in our cabin – than I can ever recall hearing on any other ship. And finally, I have to report that virtually everyone I have spoken with is having problems with the Medallion App. No matter which way I log in (using my email and password, booking number, stateroom number), it will only stay properly connected for a short time, and then my picture will disappear and all the features become non-functional (such as Dine My Way, viewing your onboard account, Journey View, everything). Oh, and it makes my phone think it’s on US Eastern Daylight Time instead of Pacific Time. The tech’s on board cannot explain or suggest any fix these issues, and the only solution seems to be that you have to log out, then log back in and hope it functions long enough for you to do what you want to do before becoming inactive again. This is especially disappointing because, this time, the app actually functioned properly and well right up until we boarded the ship, which is the exact opposite of our prior experiences. I’ll report back if I become aware of a permanent remedy. Oh, and because people always ask, the formal nights are the 2 sea days: Monday and Friday. I’ll try to add more thoughts as the week goes on.