sunviking90

Your pictures are great and really show people how much can be seen in the ports independently just walking around.

To the best of my knowledge, they do need a pilot on board to go inside. Seymour Narrows in particular is tricky and the cruise ships can only go through at certain times.

Are you saying you were required to do full payment right away? We booked a short cruise off of the list onboard last month for Early October. It was a great deal, but I offered to do full payment right away myself. Reason being I had booked the current cruise we were sailing on with a TA I didn’t know (one time promo thing) and as this new sailing had to be credited to that TA I felt it was easier to pay up front. It wasn’t a lot and pretty close to final payment date anyway. I wasn’t told it was mandatory. Cancellation terms seemed to be standard. The cruises available on the list are “slow sellers” in the words of the agent onboard. A lot of one ways, repositioning, etc, through to April 2024.

We were on the June 23 sailing and heard they no longer had a hotel manager. Our Captain was Captain Lye. His daily talks were very informative and I learned a few things I didn’t know even living in this area all my life! We also sailed on the outside of Vancouver Island on the way back. It was disappointing as we love sailing back on the other side through Seymour narrows. Fortunately we’ve done it before, but unfortunate for those doing the Alaska cruise for the first time. I was very sceptical that we would sail as mapped though because we were stopping in Victoria rather than direct to Vancouver. Whenever we've had a cruise stop in Victoria it has been reached after sailing outside of Vancouver Island. It looks like you had much nicer weather throughout than we did. Very happy for you in that regard!

The passengers left the ship in Kauai after already having visited 3 other Hawaiian ports including Honolulu so the situation would be different than yours I think.

I agree, to resubmit, after confirming your spelling of course. Make sure your device, computer, etc is not auto populating the email address based on a previous misspell. I have usually received the credit within 1-2 days, but my most recent one had not been applied a week later even though I had received an auto reply to the submission. I resubbed and it showed up the day after.

My understanding is that the cruise you are mentioning has a last “foreign” port of Ensenada 2 days before LA. The passengers that left the ship wouldn’t need to be processed thru customs as the ship was still in US waters from the last US port (another Hawaii stop I think). The issue there was the passengers deciding to finish their cruise in Hawaii which is a PVSA violation and not informing Princess. I would also be interested in an answer to OPs question as we have a cruise in the fall finishing in LA the day before “official” debarkation. We have an overnight in LA. I’m thinking we don’t have to do the usual wait until after 1pm for a flight.

Interesting comparison. Thank you.

Eww, that’s a horrible example of dangerous cross contamination. I would have reported that.

Interesting. I guess it once again depends ship to ship. We were on Celebrity Solstice, then on the Discovery the next day. We found Celebrity coffee in the buffet to be surprisingly good and the coffee on the Discovery to be undrinkable. We have also found the Al Bacio specialty coffees on Celebrity (lattes, americanos, etc) to be much better than IC specialty coffees. Also more expensive, so I guess you get what you pay for.

You nailed it exactly. We have had both surprisingly good and (Crown recently) and terrible (Royal Jan 2023). It varies. We also sailed on the Majestic 3 times in 2022 and the 3rd time was different in some food preparations in the MDR. There was a different chef.

I think it was a separate sign. I definitely saw it and remembered reading about it here.

Sorry, I wasn’t interested so I didn’t notice. I assumed it was included in the premium desserts with the plus package, but we don’t get the plus.

They were selling SMiZE ice cream on the Crown Princess at Coffee and Cones (next to Slice Pizza).

I have not ever seen the bids get lower, but that’s my experience only. For your particular cruise, we have taken many of these coastals they do tend to go very cheap closer to sailing date. I wouldn’t bid, but rather just watch pricing. You may see better categories start to sell close to what you paid. If that happens, you may be able to just call in and pay the difference.

The little round cheesecakes. Perfect size.

Here is the link: https://www.kbhmaui.com/activities/ocean-activities This only shows the price for the cabanas which you can pre-reserve at $75 for the day (includes waters). We didn’t pre-reserve and ended up getting 2 chairs and an umbrella instead which was around $45. I used a CC.We arrived at around 9:30 am and there were both options still available, but we were only planning to be at the beach for a few hours and didn’t think we needed the cabana. The hut that rents the chairs and cabanas also rents snorkel gear, and other items, but we had our own. When you get to the hotel, walk through it straight to the beach and the hut us there. The Ubers were about $15 each way. Once we were off of the tender we walked up front street a few blocks to get the Uber as it is very congested around the tender pier. I think the Sheraton at Black Rock also has rentals at their beach, but we found the KBH the most reasonable.

If it helps at all, what we have done in Maui off of a cruise is Uber to The Kaanapali Beach Hotel and rent chairs and an Umbrella for a beach morning. It’s pretty reasonable and the restrooms are accessible. Last time we also had lunch at Hui Hui at the hotel and it was great. It is walking distance to Whalers Village too. There is also a bus that goes up to Whalers village from Lahaina but it can get very busy and I don’t think it’s worth the savings. @LACruiser88, we are really enjoying your trip report so far. Great pictures.

I have been to Alaska numerous times from Seattle and Vancouver. I would recommend the Southbound to Vancouver AND make sure you choose a ship (Sapphire if Princess) that will take the inside passage at the south end between Vancouver island and the mainland. The scenery is beautiful and this last day of cruising was usually been our favorite because if this. This has always been the day we have seen whales too. Southbound is also preferable as you’ll be cruising this mostly in the day/evening whereas going Northbound it will be at night. The Royal Princess is too large to take this route and has to go outside of Vancouver Island and you won’t see much except open sea. I actually prefer Hubbard glacier, but depending on weather and other conditions they may not be able to get too close. If so it is gorgeous.

I wonder if it was Sergio. He’s the one who was brought back early. He recognized us from the Royal in January.

I’m sorry you had such an experience but I’m glad they made it right for you. We also had strange experiences at Boticcelli. I had made reservations for the same time every night and requested the same table for 2. The first night it was, that’s right, table 89! The next night they seated us at table 90. I asked why as 89 was free (it is a quiet nice table by the wall) and we preferred it, and table 90 had different wait staff. She said 89 wasn’t free and was reserved for someone else. I insisted I had requested the same table nightly and she said it simply wasn’t free. We sat at 90 and decided to deal with it after dinner. 5 minutes later they bring another couple near us and they don’t like the table they’re offered and ask for table 89 instead, and they give it to them! I was a little perturbed at this and went to the front desk and asked nicely if I could have 89 every night. She said yes and gave me a “ticket” with our room, table and time on it. Every evening people with tickets were told to just walk in directly to their tables so we did. For the next 3 evenings at some point they walked people to our table saw us there and turned them around. This happened with some of the tables around us too. That dining room has some real management issues, but the food was great! We were told that the ship is currently without a hotel manager so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it. We also met one of our dining room hosts from the Royal who said he was called back early from his vacation to come and work in Da Vinci as they were short staffed.

It is. We had different carpeting than you too. It was similar to what we had recently on the Discovery Princess. As far as the bed, it “looked” pretty saggy but ended up being super comfy. The duvet was in sad shape though with many bald spots. I see you’re from Sydney; during the Captains coffee chat he was asked his favorite ports and they were Sydney and Vancouver!

We boarded the crown June 23 (Friday) and were on board in 15 -20 minutes. We do have Nexus, so I don’t know how long it would have taken without. We arrived around 10:30 am. We’ve been lucky I guess that we’ve never had to wait “too” long in YVR. It will also depend on how many ships are in that day. We also avoid May cruises as there are always growing pains with new staff, equipment, etc. The problem with Vancouver is that the facility was built in the 80’s as a convention centre/cruise terminal and the ships were half the size as well as fewer of them. There are a LOT of ships sailing to Alaska this year! It was expanded about 20 years ago to handle more ships, but not much can be done with the interior set up. The areas they are now using to manage passenger check ins are some of the convention halls. It is also only a “seasonal” port with new seasonal staff every year. Add to that the need for most passengers to funnel through US customs, which is unique (I think) to Vancouver. At least Vancouver has the advantage of being right downtown and the better scenery of the BC inside passage. OP thank you for taking the time to do a trip report. It’s nice to relive the cruise through your eyes. We also had an obstructed OV (last minute booking) and I tried to pick the least obstructed I could, but your view was definitely better!

They had it on the Crown Princess 2 weeks ago. Sea days only in the dining room.

Is Natalie one of the cruise directors? If so we had her on the Majestic Princess in January 2022. She also happened to be on the Diamond’s infamous last cruise of 2020 and like so many crew was stuck on the ship for a long time. We’re following along as we’ll be in the Royals transpacific from Japan in 2024.