ceilidh1

NOOOOOOOOOOOO........

Weatherwise, Alaska can be very unpredictable. We have pictures from one September trip with the sun shining, blue skies, and kids in the pool with snow covered mountains behind us. We have pictures from a July trip with a complete blanket of cloud and fog and we are decked out in hats, goves, and coats. It's impossible to tell what you might get. However, being the person I am, I have taken a look at the forecast and found this: Vancouver Ketchikan Juneau Skagway Victoria Doesn't look horrendous at this point, fingers crossed it gets better rather than worse! Not that it matters, really. Nothing concrete planned so will make the most of whatever the weather brings. ONE MORE WORK DAY. EEEEEK......

I should add that the last time we did this was in 2019, pre Dine My Way and app...so it may well have changed since then. We are sailing on Saturday on Royal Princess and plan on going to Crown Grill, so I will definitely post my findings!

Another work day in the bag. Only one more to make it through and then it is vacation time. This will be the first thing we get once onboard:

My youngest has done 27 cruises with Princess and has eaten free off the kid's menu at Crown Grill for every one of them. He is now 11 and still prefers the cheeseburger to a steak.

Under 12 now. Apparently, a 12 year old is an adult according to Princess (same age applies for discounts on shore excursions...)

I have sailed with kids/tweens/teens many times, including on Royal Princess. The teen club is more of a drop-in where they meet with friends they have made on the ship and then go off and do whatever it is teens do. Royal has a nice outdoor area with hot tub reserved for teens, and almost all activities on Princess are family-friendly. We board on Saturday with two 15 year olds and an 11 year old. Feel free to follow along!

Another item checked off the list! ArriveCan complete. This is far less frustrating than anything the Princess app requires you to do - it had saved all of our travel info and vax proof from our previous trips this year, so all I had to do was complete the the new dates/ship. 5 minutes and I had my receipt and ready to go.

Propulsion problems...

The kids have been bust getting their ducks in a row! I realise there are some folks that think this duck trend is ridiculous, but my family get a kick out of hiding the ducks and then watching the looks on the faces of those that find them - believe it or not, those that get most joy from this are crew members! Our ducks always have a little treat bag attached, so if you happen to be on this sailing keep your eyes peeled for chocolates!

Kids under 12 are half price in specialty restaurants. If you do not think your kids would eat the offerings, you can take them for free if they eat off the kid's menu (it's the same kid's menu every night in all dining rooms). Both my kids have cruised since they were under a year old - my now teen LOVES Crown Grill and will devour anything from the menu. My 11 year old just wants a cheeseburger so has always eaten off the kid's menu free of charge.

Oh dear...

If the wifi cooperates...so will I! I'm planning on posting as much as possible, so feel free to ask specifics/remind me once I'm on the ship.

UPDATE: Refund just hit my account for the difference between what I paid with pax 1/2 with Plus to pax 1 with Premiere and pax 2 with no package. So Princess and I are financially even and all of the packages/booking stuff is correct. I have to say, after battling for months to get refunds/FCCs corrected, etc on cancelled bookings I am VERY impressed at the speed this was done (particularly as it seemed to be a multi-step/complicated procedure judging by the number of confirmations I was sent during the process). Kudos to Princess on this one. To be honest, if I ever decide to upgrade the package again, I will likely just do it for both - even though DD wouldn't get any added benefits, I only ended up saving about $100 and it seemed like a lot of work for that! Mind you, this is only a 7 day sailing. I'm not sure the added cost for a longer sailing would be anywhere near worth it, but I will be sure to report back on my take of the upgraded package!

I will be easy to spot - look for the parent doing anything in her power to embarrass the surly teens trailing behind her. Lol. Actually, my DD is the easy one to spot - very blonde, very curly hair. Can't miss her!

I just need to make it through 3 more work days until it's vacation time! Unfortunately, the three work days will be 12 hours days, so it's going to feel like a work week 😜 Why is it that, whenever folks in the office realise you will be on vacation, they suddenly urgently need something - something that they haven't seemed to need before, and likely wouldn't need if you hadn't announced vacation plans, and likely won't need anyways. Is it just because they're jealous that they aren't going on vacation and need to make you suffer a little before you leave? Like a bad, lasting memory of work to remind you of what you have to come back to? Anyway, that is my work right now - putting out multiple fires (that only seem to be burning because I'm heading out), making sure everything is caught up on, and hoping that nothing urgent comes up while I'm gone (I have pre-warned them that wifi access may not be the greatest where I'm going...) In other news, DD is THRILLED that Canada just announced a holiday on Monday to mourn the passing of the Queen. Not because she particularly liked the Queen, but because it's a day off schoo, which means now she is only missing three school days for the trip (Friday was already a day off for a Pro-D). Sadly, it's only a "Federal" holiday, so most of us here in BC will not get a day off with pay and it will still count toward my vacation time. I wonder if they will show the funeral onboard? Does anyone else get that mixed emotions thing when they go on vacation? Totally excited, can't wait, but also anxious, stressed, overwhelmed at all the stuff I still need to do. I have notes scribbled on post-its all over the house. I'm trying to pack for Alaska weather, when it's still Summer like temps outside, and I'm trying to make sure the kids are packing things like sweaters as opposed to beach gear! I THINK I have everything I need, but guarantee that, come Friday, I will suddenly realise that I'm missing something. Feel free to throw out those "MUST HAVES" in case I've forgotten something!

Sled dog camp is in Skagway!

UPDATE: Another thing to check off the list - just noticed the refund for the pre-paid specialty dining has gone back to my credit card. I cancelled and rebooked using the Premiere Package dining credits.

It's CAD for a mini suite for 7 days...

The sled dog camp is an absolute must of you like dogs – you are taken to a camp in Dyea where the dogs are trained to pull sleds and keep busy in the summer months. You get to ride on a Unimog (an enormous vehicle that looks right out of a warzone) up to their training area and then ride on a (wheeled) sled with the dogs pulling it. Sounds cheesy and touristy? It definitely is. But those dogs are just so happy and excited to be doing this that my heart just melts. After the ride you get to pet the dogs that so graciously pulled around all these cruise passengers that have been at the buffet the past 3 days and then you head back down in your war vehicle to a presentation about mushing and training. After that is the highlight of the trip – you play with puppies. It’s amazing going back year after year and realising that the tiny, brand new puppy you held one year is now one of the dogs pulling you on the sled. It’s easy to know this as each litter has unique names – such as the cast of Frozen (Olaf was my favourite). These are also the same folks that bring the puppies onboard the ship for “Puppies in the Piazza.” Anyways, we booked this excursion again but this time, instead of doing the sled we are doing everything else and then making Smores. This seemed like a great idea at the time, as it was an afternoon excursion and we could just wander through town at our leisure beforehand. Best laid plans…without any notice (I literally only saw this when I printed out the travel summary the other day) Princess changed the excursion time from 2pm to 8:55am. So not only do I need to deal with grumpy teens that don’t want to get out of bed, but we will be eating Smores for breakfast. I may try to change this or cancel it or leave it as is. Again, we will play it by ear. Princess is really testing me – I love being organised and having everything planned to the second, but they just keep throwing me curve balls!

Shore Excursions: Since this is our seventy billionth time visiting Alaska, I feel that we have done every excursion out there, as well as done our own thing multiple times in all the ports we are visiting. Alaskan excursions are not for the budget conscious and, since this was kind of a last minute plan to use up FCC, it seemed kind of silly to book expensive excursions. Plus, who knows how the weather will be while we are there. We have been to Alaska in May, July, July, August, and September and have had both amazing and terrible weather in all months. Anyways, other than booking the Summer Sled Dog Camp in Skagway (which we do every time we are there) we have no real plans and will play it by ear.

I'm not 100% sure on the math still - the more I look at it, the more I confuse myself. Lol. I actually only have 2 girl teens and the other one (tween as they say these days - 11 year old) is a boy. I'm starting to wonder if they might be the only kiddos on the ship, since responsible parents have their kids in school - ha ha.

It seemed like it was only possible because pax 2 was a child - in the past (when it applied to all guests) I was able to get it removed from 3/4 as they were children but it was a struggle to get it removed from pax 2. I don't really understand why they had to remove the Plus package from the 2nd person, as I was more than happy to pay for that and just pay my upgrade (more revenue for them, too). I don't think it would be possible to get different package options if both 1 and 2 were adults as then you get into the realm of "sharing"....

This is how the final travel summary looks - it still seems to be missing gratuities for DD but there isn't an option to pre-pay them on the personalizer - just says they crew incentive has been paid as part of a promotion. The final price does indicate that I have paid for her, but I don't have any black and white proof of it. Otherwise, all appears to display as it should. UPDATE: I just relooked at this - overnight it must have updated as now I DO see the crew appreciation showing for all four of us. YAY!

For those that are curious: *Princess Plus/Premier cannot be changed once the guest embarks. The ship systems are unable to support the change at this time.