nunuc2000

Here she be 😊 Hope you and Willie are getting better weather down east than we are here in Calgary… It’s been almost nonstop rain since we returned, with a fair bit of damage throughout Southern Alberta due to flooding and wind. It’s easing up now, but the last week has been pretty soggy, especially disappointing after all that glorious sunshine we enjoyed in Alaska!

So wish we could have had it on the Grand... it is hands down my favorite meal of anything on the planet!

On our recent Alaskan cruise, there were a couple of additional Alaskan items available as well. But sadly, the Chilean Seabass was not available either week for us, and instead was replaced with halibut.

Not a rumour... was already implemented on certain ships 10 days ago, and there are a couple of other threads ongoing about this already.

No sorry... I'm thinking it was about 15 minutes or so, but I can't totally recall.

I completely missed that on the website! It was our first cruise on Princess in many years, definitely first since Medallion was introduced, and I had no idea. I know that a few people we spoke with on board were also very surprised, having not been told anything. I'm glad we know now, and I think it's important that the reps at the embarkation terminals expressly state it or have signage in place. We didn't see any signage for that anywhere in the terminal. I wonder if that disclaimer is included for US guests who receive their medallions via post in advance of cruising? Regarding the security scanners in airports, getting on the ship, etc, yes, those are obvious ones in addition to having very prominent signage to warn people... but the medallions... I'm wracking my brain here trying to recall is I ever saw any signs or notices posted anywhere at all on board or in the terminals... I don't think there was anything.

For anyone interested, I just posted my comprehensive review of this cruise - a lot of it is a recap of the updates I posted here during the cruise. We cruise again in September, but on Celebrity... and I hope to be able to post "live from" again on that one. Happy Cruising, everyone!! Celine

Well here I sit at my computer, looking out at the kids riding bikes on the street in front of our home, wishing we were on a cruise... le sighhhhhh.... But hey, our next one is only 3 months away, and in the meantime, I can relive moments of our most recent cruise via this review! I've written out some fairly detailed and wordy info here, filled with personal opinions and observations, but if you're just interested in a condensed summary, scroll on down to the final paragraph. 😉 I posted a "live from" for this cruise as well if you're interested in reading it - I included a lot of pictures along with menus and patters. There were elements of this cruise that we really enjoyed, and others that were disappointing, but overall, so glad we were able to finally cruise again after almost 2 1/2 years of nowhere'sville! We sailed in room C742 on the Grand Princess from May 25th to June 8th out of Vancouver, a northbound and southbound Alaska itinerary lumped together as a single cruise rather than a B2B. We flew from Calgary Alberta (province next door to BC) on the morning of the 25th on Westjet, and despite reports of delays at airports including Calgary's YYC, we had a very easy check-in and security clearing on the Calgary side (Coming home through the Vancouver airports was a whole nutha story though!!) After grabbing our luggage we ordered an UBER to take us to Canada Place Cruise Terminal. Uber was $32CAD not including tip, and dropped us right at the luggage collection point underground at Canada Place at 10:20 am. We had previously selected boarding group A, so didn't think this would be an issue arriving early... but that comes into play in a bit... you'll see. After handing over our 2 suitcases and a $5 bill to the lovely luggage collection staff, we were directed to the doors further down to enter the building. Signage was decent enough to guide us to the Princess area as opposed to Oceana and HAL, who were also embarking that day. Reps at the door made sure we had "green lane" status and pointed the way. It was once we got the actual check in counters that we encountered our first little bump. The rep was friendly, checked our covid vax and test status info, then went to retrieve our medallions (as Canadians, we don't have the option of having them sent to us in advance, but must instead pick them up at the terminal, which is fine and quick). But as she was behind the counter, we overheard the rep assisting the people next to us say to her guests "And just be mindful that there is an advisory regarding the medallions for those with pacemakers or other cardiac devices". Ummmm... what?? First we'd heard of this! When our gal returned with our pretty Ruby medallions, I asked her about what I'd heard the other rep say, and she looked confused and just said we could follow the signs to security now.. and I asked again, and again she tried to hustle us along to security. I then loudly had to interrupt the rep next to her to say "I heard you tell the previous guests there's an advisory with the medallions for those with pacemakers??" Finally, she confirmed that is so... and that anyone with a cardiac device should NOT get "wearable devices" for their medallion that is one of the necklaces, nor should they use the provided lanyards. Maybe I missed it somewhere, but this was the VERY first time I've heard of any issues at all for this! I have a pacemaker, as do MANY other cruisers out there.. this should be something we're made aware of in very BIG letters! Needless to say, unlike my husband, I did NOT place my lanyard over my head, but instead put my medallion in my pocket. There were a couple more steps along the way before actually getting on the ship where we needed to show the medallion, and each time I was basically told "We need to SEE your medallion, please wear the lanyard until you have boarded the ship"... to which I responded with "And as a cruiser with a pacemaker, I need to NOT wear it so I can live, so I'll just hold it my hand for now, and maybe you can SEE your way to making sure that your guests are aware of that little detail about cardiac devices potentially encountering interference from the medallion". Good grief!!! So I'll say it in bold big letters here since Princess doesn't seem to make it well known: PLEASE BE AWARE THERE IS AN ADVISORY FOR GUESTS WITH A PACEMAKER OR OTHER CARDIAC DEVICE TO NOT WEAR THE MEDALLION ANYWHERE NEAR THEIR CARDIAC DEVICE!!! Okay... so then we got to security, which was a bit busy thanks to the inflow of guests from all three cruise lines going through the same security checkpoint. And THEN, it got even more interesting! All those guests from all three cruiselines were clearing through security and being directed into a holding area that was very small... I mean we were early, and yet there was already easily over 300 people all squished into a VERY small area that had maybe 60 chairs (all occupied of course), and the people just coming and coming... security wasn't holding them back, and though we were all wearing the required masks, we were literally shoulder to shoulder, and there were a lot of older folks who looked like they were ready to fall over. And yet MORE people kept crowding into the tiny area, including porters with guests in wheelchairs, and one of them asked guests already sitting to give up their chairs so that the wheelchair person could transfer, as the porter needed to go back and get more wheelchair people to bring in there! Voices were starting to get angry, and many people were asking a couple of staff what was going on, and one port rep said they were waiting for one of the cruises to zero out so they could allow guests to go to the cruise line specific waiting areas... well what a gongshow! After about 15 minutes of this, they finally held people up at the customs desks to suspend guests from entering our area... there was literally no more room for ANYONE anyway. We started chatting with a few other Princess guests around us, and I said "It seems like everyone of us with boarding group A is already in here... and only 1 of the 7 people who spoke was actually in group A like us... the rest all said their check-in times weren't until later, even hours later for 2 of them, but since they arrived early and no one asked, they just came right on in. Sheesh, no wonder it seemed so crowded!! Finally, at 11:30 am they opened the dividers and guests shuffled off to one of three different areas according to their cruise line. We were asked to sit according to loyalty levels, but some people just walked right up to the front of that waiting area to sit, which was for elite and platinum, even though we could see their blue medallions. Eventually staff started checking, and redirected people to their appropriate colour waiting areas. At 12 noon, they started boarding, with elites first, then Platinum, and then us (Ruby) and so on. At 12:15, we set foot on a cruise ship for the first time since Feb of 2020!! YAY!!!! We headed right to our room to drop off our carry-on, and right away met our steward, Jesmon, who was terrific throughout the cruise - he asked if we wanted our room serviced in the mornings or evenings, and if we required anything. We asked for morning servicing only, and requested extra hangers, and mentioned that our balcony door handle was broken... wouldn't lock at all. We then head out to find our first beverage and re-aquaint ourselves with the ship - we were previously on board the Grand way back in 2011, but she really hasn't changed that much at all. We wandered up to the lido deck for a snack in the buffet, and it was at this point that we started trying to navigate around the Medallion app, and discovered our original reservation for two at 5:20pm each day in Michelangelo's was mysteriously gone, replaced by a 5:20pm reservation in Botticelli's instead. Turns out that Michelangelo's remained closed for the entire two weeks we were on board, presumably because of lower guest numbers. We were happy that we still had a private table for 2 at the same time, so we left it at that. Speaking of number of guests, we had just over 1100 the first week, and just over 1500 the second week, so way below capacity of 2600. We had approx 400 that were doing the same B2B as us. About 2pm we made our way to our muster point to check in, Vista on deck 7, and tapped our medallions to confirm it. We then head back to our room to turn the TV onto the muster drill channel while we unpacked our suitcases - they had arrived while we were exploring and Jesmon had brought them into our room for us, along with the extra hangers, and note saying the balcony door handle repairs would be done before dinner time... and they were. We headed back out again and took a seat in the Piazza on 5, and ordered a drink on the app. And waited... and waited... and waited... and then saw a woman a few tables away receive a glass of prosecco like I had ordered brought to her table, and watched the exchange with hand gestures and facial expressions between her and the server, surmising she was saying she didn't request that, and then eventually giving up and taking it anyway. I then noticed the status for my prosecco order in my app go to "delivered". Ugh. I waved over the server and explained I'd ordered a prosecco quite some time earlier and it never got to me but showed delivered... he shrugged and said they have issues sometimes, and then immediately went to the Good Spirits bar and brought me a fresh glass of prosecco. After that, we learned NOT to rely on the app for most things, as the majority of the time it would boot us out or spin endlessly trying to load, or it would say we couldn't log into dining options because we hadn't paid for the cruise yet, or it would just freeze in the middle of trying to check out the journey view stuff. The panels near the elevators seemed to work okay, and the TV app in our room worked quite well though. The remainder of our day, including sailaway, was wonderful, as were all of our days on board this wonderful Grand Alaskan Cruise!! I won't bore you all with the details of each day, believing that embarkation day is the most important and sets the tone for the rest of the cruise (at least it generally does for me). Overall we really enjoyed a relaxing 2 weeks filled with almost perfectly glorious sunshine filled days (NOT the norm for Alaska... we were soooo lucky!!), some good food, some spectacular scenery, some fun times with activities and events, and last but not least, the most amazing crew and staff - the gracious people who work so tirelessly on board are really the stars of the entire cruise for us!!!! A summary of our experiences: The room - C742 - adequate room that could use some updating, for other than the large flat screen on the wall and the new lamps with USB slots, I don't think it has changed at all since we were last on board in 2011. Definitely some wear and tear showing, but aside from the balcony door issue, everything worked as required - no issues with plumbing, and both temperature and pressure of the water was excellent in our room - AC worked very well - no odors in our room - bed was comfortable enough The ship in general - much like the room, needs some updating, but the hardworking staff do their best to keep it very clean and functional - we took stairs often, but when we did need an elevator, they were quick to arrive (might have to do with low guest count) Food - Definitely hits and misses: - Main dining rooms - Da Vinci's for breakfast and lunch - adequate menu choices, food was fairly good most of the time, staff were great! Botticelli's for dinner - the menu selections were generally quite good, but the food itself was a little disappointing at times, particularly the salmon 😞 - the cod was good, the halibut quite good, and the prawn/seafood stew options were tasty - the beef dishes were nicely done, but some sides were not good, like soggy asparagus and carrots- desserts were generally good - personal pet peeve is that the butter was ALWAYS hard for the bread... and the bread was almost always the same choices each night, with only one night having those yummy spiral rolls full of flavor! Otherwise the same basic white or wheat dinner rolls - but the staff... oh the staff!!! They were the BEST!!!!!! Table 291, marino and his assistant Nendy were terrific!!! - Crown Grill was excellent, but I was very disappointed the Chilean Sea Bass was absent on both legs, replaced with halibut - otherwise superb food, excellent service, great ambiance - Buffet was the biggest disappointment... not a lot of variety, a poorly designed set up with guests going in at both ends and hackles rising when folks perceived others were butting in, silly little "self serve" options (I know, I know, covid friendly) on individual plates/cups that didn't fit well on the plates or toppled over, dried out sliced meats and cheeses, gelatinous seafood mini options, dried out sandwiches, over done pastas, dried out sausages, ham and eggs, and bacon that was weirdly dripping in grease and tough as jerky all while shattering on your plate if your fork got near it. The buffet in general was in my opinion, just awful!! - Alfredos Pizzeria on deck 5 - only tomato sauce based options, no bechamel or Alfredo sauce based options... ironic, ain't it? The one pizza we had was just ok, but it would have been nice to have a couple of other Italian foods offered there, like antipasto or garlic bread or caesar salad International Cafe - the coffees were superb, and I especially like the iced coffee options (Iced vanilla bean latte was divine, especially on all those really warm days we had!!), and the food choices were quite varied for breakfast and lunch - the only gripe I have is the setup... with guests often lining up at the food side even if they only wanted coffee, and then others going straight to coffee and incurring the stink-eye from those who waited through the food side lineups... I think that needs to be reworked somehow Pizza on Lido deck - tasty and easy for a quick slice of pizza on the go, but nothing to write home about Salty Dog on Lido - I actually enjoyed this spot a fair bit! Several options from burgers and hotdogs to street tacos and pulled pork and fries done a couple different ways - the food was always hot and fresh, tasty and quick, and perfect for a quick bite in the afternoons after getting back on board from ports and on the gloriously sunny days we had glacier watching - a big hit for us for sure!! Bar offerings and service - always excellent!! Really enjoyed the Good Spirits Experience with Julian and his crew, demonstrating and serving some really wonderful mixology creations! All the bars were very well stocked, and I'm not sure I ever heard any bartenders say "we don't have that here" or "we've run out"... we had the drink package and made good use of it, trying several different kinds of beverages each day, and we were happy to see that Meiomi, one of our favorite reds, was available at almost every bar - and the bar staff? Once again, the absolute stars of the show!! Always attentive and friendly, made us feel like we were their favorite guests!! Entertainment - hits and misses again - Music - I get that this is a cruise line geared towards a more mature demographic, and we fall into that category (hubby is early 70's, and I'm not revealing my delicate age haha!) but for the most part, the majority of the music was more in-line with the music played in my mother's nursing home. We personally prefer more upbeat danceable music offerings, and with the exception of the final night when the house "pop/rock" band Static finally played 3 disco songs (and that packed the dance floor!!), the only place we could really hear anything more recent than Etta James and Doris Day was in the ONE-5 club, where DJ Lovely was more than happy to play anything upon request - literally the most uptempo regular songs from Static were 80's songs from Lionel Ritchie and Stevie Wonder, with all the energy of a Genny G hit... snoozeville! The other live music options onboard were even sleepier, believe it or not! A singing duo from Argentina that was less than impressive, a low key pianist, a violin duo, and a jazz band... I know some people like jazz, but to me it sounds like students in a 5th grade music class all trying to play a slightly different version of some obscure song that I can't quite identify... I'm just not a fan of that style of music at all. CD staff, games, shows, etc. - Corinne was our CD, and she led an all female team of entertainment staff who did a fairly good job of trying to keep guests happy, with a variety of guest participation games, being out and about, and generally always very friendly and uplifting. One particularly big hit for us was Yuma, one of those young women who was a real standout!! She was absolutely hilarious and we made it a point to try and attend any events she was hosting... she made those events so funny with her sweetly innocent Japanese accent, and the slightly edgy approach that was just risqué enough to be hilarious without being crass. There was one young man on board who also made it a point to attend all of her events, but his motivation was to try and get her phone number - she very deftly sidestepped his advances without embarrassing him. We saw two comics on board, neither of which were very good, and the two shows we saw were pretty good. It was a little too cool at night to enjoy MUTS, and the one day we did try to catch a movie in the Vista lounge (Free Guy), the volume was too quiet to hear anything over the ducting... which would explain why no one else was in there, so we left too. Ports - We have previously cruised Alaska and all the ports on this itinerary, so we opted to skip excursions and simply enjoy walks in the port areas, open decks with no people, and our balcony for the best views and weather. We were on schedule for all of our ports, and there didn't appear to be any issues with timing or anything else. Medallion app - in theory this seems like a really good idea, but aside from the auto-door unlock for our room and touchless ordering at bars, etc. a lot of the features just aren't up to par yet - Princess needs to make some big improvements to this system before they can brag about it the way they are. And in case you missed it earlier on in this review - IF YOU HAVE A PACEMAKER OR OTHER CARDIAC DEVICE, EXERCISE CAUTION WITH YOUR MEDALLION - DO NOT KEEP IT CLOSE TO YOUR CARDIAC DEVICE!! Disembarkation - We rec'd a form in our room midway through the second week asking us to indicate our preferred process for leaving the ship on the last day, and hand in that form by noon on June 5th (last day of cruise was June 8th) - Since we had a 12 noon flight out of Vancouver, we thought it might be a good idea to use the Princess transfers for $29 each instead of the estimated $45 UBER, trusting that since they also request our flight time and airline on that form, they would get us to YVR prior to the 9:30am time to arrive at the airport that is recommended. We would put our luggage out the night before and collect it from the terminal in the morning then make our way to transfer coach for a quick trip to the airport. HA! Nope... that was a bad idea for several reasons. Firstly, on June 6th we rec'd in our room little sheets of paper that we were to carry with us for our walk off with our own luggage. Ummm... what? So off we go to guest services to let them know they've made a mistake. After waiting in line for almost half an hour, we finally reached the desk and let them know that is not what we requested.... the rep eventually handed over "PINK4" luggage tags, which correspond with the 8:25 am meeting time in the Wheelhouse. We asked him to confirm that means we'll be at the airport before 9:30 am, and he said "Oh yes, guaranteed they'll have you there by 9:15am". Okay, sounds great, right? HA! Nope again!! We were in the Wheelhouse by 8:15am, but by the time they started walking us out of there and off the ship, it was already 8:40am...and by the time we retrieved our luggage and got in the line up for the busses, it was 9:00am... and by the time we were loaded onto a bus, it was already 9:15am... and by the time we FINALLY were dropped off at domestic departures after dropping off the bulk of guests at international/US departures (Many of whom were complaining that they had a covid test appt for 9:30am that they had clearly missed) it was already 10:10 am. YIKES! Got checked in and luggage dropped off quickly enough, and then came the dreaded security line - and let me tell you, news reports of delays at YVR are not kidding... we barely reached our gate as boarding had begun already for our flight! Wayyyyy too close for comfort for me!! Word of advice... if you're flying out of YVR, do your best to get there earlier if you can. Next time we'll definitely do the earlier walkoff and take our own uber... way less cost and stress!! Oh... and here's the final kicker on that... on Friday we rec'd our final cruise statement via email - they double charged us for our transfers to the airport HAHA!! So I spent the better of an hour yesterday trying to get through to Princess to have that corrected, only to be told the department that handles that isn't open until Monday. Can you just picture me shaking my head and muttering obscenities under my breath? I'm sure I'll get it fixed eventually, and I suspect they double charged us because of the original error in not getting our transfer request properly handled on the ship in the first place. And there you have it... my wayyyyyy too long review of what was overall a great first cruise back after 2 and a half years. No cruise is perfect, and all things considered, we certainly didn't starve, and we found great ways to to entertain ourselves, so even the "misses" on this cruise weren't that big of a deal. We will be cruising again in September to Hawaii, but with Celebrity. If you have any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer. Stay safe everyone.. and happy cruising!! Celine P.S. I'll leave you with this one picture... a shirt I made my husband buy... it cracks me up every time I look at it!! LOL!!!

Hey Senga... it was really wonderful meeting you both, and hope you had an easy and safe trip home 🙂 I was wondering about our different dining experiences... perhaps as we were in Botticelli and you were in DaVinci's, that might have made a difference? And definitely agree that the beef each time we ordered it was very nicely prepared!

We were on the Grand from May 25th until June 8th - almost all of the big theatre shows were at 7:30pm and 9:30 pm, and lasted approx 45 minutes. Dinner service for the two of us at our own table typically took approx 75 minutes.

We just returned from the Grand Princess, May 25th to June 8th, in which we had the new rolled out Alaskan Menu. To be honest, we really weren't that impressed... and I was soooo looking forward to it! There was really nothing much that stood out as being really great that was uniquely alaskan. The halibut was nicely done each time we had it, but the salmon was overcooked each time, and that was so disappointing 😞 Overall, we actually found the food to be a real let down compared to previous Princess Cruises... but keep in mind our last Princess cruise was in 2012, so maybe it's been going downhill for sometime and we just didn't know it.

Yup… it only happened one hour on the way up and one hour on the way back and we got a little piece of paper in our room the night that it had to change 😊

We bought it on board… Probably our most favourite wine ever, $55 on board with a little bit of a discount depending on status. we just passed the Pine Island lighthouse, which is at the northern most end of the inside passage as we make our way south towards Vancouver… Picked up the pilot about 15 minutes ago as well

We are making the best of what has turned into a very pleasantly mild afternoon on our balcony as we watch the interior passage go by … cheese and bread, crispy snacks from the buffet, and the perfect bottle of wine to end our cruise… life is good ❤️

Our last sea day before arriving in Vancouver tomorrow. Looks like most of the guests are out and about today, cramming in the last chance to enjoy entertainment and shopping, bingo and the casino. Surprisingly, most people seem to have been mostly compliant in regards to wearing masks. quite a long line up at guest services at the moment, but that’s the norm for the last day on most cruises for whatever reason. we put the clocks ahead one hour last night, so we are now on Vancouver time instead of Alaska time. I always hate the last day of a cruise, which means packing and the depressing knowledge that by tomorrow evening I will be making all of our meals and having to clean up the mess afterwards too lol but two weeks was long enough for our first venture back on the cruise ships in 2 1/2 years… And we truly miss our cats. I will do a comprehensive review of this cruise within a couple of days of returning home, while making final arrangements for our next cruise in September. 😊 We don’t typically buy a lot of souvenirs or touristy stuff, but I insisted my husband had to have this shirt! Lol

Although it’s a cool and gray day here in Ketchikan for our last port of the cruise, it was still very enjoyable!! Really enjoy walking around the port and people watching, and enjoying some of the local yummy food!! left a tiny part of my parents here - since they passed, I have endeavoured to leave a small part of them everywhere in the world we travel since they never got the privilege… my dad would have loved salmon fishing here 💕 totally filled up on a fantastic seafood chowder and crab loaded fries just off Creek Street… Not sure I’m going to have room for dinner tonight.

We have arrived at all of our scheduled ports on schedule… but I know there have been some serious issues for the crown princess meeting their scheduled port times… Perhaps that’s the one you’re thinking of?

Our favorite!!!!

Just sailing into Ketchikan for what will be the last port on this two-week cruise we've enjoyed. Unlike all of the other very warm and sunny days, it’s rather cool and cloudy here today, But that is what Ketchikan is known for. Majestic docked a little earlier than us, so there will be LOTS of medallions on display today haha!

Now that we’ve sailed away from Skagway, we finally have Internet again. It’s been absent since last night. The morning was very warm and sunny, enough that we had to seek shade and air conditioning… I much like the Caribbean, seems like the jewellery stores are the only ones with good AC even up here in Alaska lol but wow did it ever get windy this afternoon!!! enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Crowne Grill this evening, but a little disappointed they still don’t have the Chilean Seabass and are instead substituting it with the halibut. The lamb was an excellent choice though!! And dessert was pretty wonderful too… Hubby had the key lime pie bar and I thoroughly enjoyed the triple chocolate.

I suspect it’s going to be very awkward in the next few days on board 😳😬

As Senga stated, masks are now required in most indoor venues… there is a lot of coughing and sneezing going on, so I’m not surprised. We got back to our room this evening to discover the notice as well as 2 kn95 masks and two medical masks. Hopefully everyone will comply with the new requirements, but it’s a different feeling cruise this week than last week for sure. but once again, just a spectacular afternoon in glacier Bay… and yummy food and amazing entertainment and bar staff!!

What a difference a week makes indeed!!! Glacier bay was even more beautiful today than a week ago!! I have been having a heckuva time trying to post anything the last couple of days… But glad that Senga has been able to chime in 😊 The weather continues to be absolutely spectacular, the Buffet not so much lol but the food and service in the dining room continues to please us greatly, and of course all of the staff, especially the bartenders and serving staff, are top-notch as always. 22 Celsius in the sunshine today on the top deck enjoying glacier bay. A couple of times we had to seek out shade in order to avoid sunburns… Unheard of for Alaska for us anyway! 🤣

That will be nice to be able to hear it on the balcony… It was so hard to hear on the loudspeakers up above our balcony area last week. But yeah, we generally don’t attend those presentations anymore as they do seem to be like a sales spiel and generally disappointing.