ceilidh1

Medallion accessory with premiere package

Cab to the ship was $35 flat rate. We let a guy come with us as he was in a group of 4 and the cabs only took 3… There was a line for blue lane (likely as everyone was Canadian) but it moved fast and we went straight onboard. Currently sitting at Alfredo’s- which has 4 tables occupied!

The train was COLD and wifi didn’t work but we made it!

Uneventful 10 minute bus ride and we are here at Amtrak!

Wake up!!! It’s cruise day! Actually, it was REALLY hard to drag myself out of bed this morning and I’m still on auto pilot. The beers last night didn’t help.., Short 5 minute walk to the bus stop and we are en route to the train!

Eh?

Don't even get me started on "upgrades"....I have been elite on Princess for a LONG time. Since achieving elite status, I no longer receive ANY deals/promos and I certainly didn't get any kind of upgrade for this sailing. Princess seems to think they have "got me" so no longer need to try. I will admit that was the case in the past. No longer. I have zero loyalty now.

Work done. Bags packed. Kids sorted! Let’s get this party started. I bring you the MOST Canadian of beers…”The Toques of Hazard”

Costco shopping trip complete - my little bag is full to bursting with treats for the crew. It will be empty on the trip home (well, maybe a bottle of duty free). I actually have $100 non-refundable OBC to use on this sailing and have no idea what I will spend it on. Duty free shopping it is... Just making lists for the kids for when I'm gone, cleaning the house, and prepping meals. All this in between "working from home". Vancouver weather is beautiful right now - hard to believe there is an entire week of rain, wind, and storms forecast next week. Which begs the question, should I pack an umbrella for the walk home from the ship on Monday...

If it's just pending charges, one should disappear in the next day or two. You haven't been charged anything unless they are posted. I would give it a little time and, if both get posted, then dispute it with your credit card.

One more work day and one more sleep until cruise day. Woot. I'm heading to Costco shortly to pick up some goodies for the crew, then will "work from home" (aka, finish packing and get myself organised). Tomorrow morning, I will take our local bus at 5:40am to the train station and board Amtrak at 6:30am. Hoping for a smooth and uneventful trip down to Seattle! Yesterday I came close to booking the Crown for the day after we arrive back in Vancouver - it's a four day Vancouver to Seattle. I was about to hit book but right before it I thought about how "disenchanted" I am with Princess at the moment. The fact that I NEVER get any of the promos/offers/deals that everyone seems to get, the fact that it feels like everyone got an upgrade on this mini sailing (except me), the fact that they are charging for what used to be free, all small, first world problems that add up to be a reason to look to other lines (yes, I know they are all doing this but I haven't spent thousands or my dollars with them in the past so have no expectations that they would be loyal to me). Anyways, I didn't book it. I will keep that money in my account and put it toward something next year - maybe Princess, maybe not! I will have a blast on this sailing and make full use of my package, but my next two booked cruises are not with Princess....

Canada Place is always a gong show - take that from someone that used to work as pier supervisor there (and sailed from there a gazillion times). The HUGE factor is the number of ships in port - if you're the only one, you're golden. If there's two, it will be busy. More than two, pack your patience and be prepared for lots of walking and lines! Canada Place is unique in that you will drop bags downstairs (either in parking lot level or sometimes terminal level), you then go upstairs to street level to check in at Hall C in the convention centre (this is where you get your medallion). Once checked in, you head back downstairs to the terminal to clear security and US CBP (assuming your first port is in the US). ALL ship passengers go through the same line here and there is no priority, so this is where the lines start - they can be insane when it's a multi ship day (if that's the case for you. I highly recommend getting there by 10/10:30am - there may be a wait at the other end to board, but at least you will be through this part of it). Once cleared, you are funneled through to your cruise line and this is where the "priority" kicks in - if you have status you will be seated toward the front of the section to be first to board (unless boarding has already started, in which case you just walk on the ship). Vancouver SOMETIMES sections off a little "suite/elite" area in the waiting area pre-boarding, but don't expect anything fancy...In terms of being blue lane/collecting medallion, you shouldn't have any hold ups or waits for that portion - the check in is very streamlined and moves fast...it's the other stuff that takes forever!

Royal Princess at Canada Place in 2019 - my fave picture that I took of her!

It has nothing to do with Canadian waters, it is dependent on how far off land the ship is. The casino can only open if there is a certain distance away from land (no idea what that distance is). The same applies to bars being open - once within a certain distance of Canadian land, only one bar per deck is permitted to be open...

I miss him so much! Still talk regularly...

Oh, yes, that is super close. Actually two blocks from my house and I'm only a 10 minute walk from the ship. I've never stayed at the hotel, but it's a nice area and easy walk to food, seawall, etc.

Which hotel are you staying at?

I guess we are neighbours!

There is always one dining room open for lunch on embarkation (even though most staff will try to convince you otherwise). I believe it opens around noon until 2pm. The buffet will be open, as will Alfredos and the International Cafe. I always do Alfredos - best pizza at sea in my opinion, and don't even get me started on their veal ravioli!

Yes - it's fine, other than the fact that you all have to get off at the border, get your bags, go through customs, reload your bags, get back on. 99% of the time this is a hassle but works fine. That 1% of the time you may get someone that is questioned FOREVER and holds up the entire coach. The buses to the pier sell out very fast but there are buses to Downtown Seattle that are usually available...

I've sailed on Royal four times and, while this class of ship isn't my favourite, I feel like its "home". I know all the secret spots and lots of the crew. I'm looking forward to seeing one of my fave cruise staff - Andrew The Canadian! Andrew was on all my past Royal sailings (along with Matt O) so it will be amazing to catch up. He has requested candy and treats so tonight is a Costco trip - one advantage to not flying is the ability to taken anything/everything with you as long as they allow it on the ship. Tradition for me on Princess is to board the ship and have the first lunch and drink at Alfredos. This will be no exception. Moving forward, we may break with tradition if we don't buy the package, but that's a whole other discussion. My bestie has never cruised previously, so I'm hoping that she becomes as addicted as me and we get to do more of these together. My kids are jealous as they love cruising, but it just didn't work out this time as my teen is going to see Arctic Monkeys in concert on Saturday and my pre-teen has a soccer game on Sunday. Oh well. I'm sure we will survive!

I wasn't initially planning on doing a Live for this sailing, since I'm only on for a 2 day "cruise fix". However, there are many on CC that are staying on to do the various other legs of this journey, so I figured I could start this and have everyone else onboard to join in/continue! For my portion, this is a 2 day Seattle to Vancouver trip, that will reposition the Royal to do her journey over to Hawaii and on the Australia/New Zealand. I admit to feeling just a little jealous of all those making that journey onward. For me, this is simply a fun little "staycation" to get in my fix while I await my next big cruise in December... Background I have taken over 30 Princess cruises and also enjoy Virgin and NCL. Usually I sail with my two kids, but this time it's just me and my bestie on a girls weekend. I live in Vancouver, so we are taking Amtrak down to Seattle and cruising back home. The timing is perfect as we go down Saturday morning and return Monday morning, so no time off work required. Pre Cruise We decided to book two rooms at the lowest guarantee rate. There wasn't any deal for solos on this time, but the price was decent so we went for it. We both added the premier package as we will definitely be drinking, and had planned on specialty dining so for the extra $40 it was a no-brainer. We only got our cabins assigned a few days ago and I'm already shaking my head at the thought process that goes into this. Firstly, I get that you roll the dice with guarantees - I couldn't care less what room I'm in. However, our bookings are linked so we are obviously sailing together. When we got the cabin assignments, I have been given an inside on Riviera all the way aft (I actually think I might be the only person on these boards that didn't get an upgrade). My bestie got a free upgrade to an deluxe obstructed balcony on Emerald all the way forward. Let that sink in. We literally could not be further away from one another. I was debating calling and asking if there may be something a little closer together, but for 2 days we will be just fine. Since this is such a short sailing and we have two dining credits to use, I wanted to be sure to make reservations ahead of time. Those that have dealt with the app know that this is no easy task. Firstly, the packages didn't show on the app so it wanted us to pay to reserve. Nope. After a few days, the packages showed and I successfully booked us into Crown Grill on night one and Sabatinis on night two. All smooth. A few weeks later, those reservations had disappeared. I rebooked and it wanted to charge me. GAH. I got on a chat with a Princess agent and she told me that both venues were full for all times both nights. Um, no they aren't as I have them in my cart right now...She suggested I cancel the bookings so that they would open back up and she would book them. I did as she suggested. The restaurants still showed as not available. GAH. Needless to say I was frustrated. After ending the chat, I opened up the app and saw that the agent had, indeed, somehow managed to book the restaurants and apply the credits. Since we live in Canada, medallion shipping was not available so we are both in blue lane, despite having everything completed ahead of time. This was actually the first time that there were no "glitches" in completing the check-in portion on the app, so maybe things are improving. The journeyview activities finally showed up about three weeks ago - it's tough booking dinner times when you don't know what may be on in terms of activities. There is nothing on there that jumps out to me - we will likely go to the comedy show and some trivia but I've seen the production shows enough times that I don't need to go again. We booked the Amtrak down to Seattle on Saturday morning (I'm not a "day of cruise" person ordinarily, but have done this several times without stress. Keep everything crossed). The train leaves around 6:30am and gets into Seattle around 11am. We will hop in a cab to the ship and will hopefully be onboard in time for lunch! If you haven't done the train between Vancouver/Seattle I highly recommend it. While it does take a little longer than the bus and can be a little more expensive, it's 100% worth it as you don't need to get off at the border. The agents simply come on the train, look at your passports, and wave you away! The scenery is also pretty nice. When we arrive back to Vancouver on Monday, I will simply walk off the ship and walk home. Easy Peasy.

So will only the Valiant sailings after December be affected? I'm on her in December and it looks as if that one should be ok?

While I have never booked air through NCL, I do book it with Princess all the time. It's a little different as they allow you to choose the flights you want. That being said, when we use their air on our December cruise, our outgoing flight was cancelled by Air Canada - the only flight available that Princess could switch us to had a 45 minute connection in Toronto. I protested and mentioned that the short time was next to impossible, but there are specific time guidelines in place as to what is allowed, and I was told that this fell within the guidelines. Since it was the only flight available, I took it and stressed the entire time. We were fortunate that everything went without a hitch and we actually got into Toronto early. It was late evening so no lines for customs - we still had to run, but we made it. Not saying what NCL did was right, but it's certainly within the air/connection guidelines (which are dumb).