sunneesmile

No photo Westcoaster. Thx

Hard to get a clear view, but here is a photo of the Star Princess in dry dock in Victoria.

 

Just got off the Star. Our room had a new mattress a mini on E deck. We did the Ultimate Ship Tour and we were told the ship would be finishing the new mattresses in every room during dry dock. They had availability of some and replaced the worst ones while back. Also the carpeting in most of the cabin hallways will be replaced. Alot of extensive tech will be upgraded, including some things in the engine control and bridge areas, and the tech for medallion will be added, but the service will not be rolled out until sometime in 2019. They are testing the Medallion service on the current ships with it, and are looking at feedback. Upgrades to laundry, and galley equipment, repairs and some replacements in propulsion, upgrades to elevators. Refurb to many cabins. Bathtubs in mini suites will be replaced. There was alot more mentioned as well. It sounds like the Star will look very nice for its itins in Dec!

Just got back from 15 days on the Star to Hawaii, RT-LA to LA

Included Thanksgiving and the formal schedule was as mentioned above

I too, advocate dressing appropriately for formal night, and it is not hard to do. You do not need a floor length gown and a tux. A nice (Sunday Best) dress and a jacket and slacks for men. Even saw some men wear a nice collarless shirt with a jacket. But I get so irritated because they still allow people with sneakers ans shorts in the MDR on formal evenings. I asked the Maitre D about this and he said it is everyones vacatipn and they do not want to stress them. I remember sailing 10 years ago, and they offered men jackets at the door if you did not have one.

Although I advocate reasonably following the dress code(and we always do)If you do a decent job of smart casual: Nice slacks(preferably no jeans)decent collared shirt ex: a Ralph Lauren type dress shirt(short or long sleeve) you should be able to go to the MDR on formal nights. Some Maître D's are more strict than others, which is why I suggest kicking it up a notch on the smart casual. You can try standard casual, but you'll likely stick out & might get denied. Your choice. There are those(and they KNOW) who they are, say dress down as much as you like. That's not a really accurate statement.

This list is not specific to the STAR

yes..... https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/food-and-dining/dining-options.pdf

Wow, when did you last stay there?.

Our stay at the Crowne Plaza was not good. Hotel is run down and is generally showing signs of age. For almost $300 a night with taxes and fees, breakfast was not included but was an additional $12-$14 in the hotel restaurant which required a 45 minute wait to even get a table. Our room was on the 10th floor and only one elevator was working it would often take us 10 minutes or longer to get up or down from our room. The shower didn't drain so water pooled around our feet in the bathtub while we were showering. The only positive was that it was close to the cruise port and we could walk it. Not even any coffee or water in the lobby, instead you had to buy snacks or water. For the $ I expected more especially out of a Crowne Plaza.

The excursion issue, while frustrating, is understandable. So many people would reserve excursions, then just cancel them, which in popular ports with popular excursions, put some people at a disadvantage....not getting the excursion they wanted because it was full and then booking a less desirable shore trip. But, some people have little to no regard for others.

The issue I had is my husbands OBC is quite a bit more than mine due to the military and shareholders credit on a longer cruise and those items are in his name. I booked a couple of excursions and the system does not allow you to choose whose OBC will be used which means I would have to prepay with a credit card to book my part of the fun while his OBC will take care of his part. Our TA OBC does not show up yet, which would take care of the issue, but oh well! I called Princess and spent some time with them and they were able to correct the issue and get the excursions booked for me. But seriously, that is just an IT issue and should be corrected.

Before CPAP, I never slept well, because my DH was SO LOUD! Now, that he uses CPAP, I wake up and check that he is breathing because he is SO QUIET!

Thanks so much for the quick Replies! He has an appointment in 2 weeks.

Several years ago, we stayed at the DT and I contacted the owner at OFF THE VINE WINES in that area. I told him what I wanted and he delivered it to the hotel for me. It was waiting when we arrived.

is there somewhere to get our 2 bottles of wine pre-cruise near the doubletree or crowne plaza?

Bruin Steve, do you have any recommendations for getting from LAX to Crown Plaza in San Pedro?

We are not a fan of Super Shuttle and thought you have a favorite car service, etc. Thanks

There are several hotels in San Pedro, but only two have my full recommendation...

 

http://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/san-pedro/laxpv/hoteldetail

 

http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/doubletree-by-hilton-hotel-san-pedro-port-of-los-angeles-LGBSPDT/index.html

 

Both have "park and cruise" offers available that include parking during your cruise...but, of course, remember that any such rate really just incorporates the parking charges into the room rates. Both will shuttle you to the Pier.

 

But, in any event, these are the nicest two hotels in San Pedro--best locations, most amenities, nicest rooms, etc. The Doubletree is located in a little more remote, but very pleasant, location--down by the marina--downchannel from the cruise port near the harbor entrance...very picturesque, but really only one good restaurant choice in walking distance--the 22nd Street Landing. But the hotel will shuttle you to restaurants in the Downtown San Pedro area. The Crowne Plaza is in the heart of Downtown San Pedro. The cruise port is really only short walking distance--but the hotel will provide a shuttle. There are a great number of good restaurants close by. My favorite is the San Pedro Brewing Company--within a block of the Crowne Plaza...But, also, there are the Green Onion, Acapulco, the Whale and Ale, Rafaello, Niko's, Neil's Pasta and others all within about a two block radius.

 

There are a few other "lesser" hotels in San Pedro that you may hear mention of--The Best Western Suites, the Vagabond and the Sunrise, to name three. The BW and the Vagabond are on Gaffey right where the 110 Freeway dumps out into San Pedro...not a great location and not really first class hotels. The Sunrise is close to the Cruise port, but, also, not a first class hotel. There are lots of people who are fine with staying at any of these--but, remember, people have varying standards as to what they think is a "decent" hotel. Read the reviews.

 

Good luck.

What ships?

It's no secret Alfredo's Pizzeria it's sooooooooooooooooo good :D

Tony

Good stuff here!

I have done NEw England in October twice and it was beautiful. The weather was cool and the foliage was amazing. On one trip we could not get into St. John and opted for another port, but it was no big deal. New England is one of my most favorite trips by cruise ship

Do you have a specific site where you find dry dock schedules?

Did some searching and I have found out that Star Princess was to be in dry dock in October 18-31 but will be postponed until dec2 for 2 weeks....

 

 

 

 

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The thing that really ticked me off is I booked immediately when I found out about the change and someone had already nabbed our favorite cabin and the cabin was the reason I had booked Nov 17 anyway. So, I am on the fence. I will leave the booking and if I find something else that catches my eye, I may bail on this before final pay.

Press them on transferring your promo. I did and they transferred my Sip n Sail from the cancelled 11-19-17 itin to the 11-14-17 itin.

I checked the Dec 19, 2017 cruise they said would be available today. Found same room available. Well they give you $300 OBC per person, but the cruise total went up by $610 and insurance increased in cost by $68. Even with the $15 OBC we are still not even and we lost the sip and sail. I will give Princess a call today and see if I am successful in retaining my original booking amount. Otherwise, will check HAL or Carnival.

Still not happy!!

GAry, I was booked on Nov 19, 2017 sailing to Hawaii. When they cancelled that one they offered me a Nov 14 sailing on the same ship, same itin and they transferred my Sip n Sail promo as well. Did you ask them to transfer your promo?

$15 on board offered if we book something else.

 

Currently looking at Carnival but not sure. The cruise I had booked was a $2 deposit, paid tips and on board credits and now I will not get that.

:confused: Awhile back I was looking at cruise info on the internet and I came across an website that listed lots of information, by ship and cruise line name, about incidents aboard ships, like passengers that had to be removed from ships due to illness and incidents where ships had to be stop while out at seas and actual violations by cruise lines and ships.

It also had environmental violations by ships, like polluting waters, incidents like reports of shipw hitting whales. I looked at a cruise that we had been on previously and there was an incident where a passenger had an accident and we had to stop and a boat came out to meet us and the passenger was taken to a hospital back in the port we had just left, so it listed reportable delays for ships.

It was very informative and searchable and it seemed to be official and not just a blogger collecting data. Does anyone know of something like this? It seems that I found it through a site where I was tracking a ship my parents were on and I just stumbled onto it. I sure wish I had bookmarked it.

If you have seen something like this I would appreciate a link. Thanks

We have always booked minis, but prefer the Emerald deck, and we always prefer the aft, expressly because they are covered balconies on the majority of the ships. We had some bad experiences on dolphin uncovered balconies with morons throwing trash off the side and landing on our balcony every day. I was sad to see that the Club Minis were all midship on Dolphin deck.

Is there any other Princess ship that is set up like the Sapphire Princess? We love the themed dining room set up.

Your statement is true.

Princess is my cruise line of choice and I do see many people dressed up for formal nights. And I would say that most stay in their formal attire throughout the evening. I see so many pretty dresses and bling in the lounges and theater.

When i posted here and nitpicked, my main grievance was that the MDR allows people who are not dressed even close to nice to dine on formal nights. Like the lemon yellow sweat pant dude on our last cruise. I understand that people want to partake of the special menu that is offered, but it still gripes me and has always been a source of frustration for me. Once my luggage was delayed and I had nothing but jeans and and sneakers on the first sea day-formal night. I went to the buffet and had dinner. I just did not feel right going to the MDR. That is just me.

Because I am going on a Carnival cruise in January I was looking at some previous threads on the Carnival board about their dress code. One person commented that before they went on their Princess cruise they were always reading threads like this one. Therefore she felt like a lot of people do not dress up for formal night. She/he was quite surprised when they went on their cruise and found the exact opposite. They said that not only were people dressed up but they stayed that way for the evening. I found this kind of funny considering I have been reading this particular thread on the Princess board. My experience, as I have stated before, is that formal night is something that most people on the cruise wish to partake in but apparently not so much by the people responding to this thread.

WE were on the Ruby Princess in Alaska last week and the Anytime Dining was a disaster. If we did not make reservations every day, we waited for at least 45 minutes. We have used AD on other ships in the last few years and it was great. So, not sure what the major change was on the Ruby. Also, they had two days which were Open Seating. Meaning that anyone who wanted to eat in a dining room, just showed up and took any table they wanted. That was a real problem for people who had Traditional Dining and wanted to eat at their same table every day. If they did not tell their waiter the night before that they intended on being there, they showed up and their tab;e was taken. The thing that I found so strange about this is that the last night was Open Seating. When we have used Traditional Dining and had a waitstaff that was exceptional, we always took them an extra tip envelope on the final night. For those that did not get their reserved table on the final night, it made this kind of awkward for both them and the waitstaff and could inhibit their final tips :confused:

WE just got off the Ruby Princess and had E731. We have had this exact cabin several times. (Sometimes E730 on the opposite side.). The balcony is almost twice as wide as the other minis on the E deck and they are also fully covered. We love these locations and I will try to get them every time we sail. Some report that they heard noise from Club Fusion downstairs. Sometimes we di, but it is minimal and we never have an issue.

I really hate to kick this dead horse, but I really get steamed on formal nights, especially when I see a man in yellow sweat pants at the table next to me on one side and on the other a dude with a grimy baseball cap backwards on his head. I hold Princess personally responsible for letting this happen. Those [post the dress code in the Princess Patter, on their website and on the signs near the dining room doors.

Okay, so if it is too hard for a guy to wear a jacket to dinner, I get it. Then they should not be admitted to the dining room. There are many, other dining venues aboard ship. If the formal attire is too much for some, then Princess should at least dumb down the guidelines to slacks and a collared shirt. But, yes, even that, would be way too hard for some.

Even when I first cruised on NCL as a young woman, in the 90's I remember them offering navy sport coats to gentlemen who showed up with out one.

Yes, packing nicer clothing is bulkier and sometimes a pain, but it is all part of the deal. If you can't afford to pay for your bags, maybe you should just drive to the beach. I think that it is more a lame excuse than a real reason. The sad reality is some of these people just don't give a damn what they look like. Some folks could be dressed in Gucci every day and still look like they just rolled out of bed:confused:

We found the company right after and the seats were filled. However, we heard later that some people who booked did not show. Do you know anything about that? I was bummed, since this was the 2nd time we missed Tracey Arm, the first was weather related.

Currently on the Ruby. Yes, we missed Tracey Arm and we also were signed up for the small craft excursion. Disappointed, yes. So as soon as I had cell coverage going into Juneau I did a Google search for Tracey Arm excursions and came up with the company that Princess uses for their excursion. Called and left a message to call me (it was just a little after 7 am). Got a call back about 8 am, found out that there was an excursion leaving at 10:30 am and back at 5:30 pm and they had 4 seats available. Great, booked it and gave my cc number. Great excursion, saw whales on the way out, saw the glaciers up close and personal and saw a few more whales on the way back. Highly recommend Allen Excursions if you are ever in Juneau.

 

BTW, and not sure about the accuracy here, but, we spoke to a lady who seemed to be informed about the medical emergency that caused us to miss Tracey Arm. Apparently it was a young man who came aboard with an abdominal pain and it latter developed into an acute appendicitis issue. Tough deal for him, and, even a tougher deal for all of the rest of the passengers. Hey folks, if you have pains, have them checked out before boarding. Everyone else will appreciate it even if you never hear it. Plus, it might save you a lot of problems and maybe even your life. :cool:

We are also aboard and were scheduled on the small boat excursion. This is the second time we have missed Tracy Arm on a cruise. There were people at the front desk about 6 am today raising all kinds of heck and wanting compensation for the missed port. I talked to them later and sure enough they were first time cruisers. The contract says PCL may change things on any cruise. Getting loud and obnoxious won't help. I am disappointed but I pray that the ill person makes a full recovery. Beautiful day to be in Juneau.